Ok, I've actually lately gone on a bit of an isekai spree...and when I say lately, I mean for the last few years. But I digress. Of the latest crop, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill is one I quite enjoyed.
But I'll start at the beginning. Tsuyoshi Mukouda is a 27 year old corporate drone and he gets caught up in a hero summoning that has also pulled in your typical three teenagers. They're all assessed to have major hero powers, but his is "Online Grocery Shopping" (and in this fantasy medieval setting, of course no one knows what that might be). Mukouda is also not an idiot -- he thinks the king seems sketchy at best and he doesn't want to get caught up in some war on demons or whatever. He easily convinces them to give him some hush money and let him go live a quiet life. And then he hies out of the capital city immediately before they can change their mind, buys some local clothes to get rid of his business suit and fit in, and heads to the Adventurer's Guild to hire some protection to get him to the next kingdom.
While on the way there, he's putting his skill to good use -- basically, he can buy anything he wants from an online Japanese grocery shop and he must have been a decent cook before, 'cause he knows what he's doing (though it also reads like a product placement ad every episode as he pulls out prepared sauce after prepared sauce and packaged meals). His guides very much appreciate the change--food in this world, especially on the road, is crap.
But he also catches the attention of Fenrir with the good smells and winds up entering a familiar pact with the legendary creature. Anywho, much traveling on later, mostly just him and Fenrir and then with the addition of Sui, THE most adorable slime in the isekai universe, and it's basically a cooking show. Mukouda does develop some magic, but he's a coward at heart. Fenrir and Sui are OP as all heck and there's never really any danger to our isekai'd hero (well, that is kinda typical) and while he develops some friendships, they are all relatively short lived as he wants to explore the world and live a slow, happy life eating good food under vast blue skies. There's also not even the tiniest glimmer or hint of romance and definitely no harem.
While he's a bit one note and doesn't develop much character-wise at all, it's a feel-good, easy watch. I found it very enjoyable and I will definitely watch the next season when it comes out. Heck, I'd watch it just for Sui. SO CUTE.
The basic outline is repeated in The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World (which I'll write about another time), but there you've got a 46 year old who's definitely not opposed to casual hookups, though he (at least) turns down the more innocent merchant's daughter. I've watched a couple of that one and like it okay, but Campfire Cooking, honestly, is an easier, sweeter watch with a good heart.
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