I'm not generally into the isekai genre of manga, where a character dies and awakens in some new (more fantastic) world, but No Longer Allowed in Another World seems to be the exception. A failed writer, who's only referred to as Sensei, is planning a double suicide via jumping in a raging river, when he gets hit by a truck instead. Awakening in Zauberberg, he learns he's expected to be some great hero, a task he has no desire to accomplish.
Sensei does, after nearly dying and in the process saving a cat-girl, decide on one thing he needs to do. The girl he was committing suicide with may have crossed over to this world as well, but not in the same chapel as him. He wants to find Sacchan, so they can get things right this time. As it turns out, she's thrown in with another group, but he doesn't know that yet.
I think what I enjoy about the manga is what I enjoy about the FallOut games. Not choosing the most unsettling or confrontational dialogue options. Or not only that. Hiroshi Noda writes Sensei with zero interest in any quest to defeat the Dark Lord, or great destiny. Besides finding Sacchan and successfully dying, he's content to wander the landscape with the few oddballs he's encountered and see if inspiration strikes. It's the way I prefer to play those sorts of games, wander around and look for weird stuff. If it intersects with the main plot, well, I guess I can deal with that. It might send me someplace new, to see more weird stuff!
We're told by a priestess that most otherworlders are abusing their "cheat" skills for their own personal gain. I would argue none of these otherworlders were asked about being dumped in this world and being expected to save it. As Sensei points out, what is the "Isekai Jackpot Truck" to decree someone will be "happier" in another world? Point being, even if Sensei had any cheat skills - and other than his Poisoned status being transferable, none is revealed in Volume 1 - he doesn't seem inclined to do that. He'll ask Annette for money to buy a poison flask, or a coffin that she and "Tama" can drag him around in. But success there owes to Annette being either smitten with him, or having her outlook on life reawakened by his peculiar attitude.
That's one part I feel Noda doesn't really make clear. Tama's reasoning for sticking around is simple enough: Sensei did (inadvertently) save her life, so she figures she owes him. Annette had grown disenchanted with muttering the same platitudes to otherworlders. Sensei's complete rejection of the "gift" startles her, tot he point she resigns from her post to follow him. Possibly it's a protective instinct, since he seems incredibly weak and actually needs her protection (ignoring the part where he doesn't want protecting.)
Takahiro Wakamatsu adopts the Western medieval fantasy look for Zauberberg - Sensei notes on first awakening that if this is Heaven, it certainly skews Western in its aesthetic - but filtered through a manga style. Big, European style castles with high stone towers and Western-style dragons with great leathery wings and large legs and arms, rather than a more serpentine appearance. But knights wield oversized, Final Fantasy style broadswords, and the martial artists are girls with cat tails and ears who otherwise look human.
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