Formula With A Twist / Anime & Manga

This page lists anime and manga that attempted to put their own unique spins on their particular genre.

For more series which changed or influenced the industry as a whole, see Essential Anime.

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Action

• Violence Jack stood out from previous shonen action series (and even Go Nagai's own) by having a very disturbing and cynical protagonist who is every bit as frightening as the antagonists, in contrast to the cheerful and upbeat protagonists common of the era.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! blended elements of sports manga and action manga by having all of its conflict based around games — particularly Duel Monsters, a card game which is simple to understand and allows for any number of unique and interesting things to happen. It started a trend of imitators that introduced their own contests using cards, board games, Mons and anything else which could carry similar appeal.

Fighting Series

• What made Bleach unique for its time was its strange mythology and cast of spiritual beings and creatures with their own unique set of rules and abilities. While the trope of a mundane hero finding himself thrust into a world of spiritual beings had been done previously by YuYu Hakusho, what made Bleach different was the fact that the hero was forced to conform to an ancient system that seemed purposely built to prevent people like him from doing so. Ichigo gains his Soul Reaper powers without knowing anything about them, and then slams head-first into brick wall after brick wall upon learning that there are specific trials and steps he needs to take to bring out the true nature of his powers. Ichigo earning his Bankai was iconic because it encapsulated this, as it's something a human is not supposed to have, is not supposed to earn without decades of training, and each Bankai comes with rules specific to its wielder.
• Dragon Ball codified the modern fighting series' usage of Serial Escalation; previous series were usually episodic and rarely required that a protagonist become much stronger to beat a new opponent. Starting with the first Tournament Arc, however, Goku frequently found himself losing to a new opponent and then undergoing training to overcome his weaknesses. This has become such a staple in shounen fighters now that it's hard to imagine the genre without the fight > training > fight loop that Dragon Ball started.
• My Hero Academia revitalized the shounen side of fighting series for the early 2010s by having Deku's journey be about learning and understanding the complex and flawed system of a world where Everyone Is a Super so that he can become A True Hero that truly helps people and makes the world a better place. Deku's struggle to become a better hero, in addition to improving his powers over time, is what makes the story truly stand out.
• Naruto established itself by refining and perfecting many of the tropes that previous works created. For example, it took the concept of the underdog protagonist and took it to its extreme conclusion, with a hero considered an absolute failure by all of his peers. It took the Stock Shōnen Rival established by Vegeta and Hiei and built upon it with Sasuke, a character who possessed everything Naruto ever wanted and provided a constant challenge for the hero to overcome.
• One-Punch Man is a parody that completely up-ends most drama about the hero gaining power or struggling to overcome new opponents by making said protagonist a Comically Invincible Hero. Saitama is far, far stronger than every other character, and this results both in his complete disinterest in fights (because he already knows how it will turn out) as well as exposing the flaws of the world, because most fail to even recognize his true strength.

Harem Genre

• Many harem stories either end with the protagonist ending up with just one girl, or having No Romantic Resolution. Not so much in The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You - not only does Rentarou gain more than one soulmate, he decides to date all of them at the same time. Also, all of the girls are perfectly willing to share him with each other, and in some cases, themselves with each other as well. Eventually, it gets to the point the girls feel happiest at the thought of spending their futures with the others, and get depressed at the realization only one of them can officially marry Rentarou - which is when he reveals he's committed to Marry Them All, no matter what he has to do to make it happen.
• Ai Yori Aoshi: The protagonist has already chosen which girl he wants to be with before the start of the story - the only reason there's a harem in the first place is because they're unable to reveal their relationship due to the scandal it would cause, so they're forced to pretend that they're just landlady and tenant, and none of the other haremettes are aware of this.
• Gonin Hitoyaku demo Kimi ga Suki: The premise of the story is that the protagonist falls in love with a girl, only to find that she is actually a fake identity assumed by five quintuplet sisters, then decides to make them all his girlfriends upon being unable to tell which girl is the one he fell in love with.
• High School D×D blends the conventions of a Shōnen action fantasy involving Demons vs Devils vs Angels with that of a Harem Genre, with the main character determined to become a "Harem King". The "harem ending" thus becomes a Foregone Conclusion, as (aside from the Fanservice), it's the entire draw of the series.
• Before Love Hina, most Harem Genre stories involved the protagonist gaining the adoration of his various Love Interests to start the "harem". Instead, Keitaro winds up gaining the ire of the majority of the girls due to being an Accidental Pervert. Thus at first, he must live with girls who aren't afraid to attack him for any perceived slight. Likewise, it throws a mystery about if Naru is the girl Keitaro promised to share his dream of getting into Tokyo U with.
• Love Tyrant immediately distinguishes itself from other harem anime by throwing in as many absurd cliches as possible. The female lead uses a "Kiss Note" to make couples fall in love, the object of the male lead's affection turns out to be a murderous Yandere, said Yandere has a sister who is also in love with her, as well as a cousin who is a sado-masochist. The premise of the show is that the first four characters have all been unwillingly forced into a harem with each other by the aforementioned "Kiss Note".
• Monster Musume put a spin on the Harem Genre by making each of the girls in the protagonist's Unwanted Harem some form of Cute Monster Girl, with much of the show's intrigue and comedy coming from the Deliberate Values Dissonance, Bizarre Alien Biologies, and mating habits of the various girls. It was popular enough to inspire a number of "monster girl" works, both in the harem genre and others.
• Negima! started as an on-the-fly example of the Harem Genre, albeit with a clear supernatural angle and focusing on a young teacher to a class full of girls. Slowly but surely, it turns more into a Shōnen action series as more of the magical world starts to come to play, and thus his harem becomes a Battle Harem. The reason it's an "on-the-fly" example is because the author wasn't really trying to make another harem series and wanted to do a more straightforward shonen series, but seemingly relented because the mangazine he worked for pushed him into it. So he did as they wished but turned it more into the shonen series he wanted to do, killing two birds with one stone.
• Otomari Honey takes the typical harem story and gives it a Perspective Flip - all the action is seen from the point of view of the newest girl to join the harem.
• Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time: The Unwanted Harem is genuinely unwanted - the only girl the protagonist wants to be with is his longtime sweetheart who has no idea how sex works, and the other girls only want the protagonist so he can give them strong children.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: the premise of the series is that the impoverished protagonist is hired to tutor five identical quintuplets, all of whom hate his guts. From a Call-Forward, we know that one of the five will eventually become his wife, but which one of the five remains a mystery. Slowly, the quintuplets begin to accept his tutelage and begin to fall in love with him, often creating drama and identical-sibling hijinks.
• The premise of To Save the World, Can You Wake Up the Morning After with a Demi-Human? is that the main protagonist is not The Chosen One, but rather the man who can father the chosen one. His harem consists of the women who are good candidates to give birth to the latest hero.

Harem + Dating Sim/Visual Novel Sub-Genre

A common Sub-Genre of harem anime is a setting which incorporates the mechanics of Dating Sims or Visual Novels, such as making choices that cause members of the harem to fall in love, sometimes with the mechanics themselves manifesting in the "real world".

• Date A Live creates a world in which the mechanics of a Dating Sim are real, and justified because kissing the Spirits which menace the world is the only way to seal their powers without killing them. Thus, going on dates with various (and sometimes simultaneous) girls is required to save the world.
• If Her Flag Breaks has a protagonist with a unique power to see various types of Event Flags and the instant knowledge of what he needs to do to keep it (such as a Story Flag) or break it (such as a Death Flag). In the course of using these flags, he gains the affection of multiple girls, usually after breaking their death flags and saving their lives in some way.

Isekai

General

• In Another World’s Zombie Apocalypse Is Not My Problem!, the world that the protagonist is transported to is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and she alone can cure the zombie virus by simply touching a person.
• In Buck Naked in Another World, the protagonist is naked when he arrives in the other world, and throughout most of the story he wears very little in the way of clothing.
• Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life? has a protagonist who doesn't like her New Life in Another World Bonus because she was a former friendless Child Prodigy who just wanted a normal life with friends, but her wish was misinterpreted, and instead of actually being average by human standards, her abilities are halfway between the weakest and strongest possible examples. Thus she goes out of her way to pretend she is a normal human in the world, despite the fact that she is magically 6800 times more powerful.
• Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? asks "What if The Hero was summoned into an RPG Mechanics 'Verse and was still outclassed by his own mother?"
• Goodbye! I'm Being Reincarnated!: The princess of the other world is the one trying to kill the protagonist so that he can be reincarnated and save her kingdom, while the daughter of the demon king is trying to keep him alive.
• The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious introduces a standard Stock Light-Novel Hero who behaves the way a typical Min-Maxing gamer would, carefully grinding all of his most powerful abilities, crafting or buying bulks of the most powerful items, and over-leveling to the point of demolishing the setting's challenges. However, the demon lord himself correctly predicts that the hero will initially be summoned in the area with the weakest monsters, so one of the demon lord's most powerful minions is lying in wait and would have swiftly slaughtered any normal hero. Also, it turns out that the hero has been isekaied before, but it didn't work out, and this is why he's such a cautious min-maxer. His previous isekai life also went against the usual mold by having him rush to beat the demon lord as quickly as possible (on the premise that the longer he takes, the more people will die in the interim...resulting in him skipping "story events" that he assumed were just filler. Which caused his failure because one of those skipped story events would've told him about the demon lord's One-Winged Angel form.
• How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: The protagonist is a Non-Action Guy whose primary talents lay in administration rather than combat. He ends up being crowned king of the country he was summoned in and spends most of his time finding ways to stabilize/strengthen his country and working out foreign relations.
• In Another World with My Smartphone is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: an isekai where the protagonist is allowed to take a fully-functioning smartphone with him. This gives him access to tools and information that supplement his ridiculously high power.
• Parodied in the one-shot I Thought an Adventure of Swords and Sorcery Would Be Waiting When I Reincarnated, and Yet.... God is so tired of how cliché isekai is that he offers to create a different type of isekai world for the protagonist - one where objects are sentient, where God rules over humanity ensuring that they live in peace through the control of their thoughts and actions, where magic is replaced by faith (one must place their faith in God and accumulate enough virtue in order to perform miracles), where humanity has undergone an evolution of the flesh (resulting in things like extra eyes or arms), and where the protagonist has the ability to stay alive even if he doesn't eat for a hundred days. The protagonist is so disturbed by this prospect that he decides that he wants to go back to the real world.
• Kemono Michi asks the question: what if the Hero summoned to another world was an animal-loving pro wrestler who refused to harm even bloodthirsty monsters? The result is a parody that completely embraces how weird its premise (and hero) are.
• Konosuba is built upon the premise that the Reincarnate in Another World trope isn't inherently a dream come true. What if it doesn't provide a New Life in Another World Bonus, if the "cheat item" was an annoying Load, and the Unwanted Harem actually IS "unwanted"?
• Knight's & Magic can be loosely described as the Isekai genre, But With Mecha. The main character reincarnates into a fairly standard fantasy setting with Magitech robots added on top, and begins revolutionizing the "Silhouette Knights" by taking inspiration from the mecha anime he used to love back on Earth.
• Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout: Two childhood friends are reincarnated in another world, with one becoming female in the process. They initially refuse to be heroes, so the Goddess who summoned them curses them with the desire to save the world.
• Magic Knight Rayearth: Even before "Isekai" was coined as a genre, the manga already provided a twist to the Trapped in Another World formula: What if the summoned heroes were there to Save the Princess and the world... by killing the very same princess while believing that her kidnapper was a straightforward Evil Overlord like every other fantasy Save the Princess scenario (in truth, he had less-evil, just desperate reasons that he felt he couldn't share with others)? This results in the heroines, formerly being perfectly happy and normal girls, returned to their home world utterly traumatized from their quest.
• In Middle-Aged Businessman, Arise In Another World!, the protagonist falls in love with, and marries, a beautiful goddess, then has both his house and his family transported into another world. After finding out they can't go back to their world for at least a year, he decides to support his family by joining the sales department of a local guild.
• My Entire Class Was Summoned To Another World Except For Me is pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin - the protagonist is the only member of his class not taken to another world, but he gets a New Life in Another World Bonus anyway.
• In My Room Is A Dungeon Rest Stop, the protagonist rents a surprisingly cheap apartment, then discovers that it is magically connected to the dungeon of another world. Exploring the dungeon, he finds a beautiful female adventurer in danger, then brings her back to his apartment and convinces her he is a mage.
• The protagonist of The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World is a Hot-Blooded Sentai hero who still possesses his Ranger abilities - which don't always mesh well with his current setting.
• Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement: The protagonist finds herself in a fantasy world and her only real power is being able to teleport, but it lets her freely travel back to Earth whenever she wants, giving her access to modern weapons for self-defense and various goods that she can sell for a massive profit. As the title suggests, her main goal is to save up enough money for her retirement, taking full advantage of the fact that items that are relatively cheap on Earth are of great value in the other world, while conversely gold is more valuable on Earth than in the other world.
• Yuusha Gojo Kumiai Kouryuugata Keijiban has an in-universe example. The hero of chapter four seems like a typical Stock Light-Novel Hero - summoned to a fantasy world that's stuck in Medieval Stasis, given a magic sword that turns its wielder into an Instant Expert, and surrounded by a Battle Harem of beautiful and powerful companions. Then it turns out that a medieval setting means everybody looks down on a commoner hero, the Battle Harem is composed of girls who hate each other due to classism and are only united because they hate the hero more, and finally Unresolved Sexual Tension doesn't exist because the summoned hero is a girl who isn't a bit attracted to the others or vice versa.

Non-Human Reincarnation Isekai

One Sub-Genre of isekai has emerged which has the protagonist reincarnate as something non-human usually a monster, but animals and sentient inanimate objects are also common choices.

• Because I Reincarnated As A Succubus Ill Squeeze Out Milk has a protagonist who is reincarnated as a succubus. Rejecting the species ability to survive off of "man's life essence" (in other words, sperm), he is given a superpowered cow so that he can survive off of its milk.
• In Evil Dragon Reincarnation, an ordinary salaryman becomes reincarnated as a powerful dragon. Deemed evil, he’s constantly approached by challengers seeking to slay him, until he eats a tiny orb and magically gains a handsome human form.
• In I'm a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl's Pet, the protagonist is a knight who is reincarnated as a baby behemoth. Although behemoths are universally feared, it turns out baby behemoths look like friendly creatures called elemental cats, and rather than being hunted, he manages to become a pet for the elf girl adventurer who finds him.
• The Otherworldly Infection Story That Started with a Virus Reincarnation starts with a biology researcher from Earth dying and getting reincarnated into a fantasy world as a magical virus while retaining his human memories and intelligence. Using various routes of transmission (airborne, contaminated food, weapons coated with infected blood), he can infect all sorts of organisms, using host bodies to manufacture virus copies of himself that lack intelligence but follow his orders. Once an organism is infected with enough copies, he can take over their mind, essentially becoming them instead of just a virus. He can also analyze skills from monsters and people he's infected, encode them into his genome, and freely use them himself, as well as activating them in allies he's infected to temporarily empower them. He can also choose to inflict various disease symptoms in enemies he's infected, if he doesn't want to simply take over their body (since he can only control one host at a time, and letting go of one causes its old mind to resurface).
• Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon has a protagonist who is reincarnated as a vending machine in a fantasy world, due to having been obsessed with them in his previous life. Although he's a magic vending machine that can restock himself with any food or beverage he tried when he was human, he's completely unable to move and his communication is extremely limited, so he's forced to rely on a kind adventurer to carry him around on her back.
• Re:Monster has a human mercenary in a sci-fi setting who dies and gets reincarnated into a fantasy world as a goblin. However, he has a unique ability that lets him absorb the abilities of monsters and people he eats, which he uses to obsessively empower himself to Game-Breaker levels. He also overthrows the goblin tribe's old leader and forces his own morals onto everyone so that they can peacefully coexist with humans, but also uses his paramilitary training from his previous life to train the goblins so they can take down enemies that would normally be well beyond their abilities.
• Reincarnated as a Sword: The human protagonist died and is reborn as a talking magic sword with human intelligence. Luckily, he can use telekinesis to move himself, and discovers that absorbing magical stones from the monsters he kills lets him obtain their special skills, as well as "evolution points" he can use to level himself up. He ends up getting helped out of a serious situation by a young orphaned Cat Girl who dreams of becoming an adventurer, and he forms a party with her, becoming both her weapon and adoptive father.
• Reincarnated As The Strongest Wand: Reiji is reincarnated in an alternate world as a magic wand. Because he can't do anything himself, he convinces a village girl to wield him and become a Magical Girl.
• In Reincarnation of White Bear I Became the Legendary Guardian Deity of the Sacred Forest, the protagonist is reincarnated into a fantasy world as a polar bear with both Super-Strength and the ability to survive in a leafy forest rather than the ice caps.
• So I'm a Spider, So What?: The protagonist Kumoko and her entire class are all killed simultaneously and then are reborn in a typical fantasy world. While most of them are reborn as your standard isekai characters (heroes, nobles, etc.), Kumoko is reborn as a dog-sized spider monster. As the title implies, though, Kumoko is The Pollyanna and decides that if she's going to be a spider, then she's going to be an awesome spider. Further twists are that there's an actual in-universe reason that the other world is an RPG Mechanics 'Verse (the god who created "The System" for the world's magic is a Gamer Chick and did it for fun), and Kumoko was always a spider even on Earth; the same god gave her Fake Memories of having been a human member of the class.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: the protagonist is reincarnated as a small Cute Slime Mook — albeit with a very powerful ability to copy the powers and properties of any monster or person it devours (as well as an unseen "Sage" that provides other useful powers and information). It is one of the major popularizers of the "reborn as a non-human" sub-genre.
• In Woof Woof Story, the protagonist is reincarnated into a giant dog and becomes a beloved family pet, before being thrust into several adventures, including becoming a king.
• The Dungeon Master: The protagonist is reincarnated as a "brick larva", a creature that eats dirt and defecates bricks, then gets made into a zombie by a Mad Scientist.
• I’ve Been Reincarnated into a Man Eating Flower - Revenge - Till the Day I Eat Him: The protagonist is reincarnated as a man-eating flower after being falsely accused of killing a prince and burned at the stake, and now seeks revenge on the one responsible for her death.

Otaku as Demon Lord Sub-Genre

A derivative of the Isekai Genre where an ordinary Otaku or Godlike Gamer is summoned within the guise or avatar of a "Demon Lord".

• Overlord asks the question: what if The Demon Lord which gets summoned to a fantasy world was merely an Otaku playing the avatar of said Demon Lord? It was one of the first of its kind.
• How Not to Summon a Demon Lord has the twist that the protagonist is only pretending to be a Demon Lord. He is exceptionally powerful in the new world, but being called a Demon Lord in the first place was only an Appropriated Appelation he used while playing his MMORPG. However, he has crippling social anxiety that he can only circumvent by roleplaying his Demon Lord persona.
• Demon Lord, Retry! asks "What if the Otaku created the game in the first place?".
• The Devil is a Part-Timer! twists the premise by inverting it entirely: the main character starts as a powerful Demon Lord in a fantasy world, only to get stranded on Earth as a powerless human. The story's main comedy beats come from the juxtaposition of powerful fantasy characters in utterly mundane situations, like the demon lord working at a burger joint or the legendary hero being a call center operator.

"Reborn as Villainess" Story

Within the Isekai Genre, there is a subset of stories where someone reincarnates into an Otome Game they know, usually as a character in that game, and typically as one of the setting's antagonists. As such, the protagonist uses knowledge of the game to forge out their own destiny versus what is dictated in the game's story. They are more likely aimed at Shoujo and Josei audiences, centering on the more grounded aspects of the other world as well as a stronger focus on relationships and/or romance, as contrast to male-aimed isekai where combat and fanservice are usually central. The setting is also usually involves the nobility and the politics amongst them. There have been several takes on this formula.

• An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess has the protagonist reincarnate as the villainess who's the prince's fiancé. Rather than try to escape the villainess's fate in the game, she decides to embrace the role and push the prince toward his fated heroine from the game, since that route leads to the best outcome for everyone (except herself). But since she's terrible at being evil, the prince finds her amusing instead and ends up actually falling in love with her. The actual villain of the story is the heroine of the otome game, who's also reincarnated from an Earth girl who played the game and thinks this makes her entitled to the prince's love.
• I'm In Love With the Villainess is a yuri take on the formula. The protagonist reincarnates into the game's heroine, but she isn't interested in the male love interests of the game. Instead, she wants to be in a relationship with the game's villainess. On top of that, the protagonist has to navigate the growing political turmoil of the kingdom where the game takes place.
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! has the protagonist reborn as the main villainess of a game she played, doomed to either get killed or exiled for harassing the game's heroine. Regaining her Past-Life Memories a few years before the events of the game, her primary goal is simply to avoid getting a "bad ending", but because she's far nicer and friendlier than the original villainess she ends up unintentionally stealing the "main character" position by charming all of the game's love interests — as well as all the other love rivals, and even the original heroine herself.
• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs has a male protagonist who reincarnates as a background character who is unseen in the game. As such his goals are to build a comfortable life for himself and keep away from the events of the game. However, circumstances lead him to attend the academy where the game takes place, where he discovers a reincarnated girl who plans to take the heroine's role for herself and gain herself a Reverse Harem of all the love interests, forcing him to intervene. The story is more Shōnen in tone compared to other otome isekai, with the protagonist battling monsters in dungeons and enemy knights in a Mini-Mecha.

Dark Fantasy Deconstruction

Another Isekai sub-genre is that of the "Dark Deconstruction", in which nearly every character (usually including the "heroes" themselves) are horrible people and far from being Wish-Fulfillment, the alternative/fantasy world is a Crapsack Hell.

• Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest: The main character Hajime is summoned to the fantasy world alongside his entire class, and they are tasked to raid several deadly dungeons to save that world and make their way home. However, Hajime is one of the weakest of his group and furthermore winds up betrayed by one of his classmates and is left in one of the lowest and most dangerous floors of the dungeon to die. After losing an arm and eye to the monsters inside, he happens to find a safe corner of the dungeon with a magical substance that instantly heals life-threatening wounds. Driven only by thoughts of survival and revenge, Hajime slowly tortures his body until he gains several levels and abilities that allow him to defeat the dungeon monsters, crafts new weapons, and escapes alongside a Mysterious Waif he finds. By the time he reunites with his old classmates, they are shocked by both his physical and mental transformation into a grim, sinister Anti-Hero that won't hesitate to kill even them if they cross or betray him.
• The Executioner and Her Way of Life: This series takes place from the perspective of the native people of the other world and how humans summoned from Japan has affected their world. In this series, said Japanese people (known as "Lost Ones") are gifted with unbelievably powerful magic but can easily become a Person of Mass Destruction and go mad with power, especially because they lose memories of who they were and suffer severe mental degradation the more they use their abilities. The protagonist of the story, Menou, is an Executioner for the Church whose duty is to murder Lost Ones as quickly as possible after they appear in the world to prevent disasters.
• The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time: This story asks the question of who would be willing to summon/abduct an untrained teenager and make them fight what is essentially Satan. The protagonist is used to kill the Demon Lord of this world and is then betrayed, hunted for over a year, and killed brutally by his sadistic former "companions". Afterward, he is suddenly reborn at the start of his journey with all of the memories of his previous life. He thus embarks on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the people who wronged him, which in turn reveals just how twisted and corrupt the world around them really is.
• Redo of Healer: The protagonist learns he has a powerful healing ability, and is quickly made addicted to drugs and sold into slavery where he is used and abused by adventurers who covet his power. Four years later, he accidentally gains the skill "Drug Resistance", and when the team of "heroes" finally confront the Demon Lord, instead of healing them, he leaves them to die. He also learns to use his powers for more than simply "healing", defeats the Demon Lord himself and uses her power to "heal" by rewinding time to four years prior with his memory intact. Armed with new knowledge and new abilities, he thus sets out to look for Revenge.
• Re:Zero asks the question, what if the Genre Savvy Hikikomori was given a power that's closer to a curse than a blessing? From there, a full on Deconstructor Fleet occurs where the protagonist's lack of power and unsavory personality traits are closely examined, even as he is forced to go through significant Character Development on his personal quest to be a hero.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero is simply "What if the Isekai Hero had a Joke Weapon?", but it takes this premise and creates a unique Deconstruction of the genre. Also, the reasons for why the hero is mocked and hated by the populace are fleshed out to explore a Crapsack World full of racism and zealotry where the standard genre tropes are definitely not what they are cracked up to be. It was the Genre Popularizer of the "Dark Deconstruction" sub-genre, with many examples following its lead or upping the ante in some way.

Slow Life

Rather than take up a life of adventuring or political intrigue in the new world, this sub-genre focuses on the transported protagonist building a relatively lower-stakes, mundane niche for themselves. While it does retain some elements of other fantasy genres, such as magic and monsters, these will be often used as Mundane Utilities or treated as a fantastic counterpart to similar lifestyles on Earth.

• In The Hero and His Elf Bride Open a Pizza Parlor in Another World, the protagonist misses the opportunity to become a wizard or a swordsman, so he opens a pizza parlor, assisted by the elfen daughter of a demon lord.
• I Was Caught up in a Hero Summoning, but That World Is at Peace! is Exactly What It Says on the Tin - the protagonist is not the Chosen One, there are no wars or Demon Lords threatening the world, and it'll actually be pretty easy to return to Earth, although he's stuck there for at least a year. The protagonist is an honored guest of the noblewoman who accidentally summoned him, and he spends his time reading, sightseeing, and making friends in the other world.
• In JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World, female protagonist Haru and her male classmate Seiji are both reincarnated in another world, but while Seiji becomes an adventurer and goes out to slay monsters, Haru discovers that women are not allowed to have special powers in the new world, so she is forced to become a sex worker.

Reverse Isekai

Typically more lighthearted in tone, the Reverse Isekai focuses on the archetypal inhabitants of a fantasy world trapped on Earth, or a previously-transported person coming back home — and without the fantastic elements of the other world, their attempts to adjust to the resulting mundanity are played for laughs or as a lower-stakes mirror to "Slow Life" Isekai fantasy.

• Dead Mount Death Play: A powerful necromancer is defeated in his native world, but before dying he casts a spell that reincarnates him in the body of a recently deceased youth in our world. He decides to use his powers to retire and live a peaceful life, but he gets drawn into a conspiracy equal parts magical and criminal.
• The Devil is a Part-Timer!: The Demon Lord and his most trusted general have been transported to Earth from their own world. As their magic is fueled by human fear, they are mostly depowered in the peaceful modern-day Tokyo and they survive by doing menial jobs.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa: Edward is sent through the other side of the Gate and to mundane Earth... in the middle of World War II. While Ed is able to make a life there, it doesn't last due to the plans of the Nazi Thule Society.
• The Hero Who Returned Remains the Strongest in the Modern World: The story starts after the Isekai'd hero has been summoned back to his home of Japan, and as he comes to find out, the boring old world he thought he'd finally take a breather in is actually brimming with adventure of its own.
• Plus-Sized Elf: Erufuda the elf is transported to Earth, and becomes trapped there because the portal that will take her back home won't accept her until she can match the weight she was when she arrived - since she loves Earth's junk food, it will be a long time before she manages to lose enough weight to go home.
• Uncle from Another World takes place after the events of the typical isekai plot, with the hero's physical body having been comatose in the real world for the 17 years he was adventuring in the other world. When he finally wakes up back on Earth, it turns out he still possesses the magic he learned while there, which he uses to make money as a Youtuber. With a spell that lets him broadcast his own memories, he also recounts his time in the other world to his teenage nephew, who loves isekai but is disillusioned by how frequently his uncle's adventures deviate from his expectations.

Mecha

• Gurren Lagann: This show is a massive Reconstruction of the Super Robot genre that Evangelion destroyed. The premise of the show combines the over-the-top and Beyond the Impossible spectacle of the Super Robot genre and the coolness of Combining Mecha, with mecha that gain more and more zany and powerful combinations based on how much Japanese Spirit and determination its protagonists can muster.
• Mobile Suit Gundam created the "Real Robot Genre", as unlike the giant robot stories before it, the Mobile Suits are not unique weapons exclusive to the protagonists. It dealt with the consequences of a world where battles between giant armored mechs is a commonplace occurance. However, The Hero's mech (the titular "Gundam") is still a Super Robot that is a cut above the rest. At first; over the course of the series it strays further form its Super Robot roots as eventually technology catches up with the Gundam and it's no longer all that special compared to the mass-produced enemy mecha, let alone their Ace Custom units.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: The premise of the series is: "What if the Chosen One that needed to pilot a Humongous Mecha to save the world wasn't ready for the job? Like, REALLY not ready?!". As such, Shinji is a horrible wreck of a protagonist, the rest of the cast isn't much better (if better at all), and the entire situation is as bleak as can be.
• Super Dimension Fortress Macross took the basis of the Real Robot Genre started by Gundam and took it to its logical conclusion: in this story, no one (not even the protagonists) have any special or unique mechs. Each one is standard military equipment, except, perhaps the titular SDF, which is a gigantic fortress and a transforming mech in its own right.

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