Literature / JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World

*record scratch*
*freeze frame on Haru Koyama getting choked by a horny naked dude*
Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation.

JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World (JK Haru wa Isekai de Shōfu ni Natta) is a satirical Trapped in Another World story written by Ko Hiratori, and illustrated by Shimano. Initially published in December 2017, it was translated by Emily Balistrieri and released for digital distribution in September 2018. It also has a manga adaptation, which began serialization in Manga Okoku in 2019 and is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment. Curious readers should note that the story is not intended to be erotica, and that it contains disturbing content, such as rape and torture.

Chiba was once a hot-blooded idiot at his school, who attempted and failed to save a classmate from a runaway truck. He awakens in another world, with unique "cheat abilities", and so begins an otaku's dream come true!

...But this is not his story. Instead, the focus is on Chiba's classmate and fellow truck victim, "JK" Haru, who ended up in the same strange world without any of the special powers. And due to the heavily misogynistic society she is now trapped in, she has little choice but to prostitute herself to survive. But in her own words, "since I have to do it, I'm gonna kick ass at it"!

A sequel, JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World: Summer, was published in August 2019. Instead of focusing solely on Haru, Summer is a series of vignettes from the perspectives of various characters.

Not to be confused with Call Girl In Another World, a completely different manga.

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Tropes:

• All Men Are Perverts: Not surprisingly, every man encountered wants Haru or one of her co-workers. Even God.
• Babies Ever After: Implied. The last chronological short story from JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World: Summer reveals that Haru is having a baby, who is even implied to be a reincarnated Shequraso. Considering she tells everyone right after she came back from fighting the Demon Lord, it's possible that she might have finally reached her goal of catching the Rainy Man's attention.
• Boring, but Practical: On top of EXP, Chiba can gain strength by preforming normal exercises and weight lifting like a normal person on Earth, building up muscle mass. However because it's normal he doesn't want to do that and just wants to farm EXP. This attitude continues even after he hit his level cap.
• Deadpan Snarker: The novel's filled with Haru's observations about her new world, with snarky descriptions of contraception, food, and most of the men who buy her services (especially Chiba.)
• Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: The silver-haired man who only appears when it rains, who Haru becomes attached to, and has one of the two actually erotic sex scenes in the book, is heavily implied to be the Demon Lord. That said, Haru has explicitly banged God at least twice.
• Disposable Sex Worker: Haru does her best to avert this fate, despite being treated as such by society. Her friend Shequraso isn't so lucky.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Chiba seems to think he's entitled to Haru's affections because 1) they're both from the same world, and 2) he tried to save her life and died in the process. He routinely buys her for sessions and tries to make her quit to become his "slave" (in this case, a Trophy Wife), presuming that he would wear her down eventually. While she never liked him to begin with, his continued chauvinism only serves to repulse her. As Haru points out, his alleged motivation to protect her never materializes when she needs it: he's always conspicuously absent when her sex-work has put her in more than her fair share of danger.
• Entitled Bastard: Chiba has completely bought into the idea that he's the "protagonist" of an Isekai plot with a superpower that makes him superior to others. He believes that Haru is meant to be his girlfriend and "slave", talks down to her when she tries opening up to him, and becomes rather violent when things don't go his way. When he reaches his level cap, it throws him into a malaise because he doesn't want to actually get stronger the "boring way" (actually working out).
• Extreme Doormat: Kiyori. She gets better thanks to Haru's influence.
• Fantasy Contraception: There's a type of herb in the new world that prevents pregnancy, which Haru admits is rather neat.
• Fictional Sport: Haru joins three kids in playing Kick the Can, which seems simple at first glance but is a full-blown sport with complicated rules and a league devoted to playing it.
• First Girl Wins: Invoked by Chiba, and desperately denied by Haru. This is part of his fixation on her: she was the first person he ever knew in this world. Unfortunately for him, Haru cannot stand Chiba, and really only talks to him because he insists on buying her services.
• Genre Deconstruction: Of Isekai and Harem works. Haru is not male, geeky, or imbued with awesome powers or rather, she doesn't seem to be. She does turn out to have the industry standard "Godlike Cheat": she can absorb the abilities of anyone she has sex with. She experiences many of the flaws of a setting that seems utterly catered to a male power fantasy. In addition, Haru's not a maladjusted nerd happy to escape the real world: she desperately misses her friends and family back home, and barely comprehends the game system that's so common in isekai.
• Harem Seeker: When he asks her to be his slave, Chiba reveals his underlying assumptions that she would be just the first of many of his harem.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted, at least in the case of Chiba: he can become stronger by working out, but he doesn't want to put in the effort, considering it boring.
• Heroic Wannabe: Chiba dyes his hair red and styles it in order to look more heroic and unique. He's still a pimply-faced jerk that sees Haru as a victim for him to save, rather than her own person.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Haru and the other girls in the brothel are really nice to each other, watching each other's backs despite being competitors.
• Jerkass: Chiba comes across as this. He acts pretentious and entitled, obsessing over his powers while rarely providing any actual assistance when Haru is in danger. He asks Haru to become the first member of his harem, and is possibly responsible for getting the two of them killed in the first place (instead of saving her from the stereotypical truck, he hugged her and ensured their deaths).
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Haru holds Chiba up as a creep and the gold standard of the typical asshole customer who prefer masturbation over sex: they expect the woman to gasp and moan while they lie there.
• Love at First Sight: Sumo falls in love with Haru after she eats at his family's restaurant.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: In the setting, White Mages are brought up in churches and expected to be virgins, yet also expected to fall in love with whatever man/men they're assisting in their adventures.
• Ms. Fanservice: Haru and her coworkers dress skimpily. This is meant to entice customers (and she dresses normally off work).
• Mugging the Monster: The final arc is how a bunch of soldiers thought they could just abuse Haru with no consequences after raping one of her friends to death. Due to her Power Copying ability, she's actually one of the most powerful beings on the planet and slaughters the entire army in retaliation.
• New Life in Another World Bonus: Everyone in the world Chiba and Haru wind up in has a special power, though the one Chiba is granted is particularly noteworthy. Haru's knocks his right out of the park.
• Nice Guy: Sumo, a virgin man who treats Haru with kindness, even buying her out of a very bad situation at one point with absolutely no plans or expectations for an intimate reward afterwards.
• Nominal Hero: Chiba thinks he's a typical Isekai hero. He's not deliberately evil, but he's self-centered and uncaring that he's not remotely the hero he thinks he is.
• No-Sell: Chiba's skill grants him immunity to attack magic and status effects. Haru gets this too after sleeping with him.
• Not What It Looks Like: Chiba is accused of being a Panty Thief and is caught red-handed with a bunch of the women's underwear. It turns out that he was taking care of a unique-looking animal whose favorite snack is the laundry detergent used on the underwear.
• Platonic Prostitution: Sumo's initial rendezvous with Haru consist of just talking and opening up to each other, rather than actual sex.
• Power Copying: It's later revealed that Haru DID get her own "cheat ability" upon entering the world: copying all skills and getting the XP points of anyone that sleeps with her.
• Rape as Drama: An unfortunate reality of the Crapsack World is that men can threaten and even go ahead and rape women without any real consequences since they are treated more like objects than people. Haru herself has been exploited by her older sister's friend and older men during middle school, her coworker Lupe was raped by her brother and Kiyori was almost gang raped because she wasn't a virgin. Shequraso gets the worst of it: she dies from continuous rape after five days. All these incidents are treated with the seriousness they deserve and the fact that some of the characters are sex workers isn't used to diminish the horrors they went through.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Chiba refuses to use his powers as much as he can. A more extreme example: Haru doesn't mention or use her Power Copying ability until she seeks revenge for Shequraso's rape and death.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When one of Haru's friends and coworkers dies due to some soldiers' brutal treatment of her, Haru decided that she's had enough and completely slaughters the entire army with her powers.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: The world that Haru and Chiba find themselves in is one, complete with XP points (which Chiba earns 16x more than anyone else as his special skill). Since Haru isn't as familiar with video games, she has a hard time getting used to it.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Haru asks to take the place of Shequraso, who had gone to "service" the soldiers. After three days, they reveal that they didn't keep up their end of the bargain, and Shequraso was still there— as a corpse.
• Sexually Transmitted Superpowers: Haru gets the XP and powers of everyone she has sex with. And she has sex with a lot of soldiers, adventurers and God, which effectively makes her the strongest human on the planet. The only person it doesn't seem to work on is the Demon Lord though the reason for it is unclear.
• Show Some Leg: Haru's brief foray into playing Kick the Can could've been an instance of You Go, Girl!— if she didn't end up making use of her assets to distract the opponents. It's certainly effective, though— her team wins the tournament as a result.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Kicks off the final Rape and Revenge arc of the first novel.
• Stock Light-Novel Hero: Deconstructed with Chiba. Unlike most light novels which narrate from this character type's point of view, we instead see him through Haru's perspective, which shows how he's actually a pathetic jerk. Personality-wise, he's more of a Heroic Wannabe than anything, viewing Haru as a victim to save rather than an actual person and comes across as entitled to her affections. Even his nerdier traits, which would usually be ways for the audience to relate to him, just make him come across as irritating instead.
• This Loser Is You: Chiba's a otaku who cannot shut up about whatever anime or game he liked, constantly white knights, and thinks Haru is his special girl to protect and love because he got them shoved into a world Haru hates.
• True Companions: Haru ends up bonding with women stuck in similar positions, from other sex workers to tavern barmaids and healers, and they work together to get more out of life.
• Unproblematic Prostitution: Inverted. At first, Chiba assumes that this world is an instance of this, but eventually realizes how poorly these women are treated. It's a far cry from most ecchi works in the Isekai genre.
• Useless Superpowers: Haru can absorb the power and strength of anyone she has sex with, but this goes unmentioned for most of the novel. She didn't think these skills would be useful for her life— her clientele is made up of mostly soldiers and adventurers, so she gained mostly combat skills.
• White Mage: An all-female class whose healing powers make them the only type of women in this society that can go out on adventures (as long as they are accompanied by a man). One, named Kiyori, gets recruited by Chiba, but ends up becoming one of Haru's friends.
• Willfully Weak: The Level Bind skill allows one to do this, and Haru has it on most of the time after she inherits it.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Chiba seems to think that he's the Stock Light-Novel Hero of his own Isekai plot. Not only is he not the protagonist, all of his traits make him more like the Stock Light-Novel Hero's rival archetype; being the Idiot Hero with a perverted streak, entitlement issues and an inflated sense of self-importance.

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