its kind of fascinating how "Reincarnation Coliseum" is afraid of a core elements of its own premise.
A lots been said of how the ubiquity of isekai has lead to attempts, of varying success, to "subvert" the expected power fantasy. You dont get powers or you powers suck, and/or everyone hates you, and things like that. Villainess isekai is arguably often a flavor of this, and despite being a subgenre of a subgenre, its still massively oversaturated, as are all other flavors of this subversion. so then you get isekais which try to subvert the subversion which has become common place, which is how you get isekais where you get a sucky power thats actually super good but no one but you knows how to use it because of your big brain. This has also become so commonplace that its trite.
Reincarnation Coliseum is one such isekai. Mikagami is summoned to a fantasy world to fight in a coliseum and gets the copy ability, which is believed to suck because it only temporarily copies abilities of people fighting you and they'll be more skilled with it anyways. Bu t since mikagami is a gamerβ’ hes able to reseacrh his opponents before hand and figure out ways to use their ability better and come out on top as an underdog. none of that is noteworthy, but where it gets a little unique is the stakes of the coliseum matches. This coliseum is structured so that only men and women fight each other, and the winner takes the loser as a sex slave, which, again, is pretty par for the course for this kind of story. But, there is an added scruple when the woman wins. In that case, magic is used to permanently turn the man into a woman, and temporarily have the woman grow a penis.
Now, thats a premise you dont really think up unless you think its at least a little hot. but, this being a straightforward power fantasy about a "regular" guy overpowering strong women and having sex with them, it can never actually play with that. while it being the author's fetish (i say this without jugdement, obviously given my tastes) its function in the story is the threat of complete emasculation. Many isekai are about a fantasy of getting a better life, and many with male protagonists are about feeling emasculated and getting a fantasy of being the most masculine powerful guy ever.
So as this story actually exists, the threat of turning into a woman and getting dicked down by a woman stronger than you may as well not exist. It cant happen. If anything, it actually leans further into the conquering strong women aspect. Mikagami's firth three opponents are all women who take great joy in winning and all that it entails (former men turned women being their slaves to do with as they wish). but this big brained gamerβ’ beast them and turns them into their sex slaves who now fawn all over him. Skipping over the fourth opponent for now, the second four matches are all tag teams between him and one of his slaves against other teams. This does result in him fighting men, but they are not turned into women and made into his slaves, only the women in each match. When he fights two women, then he gets both as slaves.
But there is so far one character who is a genderswapped girl and not just a background character. the fourth opponent mikagami faces is a someone who was turned into a woman, but not because she previously lost. rather she was turned to hide her identity because she was the fail son of a big noble family. Mikagami does know this and still has sex with her, so its the closest the story has gotten to engaging with the threat of losing. Mikagami doesnt see the difference between his opponent when they were a man and now that they are a woman, because from his perspective she always was a woman. and it still ignores the women growing big dicks part. the current match is him and the genderswapped girl fighting against two twins, where the boy looks identical to his sister. given the story's attitude on gender so far, i could see him maybe getting ts'ed unlike the big masculine dude from two of the previous tag matches, but that remains to be seen. and even if it does, mikagami's female opponents winning and growing big penises will likely still be an empty threat never followed through on.
Which is fascinating, because again, you dont add that into your story unless your at least a little into it. but you cant engage with it meaningfully, because it would require your protagonist to lose, and the whole intended appeal is that he never will.
annaxmalina
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