What does an Isekai need to be good
I have tried reading so many webtoons, manga, and anime where characters find their way in new worlds. As a Star Wars fan this is very interesting. However as an anime model it falls apart very quickly.
Rezero and its predecessor EndRide (to an extent) were awesome, especially ReZero. I thought it would involve Emilia excessively or even give Subaru insane power scaling. Even his ability to run it back from a point, that could’ve been silly. Are the scenes when he arrives in Roswaal manor silly, absolutely. Still it’s able to shift to a more serious and real reflective show.
Willem Van Astrea, Rem and Ram in the past, Otto, Pentelgeuse, Emilia, and not to mention Subaru. All these characters are so real it’s amazing(not to mention so many other characters). Especially where Subaru spends a lot of season 2 having to really reflect upon himself. The power of belief and redemption. The ability to carve your own path.
Subaru not needing power to succeed makes the message shine. What’s the fun in having an ult move to win and save the day. Convincing people and coming up with a real plan to succeed in a brand new place. The necessity of adapting. One would think it would be fan service but it was a true service to fans by respecting the characters and the aspect of being an isekai.
Let me know what other isekai or shows in general you felt like had so many good characters. Shows that you felt like used the genre and plot to their full advantage.
Rezero and its predecessor EndRide (to an extent) were awesome, especially ReZero. I thought it would involve Emilia excessively or even give Subaru insane power scaling. Even his ability to run it back from a point, that could’ve been silly. Are the scenes when he arrives in Roswaal manor silly, absolutely. Still it’s able to shift to a more serious and real reflective show.
Willem Van Astrea, Rem and Ram in the past, Otto, Pentelgeuse, Emilia, and not to mention Subaru. All these characters are so real it’s amazing(not to mention so many other characters). Especially where Subaru spends a lot of season 2 having to really reflect upon himself. The power of belief and redemption. The ability to carve your own path.
Subaru not needing power to succeed makes the message shine. What’s the fun in having an ult move to win and save the day. Convincing people and coming up with a real plan to succeed in a brand new place. The necessity of adapting. One would think it would be fan service but it was a true service to fans by respecting the characters and the aspect of being an isekai.
Let me know what other isekai or shows in general you felt like had so many good characters. Shows that you felt like used the genre and plot to their full advantage.
Commentaires
A lot of isekai have adopted the lazy progression fantasy trope of stat windows and visible scaling and play them completely straight but LogHorizon was a good subversion of that, where these things do exist but the game world rules the players knew don't apply wholesale anymore and using ones with, learning and engaging the world rather than the systems yielded greater results.
Breaking from common tropes like "loner without a reason", "obligatory demon lord" and so forth would be another step in the right direction to refresh the genre. Sasaki and Peeps and From Salaryman to Elite Four did a good job of showing what an isekai could be when you break from common tropes and explore the world from a more mature perspective of how do I leverage what I already know to survive in this new place.
Which, I think, comes from their origins as free to read webnovels written by amateurs; since the entry threshold is so low you get a lot of chaff mixed with the wheat and most people don't mind the chaff anyway.
There's this reflective essay [(translated here)](https://frogkun.com/2019/07/01/i-tried-thinking-about-the-common-isekai-slave-circumstances-realistically/) which explains the rationale pretty well.
>...when a novel has gained popularity because of its cute characters and entertaining plot, then people stop fixating on (the lazy tropes being used)...including the author...people who were put off (by said laziness) will stop reading at the beginning. As a result, only the people who have a positive opinion will write their impressions. The author stops receiving criticism and starts relying on cliches more and more for the setting and plot.
I like "yes im a spider so what?" And the overly cautious hero which is more comical...
I cant stand isekais where the mc just gets ridiculous powers or ones where it very quickly turns into a harem anime and I especially despise torture porn isekais.
That said I did like arifureta even tho is slowly became a harem anime but thats cause the mc and vampire girl were really cool characters with a wholesome relationship.
many love interests
OP
youth
As long as it has one, then it's good to someone.
I am painfully bored when isekai plots follow that the character will be bent to the isekai world’s sentiments, ride the waves of where events of great importance carry them, and basically lose anything special about them to become just another fantasy character.
But of course there is the vice versa, where the main character completely bends the fantasy world to their sentiments…. There are some good examples like Red Ranger Isekai, but well this is harder to carry out without good plausibility. And plausibility comes from well defining and writing out interactions and world mechanics.
But of course all these ultimately ride on the main character/cast themselves in how fun/logical/interesting they are and how they interact with others.
Tensura adopts a nation building plot and discrimination plot lines and I can see some value in that, just that maybe things just go too easy breezy for our main character sometimes and I get lazy on actually wanting to see what’s next in store
Tsukimichi Moonlit fantasy is another nation builder that maintains the same-ish grab as Tensura… although with a much wider range of characters in their moral balances and ulterior motives where it’s much less predictable and leads to people interested in what happens next.
Red Ranger isekai fully adopts its love for tokusatsu motifs and elements. Friendship, sincerity, “bonds” are something gritty plots love to look down on, but that kind of humanity persevering in a fantasy world that has arcs and specific elements that seek to destroy that very same thing make the story very interesting and new.
Handyman Saitou is a sweet webcomic turned anime because of its episodic nature and being able to introduce new and random dnd elements in front of a plain main character who only knows how to do things as a handyman does. Sincere and simple solutions in a massive cast of fantasy characters that go along the lines of adjective noun BUT (wholly surprising element about them) i.e. seasoned wizard but has dementia and constantly forgets certain things while having full knowledge sometimes as a veteran
I'd like to shout out one of the most infamous isekai out there Mushoku Tensei, because despite the controversy the show gets into for pervy stuff, one of the good qualities about it is that it does actually have multiple plot points surrounding Rudeus's previous traumas and how it affects both him and his understanding of those around him. I'd love to see people talk about the Season 2 plotline surrounding his younger sister Norn and the way Rudy is able to understand both how serious her issue is, but also feel so horridly useless at being able to help her, as he recounts how he shoved away any kind of help when he was a shut-in in his past life. It was a genuinely emotional plot line centered around the main characters past experiences being able to help someone in need in the present, but people rarely give credit to those episodes.
The only good isekai is "Ascendance of a Bookworm".
I love ReZero to bits, but I'm not shilling for it. Looking forward to season 4! MythRoid, here we come!