I’ve been reading a lot of series since I last posted. It’s just too much work to update this blog with every little series. Farming Life in Another World isn’t a “little” series, though, since there are over 190 chapters out and counting. I started out reading just a little bit, yeah yeah, usual isekai harem shenanigans… and before I knew it I had read all 190 currently available, so I figure it has earned a short review at least.
Summary: After Hiraku dies of a serious illness, God brings him back to life, gives his health and youth back, and sends him to a fantasy world of his choice. In order to enjoy his second shot, God bestows upon him the almighty farming tool! Watch as Hiraku digs, chops, and plows in another world in this laidback farming fantasy!
That’s the general summary of the first volume, but very quickly Hiraku picks up a MASSIVE harem of beautiful elves, vampires and other assorted otherworld ladies. I’m talking dozens of women all lusting after him either to repopulate their race or just for the heck of it. Very quickly his biggest problem becomes how to get more men into the village to take some of the burden off him, though that plotline has been quietly ignored lately now that he has finally put the kibbosh on additional harem members. IIRC his current number of children stands at six, but it definitely won’t end there. Talk about playing out the otaku fantasy.
Personality-wise, Hiraku follows the usual isekai manga protagonist pattern – very wimpy and unable to say no to requests and orders from his girlfriends/wives/love interests/subordinates, but actually secretly strong and overpowered. It’s the same formula in other series like In Another World with My Smartphone and Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu, but even wimpier because they control him so extensively that for a long time the women won’t even let him step out of the village. And they design a bedroom with secret passages and a door that only locks from the outside so they can sleep with him whenever they want. This must be another otaku fantasy – being so irresitable to women that they won’t let you leave.
It does make sense on some level because Hiraku’s almighty cheat farming tool, which can transform into a hoe, shovel, spear, etc. as needed is the only thing that keeps their farming settlement going, so if anything happens to him, a ton of people will be up the creek with no paddle. Again, a lot of thought goes into trying to find ways to keep the village going even in his absence, since he is a human in the midst of long-lived races like dragons, etc.
Indeed, I would say that those moments of thought, planning and consideration are what makes Farming Life in Another World actually interesting to read. The women quickly blur into one and apart from a few prominent ones (Ru, Flora, Hakuren, Rusty, Tia, Anna), they are largely interchangeable in both design and personality. But it’s fun to see the village changing and growing at rapid speed, from a small hole in a tree to one large settlement and three small ones. They also make alliances and trade agreements with other countries/villages nearby, so there’s always a cast of new characters to meet and interact with.
Every once in a while the series gives an update on the map of the village and its environs so you’re not completely lost, but it can still get confusing once there are so many different parties and factors in place. I’m still not entirely clear on the inhabitants of Villages 1, 2 and 3, and I regularly get confused about who is who between the Demon King and his faction and the Dragon King and his faction because they are just so many. This is one of those series where you eventually check your brain in at the door and enjoy the cosy farm building without thinking too much about what’s going on. It would make a great farming simulation game, come to think of it.
Speaking of factions, I miss the early days of the series when the focus was more on the non-humanoid monsters like the Inferno Wolves and Demon Spiders and less on Hiraku’s ever-growing harem. That must be why I enjoy similar cosy farming series with fewer human characters, like Solo Farming in the Tower, which I will talk about another time. Humans/humanoids just complicate stuff.
Anyway, that’s Farming Life in Another World in nutshell: Hiraku farms, enlarges his network/village/harem, makes babies, occasionally fights an enemy, and every once in a while a long stretch of the series is devoted to a fighting tournament or other festival. The “farming” aspect gets toned down very quickly, but the manga remains a very comfy slice of life with safety, great food, warm company and no real drama or danger. I can see why it was popular enough to get an anime recently, where apparently they toned down the harem shenanigans. I’d say it’s worth a read if low-stakes farming is your thing and you don’t mind lots and lots and lots of characters.
