Yeah it was fun in the beginning, after all who never thought about being transported to another world where you ate a big hero with swords and magic?
But what the hell, I’m pretty sure there’s more isekai now than other genres/settings. It’s gotten to a point that if I see the tag I just move on.
Portal fantasy in general is fine( think like inuyasha or digimon as old version of isekai). The issue is the isekai that are just mindlessly cloning each other with some new way to be OP.
I still like the idea but I’m tired of the power fantasy aspect. “Oh no! I’ve been killed/summoned/found a portal and now I’m in a fantasy world! At least I’m incredibly overpowered and/or my modern knowledge gives me god like status!”
The ones where the character still struggles to get by tend to be good still because they have to have some kind of story involved other than “average person conquers another world by being OP”
Edit: also characters whose only connection to their old life is a token scene in the first episode/issue where it shoes them get isakai’d and it’s never a bearing on the story again. It’s just shoehorned into a bad story because isekai is popular.
Part of the reason why I was soooo disappointed that So I’m a Spider, So What? Got such a poor adaptation. She starts out very low level and has to grind, so all of the power she gets feels earned.
Minor spoiler
The whole class gets reincarnated into other roles and there is tension between those who adapted to their new roles and society and those that don’t. I really enjoyed their interactions because it’s a constant plot point and their past lives drive a lot of their choices.
dude I fucking love spider, read the light novels and everything, but man I fucking hate how it ended. ruined it for me
- Reincarnated: Living Life in Another World
- Reincarnated as a Slime
- Re:Zero (IIRC)
Yeah, I agree the genre has come down to a basic recipe.
There are some exceptions:
- Sword Art Online, technically an issekai, but only because they are trapped in the other world.
- The Devil is a Part-Timer, reverse issekai where something foreign and god-like comes to the real world and becomes mortal
I think the biggest reason I like Reincarnated as a Slime is he’s using his powers for everyone at a nation level. Any others with god-tier powers just feels like it’s only to benefit them or a small haram.
Reminds me of Shield Hero. Started off with an interesting concept of a hero with a tarnished reputation having to navigate an unknown world. Immediately turns into a Harem.
Absolutely. First few episodes, especially the first one, were actually really fun but I dropped it somewhere at the beginning of season 2 because it was just boring. It kinda felt like it just kept getting worse episode by episode.
The anime doesn’t have to be good, it just has to make you interested in the lightnovel, which is where the profits are. With that in mind, the cheaper the anime can be produced the better. This is probably why there are so many shitty isekai and they keep coming.
I still like the concept, it’s just that 90% of the stuff that uses said concept is terrible. I mean, Isekai is only an initial premise, you need A LOT more to make a good anime.
Or only use isekai as an arc rather than the general premise like hxh did
There are decades worth of good anime out there. If new stuff isn’t doin it for you, pick up a show from spring 2006 or something. A lot of trash comes out every season (and always has) but nobody is forcing you to watch it.
Dungeon Meshi is good, and not Isekai.
I’m more sick of the harem trope than the isekai trope, between that and fan service beach days I don’t even feel like trying new shows sometimes
You can also literally tell from the cover what kind of show it’s going to be 😭
When I watched Frieren the best thing was that it was no fucking isekai. It’s still competence porn, but at least she is not a middle aged man who died lonely in his bedroom. Just a classic fantasy world. Loved it
Lots of lonely female dying isekai in the manga world too
Could you give some examples? Just curious. I want to see how they differ from male isekai in terms of escapsim. And I don’t mean multiple people like in Sao or Alice in wonderland. I just watched this “project Elise doctor” and what in the world was that? A double isekai? Or a isekaiception? But it definitely was different from when boys/men die.
Loads of villainness stuff is where a woman gets isekaied. For example:
- My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
- I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss
- Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord
Aside from villainness stuff, there’s also:
- I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
- Ascendance of a Bookworm (really recommended)
- The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady
- The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent
I’m not sure if the competence porn is justified in this case. She’s clearly meant to be an RPG character at the end of their adventure (and consequently apex of their power), it makes sense to me she’s overpowered. There’s a reason most TTRPGs stop at a a certain level and sometimes even have rules and instructions for retiring.
I think it’s justified, but I don’t necessarily mean it in a negative way. Her competence is certainly an important part of exploring what the series is actually about, namely loss, regret, and what’s really important in life, etc. Which you can have even if you are very powerful.
Now that I think about it. Maybe that’s exactly the reason why it is not competence porn. Maybe her competence is analogous to a sex scene which enhances the actual topic and not the goal itself like how sex is in porn.
On the other hand I certainly watch it for the competency lol
The thing I don’t like is how much of it is RPG themed but written by people who have never played any.
Or just boring ones they think will make sense to the broadest audience.
Where’s my Isekai where they have to guard break and air juggle enemies to do damage??!???
My main critique of the genre is how lazy it’s done. There’s nothing wrong with having the MC reincarnated, transported, or made overpowered. One Punch Man has a massively overpowered MC but it’s still really good. The problem is that they’re all low effort cookie cutter stories that are just checking items off a list.
They’re also fairly unrealistic. “Gasp…is this that isekai thing I’ve been reading about? I guess I’ll go join the Adventurer Guild and get a super dangerous job killing monsters despite the fact that I’ve never been in a dangerous situation before.”
There’s no way all these random people will just calmly accept finding themselves in another world with no freaking out or depression setting in first.
Yes, there’s a lot of very good stories that have that basic setup, I’m just tired of how lazy and unimaginative most of it is.
I think that has been a pretty common opinion for the past 4 years lol
My problem isn’t isekai as a concept, it’s the fact that all of them are pretty much the exact same. I enjoyed Sasaki and Peeps last season precisely because it deviated from most isekai
Probably not, but after something like 2 decade of zombie shit everywhere i will take ANYTHING over it. Also there are good isekai, bad isekai and chinese isekai where the only thing coming of it is the protagonist using modern Earth idioms and perfectly assimilating otherwise.
