Why does every single anime these days seem to rely on the plot of "Normal guy gets reborn as X?" Everything is isekai.
Why can't we just have an anime about X? Where X was X the whole time?
I can only think of two reasons: 1. Japanese writers don't know how to world-build without an ignorant protagonist asking questions so they can detail what everything is like. 2. Japanese people are growing increasingly unable to relate to fiction unless they can hope it might happen to them some day. (That is, otakus can't accept an anime about a crazy violent little girl unless they put themselves into the body of the little girl through magic)
Andrew Butler
thanks for bringing this up we have absolutely never discussed the flood of isekai before
Caleb Price
I don't go to Sup Forums, I was just looking up the source of this image and getting floored by how stupid the plot was.
Andrew Garcia
Here's a neat little thought experiment for you to try. Look up and count every isekai anime out there and then compare it how many non-isekai anime are out there. Come back to us when you get that ratio. If that's too much work, why don't you just try doing it for this season.
Angel Williams
so let me tell you that Sup Forums is completely aware of japs getting crazy over another world plot, and complaining about it over and over again is like yelling at clouds because it's not like Japanese care about what Sup Forums or west in general thinks
Thomas Brooks
>Why does every single anime these days seem to rely on the plot of "Normal guy gets reborn as X?" Everything is isekai. why does every single movie these days have to be a superhero movie oh you say not every single one? not even the majority ? then there is your argument you retard
Jason Thomas
Appeal to narcissism. The combination of low self-esteem and the desire to indulge in a power fantasy means that the heroes of old, like Guts, Goku, and Kenshiro, are no longer acceptable. Guts and Kenshiro and Goku are above-average people, their powers are their own. Narcissists can't relate to that, they need someone just as pathetic as themselves who are granted powers because they DESERVE powers. They aren't smarter than anyone else, don't work harder than anyonese else, don't have higher moral standards than anyone else, and yet they are given special powers simply because GOD recognizes how great their potential is.
This is the culmination of wish fulfillment. The idea that you can waste your real life in any way you want, because SOMEONE SOMEWHERE will teleport you into a situation where your anime and video game knowledge will be a superpower. Heroes no longer have to compete against the world because the world now molds itself to make them look good.
Sebastian Rogers
fuck off newfag
Henry Peterson
Because you do not watch very much anime. Try watching more or fucking off. Maybe both.
Noah Anderson
But I legit want to know why, not yell at clouds.
Chase Bennett
One of the major symptoms of mild autism is being unable to parse the meaning of something someone said, and instead focusing entirely on the specific words they used.
Evan Thompson
I used to think of fantasy falling into two camps as a kid. Fantasy in which someone is transferred to another world like Narnia, Oz, or Peter Pan. Or fantasy that takes place in an entirely different world without ever referencing the real one like Lord of the Rings. But now otaku are acting like the former is new while whining about it.
Gabriel Parker
>get called out for being an idiot. >a-autists! Try again, sweetie.
Christopher Hill
>Why can't we just have an anime about X? Where X was X the whole time?
The less it has to do with Japan, the harder it is to sell to a TV demographic watching this. Plus there's a bunch more set up you need to do for that story. In your above example, Tanya, they need to take a lot more time building up Tanya into who she is and why she is that way versus just having a person who already lived a long life get reborn and keep their memories. Also it gives the story more of an endgame idea. Tanya has to get being X. In a story where Tanya is always Tanya and not some misplaced evil salary-man, the being X needs separate development to be considered a threat to Tanya. Most of these stories come from comic books where you only get 1 pitch to sell an idea, so a lot of story needs hooks where they can hit the ground running.
You don't have to like it, but remember anime costs a lot of money to make and the companies need to hit certain sale numbers. They aren't going to adapt everything, and what they adapt is going to be subject to minor or major changes based on things like broadcasting laws. If you want more variety, stick to comics and maybe movies.
Jason Davis
its fun to watch protagonist that has "secret" knowledge of the world, like in this or overlord and if they are a bit villainous then whats not to like?
Ryan Peterson
You should care, because what's happening to Japan right now is a preview of what's going to happen to the rest of the world as we succumb to industrialization and corporate lifestyle becomes the norm. Low birthrates, oppressive work culture, and suppression of individuality lead naturally into a society that drowns its sorrows in moeshit, haremshit, and isekai fantasies.
Charles Bailey
Is planets of the apes Isekai? Is Mio min Mio Isekai?
Justin Powell
In Oz and Peter Pan, you have completely normal people in a bizarre situation, it's a fish out of water plot. (Maybe Narnia is the same, I never read it). The protags don't have any powers and barely survive getting their asses kicked by magic users.
In isekai, the protag is always superpowered, either by "luck" or by God.
Basically, imagine Peter Pan, if Wendy could fly from the start better than Pan, and also throw fireballs at Captain Hook which no one else could.
Lincoln Bennett
But I'm not sweet, humans are actually salty.
BTFO.
John Brown
SAO influence. We had "stuck in the game" before but //hack was too long ago. Authors looked at SAO's stupid popularity and tried to make "stuck in the rpg game" in their own way. Some of it evolved into "MC stuck into the fantasy world with rpg mechanics but not game". We've already had MC's being stuck into fantasy worlds all the time during 90's though and then it evolved into "cute angel/robot/demon/magician/elf girl got into our world and fell on MC's face".
Angel Gonzalez
Why would that be a problem? I'm watching anime because I like Japan's media output more than the west's. If the latter becomes more like the former that's good for me. Also it's not going to happen.
Eli Wilson
A Planets of the Apes Isekai would be about an animal tamer at the zoo who lost his job, and had to work as a janitor at NASA. He accidentally gets locked in the rocket and when it crashes, is the only survivor. Thanks to his animal taming skills, he's the only one who can turn the animal-humans back to normal, where he raises an army to fight against the Apes.
Easton Turner
>Why does every single anime these days seem to rely on the plot of "Normal guy gets reborn as X?" Everything is isekai. Watch more anime.
Nathan Butler
Narnia is arguably isekai because the kids become the rulers of the land and save it with magic weapons, but the caveat is that only kids can enter it and when they grow up they forget about it. The exact opposite of modern isekai that tempts grown ass men with promises of becoming a little girl.
Daniel Jenkins
I just wanted a ovelord without mmorpgbullshit/isekai. Just traditional fantasy setting.
Lucas Myers
There's literally only one isekai this season. Two counting sequels.
Owen Cox
One of the major symptoms of mild autism is being unable to parse the meaning of something someine said, and instead focusing entirely on the specific words they used.
Gabriel Clark
>criticizes plots where x gets reincarnated as y >uses an example where it actually makes more sense for a story to be like this
Austin Bennett
If you think anime is bad, don't look at manga.
Fucking hundreds of isekai. Hell, almost every anime isekai was a manga isekai.
Some publishers have actually set limits on or outright banned isekai submissions because the market is so flooded.
Joshua Torres
They rely on it because the isekai formula makes any story easily captivating. The key element to any good story is having the plot being centered around a sane man going to a mad world. Look at the plot behind famous fairy tales, novels, and movies; they all involve this concept of a normal person ending up in a unusual situation. Isekai is a very extreme example of this model but it works.
Sebastian Cox
Do any of those famous fairy tales, novels, and movies give the main character an RPG stats sheet?
Ryan Scott
>Why does every single anime these days seem to rely on [ELEMENT OR APPROACH WHICH WAS RECENTLY FEATURED IN A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL WORK]? Because Japanese creatives are shameless copycats. They start out consuming fiction and doing fanfic all through their formative years, instead of gaining life experience or seriously studying some aspect of the real world, and gradually get better at taking elements from multiple works and filing off the serial numbers until they try to publish a mash-up of four of the last ten big hits, two Hollywood movies they liked, and an old American pulp sci-fi short story, as an original work.
Parker Edwards
They're just following the manga and LN market, a large portion of which is influenced by WNs. Since WNs can be posted and updated by literally anyone, most WNs end up relying on isekai because it's the easiest thing for amateurs to latch onto. It's basically the Japanese equivalent of fanfic trash, except it's influencing the actual industry.
Caleb Young
You picked a bad example, Youjo Senki wouldn't work without the MC being someone else. If Tanya was just a crazy little girl her motivations, desires, and methodology would be so different that it would become a different story altogether.
Austin Sanders
>the isekai formula makes any story easily captivating.
I disagree. Whenever I hear that formula, I don't bother with the anime.
Well, I guess quite a lot of people do enjoy it, since there's so much of it.
Ethan Stewart
The moment I hear "RPG elements" all of my immersion is instantly gone.
Levi Howard
>Everything is isekai. Maybe you should stop watching them and watch the 20 other anime shows that aren't those.
Asher Gonzalez
You mean you really don't know? Do you want the strong hard truth? Because, I can give it to you.
Luke Collins
And this is the main problem with modern isekai. Instead of creating an immersive experience, the writers just use an RPG template, slap on some video game mechanics, and make everyone else braindead retarded or ignorant in order to make the MC appear strong and smart.
Nathan Roberts
Stop making it sound so lewd, user.
Xavier Garcia
It's not. You honestly don't know why we get so many isekais?
Lucas Moore
It's not peculiar to the Japanese though. Or have you not noticed Hollywood movies, TV shows, books, and whatever other media following similar patterns? People often write things like things they've liked, which often means popular things. And video game mechanics aren't peculiar to isekai.
Charles Turner
Why does nobody call classics "isekai" even when they clearly are?
Jonathan Adams
Because they're classics.
Anthony Phillips
Who says otherwise? They are isekai whether people like it or not. On the other hand, I'd argue about sword art online and .Hack not being one since they don't physically get sent to a new world.
Carter Walker
>Whenever I hear that formula, I don't bother with the anime. If you apply such a simplistic rule, you're missing out. Youjo Senki and KonoSuba are great.
>Youjo Senki wouldn't work without the MC being someone else. Honestly, it would be a better story if the MC were a man. They just used that cheap hook to put a cute girl on the cover.
At its core, it's WW2 with the benefit of hindsight, a time-travel story of a bitter old German sent back to his boyhood with all of his memories, who thinks this should give him far more power over the course of his life, but discovers to his horror that it just traps him on a different, equally hard path. The alternative-history fantasy setting is a shortcut that lets the author get away with only superficial historical knowledge, while the "reborn as a girl" element is another shortcut to tart it up with visual appeal and weird sexual/pedophilic overtones.
Mason Sanders
>Low birthrates, oppressive work culture, and suppression of individuality lead naturally Not all countries are shitholes like japan (or even the US for that matter). Japs are infamous for their shit work culture.
David Collins
>It's not peculiar to the Japanese though. Or have you not noticed Hollywood movies, TV shows, books, and whatever other media following similar patterns? Yeah, (((them))) too.
Ryan Perry
I think it also gets used as a device to make it so that the audience learns about the world along with a (relatable) main character. It's basically an extrapolation of why you see so many farm boys in young adult fantasy instead of experienced veterans.
Nicholas Flores
>Youjo Senki wouldn't work without the MC being someone else If they just turned him into a boy, it would be the same show.
Carter Myers
>And video game mechanics aren't peculiar to isekai. I know, but it's the one thing that seems to be in common with all the crap that's being released. And by video game mechanics I mean shit like this:
There's probably more, but those are the ones I can come up with.
Ethan Davis
Meh,I already have a shitload of games, books, and anime to go through, missing some great stuff doesn't bother me. Wanking to Megumi is enough for me.
Henry Brown
Part of why I like Tomino is that he doesn't give a shit about that.
Zachary Perry
>sword art online Isn't Alicization basically another isekai? At least that's what I heard.
Christian Ross
i think the Japanese just want to escape from japan.
Noah Sullivan
Self insert wankery sells
Benjamin Nguyen
>Alicization I don't know. I haven't read it. But people called it isekai prior to that.
Gabriel Morgan
It's not that people are calling it isekai, it's that they think it's responsible for popularizing all the shitty isekai. I have no idea why they think this though.
Oliver Kelly
It's pretty simple really, OP. It's because it sells. If it's a formula that keeps selling, of course it would be continuously applied.
Owen Phillips
>It's not that people are calling it isekai Lot of people list it as isekai though in lists and shit. But disregard what I said if no one actually calls it isekai.
Bentley Walker
Yeah, but it's not an isekai thing, it's a shitty fantasy writing thing. The thing with the boob ribbon goddess did it, and that wasn't isekai. I think. And some isekai (like Tanya) avoids it.
Ian Richardson
Can't they reverse it and do something like "daughter of a nazi commander gets transfered into the body of a regular student" or some shit just reverse it and turn it into a comedy
Josiah Jenkins
They did in working demon king.
Henry Gutierrez
Tanya is an adult mind in the body of a child; there's never been anyone in history with her feats at her age. The entire driving plot with Being X, who is causing the world war, would also be dropped, along with Tanya's boner for free market capitalism and thus much of her motivation. Much of the way in which she thinks about warfare is also from the perspective of someone from the 21st century going to an era that has never gone through a world war; massacring a naïve cavalry unit that had never experienced air superiority even as the rest of her unit freaks out, actually needing to explain the concept of a world war to a confused superior earning gratis from him in the process.
It would be an entirely different story with a different antagonist.
Tyler Ross
What I meant was if the guy got transferred into a boy instead of a girl. Ofcourse if you take away the element of the original guy being sent to that world it's gonna be different. All I meant was the gender.
John Richardson
Because the writers aren't real writers. It's the Japanese equivalent of bad fanfiction, except they eat it up and throw enough money at it until it warrants an anime adaption.
Nathaniel Evans
SAVAGE
Ryan Carter
They could've done it with him being sent to the past and mistaken for/descended from someone important so he gets the position.
Dylan Kelly
Stop watching shitty anime, maybe that'll help
Elijah Fisher
Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein UND DAS HEIßT
Connor Cook
EEEEERIKA
Adrian Walker
Try this, though: an old German man dies cursing God, who sends him back in time to his pre-WW2 boyhood in an orphanage.
Now it's a mental time-travel story, not a "reborn into another world with memories intact, and also a bunch of stat boosts and special magic powers, and also a sex change" story, but you can rewrite it scene-by-scene and make it all fit.
Adrian Flores
>an old German man dies cursing God, who sends him back in time to his pre-WW2 boyhood in an orphanage.
This would probably be a better story. I would read the shit out of that book.
Chase Wright
Now that I say it out loud, it fits so well I sort of wonder if there's a novel like this that Zen's ripping off.
Cameron Torres
If he changes history then it must be another world too.
Adrian Jones
Don't be tedious. Mental time travel is different from being reborn in a high fantasy world.
Owen Ortiz
in the case of tanya, we a character's pre-established philosophy become morphed by their surrounding circumstances into something that could only be described as naively cynical at best and down right vile at worst.
tanya is one of the best cases of a smart person being written by a smart person we have in anime.
I love how we see an example of nietzsche's observation on how philosophers subcontiously outlie their own motivations in their philosophy.
when deriding isekai you would do well not to deride youjo senki, for it is one of the few instances where the premise is justified.