I Thought an Adventure of Swords and Sorcery Would Be Waiting When I Reincarnated, and Yet... - Oneshot

[Kaarme]

@Kurbo Yeah, I'd say it's safe to deduce from this the author's opinion on the cliche, run-of-the-mill isekai series. However, at the same time the author seems to recognise why the isekai series sell like hot cakes.

 

[Graywing]

Most isekai's sell so well because it's the perfect wish fulfillment for nerds/otakus. Don't need to improve on your physical or social skills. Just die and be granted them as the chosen one. No effort needed. If they stay in the real world, they may have to do some pushups and speak to a therapist.

 

[deathmailrock]

Plus, it's just simple fun. Most Isekai aren't actually meant to be that deep of a read. Of course, there are deeper or more serious versions with the trope. We can't just ignore that. But most of them are just popcorn reading.

 

[Korvalus]

@deathmailrock: I mostly agree, but even then you should ask for them to be of greater quality, depth of characters, more elaborate plots and originality beyond grimmicks. The saturation of isekais and their sub-par (and I'm being generous) quality have come to the point that they've been prohibited in many writing contest because of that.
As you said, you have marvelous isekais out there like Overlord, The Faraway Paladin and more; but that's not an excuse for not demanding higher standards on the rest.

 

[avatarivn]

God: "Isekai is overdone"

Me: "Now that's a god I can worship"

But seriously this satire is so on point it almost hurts, especially when describing the MC and how overuse it has become.

 

[henman]

https://mangadex.org/title/26458/isekai-transporter

 

[deathmailrock]

@Korvalus But I feel people complaining about it are going too far. While it seems over saturated, it should be noted that there are still way more stories out there that aren't Isekai and stuff. So why complain about a small portion of works that are highly popular? Like, it's so obvious what these stories are to the point that you can just avoid them. There are way more amazing manga out there that people can read.

There always was and always will be a niche for popcorn read... and complaining about this niche is kinda weird. Sure, it seems saturated, but at the same time, it's not as much as people think. Rather, it's a minority among all the anime/manga that get released. It just gets released a lot.

Most Isekai for manga come from just a few magazines., so when the magazines switch manga, we get new ones.

This Isekai trope is a very small minority compared to everything else we get...

 

[Hitspark]

@deathmailrock I don't think it's just the prevalence of the genre, but the lack of originality. Look at the page where they list personalities to isekai abilities, he's not wrong. This was written by someone from Japan and the opinion is spot on to what you find here. I think that's what people dislike, a lot of people would love to read Isekai as it's a great source of wish fulfillment, but it's stagnant.

You can only imagine yourself being something like a farmer so many times. The prevalence of the genre makes this fact even more glaring, a lot of people would care less if these releases were spaced out over a period of time, but they're not. They come out every week or so and anyone who hopes for the genre to grow has to either bite the bullet and read it in the hopes that this is the one that changes things or just ignore it altogether. But like the ending said, it's not easy to just change things even when you know it's cliche.

 

[deathmailrock]

@Hitspark But here is the thing... we don't have to read it. I dropped quite a few of them because I couldn't take it. If people enjoy it... we should just let them. It's not like it's as flooding as people think. It's actually coming from a smaller area... it's just that area gets a lot of focus.

Heck, most of the magazines don't publish the Isekai... so we are arguing about a niche area that just happens to be popular. It's like if 100 people were working and because 2 people only produce the same thing over and over again cause it's popular, that they get hated even though we can easily focus on the other 98 people (kinda exaggerating to make a point, but still).

We have so much more non-isekai... and even among isekai, there is quality as well...

So why complain about such a small portion?

 

[Korvalus]

@deathmailrock I get what you're saying and I can understand that there's a market for the chaff out there. But I stil think that the spots occupied by these formulaic isekais could be taken by other, more interesting ones that "might" not sell that many.
Even more, even if isekai is a niche, over-saturation of the genre by lower quality or unimaginative mangas can lead to the public to be disillusioned with isekai itself and pass the rare gems that could be interesting on their own merits just because "it's isekai, so it's the same as others", which leads to axes flying. I see that happening from time to time on mangas with and without potential. (personally, this is what happens to me with fighting shonen)
In conclusion, yes, I undestando what you are saying and I agree to a certain exent. However, I think that the current saturation of bad isekai stories is not doing favors to the genre, neither to the prospects of future isekais. I do like isekai, but what I don't like is having to read through so many of them just to find a decent one.

And while I'm at it; for the love of whatever god they believe, work on your world building skills. The Yuusha and Maou tropes are SO overdone.

 

[Blackstone]

Isekai with fantasy JRPG are very common and easy to sell. Isekai with sci-fi, steampunk, cyberpunk are very rare and difficult to sell. Cyberpunk used to be popular in Japanese. Reincarnated in the world of Deus Ex series, Ghost in Shell or The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Wild Wild West, and His Dark Material

 

[Hitspark]

@deathmailrock While it's true no one has to read these things, It's just as Korvalus says. If an oversaturation of low quality happens within a niche, that niche doesn't grow. When people think of Isekai they immediately think of low quality garbage that gets pushed out because it's easy to sell. Now what about the harder to sell, high quality story? If it's harder to sell, it'll probably get axed really soon since the garbage, low quality ones sell a lot faster and more. Some manga take time to really catch their feet, or are extremely different to the usual taste, so selling them involves risk. No one wants to sell on risk anymore and the person who WANTS to read a good isekai has to sort through mountains of garbage or they might lose that one series that is actually special.

You can't focus on the fact it's a niche product. All of this is Niche. Everything here is niche. But niches aren't meant to stay small segments, they're meant to grow and expand and they can't do that if they become synonymous with low quality and poor writing. So when people are "complaining about a niche product" they're complaining about a product that, by all rights, SHOULDN'T be niche anymore but a staple in the medium the same way Battle Manga and Highschools are. Manga grew by being adventurous and unique, telling strange and sometimes over the top stories. Originality really abounded back then, sometimes to a fault, but that is how a niche grows. Ubiquitous plotlines are not.

 

[YerRob]

Only good isekais i can think of is Sousei no Taiga, Ride-On king, Isekai Transporter (and Don't Starve, technically speaking)

Edit: And as Ekfreet thankfully reminded me, youjo senki.

 

[Hollow7F]

this man really went for the throat of a whole ass industry didnt he?

 

[Diamona]

Why not an isekai where all the inhabitants of the world are isekai'd?
Wait, that's just the "Stuck in a virtual world" cliche.

What about one where the main character is reverse isekai, but none of their magic works in this world. Yeah, they would normally seem like 8th-grader syndrome victims, but what if there were multiple people from that world? Like a bunch of former heroes as high-school club members reminiscing about their war stories, elves not adjusting to human-levels of libido well, dwarves trying to drink while underage, dragons falling in love with the Dragon Quest series...

 

[deathmailrock]

@Korvalus @Hitspark I'm actually disagreeing on that aspect, since the companies taking these stories are mostly focusing on taking these stories. I feel it's fine focusing on this. See, these companies focus on just getting popular online stories and turning them into a manga and doing so for the Isekai...

That said, there are quite a lot of Isekai that is good... but why do we have the good Isekai? Because these companies just gather as much as they can, increasing the chances of people getting them.

And let's be real, it's not Isekai that's really being oversaturated... it's the DQ fantasy that's really being over saturated... the ones heavily inspired by Dragon Quest to the point that it's closer to DQ fanfiction than anything.

Isekai at it's core should be regarded as a trope rather than a genre... I think rather than these not existing, we need to further separate these stories... DQ fanfic should be known as DQ fanfic and separated from the trope.

But even then, at this point, I feel that rather than arguing about this topic or complaining about it, we should just avoid it when we don't want it.

If every person that complained about this trope genre just didn't touch it, I feel we'd probably send a much better message. And if it's still popular despite that... that means that there are people that sincerely enjoy it.

And life is tough enough as it is. If they wish to enjoy it, let them. We don't have to like everything that's posted up. But there are a lot of people that do. And they should enjoy it without being constantly insulted and constantly having their enjoyment be insulted.

It's like my complains for the Last Jedi. It's fine to complain at first... but after a certain point you need to just move on and let the people that enjoy it enjoy it...

And everyone has some sort of low quality guilty pleasure... let them enjoy theirs...

I'm not going to stop trying these stories and regretting them. But I know I'm going to regret them. But others might not.

I guess this crowd resonates with me a bit because I saw many times stories that I liked kept on getting bashed by people who never needed to watch/read it. Like SAO and Twilight. And while I feel we shouldn't care what other people think, it feels bad to see people hate on and bash something you sincerely enjoy..

 

[Ekfreet]

@YerRob I see that you chose to not name Youjo Senki for it is the GOAT.

 

[Korvalus]

@deathmailrock Oh no, Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing the people who likes them, to each their own. I just hope that isekai would outgrow the current trend of mass-producing formulaic stories which the only difference is this or that grimmick (now that I think about it... isn't the Idol industry similar?). I'm rather concerned that this situation would make more worthy works suffer because of it.

And let's be real, it's not Isekai that's really being oversaturated... it's the DQ fantasy that's really being over saturated... the ones heavily inspired by Dragon Quest to the point that it's closer to DQ fanfiction than anything.

Now we're on the same page. Unfortunately, both things go hand in hand. Concidentially, those who get out of the DQ cliché are the good ones more often than not. For example, Overlord is based on Dungeons & Dragons.

Isekai at it's core should be regarded as a trope rather than a genre... I think rather than these not existing, we need to further separate these stories... DQ fanfic should be known as DQ fanfic and separated from the trope.

And it is. It's called "Trapped in Another World" in TVTropes. However, due to the usual chichés associated to the "generic isekai", namely DQ-inspired fantasy, cheat skills, RPG-mechanics where they shouldn't be, harems... It's almost inseparable at this point, as this oneshot pictures.

I guess this crowd resonates with me a bit because I saw many times stories that I liked kept on getting bashed by people who never needed to watch/read it. Like SAO and Twilight. And while I feel we shouldn't care what other people think, it feels bad to see people hate on and bash something you sincerely enjoy..

Hey, you're talking to a loyal Space Marines 40k player who sincerely respects the Ultramarines. I feel ya on that bro. But even then, I felt outraged at the 5th Ed. SM codex. (If you're wondering about that, let's say that the quality of the writing in that book dropped considerably in regards to the previous ones, and painted the Ultramarines themselves as little more than Mary Sues among other crimes)

 

[vannn]

The longest recorded fast was 382 days in the real world, that cheat is less powerful than just being a normal human with the aide of modern medicine.

 

[Jarkko]

I'd love to see a comedy Morrowind isekai where the MC has no clue about the elder scrolls series. Maybe I should just watch someone playing Morrowind for the first time blind.