General Isekai Thread

Trashy revenge porn series. I'd say it having a notable female audience is still strange because it's trashy in a way that's more blatantly targeted for guys not least of all because of the MC's bland design. Dubcon/noncon is very popular in female targeted hentai but there is still a distinction in how it's written for a demogr6.

Man, didn't expect revenge porn series with a name like redo of healer. Gah.

Anyway, it's also not really within the scope of this thread because it's not an isekai.

‘I started noticing this treand to make the villainess into the "greatest person evah" and the heroine into "that evil bitch Stacy"’

For one thing, that’s just having a villainess again but with extra steps.

Amused by how 7th Time Loop was less interested in the goodness or badness of the heroine than doing a “yeah, okay, bye”, though.

I honestly miss "Portal Fantasy" versions of isekai. It goes back to Alice in Wonderland and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Anime like Vision of Escaflowne, Fushigi Yūgi, Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, Maze Megaburst Space and Aura Battler Dunbine where the hero(ine) is transported to the world, not reincarnated, and are not RPG-Mechanics universes. I think its one reason why The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic was so refreshing - it was portal fantasy instead of reincarnation, and no stat sheets in sight.

Edited by ScrewySqrl on Apr 24th 2024 at 7:39:55 AM

Escalfowne's flaws were more obvious to me on rewatch but I am still nostalgic for stories like it. The last story I read that scratched that itch was F, which is on perma haitus

The Wrong Way To Use Healing Magic is such an odd little series. On paper it sounds like the most generic thing, and then it carries itself through pretty much entirely on the strength of execution. It's not a masterpiece, sure, but it's a pretty enjoyable time and I honestly hope they make a second season.

Well this is awkward. An upcoming Isekai anime, Dahlia in Bloom, may have been animated by a North Korean Animation Studio and violated US sanctions.

I remember not really being sold on the main pairing of Escaflowne and also thinking that the ending was very sloppy. I don't really remember much about it anymore.

Escaflowne's main problem is its a 36-episode plot that was forced into only 26 episodes. As such it suffers from pacing issues and barely touched upon subplots in the back half. That said, it may have the strongest first 5 episodes of ANY isekai.

Edited by ScrewySqrl on Apr 24th 2024 at 9:38:51 AM

Man I still remember the wing pull moment from back when the dub was on the foxbox.

It genuinely feels like a lot of isekai writers are just... ticking off checkboxes?

Like the (nonsensical) RPG mechanics or the slavery (which I think is half "pandering to lonely otaku who can't imagine somebody being with them without some form of coercion" and half "well, everyone else has slavery, so just gotta throw it in as well").

A lot of it just feels like people going through the motions - heck, you could probably fill a whole shelf with "character is believed to have a shit ability, but turns out to be OP" stories.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Apr 24th 2024 at 5:13:40 PM

It's the trend chasing. You see someone doing really well, so you just copy it, even if you don't understand it or know how to make it work.

It prolly because it is. Pulling everything thing from Naruto has lily led to the impression you could make quick buck from posing paint by numbers schlock there. And the lack of apparent differention between settings and character archetypes in the stories aren't helping.

It's has me wondering if someone has attempted using Chat GPT to write an isekai novel there to see how far they could go.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 24th 2024 at 8:19:17 AM

Would people even notice the difference before it goes in some wild tangent?

Going to out the trend extends beyond isekai stories as well.

This reminds me of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash which I consider as a good Isekai in terms of its execution.

Zero tutorial. Zero-experienced protagonists. Not becoming OP in the slightest and their main goal being basically "Survive" since death is just a stone-throw away from coming in their direction etc.

I know it's just my opinion, but I found it pretty fresh in terms of diversity among the Isekai I've seen thus far.

That's because it's a soulslike, not a Dragon Quest-like

I think a lot of isekai resort to RPG mechanics because numbers are easier to write about. No need to elaborate on how MC is strong, just say he's level 999. Or level 2 with 999 in every stat.

Grimgar is a great take on an isekai, yeah. Though it's one of those where you have to wonder why it had to be isekai. The isekai'd people don't even remember much of their former lives.

Can't disagree. I was rooting for the male lead because the other option had like 10 layers of "You should probably go to therapy instead of everything you are currently doing" but the anime constantly hindered the moments for their relationship development so when she chooses him at the end it was just kind of baffling.

In Grimgar, people are isekai'ed t9o be cannon fodder, rather than risk their own people

that is diabolically ingenious. Especially since the Isekai'd folk might be expecting a grand destiny and OP powers.

Like it might be the most clever subversion I've ever heard of. Fantasy lands summoning people just to die off like conscripts.

Not an isekai, but you lot would like Undead Adventurer since it's very similar to Grimgar in that it deals with the more nitty gritty of being an adventurer.

That's basically how Tensei Slime's "Hero Summoning" works. You're basically a glorified slave knigth for whatever country summoned you assuming you got a unique skill of some kind. If not, you basically get shit tossed.

Noted, I'm aware that the portal fantasy version was in play with Shizu and the kids, but wasn't aware about the specifics beyond Shizu's career, which by all accounts was pretty damn successful since she lived an old age and basically died on her terms after Rimuru freed her from the Ifrit confined to her

Yeah it's one of Rimuru's major goals to put an end to that practice*.

• Technically both summoning already explicitly illegal, but similar to something like in One Piece, you can "bypass" some of those issues if you have connections. This too is part of his goal to stamp out.