I agree. What I especially hate about modern isekai is how uninspired every single one is, where if you watch one, you have pretty much watched 95% of what every other one has to offer. Very well made video. Good job, man.
I disagree, there are no stories that haven't been told, it is about how you tell them, look at series like demon slayer, widly popular even though its another "squad of samurai/humans with supernatural powers fighting monsters" Could describe bleach, seraph of the end, jijutsu kaisen, kekaishi and other such series as the same type. Its just as much about how you go about telling the story as much as finding a unique and interesting way to tell that story. Demon slayers is nothing particularly special manga wise outside a well told story, anime wise however its extremely well produced/amazing animation.
It’s kind of disconcerting that so many isekai protags start out having no reason to go back. Like they worked themselves to death, or their entire family is dead, so there’s no one left to miss them and it doesn’t matter that they simply vanished one day. What’s it say about society that that is so #relatable?
i like the idea of an isekai where the protag is put into a position of nobility or power and has to deal with a stressful life of politics and administration or else his political opponents will get the better of him or the peasants will revolt and all the while hes just wishing he was back home studying or something
I agree. But I wish that more of these would have people back home waiting for them. That they're missing, and that they do want to get back home. Maybe even one of them has a girlfriend back home and has to avoid the typical situations like harems, or marying the kings daughter for example.
I haven't watch much Isekai but from your discription the first thing that came to mind was, How a realist hero rebuild the kingdom, if you haven't watch it, you might like it
Yes, imo these isekai tropes aren't born in a vacuum, these are born from Japan's NEET, suicide, post-war work culture, hikikimori... The need to escape
Isekai has a couple different genres, and I'm not even referring to older stories when I say this, even modern isekai can be vastly different from one another. There's the Reverse-Isekai where another world gets forced onto Earth like with Solo Leveling or Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. Another genre would be the Villainess Isekai like with Death is the Only Ending where the MC has no powers period and has to survive a world which has already declared they must die. I'm curious what your thoughts are when it comes to those other sub-genres.
Also in webnovels the genre of isekai expands a lot. Not to mention in general I feel like there aren’t many LitRPG/system stories in manga/anime despite their prevalence in webnovels.
Like I said Villainess Isekai is a big blind spot for me. I deliberate chose to focus on Isekai where MC travels to an another world and focus on a specific trope that pops up in those. Of course it doesn't mean that the trope shows up in every Isekai, arguably not even in the majority. I do enjoy stuff like Isekai Ojisan and Solo Leveling but I tend to avoid Reverse-Isekai, especially those where MC gets transported back to Earth with their powers. In my experience I don't enjoy those at all.
@@gypsyofthebard I really like the Legendary Mechanic, The Lazy King, and the Legend of Sun Knight. And if you are open to it I like Silent Reading a lot too. And a kinda hidden gem I found that’s really stuck with me is We Don’t Open Anywhere.
Eh I feel like the Villainess Isekai is more of a dream for woman as there are two kind of versions for it. One where the one who whas reincarneted whas already a badass in her last life and now is using it to clear the trash of all the ones who underestimate her. The other one is with modern girls finally getting fantasy but as they have no cheat skill except a knowledge of what is going to happen so they have to use their own wits instead which in the end is only the powerfantasy of being able to say: "You may have outsmarted me, but I outsmarted your outsmarting!" because for them cheat skills would mean that they are weak and need help. The exception hereby is "My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!" as this is no powerfantasy but the isekai here is just for laying the foundation of a funny story.
About games being not so much better then back then, I would say the time between the 90s and 10s where the sweet spot as back then you could not just put up a buggy mess on the market and then just fix it over the next 6 months. As a proof just look at how much hate is brought against Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring for being such a grand game. Currently Video Game publishers do not want to deliver games like these where the fans are satisfied with it because for them it is overdelivering. The only exception is the JRPG market where the trend is to make them bigger and bigger and bigger so that players can not really feel they will ever going to finish it so instead they buy another game.
Yeah, the power fantasy is so prominent because people want to get stronger without having to work hard to become that strong while the isekai genre right now is all about escaping their mundane life to get a better one. Not terrible tropes or even terrible reasons but overused to hell and back (unlike the current isekai protagonists, they rarely return) But some of what could make the genre more interesting is a twist on the genre, be it that the MC doesn't have an uber powerful ability that gives him an edge against everyone in that world. It would be interesting to watch a MC end up in a fantasy world where monsters exist and have to learn to survive, if the guy wasn't already experienced in the career of hunting and gathering. His knowledge from the modern era could also be made null if the author wants to brainstorm the idea on how magic existing changes the science of the world, such as the ability to use lightning requiring existing lightning similar to firebending in the last airbender movie (bad movie but not a bad idea. have to figure out how to start a spark to fire it off) I myself actually do have a work that isn't the common isekai because it's from the perspective of someone following the isekai'd character without knowing that fact. The Isekai'd isn't even all powerful because he has a limited mana pool that barely qualifies him a mage but his people skills are something real, making him a capable foil in the fantasy world with ill-natured humans looking to profit in a world full of monsters.
Now hold on a minute, I won't say there isn't modern games worth playing HOWEVER: MOST modern games ARE shit, at least main stream wise, the only ones overwhelmingly worth checking out are indies but that in of itself is a slog as there is a sea of copycats in that space too, many of them likely good or even better than the original game they are copycating, for instance the recent trend of bullet heavens inspired by vampire survivors that was inspired by the mobile game magical survival. THAT SAID, many modern games come out incomplete (main stream) buggy, or cut up into pieces to sell you the bits. The cosmetics you used to get rewarded for playing the game or doing something note worthy now put behind paywalls, the core game designs themselves compromised by greedy and predatory monetization practices by companies trying to literally earn all the money. Also, how dare you consider SAO an Isekai, game like world/trapped in a game world =/= Isekai, their physical bodies were still in reality. I give log horizon a pass in that department because its ambiguous whether they are actually in the game or a world that resembles the game, or even if the players are really who they think they are, especially after shiroe meets his alt character from the beta server. To further amplify, the ambiguity is further deepened or rather pushes the implication that they aren't in a game world less a world that resembles a game is, the MMO LH characters played was a modern MMORPG like wow/ff14 aka mouse/keyboard, not full dive/ultra immersive VRMMORPG. That is the only reason why I give it a pass, too bad the story kind gets weird after the rules of the world start warping at random for some reason.
Not just the bugginess, they hyper monetization which has a massive influence on game design as they often add mechanics or "speed bumps" to help corral you towards the pay pig store. Not to mention that many of them are so high budget that they are basically afraid to try anything outside of known tried and true formulas less they lose all the investment put into the production. That's why we have so many open world games with towers that mark things on your map with random points of interest to make their massive worlds feel justified/allow them to brag that there are hundreds of hours of content because they padded out the world with worthless nothingburger side quests.
![ร้อยพ่อพันแม่ - WanMai [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XY2pNYASEbg/mqdefault.jpg)
I agree. What I especially hate about modern isekai is how uninspired every single one is, where if you watch one, you have pretty much watched 95% of what every other one has to offer. Very well made video. Good job, man.
I disagree, there are no stories that haven't been told, it is about how you tell them, look at series like demon slayer, widly popular even though its another "squad of samurai/humans with supernatural powers fighting monsters"
Could describe bleach, seraph of the end, jijutsu kaisen, kekaishi and other such series as the same type. Its just as much about how you go about telling the story as much as finding a unique and interesting way to tell that story. Demon slayers is nothing particularly special manga wise outside a well told story, anime wise however its extremely well produced/amazing animation.
It’s kind of disconcerting that so many isekai protags start out having no reason to go back. Like they worked themselves to death, or their entire family is dead, so there’s no one left to miss them and it doesn’t matter that they simply vanished one day.
What’s it say about society that that is so #relatable?
i like the idea of an isekai where the protag is put into a position of nobility or power and has to deal with a stressful life of politics and administration or else his political opponents will get the better of him or the peasants will revolt and all the while hes just wishing he was back home studying or something
I agree.
But I wish that more of these would have people back home waiting for them. That they're missing, and that they do want to get back home. Maybe even one of them has a girlfriend back home and has to avoid the typical situations like harems, or marying the kings daughter for example.
I haven't watch much Isekai but from your discription the first thing that came to mind was, How a realist hero rebuild the kingdom, if you haven't watch it, you might like it
@@grymns fuck no i aint no weeb
That’s basically _Realist Hero,_ except he doesn’t have anything to go home to.
Yes, imo these isekai tropes aren't born in a vacuum, these are born from Japan's NEET, suicide, post-war work culture, hikikimori... The need to escape
Isekai has a couple different genres, and I'm not even referring to older stories when I say this, even modern isekai can be vastly different from one another. There's the Reverse-Isekai where another world gets forced onto Earth like with Solo Leveling or Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. Another genre would be the Villainess Isekai like with Death is the Only Ending where the MC has no powers period and has to survive a world which has already declared they must die. I'm curious what your thoughts are when it comes to those other sub-genres.
Also in webnovels the genre of isekai expands a lot. Not to mention in general I feel like there aren’t many LitRPG/system stories in manga/anime despite their prevalence in webnovels.
@@ruriva4931 what’s your favorite webnovel? I’ve been meaning to find new ones to read
Like I said Villainess Isekai is a big blind spot for me. I deliberate chose to focus on Isekai where MC travels to an another world and focus on a specific trope that pops up in those. Of course it doesn't mean that the trope shows up in every Isekai, arguably not even in the majority.
I do enjoy stuff like Isekai Ojisan and Solo Leveling but I tend to avoid Reverse-Isekai, especially those where MC gets transported back to Earth with their powers. In my experience I don't enjoy those at all.
@@gypsyofthebard I really like the Legendary Mechanic, The Lazy King, and the Legend of Sun Knight. And if you are open to it I like Silent Reading a lot too. And a kinda hidden gem I found that’s really stuck with me is We Don’t Open Anywhere.
Eh I feel like the Villainess Isekai is more of a dream for woman as there are two kind of versions for it.
One where the one who whas reincarneted whas already a badass in her last life and now is using it to clear the trash of all the ones who underestimate her.
The other one is with modern girls finally getting fantasy but as they have no cheat skill except a knowledge of what is going to happen so they have to use their own wits instead which in the end is only the powerfantasy of being able to say: "You may have outsmarted me, but I outsmarted your outsmarting!" because for them cheat skills would mean that they are weak and need help. The exception hereby is "My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!" as this is no powerfantasy but the isekai here is just for laying the foundation of a funny story.
Complexity of living in a medieval town? You want Ascendance of a Bookworm.
Truck-kun please run me over now!
About games being not so much better then back then, I would say the time between the 90s and 10s where the sweet spot as back then you could not just put up a buggy mess on the market and then just fix it over the next 6 months.
As a proof just look at how much hate is brought against Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring for being such a grand game.
Currently Video Game publishers do not want to deliver games like these where the fans are satisfied with it because for them it is overdelivering. The only exception is the JRPG market where the trend is to make them bigger and bigger and bigger so that players can not really feel they will ever going to finish it so instead they buy another game.
Yeah, the power fantasy is so prominent because people want to get stronger without having to work hard to become that strong while the isekai genre right now is all about escaping their mundane life to get a better one. Not terrible tropes or even terrible reasons but overused to hell and back (unlike the current isekai protagonists, they rarely return)
But some of what could make the genre more interesting is a twist on the genre, be it that the MC doesn't have an uber powerful ability that gives him an edge against everyone in that world. It would be interesting to watch a MC end up in a fantasy world where monsters exist and have to learn to survive, if the guy wasn't already experienced in the career of hunting and gathering. His knowledge from the modern era could also be made null if the author wants to brainstorm the idea on how magic existing changes the science of the world, such as the ability to use lightning requiring existing lightning similar to firebending in the last airbender movie (bad movie but not a bad idea. have to figure out how to start a spark to fire it off)
I myself actually do have a work that isn't the common isekai because it's from the perspective of someone following the isekai'd character without knowing that fact. The Isekai'd isn't even all powerful because he has a limited mana pool that barely qualifies him a mage but his people skills are something real, making him a capable foil in the fantasy world with ill-natured humans looking to profit in a world full of monsters.
Now hold on a minute, I won't say there isn't modern games worth playing HOWEVER:
MOST modern games ARE shit, at least main stream wise, the only ones overwhelmingly worth checking out are indies but that in of itself is a slog as there is a sea of copycats in that space too, many of them likely good or even better than the original game they are copycating, for instance the recent trend of bullet heavens inspired by vampire survivors that was inspired by the mobile game magical survival.
THAT SAID, many modern games come out incomplete (main stream) buggy, or cut up into pieces to sell you the bits. The cosmetics you used to get rewarded for playing the game or doing something note worthy now put behind paywalls, the core game designs themselves compromised by greedy and predatory monetization practices by companies trying to literally earn all the money.
Also, how dare you consider SAO an Isekai, game like world/trapped in a game world =/= Isekai, their physical bodies were still in reality.
I give log horizon a pass in that department because its ambiguous whether they are actually in the game or a world that resembles the game, or even if the players are really who they think they are, especially after shiroe meets his alt character from the beta server. To further amplify, the ambiguity is further deepened or rather pushes the implication that they aren't in a game world less a world that resembles a game is, the MMO LH characters played was a modern MMORPG like wow/ff14 aka mouse/keyboard, not full dive/ultra immersive VRMMORPG. That is the only reason why I give it a pass, too bad the story kind gets weird after the rules of the world start warping at random for some reason.
i dunno about that comment about gamers big man, have you seen the buggy shit thats come out this year alone?
Not just the bugginess, they hyper monetization which has a massive influence on game design as they often add mechanics or "speed bumps" to help corral you towards the pay pig store.
Not to mention that many of them are so high budget that they are basically afraid to try anything outside of known tried and true formulas less they lose all the investment put into the production.
That's why we have so many open world games with towers that mark things on your map with random points of interest to make their massive worlds feel justified/allow them to brag that there are hundreds of hours of content because they padded out the world with worthless nothingburger side quests.