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Why people believe that "all isekai are the same"?

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Mar 1, 2020 7:16 PM

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I read many novels like this that are Japanese or Chinese they have similarities and differences they are not all the same.
Mar 1, 2020 7:47 PM

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Because every since Konosuba existed, Most other Isekai writers want to copy off of it and do the isekai comedy thing, OR they'll just not put any effort into it whilst putting in nothing but Comedy, Fake suspense, and Romance.

Mar 1, 2020 7:50 PM
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Out of few isekai that I saw that were made post 2010, I think Gate with soldiers was really fun, and had likeable MC.
Mar 1, 2020 8:01 PM

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As much as I agree that isekai are different, I feel obliged to point out that SAO isn't an isekai. The continued existence of the virtual world is built in and dependent upon the real world, an isekai needs a clear distinction between dimensions. You could maybe make a case for Alicization being an isekai, but not SAO as a whole.
Roses are red, violets are blue
The words ahead are false
The words behind are true
Mar 1, 2020 11:06 PM
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Lalazee said:
(...), i mean who wouldn't want to be stuck in some fantasy world.


Well... That depends a lot on the fantasy world. Being stuck on Dark Souls world would suck. On Gothic world, unless you get extremely lucky too...

For those who din't played Gothic 1/2, you don't start the game with magic. You need to find someone able and willing to teach you. Corristo only teaches on mid of chap 2. Saturas on 4. On G2, the monastery has complete monopoly on magical teachings and forces novices to go under years of services before MAYBE they can become fire magicians and uses then as meatshield. And powerful weaponry is monopoly from the militia/paladins that takes everything that farmers produce...

Gothic 3 is actually worst considering that entire cities fell into the undead hands, and that humans lost the war to Orcs and now are either slaves or rebels hiding in caves.

I love world of gothic but would't like to live there. Any relative poor guy in a developing country has a better life than 99% of the people in the world of gothic. You can only beat the 3 games because you can save and load... And dark souls, do i need to explain why that would would be a nightmare to live on?
Mar 2, 2020 3:07 AM

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OP how were you able to write with a straight face that the settings were different. I'm genuinely curious.
Mar 2, 2020 12:02 PM
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JoyBoy_316 said:
OP how were you able to write with a straight face that the settings were different. I'm genuinely curious.


Because they ARE. Do you really think that Drifters world, Gate world, Digimon's world, Orverlord World, Log Horizon's world, etc are the same? That the MC are somehow similar? That a elder lich necromancer and a slime has something in common?

Even if you look to RPG inspired isekais, Overlord is heavily D&D 3.5e inspired, spells like Fireball are 3rd tier in both games, spells like wail of the banshee 9th tier, metamagic, etc; are part of the game's world. And on log horizon, they have everything that a generic wow clone mmo has, but they don't try to explain cooldowns for eg, despite explaining almost everything...
Mar 2, 2020 12:05 PM

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Because thatanimesnob said so!

He mention isekai alot in his review. Because of him i stood clear from most mainstreams/generic shows up to this point.
Mar 2, 2020 12:48 PM

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Because a lot of them are the same, and everyone exaggerates.
Mar 2, 2020 1:13 PM

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I will toss in my taughts on it all.

A simple explanation I can give on how I feel about isekai is that all of them are singing the same damn song but plays a different melody.

but that´s what you see in all anime´s. Be it sport be it sci-fi or mech they all sing the same song but have a different melody to stand out in their own way some fail some don´t.

But after seeing a few it all starts to feel like how battle royale feels for video gaming now you get sick of it and it becomes you seen one battle royal game then you have seen them all because they don´t bring something new to the table they more just change a few things to stand out.

And in the end they over saturate the market.

There are many isekai´s I hate and many I like but even if I like the idea im starting to get sick of isekai overall.
Mar 2, 2020 1:52 PM
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Even Harem shows are more different than Isekai shows. Show me 20 pictures of Isekai MCs and I can't even tell you 5 of their names. The characters are generic and interchangeable. The plots are blueprints. The main characters are insanely overpowered...

But it must be nice for the story writers to just copy whole shows and get away with it because they changed some minor details.
Mar 2, 2020 1:57 PM

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TheKawaiiToon said:
Because people don't look beyond the picture.
This.

I don't mind people dismissing interest in a genre because of how it looks. But they ought to be honorable and state on what basis that dismissal was conceived.

Like, it's perfectly fair to say "I don't like how this genre generally looks, so I am not interested in watching it". But it's another thing to say "This entire genre is the same" on the basis of "It looks the same to me, and I haven't bothered checking any deeper than looks".

Besides, it's not hugely meaningful to say "this genre is the same". If all one's point is is to point out a similarity, then of course genres are gonna be similar. Do please be specific in what you feel makes up that sameness; if you can, call it your own feeling. It's okay if you feel this way!
GlennMagusHarveyMar 2, 2020 2:11 PM
Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut.
Mar 2, 2020 2:11 PM

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mono_mer said:
The real problem is that they have the same copied world. So even if an isekai is really good, it still feels ... RPG, not the real thing.

Btw is still amazes me that there is no Harry potter isekai, future isekai, dinosaur age isekai, alien isekai etc.

Same copied world?
Youjo senki, now and then here and there, mondaiji, 12 kingdoms, escaflown, honzuki, NGNl and so on are definitely very unique worlds, regardless of peoples ' opinion about the stories.
When something is popular, you'll get a lot of stuff that you need to ignore to find the more original ones. If peoples don't do that simple thing (for example, peoples complain about isekai being always the same yet they go watch run of the mill isekai during autumn rather than honzuki that has very low number of watchers on MAL despite being one of the highest rated isekai show on MAL of those last few years)
Mar 2, 2020 2:52 PM

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L0rdV1ct0r said:
JoyBoy_316 said:
OP how were you able to write with a straight face that the settings were different. I'm genuinely curious.


Because they ARE. Do you really think that Drifters world, Gate world, Digimon's world, Orverlord World, Log Horizon's world, etc are the same? That the MC are somehow similar? That a elder lich necromancer and a slime has something in common?

Even if you look to RPG inspired isekais, Overlord is heavily D&D 3.5e inspired, spells like Fireball are 3rd tier in both games, spells like wail of the banshee 9th tier, metamagic, etc; are part of the game's world. And on log horizon, they have everything that a generic wow clone mmo has, but they don't try to explain cooldowns for eg, despite explaining almost everything...


I can see that your concept of different doesn't go further than surface level things, rimiru is different because he is a slime or eins is different because he is a skeleton from that same logic I can also say that goku and luffy are extremely different from one another because one is an alien that can turn into a giant ape and change his hair color as he wish and the other is just a human with a rubber body, I'll give it to you that ains is different since he is a villain and all but what are rimiru's character traits, he is a nice guy who is pretty carefree and likes to help anyone that he comes across because he is a nice guy, Same thing I could say for the MC in death march to the parallel world, to another world with my smartphone, isekai cheat magician and so on. Outside of his gimmick of being a slime what separates rimiru from any of those other MCs?

Also your argument here is pretty disingenious, most people will agree that digimon is a completely different from modern isekai and if not for technicality's sake wouldn't even group them together. When that criticism is made it mostly partake to the more recent crop of isekai all following the formula of an overpowered mc being send in a medieval fantasy world. And also saying that the world are different because they use different magic systems isn't saying much, it's like saying yu yu hakusho and jojo bizarre adventure have completely different world because one has stands and the other uses spiritual energy even though most of their stories are taking place in our world. At the end of day they're just the things the author uses to explain the characters supernatural abilities. They can be tied to worldbuilding but summirizing one at just those powers doesn't work.

What is a description of the world in overlord, a fantasy world that has many simularities with medieval europe and has creature like goblins, mages, dragons, elves and so on. Slime medieval fantasy with goblins, dragons, mages and so on. Gate medieval fantasy with mages, dragons, goblins and so on. Same thing for re zero, death march, konosuba, shield hero, isekai maou and so on.

It's not even like I want to shit on the genre or anything, I enjoyed most of the shows mentioned here and there is indeed a few isekai with quite unique worlds like tanya the evil and NGNL, but I'm not gonna pretend that those aren't far and between and that most of the genre doesn't just follow a template for a lot of the things in them.
JoyBoy_316Mar 2, 2020 2:56 PM
Mar 3, 2020 12:28 AM
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advocatus said:
Even Harem shows are more different than Isekai shows. Show me 20 pictures of Isekai MCs and I can't even tell you 5 of their names. The characters are generic and interchangeable. The plots are blueprints. The main characters are insanely overpowered...


Not true.

Ainz from overlord



Shiroe from log horizon


Nobunaga from Drifters



JoyBoy_316 said:
(...)to you that ains is different since he is a villain and all but what are rimiru's character traits, he is a nice guy who is pretty carefree and likes to help anyone that he comes across because he is a nice guy, Same thing I could say for the MC in death march to the parallel world, to another world with my smartphone, isekai cheat magician and so on. Outside of his gimmick of being a slime what separates rimiru from any of those other MCs?

Also your argument here is pretty disingenious, most people will agree that digimon is a completely different from modern isekai and if not for technicality's sake wouldn't even group them together. When that criticism is made it mostly partake to the more recent crop of isekai all following the formula of an overpowered mc being send in a medieval fantasy world. And also saying that the world are different because they use different magic systems isn't saying much, it's like saying yu yu hakusho and jojo bizarre adventure have completely different world because one has stands and the other uses spiritual energy even though most of their stories are taking place in our world. At the end of day they're just the things the author uses to explain the characters supernatural abilities. They can be tied to worldbuilding but summirizing one at just those powers doesn't work.

What is a description of the world in overlord, a fantasy world that has many simularities with medieval europe and has creature like goblins, mages, dragons, elves and so on. Slime medieval fantasy with goblins, dragons, mages and so on. Gate medieval fantasy with mages, dragons, goblins and so on. Same thing for re zero, death march, konosuba, shield hero, isekai maou and so on.

(...)


Being a smile affects what the MC can and cannot do. And he isn't OP. As for Ainz, being a "vilain" is not the unique difference. Being affected by the undead template is the major difference. You see that he seems sexually attracted to Albedo BEFORE going to the new world and becoming affected by the undead template. And losing the empathy and sexual desire.

As for most stories being set in a fantasy version of Europe. IT doesn't makes then the same. Just like most cowboy movies are set during the "wild west" and most slice of live in high school.

You can don't like the setting but if you look to gaming, baldur's gate 3 is being criticized by not looking and feeling like baldur's gate 1/2. Gothic 4 was so heavily criticized by not being nothing like Gothic 1/2/3 that the devs even changed the name and now arcania is not canon.Looking to superficial similarities like "goblins, mages, dragons, elves" is not fair. Mainly when each of this elements can be completely different. Or do you think that magic in Harry Potter, in Overlord and in Log HOrizon are the same? That goblins aren't different on Goblin slayer? There there aren't tons of myths of dragons, Chinese dragons, Eastern European dragons and Western Dragons?
Mar 3, 2020 3:26 AM

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L0rdV1ct0r said:


Being a smile affects what the MC can and cannot do. And he isn't OP. As for Ainz, being a "vilain" is not the unique difference. Being affected by the undead template is the major difference. You see that he seems sexually attracted to Albedo BEFORE going to the new world and becoming affected by the undead template. And losing the empathy and sexual desire.


You didn't answer my question, what separates him from other MCs outside of being a slime. And lol the only thing he can't do is bang his harem which is the same for all the other MCs expect he has an actual excuse.


L0rdV1ct0r said:


As for most stories being set in a fantasy version of Europe. IT doesn't makes then the same. Just like most cowboy movies are set during the "wild west" and most slice of live in high school.


İ don't mind the European setting in itself, I just think it's indicative of the laziness in most of these shows. Even some people in the industry can agree on that. The entire premise of girlish number was making fun of them and their productions and that show came out in 2016.Even in the first ep of shield hero naofumi makes fun of that world and how light novely it's before being sent there. Cowboy movies, I wonder why they aren't that many of them being made today. As for high school setting most of these shows are romance, comedy, sports and sol aka the setting is just a backdrop for the story, it's the characters, the romance, comedy and so on that are the selling points. Whereas isekai literally means ANOTHER WORLD and they are mostly tagged as fantasies and adventures so İ'm sorry if I had higher expectations of their worlds instead of the same copy/paste thing.

L0rdV1ct0r said:

You can don't like the setting but if you look to gaming, baldur's gate 3 is being criticized by not looking and feeling like baldur's gate 1/2. Gothic 4 was so heavily criticized by not being nothing like Gothic 1/2/3 that the devs even changed the name and now arcania is not canon.Looking to superficial similarities like "goblins, mages, dragons, elves" is not fair. Mainly when each of this elements can be completely different. Or do you think that magic in Harry Potter, in Overlord and in Log HOrizon are the same? That goblins aren't different on Goblin slayer? There there aren't tons of myths of dragons, Chinese dragons, Eastern European dragons and Western Dragons?


Those are franchises that have build up expections I too would be pissed if Ubisoft released a game set in a futuristic city but still called it Assassin's creed. Whereas isekais don't have that, none of them share the same story or universe and there were some isekais in the 90s and early 2000s that had different settings like Inuyasha, the only expectation is sending the MC to world different from ours not just a medieval European one.
Again magic is just one aspect of the world and even then outside of a few exceptions 90% of the shows still use the same RPG based one. Goblins are different in goblin slayer and slime but are the same in the other 90% of shows. You just want to mention the few exceptions and ignore the majority which is what people are complaining about.
Chinese dragons? How many of those have you seen in these shows?
JoyBoy_316Mar 3, 2020 4:00 AM
Mar 3, 2020 3:30 AM
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because they are all mediocre at best harems
Mar 3, 2020 6:30 AM
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JoyBoy_316 said:

You didn't answer my question, what separates him from other MCs outside of being a slime. And lol the only thing he can't do is bang his harem which is the same for all the other MCs expect he has an actual excuse.


The slime anime focus way more on city building.

And be a slime changes EVERYTHING. How he can solve "N" problems. Eg, a normal human can't break free from a prison. A slime can. If changing something more simple like the genre of a character can lead to a completely different story, imagine changing the race... do you read one piece? Imagine if Luffy was a Triton on One Piece. Or if Luffy has eaten the Snow fruit or the fire fruit. The story would be completely different. Imagine naruto has almost no chakra but a natural talent to genjutsu. Or if Ichigo has no Zampakutou but a insanely good talent for Kidous. The story would be completely different.

If Ainz was a Paladin instead of a Lich necromancer, he would't be able to revive some lizard mans, nor have the free undead workers, would have a completely different personality since the undead template will not suppress his emotions... You can don't like "harems", that is your taste, but saying that everyone with a harem is the same is not fair. Harem is more of the time just a detail in most isekais.

I don't mind harems. What i really hate is when the MC has a harem and doesn't try to hock up with anyone on his harem. But i will not say that all ecchis are trash. Most of ecchis, sure, are trash.

JoyBoy_316 said:

Again magic is just one aspect of the world and even then outside of a few exceptions 90% of the shows still use the same RPG based one.



Do you know that not all fantasy RPG's uses the same magic? That world of darkness magic is completely different than D&D magic? That there are systems for low magic settings where magic is rare, ritualistic and risky and for high magical settings where teleport is a common way to travel. That there are hard magic systems(eg - hiatus x hiatus) and soft magic systems(eg - lotr)...

Log Horizon magic works like a mmo, with cooldowns, spells gained by level and everything(that i particularly hate) while overlord has a tier magic more similar to D&D and Gothic 1/2.

And the problem with arcania is that the game makes ZERO sense. Rune magic should't exist after the beginning of G3. Now not only is back with no reason but now has cooldowns. And this is only one of the problems with the game, but not trying to be off topic. Did you played RPG's? Being a necromancer, a sorceress or a druid on Diablo 2 leads to a completely different experience, regardless of if the ending is the same... I finished pathfinder kingmaker as a sorcerer of undead bloodline and as a sorcerer of silver draconic bloodline and had different experiences. Exactly because my alignment was different. A evil guy can for eg burn to the group a lizardfolk village who is a problem in a side quest. A good guy can't.

And there are TONS of RPG's not set in medieval europe. Examples?

  • Jade empire - Set in China
  • Deus Ex - Futuristic
  • System shock - Futuristic
  • Underrail - Post apocalyptic
  • Gothic 1 - Set inside a penal mining colony
  • Icewind dale - Set among barbarians in a nordic theme
  • VtMB - Set in modern days and you play as a vampire
  • Arcanum - Set in a industrial revolution
  • Fallout - Set in a post apocalyptic world
  • Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession - Set in a eastern european like vampire realm
  • Dark Sun - Set in a desert ""realm""
  • Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - Fantasy inspired by colonial times
  • (...)


This are only one few RPG's that i remember on the moment.People who say "isekais are all about rpg's world" din't watched isekais nor know anything about RPG's.
Mar 3, 2020 6:41 AM

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Because the vast majority of them are male weeb power fantasies.
Who are you and why do you show your hostility towards a complete stranger whom you've not once spoken with before. Are you seriously asking to get blocked? Well, if that's what your intent is; to tempt me into throwing hands with someone as lowly and insignificant as you, then i may grant your wish provided you articulate yourself a bit better when trying to spite a person of my wavelength.
Mar 3, 2020 7:29 AM

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@L0rdV1ct0r

Oh God, I'm starting to wonder if you're an extremely elaborate troll or what. I don't care if your mc is a billion years old cthulhu ripoff that can pull lazers out of his ass or is as simple and normal as my neighbor next door. What I care about is his personnality, his character traits, rimiru being a slime is nothing more than a gimmick when it comes to actual character traits he is no different than your average isekai mc and yes a normal human can break out of a prison that's why the phrase prison break is a thing.

And also nobody says isekais is just rpg world, we say it's medieval world which magic system are most of the time just the same rpg template mostly inspired from dragon quest. Everybody and their mom knows what fallout is I have no idea what you were trying to do here.

You know what just google character traits and worldbuilding or look in a dictionnary because me I'm done here.
JoyBoy_316Mar 3, 2020 7:47 AM
Mar 3, 2020 8:36 AM
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JoyBoy_316 said:
Oh God, I'm starting to wonder if you're an extremely elaborate troll or what. I don't care if your mc is a billion years old cthulhu ripoff that can pull lazers out of his ass or is as simple and normal as my neighbor next door. What I care about is his personnality, his character traits, rimiru being a slime is nothing more than a gimmick when it comes to actual character traits he is no different than your average isekai mc and yes a normal human can break out of a prison that's why the phrase prison break is a thing.

And also nobody says isekais is just rpg world, we say it's medieval world which magic system are most of the time just the same rpg template mostly inspired from dragon quest. Everybody and their mom knows what fallout is I have no idea what you were trying to do here.

You know what just google character traits and worldbuilding or look in a dictionnary because me I'm done here.


You din't understood. The world building of Log Horizon and Overlord ARE completely different. The MC too. And talking solo about character traits, shonen protagonists and mahou shoujo protagonists are FAR more generic than isekai protagonists. Almost every shonen protagonist can be defined as dedicated, hard worker and who loves his friends.

Isekai protagonists even the most low rated like Arifureta, has some depth, the traumatic experience on the protagonist made him extremely cold except for the Yue, the first people who helped him in that "hell".

PS : Never played dragon quest.
Mar 3, 2020 8:49 AM

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Because most of them just gets unique power that they never worked for outside of dying or just getting transported, its why I love Mondaiji, cause they already had powers before getting isekai'd. I hate isekai's where MC's get too strong for no reason and gets a harem. KonoSuba is yet another exception because Kazuma didn't get an OP power, dude got an OP pries tho but comes at a huge price (you know what that price is fellow KonoSuba lovers)
Mar 3, 2020 7:08 PM

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L0rdV1ct0r said:
katsucats said:
A key property of isekais is that the alternate world awakens MC to a suppressed angst and makes them realize a fuller life. This is true in every isekai. Every. Single. One. The two anime you listed are perfect examples to my point.
In every not. In majority? Yes.
L0rdV1ct0r said:
This is one reason that i liked Drifters. A lot of historical figures goes to the "new world"...
Yep, another one of those of the numerous "historical figures reincarnate" series -- and one that I've also seen. Toyohisa, after getting his entire army routed, almost manages to kill his archnemesis after narrowly missing a point blank range shot, then wanders off in regret while he bleeds out... and finds himself in a new land filled with other heroes he could fight. It's almost textbook isekai -- exactly what I've been describing all along.

L0rdV1ct0r said:
How many percentage of the world population are 100% happy with the family? Job? Friends? And everything else?
That doesn't even come close to mattering. Just because someone isn't completely happy with his life doesn't make it necessary to focus on that aspect as the primary theme.

L0rdV1ct0r said:
I only don't like when they summon useless piece of shits as MCs like the smartphone isekai. Seriously. Imagine that you are in a typical medieval fantasy world and needs to summon someone from this world to help with a war against Orcs. Who would you summon?

A ) A professional hitman that killed dozens of people, know how to make blackpowder, smokeless powder, how to make modern weaponry, understand a lot of the RL technology and can help you preparing traps, guerrilla warfare, making the weaponry of your army advance hundreds of years and communication technology
B ) A teenager who can't even run 50m, can't lift weight, can't live without his parents help, if magic exists in the new world, is too undisciplined and dumb to learn(...)

This is one reason that i liked Drifters. A lot of historical figures goes to the "new world"...
Sure, I can agree with that.

L0rdV1ct0r said:
And guess what. On most good RPG's you goes from nothing to godlike. On Gothic 1, you goes from another convict in the penal colony that any wolf can tear you apart in a fraction of second to a guy capable of defeating a archdevil that is worshiped as a God. And when you pay for someone to teach you how to use one handed weapons, your animation and stance changes. Hell, even shonen protagonists follow a similar progression. See Luffy on OP starting as a average capitain in east blue and now able to tangle with the most powerful guys on new world like Katakuri.
I was thinking this earlier today. JRPG protagonists are traditionally silent to fulfill the self-insert role for the player, who lives in the "real world". Isekais, the majority of them, are like meta JRPGs that allow the audience to, insert of inserting themselves directly into a game, insert themselves into an alternate "real world" that throws them into a game. Isekai's are like 2D imagination Nerve Gears (from SAO).
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Mar 3, 2020 7:27 PM

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L0rdV1ct0r said:
JoyBoy_316 said:
Oh God, I'm starting to wonder if you're an extremely elaborate troll or what. I don't care if your mc is a billion years old cthulhu ripoff that can pull lazers out of his ass or is as simple and normal as my neighbor next door. What I care about is his personnality, his character traits, rimiru being a slime is nothing more than a gimmick when it comes to actual character traits he is no different than your average isekai mc and yes a normal human can break out of a prison that's why the phrase prison break is a thing.

And also nobody says isekais is just rpg world, we say it's medieval world which magic system are most of the time just the same rpg template mostly inspired from dragon quest. Everybody and their mom knows what fallout is I have no idea what you were trying to do here.

You know what just google character traits and worldbuilding or look in a dictionnary because me I'm done here.


You din't understood. The world building of Log Horizon and Overlord ARE completely different. The MC too.
I think you don't understand still. Shoyo Hinata from Haikyuu and Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk have completely different character traits, personality, hair, height, angst, and background. But they are both characters whose love for a sport and jumping potential helped overcome their initial inexperience to help them get recognized as intimidating players. They are both "inspiration" learners, for lack of a better word, that follow the fighting shounen formula of characters being stagnant for some time before gaining some random insight, when they suddenly gain new powers for improvement (think Goku's Super Saiyan or Naruto's Rasengan, or Yu Yu Hakusho's spirit cave training, or Hunter x Hunter's nen training -- which are all different, but functional equivalents of each other). That means despite all the differences, Shoyo Hinata and Hanamichi Sakuragi play exactly the same role. In the thematic context, they are the same character. Not just because they are both MC's in a sports anime, but because of the numerous other theme and plot similarities.

It doesn't matter that Toyohisa from Drifters and Ichirou Suzuki have completely different character traits, jobs, are from different time periods, have different levels of respect, have different styles, different angst, etc. They play exactly the same role of people who are just barely hanging on in their respective lives until they were given a second chance to make a difference in the world and find life fulfillment.
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Mar 3, 2020 7:32 PM

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Anything that someone isn't all that familiar with will appear to all be the same since they haven't trained themselves to notice their differences. People have the saying that "all Asians look the same" as well as "all white people look the same". In anime things like "all moe anime are the same", "all idol anime are the same", "all battle shounen are the same", and "all mecha are the same" are common opinions to have because those people aren't interesting in those genres and therefore can't tell the individual titles apart. The same is for isekai.
Mar 3, 2020 7:50 PM

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zombie_pegasus said:
Anything that someone isn't all that familiar with will appear to all be the same since they haven't trained themselves to notice their differences. People have the saying that "all Asians look the same" as well as "all white people look the same". In anime things like "all moe anime are the same", "all idol anime are the same", "all battle shounen are the same", and "all mecha are the same" are common opinions to have because those people aren't interesting in those genres and therefore can't tell the individual titles apart. The same is for isekai.
This is quite a ridiculous strawman, but to wit, the human DNA is 98% the same, and there are numerous arcs in everyone's lives that are vastly similar. I think people who aren't cognizant of these similarities just notice surface-level differences because they've turned their minds off watching.

It's like noticing the Lexus RC300 and Infiniti Q60 as entry-level coupes of respective luxury brands. They're completely analogous to each other positioned in the marketplace by Nissan and Toyota respectively. And then some guy comes along and says, "But one car is white and the other is red!" Or "One car is 300hp and the other is 241hp!" Or "The cars have different front/rear weight ratios!" Durrr. "You haven't trained yourselves to notice the difference!" No, Sherlock. We see the differences. It's just that we see the more important similarities.

But, you know, if you want to argue that Kirito's sister is more outgoing than Sakuta's sister (from Bunnygirl Senpai), while completely ignoring that they both exist to add a siscon dimension, or if you want to argue that Filo (from Shield Hero) is a bird, and Arisa (from Death March) isn't, despite that they're both underage slave girls who sexually want the protagonist and their master and serve the same purpose within their respective worlds, then I guess who am I to tell you to think harder?
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Mar 3, 2020 8:23 PM

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katsucats said:
zombie_pegasus said:
Anything that someone isn't all that familiar with will appear to all be the same since they haven't trained themselves to notice their differences. People have the saying that "all Asians look the same" as well as "all white people look the same". In anime things like "all moe anime are the same", "all idol anime are the same", "all battle shounen are the same", and "all mecha are the same" are common opinions to have because those people aren't interesting in those genres and therefore can't tell the individual titles apart. The same is for isekai.
This is quite a ridiculous strawman, but to wit, the human DNA is 98% the same, and there are numerous arcs in everyone's lives that are vastly similar. I think people who aren't cognizant of these similarities just notice surface-level differences because they've turned their minds off watching.

It's like noticing the Lexus RC300 and Infiniti Q60 as entry-level coupes of respective luxury brands. They're completely analogous to each other positioned in the marketplace by Nissan and Toyota respectively. And then some guy comes along and says, "But one car is white and the other is red!" Or "One car is 300hp and the other is 241hp!" Or "The cars have different front/rear weight ratios!" Durrr. "You haven't trained yourselves to notice the difference!" No, Sherlock. We see the differences. It's just that we see the more important similarities.

But, you know, if you want to argue that Kirito's sister is more outgoing than Sakuta's sister (from Bunnygirl Senpai), while completely ignoring that they both exist to add a siscon dimension, or if you want to argue that Filo (from Shield Hero) is a bird, and Arisa (from Death March) isn't, despite that they're both underage slave girls who sexually want the protagonist and their master and serve the same purpose within their respective worlds, then I guess who am I to tell you to think harder?
So you're basically saying that not only are isekai all the same but anime in general are all the same? We define things as genres because of their similarities and it's mostly the people who love those genres who care about the differences each title has from its neighbours.
Mar 3, 2020 11:48 PM

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Oct 2012
16077
zombie_pegasus said:
katsucats said:
This is quite a ridiculous strawman, but to wit, the human DNA is 98% the same, and there are numerous arcs in everyone's lives that are vastly similar. I think people who aren't cognizant of these similarities just notice surface-level differences because they've turned their minds off watching.

It's like noticing the Lexus RC300 and Infiniti Q60 as entry-level coupes of respective luxury brands. They're completely analogous to each other positioned in the marketplace by Nissan and Toyota respectively. And then some guy comes along and says, "But one car is white and the other is red!" Or "One car is 300hp and the other is 241hp!" Or "The cars have different front/rear weight ratios!" Durrr. "You haven't trained yourselves to notice the difference!" No, Sherlock. We see the differences. It's just that we see the more important similarities.

But, you know, if you want to argue that Kirito's sister is more outgoing than Sakuta's sister (from Bunnygirl Senpai), while completely ignoring that they both exist to add a siscon dimension, or if you want to argue that Filo (from Shield Hero) is a bird, and Arisa (from Death March) isn't, despite that they're both underage slave girls who sexually want the protagonist and their master and serve the same purpose within their respective worlds, then I guess who am I to tell you to think harder?
So you're basically saying that not only are isekai all the same but anime in general are all the same? We define things as genres because of their similarities and it's mostly the people who love those genres who care about the differences each title has from its neighbours.
Sure, if you want to take things to some useless meta reduction.

inb4 you state that all analyses are reductive, yet justify how you've been magically granted the power of thought.
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Mar 4, 2020 1:49 AM

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katsucats said:
zombie_pegasus said:
So you're basically saying that not only are isekai all the same but anime in general are all the same? We define things as genres because of their similarities and it's mostly the people who love those genres who care about the differences each title has from its neighbours.
Sure, if you want to take things to some useless meta reduction.

inb4 you state that all analyses are reductive, yet justify how you've been magically granted the power of thought.


Can I butt in and speak a piece of my opinion regarding some commentors in these thread being reductive? I just don't think they're trying to devalue a more hermeneutic way of seeing Isekai in favor of personal biases - it's that they just aren't familiar with that kind of syntaxes when it comes to arguing things and the likes.

Most people (at least with my years of experience in MAL) in here aren't too fond of discussions with a "conceptual pretext" in the beginning, like you'll first have to break down all the elements one-by-one then reconstruct them thereafter, leading to a conclusion that isekais tends to be more similar from structural context than when compared to thematic ones (of which I can agree, and I enjoy almost all arguments of such nature).

That's why someone eventually gave a piece of his mind that it's just people being lazy, whether it's a lexical issue (some vs majority vs all) or people just undermining the faculty of the mind to create associative ideas and impressions. It's not about thinking harder, because making them think harder can only backfire - they will either resort to a very generalized assumption, or will strive to give you more specific particularities that may or may not benefit the discussion.

That said, you can also look at their comments for signs of "presentism". Maybe you can also explain to them the dilemma of comparing Konosuba vs 1st season of Digimon. I think I can at least see a sliver of empathy as to why they think some things are different if you look at it this way, but considering how one preferably shouldn't fall into the trap of presentism attributing isekai elements on a lot of older shows and therefore concluding that they can really be different if one can really be specific about it, then it's not a surprise some will really resist your valid take on thematic vs structural congruencies. As to why, it feels like I'm ordering you to write or talk about something in my stead, that just shows I really think you're way better and more capable at putting context into their responses, and you being a bit aggressive can also help a lot, so... hehe. xD
Mar 4, 2020 2:03 AM

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L0rdV1ct0r said:
Mirai said:
Because the basic premise is the same most of the time. Loser otaku gets transported into another world, somehow ends up having to save said world. Featuring dozens of girls wanting his dick.


Not true. Technically Digimon is a Isekai. The greed Island arc of Hiatus X hiatus and makai saga of YYH are isekais too.

???

Can't speak on the others, but HxH isn't even remotely close to being an isekai. Greed Island arc included.
Mar 4, 2020 2:05 AM
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Oh so there IS a few gimmicky superficial differences that just scream "I want to be a unique show but don't want any of the hard work associated with it." So what?
Mar 4, 2020 2:51 AM
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katsucats said:
It doesn't matter that Toyohisa from Drifters and Ichirou Suzuki have completely different character traits, jobs, are from different time periods, have different levels of respect, have different styles, different angst, etc. They play exactly the same role of people who are just barely hanging on in their respective lives until they were given a second chance to make a difference in the world and find life fulfillment.


The slime protagonist has a different goal, city building, different way of thinking, flaws, personality, etc than Kirito from SAO for eg. Nobunaga on Drifters has a stoic and at the same time sarcastic personality. Ainz from Overlord is paranoiac due the Lich template influencing his mindset and at the same time in end of the first season was wondering if he deserves to rule. He blames himself for what Shalltear did.

Orhunaa said:
Oh so there IS a few gimmicky superficial differences that just scream "I want to be a unique show but don't want any of the hard work associated with it." So what?


Again. Changing something impactfull as a race is not only a "gimmicky" thing.

See Katakuri, only by having a different mouth, he was discriminated and developed the observation haki to extremely high level, only to avoid people seeing to his mouth. That is just one minor thing that affects less than 5% of his body changed his entire story.

Now imagine of Luffy was a Triton or had a snow fruit. ALL relationships with his family, friends, crew(...) would be completely different.

Changing the class on a RPG inspired world or the race impacts a lot.

Ever_Onward said:
Kirito is great. Stop the hate.


Kirito is a gary stue. No flaws, never do anything wrong and he solves everything with a fast swinging blade.

Dragons? Use a fast swinging blade. A high magic game? Use a fast swinging blade to cut fireballs. A FPS? Cut a ***** .50 BMG from a PGM Hécate projectile that travels at more than 900 m/s and has enough power to cut 25mm of RHA steel with a blade



katsucats said:
JRPG protagonists are traditionally silent to fulfill the self-insert role for the player, who lives in the "real world". Isekais, the majority of them, are like meta JRPGs that allow the audience to, insert of inserting themselves directly into a game, insert themselves into an alternate "real world" that throws them into a game. Isekai's are like 2D imagination Nerve Gears (from SAO).


I never liked much JRPG's. I mean, the first RPG of my life was might & magic vii - for blood and honor. In that game, i could be anything, from a evil elf sorcerer that becomes a Lich to a goblin monk. When i tested FF VII on PS1 i din't liked the fact that the game forces me to play as Cloud... I could't even switch his unpractical oversized sword to a spear.

I don't mind fix protagonists as longs they are interesting. On Vampyr, you play as a doctor who becomes a vampire and needs to investigate the disease. Still prefer VtMB(the best vampire RPG ever) because you can be anything that you want in the game.
Mar 4, 2020 5:39 AM

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For me it's not like that i believe every isekai is different in many things, like the mc or how they fight etc.
                                                         🖤   

Mar 4, 2020 2:24 PM
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Ever_Onward said:
(...)
For me, I watch as much for other characters as I do for Kirito, and I watch as much for characters as I do the ideas and scenery and so forth. It's one thing to talk about an idea, and another to see it incorporated into an anime. It's nice to see. I wonder what you think of Alice. She's my favorite character in SAO.


Well, i heard that there are a SAO season about a tall Japanese woman as a protagonist who has height complex and play video games to "be" a cute little woman. That sounds far more interesting than "a hero without any flaw saving the world using a fast swinging blade, beating magic based games AND FPS using a fast swinging blades".

And SAO focus over 90% of the time on the MC. Isn't like overlord where if you don't like the MC, you still can see a lot of interesting stories involving everything, including lizardfolk.

-EnvyV2- said:
For me it's not like that i believe every isekai is different in many things, like the mc or how they fight etc.


Yep; there are no difference between Ainz from Overlord to Nobunaga on Drifters /sarcasm
Mar 4, 2020 2:57 PM
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Basically, every protagonist is just an overpowered Reskin of the last. Some exceptions, but really only a few different archetypes.

With that said, I don’t think isekai is a bad genre. It’s just fairly new and keeps pumping out lots of new product that’s really not quality. I hope with time we can see some more complex isekai story’s!
Mar 9, 2020 7:22 AM
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DeitySmoke said:
Basically, every protagonist is just an overpowered Reskin of the last. Some exceptions, but really only a few different archetypes. !


Not true. Kazuma isn't OP, Shiroe isn't OP(if compared to other guys of the same lv), Surabu is a piece of trash(...)

-------------------------

Anyway, about gimmicky, i will exemplify what is a gimmicky and what is not.

Smartphone isekai is a gimmicky. It changes almost nothing on the character and world building.

If he decides to use the magical phone with access to IRL knowledge to develop the economy of the new world, stablishes production lines, a new industrial revolution, the intelligence of the kingdom discovers and spies too and suddenly everyone wanna to get "magical smartphone" and as a consequence, you have a lot of factions trying to get this "alien technology" and the MC having to deal with harsh decisions, you will have the smartphone as part of the world building. Not just as a gimmicky thing...

On Drifters, you have Oda Nobunaga trying to bring gunpowder to the "new world", a much more primitive technology than a smartphone and it has HUGE impact into the new world...
Mar 9, 2020 7:33 AM
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902
@L0rdV1ct0r
You've been keeping this thread alive for almost two weeks.
People have already responded why, and you somehow still do not understand.
I will say this again.

When people say "all Isekai are the same", they actually mean majority. MAJORITY.

"Oh, but if they mean that, why don't they specify?", as you said previously many times completely missing the point.

The world doesn't work the way you want it to, okay? People will say things in a different way, you don't have to read any deeper into it.

If you still manage to respond to people in this thread, you really are trolling.
Mar 9, 2020 8:10 AM
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TodAboT said:

If you still manage to respond to people in this thread, you really are trolling.


I an just pointing out that no, they aren't the same. And if you believe that answering points is "trolling", please. Report me. But i don't think that the moderation will think "he answered a guy spreading misinformation about every protagonist being a clone without mentioning even a single one protagonist, that is trolling"
Mar 9, 2020 8:19 AM
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L0rdV1ct0r said:
TodAboT said:

If you still manage to respond to people in this thread, you really are trolling.


I an just pointing out that no, they aren't the same. And if you believe that answering points is "trolling", please. Report me. But i don't think that the moderation will think "he answered a guy spreading misinformation about every protagonist being a clone without mentioning even a single one protagonist, that is trolling"

The question you went to ask was "Why do people think all Isekai are the same?". People already answered that question.

That isekai are very similar and that's the majority of them. That's why people think that they are the same. Do you understand?
That's what they've seen, people based their thoughts on what they've seen, do you not get it?

Just stop dragging this thread.
Mar 9, 2020 3:57 PM

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L0rdV1ct0r said:
katsucats said:
It doesn't matter that Toyohisa from Drifters and Ichirou Suzuki have completely different character traits, jobs, are from different time periods, have different levels of respect, have different styles, different angst, etc. They play exactly the same role of people who are just barely hanging on in their respective lives until they were given a second chance to make a difference in the world and find life fulfillment.
The slime protagonist has a different goal, city building, different way of thinking, flaws, personality, etc than Kirito from SAO for eg. Nobunaga on Drifters has a stoic and at the same time sarcastic personality. Ainz from Overlord is paranoiac due the Lich template influencing his mindset and at the same time in end of the first season was wondering if he deserves to rule. He blames himself for what Shalltear did.
Roses are red, and violets are blue, but they are both flowers.
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Mar 23, 2020 4:44 AM

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The theme that mostly about magic,fantasy , weird monsters
Хайде, хайде, хайде, това е първата зона, брато, първа зона, първа зона, добре, добре, добре, това става тук горе, отива тук горе, само спокойно, само спокойно... Ха, отдясно е, навсякъде отдясно отдясно къде е дясното ти о да добре добре добре тихо мълчаливо не успях да се съсредоточа върху това ЕХ ТЪПАК КОГАТО СИ БАВНО БАВНО ... ой е путката на моето момиче прасе куче, аз Чувствам се добре, о, мамо, *шамар*, какво е това госпожице татко-
Jul 28, 2021 10:23 PM
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Yes most characters were standard neets buuut they are branching out a lot more. Like 2020-2021 new ones. But it was part of the shonen genre originally so of course they are all neets with harems in the earlier ones. It was supposed to grab the attention of that targeted audience who look for an escape from reality. So trashing on its origins is kind of a low blow. Especially with how new it is and is already starting to diversify. At least we’re not watching 3 episode fight scenes with a shiny load of flashbacks. What about so I’m a spider so what and dr.stone and full dive (yes those are debatably isekai. But y’all think sao is one so suck it). They are absolutely nothing like the originals. I suspect Tanya the evil isn’t either but I also haven’t watched it at all yet lol
Jul 28, 2021 10:23 PM
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Yes most characters were standard neets buuut they are branching out a lot more. Like 2020-2021 new ones. But it was part of the shonen genre originally so of course they are all neets with harems in the earlier ones. It was supposed to grab the attention of that targeted audience who look for an escape from reality. So trashing on its origins is kind of a low blow. Especially with how new it is and is already starting to diversify. At least we’re not watching 3 episode fight scenes with a shiny load of flashbacks. What about so I’m a spider so what and dr.stone and full dive (yes those are debatably isekai. But y’all think sao is one so suck it). They are absolutely nothing like the originals. I suspect Tanya the evil isn’t either but I also haven’t watched it at all yet lol
Jul 28, 2021 10:26 PM
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3
katsucats said:
L0rdV1ct0r said:
The slime protagonist has a different goal, city building, different way of thinking, flaws, personality, etc than Kirito from SAO for eg. Nobunaga on Drifters has a stoic and at the same time sarcastic personality. Ainz from Overlord is paranoiac due the Lich template influencing his mindset and at the same time in end of the first season was wondering if he deserves to rule. He blames himself for what Shalltear did.
Roses are red, and violets are blue, but they are both flowers.
yeah that’s why they are in the same genre dingus
Jul 29, 2021 12:06 AM
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932
The issue with Isekai as a genre is twofold
for one, the current formula that the vast majority of creators seem to be using hasn't changed since the Mushoku Tensei first came out as a LN shortly after SAO. This is because a parasitic relationship has formed between isekai creators and isekai fans. There is a large demographic of fans that know exactly what they want - a male isekai power fantasy, and so they chew up any isekai that is released, regardless of quality. This in turn makes creators realise that they have a guaranteed audience. This incentivises authors to avoid innovating. Look at Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash. It got barely any attention when it first aired as an anime because it didn't fit the formula.

I hate most isekai, but this season I made a point to watch every isekai that was releasing to get a feel for the overall quality. The general reaction from all of these isekai is incredibly positive - even in the english community (I'm sure the Japanese community would be even more positive). They know these isekai are trash and watch them anyway because they scratch a certain itch. The most innovative shows this season were probable Black Company (industrial post-isekai setting with a "communist" guy working to overthrow the "capitalist" mining company so he doesn't have to work), How a Realist Rebuilt the Kingdom (in a sense just Log Horizon without the action), and Moonlit Fantasy (konosuba with more powerups). Overall, aside from Black Company they all used the same general fantasy setting and magic system. Black Company is just a really average story in general, so that kind of holds down the concept of an industrialist isekai anime.


the second problem is the unexplored potential of isekai. There is so much more you can do with the concept of a guy being transported to another world. But instead we keep getting mostly the same stories with the same genre conventions. Very few are trying to push the boundaries of the genre and come up with new and interesting works. Most people feel like they've seen every possible story the genre conventions have to offer.
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