What's with all the sekai saikyou stuff on isekai manga

[MisterXiado]

I appreciate when a nod is given to perfect retention as part of their reincarnation gifts, like "I am suddenly able to remember the full contents of every book I read". I like it even more, though, when characters somewhat remember, and rush to write it all down before they forget some of their advanced knowledge. In Release that Witch, the protagonist, "Roland" does just that, and laments that he didn't remember the full table of elements, or more advanced designs for things like microscopes and the like. In the novel, he gets access to more information due to some deus ex worlds-within-worlds stuff that makes sense in the narrative, though.

It bothers me when stories have characters introduce simple games to the worlds that apparently had absolutely nothing in the way of cheap diversions and amusements. But then, worlds where giant man-eating insects, goblins, curses, and the undead are everyday hazards, could be considered absolute hell with no time for checkers, playing cards, and dice.

 

[SpaceTurtle]

I hate stories with pseudo-harems, that is when there are multiple girls going after the MC but he is oblivious about it until the very end or constantly tries to avoid all of them for some contrived reason.

I also dislike it when they make the secondary characters dumb or incompetent to make the MC look better, or when they make them too trusting.

Then there's also all the RPG leveling systems complete with menus in what's supposed to be a regular fantasy world. This one isn't a big deal but I don't get why it's so common.

 

[sterven]

@shouldsleep
Learning how something is made is one thing putting it into practice is another. If you were tasked to make mayo with ingredients you have no idea work it wouldn't be as easy as collecting oil, something sour, and an egg. Finding the consistency is also a factor you can't just throw something in there mix it and expect it to come out good.

Also just because you know where rice can grow it doesn't mean your going to be able to farm it, farming requires skill,knowledge, and experience and no amount of knowledge picked up by "reading a book" (as most protags say) is going to help you put it into practice.

 

[negavamas]

Who the hell adds something sour to mayo, you add eggs, oil and something acid like vinegar, nothing sour. I'm legitimately triggered.

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

Some condiments have easy recipes but unless the protag have cooking as a hobby I doubt they know how to make any of those. If I'm the protagonist, the only seasoning I would know how to make is salt (and mayo cause I just read this forum). What I don't understand is why don't more authors create their own seasonings, like, make their own fantasy version of pepper or make magic coffee the world's equivalent of chocolate. This is fantasy, not Earth with Magic and Elves™️.

In one of my fantasy stories I even wrote about how the world is basically a utopia where complete foods come in the form of fruits where the only skill the natives really need is farming and they only need to wait for them to ripen and boom a feast guaranteed on your table every day. This type of worldbuilding is not hard to write. This way you can also avoid the "MC knows everything" trope.

 

[shouldsleep]

@negavamas you can use citrus juice to make mayo, hence why I said something sour (most of the sour natural stuff we have are acidic due to chemistry). Most of them are also easily extractable as liquids, with a few exceptions like tamarind (which you could also use for mayo if you extract it as a juice).

@sterven
Anyone who has basic knowledge of the required ingredients and a little competency can make mayo. It requires no cooking and the only way you could continue to fuck it up is when you keep adding too much of something. Sure you could get the mixing process wrong, but with only three basic ingredients, you should at least be successful in less than 5 or so tries. The taste may not come out as perfect, but that's another thing.

As for rice. It's a grass. It doesn't need that much help to grow, like literally that's one of the benefits of being most grass. Removing weeds would be an issue(and it shows with how wild rice isn't prevalent in the areas it is indigenous), but its niche (the "it can survive in paddies" schtick) does all its work for you. Just throw it in the right conditions and odds are, you'll be able to harvest a good amount or rice without maintenance(sure without proper knowledge, you'll have plenty of wasted seeds, but that shouldn't be an issue unless you are planning for mass production).

 

[MadeOfMagicAndWires]

@DANDAN_THE_DANDAN

What I don't understand is why don't more authors create their own seasonings, like, make their own fantasy version of pepper or make magic coffee the world's equivalent of chocolate. This is fantasy, not Earth with Magic and Elves™️.

Because that would take actual world-building. The whole premise of "regular" guy in a fantasy world is a short-cut to circumvent all that by importing a protagonist with contemporary world-views and, more importantly, a contemporary understanding of pop culture. This is also why it borrows so heavily from JRPG tropes and design conventions.
These tricks allow writers to go straight to the power fantasy, arguably the real core of Isekai writing, without first having to establish an unfamiliar world that is also engaging.

In a way, a lovecraftion isekai story where the protagonist is genuinely out of their depths in a world completely unlike their own would be genuinely interesting, but I doubt it'd ever come from the high-volume quick-returns web novel environment most isekai originate from as it'd simply take too much time.

Spoiler

Disclaimer: Although I do find it a very interesting phenomena, I don't much care for isekai's actual content.

 

[421cookies]

I hate how Isekai always use medieval theme for whatever reason. I mean, if a sekai saikyou was to be summoned into our world we probably would have already landed on moon by the next day. Why can't someone please write an isekai where the isekaijin can use their brain and fuse science into their magic.

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

@421cookies

Why can't someone please write an isekai where the isekaijin can use their brain and fuse science into their magic.

This.

Science is just the study of the natural world. If magic is part of the natural world than magic is science. This is super simple to write yet so many authors didn't think or research long enough to reach this conclusion.

Not only that, the "magic is science" trope helps smooth out the introduction of new magic using old knowledge as well as allow Ex Machinas to not seem like Ex Machina. I don't understand why this trope isn't so widespread considering on how many writing advantages it has.

 

[TimeVolt]

Why do isekais always have to be into a fantasy world, with magic, racial discrimination, an evil demon-king-like antagonist, and some sort of adventurer job, its kind of boring how most isekais these days just reuse the same world, but with a different twist for the OP mc, almost always basically infinite "magic power/mana" and some other totally crazy, wacky, power, like wow, the mc can shoot marshmallows from his hands at mach 12 using his outrageous "magic power" or "mana", and his slightly unique gift of being able to summon marshmallows ANYWHERE*

*anywhere without a solid object in the way, is within eyesight unless not for plot reasons, and only after waiting 10 seconds unless not for plot reasons