Isekai critics and haters, how would YOU make an isekai show?

Yash-Anime347 said:
I won't make. I will just end the existence of the genre.

Mokocchi_x3 said:
how would i make an isekai show?

i simply wouldn't.

/thread

kingdawoo said:
simple, i wouldn't fucking make one or if i really had to, it would be 1 episode special where they all fucking die

Lawgun said:
I wouldn't obviously, next question.

Buccaneer said:
Simple, I just wouldn't make one in this stupid ass genre.

Kneyki said:
Not Making one in the first place...

HeruruMeruru said:
Make a show about a slave uprising where the typical isekai MC is the villain. Hell, make him die in the first episode and the rest of the show is about liberating slaves.

Fario-P said:
all right then wise guys, next question...

what kind of anime would you make then instead if not isekai? c:

Fario-P said:
all right then wise guys, next question...

what kind of anime would you make then instead if not isekai? c:

Kneyki said:
Probably a SoL Traveling anime

you know how great this 30 character limit is?

Violet42 said:


Hmmm, needs a little workshopping. What if you have two dueling isekai protagonists, one of whom has very little morality, and joins the monarchy to put down the slave revolt, and the other sides with the slaves? And the bad one has the requisite bullshit RPG super-skills and the harem to go with it, while the good one has a ragtag party of weirdos from races/backgrounds typically judged as evil/immoral, and starts off fairly weak and reliant on their party.
You could even make the bad one an honor student with good grades (but bitter and resentful because it hasn't helped him land girls), and the good one a previously apathetic delinquent (but with natural charisma, and a track record of helping people secretly without expecting any reward or thanks). it's the battle of a nerd getting everything he wished for versus a goodhearted delinquent who mostly just wants to go back home, but is too kind to abandon people in need. The villain protagonist has the intelligence and strength, but the hero protagonist has the charisma and a more intuitive, creative way of thinking.

anyway this idea is free, if anyone wants to run with it.

hazecloud said:
the often remark I saw is how often people get pissed of with them being popular and auto looting waifu here and there.

maybe try to tone it down with the harem simulator element, and more like adding different kind of ability as a gimmick while not trying to rush to end game. We play games not to solely see the ending, but how we enjoy playing to get to end game.

usually mid game is like obtaining various aspect that would make the game or in anime universe, make their life more interactive instead of the usual popular among the villager route. heck, just expand hai to gensou no grimgar into more season.

one ability that i would like to see is gacha ability, because many mobile game companies have succeeded in making people commit suicide or drive into bankruptcy if not pure addiction.

GreyStoneFlinger said:
How about instead of a videogame fantasy world, try an alien world?

Shimura27 said:
Mix beetwen Grimgar and So I'm A Spider So What? i think. I love anime with great twist and intense plot, also i love realistic system mechanism and advanced-level worldbuilding with almost charracters have good and bad side at same time.

Of course i don't like perv MC and ecchi/harem tag.

Znra said:
By not making it spearheaded by a generic self-insert character which everyone can call "that's so me", or emulate what made Twelve Kingdoms good for a mid-2000s isekai.

Isekais used to be good until it became the self-stroking reality escape genre that it is right now.

Fario-P said:
can you say that last part louder for the people in the back please

SleepySera said:
"What kind of main character would you make in your own isekai story?"
Literally ANYTHING but the typical black-haired NEET teen boy/young man with 1337 gamer skills (or a similar hobby) that plagues the majority of isekai nowadays.
More girls, definitely. But also old, rickety men, because it would be fun to see the plot direction forced to go in very different direction when you can't just swordfight your way to victory; little kids that don't understand how real and worrying the dangers of this other world are, actually sociable, successful people that LIKE their life and have a reason and some drive to get back to it, and so on. I'm not picky, really.

"What kind of world will the story take place? What world-building—lore, mythos, magic system, prophecies, society, culture, etc—will you interweave into the setting?"
Once again, anything but the standard European Medieval Fantasy RPG setting. Personally I'm quite fond of Mongolian tribes as a setting, so that would probably be my first choice for inspiration. Always liked Celtic stuff too, so that would be fine as well.
Absolutely NO game mechanics. Not picky about magic systems and the like, that's one of the few topics where I don't ever grow tired of the basics. Throwing fireballs at stuff and calling down thunder to strike thine enemies? Sure, why not.

"How will you have the main character transported to this other world?"
I know that's technically relevant, but honestly I never cared about this at all. It's usually a 3 minute piece of the first episode and then never comes up again, so honestly, whatever. I tend to prefer it if there is an option for the isekai'd character to return, because it creates a CHOICE, and choices are what make stories fun and give characters agency, so preferably nothing irreversible like reincarnation after death, but other than that, I don't care.

"What kind of story/plot/conflicts will the main character be part of? Is there a quest of any kind?"
I enjoy both "unusual" concepts that go a more Slice of Life kind of route as well as the classic "save the world, rescue the princess" or whatever plot lines, so either way is fine, as long as it's an actual struggle and not some ego boost show for the self-insert protag. Also, if it's a grand world-saving adventure kind of thing, I want something more unique and inspired than yet another demon king that has to be defeated.

"What will you do in your own isekai story (ies) that will make it stand out from the rest and make it more palatable for fellow isekai-distrusters?"
I'm just saying what I would like to see, not what others have to like. I'm technically not an isekai hater, I just dislike the majority of CURRENT isekai which are all the exact same thing with one silly gimmick added to it and that's it. I doubt whatever I'd cook up would satisfy ACTUAL isekai haters, but maybe it could be enjoyable for fellow isekai concept likers who just don't like the execution of the concept in recent years x)

"What typical isekai tropes/genre tags would you avoid, or even embrace?"
Absolutely NO harems whatsoever! No "technically not a harem but protagonist drags around a whole band of hyper attractive members of the opposite sex with them that inexplicably want to constantly hang out with them" either. I touched upon it earlier, but - no overpowered bs. No super talents if it's SoL oriented. No "this super useless irl hobby I have makes me a god in this world!" crap. The whole fun of throwing someone into a setting out of their comfort zone is seeing how they have to learn to adapt to it, and that just doesn't happen if it's just a thinly veiled power fantasy.
Also, and this is more a dig at older isekai, but still - none or very sparingly used sexual violence. Not saying the topic can't be handled sensitively, but anime/manga has a TERRIBLE track record with that and also, not every fantasy world has to be 50% rape, ok? No society would function with the amount of incidents some of these isekai worlds have...

"Would you parody the whole genre and the whole ridiculousness that comes with it?"
Nah. As I said, I actually generally like the genre, so I want to see it played straight. Just...breaking from what has become the norm.

"Do you have a target demographic in mind for your isekai story (ies)?"
Teens and young adults with more self-respect than the "I'm a sad, unsuccessful NEET so I don't wanna see protagonists that are more varied and interesting than me because otherwise I can't self-insert into my power fantasy properly" people that like regular isekai 😏 Yes I'm being unfair and stereotyping people. I know a lot of different people enjoy the currently dominant isekais. But ultimately, their target demographic IS the clichéd otaku, even if people outside of that demographic enjoy it. I also want more girls and women to be able to enjoy isekai again, without having to feel uncomfortable about massive harems and sexual slavery and the like.

"Are there any isekai anime/manga that you actually like?"
Yes. I like a lot of older isekai, though I wouldn't call them flawless either, just to be clear. Ultimately, to me, an isekai lives or dies based on how much the "other world" itsself captures my heart, everything else is comparatively irrelevant. That's why RPG Town #3476 is such a sad development for the genre.
I liked the Warring States demon version of Inuyasha, I enjoyed the ancient Anatolian setting of Red River, fell in love with the unique desert world and plant-growing powers of Silver Diamond, was very intrigued by the futuristic, underground world people were swept away to in Psyren, felt hyped seeing adaptations of modern medicine techniques in the Bakumatsu era in Jin (if we count time travel as isekai :P), and so on.

If we are talking newer ones, the typical ones like Ascendance of a Bookworm, So I'm a Spider, so what?, Log Horizon (despite the videogame setting!) and Restaurant to Another World were all fine. Though I genuinely like grand, world-saving adventures so I kind of miss having those.

Honorable mention to Titan's Bride, which is hentai, but the manga has such genuinely interesting world building, cultures and even a few well-done emotional conflicts, that I actually read it for the isekai part alone and just gloss over the hentai parts, lol.

"Will you use them as inspiration(s) for your own isekai work(s)?"
Nope. One of my current novels IS actually an isekai story, though it will never get through traditional publishing anyways since isekai as a genre has been dead in the West for a few decades already (funny, when you think of how much it is thriving in the Light Novel and manga/anime sector all across the East, lol). It's more inspired by regular fantasy novels though than any anime isekai stuff.
Lol, now that I think about it, despite everything I've said, my protagonist actually IS a black-haired, introverted teenage boy 😂 No harem and power fantasies though, and imo a pretty cool world with a strong water focus, because mythology, plus that's actually something I'm knowledgeable about~
His girlfriend got isekai'd before him and became the vessel of a goddess, and he's basically on a quest to get her back. As I said, I like traditional hero stories 🤷‍♀️🙂

Ashen-Titan said:
with a smidgeon of Lovecraft in the mix.

No, but i have had the idea for an isekai about a guy who gets hit by a truck and dies and reincarnates in the same world, as a truck. And then a goddess wakes up in his backseat and tasks him with finding increasingly absurd ways of isekaiing miserable people to send them to worlds more suited to them. He runs them over, she reincarnates them. Along the way he gains various super powers like the ability to transform into other machines, and teleport and has to use these powers in his quest to end the world's misery by isekaiing everyone who needs it. He of course ends up being accompanied by a dysfunctional harem that makes the girls in KonoSuba look competent. Like one girl who keeps trying to get herself killed by him, but always fails because something goes wrong. You could call it Divine ReconsTrucktion: The Story of How I Became Truck-kun

Ashen-Titan said:

I'll have to give those a watch

Ashen-Titan said:

Really? So technically he invented isekai lol.

Lucifrost said:

12 Kingdoms was always a self-stroking reality escape.

Lucifrost said:
If I had to write a story about a video game world, I would copy Epic. It's so much better than all the SAO imitators! Please let me know if you've seen anything similar.

Mist878 said:
Ascendance of a Bookworm is awesome! But I digress:

The problem I have with most Isekai is they're power fantasies with an MC as bland as a bucket of pennies who becomes a god and gets all the girls... Basically the modern version of a Harem anime. I'm not a hater of Isekai, but I do despise That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime With A passion.

What type of Isekai would interest me? Either Redo of Healer with less sex (I love revenge tales), where a protagonist gets reincarnated as a villain with bullies from his world (Who also get OP powers) and gets revenge on all of them, or something where the protagonist has no inherent powers, but is hunted by the world he's reincarnated into because of his knowledge of our world (Kind of like he's an "alien" to the world he's or she's Isekaied into), and he has to rely on powerful allies from the new world to protect him as he slowly learns the powers of the new world.

P.S. The protagonist can be powerful, but must have a least one challenging fight to conclude the season with, and that someone must be comparable to him.

_Maneki-Neko_ said:
I wanted to say "something like Bookworm isekai, just with medicine", but looks like we will get something like that in the future. I'm looking forward to it and hope it's good.

Fario-P said:
Does Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters count? I'm serious, there were 3 filler episodes before Dungeon Dice Monsters where Kaiba gets himself kidnapped and stuck in a VR game by his own company... and those eps came out before SAO was even written lolol

Fario-P said:
What are your thoughts on From Far Away btw? Seems to be a well-received old shoujo that even I haven't read yet.

Lucifrost said:

Yes, I loved those episodes back when I was a kid. I was also a fan of Spy Kids 3D. Epic is not such a cheesy story, however.

Rui_Rei said:
Since I would have no desire to make generic tropey stuff, I would start out deciding on the story I want to tell.

This is an example;

An avocado that changes into a ripe mango at random intervals. Which lives in a world where fruit is toxic and no one eats it. Gets transported into a world where every one and every thing is a ripe fruit eater.

Fruit-san is transported to another world with her two kids. Her husband is in the old world in police custody, wrongly accused of murder.

Fruit san has got to survive and she's got two kids. She's also the alibi for her husband she can give evidence that will prove he wasn't involved in any one's murder and it was the high priest of chocolate who framed him and isekaid her with space-time magic.

In this world there is no magic. Meanwhile—

Crow_Black said:
Lets throw a normie in a Tim Burton styled goth isekai and that would make for some good entertainment as they get corrupted by the powers of darkness lol.

Fario-P said:
Great! What kind of world would you make with world building though?

Fario-P said:
Looks like I've just gotten in the middle of a new arc with Noa and the Big Five that returns to this filler, been pretty awesome to watch though. XD

Lucifrost said:

Am I right to think Noa's VR world is not a game like it was in the previous arc? I was not actively watching Yu-Gi-Oh during the time this arc aired. I only saw the duel against Nightmare Penguin, and I thought it was the dumbest thing ever.

Fario-P said:
I loved the shiptease at the end of it XD

Stan_S_Stanman said:
Don't make the protagonist a "one trick pony". As in, trying to force every single joke you can out of one unique aspect of the main character. It will get really old and predictable fast. Try to put more diversity in the unique traits, or show off a variety of traits.

Unpredictability and uniqueness makes me want to see more of what the world is like. The moment I hear "Demon King", I'm like "okay, I know exactly who the main villain is, his personality, and what's going to happen for the rest of the show".

sorcery said:


Mhm, I think my Isekai setting would be a sort of Pre-Islam times Middle Eastern world, where the locals worship elemental Chimera gods and their Manticore-like geniuses. They'd fight with Steampunk fighter jets launching from temple-fortresses. I'd elaborate on how priesthood is comparable to a military staff. To best describe it, my Isekai would be a sort of hybrid of Escaflowne/El Hazard/Area 88. There'd be about five Isekai'd heroes having complex relationship dynamics. Some of which starting as close friends, until some of them drift apart and become tragic foes out of betrayed ideals and misunderstanding; or other being bitter rivals who come to better understanding and discovery of newfound respect.

JustOscar said:
Since I hardly feel from this world, Isekai is a theme that usually comes to me when creating my own stories. I think that a fictional world (or a story, or a character...) should be different enough from reality to have a reason for existing, but not so different that is wholly alien to it. Fiction is at its highest when it expresses the aspects of reality that reality can't express.

PS: I think Internet can be considered a figurative isekai. Not the Internet as a whole, but some sites or communities. In some sense it is more real than the “real world”. It reminds me of the isekai .hack//SIGN: the world is virtual, but the persons are real. ¿Doesn't that make the world real too?

KarasuZ said:
There, we see everything that I want to see more:

* A world already built. Each character has their story, background, motives and flaws. Everyone is more "human" and the scenario feels realistic inside its own boundaries.
* Protagonist that actually needs to ADAPT to the new world, understand the responsibilities and what's at stake, makes mistakes that shapes the narrative and learns with everyone else.
* Different characters that don't follow single tropes or clichés.
* etc...

I also need to start reading the novels. The world building of Juuni Kokuki is incredible.