General Isekai Thread

I feel like a blank protagonist is a mark of the genre mostly because it helps with self-insertion, as Arha said, and because... well, it's a lot easier to write a generic smiling person who takes everything in stride, gets angry at injustice, and is kind to innocents, and those are the depths of his personality, than it is to write someone more complex who might be more difficult to relate to - and if you're a new writer getting snapped up by a publisher eager to vomit out new ridiculously-long titles for a hungry market, then that's probably what you defaulted to.

Especially in harem works, where the role of the main character is generally to provide a pair of hands, eyes, or a face for "lucky pervert" moments, show the girls' charming sides as they fall in love, and generally be non-objectionable while you fantasize. None of which is inherently wrong, but they're not meant to be incredibly complex and memorable characters.

Well... Think I remember about Anime Man's video about his analysis regarding "Why Some Protagonist Are Pretty Bland" or something like that. I recommend you guys to watch that video

Nyet. Joey is douchnozzle and wish no provide views to him. Am curious what he said though.

Meh... I'm mostly indifferent by him although I'm cool on enjoying his content so yep... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyways @doomrider7 Thanks for recommending me Bakarina. I'll appreciate it and also, anyone here followed Kenja no Mago?

Yeah Exterminator honestly sounds a lot better than most of the rest - the less morose, jobless "We Swear He's Not An Incel" protagonists, the better.

Speaking of Isekai genre, i wonder is there as much Isekai video games as manga, novel and anime. The i only encountered few game of premier that someone from the modern day get transport to a fantasy world ( Final Fantasy tactic Advance 1&2, Digimon games, Nino Kuni 2).

Edited by BattleRaizer on Mar 14th 2019 at 2:49:00 AM

It deals much better with slavery then others, but it's still pretty mediocre in every other aspect. Well, I do agree Exteriminator/Kujonin is worth of checking at least.

Isekai in video games happens a lot less than in other media. If I were to take a guess why that is, it is because in video games, breaking the fourth wall to explain game mechanics and dumping information about the world is more accepted. This eliminates a pretty good reason for having an isekai protagonist in the first place.

So that really leaves the only other good reason: having the "normal" protagonist learn and grow by taking them out of their comfort zone. There's... not much gameplay there, so you don't see that much either.

Tactics Advance did a pretty good job of it, though. Really liked the way they handled the isekai bit.

Edited by Kayeka on Mar 13th 2019 at 8:54:05 PM

My most hate element about Isekai also happen to be the game mechanic part. At first it just use game mechanic as short hand, but after a while they start using it as a part of the world, like a character could pull his character sheet open i see what he good at plus mumble game mechanic. Really take me out of the story.

No one ever uses it in interesting ways, either. Log Horizon does sometimes, but it always ends up as 'these people will now explain how these two skills, specifically invented by the author for this specific combo usage, will combo in a way that is exactly what they need'. Which is fine and all, but it's less using game mechanics and more just your typical shonen-style 'the characters have a technique that does the thing' plot step. Which is fine.

Really, all you ever see the game mechanic subtrope used for nowadays is the whole 'OMG I have so many skills!' thing (as popularized by I Reincarnated Into Another World And For Some Reason I Had So Many Skills), to show off how high the player's stats are (as popularized by I Came To Another World With Abnormally High Stats!!), or to show how high the protagonist's level is (as popularized by... I was gonna make up a snide title here but honestly, pick any of the ones that actually exist).

Netooku Otoko no Tanoshii Isekai Boueki did good job with game mechanics. All people in that world receive "guidance from God" which are basically quests, but it can actually affect people for life.

It's somewhat decent otherwise too, even if not excellent.

Two isekai that are worth a look and we haven't chatted much about are 'The Faraway Paladin' and 'The Wrong Way To Use Healing Magic'.

The Faraway Paladin is the story of a salaryman with serious, chronic depression who reincarnates in another world as an infant in a ruined city, where he is raised by three undead creatures, who just so happen to be the three heroes who defeated a great evil hundreds of years ago but were left to live (or, uh, not live) under a terrible curse. They train him as their heir and send him out into the world as an adventurer, as a war between gods begins to brew.

It's very much a classic, hero's-journey fantasy adventure, like Shannara or the Belgariad, but with a far more melancholy edge. The world is often cruel and capricious, and the real challenge is moving on and building something new for yourself after it knocks you down. If you want an isekai with actual atmosphere and character work and little-to-none of the rather stale modern isekai tropes, it's a decent pick.

The Wrong Way To Use Healing Magic is considerably more light-hearted. Essentially, a kingdom under siege by The Legions of Hell summons heroes from another world to defend it, and our protagonist gets dragged along when two of his incredibly talented classmates get the call. All three of them get magical powers from the summoning, but while his classmates get electricity and light respectively, our hero gets the power to heal. Healing isn't as flashy and revered as most other forms of magic - it can't, say, vaporise an entire regiment in a hail of thunderbolts - but the good news is that a healer from this particular kingdom has found an unusual way to make the most of it on the battlefield. The bad news is that her solution is to use it on herself and her students to let them survive and develop from training that would be lethal to ordinary human beings, granting them enormous physical abilities at the cost of significant mental trauma. Our hero is going to be a legendary healer, whether he likes it or not.

This one's just good clean fun. It's another fairly straightforward modern isekai with light harem elements, but it's got a charming, upbeat tone, endearing characters, and little if anything in the way of gross bits, while the basic premise and the author's... uhh... predilections ensure it can't get too obnoxious as a power fantasy. The protagonist is decent in a fight, but he's still best at healing people and taking hits, so much of the emphasis is on him helping other characters do what they do best - and in the case of the female characters, that's generally 'be a terrifying, bloodthirsty engine of destruction who constantly messes with the protagonist's head'. Yeah, the author pretty obviously has a type.

Yeah, (once again) I can't recommend Healing magic enough. It's use modern isekai tropes but I feel it have much older sensitivities. I don't think anyone would want self-insert into Usato (except extreme masochists), it really bring pretty colourful and likeable cast and from big part it's similar to classic shonen. Which really makes it breath of fresh air.

Rose is best girl as long as she doesn't ever get anywhere close to me

Saihate Paladin is obviously top tier light novel story regardless of genre and I don't think there is anything more to add to it.

Edited by Tenzen12 on Mar 13th 2019 at 12:21:26 PM

Eh, it's your standard shonen Training from Hell as administered by an attractive older woman. There's an audience for that.

Eh... I don't think so.

Rose is technically attractive, but I think training with her (or even her as person) is impossible fetishize (or as close to impossible you can get)

Edited by Tenzen12 on Mar 13th 2019 at 12:51:50 PM

... have you been on the internet before? NOTHING is impossible to fetishize. And hot mentor is REAL damn easy in that category.

Edited by GoldenKaos on Mar 13th 2019 at 12:25:06 PM

Those both sound pretty solid, Iaculus. I'll have to check them out.

I check out Trinity Wonder today and it quite good, thank for recommanded. It find it quite refreshing compare to standard Isekai story. First there no one being cartoonish evil for no reason,even the "bad guys" are quite sympathetic and likable. Second i like that they can't understand other at first since no one know the other one language, it also make Pink papa more impressive since he stuck in this world for 20 years and have to learn the language from scratch, also make how he got the name Pink Papa more sweet . Thirdly, i like that the character from difference worlds have difference liveview, it hard for other to understand why Pink Papa and Murin Dragon God ready to fight to the dead every chance they get.

You know, checking out Saihate no Paladin, I can't help but feel like the church Will and the others live in is a direct vector rip from Dark Souls 2, or possibly 3. Is that just me?

I dunno about that but Marie gives me strong firekeeper vibes.

A Wild Last Boss appeared has kept my interest because of two interesting little details. First that the OP game character the protagonist is using is a noted historical figure, not just some powerful nobody out of nowhere. The world has been shaped by her. She's increasingly distinct from him because she has a lot of backstory and relationships he didn't design for her character, making him realize that he's replaced an actual person and has no idea where the 'real' Ruphas is. Second is that his game buddies also have living avatars in the world, but the player characters aren't there: They've all turned into NPCs. Something about the protagonist being alone in this setting with none of his friends is nice. And since they don't recognize it as a game, the game's backstory is real to them, which has interesting consequences.

Edited by Arha on Mar 13th 2019 at 11:39:55 AM

Kinda reminds me of The New Gate, where a group of VRMMO players just went through a SAO scenario with the whole "trapped in a death game" thing. They finally manage to clear it, but the final player, instead of being able to log out of the game, ends up being transported into the game world made real with a 500 year timeskip. The players are considered an ancient mythical race, and some of his old NPC companions are still around and remember him.

A Wild Last Boss is one of my favorites and the reasons Arha mentioned are only some of the ones I like it. Others, in no real order:

I just learn that for Final fantasy 30 Anniversary they order a isekai manga where Square Enix staff die and was transport to Final Fantasy world. I don't know, that pretty meta and hilarious .

Oh yeah, I've seen that in stores. The Lost Hero or something like that?