Cross-posted from “What’s up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?” by @Yingwu@lemmy.dbzer0.com in !manga@ani.social
It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn’t read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it’s kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just “guilty pleasures”? The only one I’ve been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.
Isekai are popular and relatively easy to write; you don’t need to come up with elaborate settings, magic systems etc., you can just handwave it as ‘guy enters generic videogame world’. This attracts a lot of untalented writers trying either to make a quick buck or pour out their power fantasies, oversaturating the genre with a lot of shit.
But amidst that shit there are some nice gems, I recommend Hametsu Flag, I Favor the Villainess, The Magical Revolution and This Isekai Maid is Starting a Union.
Basically, isekai is the result of manga culture consuming itself. Mangaka like to write based on their life experiences. Some pull from their daily experiences growing up, their hobbies, and other things. In the past, this meant experiences were quite varied. However, now that most newer mangaka grew up with manga and video games as their primary cultural consumption, we have arrived at a cultural ouroboros where the isekai genre is consuming itself. The premises and titles will become increasingly elaborate until the genre implodes.