The anime series "This World is Too Imperfect," scheduled to air from April 2024, is based on a full-dive open-world RPG currently being serialized on Kodansha's webcomic site, Comic DAYS. The setting is that the protagonist is trapped inside the game and unable to log out, but the world they are trapped in is a buggy RPG still in development, full of buggy techniques, glitches, and inability to progress, making it a dangerous place in a different sense, and the main characters are a group of poor debuggers. We would like to introduce the main character, Haga, a debugger who lives in such a harsh environment, and Nicola, the NPC heroine who lives within the game!
The Protagonist, Haga, the King's Seeker
Haga, the protagonist of this work, is a muscular man who arrives in a remote village as a King's Seeker, a select group of elites dispatched from within the kingdom. Recently, various incidents have been occurring within the kingdom, and he was sent there to investigate. Haga has been researching the ecology of dragons and various other things. He predicts that a dragon will attack the village, and his prediction comes true.
For some reason, he faces off against a giant dragon all by himself!
After the villagers evacuate the village, Haga faces the dragon alone. It seems like a losing battle, but Haga repeatedly performs strange actions: shooting the dragon with a bow and arrow, then frightening it with a bomb. However, the dragon remains motionless, as if stuck in a pattern. Finally, with the help of the villagers, the dragon is defeated, and it seems the village has been saved. However, a mysterious turn of events occurs: everyone, including the NPC Nikola, is suddenly burned to death.
Haga's true identity is a game debugger!
In fact, this world is the fully immersive VR game "King's Seeker Online," and the "King's Seeker" refers to the player. It was because of the game that they were able to defeat the dragon by trapping it in a pattern. This world is an unfinished game in the middle of debugging, and Haga is a debugger working for Nishimatec Co., Ltd. Nikola is destined to die during a series of quests. Haga abandons the quests and repeats them multiple times to debug, but even if they overturn the losing events, Nikola and the villagers ultimately die.
Game-wise, his occupation is Thief
Haga's in-game occupation is Thief. His avatar is a muscular male character, but this occupation is not particularly reliable in combat. He says he became a Thief because of useful skills like lockpicking, but in reality, it's likely that his main reason for becoming a Thief is because it's a job that's useful for debugging. Choosing the Thief occupation can sometimes lead to a very unbalanced party composition, but he often overcomes situations using the various tricks, knowledge, and experience he's acquired as a debugger.
Haga Trapped in the Game World
Haga was supposed to debug this world with his colleagues, but he was unable to log out, even though he should have been able to. His colleagues abandoned the debugging process after realizing they couldn't log out, but Haga continued debugging to maintain his peace of mind. Since corrections are made by reporting them to the developers, it's possible that the developers are aware of Haga and his friends' situation, but the actual situation has not been revealed, which is fueling the debuggers' anxiety.
Never use debug mode! Haga, the Cautious Man
The debugger is equipped with a cheat function called debug mode, which is primarily used to facilitate debugging and is sometimes used in real-life games. However, since the current logout process is not possible, if a fatal bug occurs in debug mode, the game becomes unplayable and, if not handled properly, could result in the player remaining conscious for the rest of their lives. After three of his colleagues actually found themselves in this state, Haga has decided to forgo debug mode.
His experience and knowledge as a debugger are his greatest weapons!
Haga may lack combat ability in games, but his greatest weapon is his experience and knowledge of debugging. When facing hostile debuggers, he exploits game bugs, intentionally freezes the game, or exploits beneficial bugs and slowdowns to overcome the situation. He's also skilled at analyzing game intent and specifications, and has even managed to defeat enemies in unbeatable events by trapping them in patterns. These tasks can sometimes be so long that they would be painful to defeat manually, but he manages to do so with extraordinary tenacity.
Nicola, an Ordinary Village Girl
Nicola, the heroine of this work, is a maid who lives in a small village on the outskirts of an island called Creborn, located south of the continent of Felnak. While living peacefully on the island, one day she meets a strange man named Haga. One day, she encounters a giant dragon and escapes unharmed thanks to Haga's advice. However, the dragon attacks the village again, and following Haga's advice, she and the villagers escape. Haga defeats the dragon, and the village seems saved, but for some reason, Nicola and the villagers are burned to death.
Nicola, the NPC Girl
Nicola is an NPC that appears in Kings Seeker Online, and is a character who is bound to die in a certain event quest. Haga overturned the defeat by repeatedly abandoning the quest and debugging it, but there was no event in place to save Nicola or the villagers, so even if she defeated the dragon, she was destined to die. Abandoning the quest would revive her, but her fate of death remained unchanged regardless of the quest's outcome.
Nikola, the NPC who accompanies Haga
NPCs in this world are procedurally generated and controlled by fully autonomous AI that thinks and acts for itself. In the game, they are essentially humanoids, lacking a meta-perspective. Originally, Nikola was destined to die, but perhaps because she expressed her desire to accompany Haga, her character is now recast as "following the explorers, leaving the village and setting out on a journey," accompanying Haga.
Nikola Switches to a Different Personality
Nikola occasionally switches to Tester, the meta-AI that oversees the game. This is merely for convenience; she is still able to possess other NPCs and change her avatar. She sometimes appears to converse with Haga, who fights against malicious debuggers. After transforming into Tester, she is tasked with retrieving the debugger slabs necessary for debugging. Tesla is generally not allowed to interfere with the player or the world, so she is mostly just a talker. She usually remains as Nikola, but appears only during meal times.
A Villager Who Is Useless in the Game
In game terms, she's an ordinary girl with no particular distinguishing features, and she often holds players back due to her lack of combat ability. However, since the NPCs in this world are virtually human to the naked eye, while many debuggers suffer from mental illness due to loneliness or homesickness, some NPCs provide emotional support to certain players. Nikola also seems to provide mental support as a sort of partner to Haga. However, she appears to be at a high level internally, and items that reference her level can exert tremendous power.
One Year Later, Nicola Becomes an Assassin
Haga and the others were trapped underground in the Kingdom of Sai, and Nicola was separated from them for a year. Despite this, Nicola maintained her trust in Haga, believing that there was no way he would leave her behind (i.e., there was no way Haga's debugging work could be completed in such a short time). When she reunited with Haga a year later, after he had forged his own path and escaped from the underground, Nicola was no ordinary girl; after rigorous training, she had become a highly reliable assassin.
【This World is Too Imperfect】Haga & Nicola Summary
I'd like to introduce you to the protagonist Haga and heroine Nicola of "This World is Too Imperfect," which will begin airing in April 2024! Haga is both the protagonist and a debugger, while Nicola is both the heroine and an NPC. These characters are so different that it's hard to distinguish between reality and the game. The plot is also unique, with the protagonist trapped inside a game, where a bug can prevent progress and put the protagonist on the brink of death. It's a unique and indescribably terrifying story. If you like SAO-type works, I highly recommend watching it!
