We don’t have an Isekai genre. We have an Other World subgenre of fantasy that Japan made another name for and weebs apply to everything similar.
I wouldn’t even call it a subgenre. It’s a trope.
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Good point. And on the other hand, I won’t complain when given some complementary Overly Sarcastic Productions, so either’s fine.
All of these American examples are missing a key part of the Isekai genre which is power fantasy. 99% of Isekai involves the MC being an overpowered self-insert character that has a harem of sex slaves.
I consider Isekai and other world to be different aspects of the same basic concept.
We do have that with owl house and amphibia, the Santa clause movies and series, and avatar, just sort of off the top of my head. None of these really have a sex harem (some of them have a single romantic interest tho), but nor did most of the anime I’ve watched, because anything involving a sex harem isn’t up my alley at all. Suuuuper cringe. But they do have the for-reasons overpowered self-insert main character in a fantasy land.
Arguably not enough to make a genre, ofc, but we do have some examples that fit better than the ones in the meme.
Edit to add - if anyone knows of more, I’m actually kinda into the genre, so I’m all eyes!
I just rewarched Army of Darkness last night and it sounds like it fits. Doesn’t have so much of a harem, but at one point a romantic interest for seemingly no reason. And certainly a overpowered main character.
You just have to look at western sensibilities to understand the missing harem trope. The heroes in Western stories have a once in a lifetime romance. If there’s a problem with the romance, it’s part of the evil plot device (Ursula in the little mermaid.)
Western power fantasy tropes come in the form of the white savior or agents above the law tropes. John Carter was written in the early 1900’s, Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein in the 60’s.
Octavia Butler takes those classically white and Western tropes and turns them on their head.
Also, collapse of society movies are close to American/English isekai because of our obsession with both apocalypse and saviors. Walking dead is a great example.
Mad max and walking dead being western isekai fits so well. How many people want to the the badass roving the countryside, when in reality most of us would be the ones under the wheels of true maniacs.
That’s just Japanese media, if it wasn’t catering to pedophiles then it wouldn’t get made over there
And the number of isekai ever made in the US is still less than what started airing in Japan this season 3 weeks ago.
To be fair, Oz, Matrix, AIW, Narnia fit the genre pretty well, but if you call a few movies scattered around decades a genre, there would be a seperate genre for almost every movie
I present the real OG of Isekai…
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court written in 1889 by American author Mark Twain.
Which has multiple film and TV adaptions. Such as Walt Disney’s A Kid in King Arthur’s Court.
Not the 1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which also has the same credentials but, as you can see, is earlier?
Still not sold on calling all of it Isekai regardless, but at least check your own facts
I don’t know that word, can someone weeb-translate please?
Part time weeblet here
Isekai if I remember right translates to other world. However in the context of the genre it’s when the protagonist gets transported to what is usually a fantasy world from what is usually death or reincarnation and sometimes summoning
Another trope I’ve seen is protagonist just wakes up in an MMO as their character and all the NPCs are sentient
I’m sure there are more but in anime it mostly boils down to: character is in fantasy now and knowledge of our world could give them an edge
When done right and done good it’s also a great trope for a fresh start and world building cus we don’t know the world, and the protagonist doesn’t know the world so we learn with them.
How well does Tron fit this genre?
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I never knew that was my favorite type of anime… Also one punch man
That seems like such a broad genre to pass judgement on. That’s like if someone said “Ah-ha! You do have fish-out-of-water genres in the US!” I mean, ok; whatever. Who actually cares either way to debate this…?
I agree
IMO in anime it’s been overdone
I like it cus it can be pretty broad like most genres can be but I get tired of “lOsEr GeTs ReInCaRnAtEd InTo FaNtAsY wOrLd”. Idk maybe I’ve been watching too much as of late
I feel like a fantasy world that you can semi-freely travel to without death is not isekai.
If you’re going to apply that restriction you might as well go whole hog and also apply the “new world runs on shitty JRPG mechanics” part that also plagues modern isekai too.
And has a 90% likelihood of being boring as far as storytelling is concerned.
I’m actually enjoying the result of this, where they are now exploring these partial video game worlds in world.
Berserk of Gluttony is a current example. The isekai genre posits these videogame-esque worlds. So I like that other animes are now exploring them.
I mean, Inuyasha exists.
Which is not an isekai, so…
Uh, the main character Kagome falls through a well into feudal era Japan and cannot get back.
Not sure how that doesn’t qualify as an Isekai.
She goes back and forth a lot tho.
After a huge amount of time, she’s stuck there for a while.
Chronicles of Narnia is a better fit. Diana Wynne Jones wrote one. There’s like … lots more. This was THE young adult genre for a couple decades.
Those are British though. Though I’m sure there are also American examples.
Peter Pan, Alice in wonderland, and The Iron Man were also all written by UK authors. Although I haven’t read The Iron Man for a very long time so I can’t remember how closely the Iron Giant movie uses the source material.
British authors, but extremely popular in the US. I guess we could call these Anglo-isekai?
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More isekai shows come out per season in anime than there are here. I wouldn’t exactly call this a “genre” in western film.
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The 2007 Disney movie, Enchanted, is a reverse isekai.
Edit: I just found out they made a sequel last year.
My favourite part is when Alice gets run over by the truck.
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I feel like at that point any “journey to the underworld” story would qualify. Orpheus and Eurydice would count. And I know there are Sumerian and Vedic stories about mortals journeying into spiritual planes of reality.
Running with this logic, I guess tsundere is just emo
Like I said in another thread about good isekai stuff, my favorite isekai is Farscape.
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