Just what exactly is the appeal of isekai?

just what exactly is the appeal of isekai?
it's all too samey
>character dies
>gets transported to a fantasy world for some reason (it's extra shitty if it's a video game world)
>he's overpowered in this world
>all the girls he meet love him
>fantasy world is a generic medieval setting with elves, centaurs, orcs, dragons, etc

Other urls found in this thread:

pastebin.com/8Pg4ihxg
youtube.com/watch?v=XQ21vYzrOYY
youtube.com/watch?v=a4_89tfxN6Q
phantaporta.com/2017/10/113.html
read.lhtranslation.com/read-makikomarete-isekai-teni-suru-yatsu-wa-taitei-cheat-chapter-1.html
lhtranslation.com/
twitter.com/AnonBabble

>just what exactly is the appeal of isekai?
You could ask the question of just about anything. But you don't. Aren't you just jealous that truck-kun has never come for you, and now you are too old to be isekai'ed?

Truck-kun is a hero, I'd be down for truck without getting isekai'd

From a Watsonian perspective? Not a single damn thing.
From a Doylist perspective - the plot is essentially already written. You just change a few names around. So studios don't have to worry about hiring actual writers and can minimize development time.

Don't forget that the people making actual judgement calls in the entertainment industry are by-and-large businessmen who don't care about story.

>Still cant finish this
fuck

>it's all too samey
Yeah, because the authors don't want to write a story, they want to play a fantasy RPG game with their own character and roleplay. A good fantasy RPG game where you can do anything and you get to fuck bitches doesn't exist so they "write" it instead.

>studios
Are you somehow under the impression that isekai stories are typically anime originals?

Pretty much this A large portion of isekais are written by some random guys that have very little, if any, standing in the literature industry. They are amateurs that publish webnovels and if they´re lucky enough, get a LN deal or more out of it.

I didn't say that?
"Studio" doesn't have to refer to anime, you know. Game development studios, comic books, e.t.c. The rule holds for most any kind of mass-marketed entertainment, really.

Two words: Power Fantasy. That's it, at its basest, what happens there after is dependent on the quality of the writing and how the world unfolds.

A lone guy in the basement of his parents counts as a studio now?

Sure. Anything that has conditional sponsorship can qualify. There's not a minimum-persons criteria.

So why would that guy bother "hiring actual writers" for his personal pet project?

>When you made a Isekai Bingo in Sup Forums, jap translated it and even mushoku tensei author participate in the bingo
This is happiness

Must have been a great time to lurk around. And that bingochart is nicely done as well.

More like: wish fulfillment. Power fantasy is a type of wish fulfillment, no doubt, but wish fulfillment explains why everything goes so well for the protagonist, ex: all the girls like the MC, MC is surrounded always by cute girls, MC never has money troubles, etc.

it all being too samey should make it easier for you to see the appeal not harder
you fucking retard lol

isekai is always and without exception, trash

Everyone is always acting as if the self insertion by the reader is a bad thing. But if an author actually manages to understand his target audience and makes readers react however he intends, it´s actually quite the accomplishment. That being said, most isekai are barely more than masturbatory material that work in the same way as a male pornactor does.

...

As people said. Easy wish fulfillment and quite easy to write, writing is a lot easier when you don't bother with quality that much. Sup Forums convinced me anyone could write it, and I did, was actually pretty fun. You are to blame for it.
pastebin.com/8Pg4ihxg
Sadly Truk-kun has standards and will only take the blandest japanese highschoolers. Not older loosers turned into traps.

Is there a isekai where all the girls lust for the MC's dick even though he is a complete and utter asshole to them?

Yes.

>wall of text
Now I understand why Nips always reddit space in their web novels.

Marche was wrong to be honest. Everyone was happy in the other world. It might be escapism, but escapism isn't necessarily bad.

Isekai becoming popular is a reflection of our rejection of society and the fact that we're all spoiled. We hate our lives and fantasize about worlds with magic and swords. Now that shit has ALWAYS been around, but with the advent of the internet, any shitter can go write a terrible cookie cutter story about it and get exposure, and plebs will read it.

As for video game mechanics, let me break it down for you. In everyday life, there is no direct way of linking your efforts to tangible progress. A video system makes it plain for everyone to see. When you do things, you gain experience, you level up, and you can see your progress clearly at any time just by looking at your character sheet, giving you motivation to continue doing what you are doing. Your character sheet is your mental reward for putting in all that work, and your increased stats are the actual reward. If you want to get stronger, you just need to complete some arbitrary repetitive tasks, which is what introverts excel at. The appeal is very obvious if you think about, but most people never bother to wonder WHY the video game bullshit is so widespread, they just want to whine about it.

It's even feasible to say, that one day, we might actually live in a society where people have video game stats. For example, look at the recent trend of those pedometers that count how many steps you've taken. Or an even older example, school report cards. Extending that idea, is it so farfetched that someone could create an augmented reality system that can measure our abilities and display them in a numerical format? I'm sure commercial sector would jizz their pants, all they have to do is compare some numbers to decide if you're hired or not.

Tl;dr

I like seeing the underlying aspect of time travel, in the sense that the two worlds are in differing technological time periods. It's interesting to see the MC uses his advanced knowledge as a leverage for his success and ultimately how he reshapes the world and it's customs. What I like about sci-fi is the implications surrounding our values when technology manages to overstep some previously irreconcilable position and Isekai delivers something similar in that respect but for the world the MC leaks into. Aside from that I've always enjoyed medieval settings but Isekai allows for easy self insertions, since an aspect of Isekai is the escapism from the shallow miasma of modern life into one of fantasy and honor/chivalry.

Isekai is enjoyable because life is shit and ambiguous.

>just what exactly is the appeal of isekai?
>he's overpowered in this world
>all the girls he meet love him
I don't know OP, you tell me.

>just what exactly is the appeal of isekai?
pure unadulterated power fantasy bullshit for the hikivirgim moaddict neet population of japan and now the rest of the world. looking for any deeper meaning is retarded.

It's mostly fun but then some authors go the edge lord route with ntr and rape.

The abundance, really. The isekai setting aspect usually frustrates me more than anything because worldbuilding and "following your own rules" is too hard for authors anyway , but having a lot of material to fill my freetime is great. Oh, also harems with actual polygamy.

What is the purpose for sending dead people into other worlds?

Basically we're moving towards a society where AI will measure your stats and augmented reality will display them, because that's what society wants. Measuring people based on their social media habits is the beginning of the shift.

>Everyone was happy in the other world.
youtube.com/watch?v=XQ21vYzrOYY
For someone it's hell. Like for Tanya and Subaru.

>first three characters introduced and still no females
It’s like Japan has taught you nothing.

>thinking I would even read a paragraph of this when he is asking for money to read the other chapters
How many idiots actually fell for your scam so far?

youtube.com/watch?v=a4_89tfxN6Q
Some highschoolers have lack of spider sense.

I really like stories where the main character is extremely powerful from the get go.

>you are too old to be isekai'ed?

you are never too old to be isekai'ed.

>You could ask the question of just about anything.
And get a good answer. But not with Isekai, because it's trash.

Wish-fulfillment.
It's pretty obvious really.

I want to believe!

Intellectual lazyness on both author and reader.

First, the author doesn't bother developing an interesting character properly inserted into a fantasy setting: instead the character is just (You). The reader in turn doesn't have to think too hard to put themselves into a character different from them.

Then the setting itself is a generic JRPG fantasy setting, because the author is also too lazy to be original and reader also too lazy to imagine something too unfamiliar.

In short it's a fucking disgrace. It should be said though that not absolutely all isekai deserve this criticism. Some actually do develop their setting decently. I can't think of any right now that couldn't just have a character native to that world though.

It's just basic bitch wish fulfillment

Well, from a writer's standpoint, Isekai is a wonderful vehicle for having a character ignorant of the world and in need of exposition and to justify things being explained.

Though the more sensible thing is just having every character be 'smart' in one thing but be ignorant in another requiring a sort of pass-around-the-joint of exposition.

as a side note, in my head I've jokingly toyed with the idea of an Isekai where the main character is like an officer in a special forces group, so this guy is legitimately badass, a great tactician...

But nothing he knows works in the world he's in. Like, even basic strategic logic somehow fails despite even common sense dictating it should.

>pass through puberty 2 times
>mc still a faggot who will never score

How can someone even think this is ok?

forgot the pic

>You want me to assassinate the demon king? Well for starters, how about trying some poison?
>Hahh? Are you a moron? Everyone knows that poison never works! The only thing weak to poison are shitty mob monsters! What's with this Hero, he's useless

>as a side note, in my head I've jokingly toyed with the idea of an Isekai where the main character is like an officer in a special forces group, so this guy is legitimately badass, a great tactician...
>But nothing he knows works in the world he's in. Like, even basic strategic logic somehow fails despite even common sense dictating it should.
That's a legitimately better hook than 90% of the genre.

That idea is actually interesting enough though. Some navy-seal like guy starts building up tactics with mages and other classes and adjusts his strategies accordingly. Should be enough to fill a couple LN volumes.

I dunno, I mean in my head it gets extreme to the point of ridiculousness as I follow the illogic to it.

>"I assassinated the demon king, all his top generals, advisers, etc. subverted many others to our side, ruined the logistics of his army, assassinated all their spell casters, burned their books on magic, and even fucked his wife!"
>"The demon army is now rallying behind a lone demon child who is proving to be a way more capable strategist than you, and the demon army sustain themselves on sheer willpower to succeed."

>recognize almost all of them
Where did I go right?

The top left one is fucking retarded by the way. I was internally screaming on the latest chapter. It's so bad, it has to be a parody.

For starters, where did your MC come from and how did he end up there? And what setting is suddenly around him?

>fucked his wife
But she is a succubus, so this only made her stronger
>burned their books on magic
Which triggered all spells in them and made Demon Lord's army even stronger and caused terrible damage to allies
>ruined the logistics of his army
Except he didn't really understand them and only helped Demon Lord by his actions.
>subverted many others to our side
Despite everyone saying that demons don't have trouble betraying, especially those that a weaker, so demons just used false betrayal of Demon Lord to strike out forces in the back.
>assassinated DL and everyone
But they are connected by some magical talisman and could be killed only in certain order, otherwise they are just soul-link ressurected, so our Mr. Hero just wasted all resources for nothing.
>Jeez, this "hero" is killing us more than demon army!

What you described is just the setup and framing for the narrative. Here you have a narrative reason for most of the things in the fantasy setting needing to be explained to the protagonist and a possible reason to feel connected to them.

There's little inherently interesting about that, so the rest comes down to execution.

Overlord was good, despite having a god-level main character, because he has a clear motivation and interesting characteristics. In Another World With My Smartphone, in my opinion anyway, wasn't very interesting because the main character didn't have much going for him besides being overpowered.

source?

It's the same appeal as zombie shit or Harry Potter shit -- it's pure escapist fantasy, a dream that some force is going to whisk you away from your stupid, boring life where everything's shitty and no one appreciates you.

The reason they're all samey, the reason the all have stupid harem shit, a protagonist who's uniquely powerful in some way is because if the MC wasn't a gary stu self-insert, it would totally defeat the purpose of these shows and gormless otaku wouldn't be able to properly jettison their hideous existence for 5-8 hours. Same reason most of these places are so samey (and often basically just video game worlds) -- if it uses familiar fantasy or video game trappings, the pathetic isekai watcher is able to express some mastery over the setting and they don't have to feel disempowered because the immediately-knowable world won't throw any curve balls at them

>ISEKAI is correctly understood over there and it can be laughed
Oh spot on, when did that even happen?

Speaking of which just found this recent interview he gave, probably because of the total printed copies reaching 140mil(Manga+LN) a few months ago, the guy talks about what made him develop his story the way he did and why he chose that direction, and how he worked on it rewriting and rewriting also what influenced it(like most narou writers he mentions mostly fantasy media and games starting from the period of second half of 1980's to first half of 2000's)

>phantaporta.com/2017/10/113.html
think I'll give this one question a go with my shitty Japanese, take it with a grain of salt. I though overall it was interesting stuff.
理不尽な孫の手先生が小説を書き始めたのはいつ頃からでしょうか？
また、「小説家になろう」に投稿しようと思ったきっかけがありましたら教えてください。

本格的に小説を書き始めたのは10年前ぐらいですかね。
きっかけ、というには少し長くなりますが……。
小さい頃から読書は好きでしたし、ワープロで物語っぽいものを書いてみたり、パワーポイントで紙芝居を作ってみたり、RPGツクールを触ってみたりと、話を作ることも好きでした。
それで、ある時から小説を書き始めて、プロのラノベ作家を目指して、でも業界全体の風潮みたいなのが合わないと感じてやめて、それから何年かして「小説家になろう」を見つけて、そこには異世界転生とか転移とか、当時のラノベでは滅多に見ない、でも昔はいっぱいあって好きだったジャンルがたくさん存在してて、読んでいるうちに自分でも書いてみたくなって、また書き始めて、でも投稿す..

I really don't know, it's basically a barebones idea I threw out to my sister and brother-in-law on a joke.

The idea is partially inspired, ironically, by ideas I've had for a horror game where you play a legit badass who can parkour like Assassin's Creed and starts the game with as many and as powerful weapons as Doomguy.

Except it's all fucking worthless because nothing you fight can be hurt or stays down, and impressive your mobility might be, you are being chased by things that fly, teleport, and/or phase through walls. If not just lock you down in place and butcher you.

Except it's not played as a joke.

How hard is it to understand? It's the ultimate escapism fantasy, backed by mary sue-ism in which everyone always envisions themselves as being the most important character that everyone loves forever and ever, except that one jerk, but no one cares about him, he's a loser. So it will always sell to people that have shitty lives, which is growing in number these days.

He's being asked from when he started writing and if there was something out there which prompted him to submit his work at narou.

He answers that it was about 10 years ago since he started writing for real, although it'd take a while to answer what exactly prompted him to do so, from young age he loved reading and would write something akin to stories with word-processor etc etc.
Then from some time he tried his hand with novels, aiming to become an LN writer. However during that time he felt he didn't quite match with the industry-wide trend so he quit.

After some years he found narou and says there were a lot of transfer/reincarnation types which you didn't see that much in Light Novels of that time but there were tons of them in the past and he really loved the genre. So while checking them out he also got an urge to write one and resumed writing. Although he was still hesitant at first but seeing how even the most amateur of the works were being appreciated, the readers accepting them and following the author, he thought to himself that he'd also have jolly good time with his audience without being ostracized and being made fun of due to the lack of skill.
And this is roughly how he began writing on narou.

While your MC has the basic advantaged of coming from a more advanced world, you´re trying to turn it around. Reversing the trope.

theyre fun, I like konosuba and re zero and isekai hentai is great, when the other characters behave like npcs and the mc just fucks them

It's still well-deserved hell.

This one seems interesting. An isekai where the protagonist's annoying mom gets transported into an MMORPG world as well.

Let me spoonfeed you my friend because it was still open in my browser.
read.lhtranslation.com/read-makikomarete-isekai-teni-suru-yatsu-wa-taitei-cheat-chapter-1.html

Minato scores a ton though. That's wish fulfillment for you.

>It's so bad, it has to be a parody.
It is.

What's the appeal of you? Nothing, right? That's why you've never had a girlfriend, isn't it?

That... actually seems interesting.
Annoying mom getting on adventures together with MC may be hillarious. Could you tell the name?

Where's Parallel Paradise?

>It is.
Maybe

lhtranslation.com/
People still haven't learned how to google in 2017?

>now you are too old to be isekai'ed?
No such thing. Mushoku Tensei guy was in his 30s when he got trucked. And in Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de, the guy got isekai'd after dying of natural causes at the age of 94.

If i didn'r knew better i'd say he slept if a pair of dudes in that panel. Does he ever swing that way?

Aren't isekai type stories generally about exploring another world? The author takes the reader to an interesting, we hope, world that the reader wants to know more about. The reason that the MC is from our world is that the reader can easier relate to the MC due to how the MC and reader are in the same position.
>Isekai becoming popular is a reflection of our rejection of society and the fact that we're all spoiled.
I don't know about spoiled. I can understand someone born with a physically or mental disability or illness wanting to escape our world. In that case it isn't because of being spoiled or even satiety, but misfortune. On the video game idea, I remember reading a Chinese company collecting the citizen's data from purchases to form a score. Such as buying diapers would increase the score meaning they are responsible adults with children, while buying a video game would decrease the score. And the score could be made public, which could tie in with the job interview example you gave in the end.

>poison
I had mentioned this before, but what you said is exactly what the shieldbro author is writng now. Summoned in a world to use posion dragon powers but everyone is resistant or immune to them.

Nope, he has sex with a group of girls every now and then. At least from the point I've read to in the manga. The high point in the story for me was when the MC fought against the Red Bear, and everything after that was him steam rolling through all his troubles and having sex with his harem every now and then. In the end the little girl goblin on the left became a vampire.

Is that Kamoshida from Persona 5?

>Misha
That's a man's name.

Yes, that's what I tell people when they ask about my job

Why does he sleeps with shotas?

Is it worth to keep reading after the whole fire dragon dungeon thing? Kinda lost interest at that point.

Im not sure why are you reading it in the first place

The premise of him being a goblin and not all hero like, having his own kind of ethics. Now it´s all empire expansion and game mechanics with 4 arms.

>Aren't isekai type stories generally about exploring another world?
Most of the translated ones are like that, but those are most likely infected by RPG mechanics.
Slow life isekai is sometimes too boring to read.
Otome isekai is basically a copy-paste isekai for most of them.
Shoujo isekai is either too cute or a smut isekai.
Jousei isekai is a smut isekai.
The one who entertains me rarely gets translated.

>the one with a kissing couple behind the truck wheel

>mangafox

You may have gotten further than I did. Unless you're talking about the dungeon with the wizard who had all those magic items. I dropped it around the time when Rou met with elf king and the humans were coming. I just lost interest.

>Just what exactly is the appeal of isekai?
He has no appeal. He is the type of character you just want to see humiliated and killed for good.

>flustered MC
Why can't we have more MC like isekai exterminator or isekai veterinarian?

His expansion was far too fast, even for an overpowered MC isekai. And the hobgoblin appearance was much better than the vampire.

They exist to explore your own culture by comparing it to a fantasy one or a historical one. Read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court if you want to see what a good example of the genre looks like.

>Sex is just translated as SEX

Amazing.

>why does Tanaka the salaryman who works 16 hours a day want some simple wish-fulfilment to fill out the time he's not sleeping or working
I dunno, user, you tell me.

>I was reborn into the Reincarnation
>Joe Slmo is just your average everyday office worker who gets by in the world by never standing out and always finding ways to divert attention from himself when suddenly a runaway Truck hits him, killing him. He is then reincarnated into a world of fantasy and adventure...except this world is the dumping ground for tens of thousands of people who are reincarnated, and the actual residents of this world are very hostile to "Changlings" as they call the reincarnated folk and will kill, torture, and use these folks at even the hint of you being one. Now Joe Slmo must become a "Changling Hunter" while using all his shirking and manipulative skills so that he can just enjoy a relaxing mediocre life

>Watch as Joe Slmo hunts down all your favorite Isekai Trope characters. The overpowered guy with a sister complex. The chuuni idiot who goes full edgy because he never tasted power before. The really horny playboy trying to balance 8 girls at once. The Autistic Otaku trying to recreate stuff from Earth because he thinks it'll give him the edge.

You say that, and now there's going to be an isekai with a grandma/grandpa who is isekai'd into a new world to find the grandkids they never had who will love them.

It's just an easy way to write power fantasies

Is there a easy way to find Shield Hero translations online? Seems like the baka-tsuki thing was removed because of licensing.

Filled out the bingo for further scamming. Man I'm bad at this. Really just a bad joke I took too far.

>Adventurers guild set up by people being isekai´d before

At least you tried to deal with it a little more than just a guild being there.