Isekai anime series revolve around a protagonist who is transported to another world. A common subgenre is reincarnation, which often involves a protagonist who dies due to one cause or another and is reincarnated into another world to be given a second chance. While death seems like a grave topic, various isekai anime have made the deaths of their protagonists more hilarious and absurd than sad and grave.
From getting crushed by candy to misinterpreting a truck’s headlight to be magic, various anime characters have died some of the most hilarious deaths ever. As these protagonists meet their maker in the most absurd ways, they have fans roaring with laughter and disbelief.
7 Cid Kagenou (Eminence in Shadow)
The Eminence in Shadow anime series portrays one of the most uniquely hilarious deaths in Isekai anime. The protagonist, Cid Kagenou, strives to become the Eminence in Shadow on Earth, but quickly realizes his limits after facing an ex-military middle-aged man.
Searching for magic, Cid tries various purification ceremonies, such as converting religions, strapping himself to a cross, and standing under waterfalls, but none worked. On one of his training sessions in his quest for magic, Cid continually bangs his head on a tree until he gets a concussion. Due to his concussion, Cid misinterprets the headlights of a truck as his long-sought-after magic. Following this ‘magic,’ Cid runs into the truck and is killed.
6 Kazuma Satou (KonoSuba)
In the world of KonoSuba, 17-year-old shut-in Kazuma Satou bravely shoves a girl out of harm’s way from an incoming tractor, only to meet his demise. Patting himself on the back, Kazuma believes he had a heroic death and saved a life, but life will not be so kind as the truth is revealed.
The speeding tractor was, in fact, not speeding and was moving at a snail's pace. Kazuma passes out from shock, thinking that the tractor had killed him, and he pees his pants. To take a more hilarious turn, Kazuma’s eventual death could have been avoided, but the doctors could not stop roaring with laughter, and his last chance for survival faded away.
5 Urano Motosu (Ascendance of a Bookworm)
Being killed by what you love is a trope that is commonly used in Isekai anime, and the Ascendance of a Bookworm anime series makes use of the trope rather hilariously.
The main character, Urano Motosu, is a college student who loves to read books. Whether it be books on mathematics, geology, chemistry, biology, and much more, Urano loves to be surrounded by tomes. One day, an earthquake occurs, and Urano is crushed under the very books she loves. Being crushed by a pile of books, Urano silently prays to read books in her next life and is reincarnated as Myne.
4 Kelvin (Black Summoner)
Whether it be death by truck kun or stabbing, the ways characters meet their ends in anime are endless. Despite the many forms of death that characters can be reincarnated from, Black Summoner series introduces a different type of death: death by a god’s mistake.
Getting killed because a god made a mistake is a hilarious way to die. Luckily for Kelvin, he was reincarnated to make up for the god’s mistake. Although he lost his memories to exchange them for skill points after getting reincarnated, Kevin enjoyed every aspect of his life after being reincarnated as a summoner, making it a worthy trade-off.
3 Pastry Mille Morteln (Sweet Reincarnation)
Like Ascendance of a Bookworm series, Sweet Reincarnation also follows the trope of getting killed by what you love. A promising patissier is on his way to making the best sweets the world has ever seen. After making a beautiful candy sculpture for a candy contest, the candy sculpture falls on the patissier, and he dies.
Regretting that he never became the best sweetmaker in the land, the sculptor blames God. God reincarnates the sculptor as Pastry Mille Morteln, giving him a second chance to achieve his goals. Now reborn, and with the aid of unfamiliar yet amusing magical elements, Pastry strives to achieve his dreams. But his death remains hilarious nonetheless.
2 Boxxo (Reborn as a Vending Machine)
The anime series Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon has a protagonist who dies a hilarious death that stands above others. The protagonist is a vending machine fanatic who is seen riding a bike behind a truck carrying a vending machine. As the vending machine is about to fall, the protagonist moves closer to ‘save’ the machine. Unfortunately, he and the vending machine get thrown off a cliff, and he dies.
Unlike many other isekai anime, the young man quickly adjusts to his life as a vending machine, as he claims he has been reborn as what he loves. Although some new difficulties from being a vending machine pop up, the vending machine otaku enjoys his new life.
1 Kazuya Shiina (The Aristocrat's Otherworldly Adventure)
Kazuya Shiina, the main character of The Aristocrat's Otherworldly Adventure, is out one night when he witnesses an armed attacker preparing to assault two girls. To stop the assailant from harming the girls, Kazuya jumps in front of them but ends up getting stabbed instead, which leads to his death.
Although Kazuya performed a good deed by saving the girls, his death turns out to be unnecessary, as the assailant would have tripped, fallen, and been restrained by bystanders. Moreover, Kazuya’s death made it worse, as the assailant was now charged with his murder, which would not have been the case had he stood still. While Kazuya’s death was heroic, it was also hilarious in that his death was unnecessary and only served to make matters worse.