What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any *good* isekais out there?
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
-
A [email protected] shared this topic
A Arachnibot shared this topic
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
"Good" is subjective. What's your criteria for good?
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
I think the Chronicles of Narnia is probably the best isekai.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
KonoSuba is a satire/deconstruction of the isekai genre, and it's been well-received.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
Re:Zero, Bookworm, KonoSuba, Slime... There are a lot of good isekai out there.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
There are good isekai, but it's littered with slop.
Some I enjoyed:- Re:Zero
- Konosuba
- Ascendance of a Bookworm
- My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom
- No Game No Life (though note that it's been a looong time since I've seen that one..)
- Youjo Senki
- Overlord
- Re:Creators (mostly interesting because it's a reverse isekai, but has lots of boring exposition)
-
I think the Chronicles of Narnia is probably the best isekai.
I'd say Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a contender for best isekai if the target demographic is kids.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
There’s a ton of well-reviewed isekai out there. But there’s also a lot of really bad stuff too.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
I kinda find modern isekai are very formulaic. If you just want some fan service and an OP power fantasy protag who doesn't struggle at anything, then they look nice enough, but are still kinda trash.
I'd recommend watching some of the early ones when the genre wasn't so well defined:
- Now and Then, Here and There
- Twelve Kingdoms
- El Hazard
- Vision of Edcaflowne
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
I haven't seen anyone mention Isekai Nonbiri Nouka. I thought it was pretty good.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
I think parodies and deconstructions of the isekai genre are fun:
- Villainess Level 99
- The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious
- My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
Zenshu is killing it this season.
Reincarnated as a Slime is my favorite somewhat trashy isekai (as in: it follows all the tropes but otherwise the animation quality is actually really good).
I'm a Spider, so What?! is a fun boss rush that had a deeper than expected story.
Overlord is a "take over the world" / "Kingdom builder" (Slime also is a kingdom builder but its not as good as Overlord)
-
I kinda find modern isekai are very formulaic. If you just want some fan service and an OP power fantasy protag who doesn't struggle at anything, then they look nice enough, but are still kinda trash.
I'd recommend watching some of the early ones when the genre wasn't so well defined:
- Now and Then, Here and There
- Twelve Kingdoms
- El Hazard
- Vision of Edcaflowne
Or even further back:
- Aura Battler Dunbine with its great insectoid mecha, by Yoshiyuki "Gundam" Tomino
- Super Dimension Century Orguss - less clearly isekai, but it's fun work by the crew who did Macross
-
I think the Chronicles of Narnia is probably the best isekai.
4 humans of "reality" becoming Kings and Queens of a fantasy world after meeting the god of that world? With Judeo-Christian slop words thrown around to sound deeper?
Definitely an Isekai.
-
KonoSuba is a satire/deconstruction of the isekai genre, and it's been well-received.
I should note that KonoSuba is on the sexual side with its camera angles and... erm... Darkness. Just Darkness in general.
Hilariously so of course. But I've tried to get people to watch Konosuba in my group and they were all turned off by its sexual nature.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
Sword Art Online taught publishers that people really want bland wish-fulfillment stuff where the hero just steamrolls any problems that shows up and then gets all the girls. Of course SAO had other things going for it, like good animation and a great soundtrack, but that isn't what they can easily copy.
Shield Hero taught publishers that people want that but also with the main character owning slaves for some reason.
Anyways, due to these two things isekai has been almost universally weird af lately. That said, it's not all bad. I liked The Eminence in Shadow, but I recommend the manga adaptation over the anime. The mangaka just has a really good sense of comedic timing. There are also a few good isekai if you look at the pre-SAO era. Vision of Escaflowne was really good, as long as you come in with the expectation that this is a shoujo mech isekai so it'll have a somewhat different feel to it.
Of course, that's if you're stuck on wanting to watch/read isekai. There's been tons of great stuff coming out every year that has nothing to do with isekai. My favorites from the last 5 years have been:
- 2020 - Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - A team of high school girls form a club and set out to make whatever anime they can with their limited resources
- 2021 - Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- - The first AI-powered humanoid robot tries to prevent the robot apocalypse
- 2022 - Chainsaw Man - A sad boy has a wild (and bad) time. Honorable mentions go to Spy x Family and Bocchi the Rock. It was a strong year.
- 2023 - Skip and Loafer - A book-smart girl from the country moves to Tokyo for a better high school and adapts to city life
- 2024 - LOOK BACK - A story about 2 artists. Honestly this year was stacked too, so honorable mentions go to Bang Brave Bang Bravern! (big gay robots), DAN DA DAN (romance, yokai, and aliens), and Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi (traditional fantasy, but really well executed).
-
Sword Art Online taught publishers that people really want bland wish-fulfillment stuff where the hero just steamrolls any problems that shows up and then gets all the girls. Of course SAO had other things going for it, like good animation and a great soundtrack, but that isn't what they can easily copy.
Shield Hero taught publishers that people want that but also with the main character owning slaves for some reason.
Anyways, due to these two things isekai has been almost universally weird af lately. That said, it's not all bad. I liked The Eminence in Shadow, but I recommend the manga adaptation over the anime. The mangaka just has a really good sense of comedic timing. There are also a few good isekai if you look at the pre-SAO era. Vision of Escaflowne was really good, as long as you come in with the expectation that this is a shoujo mech isekai so it'll have a somewhat different feel to it.
Of course, that's if you're stuck on wanting to watch/read isekai. There's been tons of great stuff coming out every year that has nothing to do with isekai. My favorites from the last 5 years have been:
- 2020 - Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - A team of high school girls form a club and set out to make whatever anime they can with their limited resources
- 2021 - Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- - The first AI-powered humanoid robot tries to prevent the robot apocalypse
- 2022 - Chainsaw Man - A sad boy has a wild (and bad) time. Honorable mentions go to Spy x Family and Bocchi the Rock. It was a strong year.
- 2023 - Skip and Loafer - A book-smart girl from the country moves to Tokyo for a better high school and adapts to city life
- 2024 - LOOK BACK - A story about 2 artists. Honestly this year was stacked too, so honorable mentions go to Bang Brave Bang Bravern! (big gay robots), DAN DA DAN (romance, yokai, and aliens), and Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi (traditional fantasy, but really well executed).
Shield Hero taught publishers that people want that but also with the main character owning slaves for some reason.
Oh, it's an open secret that a lot of anime plots are first tested in the pornography / H Eroge market first. Slave waifus (that fall in love with main character) have been a thing there for literally decades.
The question is how good do these writers hide that fact from the public and mainstream. And erm..... Yeah, Shield Hero doesn't do so good there.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
Since I didn't see it here:
- Saga of Tanya the Evil | A psychopathic atheist bureaucrat makes a deal with God that he'll keep his beliefs no matter what. So God reincarnates him (now her, named Tanya) into an alternate universe where it's WW1, but some people are born with magic. The main character is one of those people, and essentially has a crazy amount of magic, but can only use it if they pray to God. Tanya decides to double down on their beliefs that God doesn't exist and plans on outlasting the war.
-
Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
Konasuba. Since it's a parody of the genre. I've avoided everything else in the genre.
