Maybe a hot take but, most Isekai have no reason to be isekai
Most of these shows the plot literally would not change in any significant way if it was just a fantasy with an MC that is native to the world in question. The person coming from another world ends up having no significant relevance to the plot or their progress as a character.
As much flak as it gets, one of the things I enjoyed the most about Mushoku Tensei is how it ties the MC and other transferred characters’ past lives into the plot in various ways that actually matter. Re:Zero does a good job of this too, constantly reminding us that this is just a regular dude in insane situations succeeding with the help of foreknowledge, a plan and healthy dose of pure luck from being able to try again repeatedly. (And also how torturous having to do it over and over again can be.)
But, by and large, being isekai’d is just used as a lazy writing plot device to explain things about the world to the main character (and thus the reader/viewer) that would otherwise be basic knowledge to a natural inhabitant. Good writers would be able to find other ways to show how things are different instead of having to explain it explicitly.
Having said that, if anyone has other shows where them being from another world has any actual significance to the plot and character development feel free to share.
As much flak as it gets, one of the things I enjoyed the most about Mushoku Tensei is how it ties the MC and other transferred characters’ past lives into the plot in various ways that actually matter. Re:Zero does a good job of this too, constantly reminding us that this is just a regular dude in insane situations succeeding with the help of foreknowledge, a plan and healthy dose of pure luck from being able to try again repeatedly. (And also how torturous having to do it over and over again can be.)
But, by and large, being isekai’d is just used as a lazy writing plot device to explain things about the world to the main character (and thus the reader/viewer) that would otherwise be basic knowledge to a natural inhabitant. Good writers would be able to find other ways to show how things are different instead of having to explain it explicitly.
Having said that, if anyone has other shows where them being from another world has any actual significance to the plot and character development feel free to share.
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Or atleast i often see people say something along the lines "the MC's past life doesn't have any story significance after the initial transportation/reincarnation"
And to be fair, sometimes they are good despite this particular problem. I was watching the wrong way to use healing magic and I kept thinking “this is a pretty good show but the MC could just as easily have been some country bumpkin native who has his life turned upside down and the story wouldn’t suffer for it at all.”
Aside from the female character’s running joke being that she’s super stoked about being isekai’d. Which is ironically a much stronger connection to their past lives than most other shows ever bother with.
People js need to accept the simpleness of isekai.
There are a few I enjoyed where there is some relevance to the transmigration (such as Tsuki no Michi, though maybe that's mostly about the goddess being an asshole and Earth's god being a bro)
However, for the most part what you say is exactly that way. It even extends somewhat to regressor stories. Many of them don't really need to have a regression since as we all know, foreknowledge has a limit when the MC starts changing things around. So at some point they also feel like the regression itself could have been skipped altogether.
Some Isekai are used in an analog way to regression: to justify the actions of the MC because they already know the game/book events or to establish prejudices from the MC towards certain characters.
In other cases (most of them I would say) transmigration is used simply to have filler stuff: MC trying to replicate food from japan, making others gasp at the revolutionary idea of toilets and mayonnaise, or emulate internet/video recordings through magic. Just to name a few. In short, it's a tool used by authors who don't feel confident about developing a whole new fantasy world and fallback on slapping what they know from Earth in a fantasy world.
In some ways this can be fun (MC applying science principles to make regular magic more deadly, for example) and in others it becomes "ugh, this again?"
It also serves to sometimes give a cultural shock to MC (for example, when they can't understand slavery is perfectly normal in that world and that you can't just let go of those who tried to kill you)
I've read a lot of stories from genres such as regression, Isekai, reincarnation, tower climbing, earth invaded by monsters, game systems, etc... And they can be quite fun if you don't get too hung up on the genre or how similar they all seem to each other. In the end, good ones will still stand out in some ways.
This is common complaints
This whole thing is like authors adding supernatural elements to historical novels. They are oftentimes not necessary, but it attractacts more audience.
Before getting isekai-ed was a good thing, it used to actually be a bad thing for the person involved and the goal of almost all of them was for the character or characters to try and get home. While I don't think this was necessarily better since it was typically a boring goal, I feel like those series at least tried to think about things a bit more rather than take it for granted.
TLDR: The real issue is that the writing in most of these series is ass and many have no long term plan.
Mushoku Tensei is unique in that it does actually look medieval, but most isekai with their chateaux with giant glass windows are manifestly not medieval
Dr Stone (does this count?)
Uncle from another world
Imho, if instead of Urano being isekai'd, the actual child Mine god a modern library magically dumped in her head absolutely nothing would have changed plotwise.
In an initial draft of the story Myne was supposed to be closer to Urano, in personality, but that created the issue of motivation, there was a lot Myne needed to achieve in order to arrive where the story was supposed to take her, and it wasn't very compatible with Urano's personality type. The solution was to lean more on Myne's go-getter personality that she inherited from her dad.
There is an extensive collection of questions and answers Miya Kazuki (the author of Bookworm, which based on what the people around her say is just a real life Myne, lol) does in a series of Bookworm volumes called fanbooks (she answers fan questions in them, really just about any question about her writing process, how she plans things, in great detail). I highly recommend fans of the books pick those up as they offer answers to even questions the books never really went into.
Give em a head injury too.
Then they get a cool head scare after the time skip
Looking at Jujutsu Kaisen as a reference point of what I mean. Yuji is forced to be an outsider to jujutsu society because otherwise there would be no real organic way to explain to the reader how cursed energy works. Gege cleverly got around the issue of explaining techniques by making it form a binding vow.
Let's compare that to Kagurabachi, since Chihiro is involved with the sorcery world from the beginning the manga goes an entire arc without explaining its power system (nearly 30 chapters) and frankly without the memes propping it up I think it'd have died because of this choice. But in the second arc they literally introduced a character who couldnt use sorcery because there was no other way to organically explain the power system. None of the characters have a reason to talk about it. For explaining techniques Kagurabachi had to re-introduce the old solution which is having a narrator do it. Although the characters do explain when they have the relevant knowledge in lore like Chihiro knowing what the swords do.
Isekai plots are like putting on training wheels you don't have to come up with scenarios to explain the background. You can just explain what you want the reader to care about at the door and move on. Now that I think about reincarnation plots are basically like this too, but the Mc usually explains the world in narration while being revived.
Hopefully audiences will tire of this soon, and we can have more intention when it comes to isekai. The genre itself has a decent amount to offer - especially with types of isekai like being trapped in the world, or being able to go back and forth but actually having an incentive or emotional reason to go to a more dangerous place, or alternate universes where the fate of one is intertwined with the other, etc beyond just the typical fantasy harem adventure romps we end up with waves of every year.
In some anime it becomes important for the fact they bring knowlegde from the otherworld.
Wouldn’t know it based on the sheer volume of copy-paste isekai out there, but I’m glad most people would agree.
People are drawn to isekai specifically because it satisfies the fantasy of leaving your boring/shitty life and starting fresh in a new and exciting world. It's the same reason why all isekai's have protagonists that are stupidly powerful and/or smart.
There are just a lot of people who hate their lives right now. That is what isekai as a genre is drawing on.
It explores what happens to powerless people when they are dropped into a kill or be killed world.
The the characters carried every wound - mental and physical - through out the entire story.
So beautifully drawn too.
Grimgar of fantasy and ash
Escaflowne, Inuyasha(isekai before it was popular)
Restaurant to another world and isekai izakaya(reverse isekai-ish, both focus around food)
Re:zero(arguably OP skill, but not for the normal reasons)
Konosuba
Myne is a mix of OP but with a crippling issue (often literally) she's dealing with.
He's a 40 year old guy with near zero combat ability and every combat experience terrifies him. The only real skill he has is being a really good cook. Every episode has one or two cooking segments.
While he can't fight, he's hard carried by his OP monster familiar.
It's a goofy show with no real stakes.
What I'd like to see is an isekai story where the main character wasn't the hero. They can be one of the heros friends and may even contribute, but it's not their story. They aren't even there for the final battle because they stayed behind to help keep the town safe.
Ive been to Tokyo.
As much as its a great city, its also a concrete behemoth where most people stay 90% of their time indoors or under huge buildings.
The fantasy of exploring a new and pristine world is quite apealing for someone who lives in simular conditions
Absolutely. I'd also say that it makes the protagonist more relatable if they are from our current society. We're all salary men with an escapist fantasy.
Heck, I'm tired of this world and would love to get isekaied and join Fairy Tail, and I'm a 42 year old man! It would be so nice to start fresh. No interest in being powerful or the protagonist though. I'm happy being a side character making enough to to be comfortable.
Who wants to be yelled at by 7 women when they do something wrong?
(The same is probably true for female watchers regarding reverse-harems)
By the point he chooses someone, he has already acquired enough that he has no choice but to accept them all if he doesn't want a bloodbath. And the haremettes have been forced to travel together for long enough to accept the status quo, so nobody starts throwing hands just because there's favourites. And since the group is so large, surely introducing a few late story additions is fine, right? The girls are already used to it.
Now I want a story about someone purposefully playing the oblivious card to gather harem members. I'm sure someone has made it somewhere.
No thanks, fine with one person.
There's a few animes that *do* focus on getting back home like Shield Hero and Tsukimichi Midnight Fantasy. But its rare to see.
Like, wouldn't you be having a full blown existential crisis? I know I sure would be!
Imagine a low-earning, overworked japanese salary man who comes home late everyday just to get into a fight with his spouse that hates him. He goes to visit his parents just to get compared with his more successful siblings. I also think isekai story is basically a life that LN authors/animators (known for having poor working conditions) want to live themselves, that's why it captures the target audience so well.
The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess is a good recent example. The MC is isekai’d/reincarnated into the world she created in her past life.
Aside from Mushoku Tensei and Re:ZERO (which use the genre *incredibly* well), I've seen half a dozen others, and they *all* benefit significantly from the isekai concept. Tanya, GATE, Konosuba, Shield Hero... Some are based entirely on the idea and use it constantly, and others just use it as a jumping-off point, but it's still integral to the characters and story.
Pure fantasy stories, like Frieren or Spice and Wolf, are totally different, and it's not something you can just make out of the framework of any isekai story.
It's the whole premise of defeating the demon king, where Kazuma took Aqua with him in the world.
You cannot make an isekai parody without making an isekai.
This means that, by and large, lots of great parodies are simply very good entries in their own genre. They are often absurd and over the top, sure, they are also cynical and sarcastic, but they usually do the plot points that matter well, because to parody a genre, you need to know the genre.
So you are correct: Konosuba is an isekai parody. But it's still a great isekai, imo.
It is very similar to Eminence in Shadow in that regard, even though that show is far more divisive.
As far as what Isekais actually need it for the plot...Digimon?🤷♂️
**My Next Life as a Villainess:** one of the OG villainess-isekai series. MC's knowledge of how the original storyline went is central to her character and decision-making and affects how everything plays out. Something hilarious is that her other modern-world knowledge, like about modern farming and cooking, does NOT prove itself an advantage to her because she's not a skilled enough cook/farmer/scientist etc. to actually do anything with it. Which is realistic for someone who died at age 15! I find it refreshing after the nine billionth "This world doesn't know about seasoning, my knowledge of cookery will revolutionize cuisine!"
**Eminence in Shadow**: MC's chuunibyou being informed by tropes from our world is the whole point of his character. The fact that his otherworld knowledge gives his organization an advantage is secondary but there too. I love Cid he's just so cringe.
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Cid's harem is special. He throws buzz words at elf girls, they figure out the rest.
Katarina Claes is one of my favorite characters of all time BECAUSE she isn't an all knowing badass. And it is CONSISTENT. She isn't skilled and knowing at one point and then stupid at another plot critical point. She is genuinely that dense.
The John Smith arc is fucking insane in that he genuinely gave them a complete overview of economics, manipulated what he told them to try and extort them. It did and didn't work out, but thats just cause Cid cooks way too hard every time.
The whole point of Zenshu is that she's transported to the world of her favorite movie. So unlike most Isekai protagonists, she actually knows more about the world than the inhabitants. And she uses this knowledge to change the outcome and to try and find a way home
With Ascendance of a Bookworm she uses her knowledge about books and her love for them to make books. That, at least so far, seems to be the main driving force of the series. The printing press hasn't been invented yet in this world, and she aims to change that. All while navigating the social and political system of this world as the introduction of the printing press is no small feat (IRL it's one of the most important human inventions that paved the way for social advancement to modern society and shook the foundations of established social hierarchy. Thus naturally there are those who oppose it) Unlike most other "the MC invents stuff to revolutionize the world" in this one it's well established that the MC has this knowledge beforehand. She's already in her 20's when she dies and spent most her life reading books about just about any subject, gathering a vast amount of knowledge. And even then, there's certain stuff she simply doesn't know, and needs the help of actually skilled craftsmen to figure out
But also one character that knows the economic power her inventions can have and tries very hard (often to no avail) to rein her in before she goes trying to change economic powers with her inventions.
Yeah, I'm really glad someone figured it out. It's an interesting part of the genre, as essentially the MC is keeping a huge secret from everyone. but sadly not many Isekai explore this secret being exposed in a meaningful way (or it's out on the open from the start)
Indeed - her knowledge from this world give her a foothold to start climbing the power structures of society, but that only takes her so far.
There is also an episode (or half of it) dedicated to showing how her passing affected her friend.
TBF, the cliche introduction of mayo is something that a 15 year old interested in cooking may be able to make and would likely be a big hit in a medieval setting.
Like he does technically become batshit overpowered abusing his knowlege of the book he was isekaied into to get crazy buffs.
But almost all of the buffs he uses end up being used for major construction.
Sure does he get enough buffs that he vould destroy a small army single handedly? Absolutely. But why do that when he could use that power to instead level a forest and then use the lumber to create premium bath houses that are so alluring he can offer use to the enemy army and then convince them to come work for him instead because he offers better amenities.
One of the funniest webcomics out there
Very similar to "not all protagonists need to be 15"
I was very excited to find one of the most popular genres of anime revolves around this idea, only to find they never really go all the way with it.
Or they go to another world and they get magic, but everyone else has magic, so it's not very special, or sometimes everyone else has magic but them... What's the point?
Furthermore, she is very ignorant (just like us) about a lot of things that are common sense within that world, and is constantly criticized for not knowing about those customs (mainly everything related to nobility, magic and the clergy).
This is a hot take but I think Mushoku Tensei could works even without Isekai part. Though it probably wouldn't be as popular as now.
There's many ways to give OP power without using Isekai.
It's basically a turbo quickstart fantasy starter with a side of cultural superiority (for the biggest parts of Japanese culture to be introduced as revolutionary by the MC), which is why I think isekai is better as a setting than a proper genre.
But yeah, there isn't much other stuff in that niche, its harder to write, harder to easily relate with, you actualy have to try harder and think up what setting you have. And also it will be probably way harder to animate on lower budget and make it look decent, so idk how will the anime of this one turn out.
i'm also tired of many isekai, but in their defense, in most cases, the anime adaptation barely reach important point of the story. most of the anime just stop after introducing/recruiting important party member.
personally, my biggest problem with most isekai is that most of them feel just like a typical fantasy MMORPG. stuff like video game interface, stats, buff, debuff, etc.
Isekai is essentially worthless.
RE:Zero isnt really isekai. Subaru isnt reincarnated in another world, he's teleported as the same person he was on Earth to another world and when he dies he returns to a point in the past as himself. At that point most of science fiction or fantasy could be considered isekai but it isnt...
1) Re.Zero
2) Uncle from another world, basically MC's Uncle got Isekaid but now his coma is over and Uncle must readapt to normal world
Luckily there are many great isekai shows around, though I am not familiar with the examples you have given and I skip shows that aren‘t interesting to me. Also it depends on what aspects you really seek in a show.
>Re:Zero does a good job of this too, constantly reminding us that this is just a regular dude in insane situations succeeding with the help of foreknowledge, a plan and healthy dose of pure luck from being able to try again repeatedly. (And also how torturous having to do it over and over again can be.)
What you just said has nothing to do with isekai. Subaru could have been born in that world and everything you say could equally apply.
>But, by and large, being isekai’d is just used as a lazy writing plot device to explain things about the world to the main character (and thus the reader/viewer) that would otherwise be basic knowledge to a natural inhabitant.
I'm sure for some anime it's true and others it's not, but for the sake of the argument, lets just say it is. Does it become better if it's not isekai and just a straight up fantasy? No. Like you said, whether it's isekai or regular fantasy is the same thing. So if nothing changes, obvious it wouldn't be better. So if the thing you complained about is fixed and it wouldn't be better, why are you complaining? Why can't it be isekai?
We know. But isekai sells so stories are made to be isekai.
It's to inject a Japanese person into a setting, as well as Japanese elements into the story.
You also have to know that most LN/WN are written by amateur writers and are essentially fa. fiction.
Tensura is probably the starting point of this being popular.
I miss good old fantasy anime like Berserk, Record of Loddoss War, Orphen, Slayers, to name a few.
Also, just remembered, Escaflowne, now THAT was what I'd consider an amazing isekai.
All these new age isekai are just trend hoppers and highly derivative, with only a couple of people innovating before the cycle starts over again
It also taps into the fantasy escapism that so many anime fans, or people that might feel unhappy in their mundane lives, naturally feel. This new world is so vast and different that it breaths hope into the viewer and inspires them to wanna connect more with the narrative through the wish fulfillment
Some actually add unique flavor, most are just fantasy stories with maybe one or two additional layers
Of course, a lot of isekai are just straight up shit and aren't meaningfully different without the otherworld premise, but that's the theory behind why isekai would be relevant to these shows if they weren't shit.
Isekai is a cheat genre that lets people that can't write get away with it and get anime made.
I do agree that a lot of stories use this as a often needless crutch. I've even seen version where the mc gets isekaied but loses all memories of their old world which makes the whole "isekai" plot point moot. Just write a fantasy story at that pointm
You don't say. The vast, vast majority of isekai are isekai just because its easier to write
How can japanese ppl possibly relate if the MC is not isekaied and introduces the fantasy world to soy sauce /s.
That's why when fantasy does manifest, it's always going to be hero and demon lord stuff, or some other very proliferated trope like revenge, which includes the painfully generic hook of the main character immediately being wronged in an extreme way, even if they don't rape and murder everyone responsible afterwards. There are exceptions, they are rare because it requires being more inventive and is a bigger risk.
There's no particular purpose other than to introduce an original modern protagonist into those worlds and explain the story in an easy-to-understand way.
The familiar of zero takes a random average person in Japan and throws him in a world full of aristocrats who see him as nothing but a plebian and he's made to be a servant in a place he thinks is full of lunatics, all while trying to go home.
Oddly enough, apothecary diaries does basically the same thing while not technically being an isekai.
Your characters should not always find the newer world more comfortable than their home. They should at least attempt to go home at some point. Because then the feeling changes from survival in a weird place, to "hey we're the 100th show to reference dragon quest. It's just a like video game".
Even SAO, is basically (at the start) an isekai. I don't think we'll see a lot of shows that understand or care about the what makes isekais interesting.
Modern isekai aren’t made dime a dozen because they’re interesting, they’re made because they’re cheap. Cheap to license some no name on shosetsuka, cheap to animate, and with huge returns on an inbuilt fanbase.