Märchen Mädchen – A Likeable Isekai Protagonist For Once

Kagimura Hazuki from Märchen Mädchen isn’t like a lot of isekai anime protagonists.

Seeing the issues of her gender aside (which isn’t even that notable considering how there are plenty of isekai light novels with female protagonists – it’s just that those series haven’t received anime adaptations yet), Hazuki is a shy and friendless bookworm.

Admittedly, there are plenty of isekai series which feature a “loser” protagonist who manage to have a much better life in his or her new world. Furthermore, it seems like the same is set to happen to Hazuki considering the material provided to the audience (namely the previews, the OP, and the ED).

However, Hazuki comes across as being a likable dreamer, as a girl who loses herself in books because she somehow doesn’t have a single friend. She’s prone to flights of fancy, which clearly conveys her strong sense of imagination and shows that she’s truly a bookworm while granting the audience some degree of relief (she realizes what’s happening rather quickly) and some degree of amusement (she is also prone to jumping to conclusions and being unversed in the delicate matters of social interaction in general).

Of course, protagonists who are swift on the uptake could be considered common in isekai series. But said protagonists are also likely to let their intelligence or savvyness or cunning to get to their heads and start acting in a polarizing manner.

Think of Knight’s & Magic – Ernesti was more like a villain in some aspects and had a huge ego problem. Don’t forget about Subaru from Re:Zero – some viewers were very much turned off by his behavior, which I have heard described as creepy, early on (granted, he does get better but that simply happens too late to win over the naysayers over). There’s also Kazama from Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! – although most viewers find his antics to be hilarious, it’s not an exaggeration to say that he acts like a jerk.

Meanwhile, Hazuki initially just wants to befriend a genuine mage and return the bag she left behind. So far, she’s just a sweetheart with no ulterior motives.

Of course, I don’t mean to imply that protagonists can’t have twisted personalities. Some stories really work when they revolve around people who are broken and some viewers may prefer such characters. But having a genuinely nice girl as the protagonist is a nice change of pace in the world of isekai anime.

Even with the common isekai entrapments, such as her friendless background, which was mentioned earlier, and her “cliché” tragic backstory (her mother, the one who caused her to truly love books and fiction, passed away while she was young), Hazuki remains a charming main character that keeps the series an amusing watch as of episode 1. I hope that remains the case until the very end of Märchen Mädchen.