Protagonist that is accepting of and participating in slavery

[0cean]

Whenever the topic of slavery is brought up in anime it's scoffed at. Either the protagonists work towards abolishing the thing or they make a point of not owning slaves themselves or they get some slaves themselves, but treat them like free people. This happens so often, that I've gotten tired of it. I just started watching Vinland Saga and the whole 'poor slaves' shtick looks to be played out all over again.

Are there any stories about a protagonist who is accepting of slavery and owns slaves that he treats like what they are and that would return an escaped slave to his proper owner in a story that doesn't distort reality to portray slave owners as absolute evil to excuse the heroes taking action against them?


I know of the ero-anime Minerva no Kenshi that was loosely based on the Gor books, which is very close to what I'm looking for. In the end, there still isn't much distinction between the slaves and free people in the anime, though. There are some other pornographic anime with slave markets and indifferent protagonists, like Dorei Ichiba, but they usually come with cheap production values and flimsy stories.

I'm currently reading Reverend Insanity, where such a world is portrayed and the protagonist participates in breeding, selling and buying of slaves just fine, but that's just happening sort of in the background, the story isn't about that.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by 0cean

Whenever the topic of slavery is brought up in anime it's scoffed at. Either the protagonists work towards abolishing the thing or they make a point of not owning slaves themselves or they get some slaves themselves, but treat them like free people. This happens so often, that I've gotten tired of it. I just started watching Vinland Saga and the whole 'poor slaves' shtick looks to be played out all over again.

Are there any stories about a protagonist who is accepting of slavery and owns slaves that he treats like what they are and that would return an escaped slave to his proper owner in a story that doesn't distort reality to portray slave owners as absolute evil to excuse the heroes taking action against them?


I know of the ero-anime Minerva no Kenshi that was loosely based on the Gor books, which is very close to what I'm looking for. In the end, there still isn't much distinction between the slaves and free people in the anime, though. There are some other pornographic anime with slave markets and indifferent protagonists, like Dorei Ichiba, but they usually come with cheap production values and flimsy stories.

I'm currently reading Reverend Insanity, where such a world is portrayed and the protagonist participates in breeding, selling and buying of slaves just fine, but that's just happening sort of in the background, the story isn't about that.

There are a few among the erotic LNs. There's one I believe is getting an anime called A Harem in the Alternate World Dungeon, in which the guy buys a few slaves and makes a strict point of not getting into the morality of another world. Then there's Isekai Shihai no Skill Taker, in which not only does the guy have slaves, several of them requested that position (very early in the story a girl working at the inn asks him to make her his slave with a deep blush and hopeful smile).

Other more thoroughly erotic series that I know of don't actually have a slavery system in the world but instead have the "hero" possess an ability that makes people into willing slaves, which he uses in the most basic way you might think "any" high school boy without a girlfriend would. In this there's Class Teni de Ore dake Haburaretara, Doukyuu Harem Tsukuru Koto ni Shita, and Himekishi ga Classmate. The latter is, in my opinion, better than the former, though neither is all that great. I was honestly wishing the former would have gone a different route. The hero is part of an entire summoned class and when he's exposed as having a skill that makes him able to make any female of any species fall desperately in love with him and obey any order, the "leader" of the class forces him to leave to "protect the girls". He leaves thinking how if they'd given him a chance and not suspected such a thing he might have become something like a mon master, gathering monsters and enemy minions to help fight, but since they kicked him out he decides instead to do exactly what they feared he'd do, starting with the "leader's" girlfriend. The second has a surprisingly long story with a lot of worldbuilding alongside the general content of a guy with the ability to mind-control a certain number of people at a time gathering a harem of slaves.

There are also some cases where the slavery isn't the same as what was present in much of our world, in which case it's not as easy to dismiss it as wrong. For instance, in Isekai Konyoku, they have a system called "ravers" where people can sell themselves for money, and anyone who buys them has strict limits (the raver is only under the owner's control where it directly relates to their contracted work and only during the period they're supposed to work, etc.). Additionally, anyone caught forcing someone into a raver contract is severely punished.

One thing I can say is do not go to Shield Hero for this. True, at the start Naofumi does purchase a slave, and he does buy more later, and he argues that he shouldn't be punished for it since it's legal in this nation. However, he always treats his slaves very well, in the later portions specifically offers people the choice of whether or not to become or remain slaves, with no restrictions or controls or effects outside of the experience boost (in the LN he has a skill that massively boosts slaves' growth, so making allies into "slaves" means they'll level far faster and gain much better stats), and ultimately I believe supports the queen's effort to abolish the system entirely.

[Haak]

Space Relations by Donald Barr

[Moonlith]

Rance might qualify.

The guy's a lecherous selfish jerk who upon rescueing a slave promptly violates / attempts to violate her, and enslaves her.

But likewise the story isn't about slavery, just a side-element.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

I don't know if you've seen Arslan Senki but there's an event in the story where the MC was scolded by the other protag (Narsus, the strategist in his party) because Arslan irresponsibly freed slaves without knowing how to handle them afterwards (which ended rather badly).

Granted, Narsus doesn't necessarily support slavery as the best practice but still see some benefits of it, both for the owners & the slaves. That's because the setting of Arslan Senki is still dependent on slavery in some aspects.

[0cean]

I count Arslan Senki towards those boring stories where the protagonists have a disdain for and work towards abolishing slavery. But yes, I've watched the show and was very disappointed that it couldn't catch up to the six episodes long OVA from 1991 in a whopping 25 episodes and even adding that short second season only got one step further in the story at the very end.
It was a decent anime, even though the author shoe-horned in a birth scene, like she previously did in FMA, which is a weird digression for adventure anime, but whatever.

Also, Narsus did reprimand the protagonist for his naivety in the matter, but ultimately the whole reason Narsus even works for the protagonist is because he was promised that slavery would be abolished, so citing Narsus isn't the best example, since he is the biggest driving factor towards abolishing slavery in that anime.