Seriously, being sent to Re:Zero is probably safer.
Summary:
- Magic-powered historical figures want to end you.
- Humanity is playing Civilization on hard mode.
- There are no GOOD good guys.
- There are literal Nazi knights.
- Jesus doesn’t like you very much.
Imagine a magical world full of isekaied historical figures — Hannibal of Carthage, Joan of Arc and Oda Nobunaga are all there! Drifters, written by Kouta Hirano, tells of the misadventures of many such figures, and…
Yes, it’s written by the author of Hellsing. And as you could’ve guessed, this magical world isn’t very light-hearted. We can think of at least 5 reasons why you don’t want to end up there:
1. Humanity is at the brink of destruction.
This world is in the state of war between Drifters and Ends — isekaied generals, warriors and occultists from our world’s history. Ends, driven by their traumatic lives and deaths, want to annihilate humanity — and are given superpowers and an army of monsters to achieve it too. Drifters don’t really have a unified goal, nor do they get superpowers, so they have to rely on technology and their own ingenuity to survive the conflict. Stacked odds much?
2. War, war never changes.
Humans have little in the way of magic, so how do they even the odds? With technology, of course! Luckily, some of these Drifters are from the time periods when armies had to make their own firearms — which means that as a human, you get to play Civilization on hard mode, using corpses and human waste to make saltpeter for gunpowder while your country is besieged by an army of monsters! What fun!
3. There are no GOOD good guys.
Sure, the historical figures who became Drifters don’t want to destroy humanity, and are likely to protect it — they are also humans, after all. Still, don’t expect them to be the unambiguous good guys — all’s fair in love and war, and this world IS at war. Dishonorable tactics, like using arrows covered in feces? Check! Burning crops to deny your enemy resources? Check! Executing captives? Double check!
4. Literal Nazi knights.
Speaking of not-good Drifters, it can’t be a Kouta Hirano story without Nazis. Sixty years ago, Adolf Hitler was sent to this world — as a Drifter. He took over the Orte Empire and turned it into a Nazi state, hell-bent on oppressing and eradicating any and all non-humans in that fantasy world. Which really did nothing to grant humans more allies against Ends. Not to say it’s the only human state in the world, but any world with Nazis is not a happy world to live in.
5. Jesus Christ is not happy with you.
Drifters also answers the ages-old question - what if literal Jesus was sent to another world? Now, the robed Black King was never really namedropped as the messianic figure in the story, but all the signs are there. His scarred hands have stigmata, he possesses the powers of healing, telepathy and duplication of matter — ah, and humanity has rejected the salvation he offered, so he is now the head of the Ends, leading a literal army of monsters in a bid to eradicate humankind. Whoops.
So yeah, if you’re ever offered to be sent into another world? Probably don’t pick this one.