Saving 80,000 Gold In Another World For My Retirement Anime/Light Novel Comparison

    Welcome back to Beyond The Anime! My latest anime to light novel comparison is a Winter 2023 series with a unique spin on isekai - Saving 80,000 Gold In Another World For My Retirement. Unlike so many isekai protagonists who have no way to return from the world they suddenly arrived in to their world of origin, Mitsuha discovers her ability to teleport back and forth early in the story. This special power opens a literal wealth of opportunities for her, such as selling items from her world in the newfound fantasy world for profit, and in doing so, earn enough gold coins to retire and live comfortably. 

Mitsuha dressed for battle as the Lightning Archpriestess

(light novel color illustration)

    The light novel, originally released by Sol Press, has since been acquired by Kodansha and is now being released in double volumes that contain two books in one, both in print and ebook form. This is reflected in the price of the print book, but the ebook version is still the price of a single volume, which makes for a great deal, and it looks like this trend will continue in the future!

    The anime adapts about two thirds of this story, so the novel does have several chapters after the big climax to show how Mitsuha comes into her new role as viscountess - granted to her by the king in the finale episode, making it worth a read for fans of the anime who want to get an idea of where the series goes from there. In addition to these "bonus chapters", Mitsuha's background receives extra detail and some of the explanations in the novel are more in depth, plus a few notable differences with the anime, for better or worse. 

This image pretty much sums up Mitsuha's end goal

(light novel color illustration)

    Mitsuha's background as the only remaining member of her immediate family, and the story's realistic way of portraying the effect this has on her, was the first thing that really made me feel invested in her character. The novel goes into more detail about this trying time in her life after she lost her parents and brother, and how she had to prevent other relatives from stealing her inheritance - a point which makes it clear why money holds so much importance to her as a form of security in her life. The otherworldly being that gave Mitsuha her powers also receives a slightly better explanation, with hints implying that it's actually an alien. 

    However, one detail that I think the anime was wise to downplay was the frequent references to people mistaking Mitsuha for a child, but at the same time showing inappropriate levels of interest in her. It was never quite clear in the anime why Mitsuha was pushed over the cliff, aside from hints that she was being bullied, but the novel shows that these boys were sexually harassing her and trying to force her to leave with them even after she pretended to be a child to deter them. There were a few men who showed an interest in Mitsuha even in the anime like the Count and his sons, and this is mostly played for laughs, but it's made worse by the novel drawing attention to the fact that they think she's only twelve years old. She's actually eighteen, though the misconception still comes off as a bit uncomfortable at times. 

    The narrative itself is written in a very simple style that makes this novel a fast read. Mitsuha's internal monologues are the highlights here, hilariously ranging between relatable and ridiculous depending on the topic, but her thoughts also tend to go off on long tangents at times that can distract from the overall story. Still, it was refreshing to read about a protagonist with a more practical, unconventional approach to solving problems and such a well-developed backstory right from the beginning. All of her decisions make sense given her previous experiences, sense of morality and information learned through conversations with her brother in the past.

Mitsuha with Count Bozes, his wife and sons

    Some of the content that was quickly summed up in the anime did receive more lengthy explanations in the novel, such as Mitsuha setting up shop in the capital. Details were given about how she chose her storefront, made an underground storage space for her funds, and even provided a crafter from the fantasy world with blueprints of the modern devices she wanted him to create (which seems like an awfully big risk for someone who should be trying to keep her status as a person from another world secret). These tidbits were interesting, but the middle chapters that focus on the business aspect were still the weakest ones for me. 

    The first major change I came across was during the lead in to Mitsuha meeting Count Bozes and his family. In the anime, she tricked the Count's men into believing she was hit by their carriage in order to gain entrance to their home - one of her more dubious plans. It was surprising to find that this morally questionable moment was an anime-only addition not present in the novel at all, and their first meeting was much more straightforward. Another minor difference was the translation of her "Messenger of Lightning" title as "Lightning Archpriestess" in the novels.

Mitsuha pressures the mercenary captain to help her by stealing his truck

    The most shocking differences, however, took place during the final episodes of the anime - the battle to defend the capital from an invading army, and everything leading up to it. Mitsuha enlisted the help of Wolf Fang, the mercenary group she had worked with throughout the story, but in the anime, the Captain doesn't believe the story she tells him about teleportation and the other world. In order to convince him, Mitsuha jumps into one of their armored vehicles and transports both of them (along with the truck) to the fantasy world, where he sees and fights a band of the invading goblins for himself while defending a wagon of travelers. This was one of my favorite scenes, and I was surprised to find it was anime-original. The novel just has Mitsuha teleport into the room with Wolf Fang present, removing any doubt about her powers. 

    The final battle itself was longer in the novel, and yet not quite as over-the-top as the anime portrayed it. Yes, there are still armored trucks and powerful guns taking on an army of fantasy monsters, but the novel does maintain more realism in the sense that Mitsuha's only role is delivering orders rather than leaping into battle herself with a bazooka. (Although I loved that scene as well and was a little disappointed not to see it here.) The version of the climactic battle in the novel, on the other hand, had some interesting background about the dragons that the anime left out. Not just one, but three dragons were present, and while two of them were killed, the leader slayed by Mitsuha in the anime was actually allowed to escape in the novel, and segments written from the dragon's point of view expanded the lore of this fantasy world. The mercenaries from Wolf Fang also brought back the entire body of a dragon back with them to Earth, instead of only a fang like the anime shows. 

Mitsuha teleports into the air and fires a bazooka at a dragon in the final battle 

    The start of the post-anime content was one of the most exciting parts of the book for me. As the wagon Mitsuha is traveling in gets attacked by bandits on the way to her new territory, she and the other passengers must fight to eliminate the threat. It provides additional information on the aftermath of the short war, in which many of the invaders - whether soldiers, hired mercenaries or conscripted citizens - who fled from the battle but didn't make it back across the border have turned to a life of crime. There's also a great exploration of the different mindsets of Mitsuha's fellow passengers and what led to their individual decisions to fight back, from the farmer protecting his wife and daughters to the mercenary and the old man who seems like he has something to atone for.

    After that, the story focuses on showing how Mitsuha adjusts to her role as viscountess and to ruling her new territory, appropriately named Yamano County. These segments are interesting, though not as exciting. There were a few outlandish but funny parts, like Mitsuha starting a blog on Earth about her experience as a viscountess, which earns her some suggestions from experts who think they're playing a game - until Mitsuha offers to bring them to the other world with her. Several of these final chapters detail Mitsuha's advancements in agriculture, the growing fishing industry, the economy and interactions with the people living there, so if you enjoyed Mitsuha's business ventures in the anime, then these chapters will have a similar vibe. Otherwise, this part of the story might feel a little slow. 

    The most intriguing sequel hook came in the final chapter, when Mitsuha is approached by multiple intelligence agencies from different nations on Earth (thanks to Wolf Fang selling those dragon parts) wishing to establish relations with the other world - or in some cases, perhaps take control for themselves. The way Mitsuha handles the situation is amusing, and the new realization about her healing powers was a cool surprise.

    Two bonus stories are also included at the end. The first expands on Mitsuha's feelings towards Collete as the closest thing she has to family right now, which helps explain why she became attached to the girl so fast, and the second is a fun story told from the mercenary captain's point of view as they try to figure out just who this mysterious Mitsuha is exactly, with plenty of humorous banter and the nice bonus info that their defense of the kingdom earned them enough gold to allow them a long break from dangerous missions. Because this is a double length book, it has the author's afterwards for both volumes 1&2 - a nice attention to detail that is often absent in this format.

Mitsuha novel illustration

    The art of the novels is simple but pleasant, with illustrations that often solely feature Mitsuha with different expressions, and the backgrounds are sparse. Mitsuha does have a nice character design, but I would have liked to see more variety. There are a few more dynamic pieces of art, like the dragon illustration and the scene where Alexis Bozes shields Mitsuha from an assassin's arrows, though these are few. The anime did better in this respect, creating a more detailed image of the world Mitsuha lives in. While there was little truly fantastic or eye-catching, the artwork was still good overall. 

    For anyone who enjoyed the anime and wants to know how Mitsuha's adventure continues after being made viscountess, I would definitely recommend checking out the novel. There's a great deal of content that takes place after the anime's finale, which keeps the story feeling fresh, and it maintains a good balance between adventure, kingdom-building and humor. Check out the rest of my Winter 2023 anime comparisons for Sugar Apple Fairy Tale, Tomo-chan Is A Girl and Kaina of the Great Snow Sea, and stay tuned for my next Winter 2023 anime/light novel comparison, Endo and Kobayashi Live: The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte!

 Oshi no Ko Anime/Manga Comparison

Ai Hoshino with her twins, Aqua & Ruby

    Welcome back to Beyond The Anime! This latest entry in my anime/manga comparison series will cover my favorite anime of Spring 2023, Oshi no Ko! Fans have given much well-deserved praise to the anime for its stellar adaptation of the source manga, so much that I had expected the manga to be exactly the same story, just in a different form of media - but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the manga offers a wealth of new content even for fans who have already watched the anime. 

    While the main story is still the same, the presence of short "interviews" with the characters before each chapter of volume 1 add new information that hints at events to come. Each of these segments are only a page long, but the foreshadowing gives an entirely different vibe to the beginning of the series when compared to the anime's movie-length premiere which omits these flash-forward scenes. Because these segments contain spoilers, I will discuss them in a separate section at the end of the review for the sake of keeping the main comparison spoiler-free for fans who have completed the anime but haven't yet started reading the manga. 

Ai smiling at her twins' adorable glowstick routine

Ai smiling during that same scene in the manga

    The artwork and character designs of the manga are beautiful, and the anime portrays them perfectly. Every expression is a perfect match, and the vibrant colors of the anime, smooth animation and excellent voice acting bring the story to life on the screen. I've watched the anime both with the original Japanese voices and subtitles as well as the currently airing English dub, and both options are solid choices, though I did feel that the Japanese version was stronger overall - particularly during key scenes like the end of episode 7. 

    The anime does a fantastic job adapting the story as well. Over the course of the first manga volume, which covers the anime's premiere episode, the only major omissions were the flash forward character interview pages at the beginning of each chapter. It was an interesting choice, focusing solely on the present timeline to maximize the emotional roller coaster effect of the premiere, rather than include the story hints that gave the impression of dark secrets in the future for Ai and her children. 

Ai teaching Ruby to dance

The same scene, with Ai and Ruby's movements reflected in a mirror image

    One of my favorite scenes of the premiere, in which Ai helps Ruby to overcome her fear of falling and dance like she's always wanted to, is a great example of how the same thing can be portrayed beautifully in both the anime and the manga while drawing on the unique strengths of each art form. The manga shows Ruby matching Ai's movements as though her mother's image is reflected in a mirror, a creative visual representation of Ruby's words about Ai's dance routines being forever in her memory, and the anime goes all out with the bright colors and creative art style to give this scene a fantasy feel like the dream come true that it is for Ruby.

    I really enjoyed being able to experience this story in both ways, watching the anime (mostly) free of spoilers first and then reading the manga with all of the teases of things to come. The first volume covers the movie-length premiere and concludes with the same brief scene showing Aqua and Ruby as teenagers, and the presentation was so exact that I couldn't help but imagine the ending theme playing in the background as I read the last pages. 

Aqua plays his role so well

    The second volume, which covers the "Sweet Today" TV drama arc of episodes 2-4, features only a few differences. There weren't any big changes here like leaving out the previous volume's flash forward scenes, but the manga's focus on dialogue during the "Sweet Today" shoot really added to the themes of light and darkness found throughout the story, emphasizing that this metaphor can apply to the series as a whole. Likewise, the scene where Aqua leans into Melt's punch while the cameras were rolling felt more dynamic in the anime with the benefit of movement to portray his actions. It's still the same great story we've already seen in the anime, but I found it just as engaging to read even knowing how the main events play out.

    At the very end of the second volume is a short bonus chapter from Aqua and Ruby's young childhood with Ai, which was a really nice addition to keep their mother present in the story. This bath time scene was shown briefly at the end of the premiere episode as one of many when Ai's life flashed before her eyes, making this moment feel emotional and bittersweet, but here it's more comedic, with Ai starting to see Ruby's otaku tendencies and Aqua trying not to see too much of Ai as she gave them their baths. 

The added visual in the anime was a nice touch

And the director thought Aqua used big words...

    One slight disappointment is that the joke about Kana being able to cry on cue, which uses a play on the words in the Japanese dialogue, was translated differently in the manga and didn't use the original "baking soda" joke like the anime did. The manga uses "cryogenetics" as a phrase that sounds vaguely similar to cry, but I don't think the joke comes across as well, and it doesn't quite sound natural coming from someone Ruby's age. Plus, Ruby's mental image of Kana licking baking soda in the anime is much funnier. I was surprised to see that her visualization of the wordplay was anime-original. (This change may be solely due to the translation, rather than a difference in dialogue from the manga in its original Japanese.)

    The manga also uses a different translation for the nickname given to Aqua by director Taishi Gotanda, who meets Aqua when he's still a very young, extremely well spoken child. In the anime, Taishi first calls him "precocious baby" and later shortens it to "precocious" when Aqua is a teenager, but the manga instead uses the translation "wunderkind". Both of these phrases technically get the same point across, but I prefer the "precocious" nickname. It reflects Aqua's impressive manner of speaking in a way that has positive and negative connotations, as the word precocious has frequently been used by those who would find this sort of wise-beyond-their-years behavior annoying, which pairs well with the director implying Aqua's surprising intelligence gives him a creepy vibe.

I'm so glad this hilariously ham-filled dialogue was the same in both the manga and the anime

Character Interviews

    One of the major differences that sets the manga apart from the anime version of Oshi no Ko is the interview segments which appear at the beginning of each chapter and feature heavy foreshadowing for events beyond even what was covered in season 1 of the anime. This part of the review will discuss the content of those character interviews, and as such contains spoilers for the first season of the anime, volume 1 of the manga, and speculation of future plotlines. 

This full color image from the opening pages of the first manga volume shows a preview of Aqua and Ruby as teenagers being called onto the set by a camera crew, alongside an image of their idol and their previous lives

    For many viewers experiencing this story for the first time through the anime, the plot twist at the end came as a sudden shock that stood in stark contrast to the adorable scenes of family life that followed Ai's twins from their infancy through their first four years. However, the character interviews present only in the manga feature an ominous vibe. These visions of the future subtly imply through the characters' words that Ai isn't with them anymore, foreshadowing her death before the reader reaches that point at the end of volume 1.  

    According to the story, these interviews are being conducted before the release of director Taishi Gotanda's new film, The 15 Year Lie, dedicated to Ai - a film that he tried to release years ago to no avail. Aqua, who has been working with and learning from him over the years, will be acting in the production along with Ruby (who says this film will be her first) and Kana. This is one of the first hints that this story may be taking a dark turn, or perhaps that Ai's secret will be revealed somehow, and it's presented as a lead in to the chapter about Aqua's first acting job when he was around two years old, long before any of these shocking developments happen. Kana's interview also made a reference to getting "shanked" in another instance of ominous foreshadowing. 

Saitou Ichigo, former president of Strawberry Productions and Miyako's runaway husband - a rare post-timeskip sighting

    The manager of Strawberry Productions, which supported Ai's group B Komachi, was never shown again in the anime after the timeskip, though it was mentioned that Ai's death hit him hard and caused him to run away from both his company and his family. In the manga, his interview is shown before the tragic event, and he lashes out in despair when the crew asks him about Ai, saying that his life was over when he lost her. This was one of the most ominous flash forward scenes by far, which would have understandably caused readers to wonder what exactly he meant by that comment - lost her as a client, or lost her life?  

    In her interview, Miyako mentions Aqua and Ruby experiencing both favored treatment and trials in just the right amounts as though by divine guidance. This one isn't quite as much of a spoiler, as having a mix of ups and downs in life is fairly common, but it does match up well with what we've seen so far of the Hoshino twins, and the "divine guidance" might be a reference to the little trick Aqua and Ruby played on her as babies. The interviews also show Aqua and Ruby's kindergarten teacher and one of Ai's fans (now holding a fan with Ruby's picture) who makes an appearance in the first and last episodes of season one, which was a nice callback.

Has Aqua completely let go of his facade? 

    One point of interest is how brutally honest Aqua is during his interview. He's dropped all of the polite pretense he used on the dating show, admitting to the camera that he will never love anyone, and anyone who falls for him will never get anything back. Reading this after watching the Love Now arc, which ends with Aqua keeping up the act of dating Akane in public, was mind-blowing. Aqua previously talked about telling lies and keeping his true self hidden in order to protect himself, and it makes me curious about what could have led to such a change in how much he's willing to reveal to others, even going so far as to say acting is revenge to him. 

    Without knowing how events will play out later in the story, this comment could be taken any number of ways - including the old saying that success is the best revenge. Of course, Aqua's intentions are much darker, but he would be unlikely to reveal that to the public even if he grew tired of playing the role of the charismatic young star. Although his words are no different from the Aqua we know from season 1 of the anime and these early manga volumes, his openness about real feelings he knows might not be well received hints at a major shift in his life. 

Ai with her twins on their first birthday

    The only "interview" which was included in the anime was the scene before the final chapter of volume 1, the video of Ai with her twins, wishing that they would grow up strong and healthy. A banner, balloons and stuffed animals for Aqua and Ruby's first birthday were added in the anime, making this precious scene even more adorable. 

    As a big fan of the anime who easily considers it my favorite of the Spring 2023 season, I loved the manga and absolutely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the anime. The manga is every bit as great as its adaptation, and the extra content in volume 1 alone, with the intriguing glimpse into the future it provides, is enough to make it worth a read for fans. Stay tuned for my next anime/manga comparison from the Spring 2023 season, Insomniacs After School, and my anime/light novel comparison for Saving 80,000 Gold In Another World For My Retirement coming soon! 

Bonus picture of Ai with Ruby and Aqua during their kindergarten days from volume 2 (between chapters 18 & 19)