The Isekai Thread

[Friendly_Ram]

Issekai is like any other genre, it all depends on execution. Shieldbro, Re:Zero, KonoSuba, Tanya and I'm a spider so what all are fun rides without being overly bland. like 60-65% of the issekai i drop before chapter 10 but I've enjoyed enough of them

 

[vza004]

What I hate in isekai stories are the explanation of somethings that are used barely a handful of times but gets an introduction like (or more than) the main character for example, EVERY CURRENCY RATE AND GUILD EXPLANATION EVER. I find myself just skimping through these wall of useless text because they almost always get ignored as soon as the next chapter starts. These things don't have to be explained in the main part of the story because they don't really affect the story but, they're great materials for world building in extra chapters.

 

[duodecimus]

How are you guys sorting mangadex's search by date of first chapter? I only get most recent chapter, which is hardly useful for finding new series in such an active genre.

 

[SushiBentou]

search by date doesn't even work. Comments renew date

That's why I gave up on the Isekai List

 

[Spambo]

I've added a few Isekai to my follows lately, mainly because I need something easy to digest after work. And frankly, the more trite, the more formulaic, and (especially) the more just plain silly, the better.
Take, for example Shingan no Yuusha https://mangadex.org/manga/22372/shingan-no-yuusha
On any sanely calibrated scale, this is a horrible manga. The main character is inexplicably mighty and attractive to members of the opposite sex, the writing varies between unexciting and execrable, there are (as per usual) CRPG mechanics shoehorned in for no readily explainable reason, and the art is at best adequate. But every time that main character (whose name I don't even bother to remember) starts killing things with a log, every time he discovers new ways to kill things with a log, every time some bizarre LOG MAGIC shows up. . . I don't think it's intentional, but it just revels in it's own stupidity like some shounen gag manga gone wrong and I love it.

 

[TheBoll]

For me, two type of isekai can be interesting :

-The ones where the character is not too OP (Shield Hero, Kumo-chan....)

-The one where they make good use of the "OP" character, notably by the addition of politics.
World customize creator is a good example : the hero has a cheat skill (not as strong as a lot of other isekai heroes though), but the author incorporate him in bigger scale conflits, where at the end he is just another piece of a political board game. The new gate seems to take that way too. I have not read all of the Slime but it looks like it can also make it work.

Oh and there is this funny one in the real world where the princess wants to kill the hero to make him reincarnate, "Goodbye isekai", kind of refreshing.

 

[plsnobully]

I like ones where the protagonist becomes the ruler or lord of some region, more often than not these have much better world building, not your OP MC travelling the world with his harem and fighting demon lords or whatever. Tensei Slime or Tsuki ga Michibi for example, or even Death Mage though the manga barely just started. In general though I end up dropping them more often than not, sometimes even on the first chapter like I shamelessly did with Isekai ni Tensei Shitara Zenra ni Sareta and Isekai de Kojiin wo Hiraita kedo, Naze ka Darehitori Sudatou to Shinai Ken, I could feel my garbage detector screaming. There are fun ones too, like Goodbye Isekai Tensei mentioned above, but most of the new stuff are low effort cash grabs.

 

[Hanen]

for me, I think it's a genre i'll continue reading for a while because of the way the authors write. It's easy to say that they are all the same because they have the same introduction (isekai/reincarnation/transportation/summoning) but i'm more about the MC stories, and how they navigate their new environment; There are boring ones, and interesting ones. One thing I am getting fatigued by however, are the stories where they use their past knowledge of technology or events and somehow it becomes "revolutionary" even though they were not the original creators. It makes them seem smarter and more intelligent then they really are. The reason it's starting to bother me is because I keep wondering, if I was in that world with them, would I consider them to be revolutionary? If I was in their situation, what would be my thoughts? Would I consider myself smart enough to be able to claim these advancements or reforms as my own? Then I thought about age... they're just kids, mostly teens put in an unusual situation, being told they were reincarnated by a deity in their world or summoned for whatever reason. Basically... were they really that special that out of the billions of people on earth, THEY were the CHOSEN one? lol
Anyway, COMPLETELY off topic, I'm looking to translate a series if anyone would like to hit me up with a few ideas on what I should translate. It will be slow, I am still learning japanese so please, any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DarcknightX]

The isekai genre has a few gems but overall has just been done to death by lazy authors who can't bother to make a halfway decent set up because they know the cookie cutter isekai format pretty much guarantees success right now. Anything with a generic synopsis and a isekai/harem/comedy/romance combo of tags is pretty much 100% garbage with very very few exceptions, if any.

 

[EINZ]

The concept of isekai is actually quite old but I think when people think of modern isekai, they have a preconceived image in their head already. You know what I mean, self-insert, generic otaku protag who suddenly becomes OP due to various reasons (divine blessings, cheat skills, etc) who then becomes that sort of wish fulfillment avatar for the author.

While I don't automatically judge a series if the synopsis is anywhere close to what I just described, it does become tiring seeing the same thing over and over again. I do think series where the mc isn't totally infallible like others have said already make them the most interesting ones, like Subaru or Itami. It helps if the plot is interesting as well. Shows like konosuba get a pass strictly on humor value.

Does anyone remember Those who Hunt Elves? Escaflowne? Two examples of how isekai as a genre has changed and/or doesn't necessarily need to be a self-insert game protag wish fulfillment romp.

 

[Kirn]

One could say Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court" , Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter and Mars even Homers "The Odyssey" . I believe there are very old Eastern Culture stories as well.