Anime Corner had the chance to chat with Tsuyoshi Fujitaka, the author of My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me. The light novel, which features illustrations by Chisato Naruse, spawned an anime adaptation that began airing earlier this year. The story revolves around Yogiri Takatou, a high school student who is unexpectedly transported to another world along with his classmates. In this new world, each person receives a unique ability. While his classmates receive impressive, heroic powers, Yogiri initially appears to have been overlooked, receiving no apparent ability. However, it soon becomes clear that Yogiri possesses an incredibly overpowered ability: the “instant death” power. This ability allows him to instantly kill anyone or anything, regardless of their strength or defenses, simply by wishing for their death. This power is so absolute that it works on beings considered immortal or invulnerable in the fantasy world.
Keep in mind that the interview was conducted before the anime premiered and that some questions may reflect that.
Q: With so many isekai anime, manga, and light novels around how do you feel about the genre itself? Is it overused?
A: There have been works set in other worlds since ancient times, and I don’t think they are that rare. I think it is now becoming established as a genre.
Q: How did you come up with the concept of your world?
A: There are many works with the concept of the protagonist being the strongest, but there have been no works where the protagonist never loses, never struggles a bit, and never even struggles until the very end. I decided to experiment with this, as it would be a unique theme if there were no other examples.
Q: If you could choose a superpower which one would it be?
A: I would like to be able to heal injuries immediately, for example. Because health is the most important thing.
Q: Did you feel proud when you heard that your novel will be turned into an anime? Are you looking forward to it?
Tsuyoshi Fujitaka: I thought that if there was a ranking of works that would never be made into an anime, this would be one of the top ones, so I was first of all very surprised. Of course, I am super excited to see the characters from my own work move and speak.
Q: What are your favorite anime, manga or light novel? Did they influence your work?
Tsuyoshi Fujitaka: I like the horror novels of Hideyuki Kikuchi and the light novels of Rokugomaruni, and I used to read them a lot. I think they have definitely influenced my work.
Q: Who is your favorite character to write, and why is that person your favorite? If picking a favorite character would be like picking a favorite child, which character seems to be the most demanding of your attention and detail as a writer?
A: My favorite in terms of ease of writing is Daimon Hanakawa. The one I was particular about was the main character, Takato Yagiri, and I made sure that he didn’t lose in battle, but also that he didn’t feel like he was beaten.
Q: Do you have any odd (writing) habits?
A: When I am writing, I don’t think I have any particular habits as I am just typing. I do move my body when thinking about writing though.
Q: What was the hardest scene you had to write?
A: I won’t go into specific scenes because it would be a spoiler if I went into too much detail, but it’s from volume 12 onwards. It was difficult because I had more and more opportunities to refer to what I had written before.
Q: At what point did you decide to be an author and what was your path to publication?
Q: I didn’t set out to be a writer, but I submitted a little piece I had written to a fiction prize and it won, so that’s when I decided to become one. The award-winning work was only published, so I don’t think it was so much of a journey.
Q: Do you think artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT will affect storytelling in the industry?
Q: In the fiction field, it is likely to have an impact in the long term, though not right now. When the time comes when we can automatically generate commercial-level work, writers are likely to go out of business, in which case I would like to be on the side of tuning up author AI.
Q: What advice do you have for new writers in creating stories?
Q: I guess the first step is to try to write until the end. It is difficult to create something from scratch, but I think it is relatively easy to revise and improve an already existing work.
My Instant Death Ability Is Overpowered light novel is available on J-Novel Club and Yen Press (print edition). Earth Star Novel serialized the light novel in Japanese from 2016 to 2023 for a total of 14 volumes. JNC translated all of them into English. A manga adaptation with art by Hanamaru Nanto is currently ongoing in Comic Earth Star magazine.
The anime adaptation is streaming on HIDIVE and you can catch the latest updates from the franchise on Earth Start Entertainment’s Twitter / X account.
©Tsuyoshi Fujitaka/ESE/My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered / ©Tsuyoshi Fujitaka/Chisato Naruse 2023