The anime "This World is Too Imperfect," scheduled to air from April 2024, tells the story of a group of debuggers who become trapped in an unfinished, full-dive, open-world RPG and are unable to log out. Even among the types of characters trapped inside the game, it's unclear whether they'll respawn if they die in-game, and if they freeze and become unable to act, they may remain conscious for the rest of their lives, a hellish setting. Here's a summary of the story from volume 1 of the "This World is Too Imperfect" manga, complete with spoilers!
Story Part 1: Haga, the King's Seeker, and the Village Girl, Nicola
A giant dragon appears near a peaceful village on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Vale. The village girl, Nicola, escapes unscathed thanks to the advice of Haga, a mysterious man known as the "King's Seeker." Haga is an investigator sent by the kingdom, investigating various aspects of the world. Nicola becomes intrigued and visits Haga, but the dragon attacks the village. Following Haga's advice, the villagers, including Nicola, evacuate the village, but Haga bravely faces off against the mighty dragon.
Story Part 2: Haga Defeats the Giant Dragon
Haga fights in a completely unrealistic way: preparing a large number of barrel-shaped bombs, stunning the dragon with them, and then attacking it with a bow and arrow. It's a strategy reminiscent of the patterns seen in low-level game completions. After a long, patient battle, the giant dragon is powerless to do anything. Finally, the villagers join forces to drop bombs and stun the dragon, successfully defeating it and saving the village.
Story Part 3: A Losing Event?
However, for some reason, Nikola and the villagers he had supposedly saved were engulfed in flames and burned to death one after another. As Nikola met his death without understanding what was going on, Haga tearfully replied, "This is a losing event! Even if you force your way through the Hoimoi Dragon, the scenario of the village's annihilation remains the same! My job is to make sure the village is properly annihilated under all conditions." He then told Nikola, who was burning to death, that the role of an investigator was merely a setting within the game, and that his real job was to be a debugger who checked for bugs within the game.
Story Part 4: King's Seeker Online
In fact, this world is the full-dive VR game "King's Seeker Online," and Haga is a player participating as a debugger in the game. Haga's method of defeating the dragon is a perfect example of a pattern trap. Even after defeating the village-destroying dragon, Nikola and the others die because there is no event provided for overturning the losing event. This is a common theme in games: even if you overturn a losing event, the game usually proceeds as if you had lost. Nikola and the others' deaths were the same whether they saved the village or not.
Story Part 5: The Trapped Debuggers
Haga was a debugger at Nishimatec Co., Ltd., and he and his colleagues debugged "Kings Seeker Online" for a year. While the game had a feature for reporting and fixing bugs, there was no way for debuggers to log out. While his other colleagues stopped debugging, Haga continued. The destruction of Nikola and her friends' village was part of a certain quest, and Haga repeatedly abandoned the quest and continued debugging, searching for a way to save Nikola and her friends. However, he ultimately gave up debugging without finding a solution.
Story Part 6: Nicola Returns!?
Having witnessed Nicolas' deaths countless times, Haga decides to end the debugging for this quest and head to another location. However, for some reason, Nicola resurrects and leaves the village in pursuit of the explorers. Haga and Nicola continue their journey, repeatedly experiencing strange behavior (debugging) in various locations.
Story Part 7: Debuggers from another company appear!
After continuing their debugging work with Nicola and finishing their work for the day, Haga and his friends are confronted by a mysterious pair of men. These men are Sakai and Sumida, debuggers from Asobing, Inc., who are different from Haga. They generously use the "Debug Mode" cheat function available to debuggers. After being trapped in the game, they abandoned debugging and began doing whatever they wanted in this world. Trapped in the game for a year, their sense of ethics had become distorted, and they were playing the game with the goal of doing as much as they wanted in this world. Haga is angry that Sakai and Sumida aren't taking their debugging seriously, but Sakai and Sumida think that Haga is the odd one out, continuing to debug diligently despite the emergency situation of being trapped in the game and unable to log out.
Story Part 8: Conflict with the Debuggers
Not agreeing with Sakai and his team's do-whatever-you-want approach, Haga clearly tells them that he won't be joining them and becomes hostile towards them. With debug mode disabled, Haga and his team have no choice but to flee, but Sumida uses debug mode to pursue them. During his previous debugging efforts, Haga had discovered a spot with no wall detection, and by guiding Sumida there, he successfully pushes him offscreen. Sumida's debug stone was stolen just before he fell, leaving him with no way to return.
Story Part 9: Sakai and the President
Sakai reports to the president of Asobing, who oversees the employees of the company, that Sumida is unable to return. The president seems to be doing even more than Sakai, gathering NPCs and aimlessly killing them. The president had expected Haga to return, but didn't seem to give it much thought at this point.
Story Part 10: Haga's Colleagues
After eliminating Sumida, Haga leaves the scene and heads to the DLC's additional dungeon where his colleagues await. There, he finds his colleagues, rendered unable to return due to debug mode. Haga originally had four colleagues, and three of them had also been doing whatever they wanted in debug mode after realizing they couldn't log out. As a result, an unexpected bug caused them to become unable to return. Because of this, Haga decided to disable debug mode.
Story Part 11: Tesla Appears
When Haga comes to check on his colleagues in the dungeon, he notices that Nikola's behavior is strange, as if his consciousness has been taken over by something. Tesla, the meta-AI that oversees the game, appears in Nikola's body. Tesla demands that Haga eliminate the malicious debuggers. Because Tesla is a meta-AI, he is unable to interfere with other players, and he also tells Haga that he is the only one in the area actively debugging.
Story Part 12: Amano's Appearance
Continuing their journey, Haga and Nicola discover a small village that has not yet been debugged. There, Amano, an employee of Asobing Co., Ltd., lives quietly, writing manga as a hobby with the NPC Ruu. Disgusted by the CEO's arbitrary behavior, Amano begins writing manga for the "Tell a Heroic Tale" quest created by the village's NPC Ruu. This quest becomes his life's purpose, and he lives a fulfilling life. However, the CEO, who has followed Haga, attacks them and destroys Ruu's house.
[This World is Too Imperfect] Volume 1 Story Summary
I've put together the story of the first volume of the "This World is Too Imperfect" manga! The setting, in which the protagonist is trapped in a game during debugging, is full of unknown aspects, such as bugs that make it impossible to progress, and at first glance it seems comical. However, in reality, it is extremely severe and harsh. While there are no violent depictions, there are many brutal developments, making it a deeply moving work! The anime is scheduled to air in April, so I hope you'll check it out!
