Why do so many people on Sup Forums dislike isekai? Isn't it your dream come true?

Why do so many people on Sup Forums dislike isekai? Isn't it your dream come true?

No it's someones else dream come true that is painful to watch.

Because they generally do nothing interesting with the concept.

I grew up with 90s and early 00s anime. I'm not underage to find isekai entertaining that's all, just like 70s and 80s anime kids don't like anything but mecha genre.

You know anime isn't real, right user?

He probably believes in the multiverse theory.

You just need to make it a reality.

I don't self-insert and I like proper fantasy anime

This.

Why does Emilia look like a retard?
Also because Isekai is writers trying to do fantasy but are too lazy to make an actual world so they just use video game logic.

People from that time frame should like fantasy anime more, and isekai caused a massive resurgence of it.

I'm far from a normie but cliched isekai with boring Gary Stu protagonists is just not entertaining. That doesn't mean all isekai is bad, though, and I don't think most people here automatically believe it is either.

Re:zero was OK, but far from a masterpiece and still played the genre very straight. Haven't read the LNs but I heard they're better. Had a huge following on Sup Forums.

Konosuba is just a great fantasy-comedy series. Kazuma is a total loser but also a relatable flawed character. It could survive without the isekai elements, but the inclusion of them just makes it better because of the meta-humor and self-deprecation. Also has a huge following on Sup Forums.

Overlord is the only "totally overpowered MC wrecks shit" isekai that I'm aware of which pulls off the concept properly rather than feeling like escapist/wish fulfillment bullshit. Yet again, huge Sup Forums following.

Basically it doesn't matter the genre, but if something is poorly written or panders too hard then it's gonna be shit.

VOCAL MINORITY
The most popular shows in recent memory are Rezero and Konosuba

Dont let the memers fool you

nah, fantasy settings always fucking bored me. why would I want to live in a setting without electricity, modern conveniences, and monsters and bad guys everywhere trying to fucking kill me? being a warrior must be a pain in the ass, never understood that fantasy.

Isekai is just bad fantasy.

The problem is more so with how most authors handle the plot of their isekai.

Isekai itself is pretty much a freebie taken for granted by most authors; The groundwork for most of their world building is already done for them. Some authors don't even expand on the world building unless they need it to advance the plot which just shows how lazy they are and a lack of preparation.

However, the worst offense most isekai authors make is the mistake of writing it as a power fantasy. Miraculously everything goes in the MC's favor. There is no tension for the reader, nothing to motivate them to turn the next page wondering how the MC is going to get out of whatever mess he or she is in because they know the MC will solve the problem with nothing to worry about. There are little to no risks.

This kind of fan fiction tier garbage however manages to sell mainly off of the isekai setting that's handed to the author right from the start.

Try reading garbage isekai like Re;monster or Maou fucks every woman in his path and tell me whether they're good isekai or not.

>The groundwork for most of their world building is already done for them.
What do you mean?

Indeed, reasoning is better than just running around spewing "hurrrr isekai".

Beyond that, it's such a minor plot point in so many works of this "genre" that in reality it ends up no different than the straight versions of the real genre the series focuses on.

The problem with these works isn't that they're isekai, but that they're almost exclusively light novels or web novels by amateur authors. Generally the only thing isekai works do is provide "well, they're from (Japan)" as the source of power instead of "this is the chosen one", "this guy found magic item wow", or what have you. Sometimes it provides a shell that allows the author to create an unrealistic world, but its not like this is unique to isekai either.

Isekai as a concept is as old as creative fiction.
Problem is that this concept has been used and abused as a shortcut for lazy storytelling in LN's, manga, and anime to such an extent that it has lowered the quality of the media as a whole.
Japanese businesses love formulas, and at their heart publishers and studios are money making machines with entertainment as a secondary goal. Its part of the post WWII culture of efficiency and production. Isekai lends itself to formulaic storytelling, so you can mass produce media with little effort, and for a business culture that loves efficiency, the plug-and-play adaptability of isekai is ideal.

They're largely based on video games and use lots of video game mechanics so that they don't have to build their own magic/combat systems on their own. Take Konosuba for example, which for all intents and purposes is a video game just without an HP bar.

They're just glorified MMO let's play videos at this point.

they all usually have the same types of characters, especially protagonists. KS is an exception

I bet your ancestors laughed when someone said that earth wasn't flat.

I guess each person have its own reasons, to hate it. In my case its because

1. Isekai breaks the immersion, probably to some people it helps to selfinsert if the character is from our world, but to me it completly breaks the immersion in the fantasy world.

2.The MC is good at everything, (Shieldbro, Overlord, Monster, Slime, Arifureta) all are the same, they can craft, they can fight, they have mostly unlimited resources, they have knowledge.

There is no problem on an OP character but it he knows everything and can do anything is simply boring because there is no challenge or expectation.

3.No effort is put into create a world that feels alive they just rely in elements we already know. And what is worse, they don't even bother in making those elements part of their setting, they just drop them in there and call it a day.

Pretty much this, the videogame cliches don't make it for me in other media and overall it feels like fapfiction. Konosuba's way more tolerable since it plays it as a joke.

If the world is already known, the author can spend much more time on events in the world or on characters.

In reality though, most isekai authors are just awful authors who fail to take advantage of the thing they're taking advantage of.

>The problem with these works isn't that they're isekai, but that they're almost exclusively light novels or web novels by amateur authors.
So manga originals are alright?

This. Most isekai stories are Coldsteel tier.

No it isn't, because I'm not a faggot who relies on self-insertion to get involved in a story. The characters and plot are often bland and uninspired, and the settings are rarely ever worth writing home about, despite the fact that the setting of a FANTASY story should be one of the most interesting parts that draws the audience to the work.

Because self insert is cringy whether it's a deviantart "artist" drawing their Sonic OC, all the way up to a manga/anime creator putting themselves in their harem fantasy the anime industry promised they'd get in high school but didn't get in reality.
I'm fine with ones like Konosuba since that's a comedy mocking the genre, Log Horizon because it was genuinely entertaining, and that one manga where a kid wakes up as Yamcha at the end of the Pilaf arc because Yamcha needs some love. Other than that the whole genre is cliche and tired already.

>too lazy to make an actual world so they just use video game logic
This.
Video game logic with no rhyme or reason as to its inclusion far too oversaturated the genre. It's like they just wanted to make another "trapped in a video game" story, but couldn't contrive a good enough reason for that to happen, so they settled with making it an alternate world that they don't have to explain.

Really formulaic. Tends to be really pandery which I don't like.

Friendly reminder that Mushoku Tensei is the only good isekai. Rudy never becomes overpowered or the strongest character in the series. He fucks up A LOT. Nearly every arc has a huge "I just fucked up real bad" moment.

Then the world building is decently done because unlike most Isekai, where the MC knows anything and everything about the world and only explains to the reader when something is relevant, Rudy is transported to a world he knows NOTHING about. So everything he knows, we also know.

I guess isekai about actual fantasy worlds not video games are better in general. Like Grimgar.

Why always fantasy? Why can't we at least some cyberpunk isekai?

Does Youjo Senki counts as isekai?

The problem is, Isekai's have a huge exploration and unique potential due to the themes of the genre BUT Japan does the same recycled shit that everyone else does.


>Japanese OTAKU/NEED/LOSER/OUTCAST/GAMER GUY
>some spectacular accident happens or just happens to be some unique person to encounter an event.
>followed by MC being able to defeat anything he sees and understands the world with ease due to his video game experience.

Like it's the same shit, The only two I've seen that have done it differently is

Overlord.
That one with the Goblins and crying over that sissy healer, Yeah that show was shit but they started from the bottom.

The difference between manga and LN is the extremely low barrier for entry for LNs. With a manga you have to at least be dedicated or talented enough to be able to draw, and even still it's a lot of work. Or hire someone to draw for you.
On the other hand, literally anyone can make a LN in their spare time, and that's exactly what happens, especially now that LNs have evolved into their own medium. You don't need to type or write well, you can do it your spare time, and the audience have already established that quality of writing doesn't matter, so long as the character designs on the cover are cute and the MC is self-insertable, YOU TOO can be a successful LN author.

my main problem is they go nowhere. every fucking series is 12-24 episode LN adaptations that end up with "read the LN translations" that go on for usually 10+ novels of redundancy.
fuck even with the LN's half the time they themselves get axed or groups just drop them altogether after a few years.

it's just such an unfulfilling genre.

How was that one about army guys vs elves?

>Rudy is transported to a world he knows NOTHING about
This is most Isekai, though.
The worlds just never get properly expanded upon because not even the author has a clear idea of what they look like or how it works, therefore the audience in turn gets left in the dark.

Of course.

Because they might as well just make a cyberpunk story into futuristic fiction, there's no reason to be transported to another world/universe to make a high-tech setting. You can even incorporate cryo-freezing or something similar if you're dead

Manato... ;_____;

I liked it. Also, that Yume-- MUH DICK.

>iseakai
literally Sup Forums
it's not anime.

>if you're dead
sp00ky
Dunno why Sup Forums posted that before I was done. Anyway;

You can even incorporate cryo-freezing or something similar if you're dead-set on having the MC thrown into a world he knows nothing about and has to stumble through blindly at first.

>;_____;
fuck off

Gate?
I've never really looked into it, seemed like just modern military strategies vs fantasy which isn't really my boat.

Kumo desu ga is pretty good too while on the subject of isekais.
The first part is a chore since it tries to mimic a game, but past that everything is glorious.
Fucking gods, dragons, and dying stars.

The girl designs were the best thing about it, They were really top quality.

Self inserts are just as bad as the dense harem leads of the 00s. Why can't japs write a decent fucking protagonist?

You write what you know. The reason incest shit is so popular is because that's the only women many of these men have talked to.

>isekai with a female character
>does a twist on it that I like
>double down on another twist that it instantly ruined the series

Wasn't it more like the second twist cancelling out some elements of the first twist?

No Game No Life was fun.

Overlord was fun too.

Most Isekai are insanely overindulgent though and I can't help but feel like it was written to pander directly to me.

Yachiyo is the cutest isekai MC.

YOI has sold more than both combined but that doesn't mean fujoshit is all the industry cares about.

>Worst girls of their respective series

>Why does Emilia look like a retard?
Because she's cosplaying as one.

I just wish Japan would stop gamifying their fantasy settings to hell and back. Stuff like levels shouldn't be a thing in a fantasy world.

Honestly user.
You've never done a boring chore for hours on end and then suddenly you're doing it way faster?
That's when you level up.

90% of bad isekais are basically god tourism.

MC gets progressively harder challenges they swat away with ease and an excuse plot to introduce more females of various races/personalities.

Don't even talk about making the series hang on a single point to detach it from the competition.

Shittest tier: cheat skills, breaking system
Shit tier: appraisal abuse, divide mind abuse
Meh tier: modern knowledge
Interesting tier: no RPG system in new world

System and its numbers are fine, but ultimately they detract from story.

The one isekai I found nice was Release That Witch, but even then, plasma cutter, killer microbes and magic paint appear at too convenient moments and it's starting a dive as well.

I sometimes get the feeling like it makes sense, and other times like it's completely retarded. I mean some Isekai do explain it in some way or another. Kumo has it be an artificial system to steal power from souls. While I know a few kind of just go, the gods did it.

I know there's one where a guy was reincarnated as a dragon and technically levels only really exist for him and other people blessed by god, and when they appraise people(actually not a skill named appraise but the effect is the same) what they see is an approximation of the person's talent and abilities summed up as skills and stats. Though that story kind of ruined it by making some other aspects of the world gamey, like monsters all evolve after gaining experience from fighting, and the areas and monsters are set up kind of like terrain and type specifically counter to logic(such as a rain forest right next to a desert).

No, I'm not faggot. It's just painful to watch.

I dislike a lot of isekai because it's badly made from a storytelling perspective. I particularly don't like how lots of isekai settings make use of RPG mechanics. RPG mechanics were invented to model fictional fantasy worlds within the context of a game, they are not meant to represent the actual fantasy world. The people in the fantasy world shouldn't know about the statistical side of it, they shouldn't know about XP, HP, MP, etc. - it's a mathematical model, not the fictional reality. Another side I don't like is how they are very often badly designed in terms of coherence. The art direction is usually generic JRPG crap, the settings don't make sense in terms of the technological side, etc.

The wish-fulfilment side doesn't bother me too much and it pains me to be mixed up with normalfags and tumblrinas who are get mad about the harem elements or other types of "pandering".

>1. Isekai breaks the immersion, probably to some people it helps to selfinsert if the character is from our world, but to me it completly breaks the immersion in the fantasy world.
This is main reason I hate concept (what was way older than any current Isekai stories). Ruin immersion and its goes oposite of escapism for sake of wishfulment and self insert.
Other points are still something what can done better.

>Why can't we at least some cyberpunk isekai?
Not anime, but wouldn't Demolition Man be considered Isekai?

See, I hate KoNoSuBa. I thought the joke would be "the guy is useless," but the anime is hardly self aware enough to make it a joke - he spits new skills out of his ass every episode, and the legitimately skilled one on the team is thrown under the bus half of the time. Aqua is the butt of all jokes, it's not really that fair. Whenever something happens and she, or the other girls save the day it's always kazuma saying "we, we, we did it etc" but nigger no THEY did it, you pull through ONCE OR TWICE, you suck. But maybe it's just me, the anime seems to glorify him. I thought it would be "this fantasy isn't what you would expect and you'd probably be bad at everything and not be the hero, the girls won't throw themselves onto your dick" but its not. It could be so much better.

>konosuba
>not good
I mean I know it's a comedy and not played straight but you can't say it's not well written. Actually you can, it's your opinion. But I'd be interested to know why you don't like it if you've read/watched it.

Looking past the JSDF propaganda and the protagonist's retarded otaku origins (pretty much everything else about him is fine), GATE isn't too bad. After the initial fucking everything up that you'd expect from a modern military vs medival cavalry it becomes more about how world governments try to interact with and exploit the new world, which is fairly interesting.

>RPG mechanics were invented to model fictional fantasy worlds within the context of a game

MOTHERFUCKING THIS.

Its so simple I don't understand how Japanese authors and audience don't see it.

RPG represents fantasy, not the other way around. You can only do it backwards if you pretend to make a parody (which isn't the case for most isekai).

Go to bed, damegami

Because reddit likes isekai and I think I speak for Sup Forums when I say we rather have more mindless moe/haremshit anime.

> and that one manga where a kid wakes up as Yamcha at the end of the Pilaf arc because Yamcha needs some love
Wait, what? I'm gonna need some sauce on that. That sounds kinda hilarious. Is it a doujin?

Most of it gets really boring.

"Durr my shitty self-insert transferred to a new world and got all these OP abilities and suddenly gained a harem and oh now I'm so cool and strong and powerful but despite that I'm still as pure as snow, I promise!"

If I wanted to read shitty fanfiction there's billions of it on the internet.

I'd like to add that not only do they pointlessly use a lot of RPG mechanics, they often butcher them beyond comprehension. Stat growths make no sense, its stupidly easy to grow at exponential rates, the systems always seem to be so broken that the only things that present a challenge are overleved opponents.

I just personally want to rant at the fucking trope of I WENT UP ONE TIER IN POWER WHICH SUDDENLY MAKES ME 5X STRONGER. Wow, where's the tension, it turns into a game of whoevers the most autistic at training/leveling has an insurmountable advantage.

This. It's just self insert fanfiction. When you look at the type of crowd that buys these LNs it makes sense.

That sort of power wank falls apart at the first sign of asian overachieving culture. "If you aren't level 8 by next week I'm disowning your sorry ass kid"

Wake me up when best Isekai series get animated
>Mom comes with you on adventures
>Sent to a world where you become the husband of a delicious brown queen

We need the era of Older Women to start sooner.

What I think is worse even. Is when the MC is seen as crazy and one-of-a-kind for being an autistic trainer(grinder). And yet every single MMO ever released ever has dozens if not hundreds of people who forsake their life and health to play the game constantly. Real life is the same, theres always plenty of people with ridiculous dedication to a discipline.

What's the name of the mom one?

>brown queen
I thought it was just a bad scan.

Okaa-san wa Suki desu ka

Tsuujou kougeki ga zentai kougeki de ni-kai kougeki no okaasan wa suki desu ka?

It literally just started but the first volume sold a lot. They also have based Pochi as the artist.

No
Brown queen

I completely stopped reading Japanese Isekai novels. It always seems that there's nothing going on in those series as the MC faces little to no real challenge physical or mental.

Nowadays I only read the Chinese Isekai due to my sadism and autism towards grinding.

as for anime Isekai, like shoujo manga, anime filters most of that shit out and is adapting series that could be considered actual stories and no just SoLs involving an all-powerful Japanese person.

anyone ready for Tatsuya as a mech-building trap form /m/?

series like LMS, WMW, and the first 200 chapters of Kumo did the RPG function correctly. Their MC powers give them an edge but doesn't make them "the most powerful player with the most powerful build ever because of Hard work and Grinding!"

>You write what you know
If you're shit at writing maybe.

I started on LMS, but I was having issues getting through the first parts. Is it just really slow at the start?

That's because they aren't really having in count those rpg mechanics, the rpg mechanics are just there so the reader feels a connection, but they will ignore it all the time.

Its already bad when you have asspulls just for the sake of main character, but when you create rules just to ignore them is even worse.

my experience goes like this

real world parts = garbage
royal road parts = awesome

and yes it does start out slow I think the turning point is when he actually becomes the titular job title

Well, at least you read the LN a now how things go later.

But those of us that only read the manga version...we only manage to see the first chapters, and on those all chapters are basically the same.

We rarely see the part where these stories start to differ from each other

sauce

there's literally no point in reading LN/WN adapted manga ever. except maybe Ore ga Heroine. anime WHEN?

Nirvana

thank

Translation when?

I'd rather enjoy an interesting story than watch an author jerk off for 26 episodes.

Because the writing is contrived as hell, most of the time, to the point where it's insulting. What makes it worse is that most of the people that enjoy them don't even realize when its happening.

Konosuba is told from Kazuma's perspective, of course it would glorify him.

>2.The MC is good at everything, (Shieldbro, Overlord, Monster, Slime, Arifureta) all are the same, they can craft, they can fight, they have mostly unlimited resources, they have knowledge.
>There is no problem on an OP character but it he knows everything and can do anything is simply boring because there is no challenge or expectation.
To be fair, you're reading some of those for the wrong reasons. For example, Overlord is about the character development; it was established very early on that nothing in the world is a threat to Momonga, so why would you treat it like a generic shonen where the MC would face progressively more powerful enemies?
Do you also dislike YuruYuri because no one is ever threatening to kill Akarim

Real talk, YuruYuri would've been much better if something were attacking those girls.

Or if they had to fight off aggressive christmas cakes that have turned to lesbianism in desperation.

Are you talking about the spider isekai?

This. It's even worse if you actually speak moon, because you can read the bottom-barrel trash that no one is even willing to translate.