Yes, the first heroine is a gorilla.
Hiiragi Seiichi is an ugly, revolting, dirty, smelly fatass; these are the insults hurled at him one after another about his appearance. Such was Seiichi's daily school life of bullying, then for some reason, one day when school was out, a voice claiming to be a God said over the PA system to prepare to be transported to another world. What's more, not Seiichi alone, but the entire school. A fantasy world where game-like elements such as levels, stats, and skills exist. However, the God still had preparations to complete for the transfer, and would send them over as soon as the hero summoning ritual was ready. The classes all formed groups to wait for the transfer, but Seiichi alone was disincluded and as such was summoned to a different area. After being transported the first thing Seiichi ate was the "Fruit of Evolution." This would come to greatly change his life...
This story is about how Seiichi went from being severely bullied by his classmates, even not being recognized for his accomplishments, and despite all that staying positive and surviving in this new world. As a result, he somehow becomes one of the champions. (Also the first heroine is a Gorilla?!)
The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made (Shinka no Mi: Shiranai Uchi ni Kachigumi Jinsei) is a Light Novel series written by Miku. Originally released as a Web Serial Novel on Shousetsuka ni Narou in 2014, it was picked up for publication during the same year with illustrations by U35, and ended in December 2022 with 15 volumes. It also has a manga adaptation that began serialization in Web Comic Action in 2017, and an anime adaptation that first aired in 2021, with a second season in 2023.
See also I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too, which also has the same author as this light novel.
Assorted Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Salia would be the perfect wife and home-maker, as she's great with children, kind, an excellent chef and tailor, and completely devoted to Seiichi. There's just one problem, she's a 400 pound gorilla who thought the best way to get his attention was to attack him with lethal force, and keeps dragging him back to her nest, holding him captive. By chapter 6 of the manga, this gets resolved.
- Accidental Proposal: Seiichi gives Altaria a ring to counteract the curse that gives her bad luck... by putting it on her left ring finger. He realizes a little too late that, with some words he said to her before, it could be taken as a marriage proposal.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The manga adaptation skips over a great deal of exposition.
- Adaptive Ability: Seiichi is a living, breathing example of "what does not kill you makes you stronger." Any and every negative status buff he experiences, he becomes immune to, if it doesn't kill him first.
- Art Shift: In the manga, every time Seiichi experiences a strong emotion, he winds up looking like a character from Fist of the North Star.
- When Seiichi is inventing a spell to liberate someone from slavery or mind control, his first thought is Abraham Lincoln, including a half-page realism style portrait of said president.
- Bishōnen Line: The effect of eating ten "Fruits of Evolution" and "Evolving" ten times. On the final evolution, the one who does so becomes the epitome of human beauty, regardless of original appearance or species.
- Black Comedy Rape: When Seiichi and Salia join the adventurer's guild, Seiichi gets lured into a back alley by three of its most delinquent-looking members. Seiichi expects hazing, or maybe a fight. Instead, the three make no attempt to disguise how they want a piece of his ass, sexually. His response is to cry out "Hell NO!" and flee. The next scene is the three "delinquents" passed out, over a barrel, as they had chased him through town, trying to catch him, without success.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: While the story is unflinchingly a comedy that doesn't take itself seriously, it can't decide if it's a modern comedy or a Shakespearean one, as it touches on some very profound and dramatic elements, particularly after Seiichi defeats a dungeon boss.
- Compressed Adaptation: The anime cuts and simplifies a lot of content, and also messes up with the order of some things. One of the more egregious examples is the Salomonic reduction of the students of class F, as three of them that didn't have a big pay-off and one who had a cathartic pay-off about self-confidence (overlapping with Seiichi in that regard) in that particular arc but had no real involvement afterwards got mercilessly cut off; which is a bit tragic considering their original situation.
- Cosmic Plaything: Seiichi, of course. Not only did "god" mock his body and odor (the latter of which he has no control), but gave him a stat sheet full of insults.
- Creator Cameo: Miku, the author of the light novels, voices an unnamed man with a mohawk hairstyle who appears in Episodes 3, 11 and 12.
- Cursed with Awesome: Seiichi's body odor (over which he had no control while on Earth) got him horribly bullied. In this new world, it saves his life, as the first monster who beat him up and tried to chow down on him, got one whiff, and died.
- Evil Chancellor: Scheld Wohl Kaiser, the Kaiser Emperor, has a dark wizard by his side who acts as this, being an evil, cunning advisor. However, in this case, the dark wizard doesn't really have to work overtime in plotting and conniving, because the Kaiser Emperor is just as evil and scheming as he is and the two of them go together like peas in a pod.
- Foreshadowing: Chapter 5 of the manga, second to last page, has a panel with a picture of six women who will wind up joining Seiichi's harem, and yes, one of them is in her original donkey form.
- Hammerspace: While the manga only focuses on Seiichi's, everybody in Seiichi's school got an "Item Box" that allows them to store things in an alternate dimension, as part of the compensation for being whisked away to this RPG Mechanics 'Verse.
- Humans Are Bastards: At least among the rulers of the human empire. While the citizens are, for the most part, simply people trying to live their lives in peace, the leaders are morally bankrupt, kicking every puppy they come across, just because they can, and woe if they feel envious or slighted.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: As is revealed in chapter 11 of the manga, the original Demon King was entirely content to live his life away from humans, having gathered up all the abused and mistreated "monsters" on a far-away continent. The humans, who only saw "monsters" as slaves, at best, would not abide that and waged a war of subjugation and extermination upon him, after summoning "heroes" to their world.
- Humanity Ensues: Both Salia and Rurune gained the ability to transform into humans after eating 10 Fruits of Evolution.
- Indecisive Parody: The series certainly comes across as a parody of isekai light novels by making jokes such as the protagonist learning skills and powers at such a ridiculous rate that even he gets exasperated by it, the adventurer's guild being full of various types of perverts, and his harem simply not caring about being rivals for his affections, instead sharing him equally—two of them even first met and became attracted to him as a pink gorilla monster and a donkey, respectively. That said, the series does play the protagonist helping the girls with their personal problems pretty seriously, and plays the Prejudice Aesop straight several times throughout, so whether exactly The Fruit of Evolution is poking fun at the typical isekai formula or actually is a typical isekai punctuated by dirty jokes every now and then is not exactly made clear.
- In Medias Res:
- Played for laughs in the manga. The story starts with Seiichi and Salia are enjoying a picnic in a meadow when she spots a squirrel-like monster that she finds cute. Seiichi denies her when she asks to make it a pet. To prove him right, said monster jumps up and attacks her the moment she turns her back... to find that she's actually a 400 pound gorilla who retaliates by throwing it with so much force it becomes a Twinkle in the Sky.
- The first episode of the anime starts by showing Salia's transformation into her gorgeous human form before the opening credits. When that episode ends with Salia, still in her gorilla form, carrying Seiichi back to her den, Seiichi wonders aloud when he will actually see the naked beauty shown at the beginning.
- Interspecies Romance: Seiichi's first wife, and the first heroine, is a 400 pound gorilla, and he later adds a donkey. Of course, they assume a human form first, as a result of eating 10 "Fruits of Evolution."
- Jerkass God: The "God" who whisks Seiichi's entire school to another world, especially in the original light novel, where he verbally pats himself on the back for shipping people to another world, not even bothering with consent, with every other word being an insult to his victims, and a veiled threat that he could do things in a much more vicious way.
- Karmic Jackpot: Seiichi. The rest of the class bullied him for his body-type and odor, and abandoned him during the summoning. They wind up slaves in all but name. While Seiichi didn't have an easy time either, he gets compensated with a much better body, and a Battle Harem of very loving, and very attractive, wives. Not to mention that he becomes a force of nature, as a direct result of his efforts.
- Kidnapped by the Call: An entire school, 800 some people, is yanked away from Earth and shoved into another world by a Jerkass God, who makes each and every one of them an Unperson, so it won't have to deal with the rest of the planet wondering where they went.
- Literal Genie: The first two times Seiichi creates a spell with his Magic Creation skill, the skill names the spell after the first thing he says. Naming the curse reversing spell 'Get Well' isn't that bad, but the liberation spell 'President Lincoln' is a lttle odd, especially in a world with no concept of that.
- Number of the Beast: Played for Laughs in Chapter 11. Leia, Captain of the 3rd Platoon of the Demon King's army, apparently has had 666 (failed) marriage interviews.
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Lampshaded in chapter 1 by the "god" sending everyone to a new world.
- Shout-Out: A lot.
- In the anime, after Seiichi gets together with both Salia and Artoria, they get surrounded by people they know who applaud them and say "congratulations!"
- During the montage of Seiichi's date with Artoria in the anime, we get a shot of them going to a play that is clearly Peter Pan.
- The title of episode 6 is a direct reference to YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World.
- Episode 8 has a Rose of Versailles shoutout.
- Stock Light-Novel Hero: The story openly mocks the concept. Seiichi is the stereotypical bullied teenage Japanese kid who gets whisked to an alternate world by "god," and becomes a powerhouse with a harem of loving beauties, as a result of his efforts, and "cheat" skills. Of course, the first haremette, and Harem Seeker, Salia, starts the story as a 400 pound gorilla who kidnaps Seiichi, repeatedly drags him to her nest against his will, pushes other girls onto him, and it's a rare day when doing something mundane doesn't have the RPG Mechanicsverse suddenly flood his brain with messages, indicating all the new "cheat" skills he accidentally unlocks."Unattributed Magic: Master has been added.... By acquiring the magic, title [Hidden Secrets of Magic] has is received."
Seiichi:"I was just reading a book."
"By acquiring the title..."
Seiichi: "Give me a break..." - Too Dumb to Live: Literally. The "horse-deer" mounts are so stupid, they have to be constantly ordered to breathe or they will simply stare ahead vacuously, dying unnoticed.
- Tragic Monster: To date, all the dungeon bosses Seichi has to defeat have horrific backstories justifying their hatred, and Seichi is all but forced to read each and every one of them.
- Trapped in Another World: None of the summoned characters can return to Earth by any means.
- Written by the Winners: In chapter 13, Seiichi heads to the local library to gather information about the world, especially the Demon King, that revives every few centuries. Most, if not all, the books he finds are fairy tales that end "and thus the hero married the princess, and they lived happily ever after." This contradicts the original hero's diary that says once the heroes have defeated the Demon King, they are forced to commit suicide.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: If the Hero's own diary, owned by Seiichi, is to be believed, once the "heroes" summoned by the empire have completed their duty, they are compelled to commit suicide.
