Your opinion on the Over Abundance of Isekai?

otosewrites

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I doesn't interest me. I like fantasy but I prefer it to happen in a world that has some similarities to our own.
 

beast_regards

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Why are all isekai anime all the same, or at least similar?
Because corporations are creatively bankrupt and the outsourced semi-amateur Light Novel writers want to desperately please them.

Why are all isekai posted on sites like this one similar?
Because sites like this usually have the community entirely obsessed with certain story quirks. Unlike the above example, you can post anything without worrying about corporate fat cats, but they want to be read. They can post just about anything, but stories built about specific quirks need to be moved around the Internet to find the site that caters to a specific community.

Why isekai exist?
Did you ever try to watch the news? Try to watch one of the 24-hours news channels. Depression about the current status of the world is guaranteed. You will dream about escaping to the world where you don't have to worry about that shit and where you get the harem of devoted catgirls of questionable age as a bonus.
 

RockiesRetriever

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I just write what I want and don't really give a da** about what's popular.
Why are all isekai anime all the same, or at least similar?
Because corporations are creatively bankrupt and the outsourced semi-amateur Light Novel writers want to desperately please them.

Why are all isekai posted on sites like this one similar?
Because sites like this usually have the community entirely obsessed with certain story quirks. Unlike the above example, you can post anything without worrying about corporate fat cats, but they want to be read. They can post just about anything, but stories built about specific quirks need to be moved around the Internet to find the site that caters to a specific community.

Why isekai exist?
Did you ever try to watch the news? Try to watch one of the 24-hours news channels. Depression about the current status of the world is guaranteed. You will dream about escaping to the world where you don't have to worry about that shit and where you get the harem of devoted catgirls of questionable age as a bonus.
The thing I personally wonder is why then are we not seeing more traditional high fantasy excluding characters from Earth? And further, why is it these isekai are following such rigid paths when the broader genre of portal fantasy can do so much more?

I know the answer is "it's what the readers want," but I feel like that isn't always the case. Even given the expectations of isekai on these sites there is still much that can be done with it, but I do not see that happening.
 

beast_regards

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The thing I personally wonder is why then are we not seeing more traditional high fantasy excluding characters from Earth? And further, why is it these isekai are following such rigid paths when the broader genre of portal fantasy can do so much more?

I know the answer is "it's what the readers want," but I feel like that isn't always the case. Even given the expectations of isekai on these sites there is still much that can be done with it, but I do not see that happening.
Because it would be another genre.

Isekai means "another world" and it must involve a person transported to another world, otherwise it wouldn't be isekai.

Not all isekai have to be fantasy.

But they need someone transported to another world. It's even in the name (the western term of Portal Fantasy feels vaguer in that, though it is one and the same)

If you write the story about the natives to the fantasy world living in their fantasy world and dealing with the local issues, then it will be a fantasy story, even a good fantasy story, but it will never be an isekai.

Well, you can theoretically have an isekai story written from the perspective of the locals, not the person from Earth, despite said person from Earth do appear in their story, which is a kinda twist on the isekai (though it will be one if you argue about the definition, I think) ... and will completely defeat the purpose of isekai having a good excuse to explain everything about the world to the misplaced person
 

EternalSunset0

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I don't have strong opinions about the genre, so I don't care much about its overabundance. It doesn't interest me in particular, but I do enjoy a handful of them like SAO (which I still argue that only the first arc is really Isekai), Re:Zero, Shield Hero, Assassin Aristocrat, Arifureta, etc.

If anything, my bigger gripe is not the overabundance of Isekai but the amount of people getting so mad over it, always complaining that "anime is dead" or something, and looking down on people who like the genre. Just let people enjoy what they like. No need to ruin their fun or call them plebs or other insults.
 

Fox-Trot-9

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I don't really look at the overabundance of isekai as a bad thing; quite the opposite in fact. If anything, I tend to look at it like the mystery genre, which has so many subgenres. There's an isekai style story for everyone. You get your video game/litRPG isekai, you get your slow-life isekai, you get your NTR/betrayal-and-revenge type isekai, you get your villainess isekai, you get your harem romance isekai, you get your death-by-truck-san isekai, you get your OP MC isekai, you get your going-back-and-forth-between-real-world-and-isekai-world type isekai, and you even get your ecchi/hentai isekai. There are so many varieties, and variety is the spice of life, yo!
 

Jailbreak571

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...
I thought nothing of it. I just see it as a normal thing and I just ignore the harem ones.
 

Aaqil

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I don't really look at the overabundance of isekai as a bad thing; quite the opposite in fact. If anything, I tend to look at it like the mystery genre, which has so many subgenres. There's an isekai style story for everyone. You get your video game/litRPG isekai, you get your slow-life isekai, you get your NTR/betrayal-and-revenge type isekai, you get your villainess isekai, you get your harem romance isekai, you get your death-by-truck-san isekai, you get your OP MC isekai, you get your going-back-and-forth-between-real-world-and-isekai-world type isekai, and you even get your ecchi/hentai isekai. There are so many varieties, and variety is the spice of life, yo!
My mind is in pain, I'm not even sure if I'm right now, with how much you used it,:blob_no::blob_no::blob_no:
Cause I'm pretty sure it's "You got your", not "You get your",:blob_cookie:
 

UnknownSaint171

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I have nothing against the genre; there are a lot of intriguing things you can do with it. I just get the impression that they don't do anything with it and stick to what's popular.
It feels as though Isekai has lost its touch. I just don't find it as good anymore. Numb to it. I don't hate it and always welcome more (y)
But it's most likely because the translations are extremely slow...! Hardly get any content or update even if it's good and it's mostly trash isekais getting animated these days and good ones don't get a 2nd season.
It's very difficult to enjoy good isekai now.

Alas, I've forgotten what I loved so much about this genre.. sigh.
 

DonutLuver

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Honestly, I watched 12 Kingdom and Fushigi Yugi as my first "isekai" (or is it transmigration) anime. It was Hella good.

Then I watched re:zero. That was also really good.

I watched/read isekai for the nitty gritty genre of it and how a normal person would realistically fare in a fantasy world unknown to them. Suffering is thy name

:blob_reach::blob_reach::blob_reach::blob_reach::blob_reach::blob_reach::blob_reach:
 
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Ilikewaterkusa

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I have nothing against the genre; there are a lot of intriguing things you can do with it. I just get the impression that they don't do anything with it and stick to what's popular.
good.
 

LilRora

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I'd say that isekai as a genre is so popular because of how easy it is to write, like Temple said somewhere on the previous page. I don't have problem with isekai in itself, but I do have a problem with people who write iseaki because they don't have a better idea, and ten chapters into the story you don't even remember what was the character's origin. In way too many cases it's just being killed and reincarnating, and that's boring, generic, and incredibly repetitive.

I like when isekai is stretched over new ideas and concepts that actually affect the story and the plot in tangible manner. A few examples from the top of my head are Ryn of Avonside; We're not so different, You and I; The Reincarnation of Alysara (to a smaller degree). All of them are techincally isakai, but they are original and have reasonable, significant connections to the previous world that can be felt in the story.

Yes, I know those three are all gender bender, but that's not my fault and that's irrelevant.

The overabundance of isekai is basically market demand and simplicity having a child. Both of those things make it very simple for even inexperienced authors to find reasonable success easily. Not that I like it. It's just that in niche genres you find gold amidst a few silvers and a few tens coppers or worse, and in isekai genre you have those numbers squared.
 
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DonutLuver

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I'd say that isekai as a genre is so popular because of how easy it is to write, like Temple said somewhere on the previous page. I don't have problem with isekai in itself, but I do have a problem with people who write iseaki because they don't have a better idea, and ten chapters into the story you don't even remember what was the character's origin. In way too many cases it's just being killed and reincarnating, and that's boring, generic, and incredibly repetitive.

I like when isekai is stretched over new ideas and concepts that actually affect the story and the plot in tangible manner. A few examples from the top of my head are Ryn of Avonside; We're not so different, You and I; The Reincarnation of Alysara (to a smaller degree). All of them are techincally isakai, but they are original and have reasonable, significant connections to the previous world that can be felt in the story.

Yes, I know those three are all gender bender, but that's not my fault.

The overabundance of isekai is basically market demand and simplicity having a child. Both of those things make it very simple for even inexperienced authors to find reasonable success easily. Not that I like it. It's just that in niche genres you find a gold amidst a few silvers and a few tens coppers or worse, and in isekai genre you have those numbers squared.
Help. This comment destroyed me.
:sweating_profusely:
 

DonutLuver

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Like what? I don't understand.
Lmfao I was making a joke. I agree with your comment so much to the point that you forced me to be introspective and made me realize my isekai story is exactly that haha (a dime a dozen isekai story). :sweat_smile:
 

LilRora

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Lmfao I was making a joke. I agree with your comment so much to the point that you forced me to be introspective and made me realize my isekai story is exactly that haha (a dime a dozen isekai story). :sweat_smile:
Welp, glad to help.:blob_evil:
 

apexaltra

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I'm not an isekai fan so this might be really ignorant, but my main gripe with the genre is how so many (not all, I know) stories seem to take place in the same generic fantasy worlds. Same species/races, same enemy types, same settings. And the type of fantasy popular with isekai just isn't the type I'm that interested in.

But I don't hate the genre or anything. I'm glad people are having fun with it.
 
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