A depressing Isekai about a fantasy character coming to our world and learning there is no magic having to get a real job as the world slowly breaks them down until they accept the mediocrity of existence.
@Austin's Games At least you're a totally hopeless person you don't just starve to death. At some point you get a better job or you get better in your own job and you somwhat you balance your life even in a meager salary
We can go deeper into the rabbit hole. There were "abducted into faerie world/realm" before Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. Heck, some people consider Divine Comedy an isekai.
"The problem with escapism only comes when you get lost in the fantasy, and let it serve as a substitute for trying to make the world you DO live in more like the one you WANT to live in" Golden words man.
I use to read a lot of Isekai/ Xianxia novels when I was younger (early 20's, stuck in community college, broke, and a little over weight). Then I decided to do something about it to change that. I'm still far from my ideal self but looking back I've come a long way from what I use to be. To anyone who's in that stage, don't lose hope, keep trying even when you fail. The two most important things a person can do, is to take the first step and to take the next.
I was just glad he at least acknowledged Escaflowne as part of the *decades* of earlier (sometimes better, sometimes not) genre examples. About the only thing that stands out to me in this current crop is that they all follow the same "write-by-numbers" formula, with exceedingly slight variations.
@@SuikaNine It will continue such as long our sun doesn't imlpode on itself World had no meaning before megacorporations and it will have no meaning long after humand kind no longer exists
Personally I prefer Western isekai like Alice in Wonderland, Wizards of Oz, Caroline and Mirror Mask. Instead of being an escape from reality. They provide a break from reality. At the end of the story they come back to the real world and the experience from the other world may even help them deal with whatever problem is bothering them. Isekai anime on the other hand tend to end with the MC lives happily ever after with his harem. Leaving the viewer thinking " Well. Guess I'll go back to my shitty life now " 😑
The fascinating thing is that “traditional” fantasy, if we’re separating fantasy from mythology, is that it was Isekai. For the longest time authors felt the need to make some connection between the mundane world and the fantasy world, generally through the protagonist being transported there for one reason or another. It wasn’t until Tolkien came along that authors began to accept that a fantasy world could be its own stand alone world on a broad scale. What we’re seeing is a very interesting return to form for the fantasy genre.
@@Marxist-Nixonist-Bidenist Yeah, no. Harry is from that world, the Dursley's know and acknowledge the existence of that works, because it's not a separate world, just a hidden society in the world that already exists. Isekai literally means "Another World".
Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in 1889, and that was as formula as it gets. John Carter of Mars is also older than Narnia by several decades. There's obviously more, like some already mentioned Oz.
"Where the effort they put in to better their lot in life and the choices they make will... actually matter and lead to some kind of tangible result." I think this sums up why I like narratives, period. Stories with a positive arc fill this need for me while tragedies fill a sort of empathetic response for understanding when that doesn't happen.
Yeah I mean that quote basically alot of other genres as well so I don't feel as if it's the core of why Isekai is popular. I means it's a reason but I feel as if it's one of the more pandering one for this genre.
Thinking about it, the the hypocrisy that otaku would rather conquer the unfair hierarchy with OP magic powers rather than question its legitimacy helps explain the popularity of the harem genre. One man stringing along a bunch of girls is bullshit and cruel, unless it's happening to me then it's fun and totally fine.
Neymar-kun is transported into another world where he is incredible talented in ball magic, and now with the help of his harem he have to fight against evil demon Lord Messi to be the best ball magician of the world.
I have to agree that harem and isekai most of the time lead to shit, but there are lots of isekais without harem. Harem is just a sub-genre and not the genre itself
There aren't many harems where one guy strings along a bunch of girls. Most of the time it's the girls who won't give up no matter what he does. Like kirito explicitly having a girlfriend or issei obviously liking Rias and all the other girls aspiring to either replace her or be his #1 side girl
It's quite depressing in some ways that the most reasonable explanation for the largest genre boom of recent history is that people want to believe that there's a world out there where their hard work matters.
hard work only matters if its combined with intelligence or some kind of talent. just like how talent or simply being intelligent on it's own isn't enough, hard work on it's own isn't enough either
@@riakriak7270 not always. think about it. somebody who works just as hard as you but also has talent will beat you 10 times out of 10. thinking you're the only person that can work hard and talented people are automatically lazy is nothing but arrogance
@@williamwoolf8072 I meant that you'll have to work much harder than the ones that have talent and work hard. you can still accomplish a lot if you do, even if it's not as much as those with talent.
@@riakriak7270 again arrogance. im saying in a competition like sports or a piano competition or dance competition, there's no guarantee you can work harder than someone else. you can work 16 hours a day but somebody with talent can also work 16 hours a day and beat you 10/10 times
Mother's basement : Why is Isekai popular ? Me : I dunno, because it's nice to see other worlds ? M O : It's because you want to matter Me : *tears up*
There are some isekai and reverse isekai scenarios I would like to see: a non otaku ends up in a fantasy world, doesn't know about fantasy tropes and offers non standard solutions to problems; a woman ends up getting an accidental female harem that she doesn't want; an isekai where instead of the characters being transported to a Tolkien/Japanese RPG setting they are sent to a setting of another kind of mythology (Mayan mythology, East European mythology, Hawaiian mythology, Chinese mythology, Indian mythology, Irish mythology, etc.); a reverse isekai where fantasy characters appear in this world, and instead of getting angsty because of our world they prove to a cynical protagonist that their ideals can help people in the real world in realistic ways.
@@AnkhAnanku he was 10 when he went to space, which is only 4 years younger than Kirito when he got trapped in SAO. He had 10 years of growing up in our world before being whisked away to another world (or worlds in his case)
I only played Explorers of Darkness and Red Rescue Team. Out of the two, I love explorers darkness. I also enjoyed reading the manga Ginji' Rescue Team. I hope Pokemon will pick up on the popularity of the isekai genre and revitalize the mystery dungeon series even if it seems unlikely.
Yuuki from SAO's Mother Rosario arc is a good example of escapism with isekai. ALO gave her a means to live life to the fullest despite being terminally ill in real life. Meeting Asuna along with the Sleeping Knights guild, allowed her to spend her final moments surrounded by her friends and the players who respect her.
Recently on a convention I've been to a lecture about isekai genre. Basically, the lecturer discussed older isekai shows (like Fushigi Yuugi), rise of modern trends in isekai, whether or not isekai is a genre or just a setting, common themes, the target audience and how many writers try to deconstruct its tropes. It was interesting but what I remember the most is that by the end of the lecture she summarized it by saying that isekai is basically a "harlequin for weebs" in terms of wish-fulfillment, and, well, it's hard to disagree with that.
I prefer group Isekai. I like the idea of a normal group of people growing closer and awesome together through adversity. I've had the idea of a band or theatre troupe being, well, kidnapped by fate and dropped in a premodern world for a while now, with them becoming a group of travelling actors who recreate modern plays, movies and music.
I'm right now remembering Jane Yolen's "The Devil's Arithmetic," where a 1980s girl opens the door for Elijah at the family seder and pops into the body of her counterpart in 1942. By the time they arrive at the inevitable part of the story, no one believes her warnings about what's going to happen if they go with these smiling men in the leather suits and get on the train cars, because she's been telling the other kids stories of movies, like The Wizard Of Oz and such, and they chalk it up to that. And her amnesia.
@@cobrakingofeart if someone isn't goodlooking enough for the Women ten that doesn't really work. It most of the time doesn't matter if you can build anything out of wood if the girl you love likes the Plumper from Brazil because he is hot. And you can "buy" Women with Money but that isn't what someone should want. Fact is that Life can and will be a Bitch sometimes and you can't really controll it.
@@kingknightisbestknight7398 desirable doesn't mean good looking. i didn't say anything about the quality of women, harem just implies a bunch of them. no matter what way you slice it though, getting a harem takes work. be it money, knowledge or (augmented) looks that you use as a draw in. having money =/= "buying" women. it means you have future stability which is an attractive quality p.s. that middle part about carpentry and a plumber sounds personal
I have two theories. 1. Escapism. People want to bring themselves into their media. Seeing the practicalities of bringing your skills/tech into a medieval magical country is explored, as well as having as few or many powers as you wish. Gate and Outbreak mirror each other in how the military and magic can interact in favor of either side. 2. People love shows with great world building. By making a show with a reality tied to fantasy, it’s easier to make a world people can accept. The Wise Man’s Grandson brings the concepts of science and chemistry when he visualizes his Fire Spell for his family; talking about focusing oxygen and the flashpoint. It takes magic and compares and contrasts it to technology and science.
It's basically the same reasoning for religion in a first place. A reason for living. A drive. A wish to do good in one's own eyes. Isekai is basically a new religion.
I agree the first applies most strongly applies to iksekai as its literally selfinsert in an awesome amazing world. However, the second point applies to the fanatsy/scifi genre in general
Zerpderp0 A religion finds meaning in our own world and a purpose to life. Escapism is wanting to reject our current life to make another in a new world. I suppose you might have some truth if you consider reincarnation-based religions. If you fail in this life, you’ll have another chance in a future life where the culture and/or technology will be vastly different.
I think it's hard to argue that it's about hard work = results, when so many feature MCs who are mind bogglingly overpowered, but I agree it's about escapism. It's fun to imagine yourself in a generic fantasy world with monsters to kill (or befriend), romance to be found, and goal that must (and can) be accomplished. Exploration and concrete objectives in life are important things, and they're things we often lack irl. Also it's hard to find isekai anime that don't also pander to male power fantasies over women, so I'm sure that contributes too.
I remember being gifted a dilogy of Spellsinger books as a kid: it was about a pothead law student who was whisked away to another world by mistake - the old turtle mage wanted to enlist the help of a mighty "engineer" of whom the legends sang, but messed up the summoning spell a bit and got the right university but the wrong student. Honestly the best isekai novel you'll ever read.
My opinion on the whole escapist mentality (being an escapist-in-idea-only person myself) is that the sentiment is there, but it's usually taken out the wrong way. I'm really happy because this video gave me a new perspective on an idea that I didn't really have much understanding of (experience of, yes, but not an understanding) and being able to put it into words is a nice touch. The ideas you talk about, wanting a better world that (for some means bending down to their every will) for most means a *fair and just world*, is nice. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting an objectively better world. I guess the obvious answer is people look at that concept with the wrong sorts of eyes. I think one of the biggest driving forces of escapism isn't "my life sucks", but more "my life sucks because my hard work goes nowhere" (discussed in the video). Regardless of whether that particular person isn't actually putting in enough effort in the first place (cough cough, me) or if they just aren't good enough, the sad truth is that a *lot* of people never actually get rewarded for the work they put in. In the world we live in, there are a lot of factors of everyday life that reward those who prioritize reward-over-effort and there's not really much we can do about it. Looking at the world through the eyes of an "RPG Lens" (discussed in the video), with actions that get actively rewarded and make significant changes in the world through hard work is a major part of the escapism, far beyond the genre of isekai. And there's the second major part of escapism. Actually having your actions matter. Feeling like a cog in the machine is not a new concept by any regard, and yet it still gets people thinking when portrayed in media. In a world where, unless you become one of the 0.1 percent, your actions only matter on a local, lifespan-long time, it's quite a depressing fact. Wanting to escape from that into a world where you're the protagonist (this factor more tilting to the unhealthy side of escapism) isn't really hatable. After all, who can blame a person who wants to actually have an effect on the world? I guess this all just rounds off to the old Syndrome quote. "If everyone's super, then no one is". You can't have an escapist world where you aren't some form of the center of attention. Not necessarily the hero, mind you, but still an important piece of the world. If everyone was transported to any isekai world, then I wouldn't doubt it would be much the same. The reward for transporting yourself to an escapist world is individual (or at least very small-grouped), and thus "if everyone was in a perfect world, then no one would". You can't exactly be the center of attention, or affect the world in a meaningful way (easily) if there are 7.5 billion other people doing the exact same thing. I dunno. It's just a bit sad I guess. I don't agree with people who get hung up about their escapism (or worse, follow them), but I do at least understand them on a personal level. I guess my most-wanted escapist world is one exactly the same as our own, just without the horrible global warming, oceans dying, forests being torn down, animals going extinct, solar flares and meteorites that could wipe out life as we know it, nuclear weapons owned by egomaniacs, soil degradation, ozone destruction, etc. It's just... yeah. Basically, a world where nothing changes for us, but the outside does. So we can focus our attention on ourselves rather than fixing the mess we already made.
Personally I see the Isekai genre as more of a question in the chemistry between the protagonist and the world he/she is interacting with. In my opinion the immersion of the protagonist and the world is key and how the protagonist overcome the adversities that is put in front of them. I see this akin to how the protagonist reflects to all throughout his/her journey at the end (similar to alice in the wonderland). This in effect how I liked Digimon all throughout (1st one and frontier) as their protagonists all throughout the show explore the world especially how and why they're there while reflecting on what they are and how their relationships with each other deepens through overcoming adversities.
You seen Overlord? I would say this anime tackles these issues best... though what stands to be seen as "adversities" is a little different than something like Digimon, with an underdog protagonist. The protagonist's development is clear enough, but it isn't a matter of realizing himself as much as it is adapting to this new world which he has fully embraced, which could be reasons you won't enjoy it as much. The world though, that's fantastic.
@@shaneyy__ I'll change it: he's supposed to revive after 3 days, he didn't once go to another world, neither he reincarnate (he used his own body again). The only thing that actually matches Jesus with an isekai protagonit is that both aren't real and are probably not feminists at all.
@@nhaedzwero43 alright you can or can not believe in jesus's resurrection, but you are definitely not educated well at all if you actually believe Jesus doesn't exist, it is literally a fact that he does/did
hey thanks for including Log Horizon as part of your analysis. I had thought it was missing from your earlier videos on isekai and wondered why since it was relatively succesful show at its time
Iseakai has in some ways been with the fantasy genre since its early days in pulp magazines. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series with John Carter of Mars were iseakai and are over a century old. The appeal of the ordinary person transported to another world literary device has been there for a long time for all the reasons Geoff lays out. An interesting twist is that these sorts of works also shaped the development of RPG rules, which iseakai has now integrated into the genera.
John Carter of Mars is foundational I think for the specific sort of "iseakai" that is big now, and it is often forgotten big in the US fantasy scene of the 60's and 70's.We tend to associate US fantasy with Tolkien knock-offs , but as big Tolkin become in 1965, it takes until 1977's "The Sword of Shannara" to really make that the norm. Until then the average fantasy book has a lot of the pulp to it, often a lot of science fiction elements, and often has a good chance to be about an average dude getting transported to a fantasy world. It interesting how even as iseakai blows up the major role it had in western made fantasy has remind forgotten, utterly eclipsed by the juggernaut of Tolkin unintionally reshaping western fantasy around himself.
In addition, there’s the even older “A Connecticut Yankee in King’s Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain, which is reminiscent of the the sub-genre of isekai in which the focus is on kingdom-building on using modern knowledge to actually be useful in an otherwise entirely political setting.
...not gonna lie, I would have loved to have had my own Digimon partner or letter to Hogwarts as a kid... I even made my own Digimon, working out the details for years until I was finally satisfied with it.
it’s nice that you made this bc i was actually writing a mini essay on how to use perspective to relay information and the benefit of having a protagonist of a fantasy/ sci-fi story be someone unfamiliar with the world they’re thrown into, both in literature (e.g. harry potter, percy jackson) and isekai anime !!
Well basically it's not filling the same points of Isekai and is further outside of it than Konosuba or Digimon. Is it anithor world, yes, but it isn't an average nerd, it's the very type of guy who Nerds (and family centric workers) dread to see. Yes the other world has magic, but it's innately unfair and still overshadowed by the interwar period tech as without that tech the magic would be fairly basic (I.E. a fireball from a hand vs a atmospheric vaper bomb for Tanya or a artillery shell from anyone else with a rifle ). NEXT there is the fact that that world is Curbing the escapism, you dont innately want to be there, there isn't any real reward there either only Warhammer fanboys, and similar nutjobs like myself would ever entertain the idea of going there, despite knowing how rare magic is and how aweful the trenches and other battlefields are. The Similarities to what was presented in this video for most Isekai and Tanya basically end at "in another world". But since Tanya does share a cernal of familiarity with our world she's used to draw us into the other world we get to explore their mentality and views on warfare.
@@Axterix13 "Being X because lets ignore the fact that i litterally got reincarnsted and am in a entirely new world...it was a freak accident that happened as Being X said so."
Tai Prev oh there is a better one The death mage who doesn’t want a fourth time. Mark my words once the manga hits 50chapters in the next 30 years there will be an anime
Nicely delivered video! I'm sort of teetering along the border of getting sick of the abundance of isekai anime despite the fact that it undisputedly remains my #1 favourite genre. Escaflowne and Fushigi Yûgi were my first isekai and are definitely my go-to comfort animes :P
I'm interested in Isekai because it's interesting how the main character adapts to a fantasy world and what knowledge they can use from our normal world. They're just a lot of fun to watch.
around 6-12 months ago, I found your channel and knew almost nothing about anime. But now, I have already watched most of the series referenced on this episode. And it was such a good time watching them. Thanks for creating this channel bro. And continue having success doing what you love. Help a lot weaboos like me
what about John carter, the OG Isekai. i’m not going to lie, it does have an interesting concept, he dosent have magic or anything, but he pretty much has super strength and inhuman abilities because the gravity of the world is less denser than earths. i would like to see a similar idea in another Isekai, MC has no magic, but the environment improves his physical abilities.
John Carter is technically a *sci-fi* isekai, something that pretty much doesn't exist in modern anime, since pretty much every show this season reuses the same generic fantasy RPG style world setting Honestly, I'd pay to see an isekai where the MC gets reincarnated into the future, with aliens and space travel or something like that
@@justzack641 Inuyasha is a time travel story not another world story but otherwise I'd say it's a Isekai in a non-generic world, at least to us westerners not familiar with yokai.
well, people don't like being salesmen stuck in a boring office job they want to see what would happen if they were transported to an interesting world
Well this world is interesting, is full of mysteries, really cool stuff and awesome people, maybe the one who is not interesting, is the person who wants to reincarnate.
Or they're a recall coordinator for a major car company and create an alternate personality they can project and talk to who embodies all the unshackled destructive desires of that person. And together they form a club where guys release their existential dread and frustrations by physically beating each other.
For me the best isekai is Grimgar, the anime was cool but it doesn’t adapte enough material. But the LN are fantastic, with great world and characters building. And what's make the serie unique: a true underdog story, the characters are nothing special at the begining and when they rise somewhat above the rest, it's throught hardship and suffering (a lot of suffering actually). And the few times they are "lucky" and obtain something rare or unique it allway come with some issue attach to it. Konosuba and Re:Zero are also great. Also "So I'm spider so what?", "Ascendance of a bookworm" and "Mushoku Tensei" which are going to get an anime this year are all great series.
I really wanted to like So I'm spider, so what, but god...after a certain point I just couldn't empathize with the MC anymore. I kinda hated her and wanted her to stop her bullshit.
My friend and I have been watching some of these shows recently, including "Overlord," "Sword Art Online," "Konosuba," and "Reincarnated as a Slime." I say you summed up their appeal pretty well. Speaking of this genre, it also seems to be cropping up in Western animation as of late. Shows like "Owl House," "Amphibia," and "Infinity Train" also deal with kids/teens traveling to a fantasy world and dealing with crazy shenanigans. If those become super popular, I wouldn't be surprised if we got more cartoons following this path.
I think isekai is broader than that. Some isekai are pure escapism eith over powered protags that never face challenge. See slime, SAO and wisemans grandson. Sone are about effort rewarded. See re:zero & shield guy. Some are also about unfairness like overlord &konosuba. Basically the appeal is more specific than overarching genre stero types.
The appeal is another world. The transferred protagonist is just a convenient plot device to explain how different this other world but the appeal is the new world.
And the fact that online gaming by the time SAO aired (specifically the MMORPG genre) was on its full rage with titles like WoW, Guilds of War and Tera and with the pioneers that got the land ready like iRO and Tibia.
@stockart whiteman Very different I would argue, Alice is one of my favourite books of all time, and its surrealist fantasy, its not really classical fantasy like that shown in Isekai. Harry Potter is also not that similar, its modern fantasy, taking place in our world, with real life consequences(supposedly).
@@MrValdac He still enters a "different" world though, just one that always existed rather than one that he needs to be physically transported to. It's actually a pretty good example of the kind of writing that isekai stories use. The main character is constantly told he is "special," the world is very rooted in traditional, familiar fantasy, and most people in this new world know of him and like him for some reason, except the very obvious, not-subtle-at-all villain characters. Japan just took this concept and refined it to be 100 times more tasteless and pandering by making the protagonist a characterless blank slate for views to self-insert into and adding a harem for him (did I mention the main character absolutely has to be a teenaged male, preferably a gamer/otaku/loner because that is the target audience?).
The LitRPG genre boom came out of the same place the anime isekai boom did, SAO (it was a light novel series before it was an anime), with some help from Legendary Moonlight Sculptor and The Gamer.
Kuro_Neko 2005-2015 was the Era of Dengeki Bunko. Literally almost all of the most popular LNs were owned by the same company. ZnT(Familiar of Zero) was the most popular Isekai before the author died of cancer and before SAO sold several million copies even before the anime aired. But SAO was the one all the casuals liked. Alizication came out when SAO aired. I was such a big fan I spent 50 hours reading everything the week before episode 4 aired. The story was very convoluted. I remember reading to the point where the ship Kirito was on got attacked by the laughing coffin leader [ Prince of Hell] who apparently was Korean and hated Japanese people. There was a giant Orc invasion inside the game and members of the invasion force attacking the ship jump into the game joining the orcs, while Kirito’s daughter becomes a sentient AI and calls all of his friends from his SAO/ALO days to join his side. Kirito uses his black blade which apparently can trap the laughing coffin leader in a giant tree and his dead friend Eugeo’s ice sword to defeat the leader of the invasion. Then apparently kirito and Asuna are unable to leave the game in time and spend 100 years inside and somehow not die. SAO got too complicated for me
It was funny when Syosetsuka, the home of original Japanese web novels, frigging banned Isekai because of all of the authors trying to mimic No Game No Life and other isekai novel's success.
@@lucas9269 SHORT ANSWER: I read Alizcation over 5 years ago translated on Baka-Tsuki before the site got nuked by copy-right. The translator was this guy Teh_Ping. LONG ANSWER: When I first started reading SAO about 7 years ago(oh my god I am old, even though I am barely legal to drink). There was this famous LN website called Baka-tsuki, Baka-tsuki famously hosted a full free translation of all the Haruhi books before it fully transitioned to a full LN site. I came after Haruhi translation was nuked by copyright. Oh my god, I remember spending an entire week of my summer vacation dedicated to reading 50 hours of all 10 volumes of SAO that came out during that time, because I could not wait for the next episode to come out. I absolutely hated reading before SAO. I literally did nothing but eat, sleep, and read. I remember I was so anxious after reading that Kirito got stabbed by Johnny Black and becomes brain dead. Somewhere within that 50 hours, I realized I actually enjoyed reading LNs, and then transitioned to reading all of Toradora!, Index, Shakugan no Shana, Kaze no Stigma, ZnT(Familiar of Zero), Baka to Test, Fate/Zero, Anohana, e.t.c But then news came that the author of ZnT was dying of cancer, then the author of Kaze no Stigma died in a car crash, then Hachette Book started Licensing all of Dengeki Bunko's books, and the site was nuked once again by copyright. RANT BELOW: PLEASE IGNORE. This was when the final volume of Alizication of SAO was coming out too, so I was really really pissed. I have waited over 5 years and only next month does the official english translation finally return to same spot it was 5 years ago. Today, I no longer have any choice, all my LNs must come from a Kinokuniya. The official English translation is also pretty unfaithful, seeing "Miles". "Feet","Fahrenheit temperatures" is very painful. It is also painful to see all of the characters calling others by their first name instead of family name before they get close. The worst culprit was Oregairu. Oregairu was a famous LN because the author shoved in as many Anime, Manga, VN, Videogames, e.t.c references as he possibly could into each volume. There were forums dedicated to discussing the subtle nuances found in both the book and the show. The appeal of Oregairu was that rereading any one of the volumes gives you new insight into the characters, kinda like reading Higurashi for the first time. What Yen On did to Oregairu LNs was disgusting.
I think your best point is seeing characters struggle and be rewarded for it is the biggest appeal of Isekai for me, that's definitely why I got so big into "So I'm a spider so what" and "Death Mage doesn't want a 4th time" which neither is anime (at least not yet, former has had an announcement and latter will likely get one given a year or two) both of those made me accept the OP MC becausethey only got OP after fighting for their lifes and going through more hardship than most people, it's also nice to see their struggle and how they slowly overcome it. Same goes for the recent Shield Hero you kind of end up rooting for the MC due to elements of an underdog story, personally I'm also a big fan of how the appearance of people from our world appeairng in these fantasy worlds disturbs the flow of events through overpowering forces (like in Gate and Overlord) or knowledge like in Log Horizon and plenty others where they play with characters bringing modern age technology into a medieval environment and accelerating an industrial revolution. tldr: There's a lot that can be done with the Isekai setting and while plenty go for generic shit (Kenja no Mago this season for example) there are plenty which execute them in interesting ways.
I watch/read a whole lot of isekai, but to be honest I just love fantasy so much that I scrape the bottom of the barrel to get more of it. The only times I really care about Isekai is when the work immediately forgets it's an isekai and not straight fantasy, or it goes to the other end of the spectrum and incorporates elements of the protagonist's Isekainess thoroughly into the story.
Your point on the being relatable and stopping to explain the world is a good reason I think that Dr stone is very popular it may be technically seeing as a isakai in some people's eyes but is in the same world and has the same history and ordinary people in it
I feel like "Isekai" is just like the "Moe" "boom" where a label is slapped on an already existing premise or aspect in anime. Yeah there is a period where there is more then the usual amount which justifies the terming of a "boom", but to treat it like a fad or trend is a bit shortsighted and just hating on a coined term just because it got coined. In honesty I just see it more as a boom in fantasy in general. All the "Isekai" element adds is a shortcut to explaining a character's level of experience or a method of introducing "powers" without having to explain it in detail, working on justifying it or shaping a world around it if the creator so chooses not to. Not necessarily "lazy" writing but just a convenient launching point so the author or writers can get into the story they want to tell.
My favorite is still 12 kingdoms. The characters gradually changing goals as she understands more about the world almost makes you forget its an isekai.
I was thinking about making a video about why Isekai is so popular for a long time but always was too busy. While looking through your channel I came across this video unwatched and thought I might give it a try. And after watching it I no longer feel the need to make a video explaining this topic. I can agree with everything said and you explained all you said perfectly. Great video and thanks. You sir are amazing! :D
Question- have there been any isekai where the isekai’d character goes to a world with very advanced technology or that is futuristic, rather than medieval fantasy or a historical world?
I guess that's the reason why isekai never particularly caught my eye. I watched some and enjoyed them, but outside of Konosuba (and that is mainly due to its comedy more than the isekai setting), none really hit even close to my favorite anime. I believe that the unfairness that the real world has has its beauty, sort to speak. I suffered it, I've seen really good people close to me suffer it, and I know how much it hurts. But it exists, it will happen, and getting over that feeling of unfairness is what makes succeeding so satisfying. I can relate to the suffering of unfairness that we can see in shows like The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, for example. As a matter of fact, that same relatable feeling is what has it so high up on my favorite anime of all time list, despite the show having basically no plot line. I believe that the beauty of failing is learning and improving for it. Understanding that its ok to feel bad when we feel the world is not fair, its ok to cry and want to give up. But that feeling goes away, and you can take it and use it as fuel to get what you want. Because... Well, after all, it is what YOU want.
my dude, inuyasha could've been this if they didn't do that weird ass "actually it's time travel" shit and just made it a genuine story about kagome and inuyasha "bonding" in some japanese feudal era-esque world in the hopes of retrieving the mitama thing.
(I've not yet finished Inuyasha) (*spoiler alert. I'm a tad above the episode 100*) I think this time travel shit is quite pleasant. Mostly for comic relief but still ... Seeing Kagome juggle between her "you're a reincarnation of a priestess who was somehow resurrected and is stealing the souls of freshly died girls" life and her horrendous school life which drove so many before her to literal suicide *IS* funny. Kagome - who can barely fight - protected her family in recent times. The strength she's shown was not only out of love for Inuyasha or necessity but also out of love for her family. She knows that the Shikon jewel *MUST* be whole again. She's seen it whole in recent times. That's why she's so adamantly trying to reunite all the pieces. Get that time travel shit out of the way then she'd have had no reason to go on a quest with Inuyasha, to begin with.
Tbh all but the average isekai are nice. Overlord is p great. Drifters has me wanting more, konosuba is topteir and re:zero is like the classic best. Tanya the evil will make you want to read the book, which is a v difficult book to get into bc how it basically stops time for people to think all the time in a difficult to understand way occasionally
Grimgar, by leaps and bounds. There are soooo many reasons why, but their first goblin kill is an early and excellent example. Grimgar is the series that got me into light novels (and the light novels for it are even better).
Same, it's by far my favorite LN. I love the fact that the characters they have to earn anything, through hardship. On an other note If you like Grimgar you should try The faraway paladin, the MC is powerfull but it has the same "realistic" vibe.
Same here! To me, Grimgar epitomizes what it means to really struggle and earn what you deserve. I connect with it because the same struggle occurs in real life to me, and presumably most others. Best of all, it doesn't brush away negative emotions and sadness (you know what I'm talking about) but rather follows the cast as they learn to cope with it.
I know Im late to the party but ima tell you anyways: my favorite isekai (and in general my favorite anime) is Youjo Senki (Saga of Tanya the Evil). I like that even if she's OP, this sometimes backfires on her, like the time when she proposes a genius plan for a rapid response mage batallion and then gets assigned as its leader when all she wants is to live peacefully in the capital and kill the being that reincarnated her (or him) into a this world.
Its easy for many of us to get into these kinds of stories because we are BURNT OUT on this world, interesting as it may be, because we will never have great adventures, fight incredible foes and not die, and have meaningful relationships with people around us who also lead interesting lives. People get sucked into another world and find motivations they never had before and see nothing but opportunity- and are often rewarded for seizing those opportunities. It doesn't often bog them down in the details of how they obtained and maintained shelter, how they get food and clean water, how they maintained a day to day survival. A common joke in escapist fantasy is "a story where our effort is met with compensation adequate for us to thrive on, not just be a struggling peasant". But somehow even THOSE Isekai are getting popular, where people get sucked in and just want to live a modest life where they enjoy themselves peacefully and maybe help others. No grand adventure, no daring heroics, no cliffhanging danger. Some of these satisfy the fantasy of just wanting to live a peaceful life where we aren't exploited for our labor and people like us and want to spend time with us.
I think Isekai's popularity also relies on the feeling of the audience relating to being outcasts in their own lives and wanting a reset in life where their destiny becomes some grand adventure instead of the humdrum everyday lives they are forced to live in the real world. Even with the present danger of armies of the undead, classism from medieval nobility and the difficulty of surviving in a new environment with alien obstacles to overcome, there persists a potential for a different destiny that is no longer available in the modern corporatist world in which we live.
@@acetheblackfalcon Well, yeah, it's the story of a bunch of underdogs who weren't smart or brave enough to take the first step and gather the cool members. The guy with glasses took the lead and created a party with the guys he saw more fit to the task and leaved the mediocre protags behind.
One of my favorite Isekai right now is Exterminator where a guy who was in pest control in our world passes away & comes to in a medieval fantasy setting with his knowledge of pesticides & traps and continues to make his living by getting rid of trash mob monsters that no one wants to bother with & he's so good at it w/o putting too much effort into it that he low key becomes stronger than the legendary heroes who stopped the demon king. And he doesn't want to go save the world or anything, he just wants to travel around & deal with pests. It's a fun read & I hope chapters can come out faster & it gets more traction so we can see an anime.
just, don't combine the two. (As in a Isekai character as your DND character.) I played with someone like that once, it was actual hell listening to the DM explain to the PC why their word wasn't like theirs. It was one of the few times i ever quit a campaign in the middle of a session.
Re-Zero hands down. Tho it is funny and I never thought about when I was younger but Inuyasha was what got me into anime, along with Ninja Scroll. Wich idk why I was aloud to watch that at my age.
I tryed to re-watch it a bit ago and just couldn't. It seemed way to different from what I remembered and didn't want to ruin the memories. Never meet your hero kids, unless it's for work.
Reminds me of one of my favorite song lyrics: "Everybody likes to get taken for turns, to see how bright the fire inside of us burns" Tally Hall-Turn the Lights Off
Idk, I've loved it since I first read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and The wizard of Oz as a kid. Before I even discovered anime, I wanted to see, or read, more of that genre of fantasy.
I'm okay with it, if anything it's just good to know some writers were able to make something good out of that mess. SAO being the boom of Isekai gives me hope for humanity.
although it would had been much better if Accel World was the one who caused it, even if it was by the same guy, the narrative was a lot better and would have leaded towards less mediocre anime being made
There's no isekai anime this season that's worth watching. Last season there was just Shield Hero. Before that Reincarnated as a Slime. Before that Overlord S3 and How Not to Summon a Demon Lord. There is only about one or two series a season that are any good and they are quite good.
I was a little worried halfway through the episode that there wouldn't be much substance to the video, but you hit the nail on the head with some great insight and analysis. I like "Slime" (TTIGRAAS) because even villains seem understandable, relatable, and possibly redeemable.
"in such a world a ... guy like you would end up on top like you deserve to be; and that ignores the distinct possibility that the root cause of life's unfairness is the idea that anyone deserves to be on top in the first place." Jeff going low-key Anarchist on us
Without having watched the video, the two reasons for the overabundance of Isekai's are: 1. The escapist fantasy of it 2. Lazy writing (Since its much easier to do exposition dumps when the mc knows just as little as we do)
Rise of the Shield Hero & That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime are joining Re:Zero, No Game No Life, Log Horizon, and Sword Art Online as some of my favorite isekais.
I haven’t seen Shield Hero, but I’ve read the manga, and it’s probably the best example of the hero going through hardships to achieve their fate I’ve seen in ages.
For me there's no long explanation for why I happen to watch and like some isekais. They just happen to be good entertaining shows with cool characters.
that is very easy, 3 thigs, 1: Power Quest: many isekai have Blank character this allow the Reader to put himself in the place 2: is easy to read, the isekai plot allow the Writer to basic use a cheater code to write some things like exposition 3: impossible situations Like Robots Vs Ninjas or something like that
Hi mother's basement! I know I have mentioned this before, but I *really* want you to make a video about an anime named "The disastrous life of Saiki K" in part because of it's similarity to Mob Psycho 100 and how the primary goal of the main character is the exact opposite of most isekai protagonists: wanting to become as normal as possible.
Because it's easy to do fantasy exposition in isekai stories and Light Novel authors are most of all lazy? 1:32 Ok that was fast.... even right down to the "lazy" part. But these days, we're getting "fantasy world as RPG video game even when the world isn't" stories which is just another layer of laziness on top of that. It won't be long until a light novel consists of a few key images, a list of characters and a plot outline. Wait... that's just a pitch for its anime, isn't it?
Having a "fantasy world as RPG game even when the world isn't" doesn’t mean it's lazy, it can be, but it's just a trope it all fall down to what the author do with it. A good exemple would be "So I'm spider so what?" Which despite it's strange premice is a great book with great writing, the kind you can read multiples time and still get as much enjoyment as the first time cause you notice more and more hints of what's really happening in the background and shaping the story, which you don't notice during your first read and totaly change the way you see what's happening. Obviously there's also things like Re:monster, which is just terrible, in that case the world building isn't the biggest problem tho.
Isn't Kobyashi's Dragon Maid a reverse Isekai? Ultra-powerful fantasy character gets plopped into the real world and has to adjust? Also that Simpsons Treehouse of Horror where Homer gets turned 3D and comes to the real world.
"Perhaps that's why worlds that operate on RPG logic or other game rules are so prevalent and appealing." I'm going to disagree. I believe that the prevalent of RPG logic in Isekai genre is because those writing the Isekai light novels don't know actual book based sword and sorcery type fantasy. Instead they learned fantasy from playing JRPG video games.
I don't know if it's that the writers have no other sources to pull from, or that they assume games are a common denominator for their audience. In the era when series like Bastard or Lodoss were written, you could assume everyone was sort of familar with Lord of the Rings / Dungeons & Dragons type fantasy, even in Japan. But nowadays, even in a small group of similarly-geeky friends, there really aren't as many universal touchstones as there used to be.
I never really thought about which isekai is my favourite but I know why I love them. The sense of escapism and accomplishment in knowing all there is to know about something. I love mediums that allow me to be able to see a world where anything can happen and the depth of said world. Once I like a certain game or show, I do extensive research on what makes it tick and figure out how to min-max it once I get bored of the main story. Learning about something is amazing and I always get gated by people irl when I want to learn more. I even get shit on for studying more than intended in school and got shot down whenever I want to start learning about a new random chapter in the textbook for instance. Having nothing to hold me back and rewarded for it relieves me of the chains that was shackled onto me when I was younger. I'd type more but I'm pressed for time atm but basically what I'm trying to say is I love the depth in world-building and escapism that isekai offers me
A depressing Isekai about a fantasy character coming to our world and learning there is no magic having to get a real job as the world slowly breaks them down until they accept the mediocrity of existence.
Hooray for existential dread!
Tyrone Chillifoot yes
devil has a part-time job?
@Austin's Games I mean, he did struggle to feed himself at first
@Austin's Games
At least you're a totally hopeless person you don't just starve to death.
At some point you get a better job or you get better in your own job and you somwhat you balance your life even in a meager salary
I prefer the original Isakai.
*Fushigi Yûgi starts playing.*
I said the ORIGINAL isakai.
*Alice in Wonderland starts playing.*
Perfection.
We can go deeper into the rabbit hole. There were "abducted into faerie world/realm" before Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. Heck, some people consider Divine Comedy an isekai.
Orpheus and Eurydice called. It wants its title back.
NO! THE ORIGINAL!
*Begins reading Dante's inferno aloud*
@@Eanki_ Dante is best girl. Obligatory hot spring episode at the second circle.
@@heek8964 **laughs in Orpheus and Eurydice**
Isekai will never die. It'll just get reincarnated into another world.
Take my upvote and go away please
XD LOL well. . . you're not wrong
Fucking boooooooooooo
💀💀
...with a smartphone.
"The problem with escapism only comes when you get lost in the fantasy, and let it serve as a substitute for trying to make the world you DO live in more like the one you WANT to live in" Golden words man.
Please pin this up.
have you watched Evangelion?
I use to read a lot of Isekai/ Xianxia novels when I was younger (early 20's, stuck in community college, broke, and a little over weight). Then I decided to do something about it to change that. I'm still far from my ideal self but looking back I've come a long way from what I use to be. To anyone who's in that stage, don't lose hope, keep trying even when you fail. The two most important things a person can do, is to take the first step and to take the next.
@@Fish-ub3wn meh it's just a quote
Are we just gonna ignore these classic western isekai- The Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland
Yes
you mean "portal fantasy" genre/troops?
I was just glad he at least acknowledged Escaflowne as part of the *decades* of earlier (sometimes better, sometimes not) genre examples. About the only thing that stands out to me in this current crop is that they all follow the same "write-by-numbers" formula, with exceedingly slight variations.
Narnia nyuka
The ones that started it all.
Never forget, people. Never forget.
My favorite Isekai Anime is Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
This niga
xDDDDDDDDD
Holy shit
LMFAO
What the fuck?! lol
Oh, I can answer that in under 5 seconds: The existential cry for wanting to die and be reborn in a world with actual meaning!
It will continue being such and will worsen as our corporate overlords tighten the grips they have over our wallets and our lives.
No Game No Life in a nutshell
@@SuikaNine
It will continue such as long our sun doesn't imlpode on itself
World had no meaning before megacorporations and it will have no meaning long after humand kind no longer exists
I can't tell if you're saying that neets are suicidal or revealing the truth to us mortals
ILiekFishes depending on multiple factors, easily both.
Proud of you, man - it took four minutes before even a hint of SAO showed up in the video. Time heals all wounds.
@KingShoter007 Yep. form the newest season. those who dont watch it wont catch it lol
im 2 years late but actually 1:10 has the first bit of SAO. Bottom right corner.
Personally I prefer Western isekai like Alice in Wonderland, Wizards of Oz, Caroline and Mirror Mask.
Instead of being an escape from reality. They provide a break from reality. At the end of the story they come back to the real world and the experience from the other world may even help them deal with whatever problem is bothering them.
Isekai anime on the other hand tend to end with the MC lives happily ever after with his harem. Leaving the viewer thinking " Well. Guess I'll go back to my shitty life now " 😑
The fascinating thing is that “traditional” fantasy, if we’re separating fantasy from mythology, is that it was Isekai. For the longest time authors felt the need to make some connection between the mundane world and the fantasy world, generally through the protagonist being transported there for one reason or another. It wasn’t until Tolkien came along that authors began to accept that a fantasy world could be its own stand alone world on a broad scale. What we’re seeing is a very interesting return to form for the fantasy genre.
@mechaguess I think the OP was referring to Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz and the Chronicles of Narnia.
Shower thought: The Chronicles of Narnia was one of the first formula isekai series. Not counting Alice in Wonderland.
AGREED! Those, and Wizard of Oz made me love this genre of fantasy before I even discovered anime.
Harry Potter is basically also Isekai
@@Marxist-Nixonist-Bidenist Yeah, no. Harry is from that world, the Dursley's know and acknowledge the existence of that works, because it's not a separate world, just a hidden society in the world that already exists. Isekai literally means "Another World".
Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in 1889, and that was as formula as it gets. John Carter of Mars is also older than Narnia by several decades. There's obviously more, like some already mentioned Oz.
@@ExeloMinish I think my real question is that did Westerners create the "isekai" genre WAY before Japan popularized it?
"Where the effort they put in to better their lot in life and the choices they make will... actually matter and lead to some kind of tangible result."
I think this sums up why I like narratives, period. Stories with a positive arc fill this need for me while tragedies fill a sort of empathetic response for understanding when that doesn't happen.
Like character type narratives or just Story narratives? also can Tragedies be considered like negative Character arcs?
Yeah I mean that quote basically alot of other genres as well so I don't feel as if it's the core of why Isekai is popular. I means it's a reason but I feel as if it's one of the more pandering one for this genre.
Futurama is an Isekai.
Don't @ me.
You’re not wrong.
No,Futurama is better than isekai anime
Not wrong.
You're right.
well it's more isekai than SAO
Thinking about it, the the hypocrisy that otaku would rather conquer the unfair hierarchy with OP magic powers rather than question its legitimacy helps explain the popularity of the harem genre. One man stringing along a bunch of girls is bullshit and cruel, unless it's happening to me then it's fun and totally fine.
Can't tell if thick bait or thick skull is behind your comment, good sir/madam
Neymar-kun is transported into another world where he is incredible talented in ball magic, and now with the help of his harem he have to fight against evil demon Lord Messi to be the best ball magician of the world.
I have to agree that harem and isekai most of the time lead to shit, but there are lots of isekais without harem. Harem is just a sub-genre and not the genre itself
@lime lassen
Or..... you could stop being unlikable and stop complaining about dumb shit.
There aren't many harems where one guy strings along a bunch of girls. Most of the time it's the girls who won't give up no matter what he does. Like kirito explicitly having a girlfriend or issei obviously liking Rias and all the other girls aspiring to either replace her or be his #1 side girl
It's quite depressing in some ways that the most reasonable explanation for the largest genre boom of recent history is that people want to believe that there's a world out there where their hard work matters.
hard work only matters if its combined with intelligence or some kind of talent. just like how talent or simply being intelligent on it's own isn't enough, hard work on it's own isn't enough either
@@williamwoolf8072 Hard work without talent can be enough. It's just means you'll have to work much harder.
@@riakriak7270 not always. think about it. somebody who works just as hard as you but also has talent will beat you 10 times out of 10. thinking you're the only person that can work hard and talented people are automatically lazy is nothing but arrogance
@@williamwoolf8072 I meant that you'll have to work much harder than the ones that have talent and work hard. you can still accomplish a lot if you do, even if it's not as much as those with talent.
@@riakriak7270 again arrogance. im saying in a competition like sports or a piano competition or dance competition, there's no guarantee you can work harder than someone else. you can work 16 hours a day but somebody with talent can also work 16 hours a day and beat you 10/10 times
You forgot the best Isekai of all time: Army of Darkness.
groovy
Yes.
Or Brutal Legend
@@SgtKaneGunlock YES!
THIS! IS! MY! BOOMSTICK!!!!
Mother's basement : Why is Isekai popular ?
Me : I dunno, because it's nice to see other worlds ?
M O : It's because you want to matter
Me : *tears up*
isekai is just late-stage capitalism cashing in on itself. engineer the demand that you then meet. that said, it's one of my favorite genres.
There are some isekai and reverse isekai scenarios I would like to see: a non otaku ends up in a fantasy world, doesn't know about fantasy tropes and offers non standard solutions to problems; a woman ends up getting an accidental female harem that she doesn't want; an isekai where instead of the characters being transported to a Tolkien/Japanese RPG setting they are sent to a setting of another kind of mythology (Mayan mythology, East European mythology, Hawaiian mythology, Chinese mythology, Indian mythology, Irish mythology, etc.); a reverse isekai where fantasy characters appear in this world, and instead of getting angsty because of our world they prove to a cynical protagonist that their ideals can help people in the real world in realistic ways.
Its incredible that most of your recommendations are pretty common nowadays😂❤
That moment when you realise Guardians of the Galaxy is an isekai story
NANI?!!
SOKA....
😱
What? No it’s not. He grew up in space, so its not “another world.”
@@AnkhAnanku he was 10 when he went to space, which is only 4 years younger than Kirito when he got trapped in SAO. He had 10 years of growing up in our world before being whisked away to another world (or worlds in his case)
My favorite isekai is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Series
I see...which one? Mine is explorers of time :)
I only played Explorers of Darkness and Red Rescue Team. Out of the two, I love explorers darkness. I also enjoyed reading the manga Ginji' Rescue Team. I hope Pokemon will pick up on the popularity of the isekai genre and revitalize the mystery dungeon series even if it seems unlikely.
@exar kun no idea. Maybe you should do an image search?
Holy shit being reincarnated as a Pokemon when I was a kid was so cool.
I wish it would get an anime adaptation
@exar kun Well good luck with NGNL since that series is in indefinite hiatus cause of the scandal with the author.
after one isekai died, another one is reincarnated to replace it
cut off one isekai and two more shall take its place
Yuuki from SAO's Mother Rosario arc is a good example of escapism with isekai. ALO gave her a means to live life to the fullest despite being terminally ill in real life. Meeting Asuna along with the Sleeping Knights guild, allowed her to spend her final moments surrounded by her friends and the players who respect her.
Recently on a convention I've been to a lecture about isekai genre. Basically, the lecturer discussed older isekai shows (like Fushigi Yuugi), rise of modern trends in isekai, whether or not isekai is a genre or just a setting, common themes, the target audience and how many writers try to deconstruct its tropes. It was interesting but what I remember the most is that by the end of the lecture she summarized it by saying that isekai is basically a "harlequin for weebs" in terms of wish-fulfillment, and, well, it's hard to disagree with that.
I prefer group Isekai. I like the idea of a normal group of people growing closer and awesome together through adversity. I've had the idea of a band or theatre troupe being, well, kidnapped by fate and dropped in a premodern world for a while now, with them becoming a group of travelling actors who recreate modern plays, movies and music.
That's a really cool idea
I'm right now remembering Jane Yolen's "The Devil's Arithmetic," where a 1980s girl opens the door for Elijah at the family seder and pops into the body of her counterpart in 1942.
By the time they arrive at the inevitable part of the story, no one believes her warnings about what's going to happen if they go with these smiling men in the leather suits and get on the train cars, because she's been telling the other kids stories of movies, like The Wizard Of Oz and such, and they chalk it up to that. And her amnesia.
Hentai was the innovation that started the concept of isekai
we can't have those tentacles in this world can we?
Or Dark Elves.
Francesco Uccelli papa need his dark elves
This is underworld summoned tentacles errasure
Yo, search "jav tentacles"
I'm .... sorry?
Not with that attitude.
What Caused Anime's Isekai Boom?
People assuming there's 0 chance of a harem of hot girls in this world, but maybe in a different one...
Let's face it, it's still 0%.
harems don't just fall into your lap. you've got to make them happen by making yourself desirable.
I'd prefer a dark and thrilling one, but the MC isn't powerless. I do like re zero, but everytime i think about it, i can't sleep.
@@cobrakingofeart if someone isn't goodlooking enough for the Women ten that doesn't really work.
It most of the time doesn't matter if you can build anything out of wood if the girl you love likes the Plumper from Brazil because he is hot. And you can "buy" Women with Money but that isn't what someone should want. Fact is that Life can and will be a Bitch sometimes and you can't really controll it.
@@kingknightisbestknight7398 desirable doesn't mean good looking. i didn't say anything about the quality of women, harem just implies a bunch of them. no matter what way you slice it though, getting a harem takes work. be it money, knowledge or (augmented) looks that you use as a draw in.
having money =/= "buying" women. it means you have future stability which is an attractive quality
p.s. that middle part about carpentry and a plumber sounds personal
I have two theories.
1. Escapism. People want to bring themselves into their media. Seeing the practicalities of bringing your skills/tech into a medieval magical country is explored, as well as having as few or many powers as you wish. Gate and Outbreak mirror each other in how the military and magic can interact in favor of either side.
2. People love shows with great world building. By making a show with a reality tied to fantasy, it’s easier to make a world people can accept. The Wise Man’s Grandson brings the concepts of science and chemistry when he visualizes his Fire Spell for his family; talking about focusing oxygen and the flashpoint. It takes magic and compares and contrasts it to technology and science.
It's basically the same reasoning for religion in a first place. A reason for living. A drive. A wish to do good in one's own eyes. Isekai is basically a new religion.
I agree the first applies most strongly applies to iksekai as its literally selfinsert in an awesome amazing world. However, the second point applies to the fanatsy/scifi genre in general
"2. People love shows with great world building." Exactly, having an Isekai anime is like having a blank canvass.
Zerpderp0 A religion finds meaning in our own world and a purpose to life. Escapism is wanting to reject our current life to make another in a new world.
I suppose you might have some truth if you consider reincarnation-based religions. If you fail in this life, you’ll have another chance in a future life where the culture and/or technology will be vastly different.
I like them because it's normally it's MC vs the world
I reject reality and substitute my own.
~Adam Savage
Which is real the world we live in or the one we create - Stan Lee
~Izzy*
KURTZ
I think it's hard to argue that it's about hard work = results, when so many feature MCs who are mind bogglingly overpowered, but I agree it's about escapism. It's fun to imagine yourself in a generic fantasy world with monsters to kill (or befriend), romance to be found, and goal that must (and can) be accomplished.
Exploration and concrete objectives in life are important things, and they're things we often lack irl. Also it's hard to find isekai anime that don't also pander to male power fantasies over women, so I'm sure that contributes too.
I remember being gifted a dilogy of Spellsinger books as a kid: it was about a pothead law student who was whisked away to another world by mistake - the old turtle mage wanted to enlist the help of a mighty "engineer" of whom the legends sang, but messed up the summoning spell a bit and got the right university but the wrong student. Honestly the best isekai novel you'll ever read.
My opinion on the whole escapist mentality (being an escapist-in-idea-only person myself) is that the sentiment is there, but it's usually taken out the wrong way. I'm really happy because this video gave me a new perspective on an idea that I didn't really have much understanding of (experience of, yes, but not an understanding) and being able to put it into words is a nice touch. The ideas you talk about, wanting a better world that (for some means bending down to their every will) for most means a *fair and just world*, is nice. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting an objectively better world. I guess the obvious answer is people look at that concept with the wrong sorts of eyes.
I think one of the biggest driving forces of escapism isn't "my life sucks", but more "my life sucks because my hard work goes nowhere" (discussed in the video). Regardless of whether that particular person isn't actually putting in enough effort in the first place (cough cough, me) or if they just aren't good enough, the sad truth is that a *lot* of people never actually get rewarded for the work they put in. In the world we live in, there are a lot of factors of everyday life that reward those who prioritize reward-over-effort and there's not really much we can do about it. Looking at the world through the eyes of an "RPG Lens" (discussed in the video), with actions that get actively rewarded and make significant changes in the world through hard work is a major part of the escapism, far beyond the genre of isekai.
And there's the second major part of escapism. Actually having your actions matter. Feeling like a cog in the machine is not a new concept by any regard, and yet it still gets people thinking when portrayed in media. In a world where, unless you become one of the 0.1 percent, your actions only matter on a local, lifespan-long time, it's quite a depressing fact. Wanting to escape from that into a world where you're the protagonist (this factor more tilting to the unhealthy side of escapism) isn't really hatable. After all, who can blame a person who wants to actually have an effect on the world?
I guess this all just rounds off to the old Syndrome quote. "If everyone's super, then no one is". You can't have an escapist world where you aren't some form of the center of attention. Not necessarily the hero, mind you, but still an important piece of the world. If everyone was transported to any isekai world, then I wouldn't doubt it would be much the same. The reward for transporting yourself to an escapist world is individual (or at least very small-grouped), and thus "if everyone was in a perfect world, then no one would". You can't exactly be the center of attention, or affect the world in a meaningful way (easily) if there are 7.5 billion other people doing the exact same thing.
I dunno. It's just a bit sad I guess. I don't agree with people who get hung up about their escapism (or worse, follow them), but I do at least understand them on a personal level. I guess my most-wanted escapist world is one exactly the same as our own, just without the horrible global warming, oceans dying, forests being torn down, animals going extinct, solar flares and meteorites that could wipe out life as we know it, nuclear weapons owned by egomaniacs, soil degradation, ozone destruction, etc. It's just... yeah. Basically, a world where nothing changes for us, but the outside does. So we can focus our attention on ourselves rather than fixing the mess we already made.
Personally I see the Isekai genre as more of a question in the chemistry between the protagonist and the world he/she is interacting with. In my opinion the immersion of the protagonist and the world is key and how the protagonist overcome the adversities that is put in front of them. I see this akin to how the protagonist reflects to all throughout his/her journey at the end (similar to alice in the wonderland). This in effect how I liked Digimon all throughout (1st one and frontier) as their protagonists all throughout the show explore the world especially how and why they're there while reflecting on what they are and how their relationships with each other deepens through overcoming adversities.
You seen Overlord? I would say this anime tackles these issues best... though what stands to be seen as "adversities" is a little different than something like Digimon, with an underdog protagonist. The protagonist's development is clear enough, but it isn't a matter of realizing himself as much as it is adapting to this new world which he has fully embraced, which could be reasons you won't enjoy it as much. The world though, that's fantastic.
Man, I never realized that Digimon was an isekai. Interesting.
Wait until you realize bleach is an isekai
alice in wonderland was an isekai before isekai was a thing
Jesus was the first Isekai protagonist: change my mind
@@shaneyy__ I'll change it: he's supposed to revive after 3 days, he didn't once go to another world, neither he reincarnate (he used his own body again). The only thing that actually matches Jesus with an isekai protagonit is that both aren't real and are probably not feminists at all.
@@nhaedzwero43 alright you can or can not believe in jesus's resurrection, but you are definitely not educated well at all if you actually believe Jesus doesn't exist, it is literally a fact that he does/did
hey thanks for including Log Horizon as part of your analysis. I had thought it was missing from your earlier videos on isekai and wondered why since it was relatively succesful show at its time
Iseakai has in some ways been with the fantasy genre since its early days in pulp magazines.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series with John Carter of Mars were iseakai and are over a century old. The appeal of the ordinary person transported to another world literary device has been there for a long time for all the reasons Geoff lays out.
An interesting twist is that these sorts of works also shaped the development of RPG rules, which iseakai has now integrated into the genera.
John Carter of Mars is foundational I think for the specific sort of "iseakai" that is big now, and it is often forgotten big in the US fantasy scene of the 60's and 70's.We tend to associate US fantasy with Tolkien knock-offs , but as big Tolkin become in 1965, it takes until 1977's "The Sword of Shannara" to really make that the norm. Until then the average fantasy book has a lot of the pulp to it, often a lot of science fiction elements, and often has a good chance to be about an average dude getting transported to a fantasy world.
It interesting how even as iseakai blows up the major role it had in western made fantasy has remind forgotten, utterly eclipsed by the juggernaut of Tolkin unintionally reshaping western fantasy around himself.
In addition, there’s the even older “A Connecticut Yankee in King’s Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain, which is reminiscent of the the sub-genre of isekai in which the focus is on kingdom-building on using modern knowledge to actually be useful in an otherwise entirely political setting.
@@Treviisolion And there's some chick named Alice who has a thing or two to say about it as well...
@@Treviisolion Also one of the first time travel stories.
...not gonna lie, I would have loved to have had my own Digimon partner or letter to Hogwarts as a kid...
I even made my own Digimon, working out the details for years until I was finally satisfied with it.
Julia Goodwin I like that
Going around with Agumon is much safer than with Asuna
I'd love to hear you talk for hours about Mob Psycho.
Also, with what I've seen so far of One Punch Man season 2, I'm really going to enjoy that.
it’s nice that you made this bc i was actually writing a mini essay on how to use perspective to relay information and the benefit of having a protagonist of a fantasy/ sci-fi story be someone unfamiliar with the world they’re thrown into, both in literature (e.g. harry potter, percy jackson) and isekai anime !!
Don’t forget the classic like Peter Pan and Wizard of Oz
And then there's Tanya the Evil. The isekai to basically flip off god.
Well basically it's not filling the same points of Isekai and is further outside of it than Konosuba or Digimon. Is it anithor world, yes, but it isn't an average nerd, it's the very type of guy who Nerds (and family centric workers) dread to see. Yes the other world has magic, but it's innately unfair and still overshadowed by the interwar period tech as without that tech the magic would be fairly basic (I.E. a fireball from a hand vs a atmospheric vaper bomb for Tanya or a artillery shell from anyone else with a rifle ). NEXT there is the fact that that world is Curbing the escapism, you dont innately want to be there, there isn't any real reward there either only Warhammer fanboys, and similar nutjobs like myself would ever entertain the idea of going there, despite knowing how rare magic is and how aweful the trenches and other battlefields are.
The Similarities to what was presented in this video for most Isekai and Tanya basically end at "in another world". But since Tanya does share a cernal of familiarity with our world she's used to draw us into the other world we get to explore their mentality and views on warfare.
I'd say it is more the god messing with a very determined unbeliever ;)
@@Axterix13 "Being X because lets ignore the fact that i litterally got reincarnsted and am in a entirely new world...it was a freak accident that happened as Being X said so."
@@codyraugh6599 Tanya more believes that Being X is just a far more powerful being and not god.
Tai Prev oh there is a better one The death mage who doesn’t want a fourth time. Mark my words once the manga hits 50chapters in the next 30 years there will be an anime
Nicely delivered video! I'm sort of teetering along the border of getting sick of the abundance of isekai anime despite the fact that it undisputedly remains my #1 favourite genre. Escaflowne and Fushigi Yûgi were my first isekai and are definitely my go-to comfort animes :P
I'm interested in Isekai because it's interesting how the main character adapts to a fantasy world and what knowledge they can use from our normal world. They're just a lot of fun to watch.
around 6-12 months ago, I found your channel and knew almost nothing about anime. But now, I have already watched most of the series referenced on this episode. And it was such a good time watching them. Thanks for creating this channel bro. And continue having success doing what you love. Help a lot weaboos like me
Welcome brother
what about John carter, the OG Isekai.
i’m not going to lie, it does have an interesting concept, he dosent have magic or anything, but he pretty much has super strength and inhuman abilities because the gravity of the world is less denser than earths.
i would like to see a similar idea in another Isekai, MC has no magic, but the environment improves his physical abilities.
John Carter is technically a *sci-fi* isekai, something that pretty much doesn't exist in modern anime, since pretty much every show this season reuses the same generic fantasy RPG style world setting
Honestly, I'd pay to see an isekai where the MC gets reincarnated into the future, with aliens and space travel or something like that
@@justzack641 Inuyasha is a time travel story not another world story but otherwise I'd say it's a Isekai in a non-generic world, at least to us westerners not familiar with yokai.
To me, it's the potential to be a super powered being that is protected by plot armor. A waifu or five helps too.
Only five?
well, people don't like being salesmen stuck in a boring office job
they want to see what would happen if they were transported to an interesting world
I seen it... A LOT!
I'm partial to the Demon King, who learns how to deep fry food.
@Austin's Games there are a few isekai like that
Well this world is interesting, is full of mysteries, really cool stuff and awesome people, maybe the one who is not interesting, is the person who wants to reincarnate.
Or they're a recall coordinator for a major car company and create an alternate personality they can project and talk to who embodies all the unshackled destructive desires of that person. And together they form a club where guys release their existential dread and frustrations by physically beating each other.
For me the best isekai is Grimgar, the anime was cool but it doesn’t adapte enough material. But the LN are fantastic, with great world and characters building. And what's make the serie unique: a true underdog story, the characters are nothing special at the begining and when they rise somewhat above the rest, it's throught hardship and suffering (a lot of suffering actually). And the few times they are "lucky" and obtain something rare or unique it allway come with some issue attach to it.
Konosuba and Re:Zero are also great. Also "So I'm spider so what?", "Ascendance of a bookworm" and "Mushoku Tensei" which are going to get an anime this year are all great series.
I love grimgar to. It felt so grounded
I really wanted to like So I'm spider, so what, but god...after a certain point I just couldn't empathize with the MC anymore. I kinda hated her and wanted her to stop her bullshit.
Jeeesus. Why is Grimgar not getting a second season two, yet
My friend and I have been watching some of these shows recently, including "Overlord," "Sword Art Online," "Konosuba," and "Reincarnated as a Slime." I say you summed up their appeal pretty well.
Speaking of this genre, it also seems to be cropping up in Western animation as of late. Shows like "Owl House," "Amphibia," and "Infinity Train" also deal with kids/teens traveling to a fantasy world and dealing with crazy shenanigans. If those become super popular, I wouldn't be surprised if we got more cartoons following this path.
I think isekai is broader than that. Some isekai are pure escapism eith over powered protags that never face challenge. See slime, SAO and wisemans grandson. Sone are about effort rewarded. See re:zero & shield guy. Some are also about unfairness like overlord &konosuba.
Basically the appeal is more specific than overarching genre stero types.
The appeal is another world. The transferred protagonist is just a convenient plot device to explain how different this other world but the appeal is the new world.
I blame SAO, though there are obviously earlier examples, SAO caused it to blow up in the west.
And the fact that online gaming by the time SAO aired (specifically the MMORPG genre) was on its full rage with titles like WoW, Guilds of War and Tera and with the pioneers that got the land ready like iRO and Tibia.
@stockart whiteman Very different I would argue, Alice is one of my favourite books of all time, and its surrealist fantasy, its not really classical fantasy like that shown in Isekai. Harry Potter is also not that similar, its modern fantasy, taking place in our world, with real life consequences(supposedly).
@@MrValdac He still enters a "different" world though, just one that always existed rather than one that he needs to be physically transported to. It's actually a pretty good example of the kind of writing that isekai stories use. The main character is constantly told he is "special," the world is very rooted in traditional, familiar fantasy, and most people in this new world know of him and like him for some reason, except the very obvious, not-subtle-at-all villain characters. Japan just took this concept and refined it to be 100 times more tasteless and pandering by making the protagonist a characterless blank slate for views to self-insert into and adding a harem for him (did I mention the main character absolutely has to be a teenaged male, preferably a gamer/otaku/loner because that is the target audience?).
It’s not just anime- in direct ebook and self-publish works there’s a *BOOM* for the LitRPG genre. It just kinda came out of nowhere in that regard.
The LitRPG genre boom came out of the same place the anime isekai boom did, SAO (it was a light novel series before it was an anime), with some help from Legendary Moonlight Sculptor and The Gamer.
Kuro_Neko
2005-2015 was the Era of Dengeki Bunko. Literally almost all of the most popular LNs were owned by the same company.
ZnT(Familiar of Zero) was the most popular Isekai before the author died of cancer and before SAO sold several million copies even before the anime aired. But SAO was the one all the casuals liked.
Alizication came out when SAO aired. I was such a big fan I spent 50 hours reading everything the week before episode 4 aired. The story was very convoluted. I remember reading to the point where the ship Kirito was on got attacked by the laughing coffin leader [ Prince of Hell] who apparently was Korean and hated Japanese people. There was a giant Orc invasion inside the game and members of the invasion force attacking the ship jump into the game joining the orcs, while Kirito’s daughter becomes a sentient AI and calls all of his friends from his SAO/ALO days to join his side. Kirito uses his black blade which apparently can trap the laughing coffin leader in a giant tree and his dead friend Eugeo’s ice sword to defeat the leader of the invasion. Then apparently kirito and Asuna are unable to leave the game in time and spend 100 years inside and somehow not die.
SAO got too complicated for me
It was funny when Syosetsuka, the home of original Japanese web novels, frigging banned Isekai because of all of the authors trying to mimic No Game No Life and other isekai novel's success.
@@onewayraildex4827 Did you read translated or Japanese?
@@lucas9269
SHORT ANSWER: I read Alizcation over 5 years ago translated on Baka-Tsuki before the site got nuked by copy-right. The translator was this guy Teh_Ping.
LONG ANSWER: When I first started reading SAO about 7 years ago(oh my god I am old, even though I am barely legal to drink). There was this famous LN website called Baka-tsuki,
Baka-tsuki famously hosted a full free translation of all the Haruhi books before it fully transitioned to a full LN site. I came after Haruhi translation was nuked by copyright.
Oh my god, I remember spending an entire week of my summer vacation dedicated to reading 50 hours of all 10 volumes of SAO that came out during that time, because I could not wait for the next episode to come out. I absolutely hated reading before SAO. I literally did nothing but eat, sleep, and read. I remember I was so anxious after reading that Kirito got stabbed by Johnny Black and becomes brain dead.
Somewhere within that 50 hours, I realized I actually enjoyed reading LNs, and then transitioned to reading all of Toradora!, Index, Shakugan no Shana, Kaze no Stigma, ZnT(Familiar of Zero), Baka to Test, Fate/Zero, Anohana, e.t.c
But then news came that the author of ZnT was dying of cancer, then the author of Kaze no Stigma died in a car crash, then Hachette Book started Licensing all of Dengeki Bunko's books, and the site was nuked once again by copyright.
RANT BELOW: PLEASE IGNORE.
This was when the final volume of Alizication of SAO was coming out too, so I was really really pissed.
I have waited over 5 years and only next month does the official english translation finally return to same spot it was 5 years ago.
Today, I no longer have any choice, all my LNs must come from a Kinokuniya. The official English translation is also pretty unfaithful, seeing "Miles". "Feet","Fahrenheit temperatures" is very painful. It is also painful to see all of the characters calling others by their first name instead of family name before they get close.
The worst culprit was Oregairu. Oregairu was a famous LN because the author shoved in as many Anime, Manga, VN, Videogames, e.t.c references as he possibly could into each volume. There were forums dedicated to discussing the subtle nuances found in both the book and the show. The appeal of Oregairu was that rereading any one of the volumes gives you new insight into the characters, kinda like reading Higurashi for the first time. What Yen On did to Oregairu LNs was disgusting.
Marvel's Gwenpool is neat take in isekai since it shows the consequences, positive and negative, of genre savviness.
I've never heard Gwenpool referred to as an isekai but wow that is what it is. Top tier comment dude.
That is cool
I think your best point is seeing characters struggle and be rewarded for it is the biggest appeal of Isekai for me, that's definitely why I got so big into "So I'm a spider so what" and "Death Mage doesn't want a 4th time" which neither is anime (at least not yet, former has had an announcement and latter will likely get one given a year or two) both of those made me accept the OP MC becausethey only got OP after fighting for their lifes and going through more hardship than most people, it's also nice to see their struggle and how they slowly overcome it. Same goes for the recent Shield Hero you kind of end up rooting for the MC due to elements of an underdog story, personally I'm also a big fan of how the appearance of people from our world appeairng in these fantasy worlds disturbs the flow of events through overpowering forces (like in Gate and Overlord) or knowledge like in Log Horizon and plenty others where they play with characters bringing modern age technology into a medieval environment and accelerating an industrial revolution.
tldr: There's a lot that can be done with the Isekai setting and while plenty go for generic shit (Kenja no Mago this season for example) there are plenty which execute them in interesting ways.
I watch/read a whole lot of isekai, but to be honest I just love fantasy so much that I scrape the bottom of the barrel to get more of it. The only times I really care about Isekai is when the work immediately forgets it's an isekai and not straight fantasy, or it goes to the other end of the spectrum and incorporates elements of the protagonist's Isekainess thoroughly into the story.
Your point on the being relatable and stopping to explain the world is a good reason I think that Dr stone is very popular it may be technically seeing as a isakai in some people's eyes but is in the same world and has the same history and ordinary people in it
Dr. Stone is gonna boom once the anime drops
I feel like "Isekai" is just like the "Moe" "boom" where a label is slapped on an already existing premise or aspect in anime. Yeah there is a period where there is more then the usual amount which justifies the terming of a "boom", but to treat it like a fad or trend is a bit shortsighted and just hating on a coined term just because it got coined. In honesty I just see it more as a boom in fantasy in general. All the "Isekai" element adds is a shortcut to explaining a character's level of experience or a method of introducing "powers" without having to explain it in detail, working on justifying it or shaping a world around it if the creator so chooses not to. Not necessarily "lazy" writing but just a convenient launching point so the author or writers can get into the story they want to tell.
My favorite is still 12 kingdoms. The characters gradually changing goals as she understands more about the world almost makes you forget its an isekai.
I was thinking about making a video about why Isekai is so popular for a long time but always was too busy. While looking through your channel I came across this video unwatched and thought I might give it a try. And after watching it I no longer feel the need to make a video explaining this topic. I can agree with everything said and you explained all you said perfectly. Great video and thanks. You sir are amazing! :D
Question- have there been any isekai where the isekai’d character goes to a world with very advanced technology or that is futuristic, rather than medieval fantasy or a historical world?
I'd imagine this is rare because it places the protagonist at an inherent disadvantage
I guess that's the reason why isekai never particularly caught my eye. I watched some and enjoyed them, but outside of Konosuba (and that is mainly due to its comedy more than the isekai setting), none really hit even close to my favorite anime. I believe that the unfairness that the real world has has its beauty, sort to speak. I suffered it, I've seen really good people close to me suffer it, and I know how much it hurts. But it exists, it will happen, and getting over that feeling of unfairness is what makes succeeding so satisfying.
I can relate to the suffering of unfairness that we can see in shows like The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, for example. As a matter of fact, that same relatable feeling is what has it so high up on my favorite anime of all time list, despite the show having basically no plot line. I believe that the beauty of failing is learning and improving for it. Understanding that its ok to feel bad when we feel the world is not fair, its ok to cry and want to give up. But that feeling goes away, and you can take it and use it as fuel to get what you want. Because... Well, after all, it is what YOU want.
my dude, inuyasha could've been this if they didn't do that weird ass "actually it's time travel" shit and just made it a genuine story about kagome and inuyasha "bonding" in some japanese feudal era-esque world in the hopes of retrieving the mitama thing.
(I've not yet finished Inuyasha)
(*spoiler alert. I'm a tad above the episode 100*)
I think this time travel shit is quite pleasant. Mostly for comic relief but still ...
Seeing Kagome juggle between her "you're a reincarnation of a priestess who was somehow resurrected and is stealing the souls of freshly died girls" life and her horrendous school life which drove so many before her to literal suicide *IS* funny.
Kagome - who can barely fight - protected her family in recent times. The strength she's shown was not only out of love for Inuyasha or necessity but also out of love for her family.
She knows that the Shikon jewel *MUST* be whole again. She's seen it whole in recent times. That's why she's so adamantly trying to reunite all the pieces.
Get that time travel shit out of the way then she'd have had no reason to go on a quest with Inuyasha, to begin with.
Log Horizon is probably my favorite isekai. I hope they end up doing a season 3.
Tbh all but the average isekai are nice. Overlord is p great. Drifters has me wanting more, konosuba is topteir and re:zero is like the classic best. Tanya the evil will make you want to read the book, which is a v difficult book to get into bc how it basically stops time for people to think all the time in a difficult to understand way occasionally
OMG!!! You talked about Now and Then, Here and There!!! I always felt like I was the only one that had seen that show! I’m so happy!
Grimgar, by leaps and bounds. There are soooo many reasons why, but their first goblin kill is an early and excellent example. Grimgar is the series that got me into light novels (and the light novels for it are even better).
Same, it's by far my favorite LN. I love the fact that the characters they have to earn anything, through hardship.
On an other note If you like Grimgar you should try The faraway paladin, the MC is powerfull but it has the same "realistic" vibe.
@@raitoiro Thanks! I'll check it out.
Same here! To me, Grimgar epitomizes what it means to really struggle and earn what you deserve. I connect with it because the same struggle occurs in real life to me, and presumably most others. Best of all, it doesn't brush away negative emotions and sadness (you know what I'm talking about) but rather follows the cast as they learn to cope with it.
is garbage
@@thepowerfulicon5449 it must have been April fool's when you said that joke
Nice vid geoff, keep this kind of analysis up.
More people need to watch Twelve Kingdoms. That was a great isekai. I'm glad that the novels are continuing now too.
Also People need to watch Here and There Then and Now
@@LuckyBastard12345 Definitely, can't believe I forgot about that
I'm not forgetting that you wrote Grimgar down as "shit not worth watching" on one of your seasonal vids.
It's never going away.
I know Im late to the party but ima tell you anyways: my favorite isekai (and in general my favorite anime) is Youjo Senki (Saga of Tanya the Evil). I like that even if she's OP, this sometimes backfires on her, like the time when she proposes a genius plan for a rapid response mage batallion and then gets assigned as its leader when all she wants is to live peacefully in the capital and kill the being that reincarnated her (or him) into a this world.
Its easy for many of us to get into these kinds of stories because we are BURNT OUT on this world, interesting as it may be, because we will never have great adventures, fight incredible foes and not die, and have meaningful relationships with people around us who also lead interesting lives. People get sucked into another world and find motivations they never had before and see nothing but opportunity- and are often rewarded for seizing those opportunities. It doesn't often bog them down in the details of how they obtained and maintained shelter, how they get food and clean water, how they maintained a day to day survival. A common joke in escapist fantasy is "a story where our effort is met with compensation adequate for us to thrive on, not just be a struggling peasant". But somehow even THOSE Isekai are getting popular, where people get sucked in and just want to live a modest life where they enjoy themselves peacefully and maybe help others. No grand adventure, no daring heroics, no cliffhanging danger. Some of these satisfy the fantasy of just wanting to live a peaceful life where we aren't exploited for our labor and people like us and want to spend time with us.
I think Isekai's popularity also relies on the feeling of the audience relating to being outcasts in their own lives and wanting a reset in life where their destiny becomes some grand adventure instead of the humdrum everyday lives they are forced to live in the real world. Even with the present danger of armies of the undead, classism from medieval nobility and the difficulty of surviving in a new environment with alien obstacles to overcome, there persists a potential for a different destiny that is no longer available in the modern corporatist world in which we live.
Hope Grimgar gets more recognition, it is an amazing show
Yer not alone in that sentiment 🍻
@@robpaul7544 here here
Grimgar isn’t bad, but IMO it has a lot of problems.
@@acetheblackfalcon Well, yeah, it's the story of a bunch of underdogs who weren't smart or brave enough to take the first step and gather the cool members. The guy with glasses took the lead and created a party with the guys he saw more fit to the task and leaved the mediocre protags behind.
The story just gets progressively better in the light novels. I highly recommend picking it up
One of my favorite Isekai right now is Exterminator where a guy who was in pest control in our world passes away & comes to in a medieval fantasy setting with his knowledge of pesticides & traps and continues to make his living by getting rid of trash mob monsters that no one wants to bother with & he's so good at it w/o putting too much effort into it that he low key becomes stronger than the legendary heroes who stopped the demon king. And he doesn't want to go save the world or anything, he just wants to travel around & deal with pests. It's a fun read & I hope chapters can come out faster & it gets more traction so we can see an anime.
12:10 Ainz: YES. THIS. IS. PAIN! I ALMOST FORGOT WHAT IT FEELS LIKE
Isekai have the same feeling and structure of dungeons and Dragons just for otaku. Imagination is a wonderful thing
just, don't combine the two. (As in a Isekai character as your DND character.) I played with someone like that once, it was actual hell listening to the DM explain to the PC why their word wasn't like theirs. It was one of the few times i ever quit a campaign in the middle of a session.
Re-Zero hands down.
Tho it is funny and I never thought about when I was younger but Inuyasha was what got me into anime, along with Ninja Scroll. Wich idk why I was aloud to watch that at my age.
The ting goes bang
I tryed to re-watch it a bit ago and just couldn't. It seemed way to different from what I remembered and didn't want to ruin the memories. Never meet your hero kids, unless it's for work.
@@lekratrekrap3214 Rip
Inuyasha also got me into anime, it is one of my favorites till this day
Reminds me of one of my favorite song lyrics:
"Everybody likes to get taken for turns, to see how bright the fire inside of us burns" Tally Hall-Turn the Lights Off
god,,, i love devil is a part timer sO MUCH,, ITS SO GOOD AND I LOVED SEEING IT NOTICED
Huh.
Here I thought the boom was simply related to an uptick in truck-related pedestrian fatalities.
The genre filled the void that 'Zero no tsukaima' left. I wanted more like this, and glad that I've got it.
"But that show (Log Horizon) is an exception."
Understatement. Log Horizon is truly an exception in more ways than one.
*Whether or not you like it, the major boom in Isekai's popularity as a genre was caused by **_"Sword Art Online"_*
Idk, I've loved it since I first read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and The wizard of Oz as a kid. Before I even discovered anime, I wanted to see, or read, more of that genre of fantasy.
I'm okay with it, if anything it's just good to know some writers were able to make something good out of that mess. SAO being the boom of Isekai gives me hope for humanity.
although it would had been much better if Accel World was the one who caused it, even if it was by the same guy, the narrative was a lot better and would have leaded towards less mediocre anime being made
@@megalomaniacv3706 Accel world would receive a lot of Fame if it had a second season
And then the beautiful Isekai Log horizon happened, a year later which probably made the iseki genre even more popular. c:
Can’t get away from Iseakai?
Sure you can just don’t watch new anime.
Well there's tons of new anime that aren't isekai, so it's not hard to watch new anime and avoid them.
But there’s always that one new one that’s fye
There's no isekai anime this season that's worth watching. Last season there was just Shield Hero. Before that Reincarnated as a Slime. Before that Overlord S3 and How Not to Summon a Demon Lord. There is only about one or two series a season that are any good and they are quite good.
Ash Mecha has been pretty dry for the last couple years so it isn’t like I’ve been watching new stuff anyways!
@@Ash_Wen-li but the you won't get to be apart of the elusive "muh conversation"
What you said about escapism at 15:21 really hit me, and got me thinking about my life! :D Thank you!!
I was a little worried halfway through the episode that there wouldn't be much substance to the video, but you hit the nail on the head with some great insight and analysis. I like "Slime" (TTIGRAAS) because even villains seem understandable, relatable, and possibly redeemable.
"in such a world a ... guy like you would end up on top like you deserve to be; and that ignores the distinct possibility that the root cause of life's unfairness is the idea that anyone deserves to be on top in the first place."
Jeff going low-key Anarchist on us
Without having watched the video, the two reasons for the overabundance of Isekai's are:
1. The escapist fantasy of it
2. Lazy writing (Since its much easier to do exposition dumps when the mc knows just as little as we do)
KYSKeepYourselfSafe i find it fascinating how people can like shows like these when the writing is that bad
@@HorseEngine999 A lot of isekai shows fail after their first season. Isekai fans aren't as shallow as you may think.
@@HorseEngine999 the ones with truly terrible writing fail usually.
Most isekai have shit writing but the few I watch are ones with friends that I can make fun of.
@@zerodollarbird Death March has a good novel&manga
But a shitty trash cheap anime
Rise of the Shield Hero & That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime are joining Re:Zero, No Game No Life, Log Horizon, and Sword Art Online as some of my favorite isekais.
There's one more to add in this season, and another one next season.
I haven’t seen Shield Hero, but I’ve read the manga, and it’s probably the best example of the hero going through hardships to achieve their fate I’ve seen in ages.
Excellent video my man. You always impress, but this one was truly exceptional. Well done and thank you.
For me there's no long explanation for why I happen to watch and like some isekais. They just happen to be good entertaining shows with cool characters.
No mention of 12 Kingdoms. How will I ever forgive you?
MB: Mob Psycho
Me: That's a dirty trick
What I learned from this video: I need to watch Reincarnated As A Slime.
It is seriously good
One of the best manga I've ever read. Overpowered protagonists just do something for me.
@@FixYoSelf Try mushoku tensei, it has one of the best character development for an isekai.
It's good up to episode 14 then it goes full train wreck...
@@Dudi4PoLFr This. Starts strong. Ends weak.
that is very easy, 3 thigs, 1: Power Quest: many isekai have Blank character this allow the Reader to put himself in the place 2: is easy to read, the isekai plot allow the Writer to basic use a cheater code to write some things like exposition 3: impossible situations Like Robots Vs Ninjas or something like that
Hi mother's basement! I know I have mentioned this before, but I *really* want you to make a video about an anime named "The disastrous life of Saiki K" in part because of it's similarity to Mob Psycho 100 and how the primary goal of the main character is the exact opposite of most isekai protagonists: wanting to become as normal as possible.
All those clips from the GATE intro just reminded me I need to binge it. Again. That show is so great and underrated.
Because it's easy to do fantasy exposition in isekai stories and Light Novel authors are most of all lazy?
1:32 Ok that was fast.... even right down to the "lazy" part.
But these days, we're getting "fantasy world as RPG video game even when the world isn't" stories which is just another layer of laziness on top of that. It won't be long until a light novel consists of a few key images, a list of characters and a plot outline.
Wait... that's just a pitch for its anime, isn't it?
Having a "fantasy world as RPG game even when the world isn't" doesn’t mean it's lazy, it can be, but it's just a trope it all fall down to what the author do with it.
A good exemple would be "So I'm spider so what?" Which despite it's strange premice is a great book with great writing, the kind you can read multiples time and still get as much enjoyment as the first time cause you notice more and more hints of what's really happening in the background and shaping the story, which you don't notice during your first read and totaly change the way you see what's happening.
Obviously there's also things like Re:monster, which is just terrible, in that case the world building isn't the biggest problem tho.
Isn't Kobyashi's Dragon Maid a reverse Isekai? Ultra-powerful fantasy character gets plopped into the real world and has to adjust?
Also that Simpsons Treehouse of Horror where Homer gets turned 3D and comes to the real world.
You re right but tohru can move easily between world.
"Perhaps that's why worlds that operate on RPG logic or other game rules are so prevalent and appealing."
I'm going to disagree. I believe that the prevalent of RPG logic in Isekai genre is because those writing the Isekai light novels don't know actual book based sword and sorcery type fantasy. Instead they learned fantasy from playing JRPG video games.
I don't know if it's that the writers have no other sources to pull from, or that they assume games are a common denominator for their audience. In the era when series like Bastard or Lodoss were written, you could assume everyone was sort of familar with Lord of the Rings / Dungeons & Dragons type fantasy, even in Japan. But nowadays, even in a small group of similarly-geeky friends, there really aren't as many universal touchstones as there used to be.
I never really thought about which isekai is my favourite but I know why I love them. The sense of escapism and accomplishment in knowing all there is to know about something. I love mediums that allow me to be able to see a world where anything can happen and the depth of said world. Once I like a certain game or show, I do extensive research on what makes it tick and figure out how to min-max it once I get bored of the main story. Learning about something is amazing and I always get gated by people irl when I want to learn more. I even get shit on for studying more than intended in school and got shot down whenever I want to start learning about a new random chapter in the textbook for instance. Having nothing to hold me back and rewarded for it relieves me of the chains that was shackled onto me when I was younger.
I'd type more but I'm pressed for time atm but basically what I'm trying to say is I love the depth in world-building and escapism that isekai offers me
11:46 using the term “ROFLSTOMP” in 2019 is like saying “gnarly” to describe a sword in a supposedly distant future.