Why isekai characters don’t have a life before being killed

[Yuri_lover0-0]

Now I think most of us kind of know this but I just wanted to put this out here. Short answer I mean they’re just lazy. It takes effort and skill and motivation (of the characters) to actually explore the after effects of a character being isekaied and/or being transmigrated but transmigration effects tend to be more commonly explored than isekai while still being the minority in its genre.

The two kind of plots in isekai is either A the entire motivation and point is to go back home or B they completely forget about their previous life after chapter 1.

The characters to be isekaied almost always are orphans, friendless, sad, and tend to be shut ins but this point can deviate.

Reasons behind not exploring this can differ besides laziness. I think the main point to bring up is that well they died. This is a good point to them not wanting to go home; however, the fact that the character literally died and that tends to not affect them in any meaningful way at all is insane. The trauma behind that would be crazy!

Now I bet someone on here is just going to lecture me that isekai is a light hearted over produced genre that also has a large subsection of porn purposes. I know this. I know that because of it being overdone and over produced the new content continues to get more and more bizarre. Instead of making deeper plots with interesting ideas this iconic genre is just falling into an almost brain rot capitalist caused hole.

However I have solutions for this. Having a story that deviates from these predictable plot points If done well could be very successful. I don’t want the entire motivation and story of the plot to be the trauma or them going home or whatever. I want more of these stories acknowledge and explore this while also having an interesting plot not fully fueled by this.

The iconic nature of this genre will pose a problem in my imaginary reformation. Truck-kun mc being an orphan and every other plot point is expected in this genre to even fit into this genre in many people’s minds. These things are part of the genre they are essential and to remove them would be to remove a corner stone of it. I love truck-kun and truck-kun is life and love but other parts especially the jump over the past life really bothers me. I don’t want every story in this genre to have this and I don’t think the genre and its target audience could handle that. I just want the more serious or I guess the better ones to actually explore this very easy and interesting part of the MCs life.

Using literary analysis on poorly written manga was not something i saw for myself but here we are. The hero’s journey in isekai stories and how it relates to this problem. The hero or mc has a call to action something that causes the story they then go to “another world” this doesn’t have to be literal in any way ofc. Just traveling to a new city would work as another world that the story then takes place in. Isekai doesn’t rly have a call to action it just throws you in kills you and shoves you into another world. Now in lots of literature the hero does look back depending on the story or genre they can look back lots. And this differs from book to book even if it’s in the same genre. But isekai doesn’t have that variation. Instead of wide themes for a genre like a couple other genres in the east like murin it has key points that all( like 99%) the stories follow. That’s a problem and it annoys me that we let this genre slip farther and farther into abyss not demanding anything better for us the consumers.

Anyways thank you for listening to this pointless rant sry about poor grammar and spelling mistakes I’m writing this on my phone. If u disagree idk sue me. But seriously point out all the points I missed. I def didn’t explore the part that the genres while I guess feeling it effort as a whole it has and how it’s more very serious or.. good? I missed a lot but I’m to lazy to mention it and I’m hungry so I’m gonna stop writing loll

 

[Sahkuh]

I remember a few isekai where one of the MCs really does want to go back because they have friends and family, but I guess the average isekai enjoyer cant relate to that.

 

[Angry_Panda]

I suspect a bunch of this stems from the same underlying reason that rom-coms end when one MC asks the other one out - the whole premise exists within a particular set of circumstances, and going outside that set causes everything to fall apart. Certainly a creative author can do a take that expands beyond that set, but given how many of the plots seem to largely be copy-paste-change one thing-start cranking out chapters (and intentionally this way, so as to provide no great challenge to the target audience who consumes the works as casual entertainment), those exceptions are few.

Truck-kun mc being an orphan

he witnessed his Truck-mom and Truck-dad being parted out before his very headlights

but then
Truck-kun, with his trusty butler Alfa Romeo, found a new purpose

he put his family's massive wealth and his incredible intellect to good use
training both his body and mind for a single goal
taking back the streets of Gotham City
isekai-ing criminals one by one

he is vengeance

he is the night

he is...

BAT-TRUCK
🦇🚚

 

[Yuri_lover0-0]

@Sahkuh i said that I wanted more than just the main plot to be the go home thing. In paragraph two i explained that T-T like I just was thinking like if yah know isekai was an actual non casual drama i would wish it to not have this part or i just want more isekai to explore this on the side and have it be a big point but still have a plot yah know?

 

[Yuri_lover0-0]

@Angry_Panda yaaah I know it’s never gonna happen with how the genre is now. It’s casual mostly copy and paste but I wanted to explore the genre and just kinda think about it’s potential to be great. The idea of isekai itself is very interesting and has so much potential I think if there were to be an author who could actually follow that potential it would be a very popular manga or at the least it would be a very interesting one.

Also I want a manga or anime about truck-kun being isekaied and he’s the usual mc but he’s just truck-kun. If it was an anime I bet he’d be reborn as like the normal boring isekai mc but kinda trucky, but I want one where he’s a truck always. Or maybe he’s reborn as a Subaru. If he wasn’t isekaied u could have the motivation of like him wanting to A die like get trashed or B quit his job as truck-kun. Oooh a second season could be his life as like a truck house and two hippies are living in him loll and he rly likes them but then the woman kills her husband and he isekais him. That breaks his oath to the council or truck-kuns to never isekai again per his contract as a truck-kun. This then forces him back into truck-kin life. Omg I’m such a good writer lolll

 

[Sahkuh]

@Sahkuh i said that I wanted more than just the main plot to be the go home thing. In paragraph two i explained that T-T like I just was thinking like if yah know isekai was an actual non casual drama i would wish it to not have this part or i just want more isekai to explore this on the side and have it be a big point but still have a plot yah know?

I only read the thread title tbh

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

Simple Answer: Reasonable Trauma, worries about those left behind or feelings off loss would get in the way of the "this loser(just like you, reader) we made MC is the bestest ever" power fantasy

 

[Lowfyie]

Isekais have an audience because of the wish to escape modern life and live in a fun fantasy setting, so focusing on the MC's previous shit life wouldnt make much sense

When it works if works though, like re:zero

 

[Mangamoz]

Cause the majority of the target audience don't have a life either.

 

[Manko-sensei]

@Yuri_lover0-0 As the genre stands since the isekai boom yes, really rarely it's something other than escapism literature for an audience without free time, life, imagination and/or common sense. Maybe the part you forgot to add is that they don't necessarely die (even if they can relate with the suicidal rates), they also get transferred during commas, teleportation, deus ex machina summonings and sometimes willingly through some kind of ritual. But straight to the point you commented, it's the fact they are rarely affected by how they were what makes them redundant and lacking any verisimilitude. Of course, they also lack any literary quality, but let's leave that aside.
Concerning the Hero's Journey, these stories are written without any kind of planning besides "start in point A, luckily end in point B" and the protagonists essentially end being exactly the same that when they started (even beginning as plain characters). So at least I can return to your point of interest and mention a series whose characters never lost their link with who they were and are changed in that journey to something different: Magic Knight Rayearth (the second part also got DMCA-ed). I could name a bunch that shows the part of how they were and the fact that they strive to return to their previous life, but I wouldn't call their protagonists heroes at all. So the best you can do is grab the best parodies, such as Isekai Ojisan and Akuyaku Reijou Tensei Oji-san, and at least laugh in a hilarious slice of life fashion.