Dont go crazy but, i want to know your honest to God opinion on isekai, and the impact it has had on anime recently, especially with some really popular ones, Sword Art Online, love it or hate it, is very popular, and shows like Overlord, Re:Zero, and Log Horizon |
| "And this....is to go....even further beyond!" -Son Goku  |
| They are trash, utter garbage, something that can have a future only in Japan with their otaku culture. |
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| It's an extremely poor pretense for a story that seems to only be used for marketing. A story being Isekai thus far has extremely little to do with the actual concept. 9/10 times it's a fish out of water story where the main character gets transported to a new world, and that's where it ends. There is little the story has to do with the original world or any implications of the original world, at best it's just a couple lines of dialogue, otherwise you could replace the main character with someone who's clueless in the new world and have the exact same story without it being Isekai. There's no dynamic between worlds at all. |
 I don't believe in the Devil. You should. He believes in you. |
| It’s an overhated genre imo. Isekai has roughly the same level of potential as any non-isekai high fantasy series. You could argue that the potential strengths of the genre haven’t been played up enough, but somehow I doubt most people claiming that have seen a lot of isekai. There are actually quite a few uncontroversially loved ones, namely oldies like Escaflown, Inuyasha, and so on. Also... maybe I shouldn’t tread here, but SAO technically isn’t even an isekai despite being very isekai-like and despite many people associating it with the genre. Isekai has to do with being transported to a different world or reality that is for all intents and purposes “real”, even if that reality is “game-like”. This is not the case with SAO, which deals with virtual reality. Personally, the few isekai I have seen have been more or less enjoyable, but not especially praiseworthy in a critical sense. Magic Knight Rayearth was fun and has some of that diamond-in-the-rough charm a show like the original MSG has, but also some very obvious flaws to go along with it. Re:Zero worked pretty great as shallow entertainment. I haven’t watched many (if any) others, although I do plan to check out quite a few at some point. |
| The impact Isekai had on anime has been exaggerated a lot. With that out of the way, I do enjoy them. How much of an impact the Isekai setting has on the story, depends on the individual anime or manga. In some it does, in some it doesn't. Once again, SAO isn't an Isekai. If anything, the Aincrad Arc could be considered to be one. |
| You're a louse, Roger Smith. - R. Dorothy Wayneright This is my fight! No Senpai, this is our fight! - Kojou Akatsuki & Yukina Himeragi  |
| I like Slime. That's about it. I'm sure others are fine, but you gotta figure the genre is oversaturated at this point. |
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| I don't hate or like them really. I will say it's a bit of an overdone genre, but there are plenty of other genres that are overdone as well.. so I'm indifferent personally speaking. |
| Not a big fan of it. Not particularly because of what the genre itself entails, but more so because of the overwhelming flood of mediocrity it brought into the anime medium. So many isekai are just generic, half-assed copies of the same thing squeezed dry that were written for the sole purpose to sell. I'm not blaming the authors, cuz obv profit is the ultimate objective of anyone who wants to live, but can't deny it is disappointing. They rely heavily on specific tropes rather than writing fundamentals. A sizable part of the blame goes towards very popular shows like sao, which created the motivation for many of these hellspawn, but hey it won't stop as long as it continues to sell, so I guess the audience is very much perpetuating the problem. At the same time tho, if it sells, that means lots of people enjoy it so maybe it's a stretch to even call it an issue. |
| Haven’t seen much, but it’s just that I don’t really care for fantasy settings like that a whole lot. Probably why I haven’t seen much, because none have interested me. |
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| It's currently meta and there's some interesting stories that can be told with an isekai. It does feel like there's a lot of potential that's been squandered though. |
join the hyper going home club!  |
| I'd rather not watch it, so I don't. It's just a genre which doesn't appeal to me too much, but some do peak my interest milf isekai |
  Don't worry about being lame now, you were always lame anyway!  |
| Well, same as with mecha, only a few isekai are worth it. I personally like the increase in MMORPG shows, but they are rather poorly executed (Log Horizon being the best, but season 2 is not as good as the 1st); ".hack" series first got popular with this thing. |
| Silently waiting for WW3 to come and kill everyone while I die smoking weed and drinking coke 🚬👌 |
| The majority are a good dogshit, just some of them are good enough to don't be a dogshit but it's still not something incredible. |
 "というわけで。待望の、体 操 服！ でっあ～る。祭りであれば、余も着飾ってはいられぬと用意したが……うむ！ 心身ともに軽くなったようだ。どうだ？ 似合っているであろう、マスター？" - Random Quote From Internet by Saber Nero |
| I actually like our modern isekai theme despite how overused the concept is, not so much the old school isekais. Though I'm heavily under the belief that most authors of isekai stories these days don't appear to have any knowledge of anything above what they learned in highschool and from playing games. |
| I like it, a lot. It's an old genre but lately a lot of them are being released andd just because of that a lot of people are hating them. Avoid the shitty ones and anyone can enjoy the genre. |
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| Isekai is a mystery to me. I don't see much of them. But I can say they're have been some good ones like Digimon, NGNL and Konosuba. But to be honest the reason why ppl seems to not like it is because some of them are basically harem disguised as a isekai, where the author can make up his own fantasies where the MC is the king of everything can beat up the most greatest of enemies with no problem, and the only thing you have the worry about is what type girl you're gonna get. |
| There are so much shit mecha stuff being produced since 19xx, even so, they still make some good ones nowaday. Isekai follows the same logic imo; it's commercially viable and sometimes someone makes a good one. There's nothing wrong with that. Anyways, talking about the genre itself, I'd say it's not something I usually like to watch. |
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| That's like asking how I feel about action shows in general: it's difficult to give a singular answer. Twelve Kingdoms rocked, and I think KonoSuba is hilarious. I question a lot of things about Magic Knight Rayearth, as I do with In Another World With My Smartphone. It's a particular method to set up a story's setting and tone to place characters in unfamiliar scenarios with a world built from the writer's imagination. It could be a trippy adventure into madness, it could be a metaphorical in nature, it could be a power fantasy set away from reality, the limits are the writer's own intentions with their story and creative prowess. That being said, I barely keep up with anime nowadays, so I can't quite generalize on the quality of shows that have come out as of late. However, if the show happens to be well-made, I'll probably at least enjoy the show, isekai or not. |
| Some are good, some are not. I don't just write off all Isekai. I judge on a show to show basis |
JuliusMP3 said: Dont go crazy but, i want to know your honest to God opinion on isekai, and the impact it has had on anime recently, especially with some really popular ones, Sword Art Online, love it or hate it, is very popular, and shows like Overlord, Re:Zero, and Log Horizon If it’s done well I’m ok with watching it How to summon a demon lord Log horizon .hack Etc |
| It's just any other genre, some are good, some are bad. |
| "The name's Gambit. Remember it." -Gambit "X-Men '97"  |
| Absolutely masterful, the peak of entertainment and the visual medium. |
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| Isekai is probably the only "genre" that I agree with the notion of "old anime are better". I used to like it, but I don't like the way it's going. Back in the day, Isekai usually allowed the author to go wild with their idea of world building. There's a real sense of adventure and exploration as the character went through a new world. Nowadays, most Isekai (and even the Isekai-esque like Goblin Slayer or DanMachi) are just samey RPG world with some small gimmicks that differentiate them from the last. While some of them aren't bad, it just gets old. |
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| Like other genres most of them are trash |
| Once again.... I'll told you... SAO is not an Isekai. |
| Some of them are good, most of them are shit. Shows like Ima Soko ni Iru Boku, ReZero, Grimgar, Overlord, Youjo Senki, Slime, and some others are pretty good. |
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| For the love of science and all that is great on this wonderful world, how hard is it to use the search forum function, tighten the parameters to "Anime Discussion", and type "isekai"? Here: Eanki said: The isekai concept is fundamentally just the farmboy/child/country bumpkin MC of fantasy taken to the extreme. Both serve the same purpose: the escalation curve. Earth and some quiet fantasy starting town generally aren't the most whimsical place in a story. They serve to establish something familiar and grounds the story before the crazy fantastical. That character becomes your POV into introducing the wonders of your world in a way that allows the viewers to experience the world just as the characters are. You establish the setting with a character who is unfamiliar with it, allowing for more leeway in introducing said world. The munchkins in The Lord of the Rings started at the same starting line as the munchkins in Narnia. So I don't really prefer one over the other. MMORPG-based isekai series have one more distinct advantage over other isekai types: MMORPG mechanics allow for a pretty strong backbone in constructing a hard magic system. In fact, it’s one of the easiest ways of establishing a hard magic system, really. Hard magic systems, as opposed to soft magic systems, have clearly defined rules so that the reader can understand and predict them, in accordance with Brandon Sanderson’s first of three laws of magic: “An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.” This allows the reader/viewer to participate in the storytelling because the reader/viewer now has a clearer idea of what the characters can do and if he/she is quick enough, he/she can predict what the characters could and would do based on their capabilities. Quick, what does an MMORPG offers you? It offers relatively clearer defined rules that you could understand if you play RPGs or reading the basic straight-forward rules of the game genre. Now what we need is an author that does Sanderson's Third Law of Magic as well as or even better than what Mamare Touno did in his isekai story. Sanderson's Third Law of Magic: Expand on what you have already, before you add something new. "A brilliant magic system for a book is less often one with a thousand different powers and abilities -- and is more often a magic system with relatively few powers that the author has considered in depth." Extrapolation It is important to consider the effects that a magic will have on a world. If for example your magic can create food out of thin air, what will that cause, what will happen? How will it affect trade, politics, warfare, education and social norms? Asking these questions and working out what effects your magic system will add depth to your world. Interconnection Another important point is to interconnected. Try to make the powers of a character seem like a coherent whole rather than separate abilities. In Mistborn, for example, magics were designed to be what thieves would want and then the powers named accordingly. Tying your powers together thematically is an important part of worldbuilding and expands the world, rather than adding to it. Streamlining Streamlining is also important in any magic system. Combining pre-existing magics and powers is often better than adding new ones. A different culture reacting to a magic entirely differently than what has been shown so far, is often better than a culture with its own unrelated magic system. For example: a simple heat-generating magic may be used by different cultures in very different ways. A warlike culture might use it for assault or for forging weapons, a peaceful one for heating and preparing food, for merchants for making products, nomads for powering transportation and so on. I'm not even sure what impact you're referring to? Their arguable prevalence/trend? |
EankiOct 30, 2018 10:23 PM
 You gave up your freedom of speech when you clicked Agree to the User Agreement This is not a public platform. My gaze is the measure of all things: I stopped considering "anime" a helpful tag Recommended Essays Exploring Actually Excellent World-Building |
| isekai anime has potential to be good but most of them start up with promising intros and end up mediocre some of the ones I enjoyed are spirited away, konosuba and the devil is a part timer |
| I like the concept of isekai, the problem is that instead of getting transported to a whole new world they just get transported to your generic JRPG inspired world. Overall it's such a pathetic genre that every instance of it seems like a parody of itself. Even Konosuba got popular as a parody even though it's really only another classic isekai. |
| I've enjoyed watching them. Does that mean they are really good, or should be considered masterpieces? No. That just means I've enjoyed watching them. Not everybody does, and that's fine. I don't care how much they all resemble each other. I don't care that they could be set anywhere in medieval times and still be the exact same story. They entertain me, and there's enough differences to not be the exact same story as any other. Can't speak to how much they've impacted anime, but the impact here on MAL has been noticeable. Seems as though there's at least one thread about them created every week. It's a very popular genre to hate on right now, and half the isekai thread debates seem to include whether or not SAO is actually an isekai or not. |
 You're never too old to watch anime. If I ever stop watching anime, check my pulse I'm likely dead. I wake up with coffee & anime, I go to sleep with coffee & anime. Sorry if my sarcasm is bad, it's not my first language. |
| I don't really like any of them. Most of the times the isekai elements add nothing to the story |
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| I don't mind them. Some are good, others not so much. As long as they have good characters and are action-driven, I'm fine with them. |
| I wish they'd stop will all these game-like worlds and MC getting cheat abilities. I like the ones where MC has to struggle and do his/her best to get by in the other world. |
| Pretty low opinion. Typical escapist wish-fulfillment fantasy with the main dude being overly charismatic and having powered up abilities with chicks (harem, no surprises) fawning around his D from the get-go. This is coming from someone who likes the idea of jumping to and fro between parallel worlds. There's no impact on the anime industry whatsoever, they are more popular in light novel formats. That said, there are however very few and well done isekai (12 kingdoms, Now and here Then and There, Re:Zero, El-Hazard etc) out there but that's just the same about any genre. Isekai is just a subgenre of Fantasy. The same way how Technical Death Metal is what it is...Death Metal, as an example. It doesn't reinvent the wheel. It's the author (or musician) 's execution that makes it good. |
| I actually enjoyed most of the ones I watched so far, but probably because I do like fantasy anime in general. |
KreatorX said: Isekai is just a subgenre of Fantasy. The same way how Technical Death Metal is what it is...Death Metal, as an example. It doesn't reinvent the wheel. It's the author (or musician) 's execution that makes it good. 1. Isekai isn't a genre. 2. Not all Isekai are Fantasy. They just happen to be the majority. |
| You're a louse, Roger Smith. - R. Dorothy Wayneright This is my fight! No Senpai, this is our fight! - Kojou Akatsuki & Yukina Himeragi |
| They were good in the 90s/early-00s, and they are mostly crap nowadays. |
TheBigGuy said: KreatorX said: Isekai is just a subgenre of Fantasy. The same way how Technical Death Metal is what it is...Death Metal, as an example. It doesn't reinvent the wheel. It's the author (or musician) 's execution that makes it good. 1. Isekai isn't a genre. 2. Not all Isekai are Fantasy. They just happen to be the majority. You probably misunderstood me. I have not claimed any of it to be otherwise :) If it's the definition of fantasy you are getting at, then it's just a matter of definitions. Choose whichever suits you |
| In theory it has potential (fish out of water situation and everything) but the current state is horrible. |
| I hate it because that's what cool kids do I like some but the game-world setting is getting really reallly annoying. |
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| log horizon is rarely ever discussed to be honest even though it has 600K members and is in the top100 most popular. sucks cause it's the best of what you've mentionned. OT: I don't care honestly but it seems that most of these adaptations don't know how to make the anime interesting. |
| In and of itself, isekai is not a terrible idea. However, the big problem is a combination of how prevalent they were and how little variety we got. One or two where the MC is overpowered can be fine, but the problem is 90% of the genre makes the MC overpowered, usually getting a harem immediately after. And yes, I've liked a few like that, but again, with how prevalent it is, it gets overwhelming. Oh, and it doesn't help that it's getting to a point where all fantasy anime and by extension isekai have basically the same world. Most of them are based pretty directly on D&D to a point where it gets dull. Part of why Made in Abyss felt so good was it was a fantasy series that had it's own unique world to explore. |
| You have shit taste, and then I have taste so shit it makes your taste look good |
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