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Most Japanese characters end up being sent to the other world at a dead end point in their life. They basically have nothing to return to and the Isekai is a complete improvement for them. It kind of reflects how the state of Japan where a lot of men are isolated.
The Familiar of Zero is a subversion of both tropes. Saito has a perfect opportunity to get back to Japan in the first arc, but he forgoes that opportunity to protect Louise in a battle that was taking place at the same time. Saito has another opportunity to return to Japan at the end of the story and this time, he brings back Louise with him to introduce to his family as his girlfriend. He intends to get back to the real world the whole time, but that motivation doesn't override his love for Louise.
@@pn2294 Digimon and MÄR are more old school from before the shift to the current version of isekai and I believe before the term was coined. When the genres became over-saturated a common trait was that the MC had nobody worth going back to.
Western Portal fantasies - Main character usually goes home after their adventure because they have a life and love ones. Japanese Isekai - Main character stays there permanently because they have no one.
Trying to remember the ones who stayed. Dorothy eventually went back and stayed, I think she brought her family with her. Rainbow Brite. Some of the kids from the Narnia books. Current ones like centaur world, and... I know there are more but I can't recall.
@@LadyBern One with Dorthey and her family staying in Oz is kind of sad when you know that the author was bankrupt at the time and had to sell all the rights to his books away.
Before "isekai", Western writers used to call this genre "portal fantasy", which is much older than when it became popular with Japanese writers. The more you know!
Yeah, we always said they'd been "Narnia-ed". But stories of "normal people" getting sucked into the realm of the Fairy go waaay back. You can even look back to the Greek myth of Psyche suddenly finding herself married to a mysterious being she only discovers later is one of the gods.
@@Thandi123I'm not too sure about that. That falls more into the afterlife territory. Everyone eventually ends up there, it's basically part of the life cycle.
@@ferno056 that definition can really change, since there are many different stories. Tales like OG Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, and the stories of the Wild Hunt and Krampus seem to take place in our own world. And anything involving the Fey geys a little weird
honestly, relatability somehow seems to translate to " being a loser ", I think it's a terrible standard to set for the " audience ", and it's overwhelmingly at the expense of males.
That's sadly the case from what I've seen. When it comes to male protags, it's like there was a attempt yet it's either a hit or miss to where it is deemed as "loser bait" while the female protags have something that makes a character.
@@mjtannertwins , I used to like Kirito as a character because I wasn't a fan of One Piece until fairly recently, so my most favorite fantasy character nowadays is Zoro.
Western Isekai seem to actually make the "other world" feel more imagination put into them then q lot of Anime Isekai that seem to rely on repeating medieval Fantasy cliches, with some minor twists that they abandon half way through the plot.
Random thing: if you think about it, the movie "Enchanted" can be seen as a reverse isekai, since it's about a character from a fantasy world coming into our's
It's still Isekai. Th main character being transported to an unfamiliar world. Reverse Isekai would be something like the story already having someone from a different world being transported back to their own world. Which, now that I think of it, sounds interesting and kinda original. A guy who got used to interact with monsters and deal with magic and stuff like that, suddenly going back to his regular life, where none of that exists, where civilization makes it very hard to get killed by a wild creature, and where technology accomodates to our desires. Like, imagine the dude feels he's a loser on the fantasy world, since he's not that strong and can't use magic at all or something, then he gets thrown back here, where he excels at his studies, gets a very well-paid job, meets a girl, who he ends upmarrying, and becomes a successful man in this world, despite feeling he was not made for the fantasy world at all. You'd be throwing all the self-insert Isekai animes through the window with something like that.
@Burn_Angel oh I always thought that isekai specifically meant someone from our world traveling to a fictional one, since that's how it usually happens
You know…when I think of a magical western isekai, like Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, like Dorothy and her dog literally got isekai’ed by an freaking tornado and Alice literally isekai’ed by straight-up crawled into a rabbit-hole to wonderland.
And the Pevensie children had a wardrobe, portals come in all shapes and sizes. Meanwhile Japan is over there driving trucks in the most irresponsible manner possible.
@@frankficcle7081I mean, technically they are in the same world. Just in another part of it. From the characters' perspectives, it's just exploring another part of the world, like many explorers before them
@@zanir2387 I don't know where that is from. But since it is the moon, it technically isn't another world like in isekai. You are just going into space. And stuff like Star Trek or Doctor Who does not count as isekai
The idea of going to another world will never get old. The Heroes' journey is based on the exploration of the unknown. Though with so many Isekai getting pumped out I wonder if we'll get a full on parody. Like a kid getting hunted down by a truck like its the terminator. Ending up in a fantasy world where he gets immediately jumped by the demon king named the demon king.
It's kinda hard to parody a genre when most of its entries already didn't take themselves too seriously, protagonists constantly speaking modern lingo in a fantasy setting, befuddling the natives of the fantasy world, narratives constantly winking and nudging at the audiences going "Yeah, we know". What do we make fun of when THAT's considered playing it straight in the genre?
forget about characters getting isekai'd I wanna see an anime thriller series/movie where the Truck is basically a force of nature that makes people go missing and have the MC have an anxiety-inducing slice-of-life moment where they have to avoid crossing paths with the Truck while trying to survive their everyday life
@@missrebel634 It feels like it's bringing in negative stereotypes...Americans are portrayed as strong independent women, who don't take crap from evil society, while Japanese are freaking scrawny incels who treat and idealize women as being only toys or playthings instead.
A lot of media aimed at women and especially girls tends to lean into escapism more than it leans into power fantasy. There's a theory that this is the case because children raised as girls are expected to be more mature and responsible from a younger age and to take on more social and emotional labor as adults compared to their male counterparts, making the idea of having MORE responsibility (as seen in many power fantasies) far less appealing than a temporary escape from all that
and weirdly it has a very historical precedence. In a lot of old fairy tales there would be a girl who would wander into the woods, of fall into a well, or otherwise end up in some fairy world and she would go on an adventure, befriending various creatures and living objects and gathering items that would help her escape or provide her with a boon later on. This also shows up in the form in those tales of "beauty and the beast" trope, including stories such as Psyche and Eros or the White Bear (which some suspect was a slavic reimagining of Psyche and Eros with some other stories mixed together), where the girl ends up in a strange place and has to make the best of it or go through trials...a possible symbolism for so many betrothals the girls would have no choice in, a kind of escapism for these situations. Travel to a new and unfamiliar place outside your control, with a hint of take control of your own life snuck into the narrative of these old stories that made them so appealing.
How about the Book of Enoch. It is about a human from pre-historic times who meets an angel who takes him up to heaven and is given a tour of the heavenly realm. He then returns after a few days and becomes the village story teller. The stories were written down around 300BC.
Western isekai mostly follows the Hero's Journey - you're an inexperienced kid going to an unknown world, face a lot of challenges, you grow as a person and travel home again. I think Ghibli movies are some of the few Japanese productions that follows Hero's Journey as well. Normally Japanese isekai goes - you die and get a new life in a fantasy world (+haram 😅).
My grandma (who's WESTERN, my FAMILY'S WESTERN) Says that harems are disgusting and NOBODY should know what a Harem is. Also...how could I make a HAREM isekai stop without being canceled????
@@shirleymaemattthews4862 make a good story, have the love interests be into each other as well, proper communication, giving each character a personality that meshes well with each other, emotional intelligence, try to avoid power imbalance, include multiple men or nonbinary people, not have the love aspect be the main plot unless you are specifically after a romance story, include plenty of non-horny love moments where the polycule falls in love with of each other's personalities, don't be afraid to be asexual, include conflicts that aren't just misunderstandings such as one member not being emotionally literate and needing to learn emotional literacy, have the family of the polycule members play a role in the story- wait, are you asking for writing advice or how to end a show?
Until Tolkien most British fantasy writers from the Victorian period onward mostly wrote “isekai”. The point was to take an Englishman or woman (often from the upper or middle class) and transport them to worlds where strict Victorian social practices did not apply (I.e Alice in Wonderland) and the idea behind most of these stories was to just have this Victorian era person react to these weird worlds where scientific logic and social standards either did not exist or existed in ways that were considered backwards to the average Victorian Englishman. Tolkien really was one of the first writers to take the idea of world building seriously in that he wanted to create a world that operated on rules of logic and history that functioned very similar to our own (since his goal was to literally write an Anglo-Saxon myth that was relevant to modern Englishmen) but was distinct enough that the “isekai” plot device was not needed to tell his story.
Yup, and the hobbits feed into this, being the most similar to modern victorian english people. The hobbit plays very similar to all those stories of a victorian person having to navigate a world without victorian sensibilities, and LOTR goes from the most similar to victorian(or early 20th century??) england to the most medieval by the end.
Isekai is huge in Russia. It has many genres and subgenres. Just to give you an idea, there's a story about a modern-day soldier who got reincarnated as a bee during ww2 😄
@@Koriurmind Guess you can never go wrong with Wrong Time for Dragons (sometimes translated as No time for dragons) by Lukyanenko and Perumov as well as The Stranger by Max Frei. But overall it's pretty hard to recommend anything because 1. Most book are not translated into English 2. I wasn't joking when I said that isekai is huge in Russia. You need to specify whether you need female or male subgenre and where do you want the mc to end up (fantasy, sci-fi, video game, historical time, Earth?), should the book be dark, ironic or neutral; serious or something to take your mind off of things. There's a lot to consider
@@Debbie-CRK It's called Пчела-Попаданец by Oleg Rybachenko. No idea how to translate the title Bee-popadanets? (Popadanets is a Russian term for a character who was transported into another world). I'm pretty sure the book wasn't translated but I'd say that's for the better. While the concept is pretty fun, the author is not particularly good. It's just the book became a meme that's why I mentioned it 😄
Pretty sure Portal fantasy is the name of the western cultures. As an example, Welsh and irish myth is full of fairys snatching people away to the other world, or heros wandering in and getting up to nonsense. Pryderi meeting Arawn, or Oisin riding a horse over the sea to Tir na Nog. The west loves it
@@toonrex2806 almost what you want, but not quite, would be Jurrasic Park, Primal, and any T.Rex based spec evo video on RU-vid. Though I would pay good money for what you're suggesting.
Isekai hasn't overstayed its welcome. Only a certain telling of the other world tales have overstayed themselves. Old school fantasy adventure just needs to return. Not just harem power fantasies, with template fantasy worlds which Japan keeps pumping out.
Then again, the most unique take on the genre in recent years has been Forspoken. Somebody thought making the protagonist a black girl who was just convicted of attempted grand larceny by the State of New York was a positive breath of fresh air to the harem power fantasies. Be careful of innovation. You might just get it.
@@jasondphoenix No, you see, the whole idea of Frey being a victim of the American judicial system in the real world by itself is a contradiction to her character motivation in Athia later. That premise is part of the execution. She constantly has this attitude of not giving a damn about the world of Athia and she's just doing what's necessary to get back to New York City. What the... did she like her life back in New York City??? Did she not recognize how the people of Athia have warmed up to her??? Why does she miss her life in New York?
I have been reading a lot of manhwa. Soooo many of them are isekai. They don’t always utilize it well. And that’s the problem with many isekai’s. They don’t use the knowledge of their other world at all.
There's this novel and Manhua called Release that Witch where the MC uses his engineering knowledge to advance this town he was put in charge of when he reincarnated. It has a more unique world and story compared to most isekai. The only thing is that it has some harem stuff. There's also a manhwa called Greatest Real Estate Developer which is hilarious and I love the art. There the MC is actually affected by their past life instead of it just being ignored and he's also an engineer who uses his skills to build more advanced infrastructure.
My biggest gripe is just that Anime Isekai always has the same sort of setting. There's a reason why folks make jokes about the cities of Isekai shows. Anime Isekai never truly takes advantage of the fact that it's a fantasy setting. Never really coming up with things like Creatures who don't behave like humens despite having an ego.
1st American Isekai is probably Mark Twain's a Yankee in King Arthur's Court, considering the legends of King Arthur are pretty much a fantasy story we tell ourselves. But definitely agree the Oz books also qualify.
A Fish Out of Water story is a classic story tactic. It gives the characters reasons to explain what they know to the newcomer who has nonexperience with that world and its laws-usually about magic.
@jordanandrew2786 Not entirely. Stranger in a Strange Land juxtaposition has always been a thing. There is a need to show some and tell some. It can save time to tell instead of show. Too much world building can reduce the story's pace to a halt that loses the reader's interest.
MFW I realize the Isekai was invented by the western creators FAR before it became popular in Japan. Think about it: Dungeons and Dragons (the animated show); the Pagemaster; the Narnia series... it should probably have been named something other than "isekai".
I'm pretty sure Western creators are not the sole inventors of the "sent to another world" trope, though. It's a tale as old as time in fiction around the globe.
Amphibia is great! That and over the garden wall are some of my favorite shows. I would suggest that OTGW is also technically one, just less wish fulfillment, more character development. That seems to be a theme between the two, OZ and other wesern isekai takes. There is an escapist angle, but its less wish fulfillment, more worlds that teach you to become the best version of yourself.
Amphibia is on my watch list and OTGW, I wish it had more episode since imo it felt so like it was a bit in a hurry if that makes sense, I did really like it though
@@jwideuluisinaein gonna throw you a bone: Read OTGWs comics! It has a ton of them, and many of them are basically episode stories! The art is consistently phenomenal.
I really like isekai shows if done right. What gets me really interested in these kinds of genres is the world and how the characters interact with it.
Honestly, what's always rubbed me the wrong way is that Luz actually has access to the Boiling Isles, her perfect world, instead of permanently returning to Earth, with all its flaws. Not everything was perfect for the Calamity trio on Earth, too, but they still returned.
@@valentinkambushev4968 why does that run you the wrong way? I thought it was a nice difference where the mc could enjoy both worlds and see the people they care about from both
Going by Yoshi's Island/Partners In Time, Mario & Luigi were born in the Mushroom Kingdom, then moved to New York at some point (or New Donk/Big-City/Big Ape City depending on what game you're looking at), then back to the Mushroom kingdom. So kind of like a reverse isekai. Though now that I think about it, Mario Golf GBC/Advance Tour and Mario Tennis GBC/Power Tour could be considered pseudo-Isekai. Your character is trying to become the best to head to Mario World and challenge the plumber to Golf/Tennis.
@@Ergeniz True. It's all very loose, with a few exceptions here and there. (Such as the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series, or the aforementioned Mario Golf GBC/Advance Tour and Mario Tennis GBC/Power Tour games)
These kinds of stories are some of my favourites. There's something so interesting about a character being pulled out of the world they know and forced to adapt to an unfamiliar one. Digimon was one of my favourite shows as a kid and still retains a strong place in my heart because of this, and because through exploring this new world, the kids grew and matured from randoms into true heroes. I think that's what is best about the genre: yes the wish fulfilment angle is fun, but it's seeing how the characters overcome these new challenges and develop into better people. They end up not being the hero because of prophecy (though sometimes prophecies play into the writing), but rather because they worked hard, learned what they needed to learn, and grew into true heroes. in a way, they make the prophecy come true. That is such a cool way to show the human spirit in action.
You what would be a funny idea for an isekai? One where the main character is a stoner and he thinks all the things he encounters on his adventures are hallucinations.
I personally feel there are two types of isekai. PreSAO and PostSAO PreSAO: usually involves people getting transferred to a fantasy world and getting a single special ability (examples: El Hazard, Escaflowne, Maze) PostSAO: usually involves people getting transffered to an RPG fantasy world with RPG mechanics (nearly every isekai since SAO aired)
I really dislike the Japanese modern isekai genre. They have their gimmick title and premise to draw you in, but after some chapters the story becomes boring, aimless, and drawn out. Disney did do a Return to Oz movie that is quite creepy for younger audiences. Also for MLP, they did do an isekai where Twilight gets isekaied to an alternate universe human world of the same characters, starting the Equestria girls franchise.
I totally agree but lest not forget about her apprentice Starlight Glimmer who also gotten Isekaied to the same exact world as Twilight did in the first few movie specials, but in a special and the interesting part in a recent Equestria Girls special that ALOTTT of the human versions of the ponies isekaied to Equestria and got turned into ponies.
Like this is more like mine but also beeing into a personal fanfic of MLP with a group of humans (soldiers) who hot into Equestria from the EQG world. there i have like stuff there is far more with the the connection between Equestria and Earth, like mainly picking up at the early 20th century. The protags are more near the modern era, they also make a fuzz of that some things they bring up may be akin to opening pandora's box, with them being in a world they aren't meant to. Discord and to a lesser extent, Pinkie and even the sister princesses are somewhat aware of how much of an anomaly their mere presence is. Also my protag is on the fence of coming back to their world, they would if they could, but they consider it isn't going to be smooth (caputred by the govt. And interrogated non-stop) Lots of stuff, but I'll stop rambling.
Why is Japanese isekai so sexist sometimes? And how they got away with airing them without being canceled? Are there Japanese people who WANT to cancel Isekai like that?
@@shirleymaemattthews4862anime has a big misogyny problem but not many people want to acknowledge this unfortunately :/ I don’t know why this is? Maybe because males are the target audience?? Idk sexist tropes just make it quite hard to me to watch lots of anime sadly
@@illumanarti Bro..some cartoons over here are intended for men, and some treat females nice! My best geuss will b that Japan has a GROSS history with treating women as "PrOsTiTuTeS" or whatever on the Edo period????
6:05 actually 2010s My Little Pony did a reverse-isekai where the main character ends up travelling to the human world and turning into a human (hence the Equestria Girls spinoff). Equestria Girls started out as a cash-grab but it became clear that the writers cared about EG enough to make it its own thing (even adding a whole new MC independent of the main series MC) + the storyline ended up being very different from a typical isekai (despite having other anime influences like magical girls and laser blast fights lol)
I think the main reason Isekai became very popular is that it allows to introduce the new world in a very organic way. If the main character was an inhabitant of that new (for the audience) world all the exposition would feel more forced. The problem is (as with most narrative tricks) is the more popular some idea becomes the more sub-par writers are involved and as a result, you have a lot of bad writing.
It doesn't just need to be an unfamiliar world, the "MMO" subgenre of isekai often is constructed such that the characters are established players of the game and so are rather familiar with the setting and it's more how them being placed in a living, breathing version of the world that they need to acclimate to. But yes it also is largely just a way of less skilled writers to integrate their fantastical elements easily. Heck, the same web novel site where isekai boomed in popularity is seeing the rise of "low fantasy" works which is basically letting writers make isekai except this time they don't even need to make the world different.
I think the main problem is isekai in Japan are just OP harem wish fulfillment’s for men most of the time, so they don’t have broad appeal and are mostly the same with a few exceptions. While in the west they are all so different. The characters, lessons, worlds no two are the same in the west.
A lot of those are based on light novels or webnovels, which are generally just a shade more prestigious than fan fiction. When it comes to those specific male fantasy-centric isekai stories, I tend to think of them as more-or-less the male equivalent of a particularly trashy romance novel.
ABC’s _Lost_ is an Isekai when you think about it. The difference is that the main characters have forgotten their lives in the real world were empty and they keep trying to get back home.
Oh this is crazy, I dislike Isekai because of the anime tropes but like portal fantasy and you just made me realise they're basically the same genre...
No, Isekai isn't a genre, fantasy is a genre, isekai is a lazy form of story that 90% of the time always follow the same tropes and cliches and sometimes is so similar that If you read enough of them they start merging together to the point you can't tell anymore which one is which, calling Isekai a genre is like saying "Evil Superman" is a genre, It is really not is just the same unoriginal idea being regurgitated and repeated again and again.
@@Gabe600I don’t entirely disagree with ya. Isekai, in anime at least, definitely has earned a reputation of being extremely lazy and poorly executed. But the concept itself is definitely a major sub-genre of fantasy, and sci-fi in some instances. It does enough unique stuff to be separate from a typical fantasy story imo, as there’s a lot you can do with sending characters to an entirely different world or even universe. Having said that, Isekai, the typical harem/power fantasy kind at least, has definitely overstayed its welcome by at least a decade tbh. But, stuff like Amphibia and arguably Tensura Slime divergen enough from it that clumping it all together as a “bad and lazy form of writing” is simply doing it a disservice.
@Gabe600 WRONG! Pile of BS you wrote there. Isekai/Poartal Fantasy IS IT'S OWN GENRE! Just because it suffers from bring cliché doesn't make it not a genre. But let's be ignorant and claim just like you did that all the other genres you mentioned are also cheap, cliché garbage with the same plots over and over again with the biases and fantasies of the writers. Because almost nothing is not inspired from someting else.
Makes me think of Tokusatsu. A term used for Japanese fiction that heavily utilizes people in monster suits for the special effects. Examples like Godzilla and super Sentai (AKA: Power Rangers). Some people may find it’s a genre found only in Japan, but if you think about it movies and tv shows from the west like Star Wars and Doctor who are also tokusatsu as they use a lot people in suits for monsters and aliens.
Growing up in the 1960's - 1970's, there were more than a few American Saturday Morning Cartoons and Live Action shows that used this "fish-out-of-water" theme; though we didn't call them, "Isekai" back then. What immediately comes to mind is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon about two American kids who found a Djinn called, "Shazzan," who took them on many adventures in an Arabian Knights setting. DePatie-Freleng offered a trippy Fairytale cartoon called, "Here Comes the Grump." Sid and Marty Krofft came out with live action shows like, "HR Pufnstuf," "Lidsville," and "Land of the Lost." The 1980's brought us animated shows like "Wildfire," "Kidd Video," and of course, "Dungeons and Dragons." There are too many more to list, so Western culture has no shortage of its own Isekai. One interesting commentary I read about the "Dungeons and Dragons" cartoon is that it wasn't as popular as it could have been, (despite having excellent writers and character backstory development,) because the show recreated the very 'dynamic' that kids interested in this kind of "escapism" were looking to 'escape' from. "The Magician" character - a nerdy boy named "Presto" - was not the main character; those were the "jocks," Hank the Ranger and Diana the Acrobat. Sheila the Thief and Eric the Cavalier were socially 'higher up' than Presto in the group, and Presto only 'outranked' Sheila's brother Bobby the Barbarian due to his age. But Presto was supposed to be the character that fans of the game (and fantasy in general) were intended to 'identify with.' More recently, the TV show "Once Upon A Time" reversed the basic "Isekai" formula; and it was characters from our own Fairytales and Legends who came to "Our World," and had their own "fish-out-of-water" adventures. Thanks for posting this thought-provoking video essay! My Like is in the 1.1Ks
Isekais have always been around and like every genere it's not for everyone, but in my opinion on western Isekais; Older western Isekais had a lot of charm and soul. There for the adventure and the growth of the characters. Modern ones just feel like bargain bin anime, trying to capitalize on it with cheap power ups to beat the big bad. Shout out for anyone that remembers King Arthur and the Knights of Justice and the D&D cartoon.
It would be a cool base to highlight how modern technology isn't too far off from real magic (the only example I can think of is MLP Equestria Girls; for some reason it totally blew 9 years old me's mind when I saw references to RU-vid, SMS and email in it)
John Carter from the Martian series first appeared in 1912, he is a Virginia man who is transported to mars after a "near death" experience. DC's Adam Strange has a similar story. Tarl cabbot is one day transported to -rape planet- i mean planet Gor on the homonymous book series
I got a couple examples of other western "isekai." Back to the Future has Marty McFly travel 30 years into the past, where he encounters his father and mother. And he's got to figure out how to get back to the future without causing irreparable damage to his present. Then there's Secret of Evermore, the only game made by Squaresoft USA. It's about a boy and his dog getting pulled into another world. One created by 4 people. And each region is that person's ideal world. Naturally, the boy has to visit them all on his way back to the real world.
I never really gave it much thought until now, but your "Back to the Future" example DOES fit the idea of "Isekai," since "the past" (and "the future," for that matter,) really ARE "other worlds," for all intent and purpose. I'd include Michael Creighton's "Timeline" as another example. Growing up, I watched TV shows like, "The Time Tunnel," and "It's About Time," that had characters interacting with people from past and future times. In the case of the latter, the first season was about two astronauts who time traveled to Neolithic Times, and the second was about the Neolithic family they met coming with them back to the 20th Century, and much of the humor was derived from the culture shock element.
its all about idea and execution. There was a movie called tall tales which was a Disney movie, where a kid goes on a journey and meets a bunch of American folk heros. Like Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan to save his home from getting destroyed so they could build a railroad. Generic, but fun. So it's better to just look at the media as its own thing. Hate it love it, not every idea is going to be original and it's going to follow a troupe.
Yeah that's what I think too. There needs to be more challenges and an interesting setting. There should also be more characterization and development. Ones that stand out to in story is saga of Tanya the evil, Magic knight rayearth, and re zero.
- 3:05 Yes, they did make a sequel to _Wizard of Oz_ (1939): _Return to Oz_ (1985), which was extremely creepy and traumatizing to an entire generation of kids. 😬 - A few other old examples: _Flight of Dragons_ (1982), a He-man Christmas special, _Neverending Story_ was at the end,
This is the reason why my *absolute* favorite isekai anime is Saga of Tanya the Evil. Short yet simple reasons? • *ABSOLUTELY ZERO* fanservice • The MC is not a shy and thirsty boy, but a cold and calculated man • Interesting lore/world (alternate history, specifically WW1 era, setting) • Interesting side characters (they have their own consciousness, personalities, stories)
I have actually been working on my own book series that tackles the Isekai concept for almost 5 years now. I’ve written enough content for five whole novels already, but lately I’ve been working on revisions for the first one or two. I’m very close to getting the first volume published.
@@40kanon sorry for taking so long to respond; actually meant to a while ago. In answer to your question, it does involve an entire class from Japan being transported to a medieval types society, much like most conventional Japanese isekai. But I diverge from that in that the world they come to utilizes absolutely no magic, instead adopting a science fiction approach As the students and their chaperones interact with the local population, they gradually become aware of a third-party the strings behind the scenes The title for my series is “The Otherworlders.”
Alice in Wonderland and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court technically came out before The Wizard of Oz, but that just showcases how the West pioneered the genre. Another early one was the John Carter of Mars novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which started the Planetary Romance sub-genre. You also saw this a lot in animation. The Hana-Barbera series Shazzan was about a brother and sister who get taken to an Arabian Nights style fantasy world. The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon had a bunch of modern kids transported to The Realm. Blackstar was about an astronaut being sent to a sword and sorcery world. Its a remarkably versatile genre. As far as anime goes, my favorite isekai are probably Vision of Escaflowne and El Hazard. Escaflowne introduced me to the concept of fantasy mecha before I heard about Aura Battler Dubine, and to this day the original El Hazard OVA has one of my favorite endings of all time.
Amphibia is probably my favorite Western Isekai. Such a great show. I had no idea how similar Japanese Isekai protagonists look. Almost did a spit take. Guess this shows how little of the genre I've seen. The ones at the top of my head that I've seen a good chunk of was In Another World With My Smart Phone. I'm more familiar with reverse Isekai's like The Devil is A Part Timer and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, since it's a magical being being transported into the real world.
Yep. That's one of the reasons anime isekai get so much backlash. They have protagonists that look almost exactly the same as each other. I think they're mostly cash grabs so they don't put a lot of effort into them. XD Amphibia is really cool. It's funny how it has anime influences like the ending battle but it's honestly better than a lot of it's anime counterparts. No offense to anime. It's just that they oversaturated the market with the same old medieval fantasy bland protagonist shows.
Hahaha yeah that frame with those characters from different shows surprisingly shows there isn't much difference in character designs as well adding copy paste that J was talking about. There's also jokes how the central town most isekai characters live or visit looks the same.
Also yeah I'm also familiar with reverse isekai such as those and a show called the great Jahy will not be defeated. Its interesting seeing fantasy characters in the human world.
@@mjtannertwinsJAPANESE anime tha is being bashed on for it's characters ALL LOOKING THE SAME...........They're just asking for stereotypes at this point.
Virgin japanese isekai: •boring otaku mc •softcore porn •exessive fanservice •extremely generic and childish plot •all budgent went into titty physics •needs to be a harem for more fanservice and for merchandise Chad western Isekai: •phenominal titles that change the world and revolutionize the industry (ex. Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, Digital Circus, Narnia) •likeable characters and creative plots •genuine storytelling with little to no fanservice •characters are actually aware that their past world is gone/away •unique aesthetics and visuals
Coraline was a story of a girl with a boring life with her boring parents who gets transported to a world where her parents are cool and attentive to her, but later turned to a horror story and the mc learned to be appreciative of her old life at the end of the story.
Amphibia has one of my favorite twists on the genre, because in the third season they make it back to earth, and now the frog family are the ones who’ve been isekaied. It’s really fun and I think more shows should do that
Isekai in Japan is in an interesting state, and I don't think they're going away any time soon, or even bad for the industry. They're usually based off of light novels, so rather than a team of hollywood writers, etc, you just have joe schmo writing books and gaining an audience over time. Small studios wanting to gain a name for themselves buy these stories for relatively cheap without the strong oversite of a manga publisher, and don't need a writer to make a whole script before they can get started. So they can hit the ground running on a long running series that has a pre-built fanbase. (They can also often use generic pre-created generic fantasy art now and then instead of needing to make every single background themselves.) Plus, even outside of the initial fanbase, its an easy barrier to entry for new audiences, because so much remains the same, there is little to no 'emotional barrier' to throwing it on. Its like how there were tons of sitcoms all at the same time, and tons of murder shows like CSI, Cold Case, etc. Same formula, minor differences in characters and subject matter i.e. special victims unit focusing on SA cases and Criminal Minds having its own gimmick and flow. Plus, the isekai genre is flexible and appeals to a wide variety of demographics. There are a LOT of romance and comedy isekai that women eat up, its not all black haired boy power fantasy with easy merchandise in the form of cute harem girls. (I don't even particularly care for Isekai, but my anime group watches a lot of it, so i've been exposed to a lot and been pleasently surprised many times.) Plus, the quick consumption and short 'life' of Japanese TV means there is more room for more projects and studios. (I know this used to be the case, but need confirmation if its still true) Japanese TV doesn't just run re-runs of shows over and over forever, shows will be shown omce and thats it - its why recap episodes were so important to remind audiences of what was going on after months between seasons.) The big companies get their huge passion projects with huge budgets, experimental stories and art styles, the small ones get Isekai and can grow with a hungry audience, who are willing to wait and remember your show even if it goes on a multi-year hiatus. Its a growing industry because its not a restrictive monopoly, and easy entry stuff like this I think are good. And totally biased ignorant opinions I hold: Regarding Western Isekai, I think it was always only seen as childrens stories and fairy tales. While the individual projects may seem more memerable and unique visually, it may also just be a culteral thing. They are strictly anti-drug, where some our 70's 80's imagery was inspired from, (even those not partaking were still influenced by the art of those who did) and Japanese Isekai speaks to the depressed nature of their lifestyle. Low birthrates/numbers of relationships, a lack of individuality or being able to speak your mind- I think the Japanese population is in trouble (i think we all are) but the comfort these shows bring speak a lot to what they need as a people, and I think its why its growing in the US as well.
As someone who knows a little bit about Japanese and has watched a lot of obscure anime and some isakai I agree with a lot of the points that you make I honestly like the fact that most anime/isakai were made by Joe smo just some guy or girl making something they like using familiar frame work I will admit that they're is a lot of isakai I don't believe gnerake would be the right word I do think they could be more open with the concept and explore it in more or deeper ways but I do think that the genre is good it has made many good video games tvs anime and light novels some of which have seminted themselves in time and peoples hearts because I think look for a escape or a unknown fantastic world will always speak to people I just feel like some have gotten tired of the tropes and forgot the promises such fantasy and or its characters and world can bring
I actually like the genre, I'm just sick of the Other World in question being a painfully unimaginative Fantasy World that runs on RPG video game mechanics.
I like medieval RPG fantasy, but I want something that actually looks like an 80's JRPG. Most of these isekai go for generic "Kirito style" characters dressed in essentially modern clothing. How cool would it be to have a fantasy world that looks like Akira Toryama's Dragon Quest or a Frank Frazetta painting. We need less jackets and trousers and more tunics, tights and loincloths!
Honestly, I always thought it be cool as hell to have a modern day guy armed with modern weapons fight fantasy creatures. Army of Darkness is awesome. The upcoming game Kingmakers seems to be similar in concept.
There's an anime like that... though I hesitate to mention this one -- Those Who Hunt Elves. Several folks from the modern era are pulled into a fantasy world. One of the girls who got pulled into another world has brought a tank with her.
Love how they ignore that 99% of the female protagonist isekay are basically "normal girl reborn/transported to new world as a princess/noble" Its ALWAYS a princess or noble. Of 20+ I've seen, just one escaped this troupe
I've seen two that break this mold and interestingly they have a similar premise. The first one involved a young girl who was a golden child. She was intelligent, successful, got good grades and basically hated it because she had high expectations placed on her so when she dies, she requests becoming the most average in that new world. Unfortunately, because she wasn't specific, her averageness is compared to powerful beings within it like dragons and stuff so to them she's average and not special.. but to humans she's op as hell and that's the last thing she wants. For the other one, it involves a woman who worked herself to death so she just wants a relaxing life in the next world. She is made immortal (can't age) and becomes a witch in this world, making a comfortable cabin away from the village where she relaxes and enjoys life and occasionally helps the village out and fights the occasional generic slime monster. Unfortunately, over the years of defeating slimes, those battles added up and she eventually became op without even realizing it since all she wants to do is relax and chill out. Find it funny that from my perspective, Isekai guys are like "Yeah! Epic adventure!" While Isekai girls are like "Yeah! Fantasy vacation time where no one bothers me!" Ironically, Tanya fits this mold despite originally being a guy, just wants a calm life but can't escape the war.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins i disagree with the 'vacation' bit because, like i said, 99% of them are about 'normal girl now become princess/noble' and of these 80% are them becoming girlbosses. Edit: so... Both your stories the female protagonist are super inteligent, super beautiful and super everything and op and better than everyone. So... Mary sues of the worst category. They dont really escape the mold here.
Even Though I love Anime and Isekai is one of my favourite genre, The West as it's original does it way better or rather the best of all, It explores The Another World and it's Characters a lot more perfectly in just a short time while anime with a lot of seasons drag it on. The MC becomes very powerful and in the end starts to love the another world and settles there while In The West MC learns to appreciate her/his own given world more with values learned. A lot of people have watched West Another World Or Isekai and despite loving it they don't realise it becomes each story Of West's Another Story Like Jumanji or Alice In Wonderland, The Matrix, Space Jam, Coraline each of these movies feels different and it's own thing even though it's the same genre while in Anime or Even In Manwa all the stories and even MC feels the Same with different circumstances and powers.
Russian (Soviet even) isekais are also very interesting and unique. Most commonly they are about a regular kid being transported to a world of Russian fairytales or to some kind of very specific dimension such as inside of a music box or a land where all of their homework mistakes are true. They can also be about an adult being transported to the past and messing with major historical events (sometimes by introducing modern weaponry). I really recommend looking into this, my personal favorites are “In the land of unlearned lessons”, “Ivashka from pioneers palace” and “Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession”.
Digimon: my favorite Eastern isekai. Narnia was the first thing that came to mind when I thought of a Western isekai. Peter Pan also counts. EDIT: I just remembered TMNT 2003 did this too! And more than once, lol.
Personally, I like to differentiate between Isekai and Portal Fantasy. Portal Fantasy is just the overall getting transported into another world (e.g. Narnia, Owl House, Land of Stories) but Isekai has so many tropes attached to it that they’ve practically become synonymous with the genre (cheat skills, harems, RPG mechanics, the blank slate and/or loser MC, etc.). At this point, it’s probably better to consider isekai a sub genre of overall portal fantasy.
My absolute favorite version of this is Reverse Isekai, where a character from a cool fantasy realm ends up in the normal world! Like ‘the devil is a part timer’ or the first mlp Equestria Girls movie
A pretty famous western isekai story is John Carter from Princess of Mars. It was also part of a subgenre called "planetary romance", and retroactively "sword and planet" (named after the "sword and sandal" genre).
"It's not like they made any sequels" See, I don't know if this is a joke about how nobody remembers Return to Oz or if you genuinely don't know that movie exists.
It's a funny thing as much as the character might be considered unnecessary in the Rainbow Brite series, he doesn't sound like a "Gary Sue" in the sense he tries but doesn't always succeed and thus he becomes relatable, which is something some series don't bother with.
I recently finished the owl house and it quickly became one of my favourite shows, it also answers many of my complains with the genre, seeing how the boiling isles aren't just another fantasy world, not to mention that explores it's magic system, it's lore, the races, and it also responds to the questions of how a normal human can learn abilities that aren't normal for her, but are for the people of the world
I think the problem with isekai is that they alway travel to the same boring and generic medival fantasy land, like for real the grant majority of this world are dolar store versions of middle earth or hyrul. In wester isekai, the other world is a character in of itself
And My Little Pony do have reverse Isakai. Remember Equestria Girls? In that movie, Sunset Shimmer go live in other world, only to come back to Equestria just to stole Twilight magic crown.
Maybe I'm alone in this but I think isekai(western and eastern) could benefit from the John Carter/A Princess from Mars approach to the tropes such as explaining the biological and physic differences between worlds and even using older or more tragic characterizations for their protagonists as a way of explaining why they would want to stay in the fantasy realm
Gotta love that _Sonic and The Black Knight_ is an Isekai of an Arthurian Legend, only to end up as a Fanfiction Trap set by the Granddaughter of Merlin(?) By summoning demons & Arthur Demon Poser from the Underworld... ...The worst part? She summoned Sonic The Hedgehog who doesn't give a *******, guided him to a Talking Caliburn English Longsword, The guys changes stuff on a whim, runs free like a wind and electric current, Flirts with yet another woman (Hideki Kamiya's Inverted Protagonist **Hot** Witch from Another Dimension, joke here) that tries to kill him, says "Screw the system", and by trying to kill him to make the world "Eternal" she solidified the fact that SHE ACCIDENTALLY SHAPED HIM INTO BREAKDANCING TRICKSTER DANTE THE SPARDA ARCHIE-TYPE WITH A SWORD & CHAOS POWERS... ...She loses, gets spared, Sonic gets the crown, Sonic returns, the story is never mentioned again... **WTF DID JAPAN MEAN BY DIS???** _YOU CANNOT KILL ME_ _I'M GOLDEN MANGO_ _YOU CANNOT KILL ME_ _I AM SUBSONIC_
Well , western ones usually are always more interesting because unlike japanese onesWell western ones usually are always more interesting because unlike japanese ones It's not the same setting with a gimmick. Tron Being transported into roughly a video game This world It's so unique Asking the big question of what is A world inside of a computer look like. What do Programs look like on the grid. Compared to i'm in a fantasy mmo But i'm left handed 😮
I always think of Samurai Jack for some reason. A samurai warrior was about to search for someone strong, only to encounter Aku, some evil shapeshifter who sends him to a post-apocalyptic future of some kind, and that samurai must face his challenges in such time period and place until he is fast and strong enough to fight Aku again. I don't know if time-travel really counts, but if the time and place feels way too different from the previous one, then I think it counts. Don't you agree?
Even Wonder Woman might count as isekai, but in reverse: she comes from an island inhabited by Amazon women and she travels to our world by crossing a cloud-like portal (as per her comics in the late 1980's and early 1990's)
