Isekai Protagonists & Series; What makes them different from other series?

[CarlManvers2019]

This is a thread to discuss what makes Isekai, particularly the many long named power-trip ones of today, different from other series

I for one, think that there’s a difference in Combat Power/Ability compared to those in Shounen and Seinen when it comes to their MCs

Isekai MCs don’t have versatilitiy or creative use for their powers, they just just have an ever increasing number of abilities

Shounen & Seinen MCs look to have simpler powersets, putting aside those annoying asspull-powerups, usually involving physical enhancement, flight, weapon enhancement and energy attacks. Those aside, there’s also them improvising during battle, maybe figuring out new techniques/uses and analysing things mid-battle

Maybe, just maybe, like on fanfiction.net there were guys in Japan who looked at all that and thoughg those MCs to be too “slow” and too “weak” at the start and too “incompetent” like Naruto NOT using Shadow Clones to learn a HUGE number of Jutsu to spam, including those 8-Gates but with much less drawbacks

 

[King Krávoka]

Looking up the tvtropes article "New Powers As The Plot Demands" and it immediately starts with this line from the 100 rules of anime:

Anytime a hero is somehow outpowered and/or outclassed by the villain, he will invariably release powers/new moves he never knew he could accomplish... but his old teacher did!"

Your perception needs correction.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Looking up the tvtropes article "New Powers As The Plot Demands" and it immediately starts with this line from the 100 rules of anime:

Your perception needs correction.

You got a point there, I think most Shounen Powerups are stuff pulled out of the Author’s ass

ESPECIALLY when it’s because in-universe, powers are influenced by thought & emotion, which helps them evolve

Too fucking convenient

I even think it’s an asspull even outside of Shounen

Ever watch Senki Zesshou Symphogear? Songs come out of one’s ass

That said, I think Isekai Protagonists actually have that “New Powers As Plot Demands” as an actual power, though it’s more of an “Adaptive Ability”

Think of them grinding for powers like “The Gamer”

 

[LifeisTiresome]

A lot of anime is guilty of powers coming from nowhere or from friendship or love.

This seems more like you just complaining about Isekai. Just find something else to read.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

A lot of anime is guilty of powers coming from nowhere or from friendship or love.

This seems more like you just complaining about Isekai. Just find something else to read.

Okay, just so you know, most Isekai I read even in manga form, feels like reading from a kid who’s just beginning to learn english and sounds like a sociopath somehow

 

[LifeisTiresome]

Okay, just so you know, most Isekai I read even in manga form, feels like reading from a kid who’s just beginning to learn english and sounds like a sociopath somehow

That's fine. Stop annoying yourself and instead find something else to read or watch.

 

[King Krávoka]

Is your next post going to be about how the genre is full of otaku who hate to look at real people and don't care to write girls who could possibly exist in real life?

 

[LifeisTiresome]

One thing we have to keep in mind is that isekai exist cause it caters to an audience which allows studios to get lots of money. It allows authors to get noticed and thus be allowed opportunity and in the future, they could create something other the isekai.

Ultimately, it is better having anime and manga like this then it become like the rest of western entertainment which hates the audience and creating stories that are propaganda and woke and insults lovers of anime and manga.

Isekai will sooner or later stop being as prominent and some other fad takes its place.

 

[LifeisTiresome]

And it's not like there are no other manga and anime in existence other then Isekai. Other genres exist too.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Is your next post going to be about how the genre is full of otaku who hate to look at real people and don't care to write girls who could possibly exist in real life?

Nope, though I dislike how Harem MCs are all a bunch of Nondescript(Personality-Wise)Generic “Nice Guys” with barely any other personality traits or depth

Even generic hotblooded Shounen MCs have more character tics

And I love Harem Waifu’s

One thing we have to keep in mind is that isekai exist cause it caters to an audience which allows studios to get lots of money. It allows authors to get noticed and thus be allowed opportunity and in the future, they could create something other the isekai.

Ultimately, it is better having anime and manga like this then it become like the rest of western entertainment which hates the audience and creating stories that are propaganda and woke and insults lovers of anime and manga.

Isekai will sooner or later stop being as prominent and some other fad takes its place.

You got a point there.

It’s funny, I think much of SJWism arose even amongst the creators because they HATED their fanbase and looked down on them, like the way Otaku are looked down on and accused of stuff, and as such wanted to “not appeal to the lowest common denominator” and subvert expectations whilst shitting on beauty standards

And yeah, I guess Isekai will eventually be replaced with another fad, given how popular I think Goblin Slayer is

We just might get our unintentional Robert E. Howard imitators

“When you view Howard and Lovecraft's worlds, you come to a startling conclusion:

Apparently, the only meaningful way for humans to exist is as Swart ubermench rippling with muscles, engaging in various race mixing antics and who's only response to seeing a tentacled horror is to grunt in annoyance and throw progressively larger rocks at them until they stop being so gay.”

 

[Husky_Khan]

Okay, just so you know, most Isekai I read even in manga form, feels like reading from a kid who’s just beginning to learn english and sounds like a sociopath somehow

Need to watch/read more 1632, Half Life and Army of Darkness. Those are my favorite isekai animes. I don't think I'd ever move onto the rest of the genre with how effectively those animes rejuvenated the franchise since it's heyday with those classic text based mangas like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and A Connecticut Gaijin in King Arthur's Shogunate from a century past.

 

[Shipmaster Sane]

"What makes Isekai protagonists/series different?"
They're just more transparent about the protagonist being a crude insert for the viewer and the plot being entirely arbitrary than most anime.
Isekai is basically peak laziness at this point. Pop anime distilled. It's like, why bother actually working on a premise when you can just say "one day, X happened to humble teenager and now he's the hero".

 

[CarlManvers2019]

"What makes Isekai protagonists/series different?"
They're just more transparent about the protagonist being a crude insert for the viewer and the plot being entirely arbitrary than most anime.
Isekai is basically peak laziness at this point. Pop anime distilled. It's like, why bother actually working on a premise when you can just say "one day, X happened to humble teenager and now he's the hero".

I guess it’s also a side effect of people being annoyed by how “weak” Harem MCs are and want to replace Bland Uncanny Nice Guy with a Chuuni Edgy Douche who’s victimised by the world like a NINO character

 

[Hlaalu Agent]

I guess it’s also a side effect of people being annoyed by how “weak” Harem MCs are and want to replace Bland Uncanny Nice Guy with a Chuuni Edgy Douche who’s victimised by the world like a NINO character

*has flashbacks to bad Naruto and Harry Potter fanfiction*

So, rather than actually fix the issue, they replace it with a different issue. Know you know what would be interesting, as if someone took the idea, and instead tried to write a compelling story. All the elements are there in the first place, and the audience stand-in nature of the main character can be leveraged as well.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

So, rather than actually fix the issue, they replace it with a different issue.

In the first place, you can sorta tell that the effort they put into world building and other characters and especially antagonists’ kinda minimal

Plus, they don’t want to actually deal with supervillains or the Akatsuki, they want to bash “Society”

 

[Hlaalu Agent]

In the first place, you can sorta tell that the effort they put into world building and other characters and especially antagonists’ kinda minimal

Plus, they don’t want to actually deal with supervillains or the Akatsuki, they want to bash “Society”

Which is unfortunate, seeing as worldbuilding should be part of the genre.

I am pretty sure they want to be supervillains, but without admitting it.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Which is unfortunate, seeing as worldbuilding should be part of the genre.

I am pretty sure they want to be supervillains, but without admitting it.

Honestly, they seem sorta close to acting like modern SJWs writing X-Men stories, but with the villains mostly just being humans and sentinels who aren’t that really threatening or scary, just pathetically evil and unlikable

 

[Hlaalu Agent]

Honestly, they seem sorta close to acting like modern SJWs writing X-Men stories, but with the villains mostly just being humans and sentinels who aren’t that really threatening or scary, just pathetically evil and unlikable

It does seem similar, though I think they have different origins. One is from edge, the other is from ideology.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

It does seem similar, though I think they have different origins. One is from edge, the other is from ideology.

They can eventually cross into each other, I’ve seen guys on FFN and our sister sites who have gotten into being fans of modern day SJWism and their comics, whilst still being fans of the older comics

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The guy making the first fic has a real boner for punishing Tony and Reed.....TBH I actually like that the guy sorta spits on self righteous supervillains and super criminals who don’t care or do actually helpful stuff to begin with. Look what he did to Norman Osborn. Poetic Justice.

The latter’s probably gonna take awhile to rip apart those Department K dudes and evil Canada

 

[S'task]

*has flashbacks to bad Naruto and Harry Potter fanfiction*

So, rather than actually fix the issue, they replace it with a different issue. Know you know what would be interesting, as if someone took the idea, and instead tried to write a compelling story. All the elements are there in the first place, and the audience stand-in nature of the main character can be leveraged as well.

In the first place, you can sorta tell that the effort they put into world building and other characters and especially antagonists’ kinda minimal

Plus, they don’t want to actually deal with supervillains or the Akatsuki, they want to bash “Society”

That's a result of modern isekai being the current most popular anime genre, so a lot of it is quickly put together crap. You saw similar low quality in harem anime back when it was the most popular, and in mecha anime when it was dominate, etc.

There are numerous isekai that do exactly that take the premise and tell compelling stories with expansive worldbuilding, from the pre-isekai isekai stories like Twelve Kingdoms or the utterly beautiful and haunting Now and Then, Here and There to the the early isekai Log Horizon.

Hating on the popular genre is easy because there's always a lot of cheap and quickly put together crap to point to, but that doesn't mean there's some weird inherent flaw in the genre, rather, it's for much more basic reasons that can impact ANY genre of anime.