The current state of isekai as a genre is baffling.
While you may compare this trope to fish-out-of-water or trapped in another world like "Alice in Wonderland" or "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"; I'd say the closest relative to isekai is popadanets. It's a russian term generally used for shitty contemporary sci-fi and MLP fanfiction.
Increasing success of various isekai titles created a chain reaction of anime being made out of manga made out of LNs made out of webnovels inspired by isekai anime. That's the comparasion to popadanets: terrible non-professional webnovels not unlike MLP fanfiction in their conventions.
But even when it comes down to contemporary fiction the "being from another world/time" is the crux of the story. It is what creates conflict and allows diagetic exposition dumps. The interactions of everyman with different morals, people and laws of reality is what jumpstarts the plot. But many isekai stories don't bother with any of that.
What's the point of "30y/o salaryman reborn as a little girl" premise if you're just gonna timeskip and ignore all the culture/body shock that comes with it? Why bother with status screens and stats if your story has no relations to vidya and there's no powergaming? Why spend a chapter detailing your specific flavor of a generic magic system if the nature of magical laws will never be relevant?
Isekai has ceased to be a genre and became a pointless plot point. If you skip the first chapter of some mildly popular isekai then it will just be a fantasy story with an overpowered protagonist. Similar to Slayers, which itself was satirising generic contemporary fantasy filled with murderhobos on a grand quest.
The absolute state of isekai
Yeah Isekai is shit but I won't bother reading your blogpost. Sorry.
Also shout-out to that one autist who was arguing that terrible fantasy LNs should be called "native isekai" due to their awfulness. Now I understand what you meant.
Is this the thread?
>what's the point
People enjoy it. If you're not one of them don't read or watch it. I'm not either and I can confirm this works.
I have no qualms about isekai as trope, I'm sad that among all the shitty adaptations of shitty fanfics I found a handful of genuinely great stories, so now I'm chasing that dragon among seasonal anime and scanlated manga.
Isekai as a genre became popular too fast, and this attracted too much garbage. And also a bunch of works that use the trope needlessly, don't develop it (sine qua non for the genre) and should simply fuck off.
I fully agree with you the trope should be somehow relevant to the story as a whole. Mushoku Tensei is a prime example of this done well: Rudeus is a construction of the time he spent in Earth _plus_ the time in the new world. Parallel Paradise and Cautious Hero have the main character zig-zagging between Earth and an alternate world. Even Lv2 kara Cheat (that isn't that good) implements this decently, since Fulio keeps comparing his life in the new world with the old world.
Fuck that shit. 95% of stories are always shit. Suggest decent isekai.
>Mushoku Tensei
>Parallel Paradise
>Isekai Ryouridou
>Handyman Saitou In Another World
>Kono Yuusha ga Ore TUEEE Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru
>Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
Some of those aren't exactly great, but they're a good intro to the genre. Read some, if you like go on, if you don't like drop it.
>Isekai Shikkaku
>Isekai Ojisan
If you want something parodying the genre.
>ride-on king
actually good characterization despite silly oneshot premise
Same as >Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken
>The Ride-On King
>How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord
>Risou no Himo Seikatsu
>Isekai Kenkokuki
>Yondome wa Iyana Shi Zokusei Majutsushi
>Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo
>Kochira Isekai de yoroshikatta deshou ka?
It helps a lot if you tell us some works and tropes you enjoy/hate, so I can further refine this list. Also feel free to ask for info for some series.
If still in doubt: Mushoku Tensei, The Ride-On King, Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken.
Hmm, I have everything except Parallel Paradise in my bookmarks. Didn't like the short blurb it is described with but now I'll need to check it out.
Warning: Parallel Paradise is borderline hentai. From the same author as Elfen Lied and Brunhildr of Darkness. It's actually good though.
>It's actually good though.
Surprising.
Save for a couple of popular ones(and the few that are actually good) the majority of them are just downright awful and repetitive, and the prologues are barely relevant and if your not carful could gain controversy like the ww2 solder who participated in the Chinese siege. It's never brought up again and he's young in the story. When will the fad end?
To be honest the Elfen Lied manga itself is decent. The issue is the anime, that cuts off a lot of the "dilemmas" of the manga and makes it into an edgy gorefest.
I'll add
>Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi
No harem. MC is outright normal guy trying to keep up with his companions. Art and characters are pretty good.
>"dilemmas"
the whole medium is like this, why not read a real book one that explores real dilemmas in a real way, font misunderstand I wholeheartedly agree with your use of quotation marks
They aren't specially deep, and boil down to
>what measure is a human
>self-defence vs. aggression
>how much one can forgive past events
>personality and identity
but they keep the story engaging, and prevent it from being solely a bloodfest with a retard pissing on the floor.
>Fantasy Sekai ni Yusha toshite Shoukan saretanoni, Jinrui ni Saiyaku wo okoshimashita. ~Nazeka Kowai Konyaksha Dondon Fueteikimasu~ Hentai Sukaidon
11/10 would recommend again
>The current state of isekai as a genre is baffling.
>While you may compare this trope to fish-out-of-water or trapped in another world like "Alice in Wonderland" or "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"; I'd say the closest relative to isekai is popadanets. It's a russian term generally used for shitty contemporary sci-fi and MLP fanfiction.
>Increasing success of various isekai titles created a chain reaction of anime being made out of manga made out of LNs made out of webnovels inspired by isekai anime. That's the comparasion to popadanets: terrible non-professional webnovels not unlike MLP fanfiction in their conventions.
TL;DR: meaningless blogpost part filled with irrelevant trivia.
>But even when it comes down to contemporary fiction the "being from another world/time" is the crux of the story. It is what creates conflict and allows diagetic exposition dumps. The interactions of everyman with different morals, people and laws of reality is what jumpstarts the plot. But many isekai stories don't bother with any of that.
Nope, there is literally no rule for any isekai to follow such themes, it's completely made up by you on the spot based on your personal preference that no one gives a shit about.
[1/3]
>What's the point of "30y/o salaryman reborn as a little girl" premise if you're just gonna timeskip and ignore all the culture/body shock that comes with it? Why bother with status screens and stats if your story has no relations to vidya and there's no powergaming? Why spend a chapter detailing your specific flavor of a generic magic system if the nature of magical laws will never be relevant?
user, that's what we call "world building" and the purpose of that is not limited to your deliberate subjective points. For your male->female example, it might simply be a way to have a young female character with the personality of an older male for whatever the main plot is. Pupil of the Wiseman for example even adds another layer to it where the true personality is a "30-year-old salaryman", the role he had in the otherworld while it was still just a game was an old dignified badass wizard, while his new body was that of a girl, so this blend of homeoffice salaryman, badass old wizard and smug girl blind the protagonist about himself many times, causing him to jump to his other behaviour from time to time without realizing and this lack of self-awareness is a source of a lot of comedy and fun in the story that you won't find anywhere else.
In case of Youjo Senki Tanya does very much tackle the consequences of becoming a girl take Tanya's monologue about bodily-homosexuality vs spiritual homosexuality when it comes to the question of how any love relations are supposed to work for Tanya, for example. Or that Tanya's body has growth inhibitions due to magic-overuse and having such low physical base-strength as a female child. Or the dissonance about how people view Tanya as a girl while Tanya lacks the self-awareness which causes both good and bad things for him/her.
At this point I'd like to note that all your examples are either unspecific and generalized and/or just subjective complaints that might not apply for most other readers/watchers.
[2/3]
anyone read this?
>Isekai has ceased to be a genre and became a pointless plot point. If you skip the first chapter of some mildly popular isekai then it will just be a fantasy story with an overpowered protagonist. Similar to Slayers, which itself was satirising generic contemporary fantasy filled with murderhobos on a grand quest.
No you just didn't read/watch enough isekai. The MC being an alien from a different universe is very much relevant in many isekai works, especially in those works that have multiple Otherworlders. That you are not aware of them is your own problem, not the authors'.
[3/3]
does planet of the apes count as an isekai?
Jesus fuck, if we weren't going to read OP's blogpost, why would we read your tripartite autism?
Anyway, The Worries of Local Knight Hans is the only non-otome, non-parody isekai of the post-Narou Era I've ever unequivocally liked. I can appreciate the Youjo Senki manga, but that's almost a military comedy.
Isekai is in a good place, the popularity both in and outside of Japan is an obvious sign of it. Don't like it, don't support it. Not every genre/anime/manga has to be catered to you retard.
Is anyone even reading isekais anymore?
What exactly is isekai genre? I don't understand why you call it a genre when 2 stories with isekai can be so vastly different.
>What exactly is isekai genre? I don't understand why you call it a genre when 2 stories with isekai can be so vastly different.
Not him, but that's not exactly the reason why it can't be a genre. Fantasy is a genre and there can still be vastly different fantasy stories.
Yes