Yeah it was fun in the beginning, after all who never thought about being transported to another world where you ate a big hero with swords and magic?
But what the hell, I’m pretty sure there’s more isekai now than other genres/settings. It’s gotten to a point that if I see the tag I just move on.
I’m more sick of the harem trope than the isekai trope, between that and fan service beach days I don’t even feel like trying new shows sometimes
You can also literally tell from the cover what kind of show it’s going to be 😭
The thing I don’t like is how much of it is RPG themed but written by people who have never played any.
Or just boring ones they think will make sense to the broadest audience.
Where’s my Isekai where they have to guard break and air juggle enemies to do damage??!???
I still like the concept, it’s just that 90% of the stuff that uses said concept is terrible. I mean, Isekai is only an initial premise, you need A LOT more to make a good anime.
Or only use isekai as an arc rather than the general premise like hxh did
Oh yeah, i love greed island. It being an arc certainly keeps the novelty of the other world’s mechanics from getting old.
To make it work as a full series you gotta have a lot more substance though, because at some point that novelty will inevitably run out. And now instead of “exciting new world where everything is different”, it’s just a regular world we’re already used to. At that point you gotta have an actual compelling story to keep it going.
Portal fantasy in general is fine( think like inuyasha or digimon as old version of isekai). The issue is the isekai that are just mindlessly cloning each other with some new way to be OP.
Probably not, but after something like 2 decade of zombie shit everywhere i will take ANYTHING over it. Also there are good isekai, bad isekai and chinese isekai where the only thing coming of it is the protagonist using modern Earth idioms and perfectly assimilating otherwise.
When I watched Frieren the best thing was that it was no fucking isekai. It’s still competence porn, but at least she is not a middle aged man who died lonely in his bedroom. Just a classic fantasy world. Loved it
I’m not sure if the competence porn is justified in this case. She’s clearly meant to be an RPG character at the end of their adventure (and consequently apex of their power), it makes sense to me she’s overpowered. There’s a reason most TTRPGs stop at a a certain level and sometimes even have rules and instructions for retiring.
I think it’s justified, but I don’t necessarily mean it in a negative way. Her competence is certainly an important part of exploring what the series is actually about, namely loss, regret, and what’s really important in life, etc. Which you can have even if you are very powerful.
Now that I think about it. Maybe that’s exactly the reason why it is not competence porn. Maybe her competence is analogous to a sex scene which enhances the actual topic and not the goal itself like how sex is in porn.
On the other hand I certainly watch it for the competency lol
Nope. I’m over it.
The market is oversaturated and it’s time to pivot to a new genre
I made this joke in another thread, but it’s relevant here too. Anime lately in a nutshell is basically:
“Problems of a Paladin: I became the strongest hero and broke the villainess heart for the 7th time with a cheat code to chill out and be the best protector in another world! Why am I a loser in this time loop???”
Perfect title, just need a poster with the generic protagonist surrounded by his harem
Oh believe I’m ahead of you. For the lulz,I tried to use an AI generator to see and it couldn’t produce it. Only was American animation art style
“Problems of a Paladin: I became the strongest hero and broke the villainess heart for the 7th time with a cheat code to chill out and be the best protector in another world! Why am I a loser in this time loop???”
IIRC, the reason titles are like that now, is that japanese people stopped reading light novel descriptions, so this is how the publishers made up for it.
I really like the genre, I am mostly sad it’s mainly very short ones with a single season. Would love something longer again like SAO. But I also don’t watch a lot to begin with
I’m willing to compromise with the isekai setup.
You’re in a new world. There’s magic and sword play and monsters to fight. You get some skills and abilities that give you a decent chance to survive. I’m perfectly fine with that setup.
But what I want once you have been given that setup is an interesting world to explore.
Interesting characters to meet.
Actual challenges and hardships that have to be overcome by the main character.
Real relationships with people that have their own goals in life.
And character growth that happens organically given the constraints of the system.
We have far too many Mary Sue protagonists who never failed anything and never do anything wrong and who have so much power and are just so kind and giving in every single way and everybody loves them and nobody could beat them even if they didn’t love them.
We have far too many villains whose entire character Arc is “hurr durr look at me I’m a villain”.
And for some reason when those villains get converted into sidekicks they always become comical parodies of their former selves.
And finally, even in a harem situation, the main character should neither be asexual or a man whore. Let him have some feelings about the person he’s with and not automatically fall into some unspoken love scenario with the women around him.
If you’re going to have romance at all in your isekai anime, let the guy actually have some preferences and pick one person and stick with them.
Like I get it you’ve got to give people a taste of the familiar but the taste of the familiar is only to lure us in. Once we are in, you need to give us something new and strange and stressful and worrisome and make us doubt the outcome of the next series of events that are going to happen.
Dungeon Meshi is good, and not Isekai.
You very much are not. However, that’s how things always work out, a new theme appears and fascinates people, then everybody and their mom start using it for many years until it gets strip mined. Another comment mentioned zombies as an example, you can hardly see new zombie apocalypse stories these days because it’s been overused already, before that i believe it was vampires, and other prominent themes have preceded those and passed. Isekai as a trope is still extremely popular to the point that stories that don’t even need it get it tacked in as a prop to help it get popular. It’s the way these things happen, and will continue until the next fun thing appears. Then it becomes just another trope to be used at the right time.
It too will pass.
I’m sick of TRASH Isekai, not all Isekai. There’s still a good and original Isekai every now and then, but those are rare. Most of them are just fan service, harem bullshit.
Disclaimer: Coming here from all, so I might not be the audience you’re looking for.
I don’t tend to just browse for new releases that might be neat, but I’ve noticed this from the outside as well. Just through the stuff I run into under reccomendations on streaming services and sites. There’s a ton of anime coming out that’s either isekai, harem, power fantasy, or a combination of those themes.
I think there’s potential for some really good shows within those areas, but like most media, I feel that you’re more likely to find quality by stepping back a bit and waiting to see what holds up over time.
no, i havent been watching anime at all for a good while because of this
I stopped liking anime at all.
The last memories I still liked are Psychopass, Tokyo Goul (till season 2) and Elfen Lied.
Maybe there are more anime that I remember as good but I miss the gore and sadness of anime which those 3 share.
I did watch some isekais and I hated all except one where a lil boy learned magic without splling it, meanwhile his dad wanted him to learn sword fights.
Psychopass had an interesting premise but I ended up feeling like the author didn’t know where to take it.
I kinda agree. But I still liked it and ignored the end as the world just is worth experiencing as a watch.
The last one sounds like Mushoku Tensei/ Jobless Reincarnation