Key Takeaways
- Some protagonists in isekai anime have underwhelming powers, making them underpowered in their new world.
- Being overly cautious, as seen with Seiya in “Cautious Hero,” can still lead to victory.
- Kazuma in “KonoSuba” is underpowered but uses luck to improve his abilities and survive.
When characters are taken away to a magical or alternate world, they are often blessed with powers to aid their journey in the new world. These powers are usually a lot, making the protagonist overpowered, but sometimes the opposite is the case. In this sense, the protagonist gets few to no extra powers or special abilities, making them underpowered in this incredible new setting.
Some protagonists find themselves in their ideal or dream world, like Shiro and Sora in No Game, No Life, and Kazuma in Konosuba: God’s Blessing On This Wonderful World. However, things do not go as planned, especially when they end up underpowered. This can make their new life quite underwhelming and a bit stressful. Sometimes, these characters get boring powers that they would be better off without, but they make the most of them. These characters use their underwhelming powers to achieve great results, making the best of a bad situation.
5 Seiya Ryuuguuin (Cautious Hero)
Extreme Caution
Most Isekai heroes are spontaneous, as they would not think twice before going after a villain or embarking on an adventure. They might strategize and put things in place to ensure their victory, but even when the odds are not in their favor, their hopes of gaining victory do not vanish because they believe in themselves. However, things are not that easy for the cautious hero, Seiya. Unlike most protagonists, he takes extra caution before fighting a villain.
Seiya is granted this cautious nature by Risarte, the goddess who summoned him to be a hero. Seiya’s overly cautious nature can make things boring, as he does not take risks and is not adventurous. However, Seiya makes it work in his favor because he gets his strength from being overly cautious. When he eventually battles an enemy, the fight is over from the beginning, as it is certain that Seiya will win.
4 Touya Mochizuki (In Another World With My Smartphone)
A Smartphone With Access To The Internet
A smartphone only works in the modern world, but Touya thought it would be equally useful in the fantasy world he found himself in. Unfortunately for him, he was wrong. His smartphone is boring and quite limited in the fantasy world where he found himself after being accidentally killed.
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The presence of the smartphone in the fantasy world is considered a power because Touya asked God for it, but its enhanced abilities are a shadow of what it used to do in Touya’s previous world. There is not much that he can do to elevate the smartphone, but Touya tries his best. He uses the smartphone to gain information about his previous world and implement it in this new world. He also uses the map on the phone to help him with navigation in the new world.
3 Subaru Natsuki (Re:Zero)
Return By Death
Subaru’s power might be boring, but it is devastating to have. Subaru is the main protagonist of Re:Zero- Starting Life in Another World, where his normal life is abruptly cut short when his trip to a grocery store ends with him transporting to another world. Upon getting to this new world, Subaru faces a brutal death, but because of the return-by-death ability granted to him by the witch of envy, he relives his death over again.
Reliving one’s death is depressing, and after a while, it can be boring. However, Subaru makes good use of this power. He uses it to gather information, strategize, and overcome difficult situations.
2 Rimuru Tempest (That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime)
Absorb
A salaryman finds himself in a fantasy world after he is murdered. In this new world, this man reincarnates as a slime named Rimuru, and slimes are considered the weakest creatures. Luckily, Rimuru used his absorption skills to his benefit. On the outside, this power seems very boring as it involves absorbing things, be they objects, animals, and so on. However, it turns out that it is a powerful ability to have.
Rimuru used this seemingly boring power to gain an advantage over his new world, and he was quickly able to abandon his weak status as a slime. He absorbed monsters, animals, and other creatures, emulating their powers and using them to power up.
1 Kazuma Satou (KonoSuba)
Luck
Kazuma’s death was quite hilarious and unnecessary, but with no way to go back to life, he is given the chance to reincarnate in another world. However, things do not go right for him. Sadly, he is not blessed with powers, making him fall under the category of Isekai protagonists who are underpowered.
The only power Kazuma was blessed with excess in this world is luck. He has a high stat in luck, and he uses this seemingly boring power to improve his Steal ability. Steal, as its name implies, lets him steal things from others. The item to be the most valuable thing on the person. For some women, it could be their underwear, while for Mitsuraji, it was his sword. Without this incredible luck, Kazuma would not have been able to gain more abilities and, quite frankly, survive in the fantasy world of KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!
