Saitou, a Japanese handyman, has it rough. Whether it’s customers accusing him of ripping them off, a boss who openly considers him replaceable, or his own solitary lifestyle, he often doubts whether he's truly needed. But when he’s abruptly summoned to a world of dungeons and magic, his new companions may give him a place where he finally belongs.
Such is the plot of Handyman Saitou in Another World, a seinen manga written and drawn by Ichitomo Kazutomo which began serialization in ComicWalker in 2018. Yen Press has licensed the manga for US distribution, and an anime adaptation premiered in January 2023.
Handyman Saitou in Another World contains examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Morlock ends up losing his hand when he defeats the dark spirit summoned by Primas. Ninia managed to reattach it without much issue.
- This is the price that the assassin Kisurugi pays in order to save Lavella from her accelerated aging curse. Primas also has to offer her wings to help fuel the blood-related magic needed to undo the curse ailing the poor witch.
- Lilyza reveals she has a magical prosthetic hand after fighting one demonic beast and foolishly trying to stab her axe into its maw. The beast was able to defend and ripped her weapon away along with her hand. She can now detach her hand by unscrewing it.
- Anti-Armor: There is a metal-eating slime that the group encounters after Saitou attempts to disarm a trap. It gets on Raezla's armor and disintegrates it much to her embarrassment. Later Saitou uses a container of the slime against an Iron Golem for Raezla to more easily defeat it.
- Back from the Dead: There are two means of revival if a person dies, either in the dungeon or in the outside world.
- The church has a ritual, though costly, that will revive people who have died.
- There is also an enchantment which can be granted to a person which grants a revive automatically within 24 hours of death. Morlock has one on him, unbeknownst to him and the others. However after it activates and revives him, he keeps cycling from walking skeleton to human because not all his major body parts were close to his corpse upon activation. A demonic dog took his penis from his corpse as well as a chunk of his magical energy.
- Beam Spam: The Dark Spirit attacks by spamming several magic beams out of his many eyeballs.
- Bedmate Reveal: When Saitou was first summoned to the other world, he appeared next to a sleeping Raelza in her bed. Fortunately, Morlock senses his complete lack of magic and realizes he's from another world before Raelza can stab him (she thought he'd broken into their house).
- Big Damn Heroes:
- When Kisurugi and his squad have Saito, Morlock, Lafanpan, and Raelza on the ropes every other adventure team the group has gotten friendly with, Gibungle, Lilyza and Gible, Franlil and Ninia, and Canis, Lychee, and Monpui join the battle and work together to take down the demonic spirit Kisurugi's team summons.
- When Raelza and Saito are outmatched by the Demon Lord who has come to the human realm, they are nearly killed when Morlock is able to recover his magical energy from the demon dog which consumed part of it along with his penis. With his body and power restored, Morlock is able to destroy the demon with relative ease.
- Book Safe: Morlock has one book sealed by a lock. Within this book is a phallic-shaped mushroom which Morlock and Raelza are addicted to licking when it is out. However, there is a false bottom to this mushroom's home which hides pages of time and space magic Morlock still has from his encounter with the time-space mage who removed his memories, not that Morlock remembers how he got them by this point.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: The kingdom's first king was said to have a large penis and to be incredibly virile, so much he had his own harem and gave birth to hundreds of children.
- Brick Joke: Ninia explains to Franlil that to better her healing spells she must lick the wounds on her elf ally. This is a lie and an excuse to do some Lecherous Licking. When Morlock loses his hand fighting the demonic spirit Kisurugi's group summons, he asks for the same "treatment." Thankfully for Ninia, Monpui offers to use his priestly saliva as a catalyst to help Ninia's healing.
- Bridal Carry: Briefly done in the anime's opening. When Saito opens one chest and it activates a floor trap making everyone fall, Raelza grabs Saito close and holds him like this as they land before a horde of monsters.
- Chainmail Bikini: Raelza recounts a time where the entire party except for Morlock died. Morlock was out of mana but took the rest of them, sold their equipment, and got to a church to revive them. She then notes Morlock did not sell her bikini armor and reacts with doubt when Morlock responded he had forgotten about it.
- Charm Person: Succubi are capable of charming adventurers to bring them close in for an attack. When Saitou is charmed, Raelza saves him and scares her off with an attack, but this causes Saitou to switch to being charmed for Raelza, to her embarrassment. Before he can kiss Raelza under the influence of the magic, Lafanpan deactivates the charm. Lafanpan proceeds to tease Raelza, asking if she wanted her not to deactivate a moment later.
- Chekhov's Gag: One story involves Saito opening one of Morlock's locked spell books and finds a phallic-shaped mushroom that people love to lick. However, many chapters later, it turns Saito afterwards found beneath the bottom where the mushroom lays pages of magic about time and inter-dimensional magic. He realizes then that Morlock is the reason for his arrival here.
- Chekhov's Gun: King Maderaka is mentioned in the omake pages to have actually forgotten his actual sword when he went off to defeat the Demon King. The sword in question is one that steals life energy from those it cuts, which proves useful for undoing a curse involving draining the life out of the target.
- Chest Monster: Mimics resembling treasure chests are monsters encountered in dungeons. Saitou was attacked by one after picking the lock on one before Raelza stepped in to kill it.
- Cutting the Knot: One dwarf Ultimate Blacksmith, tired of everyone thinking him a cheat for how quickly he can repair the clients wares and weapons but charges them for the skills he possesses, has moved to a secluded part of the city and behind a door with 108 locks. The keys locations are not known. Saitou just picks each one to gain entry.
- Damager, Healer, Tank: The party's makeup before they met Saitou.
- Damager: Morlock. His magical attacks are widespread and capable of serious harm. When he remembers the words.
- Healer: Lafanpan. She can heal many wounds as long as they aren't in an anti-magic zone.
- Tank: Raelza. With her armor she can take blows of her enemies and survive.
- Defeat Means Friendship: The Demon King's decapitated head in the omake chapters is still alive, and now plays chess with the King, using his tongue to move the pieces. He later gains a new body by hiding his head in a human-shaped head and rides atop the shoulders of a dullahan while serving as the new army commander.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Dark Spirit summoned by Primas manifests as a large pillar of fleshy stone covered in eyes that can shoot powerful destructive beams all around it, giving it incredible offensive and defensive capabilities; it takes the combined efforts of both Saitou's party and EVERY OTHER ADVENTURER THEY MET as well as TWO of Morlock's trump card magics and a rare moment of lucidity to barely defeat it.
- Equivalent Exchange: In order to save the witch Lavella can be saved if enough life force is gifted into her body. The King of the land has a weapon which steals life force from those it cuts bit by bit. He explains to Kisurugi that to save Lavella, he will cut away chunks of his life force by cutting off more and more of his body until there is sufficient life within the sword to restore her.
- Excalibur in the Rust: An Adventurer shows up at the Item Shop to pawn off a dagger he found in a Dungeon that was sold for 18 Coins. Soon as he got his payment and left, he says that he just cast an illusion and attack up spell on a crappy dagger. However Saitou reveals that the "dagger" was actually a second sheathe disguised to make the blade look normal: revealing that the dagger's real blade hidden beneath the sheathe was made from Mithril Silver and actually worth upwards of 300 Coins.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: The kingdom's "official hero party" were picked by a committee looking for "looking good on screen" and Nepotism. Dysfunctional is probably the kindest word for them.
- Fantastic Measurement System: "Maderaca" is a unit of measurement used in the story. Morlock explains that the first ruler of Maderaca had a Gag Penis which he used on many women resulting in over 300 issues. To honor the penis and its prolific nature its length has used as said measurement ever since. Saito learns this is about 30cm in the metric system.
- Forced Sleep: The Breath Weapon of a turtle monster causes Morlock to succumb to sleep.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: When Ninia tricks Franlil into letting her engage in some Lecherous Licking under the guise of healing her wounds, a random goblin is shown watching from afar and being very appreciative of the view.
- Godiva Hair
- The succubi the party encounters is naked, but her naughty bits are covered up by her long hair.
- One scene shows a gratuitous Male Gaze shot of Raelza waking up, and since she Sleeps in the Nude, she only has her long hair to cover her breasts.
- The Imagine Spot of Morlock's young female form shows him naked with hair covering his breasts while Lafan provides Scenery Censor to his crotch.
- Golem: Saitou and Raelza encounter an Iron Golem after a trap teleports them to a deeper level in a dungeon.
- Great Big Book of Everything: There is a book called the Magicpedia that Gibungle provides when Morlock is in a predicament regarding the delayed revival spell used on the latter. When Saitou takes a look at the book, he discovers the book was written by Morlock before his memory problems.
- Handy Man: Naturally, Saitou is the titular handyman. He uses his tools and skills to break into various locations and chests in the dungeon.
- Holy Burns Evil:
- Monsters in the labyrinth can be repelled with holy magic or water-made circles. As Saito lacks any magical capacity, he carries several bottles of it on his person.
- Saito uses another of the bottles against the demon dog's master when it comes to the human world and is fighting Raelza and himself for the dog which betrayed him.
- Internal Reveal: Long before Saito actually says anything he realizes Morlock must have been the cause of his arrival in this other world, but the wizard forgot this fact.
- Interspecies Romance: In one side story reveals a human-world wolf finds herself trapped in the demon world. There a demonic dog finds her and grows to love her. When his master learns of the wolf and wants to hunt it, the demon dog defects and tries to run away with her. While she dies during the escape, she births their son and the demon dog takes care of his child.
- I Know Your True Name: Knowing a demon's true name is essential in banishing them back to the demon realm. If one also knows their family lineage and recites that as well into the banishment spell, the spell becomes even easier to cast.
- Intimate Healing: After Saitou gets nearly crushed to death by a Iron Golem, Raelza manages to save him by feeding him a healing potion via a "medicine kiss". Saitou has no memory of it, but Lafan deduces what happened and mercilessly teases Raelza for it.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: A couple of times:
- Morlock was once a great wizard known as Chrome. After losing his daughter to illness after he was too focused on learning magic, he sought to learn time-reversal magic to go back and fix his mistake. However, he failed to defeat the powerful wizard who had power over time and space, who erased his memories as a sort of mercy.
- Part of the price to restoring Lavella’s youth and saving her from her curse is that she would forget everything related to whoever donated the life force used to heal her. Since both Isurugi and Primas gave up some of their life force (by having parts of their bodies removed), she forgets both of them.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: When Morlock forgets his incantations in episode 1 of the anime, the dramatic battle music begins falling flat.
- Love Redeems: One side character is a demonic dog who falls in love with a human-world wolf. While he has a geas upon him from his demonic mage master, he rebels to get his mate to safety once the demon wants to hunt her. After her death, he devotes his life to protecting their only offspring, born from his mother's womb after she died. Even after losing his mind by consuming some of Morlock's magical energy from his then-dead body, his son awakens his mind and helps him speak to Raelza, and later Morlock, to spare his child even if he himself must die.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Shields and shield magic are common staples in the story. Raelza, Gibungle, and Cains the chosen Hero, use metal shields in combat, while Lafanpan, Lychee the hero wizard, Monpui the hero Priest, and others use magically generated shields.
- The Maiden Name Debate: When Raelza says that she doesn't like her last name (since she's Morlock's adopted daughter, her full name is Raelza Morlock), Lafanpan suggests that maybe she'd prefer to be Raelza Saitou. Raelza agrees... and then realizes the implications.
- Mistaken for Undead: Morlock's own senility has made him join a group of undead without the latter noticing he isn't one of them.
- Modesty Bedsheet:
- Whenever we see Raelza sleeping naked in her bedroom, she has a bedsheet covering her. When Saitou lands on her bed she even makes sure to hold the sheet to her chest with one hand while trying to stab him with a knife in the other.
- After Lafanpan grows into human size overside, her fairy clothes are shredded, but her modesty is preserved by the fact she now has the bedsheet covering her, even though she wasn't sleeping under the bedsheet before she transformed.
- Moment Killer: At the end of the second story arc, Saitou finally does a Love Confession to Raelza, but before they can talk about it Gibungle shows up to drag him back into town to fix a minor issue. Lafan is lived about it when she finds out and chews Gibungle out for his lack of tact.
- Naked First Impression: When Saitou first arrives in the world, he does so by landing right on Raelza's bed as she's sleeping and she Sleeps in the Nude. She's not thrilled to find a stranger in her bedroom in such a state and assumes he's a pervert or thief and only Morlock intervening managed to save Saitou from suffering a Pervert Revenge Mode punishment.
- Percussive Therapy: In a flashback to Morlock's past he thrashed his library with his own hands after he learned his daughter had died while he was focusing on his research.
- The Power of Love: The curse upon Lavella the ageless witch can only come undone when she falls in love with a person. However, the curse has a cruel second effect in that all the years the curse held back are returned to the victim at an accelerated rate, aging the victim to near death.
- Power Stereotype Flip:
- A Sword and Sorcerer pair consist of Lilyza, a well-mannered slender young woman in Gothic Lolita clothes and Gibble, a rough, muscular, unshaven man in armor. He's a wizard/thief duel class while she wields a gigantic battleaxe.
- Gibungle; a Dwarf whose Magic Skill is said to be very high even for normal Dwarves that instead of leaping into the fray like a Dwarves are usually known for; Gibungle just uses twin Shields to Tank enemies close to him long enough for him to gather his Magic to create an explosion of Fire around him.
- Conversely, there's Franlil; a High Elf whose race are well-known for their Magical Abilities; but Fran doesn't have a high enough aptitude. So instead, most of her fights utilize her using Wolverine Claws to Grapple and Punch her foes into submission.
- Pregnant Badass: While trapped in the demon world a pregnant human-world wolf fights off a demon bounty hunter sent to claim her and her mate, a demonic dog. While she dies from injuries in the fight, they kill the bounty hunter and she births her son.
- The Punishment: Moon fairies like Lafanpan were cursed by the Goddess of the Moon for "flaunting their beauty". If a fairy does not offer regular sacrifices to the Goddess of the Moon, they will shrink in size. Raelza says Lafanpan used to be a bit bigger when they first met.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The current King Maderaka is not a weak man despite his age. He decides the Demon King needs to be dealt with so he grabs a random cheap sword (having forgotten the Infinity +1 Sword is stored somewhere in the castle), goes off by himself, and the next panel shows the Demon King's decapitated head on display next to the throne. They later play chess together.
- Really Gets Around: Maderaca, the first king of the country, was known for his Gag Penis and sired over 300 children in his lifetime with it, to the point the measuring system was named and based on said penis.
- Rescue Romance: At the end of the Kisurugi arc when Lavella is saved but has no memories of Kisurugi or Primas or that they saved her life, Kisurugi doesn't want to stay with her, claiming to be happy knowing she is alive. Calling this cowardice out, Primas even anticipates her friend's reluctance and arranges for their demon allies to return and look like human thugs to harass her. This prompts Kisurugi to rush to save her, despite being down to one arm and one leg. Primas then parleys the rescue into getting Lavella to give them food and drink as thanks, allowing the former ninja and witch to grow to love each other once more.
- Save the Villain: When Morlock touches the dark spirit Kisurugi and Primas summoned to kill everyone present, Morlock can see the memories and motivations of the ninja and his Primas are doing these horrible things to save the life of their loved one. Touched by this due to his own tragic past, he restricts his magical attack to breaking the connection they made to the spirit to spare their lives at the cost of his own hand being blown off from the backlash.
- Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Saitou temporarily gets Lafanpan back to human size, but she is rendered naked because her clothes didn't grow with her. When she shrinks down again, her clothes don't shrink with her and she is rendered naked again.
- Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Attempted by Raelza after Saito gave the armor some tweaks, but parts of her clothes beneath that armor were torn, causing it to come off and results in her Defeat by Modesty when she was dueling against Franlil.
- Shout-Out: Power Wizard's immense staff is described as "it was far too large to be called a staff" which is the exact same manner the Dragonslayer in Berserk is first described.
- Square Race, Round Class: A two-fer:
- First off, there's we have Gibungle; a Dwarf whose Magic Skill is said to be very high even for normal Dwarves that instead of leaping into the fray like Dwarves are usually known for; Gibungle just uses twin Shields to Tank enemies close to him long enough for him to gather his Magic to create an explosion of Fire around him.
- Conversely, there's Franlil; a High Elf whose race are well-known for their Magical Abilities; but Fran doesn't have a high enough aptitude. So instead, most of her fights utilize her using Wolverine Claws to Grapple and Punch her foes into submission.
- Soft Water: Saito falls down a hole hundreds of feet after accidentally setting off a trap. He lands in a puddle so shallow that lying on his back his ears are still out of the water, but suffers only a broken leg and no other injuries because "the water broke my fall."
- Taken for Granite: Some would-be usurpers of the crown learn the hard way the Minister to the King has powerful petrification magic. When the King returns from his trip, he finds the men as stone statues in his hall.
- Taking the Bullet:
- Saito pushes Raelza out of the path of a powerful ice magic spell which encases him in ice and leaves her to fight the powerful demon mage alone.
- Kisurugi saves Ableth and Tahlefon from being banished by holy magic by shielding them with his own body.
- Tele-Frag: Raelza recounts a past incident where Morlock accidentally teleports partially inside a golem in the dungeon.
- Time Stands Still: One of Morlocks most powerful spells is the ability to freeze time for 100 seconds, which is the key to defeat the Dark Spirit.
- Undressing the Unconscious: After the battle with the Demon Lord, Saitou passes out from exhaustion. When he next wakes, he's out of his handyman uniform and wearing different clothing. When he asks Raelza if she was the one to undress him, she explains that it was actually Gibungle who did it... although a flashback to the event shows that she did want to do it, so she could check out his "half-Maderaka".
- Vulgar Humor: For being adjacent to a Slice of Life work, there's a good number of dirty jokes. Most of them come from (or are at the expense of) Morlock.
- What the Hell, Hero?: There is a mage named Chrome. He focused so much on his research to earn a rank and position of a great mage, he spent much of his time and money to that endeavor. Even when his wife pleaded that he stay one night to be with their sick daughter, he went to his studies at his lab. The next day when he returned having gained the position he long sought, he discovers his daughter died to her illness and they had no money to pay the church to revive her because he spent it all on his research. His wife calls him out, saying their daughter clutched to the poorly crafted necklace she made for her father even as she slipped to unconsciousness and didn't come out of it. That had he been there, he could have helped his daughter with his magic. His wife left him after that.
- White Magic:
- Fairies are capable of using various healing magics to help people out.
- Several mage class people also learn healing magics to help themselves or others out as needed.
- White Magic, however, cannot be used to cure a common cold.
- The priests of the church can use resurrection magic to revive the fallen in battle.
- World of Action Girls: Raelza. She is a skilled combat fighter and able to hold her own in many fights. Others include Lilyza the monster-hunting Elegant Gothic Lolita who fights with an axe at least as big as she is and Frantil, the high elf who unusually for her highly magical race is a Magically Inept Fighter.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Demon Lord disposes of an underling when that underling has arrived in the human world to hunt for the master's renegade demon dog but is beaten back by Saito and Raelza. The Demon Lord rips itself from within the underling, having used him to get into the human world.
