General Isekai Thread

"I'd do anything for money." is something usually said by either desperate or corrupt people, yeah.

This doesn't qualify into "anything" though. It's legal, harmless and can be done from home. Only thing that would get hurt is one's sense of aesthetic, but that's nothing that can't be cured by using these hard earned money to complete Frank Herbert collection.

It's not illegal, but it's not exactly ethical either, considering the single biggest problems with the genre is writers copying off of each other.

Also, considering that all these complaints are from consumer's perspectives, I'm not sure what the writers do with their hard-earned (which is very debatable) money is relevant here, unless they are contributing to funding other, at least somewhat more original writers.

Writing racist material is always a choice. You always have a choice to not do it.

I mean, I can totally write a story that is about how KKK was right all along and women are only good for breeding. It's totally legal and there is definitely a market for it and I can make fair bit of money.

Doesn't mean I should.

Edited by dRoy on Jun 14th 2019 at 11:38:45 PM

Why do you always bring racism into that? Isekai genre is pretty bad because people who do it can't write not because they are racist, sexist and whatever. Sure that's not exclusive, but you can be racist and still write good book, there is no direct correlation between these two.

Majority of Narou folk are just fanfic writers nothing more and nothing less. That's bad in it's own right.

Anyway wasn't this originaly discussion that isekai is bad because it's unimaginative and inherently derivative? I believe that's the case. Of course if you want change topic on isekai is bad because it's racist, sexist and whatever we can, though in that case I might not stick for long as these stuff get annoying fast.

Edited by Tenzen12 on Jun 14th 2019 at 4:45:52 PM

Not really. Fanfic is a great way for young writers to dabble in the craft and develop their skill, and a decent way for older writers to get some exercise in.

As mentioned earlier, there are fanfics legitimately Better Than Canon.

Although a fan video than a fanfiction, case in point: Sword Art Online Abridged.

Edited by dRoy on Jun 15th 2019 at 12:00:16 AM

Again I agree there is plenty of good fanfics (and isekai stories) I never tried deny that, point is it's more exception then rule.

Edit: Another thing is many stories popular enough to be novelised, aren't among these exceptions...

Edited by Tenzen12 on Jun 14th 2019 at 5:08:50 PM

Many settings are explicitly designed to be used as a template for "the fans" to tell stories, usually through roleplaying games or wargames. Writing your own D&D fanfic isn't a million miles away from the entire universe's original intended purpose. And the only difference between D&D fanfic and whatever Salvatore writes is that some editor approved the latter's work. And don't get me started on Black Library...

Either way, I don't think I'd consider writing sexist or racist fiction to be harmless. It normalises harmful behaviours and desensitises people to them.

Depends on what you mean. I'm a firm believer that fiction=/=reality people should write what they want to. That said, I'm also a firm believer of things being properly tagged and people actually researching the things they talk about and Actually formulating good stories with them rather than just throwing it just because they want to prove a point (abusive relationship aside, 50 shades sucks ass in showing actual BDSM).

Plus it's sometimes hard to understand what "the right thing to write about" is.

I finally figured out how to quickly describe the protagonist of Experimental Log. He's the badass mentor figure to the hero that's even stronger than they are but A. did the secretly evil all along thing before tiring of it and then B. didn't have the good grace to die and get out of the way of the hero, so he totally eclipses him.

Also this story has a lot of politics in it. Fantasy politics between gods and stuff like that, but still politics and back room dealing. The early chapters seem so weird now with stuff like his hidden torture prison thing that hasn't been mentioned in like 250 chapters. I haven't seen any of the atrocious transphobic humor lately so I imagine I'll probably be drowning in those soon.

I'm surprised he isn't overpowered yet. There aren't really any problems he can solve with his own strength because he's long past his peak and has to build himself up again, but all of his enemies have a long head start.

Edited by Arha on Jun 14th 2019 at 3:57:25 AM

I just remembered a weird isekai.

Basically, an workout-junkie gets transported into isekai. There he learns magic...that gives him even bigger muscle.

I think the title went something along the line of "To Hell With Magic, Muscle is the Best Magic!"

Finished season 1 of Kono Suba.

Wow. I can see why it was so hyped. I came in with a fairly high expectations and it actually managed to meet it and then some more.

There are like, what, literally less than 10 works that ever achieved that (those being Undertale, The Shawshank Redemption, Mass Effect 2, just to name a few)? I'm quite impressed.

Now compared to this, Shield Hero is...well, garbage. I mean, it was never more than a Guilty Pleasure to begin with, but it looks even worse now. I will still probably end up watching this anime to the end though. XD

Konosuba reminds me of a couple of simple writing advices for isekai and stories in general: it's okay to have your main cast suffer humiliation without promise of revenge in the future. Also, sometimes it is weaknesses, rather than strengths, that make characters simultaneously more unique and identifiable.

Maybe that's why so many isekai stories look cookie cutter. They all end up being power fantasy and MC shilling.

watch Re Zero, the author isn't afraid to make the main character suffer and make mistakes

Granted, learning from those mistakes and making better choices is like half the point of Re:Zero.

Are there any isekai about going into a world like The Sims?

.hack/Sign?

You know I have been hearing on Tumblr that Amphibia and Owl House can be compare to a Western Version of Isekai.

Wonderland was an Isekai.

So was Super Mario Bros.

If GATE counts then surely Stargate does as well.

Isekai is trapped in another world. A central premise of a lot of these stories is that the protagonist(s) is stuck in this unfamiliar new (or old) world / time / dimension.

So no, Stargate doesn't count. Not the original series anyway. Stargate Atlantis probably counts, though.

In the movie that started it all they were stuck for awhile.

This is neat!

"In 2017, Geode conducted a poll in Japan asking people to name their favourite isekai anime. The top ten were Spirited Away, Pop in Q, Sword Art Online, Magic Knight Rayearth, Re:Zero, The Twelve Kingdoms, Kono Suba, World Trigger, Kyo Kara Maoh! and Gate."