Freshly cooked dragon meat, anyone?
Isekai Cheat Survival Meshi ("Another World Cheat Survival Meal") is a manga written by Kakkaku Akashi and illustrated by Mojimi Yamada. It began serialization in 2018.
Kazusa Yuu, a Japanese high school student interested in food and camping, dies in a traffic accident and ends up reincarnated in the wilderness in another world. He must learn to survive in an unfamiliar environment, learn the powers he was granted and the magic of the world that is based on eating other creatures, and rescue fair maidens in distress to feed them and build up his harem.
Compare Delicious in Dungeon, which also centers around cooking and eating monsters.
Associated tropes:
- Acceptable Break from Reality: The story does feature magic, but only rarely, everything else involves things and consequences that would happily apply to a similar situation on modern earth.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Clara and Katia trust Yuu because he shares his supplies and shelter with them, in a world so lacking in survival knowledge that party members fighting each other to the death over supplies is not uncommon. In fact, Katia is on the mountainside where Yuu sets up camp alone precisely because her unit wiped themselves out, and she's the Sole Survivor.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Literally. Yuu, Clara, and Katia are all but inseparable after overcoming an attack from a fire-breathing dragon, unscathed.
- Food Porn: When Yuu starts preparing dishes to feed himself and his newest tent-mates, Clara and Katia, your mouth will water.
- In Medias Res: Yuu, Katia, and Clara are shown on the very first page dealing with a powerful deer-like monster, the Deerk. The monster shows up in chapter 4, and Katia joins in chapter 5. The rest of chapters 1-3 is showcasing how things got to that point.
- Jumped at the Call: Yuu is ecstatic finding himself in the middle of a forest, no idea where he is, or how he got there.
- Limited Wardrobe: Justified. Being stuck in a forest far from civilization, Yuu, Clara, and Katia don't have a change of clothes.
- No Antagonist: The story is a slice-of-life adventure in the form of Man vs Nature. All the conflict involves fighting wild animals, and trying to get sufficient, food, water, shelter, and rest, in order to stay healthy, at least this is the case so far...
- Nobody Poops: Averted. Yuu has to "go to the bathroom" just off-screen at one point.
- Power Parasite: Yuu, occasionally, and at random, gains the magical powers of the "monsters" he eats. He discovers this completely by accident.
- Reincarnate in Another World: Yuu was an Ordinary Highschool Student going to a camping trip he was enthusiastically expecting, and got killed in a car accident. Next thing he knows, he's in the middle of a forest, on an alien world.
- Schizo Tech: The tech level in this new world is clearly pre-renaissance, but Katia wears an undergarment that's a water-proof, skin-tight cat-suit which looks like some kind of spandex.
- Shown Their Work: The authors have clearly done their research on extreme survival-ism, and it shows. There is absolutely no hand-waving involved in the procurement of food, water, and shelter. In fact, Yuu gives both Clara and Katia an extensive lesson in food borne illness, including parasites, and nutrient deprivation illness, like scurvy.
- Spoiler Cover: See that dragon in the page image? He shows up in chapter 10 and attacks in chapter 11, though he gets a lot of foreshadowing.
- Stock Light-Novel Hero: Averted. There is no RPG Mechanicsverse, no chat with "god," no tutorials, no OP "cheat" powers, or anything of the sort. Yuu has to acclimate to this new world through his own wits, efforts, preexisting survivalist knowledge, and quite a bit of trial and error.
- Slow Life Fantasy: There's very little conflict and no battles despite taking place in a fantasy world. Instead, the series focuses on Yuu finding ingredients to prepare delicious meals for the people he befriends.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Combined with Sacred Hospitality. Clara and Katia find Yuu very trustworthy because he happily shares his supplies and camp with them, in a world where parties turning on each other and fighting to the death over a lack of supplies is hardly rare.
- There Is Only One Bed: When Yuu had only a lean-to, there was only one place to lie down. It's not until Yuu was able to build a thatch hut, with the aid of both Clara and Katia, that this changes, as the thatch hut has two elevated beds, though they all still share the same roof.
- Translator Microbes: Justified. One of the very first things Clara does is cast a "translation" spell, and teach Yuu how to, in order for them to be able to communicate.
- Unwanted Harem: Justified. Yuu is pointedly not seeking out a harem, but he's not going to turn away people in need just because they're women either. The two women on the cover, Clara and Katia, actually have logical, rational, and sound reasons to be in the area where he set up camp, and for staying with him. Clara fell down a cliff and broke her leg, so she can't leave, and Katia is a local knight investigating the area on reports of a dragon, but can't leave a couple of civilians unattended if said reports happen to be genuine and accurate. They are, and said dragon comes knocking. Even if that wasn't the case, Katia was hopelessly lost, due to being sent out without a guide, and admits that she could not find her way back to town on her own.
