Let’s talk again about isekai. One of the most booming anime genre of all times. Aside from being a power fantasy and a further exploration of the parallel universe theme, this genre also introduced a particularly morbid trope. Yes, it’s the isekai truck.

Truck-kun is a classic choice for authors to send their protagonists to the afterlife. Seemingly, a random pick for vehicular manslaughter, isn’t it? You know, there are so many other vehicles that can make us face mortality. But yet, the truck stands tall as the superior.

So, some questions popped up in my mind. First, why a truck? Second, why do we need the event of the crash itself? Third, what’s supposed to happen after the truck?

What The Truck Represents

There are some traits about a truck that might make it the stereotypical gateway for an isekai protagonist. A truck is a relatively heavy land vehicle. The brakes, more often than not, should’ve been better than they are. After all, it requires more power to stop the heavier momentum a truck has. So, we need to understand it’s actually difficult, and rather near impossible, to stop a truck in a heartbeat.

Also, with how crowded and noisy the roads can be. We might pass off a truck just as another vehicle. There’s nothing uncommon about it. Every day, the road is full of people in their sedans, big SUVs, and also, trucks. Yet, it’s the biggest mistake we can make. We brushed them off as a part of the ordinary. So much so, we ignore the potential danger that could happen.

However, why is it so sudden? Why now? The isekai truck always comes when the protagonist least expects. But, when we pan around his life, maybe it’s the right time for a change. I’ve talked about NEETs in isekai previously. It’s arguably the lowest point someone can have in their life. So, in a way, the truck represents an involuntary change that will happen, sooner or later.

In short, the isekai truck represents an unstoppable turning point that happens out of nowhere. We can call it fate or coincidence. Nevertheless, there is something about the isekai truck that symbolizes an impactful force we can’t prevent.

You’ve Gone To Another World, But You Leave Another Behind

Weirdly enough, I actually have a personal experience on this. Back in high school, I had a friend who died because of an accident involving a truck. He was going home after school, it was just another ordinary day for him. But, out of nowhere, a truck appeared from a junction, and the next thing we knew was there’s a funeral to attend.

I learned about it the next day, the whole school was cut short. Almost everybody packed up their things, and went straight to the funeral.

Personally, I was shocked. Not just because of the sheer disbelief of what just happened, but also what we saw when we arrived. My friend’s body was mangled, twisted limbs, and all sorts of gory stuff we might expect from a horror movie. A truck did all this?

I left his funeral crying so bad. I didn’t get the chance to be closer to this guy, but I particularly cared about him. He was the typical quiet, non-social guy.

Girls would avoid him, other guys would mock him for being slightly messier than others. I gave him some pointers but, in retrospect, I could’ve said it less harshly. The only thing that I regret is that I didn’t get any chance to apologize.

Whether in fiction or real-life, death is consequential. We sometimes take someone’s life for granted. If anything, the looming possibility of someone’s demise almost never cross our minds.

When it comes suddenly like this, everything becomes clearer. What we’ve done to that person, what we think about them. So, the crash itself, both in fiction and real-life, is a wake-up call for every single of us. Sadly, a wake-up call that costs more than we thought.

The World Moves On, But We Must Deal With Loss

In isekai anime, we mostly follow his journey in the parallel world. It’s rare to see what’s going on in his original world. It’s certainly not the focus of the genre, but the reality only makes this trope more morbid.

After someone’s death, we typically spend some times to mourn. However, that mourning period doesn’t last forever. Life continues whether we like it or not. It’s not that we don’t care anymore about the loss of someone. There’s simply nothing we can do about it.

In anime, it’s fun to see the protagonist’s new adventure. At first glance, they seem to instantly accept their new life and move on. However, if only the anime spare a bit of screen time to the family they left, it’s probably a bit more bleak and realistic. Coping with the death of loved ones is, and will always be, challenging.

By ignoring this crucial aftermath, the isekai genre is missing a chance to showcase the severity of grief and loss seen from the people who love the protagonist. Suffice to say, behind all the fun adventure an isekai protagonist experiences, there is a very dark theme running down this trope.