Does Isekai Anime have a Pro-Slavery problem?

I was seeing this talked about quite a bit already last year well before Shield Hero became the hot topic of the community.

It bothers me a bit in a show like Ragnarok from last summer where our protagonist has become basically the ruler of a country and yet he sees the Slave trade going on in that country and doesn't abolish it, and yet he is doing other things to "modernize" said country.  For the most part however that happens because the writers simply weren't thinking about it enough.

And seeing it in Medieval Europe Based Fantasy in general, either Western or Japanese media, bugs me since I know Slavery wasn't actually practiced in Medieval Europe, the Church eventually managed to abolish Roman style slavery until trans Atlantic contact brought it back.

Western media critics are talking about this being a problem in Isekai as if it's relevant to actual Japanese social issues, as if there is a risk of chattel slavery suddenly being reestablished there.

Japan abolished chattel slavery in 1590, when the European Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was still forming, before the Colonies that became the United States were even founded, the first African slaves were brought to those colonies in 1619.  In fact the WWII era Imperial Japan we love to demonize so much abolished slavery in the parts of East Asia they conquered.

So I think it's highly offensive and arrogant to see any Americans moralize to the Japanese on this issue.

Now you can also use the word slavery to describe certain amoral things WWII era Japan was doing.  But when you expand the definition like that, well it just reminds me how we enslaved Japanese Americans and Immigrants in internment camps during WWII, and technically still have legal Slavery to this day in our for profit prison system.  If you think America did nothing wrong during WWII then I don't wanna hear your criticisms of people who think Japan did nothing wrong.

I haven't watched any of Shield Hero yet, I'm waiting till I can binge a few episodes of the Dub.  But what I've gathered so far is that it's not an average Isekai, it's depicting a dark dystopic world where the institutionalized racially based slavery going on is absolutely another example of how messed up that world is.  And the protagonist is a bit of an Anti-Hero who's moral choices are not necessarily endorsed simply because he's the protagonist.

As shown in a recent Pause and Select Video, when Nationalist tendencies do seep into Isekai it's about depicting these other worlds as savages compared to how "Civilized" modern Japan is, and so the existence of slavery in these worlds is merely another example of that.  Even apologists of WWII era Japan are likely to be pointing out how WWII era Japan was abolishing slavery in continental Asia.

I'm bothered by that video making Outbreak Company seem like nationalist propaganda however, they must have missed the part where the Prime Minister was the ultimate villain of the show.  Either way Outbreak Company certainly can't be accused of approving of Slavery.

I find it hilarious how last summer off just the first episode people like AnimeFeminist were condemning How Not to Summon A Demon Lord as some kind of pro slavery show.  It's mainly a fetish show where it's made clear this slavery spell is supposed to be done between people who consent to it for Kink reasons.  The show was thematically very much about freedom of choice and agency.  I wasn't able to finish it because it was too fan servicy for my tastes, but I saw nothing objectionable in it's message.

Way back, long before I was into any of these Anime, on an IMDB forum I think, I saw someone express an opinion that if you were living in the Antebellum South it'd be inherently immoral to buy a slave even for the purpose of freeing them, or keeping them from falling into the hands of someone worse (certain Laws in the South made it very difficult for an Freed Slave to remain Free), because you're still financially supporting the institution.

It's easy to take such a hard line black and white position on that when you live in a society that hasn't actually had this institution for over a century, but it's different when you actually live in that world.  The fact is historically there were people back then who owned slaves while not just saying that they opposed slavery but were actively involved in the abolitionist movement.  Of course it's also true that plenty of Abolitionists were still Racists who didn't want Black people in the country at all.  The point is you can't ignore nuances when trying to pass moral judgment on people who lived back then.

Why is that rant relevant to Isekai?  Because sometimes Isekai protagonists buy slaves for that exact reason.  I don't have any solid opinion on Shield Hero yet, but we saw it in Deathmarch last winter, the Protagonist buys some slaves in order to rescue them.  That show is not currently one of my favorites of the genre, but I enjoyed it.