5 Isekai Anime With The Funniest Protagonists

Highlights

• Isekai anime often use protagonists’ personalities and mishaps for humor.
• Examples include Takuma Sakamoto/Diablo in
  How Not To Summon A Demon Lord
  and Sadao Maou in
  The Devil Is A Part-Timer!
• Other notable comedic isekai characters are Kazuma Satou in
  KonoSuba
  and Satoru Mikami in
  That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime.

The colorful world of isekai anime has provided plenty of room for humor over the years. The genre typically follows protagonists who suddenly find themselves transported to new, often dangerous worlds, either through teleportation or death and reincarnation.

In some cases, isekai anime have relied on their lead heroes to bring the laughs. Without necessarily serving as the true comic relief, these lead characters have provided comedic value through their colorful personalities and witty dialogue. Other times, it’s the protagonist’s unfortunate knack for looking foolish that gives viewers a chuckle, as the character goes through one embarrassing mishap after another. Regardless of the style of humor, the following series have perfected the comedic hero in an isekai setting.

5 Takuma Sakamoto/Diablo

How Not To Summon A Demon Lord

The socially-withdrawn Takuma Sakamoto’s main passion in life is gaming. His favorite game is Cross Reverie, an action-packed MMORPG.

Within the game, Sakamoto lives through his Diablo alter ego, a powerful demon lord. As is to be expected with the isekai genre, Sakamoto finds himself trapped within the virtual confines of the game world, now living as Diablo full-time. Despite his high stats and strengths within the game world, Sakamoto’s severe social anxiety often gets the better of him, even when he fully commits to trying to act like his gaming character. It is in this struggle between his two identities where Sakamoto often brings the laughs, as his initially convincing demon lord act is frequently hampered by his insecurities and neuroticism.

4 Sadao Maou

The Devil Is A Part-Timer!

The Devil himself’s attempts to conquer a fantasy world, and this plan has some rather unfortunate consequences for him. In what is essentially an inversion of the usual isekai set-up, Satan kicks things off in a fantasy setting, and is then relocated to Earth.

Chased out of Ente Isla, Satan flees to Tokyo, where the lack of magical phenomena on Earth causes him to get stuck in a human form. As if that wasn’t enough of a setback for the fallen angel, he now has to worry about paying the bills, and takes up a part-time job at a burger joint. For all of his power and experience over the years, Satan in human form – now named Sadao Maou – is frequently shown to be inept, with even the most mundane tasks often proving to be comedically difficult for him. Considering its wild premise and colorful study of the ultimate evil’s embarrassing struggles with human life, this left-of-center series is among isekai’s silliest and funniest offerings.

3 Kazuma Satou

KonoSuba: God’s Blessing On This Wonderful World!

Kazuma Satou, an introverted NEET with little going for him, gets a new shot at life after suffering a shocking death. Satou encounters Aqua, a powerful goddess who allows him to begin a new life in an alternate world.

In this new setting, Satou travels with Aqua through a dangerous world chock-full of action and beasts. Satou provides viewers with plenty of laughs due to his unfortunate habit of constantly getting into embarrassing situations. His dialogue is also brimming with sarcastic wit. Amusingly, he does not even want to take on the series’ primary villain, the Devil King, and instead constantly finds himself stuck colliding with the menacing king when all he wants to do is chill out and relax. Overall, he’s an unconventional character who frequently serves as a comedic goldmine for this isekai parody series.

2 Satoru Mikami

That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime

As the rather eccentric title suggests, this series follows Satoru Mikami’s bizarre second life. The Tokyo salaryman falls victim to a stabbing, and is subsequently reincarnated in another world.

No longer a human, Mikami now lives as a powerful Slime, able to assume the abilities and looks of all that he consumes. Eventually moving on from his deflating human life completely, Mikami takes on the name oRimuru Tempest upon bonding with a mighty dragon named Veldora. Tempest’s frequently humorous commentary on the situations at hand, coupled with his quick wit, make him a charmingly sharp character to follow.

1 Subaru Natsuki

Re:Zero -Starting Life In Another World-

At a glance, Subaru Natsuki’s situation in Re:Zero does not seem like it willl be a treasure trove of laughs. Almost immediately upon arriving in a fantasy world, Natsuki is killed.

From there, he finds himself in a grim cycle of life and death, constantly dying in his new world only to resurrect in the not-too-distant past. Starting off as a NEET, Natsuki becomes an ally of Emilia, a potential ruler in this new world. The pair work together on her bid to take over the Kingdom of Lugunica, with Natsuki often learning through his frequent, usually violent deaths. Despite his dark and frustrating situation, Natsuki’s over-the-top reactions and colorful interactions frequently provide laughs in this macabre, imaginative series.