Manga inspiration

I've been infatuated with the art of manga for a long time and just like American comics there are good ones, bad ones, and the ugly ones. One that I've been reading is called, sigh, Returned from Another WOrld, Earth Turned Out to be Quite the Fantasy Too. Also, Losing Heroines, Stop Looking This Way. What a mouthful. The story has been done before with a little twist. A boy goes to anothe world giving it the Isekai motif. The twist here is that the hero returned home to find that life picked up exactly where he left off along with a set of powers he used while he was in the isekai world. It's a trope of the over-powered hero back in his home town. With the demon lord defeated, the hero plans to relax the rest of his life but it turns out that Earth has some strange people as well. People he never noticed before. Including a "spiritualist" who attacks him with a katana after he accidentally uses magic. Of course, she's no match for the hero, I think his name is Natsuki or something, and he ends up bisecting her with his magic before healing her. Here's the twist, he doesn't want anything to do with magic or supernatural events but he keeps on getting dragged into them. The fact that this silly series has five chapters of manga tells me someone either had money or was desperate for something to draw. It's like the author put in whatever ideas came to his head at the time or that he watched an movie and said "let's put that in too." I say that because an alien takes an interest in Natsuki in the fifth, and currently final chapter. Surprisingly I was hungry for more so I looked up the web novel which is poorly written but that might be because Japanese writers don't always go into the details of a story. 

Now here's my problem: the second chapter. This is where the exposition is swept under the rug. The police arrest Natuski and ask him to not use his powers any more so he won't attract the attention of the Spiritualists again. It's explained in three or four pages that the world has ALWAYS been inhabited by strange people and things. They just drop that info on the hero who accepts it since he was summoned to another world, but it's something I can't stomach. I think the way storytelling works is that you start with the normal and give a bigger and bigger lie while being careful to not jump the shark. Bigger lies require more build up and I'm actually thankful to this mediocre manga for teaching me that. While the action is great, once I got past the fluff it was giving me, I realized there wasn't anything meatier for the story to give.The story goes on with Natsuki helping an alien save his captured wife, and gaining the attention of an angel which I suspect will be the sixth chapter. So, why am I so interested in this story when there are better things to read? I think it's like junk food, you want something in your stomach and don't realize how full you are until you've eaten the whole bag. It's also like those dumb action movies, stupid but satisfying. The second chapter has Natsuki fighting the older sister of the one he defeated which leaves no time for build up or character depth. I've seen this in a lot of isekai stories and manga where the writer seems to say "You already know this part, lets get to the parts I want to talk about. We can skip this stuff." It's a shame because I know Brandon Sanderson has written things that are very similar and yet he manages to make them seem fresh. Just because an idea is old doesn't mean you skip it over. You evolve the wheel, not reinvent it, or in this case, skip it. Things become stranger when Natsuki's best friend tries to apologize for stealing the girl he liked. Later, it's reavealed that the friend has magic abilities that let him charm people, including Natsuki's step sister who, of course, has the hots for her step brother. I guess it doesn't count as insest if they aren't blood related. Since almost a decade past while Natsuki was in the isekai world, he forgot many things even if time didn't move while he was gone. He forgot his step sister whom he treats as a stalker, another cliche. The sister blames the fallout between them on the friend with the charm powers who led her astray. What's interesting is that Natsuki doesn't seem to be bothered by any of this. Not his sister turning on him, nor his friend being a jerk, nor the fact that people are attacking or trying to use him. It would be more interesting if the hero had a stake in all this mess besides wanting to be left alone. Now, that idea of not wanting an adventure has been used before. The Discworld series has a protagonist who hates adventures but comes to love them by the end. I forget what his name was. A better example would be the Baggins family from the Lord of the Rings series. Neither Bilbo or Frodo want to go on a quest and yet, their struggle through Middle Earth is what makes the bulk of the story. But here, the hero could care less about who or what is attacking him.

So let's move on to a manga I think I can really use: Slasher Maidens. I've only read one chapter but it follows a teen named Asuma who is a "proud pervert." Which is honestly something Japan needs to explore right now given their population decline. From what I understand, there are kaijin, or monsters, in the world that attack humans and the only way for them to be defeated is by girls who have kaijin essence infused into them. The problem? The maidens go beserk and only lustful actions can snap them out of their rage. A job that Asuma is more than happy to do, at first. Until he realizes how dangerous the maidens and the kaiju are to his life span. In one chapter he almost dies three times which makes him see that, despite his talent in being perverted, he has a duty to perform that is risky. I'm intersted in this manga because of how the theme of "going to a new school" is set up. We're set in the real world with Asuma being a pervert to the girls around his class, then we see him get invited to go to an all girls school, a school of his dreams. And then that "but" comes in. The "but" being that he has to make out with the girls while dodging their bloodlust. Asuma has met three girls so far and their powers seem to be based around slasher films they enjoy. One has a chainsaw, one has a mask and machete, and one has rasor claws. So, now Asuma wants to go home but he's stuck in this school. It's like the opposite of what my story is becoming. Despite how laughable deplorable Asuma's "interests" are portrayed in the story, We see him grow in the first chapter seeing that life isn't just a game anymore. It's this transition from dreams to reality, similar to how Luke Skywalker dreams of joining the Rebellion only for reality to strike when his family is killed by the Empire. We see this wake up call for the hero. For Asuma, he has to infuse Eros into the girls, the opposite of Thanatos which causes their blood lust. Honestly, while this has helped me with come up with ideas for my protagonist to be introduced to the Eldritch, it's still too fast. The story introduces kaijin or people with powers early on to set the stage for the normal and quickly jumps into the incredible. Asuma seems to have a hard time adjusting to the fact that he's useful to the maidens and that's something I want to explore at some point. But the weak story in this manga is propped by the sexual slapstick. Asuma often finds himself in positions where he sees a girl's panties or touches a breast here and there. The blood and gore mixed with the hentai makes for an interesting but weak combination. It's like adding sugar to sugar, there's no meat to it. The story would be better if the stakes were higher, but I can't imagine adding more to this manga. Maybe it's fine the way it is just like how dumb action movies are fine the way they are. 

There's also this arc that the first two chapter goes through. There's a misunderstanding that leads to tension during the fight with the monster. Asuma's "powers" somehow save the day after the maidens become too infused with their bloodlust. I think I would like the series better if the hero didn't openly objectify women. I've read stories where the hero is a loser but somehow the erotic only adds to his pathetic nature. Maybe it's because his counterpart, the girl he's really interested in, is his total opposite. She's stoic, non-flirtatious, and seems to be more interested in her mission than boys. The opposite attracts idea is fine but it needs some adjusting. 

Maybe it's just my tastes though. Maybe I'm taking this too seriously.