Chapter 1: The Isekai Filming Project
Re-written date: 5 / 15 / 2025
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Imperial Calendar XXX Year — Spring.
In the dead of night, a faint magical glow shimmered along the stone corridor of a dilapidated castle. The young man holding the glowing mana stone walked steadily, the flickering light dancing across his face, shifting his expression with every step.
His name was Edward Durin, Baron of the Durin Family in the southern territory—and more importantly, a man not of this world.
That's right. Edward was a reincarnator, a bonafide Chinese isekai protagonist. In his past life, he had been your average anime-loving, game-playing shut-in. He'd never expected to become the main character of one of those fantasy stories he used to binge—until the day it actually happened. No warning. No truck. Just poof, new world.
And yet…
"Ugh. No phone, no internet, no anime to watch, and not even a single novel to read… When is this nightmare going to end...?"
Unlike your typical wide-eyed protagonist who leaps into otherworldly adventures with burning passion, Edward was different. He hated being isekai'd. Exploring a vast fantasy world? No thanks. He'd rather be at home watching seasonal anime, collecting 2D waifus every three months, and rage-quitting games he couldn't beat. Compared to his current life—being a noble in some backwater castle without even a functioning TV—any of that sounded like paradise.
Still, after numerous failed attempts to find a way back, he had no choice but to accept the cold, hard truth: he was stuck here.
And so, day after day, he tinkered with what little he had in the castle—anything to fight off the soul-crushing boredom.
Eventually, as time wore on, a strange thing began to happen. Memories—fragments of this world's Edward—slowly returned to him.
It turned out that Edward Durin was not just some random noble. He was the last heir of the crumbling Durin Family, a once-proud house of the empire's southern territory. Born with a rare elemental magic affinity, his parents had scraped together everything they had to send him to the prestigious Imperial Mage Tower in the capital.
And there, his talent exploded.
He soared through the ranks with terrifying speed, graduating from Apprentice Mage in record time. By the age of twenty, he had become the youngest Grand Mage in the Empire's history.
But magic alone did not satisfy him. Edward's true passion lay elsewhere—Magitech Alchemy.
Whether it was decoding the convoluted mana circuits inside a magic stone or unraveling the madness-inducing blueprints of magical machinery, he chased knowledge with reckless obsession.
So much so that he even published a controversial thesis on reforming the Empire's magical foundations—right in the heart of the Imperial Mage Tower.
Naturally, the old mages rejected it. Violently.
His ideas, too radical. His methods, too unorthodox. The backlash was immediate. The Elemental Arch Mage declared a formal censure. Edward Durin, once hailed as a prodigy, was banished from the Imperial Mage Tower and stripped of his title as a certified Imperial Mage.
And just like that, the genius of the age found himself exiled—left with nothing but a crumbling castle, his alchemy tools, and the bittersweet memories of a world he could never return to.
By the time Edward Durin staggered back to the southern territory, he was a shadow of his former self.
Once home, he promptly locked himself away in the most secluded room of the castle, surrounding himself with strange magical tools and alchemical contraptions. Days turned into weeks, weeks into years. He never spoke to anyone. Never showed his face.
It wasn't until the passing of the old Baron Durin—his father—that he finally emerged and inherited the title of the head of the Durin Family.
Of course, "inherited" was a generous word. In truth, Edward still spent most of his time holed up in that same tiny room, tinkering with his arcane gadgets, utterly uninterested in the affairs of nobility.
Most in the castle quietly agreed: Edward would be the one to finally bring ruin to House Edward.
That is—until something changed.
By a twist of fate, another soul—the Edward from Earth—awoke inside this very body.
. . . . . . . .
Now, in that same room, the new Edward stood at the doorway, scanning his surroundings with sharp eyes. His gaze finally landed on a strange contraption in the corner.
"A Magic Video Recorder… and an Imaging Crystal?" he muttered, eyes wide with realization. "Wait a second... aren't these basically a fantasy-world camera and film reel!?"
Digging through the inherited memories of the original Edward Durin, he quickly discovered the truth: these tools were the accidental creations of a bored genius alchemist, forgotten and left to gather dust.
And yet, in that moment—something inside him stirred.
For the first time in what felt like forever, he was excited.
Ever since arriving in this world, Edward had felt nothing but crushing monotony. Days filled with boring noble duties and nothing to distract him—not a single episode of anime, no light novels, no internet. Even after discovering he could wield powerful magic, the thrill faded fast. After all, he was just an otaku at heart. And honestly? He cared more about the ending of JoJo Part 5 than some ancient spellbook.
But now... now there was possibility.
"I know it sounds stupid. But what if—just what if—I could recreate the anime I used to love… right here, in this world?"
That was why he'd come all the way to this forgotten room in the castle.
After learning that this world had surprisingly advanced paper-making and printing techniques, he'd once considered writing light novels to pass the time. But that idea fizzled out pretty quickly—turns out, he had no talent for prose.
But this? This was different.
Looking at the Magic Video Recorder, Edward felt his passion reignite. A fire he thought long extinguished roared back to life.
'If I can't go back… then I'll bring that world here.'
KonoSuba, Spice and Wolf, Goblin Slayer, Re:Zero, The Familiar of Zero, Overlord, Akame ga Kill, Fullmetal Alchemist, Grimoire of Zero, Isekai Shokudou, Danmachi…
One by one, the titles of beloved isekai anime flashed through his mind, each one more nostalgic than the last.
And then—he made up his mind.
He would remake them. Every last one.
He would introduce the concept of anime to this fantasy world and teach its people the joy—and pain—of becoming a fan.