I don't typically watch very many isekai, so I've only seen marginally more than the ten included on my Top 10 list provided below (I've only seen 15 in total), and this is including my interpretation of what constitutes an isekai going by the strict definitions and literal meaning of the name isekai itself. That means a few included may not even be commonly thought of as isekais generally these days considering how the isekais of recent years (especially the ones released since the post-2012 trend) tend to conform to a more stereotypical narrow criteria which they have in common with certain plot points and archetypes/tropes recurring heavily, but I'm not judging only the stereotypical image of isekai which has become predominant in the past 10 years or only the popular ones, but just literally and simply, those which are factually isekais and that I've seen in full.
1.) Haibane Renmei - 10/10
2.) Sonny Boy - 8/10
3.) Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash - 7/10
4.) Juuni Kokuki - 7/10
5.) So I'm a Spider, So What? - 7/10
6.) No Game No Life - 7/10
7.) By the Grace of the Gods - 7/10
8.) Isekai Shokudou - 7/10
9.) Ascendance of a Bookworm - 6/10 (the first season alone was a 7/10 for me, but the second and third seasons have dragged the series as a whole down in my eyes)
10.) The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat - 6/10
Edit: Notes worth mentioning:
- I didn't include Inuyasha even though it's my #1 favorite series, I saw another user mention it, and it's sometimes grouped together and referred to by others as an isekai, because really, it isn't. It's time travel. Even if there are fantastical elements like youkai abundant in the world 500 years in the past which are not there in the present-day setting of the show, it's still ultimately the same world of Japan 500 years in the past during the Sengoku jidai and real life historical figures inhabit this time period and are even mentioned by name. I understand why it's considered isekai by some, because the time travel is treated and sometimes even referred to as "going to another world" and, coming out in 2000, it's one of the progenitors laying the foundation for other later fantasy anime with similar mechanisms, many of which are literal actual isekai, but that is it. Having fantastical or supernatural elements at play in the past doesn't really make it a different world anymore than having fantastical or supernatural elements in the present, like a contemporary urban fantasy.
- Also noticed a user further down the thread topic mention Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi. It's an isekai; no question. If I were to include it it would either be my #1 or #2. It's also one of my few 10/10s. Haibane Renmei is in my Top 10 anime series overall and Spirited Away is in my Top 10 films overall, even including many non-anime. I'm not including it, because considering I have seen substantially more anime series than films, I tend to focus my activity on this site and compiling lists entailing ratings and rankings exclusively around series, since films have a very different dynamic owing to their running time and usually standalone format, so I don't want to muddy the waters.
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