Then theres the Never Ending Story, where the main character gets so blindsided by his magical escapism he starts becoming the villain without even noticing it.

@timothycarney9652

2 жыл бұрын

I was going to post a comment on if anyone knew of a story where the protag got into a sterotypical isekai scenario, but DID want to and tried to go home- but the Neverending story is another good subversion of that concept- the MC basically becomes the worst sort of overpowered isekai protagonist, but the ultimate point of their character arc is rejecting that power fantasy, accepting who they are and returning to the real world, Fantasy is great but you can't LIVE there- too bad none of the movies end up covering that part.

@SkyfishArt

2 жыл бұрын

What do you mean?

@timothycarney9652

2 жыл бұрын

@@SkyfishArt The first Movie ends with the MC flying around on Falkor in the real world- basically the whole movie he was getting sucked into the story, and it ends with him Abandoning the real world and embracing fantasy- the second has a similar message, ending with the boy facing a mundane fear, and the one movie where he is in fantasia with wish powers, they drop the real issues of giving a kid in a fantasy land whatever he wants, in favor of a more obvious villain and very bland characters. Basically none of the film adaptations of the story did the whole "OP Isekai protagonist" thing that Canon Bastion did, much less the character growth he got by moving past that

@melskunk

2 жыл бұрын

@@SkyfishArt the original book had Bastien's ability to imagine and dream as a very powerful thing when he gets sent into the book world in the second half of the story. But as he changes things, broad swatches of the world are altered and often not for the better but for the whim of a 10 year old and what they think is best. Combine that with him slowly forgetting his original life, which in turn reduces his creative power and shrinks the world, threatening to destroy it, and you get a thoroughly "nice job breaking it, hero" isekai story

@IronycheinPain

2 жыл бұрын

philip wittebane from the Owl House seems to be an inversion of that trope

Narnia is kind of an interesting blend. The kids don't seem anxious to go home for the most part and are always sad to leave but at the same time Aslan makes it clear the point of Narnia was to help them live in their homeworld. Great video as always, Red!

@ryannmarshall3033

2 жыл бұрын

Except for one of the books ending with the kids being told they died in a train accident (if I remember correctly, mightve been some other kind of transportation accident?) and getting to "live" in Narnia for the rest of time.

@camp002

2 жыл бұрын

That was the last battle. It was also when they went through the Narnian equivalent of the apocalypse

@merrittanimation7721

2 жыл бұрын

@@ryannmarshall3033 Yeah it was a train (everyone except Susan at least)

@crocuslament9680

2 жыл бұрын

@@ryannmarshall3033 To be fair that was less Narnia and more actual Heaven. Like, all the good christians who didn't die walked through a door and wound up there while all the devil-worshippers/not-white-people-don't-think-about-it-too-much died in like a flood and fire and stuff.

@Arrek8585

2 жыл бұрын

Anyone ever realize how absolutely terrible it would be to have have lived a full life as royalty, than be transported back to being kids and normal people. Aslan did them no favors with this happening.

One day I want to see an isekai where the character just keeps going deeper. He gets hit by a truck, and wakes up in a magical fantasy land. While on his quest to defeat the demon lord, he gets hit by a wagon and wakes up on a spaceship. While on his quest to overthrow the tyrannical emperor, his ship crashes, and he wakes up outside a town in the wild west. While hunting down the notorious outlaw, he gets thrown off his horse, and wakes up in a cyberpunk dystopia, and this cycle continues. You might need a few extra elements to make the show compelling beyond being funny the first few times, like an overarching plot where they actually figure out what's going on and find a way to break the cycle. And maybe they can bring some of their skills/equipment with them to the next world, and while they never have time to get the best stuff, something that's weak in one world can be great in the other, but then weak in the next, so they have to adapt (i.e. the laser they gave him in the sci-fi world is easily the most powerful weapon on the seven seas in the pirate world, but isn't very impressive compared to even some of the basic spells they teach in the wizard world)

@Crimson_Cheetah

2 жыл бұрын

I would read/watch the heck out of something like that

@7pop521

2 жыл бұрын

So... Inception

@hannahrobbins1017

2 жыл бұрын

Or the Brothers Lionheart

@nenocen4109

Жыл бұрын

I had an idea like that except the big bad evil guy has the ability. Evil guy dies, causes chaos for whatever story reason, dies and repeats. The protagonist in turn has to die, undo the chaos as fast as they can before offing themselves so they can keep chasing the evil guy without falling behind.

@TheNaldiin

Жыл бұрын

There's a light novel series with the English title 'I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse' that sort of does that. The main character is the designated understudy for heroes in various genres and thus gets dragged into three or four different plotlines at the same time. He usually swaps items and weapons around to solve the issues (laser gun to deal with dragon, protection spell to dealy with meteor crash, et)

I'm surprised Coraline never came up, because it honestly feels like a great subversive take on this trope.

@Evielicious

Жыл бұрын

I SAW THE TITLE AND THE FIRST THING THAT CAME TO MIND WAS CORALINE I kept watching and thinking, wait are they not going to being up CORALINE? So then I scoured the comments to see someone mention it

@joshuaridgway3230

Жыл бұрын

I agree, though I’ve never seen it. The trailer played before The Tale of Desperaux and it so terrified me I couldn’t sleep.

@Evielicious

Жыл бұрын

@@joshuaridgway3230 honestly, it's just as scary as the trailer showed it to be so you probably shouldn't watch it lol

@joshuaridgway3230

Жыл бұрын

@@Evielicious it was the button eyes that did it for me.

@Evielicious

Жыл бұрын

@@joshuaridgway3230 LOL What do you know about the plot? I don't think I've actually seen the trailer, I just know the movie is really scary (seen it)

This trope was so fascinating to me as a kid, I was like “wow, these people can go to otherworlds. I wish that was me!” and now whenever I look at these shows now, I still think “I wish that was me”.

@79bigcat

2 жыл бұрын

I've heard of a treehouse you may want to see.

@laurenkirby97

2 жыл бұрын

The reason for wanting it changes but the wish remains

@aleksisgabliks3881

2 жыл бұрын

Might be expensive, but ticket to Japan might solve your issues. Rates of being transported to another worlds are insane there xd

@skunthundler

2 жыл бұрын

Sad!

@HenshinFanatic

2 жыл бұрын

@@aleksisgabliks3881 just need to be okay with meeting the uber psychopomp, truck-kun.

Side note "The executioner and her way of life" takes a dark twist on ALL of those isekai tropes by focusing on the point of view of characters ALREADY living in the fantasy world and what they think of all these overpowered but emotionally unstable teenagers popping up randomly in their world. (Namely: Fuck this, we've already had four close brushes with the literal apocalypse, never again.)

@starmaker75

2 жыл бұрын

I think bad writing advice said it at best: if you think about isekai(especially the overpower ones) are like a invasive species.

@timothymclean

2 жыл бұрын

Is it just me, or are isekai with female protagonists almost always more interesting than their male-lead counterparts? Ascendance of a Bookworm, My Next Life as a Villainess, So I'm A Spider...Even The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent, easily the most straightforward female-lead isekai I've seen, provides more novelty than most isekai with male protagonists. Is it just selection bias? (IE, I only hear about the good stuff and the most boilerplate trash, with dude heroes being part of the template)? Is the male-lead isekai average just weighed down by all those cheap hikikomori wish fulfillment light novels? Or is it the reverse, where authors who want to do something novel are more likely to pick female protagonists?

@aldenpartridge4773

2 жыл бұрын

@@timothymclean You pointing this out had made me realize just how much of the isekai that I like actually has a female protag. Really makes me wonder if it really is a selection bias or the authors writing the female protag isekais are actually putting in more work for whatever reason.

@flockinify

2 жыл бұрын

@@timothymclean Writers either want to tell a story or make a cashgrab. If the latter, there's no reason not to make the protag male for easy self-insertion. Therefore the only time the protag is female is for when a story wants to be told.

@DrDrao

2 жыл бұрын

@@timothymclean That's not quite true. Male led isekai tend to be more popular, thus female led isekai needs to be above a quality treshold to be popular. There's plenty of garbage below the surface, if you know where to look. The villainess sub-genre in particular has a lot of terrible entries.

Gotta say: I love that you have used the word "grounded" rather than "realistic." It's a much more effective word for communicating that the thing is sensible and understandable, relatable in a way _like_ the real world but without having to have the same _rules_ as the real world. Great video!

@ianr.navahuber2195

2 жыл бұрын

yeah. "realistic" can depend a lot depending on well everything to the point of trying to be "realistic" feels ironically more fictional than well normal fiction grounded conveys the element of "trying to be closer to reality but still not enough"

@AlexThePyroshark

2 жыл бұрын

@@ianr.navahuber2195 Judging from the shows that were usually hailed as "realistic" until the cows came home with vertigo, that's pretty much a codeword that translates to "how much can I tilt the scales to the characters' disadvantage before the scales break". Or "grimdark", for short. Heck, I'd argue that for all of its edge, Berserk WAS grounded/realistic in certain aspects, because while there was much cruelty in it, not ALL of the people in that world enjoyed kicking puppies with orgasmic glee.

@FedoraKirb

Жыл бұрын

I can’t remember what video it was from, but I’ve also seen the term “believable” used-specifically, “fiction doesn’t have to be *realistic,* just *believable* ” within the confines of its own world.

"They can be just stories set in that world" is basically what people have been complaining about the Assassin's Creed series.

@lifefindsaway7875

2 жыл бұрын

It did provide a solid reason why Altair gets to respawn and why he can’t kill civilians.

@clockworkpotato9892

2 жыл бұрын

@@lifefindsaway7875 it also implies that he never got hurt in combat

@SirMonday

2 жыл бұрын

@@lifefindsaway7875 The "respawn" point isn't even a thing -- it's a video game, of course he gets to respawn. Mario didn't need an Animus system to rescue Princess Peach. As far as "why he can't kill civilians"... sure, it's *a* solution to that question, but it's hardly the only one. He's an assassin, a member of a secretive order on an even more secret mission. Killing people willy nilly would just compromise the mission, so a "mission failed" for that is perfectly reasonable from a video game perspective.

@ArifRWinandar

2 жыл бұрын

@@lifefindsaway7875 It's less about using the animus framing device to justify video game-ness and more about the modern day plot is boring as hell. I want to climb towers and stab people wearing fancy armors, not walk around in a lab!

@DaiGato420

2 жыл бұрын

Or Most anime in general

Honestly, on the never returning home thing, I tend to feel that a lot of portal fantasy tends to kind of neglect *actually giving characters any reason to want to return*. The original world is not only boring, not only does it have nothing going for it - characters straight up have no positive relationships, no family they're actually attached to, no friends in their original world that they miss, nothing. Only bad things happen. At that point, it feels almost mean-spirited to make them go back. It feels like watching someone finally escape a terrible personal situation and move away to a different country to make a completely new start, only for someone to go "no, you should go back and fix your shitty original situation, grab those bootstraps you lazy bum" and punt them back.

@gabrote42

2 жыл бұрын

There are some cases where the protagonist wants to live a quiet and easy life, but since they can't return, they try to carve it out on the new world. Of course that fails, but I quite like it

@shawnjavery

2 жыл бұрын

I feel like there's a feeling, even among people who are seeking out escapism stories, that the real world is the place they have to go back to. IE even if you don't like your life at the moment, there's still the sense that you have to go back eventually. Like at some level you know that never going back just isn't an option. Or would be giving up and be a failure at some level.

@adambasinger6239

2 жыл бұрын

two shows that have done that well recently is the owl house and amphibia, and the reason why is honestly dead simple. family. neither are over yet and both have it slightly differently, but fundamentally its a case of "yeah my mom (and dad in amphibia) is there and not here and I ain't willing to never see them again without so much as a goodbye" as well as the fact that the circumstances they left being nothing horrible (kinda mucked relationships with friends in amphibia's case and going to a crappy summer camp for the owl house) Its a case of properly leveraging the fact that the main characters are kids to give the desire to find a way back home (if only temporarily again they haven't finished yet so unclear how it all shakes out) a reason that is properly convincing to the audience.

@Alloveck

2 жыл бұрын

And on top of that, if the character has no reason to doubt that their otherworld is just as real as where they came from, or at the very least, no reason to think that being there is harming them in any way, then I don't even see how the "escapism is bad" angle could possibly be applied. If moving to a real fantasy world that's more to your liking is escapism, then I don't see how improving your life in any way isn't also escapism. "What? You hate the cold so you moved to a warmer climate? Escapist weakness, you should have grown as a person and learned to enjoy the cold." No reasonable person would say that, people move all the time to improve their lives in various ways IRL. So why would moving to a preferable alternate dimension be any less valid?

@patrickma4220

2 жыл бұрын

The Owl House is doing a great job at handling this very problem. Seriously, it gets pretty heavy.

Everyone always mentions girls waking up with perfect makeup, but what about the guys waking up perfectly shaved? It's like they can turn their hair off and never deal with razor burn again.

@evilcartmensolo7198

2 жыл бұрын

I don't know why, but after seeing this all I can think of was in the new batman where you can see most of batman face, and he has the exact same stubble as he does when he's bruce. Those cops are horrible detectives.

@willieoelkers5568

2 жыл бұрын

@@evilcartmensolo7198 Stubble isn’t exactly a strong identifying characteristic

@evilcartmensolo7198

2 жыл бұрын

@@willieoelkers5568 well when you are trying figure out someone's secret identity, and you have 3 types of men shaved, stubbel and bearded it loweres your suspects and when the little fan boy cop is all over Bruce and he never seems to shave ( plus same color of beard hair) either it just seems to bring in the suspects. I think in old batman had Batgirl wear a red ponytail when was really blonde. Just to throw off suspicion. Just an observational quirk.

@anonymousfellow8879

2 жыл бұрын

^y’know? This is completely fair. ‘Cause the “perfect hair&makeup” generally isn’t a Female Convenience/Power Fantasy, it’s a Male-Gaze Fantasy of having a conventionally hot girlfriend who’s beautiful all the time and never has morning breath.

@georgethompson1460

2 жыл бұрын

@@anonymousfellow8879 I mean most people in fiction are what we'd consider perfectly made up, also being way more attractive than normal is a common power fantasy. So I don't think it's just the male gaze.

Here's some ideas for Trope Talks that I think would be cool: -Found Family -Tragic Backstories -Orphans -Tokenism -Final Battles -Combat Therapy -Symbolic Superpowers -Hated Superpowers (Blessing Turned Curse) -Political Intrigue -Cycles -Sibling Dynamics -Disfunctional Families -Princess in a Tower (sheltered and naive)

@dast.radling8965

2 жыл бұрын

-Lovecraftian Superpower -Dying Moment of Awesome -Unstoppable Rage/The Berserker -Cool Sword -Big Damn Heroes -One Man Army

@whoareyoutoaccuseme6588

2 жыл бұрын

- Enemy Without - Dungeon Punk

@KyleRayner12

2 жыл бұрын

- The Ace - Battle Couple (or just any trope that depends on a happy marriage/relationship to exist) - Bildungsroman/Coming of Age

@aros0018

2 жыл бұрын

I'd love to see Red cover the "Hero complex" and "Chronic Hero syndrome" tropes, as well as any that follow the same theme. Both are about the character striving to be the hero of the situation, but one is more out of want to be the hero while the other is more because they feel they have to be. The hero complex is often where the person is actively seeking heroism or recognition, be it because of reward, ego, or so on, and are, and some like Syndrome from The Incredibles and the Reverse-Flash will even go as far as to cause problems just so they can resolve them and be the hero. Chronic hero syndrome on the other hand is often more out of a genuine desire to help rather than fame or reward but they also tend to feel an overwhelming and often destructive sense of responsibility. You got Adora, Midoriya, Spider-Man, Superman, etc. They feel they have to help people and right wrongs as much as they can, often because they have to power to do so and thus no one else can and usually they'll blame themselves when things go wrong.

@theperson3739

2 жыл бұрын

@@aros0018 oo steven universe definitley has chronic hero system too

I actually really like stories where the character stays in the otherworld. To me it doesn't neccassarily have to be a bad message as the message doesn't have to be 'Ignore your problems and escape into fantasy forever' but rather 'you don't have to be satisfied with an unfulfilling life. Instead strive to become the person you were meant to be'.

"...the audience will run out of story and end up back in the real world" Or they turn to fanfiction and never leave

@pRahvi0

2 жыл бұрын

which, on the other hand, doesn't rule out running out of any meaningful story anyway and/or ending up in essentially a cliché copy of the real world. Not that there aren't good fanfics, but it's far from guaranteed to get one randomly.

@TheAssassin642

2 жыл бұрын

@@pRahvi0 you could write your own at that point.

@hayleybartek8643

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheAssassin642 That rabbit hole is very, very, deep.

@WilliamTheMuddy

2 жыл бұрын

Yep. That's what happened to me. I fell down that rabbit hole and I'm NEVER going to find my way out. Don't do fanfiction, kids. It's a drug more addicting than heroin. Help me.

@NoobsofFredo

2 жыл бұрын

@@WilliamTheMuddy I wish I could help, but I'm afraid that I'm just as addicted as you are. I fear it may be inescapable.

Fun Fact: Ascendance Of A Bookworm was originally going to be just a fantasy story. But the author realized that in order for the main character to do and have the knowledge she needed, she needed to have the knowledge of someone from our world.

@LeonardGreenpaw

2 жыл бұрын

Great anime, loving this new season, must watch. DO IT!

@everythingisscience658

2 жыл бұрын

That story kinda needs the protagonists obsession with books in order to drive about 80% of all the conflict in its plot which is only possible due to being from our world where the idea of readily available books isn't insanity. Another 15% of the drama comes from the lack of common knowledge the protagonist has for her known reality. Such as how nobles can act with complete disregard to the lives and wellbeing of commoners and how it is expected for the mayor to sell orphans in order to buy food in winter. Basically I don't think the point of making Main from our world was just to give her useful knowledge as the entire story is contingent on her otherworldly perspective.

@zidaryn

2 жыл бұрын

@@everythingisscience658 You make sense. (All just a guess from here on) I'm guessing the idea of making it a fantasy, and then switching it to be an isekai was an early draft sort of thing. Maybe the author had built her world first and then started drafting the story and then figured it out. I don't know.

@broEye1

2 жыл бұрын

This's a story that is meant to be isekai. One issue I have with Isekai is often the fact that the hero came from "our" world is nothing but an add-on with no real weight or meaning. There should be a reason that the hero is not of that world, not just a little flavor text but an actual way that the story works better with (or works because) this factor. And this isn't just true of Isekai. Any major aspect of the heroes should be made into something truly significant beyond merely providing a perspective for exposition.

@luciussakura5031

2 жыл бұрын

@@broEye1 Yeah, I love it when the MC being from another world is believable and actually plot relevant. The believable thing is another big problem for isekai what with all the OP MC's.

Undertale is one of these stories, and each of the main routes utilize different tropes of the genre. The neutral routes are the "Learn lesson, return home" standard hero's journey. Our protagonist had their adventure and return home with nothing more than their experience and a few keepsakes. The murder route is the power fantasy trope, our protagonist using their power to abuse the world. No lesson is learned. Our hero-turned-villain never goes home. Though, ending with *destroying* the world is an approach I haven't seen elsewhere. The pacifist route is the "Return home, take new friends" with you resolution. It's considered the "true" ending to the story, and ultimately the most satisfying one.

@galarstar052

2 жыл бұрын

plus there's a definite use of game mechanics being acknowledged in universe. Flowey as a character is even an example of that sort of trope, someone who uses their disregard for others and foreknowledge for their own benefit.

@luigivercotti6410

Жыл бұрын

In a sense, destroying the world is kind of the inevitable conclusion of any Isekai power fantasy, right? No matter what, eventually you've exhausted all the possibilities, eventually you get bored. And then even more bored. Whatever value you might have attached to anything and anyone in the playworld gradually begins to crumble under the weight of accumulated boredom. Eventually, the realisation hits you; This isn't a power fantasy. It's a prison. Suddenly, all that ennui that was built-up turns into seething hatred for the entire, fake, world that is keeping you trapped and killing you slowly. "Not if I kill you first".

@RogelioALoya

Жыл бұрын

There’s also that one ending where everyone is ruled by a dog

@MetalMockingjay

Жыл бұрын

And then comes Deltarune, which combines the two worlds of the original story into a new world, and adds an otherworld to that, which retells the original story but also ties in to a whole new story, which breaks down and recontextualizes the lore of the first story, and that's just the first two chapters!

@Fragmentsinfractals488

Жыл бұрын

@@luigivercotti6410 When you can do anything, eventually you realize you can do nothing. Everything you do has been done.

15:33 We need more stories where the PoV hero is a life-long resident of the Otherworld and the villian is isekai-ed in and tries to take over with the mentality of "With the power of spoilers and a rampant disregard for other people, I'm UNSTOPABLE!"

@basedeltazero714

2 жыл бұрын

YES. YES THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

@matt0044

Жыл бұрын

You mean The Owl House in terms of both hero and villains.

@jeffbenton6183

Жыл бұрын

@@matt0044 Tell me more about this "The Owl House", please

@dDoodle788

Жыл бұрын

@@jeffbenton6183 so regarding the protagonist of the owl house, Luz Nocera, she's a happy go lucky young girl who is obsessed with fantasy and magic who by accident is transported into a fantasy world full of witches and demons, she starts out with the mindset that you mentioned, treating said world like her personal sandbox and believing that she'll be special,a "chosen one" so to speak , and that she'll get to live the life of a young adult fiction novel. However, gradually, trough a lot of failures and fuck ups, she'll mature and grow out of that mentality, forming real connection with the people of the fantasy world and even finding a second family. As for the villain, this is spoiler: The villain is a which hunter from the 16th century who has found himself in the same fantasy world,but has a distain for all witches, believing that they are monsters and wanting to kill them all. He says that he wants to "kill witches to protect humanity from the treat they pose" but it's pretty evident in the story that he does it because he wants glory, to be recognised as a" hero who saved humanity" and obtain the title of "witch hunter general".

@maryrose2945

Жыл бұрын

The neverending story does this

I wish someone would bring up A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, cause it’s a classic example of the “normal person gets transported into an otherworld” being used to convey important themes instead of being used for cheap power fantasy or audience projection. The entire book is basically written as a satire of medieval romance novels (romance in the artistic sense, not relationships) and the beliefs/behaviors which Mark Twain believed they engendered in the white southern upper class prior to and during the Civil War. He believed that these stories (especially those written by Sir Walter Scott) with their romanticization of war, glorification of nobility, and positive depictions of caste societies helped validate southern plantation owners’ views of themselves as the heirs to a long, cultured history of chivalrous and heroic white aristocrats, in stark contrast to the greedy, cruel, racist tyrants that they actually were. To that end, Twain decided to write a story where a grimy, low class, “uneducated”, “uncultured”, northern yank gets sent back in time to the kingdom of Camelot and uses his basic 19th century knowledge to show up every other major character, creating “miracles” with science, winning historical battles with modern tactics, etc. Eventually he takes over all of Britain, fully modernizing and industrializing the Isles. In this story, the fact that the main character is someone from the real world being transported into a fantastical otherworld is an important plot element. The whole point of the story was to satirize the antiquated attitudes of rich southerners by portraying a low class northerner (whom these southerners would have looked down on and resented) basically wiping the floor with the chivalric knights that these southerners to some extent drew inspiration and a sense of identity from. This story needed a normal person from the real world to be transported into an otherworld. Had the story been entirely set in the otherworld it would have been indistinguishable from the very medieval romance novels it sought to satirize.

@timothymclean

2 жыл бұрын

Even modern isekai is often written with themes in mind. It's just easy to miss them among the Sturgeon's-Law-mandated 90% of garbage.

@lauraschantz9058

2 жыл бұрын

I mean, it's also pretty anti-Catholic, and doesn't pull any punches about that. But yeah, very much a "you are not a chivalrous hero, and the Good Old Days weren't actually that good" kind of book.

@CelestialNerd336

2 жыл бұрын

I've been saying for awhile the Connecticut Yankee was the original Isekai story, and some of its satirical themes are pretty timeless.

@Imperiused

2 жыл бұрын

Excellent comment

@gabrote42

2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely. Exactly. 10/10. I was just gonna say that. Good taste, yours.

All this talk about magical otherworlds has left me with one burning question on my mind: Is Futurama an isekai? An ordinary (and, if we're being honest, generally below average) guy is just going about his life, when, at seemingly random, he is launched into a fantastical world he doesn't understand. Now, he has a bunch of new friends and (eventually) starts a relationship with a girl who by any metric seems way out of his league. There's also the fact that Fry, despite being just some guy, is frequently sent out on 'deliveries' (quests) by an eccentric old 'scientist' (wizard) to save the world and/or universe.

@Guydude777

2 жыл бұрын

Probably? For all intents and purposes, Fry *dies* and doesn't go back to his old world. Wouldn't say it's a power fantasy, but it definitely falls within the periphery.

@jordanread5829

2 жыл бұрын

There is also an aspect of prophecy in Futurama too. Fry is frozen into the future because he is the only being in the universe that can stop the brain swarm. Since due to some time travelling, he is is own grandpa. Leaving him without the "delta brainwave" that leaves everyone else at the mercy of the brains. Fry even has a few chances to remain in the 20th century. The first time is when he learns the truth about his freezing. But decides to let events play out as they did because he sadly feels more at home in the future. The second is when he uses the time correcting timecode to escape the nude scammers. Only to mess around with the code, creating a time duplicate and getting frozen again. Meanwhile his time duplicate stays in the 20th century until learning that HE is Lars. Either way, Fry will always go back to the future. Because that is where he belongs. The episode where his ex girlfriend freezes herself and arrives in the 30th century demonstrates that. She feels so out of place while Phillip is completely fine.

@lauraschantz9058

2 жыл бұрын

I'd say it counts. As far as Fry's family in the 21st century is concerned, he disappeared and is probably dead. We even see this in the show's flashbacks.

@M0ssP1glet

2 жыл бұрын

...My God, you're right.

@broEye1

2 жыл бұрын

Technically, it is. Just like Dr. Stone is an Isekai.

I had a funny idea an Isekai protagonist who’s cheat ability is that they have been Isekaied over and over again and they have several lifetimes of skills to draw upon. No special cheat magic abilities, but just them having years of experience to draw upon.

@misamisaa4547

2 жыл бұрын

this is what Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil does - MC was yeeted through countless worlds before the beginning of the story when he gets rid of system that forces him to play along the original story of the story world he got yeeted into. He realises that the system's big boss is using these worlds to collect energy and since he's *very* pissed at it, he yeets himself through some more worlds where he does the best to totally fuck up the original story and get the energy that boss system would normally get so he can go home. Ok he technically has a bit of a cheat because the author made him a top level hacker in the real world but that can also be shoved into the "he has experience with this" box

@DarkVeghetta

2 жыл бұрын

@@misamisaa4547 Darn, seems it's purely a manga... for now. The concept sounds good, but I require it to be an anime before I can watch it with one of my best friends that's hugely into isekai.

@JoeGrzzly

2 жыл бұрын

Spoiler Warning for Cautious Hero: This is actually why Seiya is overly powerful. He was Isekaied before, yet when he was returned home and his level was reset as a normal person again, his base stats remained higher. So the second time he's isekaied at the start of the series, he starts at level one and can train his stats even higher.

@em5522

2 жыл бұрын

If you're interested, you kind find that by looking into genres dealing with quick wear/quick transmigrations, particularly ones that utilizes infinite flow.

@jeremypatalano3637

2 жыл бұрын

omg my oc is that same way, no cheat skills but 'I've done this for so long it doesn't even bother me'

Honestly a lot of the isekai heroes never returning home have less to do with the literary aspects and more with the fact that almost every one of the stories are unfinished or even outright canceled.

@Palora01

2 жыл бұрын

Also because quite a few people (I'm one of them) actually hate it when the protagonist abandons his friends and/or loved ones from the Isekai world to return home. (Escaflowne!!!!!!!!)

@avivastudios2311

Жыл бұрын

😁😁 That's kinda funny.

@flaminyawn

Жыл бұрын

Considering most of these series are made to keep going until the author burns out or people stop buying them, not to tell a self-contained story, that tracks.

@mr.goblin6039

Жыл бұрын

Probably cause most of the anime adaptations are just ads for the light novels or they end up being garbage that’s not worth continuing.

@matt0044

Жыл бұрын

Anime being ads is a myth. It’s usually in an attempt to start a franchise nobody asked for.

gosh i remember watching the cat returns and being so mad at the protagonist for wanting to return to the human world. they tried to add stakes by having her slowly turn into a cat but i saw that as a bonus lmaoooo

@FaelumbreProject

2 жыл бұрын

It's slightly more balanced in the original story where the kingdom of cats is their actual afterlife, at least. Becoming a cat is great, becoming a dead cat not so much

@ratchet1freak

2 жыл бұрын

is that when you discovered you were a furry?

@BlackieSootfur

2 жыл бұрын

@@ratchet1freak no that was when i watched brother bear in 2006

@CombatSportsNerd

2 жыл бұрын

I don’t know about that. Being a cat seems like a downgrade

@BlackieSootfur

2 жыл бұрын

@@CombatSportsNerd yeah well im a furry

I was expecting Red to discuss the subversion of this trope: reverse isekai. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid was the first thing that comes to my mind whenever I think of it.

@potahtwah9591

2 жыл бұрын

Reverse Isekai, don't you mean, The Bible?

@oliveragag8576

2 жыл бұрын

What you described sounds more like urban fantasy.

@usmansubhani7482

2 жыл бұрын

@@potahtwah9591 What you mean is religion in general (because God/Heaven is never on Earth)

@OopisDoopis

2 жыл бұрын

The Devil is a Part Timer

@LotusHearted

2 жыл бұрын

Isekai Shokudo, too.

That nod in the beginning: “Speaking in clear, unbroken sentences without stumbling or losing their train of thought” Made me wonder how much reading fiction has impacted my self esteem in expressing complex thoughts to other people 😅

@avivastudios2311

Жыл бұрын

😁😁

1:52 Greatly appreciate how Red felt no need to specify whether she meant 'neighbours who *are annoying* ' or 'how best *to annoy* one's neighbours '- We've all seen you, Bilbo

Ah, good. Red mentioned the most powerful magical portal of them all: Truck-Kun.

@reach268

2 жыл бұрын

The most powerful psychopomp.

@HenshinFanatic

2 жыл бұрын

You could even call him the uber psychopomp.

@aquamarinerose5405

2 жыл бұрын

Was gonna say, "A gateway to multiple other worlds that doesn't involve Natural Disasters, Magical Furniture, Or getting hit my a Truck" killed me.

@guardianeris

2 жыл бұрын

@@aquamarinerose5405 nooo you had to watch out for that truck!!

@YataTheFifteenth

2 жыл бұрын

@@aquamarinerose5405 ooh where were you reincarnated?

That’s what I love about “my life as a dating sim villainess” our protagonist is 100% aware of what will happen in the future in the story and does everything in her power to NOT let that happen. Heck, she learned how to grow crops at a young age because in one of the 2 endings she’s exiled from society. THIS GIRL GOT GOALS!

@floricel_112

2 жыл бұрын

That's a bit of an exaggeration. The only reason she succeeded in avoiding her doom flags is because she innocently stumbled into making everybody else fall in love with her (not some big plays on her part), but she's so dense she doesn't even realise it. I mean come on, her big brain plays were summoning earth bumps with magic if she were to be chased and throwing toy snakes at people for the same reason.

@careydaniels310

2 жыл бұрын

the best part of that show/manga is that she derails the entire story from the get-go before the protagonist even arrives, just by being a good person in place of the villainess. "i am GOING to be a good sister to you and there is NOTHING you can do about it". And then she steals all the romance flags for other characters with the protagonist. its great

@WraithReaper09

2 жыл бұрын

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System runs with a similar premise.

@roguepsykerhaaker4813

2 жыл бұрын

I adore that series and it absolutely could not work without the isekai element, which is what I want from my isekais

@viniciuspaiva3578

2 жыл бұрын

What about in Katarina's case, which her stupidity makes her frequently forget about it and save everyone to the point they fall in love with her?

A common theme in these stories is having the main characters refer to these other lands as fantasy and how abandoning the ‘real’ world for them is bad. I understand symbolism for the reader sake but in the story, these fantasy lands are real. They do exist and are only fantastical in that they operate under different laws then our world. It’s not escapism or running from reality when your fantasy land is a literal place. Referring to our world as the ‘real’ world ceases to make sense once it’s made clear that the fantasy world actually exists.

@mariustan9275

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, this was actually a problem I struggled with in creating a sort of deconstruction isekai. Basically the protagonist's friend ends up in fantasy land and refuses to leave, because from his perspective he's in a fantasy land where he doesn't have to work, everything he wants is given to him and he's the king/chosen one. The protagonist wants him to return to his family but his friend retorts by saying something like: "Of course YOU can say that. You already have everything you want, good grades, a lot of friends you can rely on, what do I have? Nothing. Here, everything I want is given to me. Why would I want to leave?" Because when there IS an actual fantasy land which you CAN go to, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you escape to somewhere that is objectively better?

@Arzamol5

Жыл бұрын

@@mariustan9275 In a way, a character choosing to stay in the fantasy land is no different from a real person just moving to a better place. You wouldn't say they're making an unhealthy decision just because they moved to escape their abusive family, toxic community, dead end job, or general unhappiness. Just because they have some things to unpack in therapy doesn't mean the decision to leave wasn't a good and reasonable one.

@mariustan9275

Жыл бұрын

@@Arzamol5 Yeah, that's what I think of too. You can justify this if the character in question manages to make a new life to move away from their mistakes, but it also feels like a jerk move because you left without telling any of their friends or family. If they were abusive thats fine but if not in the OG world they're still going to be worried.

@hedonismbot1508

Жыл бұрын

I've been thinking the same thing. The anti-escapism thing might be justified if their *only* motivation for wanting to stay is satisfying some superficial power fantasy, or avoiding some problem back home that they could solve with the right life lesson. But if the character's quality of life is better than they could realistically achieve in what they call the "real" world, then staying is a perfectly rational decision. Especially if they end up making new friends in Isekai-ville - those relationships are just as valid as any other.

@supersinger9000

Жыл бұрын

I like how The Owl House handles this, because at one point in the story Luz considers staying in the human realm or "the real world." permanently, and this is framed as a bad decision for her as she would essentially be cutting herself off from her friends and loved ones in the other world when she's at her lowest point. I haven't seen that take used in this genre before, and it makes sense.

On the note of staying forever, the most healthy take I've seen is what I'd describe as 'I fucked up in the normal world, I'll do better this time' - basically, their life was miserable before, but that was the result of their choices, and they're aware of that fact. They're not just staying in the magical world because it's fun and with magic, they either can't go back or the life they've built is better because they're more motivated to live a good life. Examples being 'I killed slimes for 300 years' where the protagonist died from overwork, and chooses to be an ageless witch who just lives in a cottage in a field, or Reincarnated as a Slime where one of the protagonist's main requests upon dying was just to have someone to talk to in his next life - the fact that this wound up being a nigh-omniscient agent of the world and later, a city full of people was happenstance and his own hard work respectively.

@misamisaa4547

2 жыл бұрын

I remember reading a manga (can't remember the title) where the protagonist was an evil queen of a fantasy world who didn't care about her people. When her people executed her, she got reborn in our real world and decided to make up for her sins by becoming a doctor. Then she died again in a plane crash iirc? And woke up as her old self (but years before her tyrannical rule) and continues to be a doctor

@marshmellowmoon7990

2 жыл бұрын

Wait is that how he got Great Sage in the light novel/manga because the anime was just a virgin joke about him being a great sage.

@albertamalachi3560

2 жыл бұрын

Paladin of the Marches a.k.a Faraway Paladin is basically this. MC trying to do better with their new life.

@Problems_of_the_paradise

2 жыл бұрын

@@misamisaa4547 also sounds like doctore elise?

@kairo3201

2 жыл бұрын

@@misamisaa4547 bump incase someone gives the name.

The “Science of Discworld” books feature a neat reversal of this: our “Roundworld” is a mundane otherworld, running on science and logic, rather than the rules of narrative that Discworld runs on.

@antitheist3206

2 жыл бұрын

I'd argue that science is genuinely amazing, and more people should appreciate it. Somewhere out there is a magical version of me saying people should appreciate magic.

@Shadowreaper5

2 жыл бұрын

I love The Science of Discworld because Roundworld is such a fascinating thought experiment. Especially when they say "recursion has occured"

@jameswest6232

2 жыл бұрын

Reverse-Isekai are fun, but blessedly rare (much as I love them, I know that there are only so many ways to cut them)

@yogsothoth7594

2 жыл бұрын

I think it was either the colour of magic or light fantastic that also has Rincewind briefly end up on a plane presumably in a world much like that.

@TechBearSeattle

2 жыл бұрын

@@livingcorpse5664 - For example, Xanth and the aptly named Mundania.

I actually had to write an essay about a story with an "other world" for one of my college writing classes! I ended up writing about how Into The Spider-Verse subverts this trope by having the "other world" be the main character's world and having other characters as well as their world come to the normal one. I ended up getting extra credit on it!

@BroKenYaKnow

2 жыл бұрын

10/10 movie to write a paper on

@shadowclaw7210

2 жыл бұрын

So reverse Isekai.

@flamingpi2245

2 жыл бұрын

It’s also interesting in that the other world is actually just an otherworld to a fictionalized fantastical reality The MU is based on our world, but fantastical and superhero-y The world in spider verse is exactly like it except subtlety different The only differences are a few characters being different people, backstories being changed, and some logos being different

Hear me out: A story where the main character switches from the real world to the magical world when the fall asleep, or from the magical world to the real world through the same process. To anyone else, it seems like they are a heavy sleeper who just woke up, while to them they are living two lives in completely different worlds, maybe bringing random things with them between worlds during some of the switches. Alongside this, day in the real world is night in the fantasy world, and vice-versa. They feel fine waking up in each world, and would also be unable to avoid switching because everyone can only go so long without sleeping. Then the readers would be invested in both worlds, and maybe something will begin to threaten both worlds so the main character has to do something about it in both the real and magical worlds

@bubblegxthbtch5338

2 жыл бұрын

This sounds like a great idea! I feel like it could certainly solve the issue of "one world being noticeably superior to the other", for a start

@xavier5987

2 жыл бұрын

I feel like, by what you said, you'd like Welcome to Japan, Miss Elf!

@icarussarts

2 жыл бұрын

Or the character is the *reason* something begins to treathen both worlds

@declanbeech772

2 жыл бұрын

that if done right could be amazing.

@bubblegxthbtch5338

2 жыл бұрын

@@icarussarts Oh! So like, maybe the character is disrupting the balance of the universe due to their constant dimension-hopping?

While watching this, I couldn’t stop thinking about Marcy Wu from Amphibia. She and her friends ended up in an otherworldly because she wanted to literally escape reality due to the news of her family moving. I think it’s a very interesting insight into the trope because it does acknowledge that the adventures in Amphibia helped the protagonists grow, but doesn’t deny that the reason they got there in the first place, while well intentioned, was still selfish from Marcy’s part

Isekais are partially responsible for getting me to move thousands of miles away from my toxic childhood home and start a new life in a foreign (to me) land. Its only "escapism" until you actually escape

@Manuelomar2001

2 жыл бұрын

You're still in the real world, though. Not some magical neverland.

@nullpoint3346

2 жыл бұрын

@@Manuelomar2001 That's not the point. While many of us might dream of the _fantasy_ elements of it all, the desire to escape a terrible situation is just as important a part of the fantasy.

@leogazebo5290

2 жыл бұрын

@@Manuelomar2001 no shit sherlock

@phastinemoon

2 жыл бұрын

@@nullpoint3346 But are you being proactive in the really real world, or are you just accepting that your reality is terrible, and retreating into the fantasy in your mind to pretend it doesn't exist, forever?

@JarieSuicune

2 жыл бұрын

@@phastinemoon What? They weren't saying anything like that. They were pointing out that Mike was stating just that escapism as a need only exists for as long as you feel that need to escape (such as into the fantasy setting of a book). But once you DO escape (either by moving, changing the life situation, etc.) then you aren't experiencing escapism because you HAVE escaped. You just did it in the real world for realsies. It doesn't have to involve anything fantastical at all. And I'd bet they were being proactive, having done as they said: moved away from a bad situation to one where they are, apparently, doing better.

I like how Pokémon Mystery Dungeon does it, since the protagonist, typically a human from the “normal” Pokémon world, doesn’t remember anything more than their name and that Pokémon don’t traditionally talk. This is a handy lampshade for people who know Pokémon media but not PMD, easing the player up to a world with no humans at all, while also making the anxiety of returning to our own dimension something of a non-issue since the protagonist can’t remember what they left behind. But the REAL best part is the built in emotional sucker punch of, “Yay, we saved the world!- Wait, why am I glowing!??? WAIT” Seeing the various ways PMD games play with the human-turned-Pokémon inevitably being sent back to regular PokéEarth is always interesting. Sometimes they just come back through the power of friendship, and sometimes it’s a whole post game quest to get them back! It’s always a little different and we’ll worth the play.

@starmangalaxy2001

2 жыл бұрын

PMD actually plays with the magical otherworld concept a suprising amount. PMD1 ends with the PC returning due to the bonds they've formed with others. PMD2 Subverts this with the PC no longer able to return to the world they're from, because that world was a bad future they prevented. PMD3 gives the PC a way to freely travel between the human and pokemon worlds And Super... Super is just cruel, not just with the PC having no way out of the pokemon one, but also by effectively killing off their partner that was their one emotion connection to the world.

@-kenik9629

2 жыл бұрын

I remember that series being one of the main reasons I wanted a GBA(I didn't get a GBA).

@zidaryn

2 жыл бұрын

Ooo that makes me interested in playing one of the Mystery Dungeon games.

@PhoenyxRysing

2 жыл бұрын

@@starmangalaxy2001 Will admit, still haven't finished Super and have been trying to avoid spoilers despite how long the game's been out (PMD is the one series I insist on going into blind), but I've seen enough to know generally where it's going, and honestly, unless they can really sell the finale, I'm not going to be that impressed. But I haven't really been impressed with it anyway... I'm not going to go into everything I found wrong with it, but it's in my opinion probably the worst entry in the series.

@KracklinDark

2 жыл бұрын

This is why I think PMD is are the best pokemon games conceptually. Any main line series game that tries to tackle moral and emotional complexity will always inevitable be undermined by the fact that we are complicit in animal fighting (see black and white) but PMD doesn't have that structural problem because its gameplay doesn't actively fight against the story AND it removes humans from the picture (since they are only in text).

Coraline was my first experience in this trope. Honestly, it was a great story and one that actually kinda helped me as a kid, since Coraline's real world looks so bleak when we first see it. Then, over the course of the movie, she learned to cherish what she's got in the real world, because the people there are the ones that care about her, even if sometimes, it doesn't feel like it Good comes with bad, you can't have one without the other. The bad things are what make you genuinely appreciate when things truly do go your way, and I've yet to find a story that encapsulates the feeling that Coraline presented.

Isekai is probably the strongest argument when comparing Digimon to Pokemon. Yeah, they have similar concepts of "fight monster with other monster to win" but HOW the characters interact with the setting makes a world of difference (pun intended).

@SergeiAndropov

2 жыл бұрын

Digimon also does a great job of handling the other world/real world dynamic.

@mascotwithadinosaur9353

2 жыл бұрын

GOD FINALLY A COMMENT ABOUT DIGIMON!!!

@ConvincingPeople

2 жыл бұрын

In terms of interesting otherworld construction with respect to both straight worldbuilding detail and how the otherworld relates to the mundane world, Digimon Tamers is pretty exceptional, and not just for a kids' show. But it was also the brainchild of Chiaki Konaka, an extremely interesting and inventive writer in general, so that's not really a surprise I guess.

@phastinemoon

Жыл бұрын

Also, far better character writing! Look me in the eye and tell me that you could ever see Pokémon tackling the family drama of divorced parents and how it impacts their kids.

@mariustan9275

Жыл бұрын

@@phastinemoon I'm a nintendo guy but I 100% agree with this

I don't think the disconnect of the heroes wanting to stay in the otherworld is an unsolvable problem, but rather that the vast majority of isekai don't even *try.* There's a lot of potential space to play with the interaction between an otherworld and the mundane world without necessitating the hero returning afterwards. I feel like the *really* unhealthy angle is the way modern culture *vilifies* escapism. Demanding we set aside silly dreams of actually being happy and just accept our place under a corporate boot.

@Caterfree10

2 жыл бұрын

God, agreed. It feels like escapism isn’t allowed in favor of gritty and bleak so often. Like, don’t get me wrong, I love me some darkfics or TLOU games, but also, there isn’t anything wrong with a desire to escape a shitty situations to a fantasy world. Is it really any worse than fantasizing about leaving a shitty situation via a lottery win or attracting the affections of someone with a more realistic power to get you out somehow?

@FREEK777ful

2 жыл бұрын

Your comment makes me wonder if there's a story where the hero checks off all the boxes of an otherworld/isekai, but then when the adventure ends, they have to manage their status, their harem, their wealth, and everything else that comes with escapism and power fantasies every day for the rest of their life.

@andrewhopkins886

2 жыл бұрын

@@FREEK777ful "Yay I'm the king now!" "Great, here's all these forms to fill out, at least 15 complaints from spoiled brats, several impatient diplomats from countries that range from minor to 'DON'T PISS THEM OFF', and you're also the high-commander of our army" "shit, I'm the king"

@ShneekeyTheLost

2 жыл бұрын

@@FREEK777ful There kinda is? It's called 'How a Realist Hero rebuilt the Kingdom'. Basic plot is the main character got Isekai'd not because he has some fantastic super power, but because of his management skills. The king isn't a good administrator, and *knows* he's not a good administrator, but doesn't really have anyone he trusts to do a better job of it, so summons someone with that ability, and promptly abdicates in favor of the person who clearly can do the job better so the former king can. His 'super OP power', such as it is, primarily involves being able to animate multiple quills to fill out paperwork faster, at least at first.

@CelestialNerd336

2 жыл бұрын

I very much agree with Red on this point. But this is my first time reading a response from someone who disagrees, so for what it's worth I really appreciate a different point of view on this trope.

This is partly why I like crossover fanfiction, because you can pluck characters from a familiar world and chuck them into what to them is a magical otherworld, but to the reader is just a different familiar world. If it's well executed, you get all the benefit of watching a fish out of water fumbling around this new and weird universe, while still having the comfort of the reader knowing both of these source universes and having a baseline to build changes off of.

@sawkman2092

2 жыл бұрын

Amen to that. I love me a great crossover, granted the two franchises have enough in common to make sense. Hell, I'm writing a For Honor and ATLA fic with this sort of concept, where the remains of a destroyed continent inhabited by peoples greatly inspired by medieval cultures with fantasy elements, cross the sea to find another land also populated with nations inspired by other cultures with their own magic stuff. Can't wait to develop it further.

@em5522

2 жыл бұрын

I really enjoy xovers where a fan of either works doesn't need to know the other to enjoy the story. A great one in mind is *A War of Bloody Evolution* by _RedrumSprinkles_ on ffn, which is a cross between *Warhammer* and *RWBY.* Never even heard of *Warhammer* before, but the way the writer crafts the story makes it easy to get into and enjoy without readers needing a lot of knowledge of either franchises.

@captainscience2732

2 жыл бұрын

@@em5522 Just out of curiosity is it Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000 or Warhammer Age of Sigmar that's used for that fic? Admittedly each setting would probably work with RWBY.

@em5522

2 жыл бұрын

@@captainscience2732 I believe it was 40k.

@captainscience2732

2 жыл бұрын

@@em5522 Thanks, I'll have to go check it out.

When Centaur World and The Owl House are used as examples, you know it's going to be an interesting video.

The game of Deltarune kinda does this in a very very interesting way. Because not only do you enter the Dark World, and learn about it in a sense, with Kris and Susie. But you, as the player, is also technically in Kris and Susie’s world, the entire game is kinda technically a breaking of the 4th wall, as you/we, as the player, takes control of Kris, the character. Forcing them to go on this journey and do things against their will. The Snowgrave route in Chapter 2 is a great example of this (I actually haven’t done it so mainly going off of what I’ve read and heard), the other characters comment on how Kris looks and acts after the second fight with Berdly in that route. And in the normal route, after beating ‘secret’ boss, Spamton Neo, and leaving the basement, Susie stops and actually goes “are we seriously NOT gonna talk about what just happened” and then a little later notices that Kris has goosebumps and asks if they’re ok. If they player answers Yes, Kris doesn’t say anything, but the others comment on how they look (Kris is clearly NOT ok). And if the player answers No, then Ralsei will comment and technically ask again as Kris is actually shouting/yelling. I think that is a really fascinating take on these types of stories.

I have to say...I've always felt like the going back part doesn't make sense in a lot of "otherworld" stories. You can define it as escapist, but that really only tracks if the otherworld isn't real. The moment that we establish that the otherworld is an actual place, the paradigm shifts. Sure, if the protagonist was happy in their previous life, then going back makes sense, but in a lot of these stories they weren't. The idea of "learning to appreciate your circumstances" doesn't make a lot of sense if those circumstances were genuinely miserable, and especially not if the protagonist doesn't _need_ to accept them any more. Meanwhile, the protagonist has this new set of circumstances, where they have status, acceptance, are possibly financially well off and almost certainly well connected, and where they have typically already resolved the biggest problem that world faces, ushering in an era of relative stability and peace. If we accept that these worlds are, within the context of the story, real - that is to say, if we discredit the "escapism" argument, because the character is not choosing a fantasy if the world is "real" - then going back seems to be making the message that it's normal and correct to let the life we've become accustomed to hold us back. Give up your progress, your growth, and your success, because family and friends are more important, or simply because that's "not where you belong". From a realist perspective, the "Dorothy Gale approach" makes much more sense. Rather than letting the love for the family she left behind hold her down, she ultimate uses her new position to lift the people she cares about up. In taking them with her, she teaches the lesson that as good things happen to you, as you succeed, you bring what you care about with you, but it's okay to leave the things you've moved past behind. To me, it seems that unless there is some core flaw of the otherworld that prevents the protagonist from accepting it as a permanent circumstance, this should be the expected goal. Not going back to a worse set of circumstances, but of retrieving the things they left behind that are still worth keeping. With the "keep the portal open" route as an acceptable backup for those who can't take everything they care about with them. There's nothing wrong with visiting your old home town now and then, but giving up your successful career to move back in with your parents and work at the local McDonalds is just weird.

@therilyncobrin2372

2 жыл бұрын

Incredibly well said.

@Kairi-ou

2 жыл бұрын

I feel like I resonate the most with your take the most from what I’ve read in the comments- and that may be bc of my life experiences that I relate this way. But I agree that the hardships of the “normal life” often dictate what the “Other world” represents. When the “Normal life” is better comparatively to the other world, it makes sense that going back would be the goal. But when the “Normal life” is miserable, or unfulfilling in some way, and fulfilment is found in the “Otherworld”, I feel like we’re growing backwards if we go back to the “Normal life” to apply all the lessons learned all over again.

@rhymebeat1142

2 жыл бұрын

This is why I'm REALLY dreading that Owl House will take that route. I'm pretty sure Terrence is self aware enough to KNOW that Luz moving back to Earth permanently is the worst possible outcome for this story on several levels. But the cliché ending would be devastating there. I think Red's commentary is specific to the "real world protagonist escapes into a work that is literally fiction in universe" variant. As that's the one with the most parallels to the experience of an audience member

@SilverDragonJay

2 жыл бұрын

agree, in settings where we've established that the magical world is real, it becomes the equivalent to a foreign country. It has its own people, history, rules, culture, etc and the protagonist has the decision to move there full time, visit a lot, or return home once and for all. And much like visiting an actual country, even if they choose to return home, they might do so having grown from their experiences and taking bits of that country back with them (new ideas, items, words, etc). In that case, deciding to stay in the fantasy world would be equivalent to visiting a foreign country and deciding to immigrate there. And if that country clicks for you and you have opportunities there, why wouldn't you move there full time? I think its a matter of perspective. Red, I suspect, was viewing those other worlds under a lens of escapism (its key to the entire trope after all), but what if they might be better viewed as an analogy for world travel? Maybe the magical elements are metaphors for the sometimes magical experiences of going someplace you've never been? What if the monsters are the fear, uncertainty and genuine risk that comes from visiting certain places? And the protagonist acquiring magic or tools that help them survive in that world, synonymous with learning that place's language and culture so you can better navigate? Is making a fantasy world as a metaphor for real world travel strictly necessary? No, but then what is strictly necessary when we're talking about literature? And if you're like me, and you don't have the money or opportunity to travel, fantasy worlds are really your only option. Escapism, sure, but sometimes that escapism is exactly what you need.

@AegixDrakan

2 жыл бұрын

Honestly this is one of the reasons why I never really liked Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's story and how it tries to spin an "escapism is not healthy!" story. Like, it's not a magical otherworld. One of the kids whole-ass rewrites reality itself with a magic book and replaces it with a new one. Also two of the three kids' lives are utterly miserable. Mewt gets snowballs with *rocks* inside it hucked at him, his mom is dead and his dad is a chronic drunk who can *barely* hold down his job. And the hero's younger brother is chronically ill to the point where he has to go to the hospital on the reg and can no longer walk. ...And, in spite of this magical otherworld being actually real (in that the real world itself was turned into this place), and the suffering he knows that two of his loved ones have waiting for them in the normal world...The hero literally asks out loud "Why don't you want to go home......? :( " Like...If it was a story about the dangers and ethics of playing god with world-changing magic, or the powers that maintain that otherworld being dangerous entities manipulating the kids so they could keep that world going, it could have had a real interesting angle... But nope, purely a story about 'escapism bad'. ...Which is fine for some of the characters who just needed some confidence to stand up to the bullies. But man do I feel for the younger brother, who really got the short end of the stick. :(

Rick: "Do you two want to stay here forever?" Morty: "Why does it have to be forever? Can't we just go home during the weekend or go back to do laundry? "

"luxurious apartment on student salary" is something that gets me about various Russian classics. In that main characters are mostly students who are struggling to make ends meet (I mean, some go to murder to get money). But they also have a maid at their house who makes tea and stuff. Pretty sure this is actually based on reality and not the same situation as Red has mentioned but it still feels weird.

@akl2k7

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like the TV show Friends but with a maid (twenty-somethings living in ridiculously large apartments in New York City that would cost an arm and a leg in the real world to rent despite some of them struggling for cash).

@stm7810

2 жыл бұрын

@@akl2k7 Yeah, though part of the reason for that is due to the limits of filming technology at the time, they wouldn't have been able to fit a camera, lights and all in a smaller space. Though the main thing is that the capitalist class ignores the plight of workers.

8:43 Wait a minute, bullet #2, are you telling me *Superman is an isekai protagonist?* He was transported to another world where he was super powerful by that world's standards.

@mariustan9275

Жыл бұрын

Well the world doesn't constantly give him random women so probably not.

@Karak-_-

Жыл бұрын

I'd argue that no, because there be wasn't any previous word familiar to him (too young for that).

@generalsecrecy7917

Жыл бұрын

Ostensibly yes, however the audience is unable to project themselves onto Superman for obvious reasons, and Superman himself doesn't derive anything from being from another world other than his powers. He fits the in-narrative role closely, however his metanarrative role is completely different.

@sevencats4964

Жыл бұрын

that's an interesting question, does a different planet count as another world? sure, there's physical distance separating the two, but they're still in the same universe

@resentfuldragon

Жыл бұрын

@@sevencats4964 isekai can be done on the same planet with time travel, no reason why another planet wouldn't count.

I think a great example is Link's Awakening. In that game the big twist is that all of Koholint Island is just a fantasy concocted by both Link and the Wind Fish. That means all the people Link grew attached to will cease to exist when the story is over. This really forces us to acknowledge that we do have to move on from this fantasy, otherwise we will be trapped in it. It might be a great experience, but we have to confront reality, even when it hurts like hell. (In other words: MARIN!!!😥😭)

@zidaryn

2 жыл бұрын

Ouch. That reminds me of FF X.

You missed a variation: The real world the character starts out in turns out to be the fantasy world, and the world they go to turns out to be the real world (e.g. Amber is the actual real world, and Earth is just a fantasy world where gunpowder works).

@Caterfree10

2 жыл бұрын

Hmm, Kingdom Hearts could be said to be doing this with Quadratum basically being Shibuya. The fact that Sora’s art style is more in line with modern FF games when in Quadratum in the KH4 trailer while we see Donald and Goofy still in the usual KH style at the end also demonstrates that divide.

@UberOtaku001

2 жыл бұрын

His Dark Materials does that iirc

@addisonbaker8211

2 жыл бұрын

@@UberOtaku001 Haven't read it in a while, but I think there it's more multiverse than any one Real World (TM)

@josephperez2004

2 жыл бұрын

Huh, does the end of Evangelion where the whole Abgel Invasion was just a simulation count?

@KezanzatheGreat

2 жыл бұрын

The game the Book of Unwritten Tales did this as a joke.

I'm surprised Red never mentioned Re-zero in this video: - A protagonist goes to another world because he died - finds out he can't run from his personal problems by going to a fictional world - deals with actual mental health issues and sets a realistic reason for why the protagonist doesn't want to go home In conclusion, I highly recommend this show!!

Some spoilers for Amphibia, but I loved what they did with the seasons where you had Anne going to the semi-magical otherworld of Amphibia, then _inverting the trope_ by having the Plantars, the talking frogs, wind up on Earth and that becomes THEIR weird, alien otherworld. Anne is taught by the Plantars how to survive in Amphibia, then she teaches them how to survive on Earth.

In regards to the NOT returning home type ending, there is an additional approach that's taken in a classic Swedish children's book "The Brothers Lionheart". It is werry isekai like in its format where the titular brothers die in our world and end up in a fantastical world, where they have new physical skills, and a prophecy of them defeating a evil knight who controls a dragon. But at the end, after vanquishing the dragon, they both end up dying and seemingly going to yet another magical otherworld, possibly hinting at a chain of rebirth between worlds. Something in a similar vein happens in a webtoon called "Mage & Demon Queen" where a later antagonist is a summoned hero that's supposed to kill the Demon Queen, but he is recurringly summoned to different worlds where he defeats a demon lord with the goal of returning home, only to then be summoned again. And this is his third otherworld, and he has already gone on two journeys and is thus really strong, but also somewhat dismissive and jaded to others perspective, only focusing on his goal of going home.

@natnuss98

2 жыл бұрын

That was Astrid Lindgren right?

@samuelrunelid9243

2 жыл бұрын

@@natnuss98 Yep, that's correct.

@duichunder9962

2 жыл бұрын

so a proto jupchain then

@hannahrobbins1017

2 жыл бұрын

I LOVE the brothers lionheart! My sister bought it for me 😍

@shadylampable

2 жыл бұрын

This sounds like a badass purgatory

One of my favorite scenes from Narnia is where Digory says "try me" when the Pensivie kids tell him that he wouldn't believe them he has an idea of what the kids went through, and wants to hear their story in detail. He misses Narnia and magic despite having grown up, and not being able to go back.

@earlwajenberg733

2 жыл бұрын

Parallels his speech to them at the end of the book, where he tells them "Don't talk about this except with other people who've had similar adventures. Oh, they're out there. You'll get to recognize them. There's a sort of look..."

@noahjohnson935

2 жыл бұрын

@@earlwajenberg733 I kinda wish in stories where there are multiple protagonists would do something like that more often. The older generation of heroes recognizing when the younger generation is about to/just experienced their journey and taking a vested interest in what their successors did.

@rmsgrey

2 жыл бұрын

Though, of course, when that was written, the Magician's Nephew was still years away - there's no hint that Professor Kirke had ever been to Narnia, let alone having been present at its creation in the first book.

The current sets of Isekai are starting to take up premises that remind us that just having even the least combat effective traits and being isekai'd would still be pretty cool. Were you an accountant? Welcome to the fantasy world that desperately needs number crunchers so the kingdom doesn't implode.

@resentfuldragon

Жыл бұрын

I want to see an isekai where we see the aftermath of another character staying in the other world. What would happen if the brother of a person who was isekai'd found him and was very angry because their family missed him or suffered or something. Maybe they can even make it so that the mc sides against their OP brother in this senario and it would be about the mc trying to get powerful enough to defeat this traditional op isekai hero.

@loganelfreecs9980

Жыл бұрын

How A Realistic Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom is a great example of this.

I think one of the most interesting takes on the whole "I have read this story so I know what's gonna happen" is in Beware the Villainess, where the main character ends up in her favourite *whatever the korean equivalent of "shojo" is* novel and... let's just say she changes the story so much that she ends up confronting the personification of the will of the author.

I'm surprised that Red didn't talk about Digimon. Where the main characters go to another world, save it, come back to save their world, and then decide to go back to save the other world again. Heck, Digimon Tamers (season 3) spent 25 episodes in the normal world before they decide to go to the Digital World on a rescue mission. Digimon has played around with the Isekai trope a lot.

@MagrokAlpha

2 жыл бұрын

Scrolled through the comments specifically to see Digimon mentioned.

@BG12sofia

2 жыл бұрын

@@MagrokAlpha same

@BG12sofia

2 жыл бұрын

Digimon is an interesting case. Every AU in the canon is based around a Digital World that needs saving, but it isn't always a main setting of the stories. The almost entirety of Frontier and most of Adventure takes place on the Digital World, in 02 the cast visits the Digital World in almost like an extracurricular activity and Tamers spends only a third of the season in the Digital World. The thing about Digimon is that, while the portal fantasy is an important aspect, it's not the main focus. The main focus is the bond between the Tamers/Chosen Children and their Digimon partners. Most of the times, the Digital World is just the place where the Digimon live, it's just a means to an end. It's not dependent on the portal fantasy aspect of it either, it can also work in the Real World -- the entirety of Ghost Game so far has taken place in the Real World. Still, Digimon is the reason why I'm quite fond of this trope.

@Chimeragui

2 жыл бұрын

@@BG12sofia This is actually my personal favorite take on this because it actually links the other world to the known world thus explaining not only why our hero(es) are getting involved in the first place but why they will never fully escape the 'real world' since the worlds clearly influence each other. My go to example of this sub-genre besides Digimon is Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters where our hero was technically *born* in the other world but was brought to and raised in the known world by his mother since she only fled to the other world to escape a villain and returned home once it was deemed safe enough to do so. It was on becoming a teen in the human world that he and his friends accidentally discovered the other world via a monster coming into the human world. This in turn leads them into joining an organization formed to protect both worlds with the aforementioned villain being an ex high ranking member of said organization who went rogue, attacking the hero's father who was another high ranking member which is what lead to the hero being born in the other world in the first place.

@shawnjavery

2 жыл бұрын

Isekai more has to do with the surrounding troupes of the story than just the other world plot line. I don't think digimon really fits the isekai tag line because of that. Tamers is GOAT though.

Red: *shows Centaurworld* Me: "Oh, yeah, the Nowhere king exists! Thanks, Red, for reminding me of that absolutely terrifying eldrich monstrosity!"

My favorite variation on this trope is the video game "Final Fantasy Tactics Advance". Four kids fall into the otherworld, and the POV character can't go home until he convinces his three friends that their crappy real world lives are worth more than the endless fantasy world.

Out of all of these, I always like the 'keeping the portal open' variety, not only does it solve the4 'stay or go back home' issue but it adds more stakes if something from the otherworld can actually threaten our world. Plus it allows for more story possibilities since the classic 'stay or go' plot will have to be resolved at some point no matter how long you draw it out :=)

@ianr.navahuber2195

2 жыл бұрын

I wish more isekai did that there is a reason why digimon data squad is my favorite digimon show because it lets both shows interact more it even adds more into shows of the franchise like tamers or 02

@jaymartin8273

2 жыл бұрын

@@ianr.navahuber2195 Yes it's too bad we don't see this variation more often. Never really got into Digimon so can't comment there, but the 'back and forth' aspect is really cool :=)

@ianr.navahuber2195

2 жыл бұрын

@@jaymartin8273 that way you can get even the magical otherworlders react with funny amazement towards the things we take for granted you can even have a more dramatic spin on it by saying the magical otherworlders fell in love in things we take for granted and say how "the mundane boring life of the protagonist's original world is WAY better than their magical otherworld".

@jaymartin8273

2 жыл бұрын

@@ianr.navahuber2195 Yep! Somebody should really write that :=)

@teaartist6455

Жыл бұрын

Same, with the adage of "If you r character leaves or stays, make it actually matter in a realistic way and don't present going back to reality as a easy/obvious answer when the character has spent a long time in the otherworld and forged connections there" I don't necessarily need endless sequels or such, but the way either, but especially returning, is presented as if there wasn't a lot of consideration and emotions involved is one of the things that's kinda made me not want to engage with the genre (along with generally the worldhopping not ending up mattering much).

I was wondering how long Red would take before saying 'Isekai'. She took longer than I expected.

As a person whose earliest memories involve my family moving to an entirely different country in pursuit of a better life, leaving some family members behind in the process. I've never really understood why fictional characters are so invested in returning to a place that seems to leave them miserable. Moving literally every year during my formative years as my mother chased jobs that would allow her to support two sons as a single mother probably don't help in that regard. To me, if going somewhere else allows you to find personal fulfillment and better meet your mental, physical, and emotional needs as a person, why exactly shouldn't you just stay there? So the stories where the protagonist, who has spent an entire story not only having adventures but making powerful genuine bonds in the Otherworld, chooses to stay there if anything make more sense to me than the alternative. Especially since the ones who go back just seem to... slot back into the same life they found unsatisfying in the first place with no real attempt to make major change to it? Won't they just be miserable again in like a month when the rejuvenation from their magical holiday wears off? Like why don't they ever decide to move to another city, or country even?

@bodaciouschad

2 жыл бұрын

As a general rule, the thinking is that "The real world is safer to live in". And thats as far as the author thinks it through, so the MC wants to return home. I don't know how any author can genuinely think this, what with the dystopian nightmare of living in a word where the entire planet is no more than 60 seconds away from nuclear hellfire cleansing the planet of life at the whims of about a dozen meglomaniacs weighing down on anyone who returns to the real world compared to theit fantasy worlds where they already dealt with whatever the worst threat of the century was- surely the fantasy realm is safer.

@guardianeris

2 жыл бұрын

That's very true. My family moved countries as well when I was 11, and it was kind of an isekai of its own, we'd be on a new place with great opportunities and a chance of a better life, and a better, less hostile culture towards my family. My question is, if the place is definitely better than your original place, why the hell wouldn't you want to stay? I had to go back to my home country a decade later due to visa issues, and honestly? It kind of sucks, you feel very displaced and kind of alien, I mean, I've accustomed to so many different things in the new country, made friends and did a lot of my education there, and now after return the culture clash and the dissociation is real.

@ashtonpeterson4618

2 жыл бұрын

A lot of the time, the character would stay in the other world of it wasn't for their family, loved ones, or pets being in the other world. For people with "living atachments" for lack of a better term, abandoning everyone they care about is not as appealing. Now if you have someone like Harry Potter, the only people he cares about were in the "magical world." Technically the muggle and magical "worlds" aren't physically seperate, and it's a "hidden magical world" trope. Still, we see in the movies, and in the books, that Harry would have 100% abandoned the muggle world to live in the magical world.

@arturoaguilar6002

2 жыл бұрын

Usually because they ended up there against their will, the unfamiliarity of the new place makes it look much more hostile/dangerous than the familiar world, and/or there is something/someone in the familiar world too important for them to leave it behind.

@irregularassassin6380

2 жыл бұрын

Returning to a bad situation with zero change is just bad writing. If the main character is meant to go on a journey and grow, they cannot come back the as same person who left. At it's most basic, this could mean one of two things. 1. They resolve to change their Real World situation because they now have something they didn't before. 2. They have gained a new appreciation for their Real World situation and realized it's not actually as bad as they thought. Note: #2 hinges on the prerequisite that the Real World situation is not terribly flawed, but that the character's initial perception of it was. If it actually is genuinely terrible, we've swung back around to bad writing again.

My favourite version of this trope is the Coraline style, where the villain specifically preys on people looking for an escape from their real world, and the other world seems perfect at first but slowly becomes more and more hostile. It kinda circumvents the idea that you need to escape your life to be happy

One of the many reasons I love The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System is that the POV character is so interesting that there is a lot of fanfiction exploring what could have happened if he didn't transmigrate in the first place.

I feel like Amphibia is a series that does this trope really well, both the real world and the fantasy world are explored in interesting ways, allowing the characters and the audience to feel nostalgic about the old world where they came from while also showing how the protagonist grows from the experiences in the magical world.

@lightningvolt3150

2 жыл бұрын

Amphibia is cool and the story is interesting but the characters and dialogue are just not it chief

@merrittanimation7721

2 жыл бұрын

I like how it compares and contrasts how the three main girls react to their situation

@maninanikittycat4238

2 жыл бұрын

@@lightningvolt3150 I heard about Amphibia but someone had to shove it down my throat. And I’m probably getting old so Amphibia isn’t my cup of tea

@sunlitsonata6853

2 жыл бұрын

Really appreciate how Amphibia and The Owl House take the idea. Not other are both of the other worlds actually DISTINCTLY THEIRS (like the settings don't feel like half-considered copy/pastes of others), but both series make a major narrative thrust about how important the real world actually was in shaping the characters' circumstances and everything they ran away from. Both series have a major dramatic hook on why escapism taken too far can actually be dangerous and emotionally devastating but also have numerous episodes highligting what makes their settings interesting. In Owl House it's used to contrast the heroine from the main antagonist and in Amphibia it's used to contrast the three main Earth girls and how their drastically different personalities created differing roles for them in different parts of the world.

@pmathewizard

2 жыл бұрын

But then everything changed when Disney rules the world

One bend on this trope I've seen recently is "Isekai, but multiple people get sent there over time" which results in an entire _culture_ of Isekaied real-world people in the actual Isekai world, complete with meta-commentary and references to things nobody else (including those who died earlier in the real world) know of - mostly internet culture.

@ashtonpeterson4618

2 жыл бұрын

What story are you referencing? That sounds interesting.

@firestaranimationsofficial

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like So I'm A Spider, So What? The main cast is a whole classroom of people who end up getting transported into the Isekai Otherworld but also end up being placed in a whole host of different roles in the Otherworld. From generic fantasy monsters to different races that are warring. Our main protag is a girl who becomes a spider and uses her new skill set to become God. Typical Isekai setting, really.

@anraccoon2896

2 жыл бұрын

@@ashtonpeterson4618 Reminds me of That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime

@randomguy-tg7ok

2 жыл бұрын

I don't actually want to reveal the story for possibly-legitimate personal reasons, but I will say that, while it isn't IASSW, it is currently going through a story arc focused on someone who is a Spider, so what?

@maucazalv903

2 жыл бұрын

Dr. Stone

The Phantom Toolbooth is an utterly fantastic novel, and The Lands Beyond were done so well. It's implied at the end of the book that the tollbooth is not the only way to reach The Lands Beyond, which allows for some incredibly interesting ideas. It's old, but fantastic.

@SynthApprentice

2 жыл бұрын

I haven't read Phantom Tollbooth in so many years, but I really want to go back and reread it, because I remember it being incredibly good.

@casperaaron5530

2 жыл бұрын

@@SynthApprentice It's absolutely worth the reread!

I'm really fascinated by the "Dropped into a world that i actually know a lot about because i read the novel/played the game/watched the movie" sub-trope because it has so much unique potential. At its worst, it ends up as a bland variation on the self-insert power fantasy where the main character is good at everything and knows the whole plot in advance. But at its best it's REALLY GOOD and offers really interesting character relationships, dynamics, and unique challenges for the MC that you really can't get from any other version of the trope. (ngl I'm mostly talking about Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. It's good. It's so good. It lovingly disassembles every isekai power fantasy self-insert trope it can find; deconstructs the relationship between Reader, Writer, and Character; and grabs you by the THROAT with incredible characters, worldbuilding, and heartbreaking scenes that made me stare blankly at a wall for like seven hours after reading them. orv is so good please read orv it's good i promise it's good)

@qq13563817153

2 жыл бұрын

if you're willing to branch out a little, Scum Villain's Saving System has a similar concept where the protagonist is thrown into the world of a webnovel he knows intimately by virtue of being its biggest hater. What's interesting about it to me is that he doesn't start out as a random nobody that becomes absurdly strong, rather he gets "reborn" as the story's main antagonist with an already established history and reputation. Alot of his struggles involve him trying to change the story enough that he does not end up in the same fate as the antagonist in the original plot, while also maintaining his character through coercion from a mysterious "system" that gamifies his entire existence

"Even if it is breached, it would take a number beyond reckoning - thousands - to storm the keep." "Tens of thousands." "But my lord, there is no such force-" Isekai:

@aflyinfaux1447

2 жыл бұрын

Specifically, Arifureta

@bodaciouschad

2 жыл бұрын

@@aflyinfaux1447 eat a bar of soap and wash the hands you typed that name with- this is a family friendly channel. We may be nerds, but we have *standards.*

@navarog378

2 жыл бұрын

@@bodaciouschad I wanted to google it but now I'm afraid of what I might find

@joedoe7041

2 жыл бұрын

@@navarog378 the anime is ok but doesn't have the depth of the manga.

@Broomer52

2 жыл бұрын

I appreciate that theirs an Isekai character named Rudeus that has a legitimate explanation for why he has such unusual skill and magical prowess as a kid. He was literally reborn in another world as in he started in a new world as a baby. He was already aware of himself and had all his previous experiences and memories and decided much earlier than most people would to practice magic with the determination that kids don’t have. So by the time it was recognized he had been practicing for maybe 10 years. He was freakishly strong because his adult brain came up with a plan and goal much sooner than other people would and practiced all the time

Neat, glad I can watch this in my pocket dimension; away from everyone else with floofy the city coyote.

@abloodcorpse3318

2 жыл бұрын

Who's fursona is Floofy?

@quitkid8727

2 жыл бұрын

Is that reference to something? I feel like that's a reference to something

@skyprior3866

2 жыл бұрын

@@abloodcorpse3318 no ones, I just want to be a city coyote and eat babies in a video game while on the lamb. As a coyote, its a reference to one of the best player in the game, the outside.

@skyprior3866

2 жыл бұрын

@@quitkid8727 well, its a reference to pocket dimension and a game called the outside, sorta like an alien game you play. My favorite place is the city as a floofy coyote. Where Its like gta 5 on the lamb. I dream of being the actual floofy. A real doozy. You see he was a poggers player who survived for a long time as a evil coyote under the lamb; creatively deciding places to take a stand. He lasted his whole lifetime and actually 7 years past what he was supposed to die. One of the best pro's in the coyote and city meta. Its better than you think a shocker tool that looks like a dog but you may be more vicious as part of your build. Imo a little under meta that could surprise the bigger humans.

@abloodcorpse3318

2 жыл бұрын

@@skyprior3866you've served to only confuse me more. Well done.

If you like DnD and the Otherworld genre I recommend the podcast Dungeons and Daddies, an actual play podcast about 4 bumbling middle aged fathers who are sent through a portal to the Forgotten Realms in their Honda Odyssey on their way to their sons' soccer tournament

@dziooooo

Ай бұрын

And if you like the same things but with a more tragic twist, pick up the comic DIE, in which a group of friends play a tabletop game and get sucked into the game's fantastical but also horrible world and take on their severely messed up character personas.

When you live in a society with extremely high pressure. There's really no “healthy” way out. Unless you decide to cut ties with the people around you who have that common value, 99% of your family and friends. Or straight-up immigrate, something most people are not able to do. Fans of iseka 穿越文 know it's not healthy, but what can they do otherwise? The rise of this genre is not a cause or a process. It's a result. When you have your middle school and high school years spent with a schedule of studying from 7am to 10 pm, only half a day off each week. Only Uni lets you relax a bit, then back to one day off a week, and 12 hours of work each workday you'll know. I know this video is mostly consumed by English/western audience, and what red said is not wrong in that context, but those descriptions are really not fair used in Asia Asian context

@sofistar-yt5dh

2 жыл бұрын

She's not talking about "a way out", it's about coping mechanisms and learning to deal with the real world instead of avoiding it. Isekais are just a reflection on why Japan is like this, how culturally they don't confront the forces that lead them to unhealthy lifestyles, they either just conform or check out of reality wholesale, that's what happens in a conservative country and it will be that way until they grow a backbone as a society

@redfeatheredreptile

2 жыл бұрын

I dont think what youre saying is exclusive to an Asian society, but its as you say a result of oppressive modern life (capitalism especially). I dont think this video is making any judgement on people for enjoying this kind of fantasy, but more commentary on whether writing that kind of story is less meaningful/interesting than one with some kind of ‘lesson’. That lesson doesn’t have to be ‘dont escape from reality its bad’ kind of takeaway (i find those almost as uninteresting), but it would be a better story if it explored the mentality of the characters and why they dont want to go back, if they can learn to cope with reality or view it differently, or take lessons they learned and apply it to reality to have a better life. The found family trope is especially good for this. Books were always an escape for me as a kid, and i needed that escape, but i always loved books that taught me important truths about life, people, philosophy. They helped far more than pure escapist fantasy.

@wandersoffdoodling

2 жыл бұрын

that's a very interesting point! I tend to find isekai protagonists bland and a little sexist most of the time, and the worlds not well fleshed-out, but I can see how escapism of that sort might be desired by people in that position.

@robertminnie782

2 жыл бұрын

A symptom of society, so to speak. It actually does make a lot of sense when viewed in the context of Japanese/Asian society. It's still a little sad, though. Perhaps there are ways to make it "healthier," while still being enjoyable. I liked what Red said about combining elements of both worlds to get a more wholesome story experience. I think that the game Ni no Kuni did this well. You have to do things in both the mundane and magical worlds to progress the story and reach the end goal to save the protagonist's mother. From what I've seen it also takes the approach of "keeping the portal open."

@0bsidianfire948

2 жыл бұрын

Different cultures will have variants on the isekai too. Korean comics have a lot more "inverted isekai" than actual "isekai". Instead of a character getting pulled into a fictional world, the fantasy comes to the *actual* world from outer space, some other dimension, etc. And then everyone in the world all has to learn to cope with the new " game mechanics" of how the world now works together. And hopefully figure out who the invader is so they can make them leave Earth alone. Instead of *escaping* the current culture, something else invades and upends the culture in a major way which forces everyone to adjust to it. Examples include Solo Leveling, The Advanced Player of the Tutorial Tower, Return to Player, The Gamer, Omniscient Reader, etc.

"It's almost like... I- going swimming in the winter. The water is heated and the experience is pleasant as long as your in it, but the moment you leave it, reality becomes a lot more unbearable." Somebody isn't a Canadian.

@chrisforsyth8323

2 жыл бұрын

I bet she gets Spring, too...

@medi2649

2 жыл бұрын

@@chrisforsyth8323 What a truly lovely April it has been.

@russellbrown6888

2 жыл бұрын

@@medi2649 The roads are certainly suffering for it. Going from +15-19 to below 0 every other day has turned many of them into pothole-palooza.

@TlalocTemporal

2 жыл бұрын

@@medi2649 -- 7th winter is always great for pictures of fresh snow!

@medi2649

2 жыл бұрын

@@russellbrown6888 I wish you safety and unbothersome temperature shifts half-brothers. We will get through this.

I think the classic "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" gives the best "Over-powered" reasoning even if it does ignore the limits of medieval machining. Also, a reminder that bathroom scenes can be powerful when they are included ala "All Quiet on the Western Front" and GoT.

@timothymclean

2 жыл бұрын

Modern definitely-isekai parallel: Ascendance of a Bookworm, where the bibliophile heroine reincarnates in the body of a sickly peasant child after a bunch of books fall on her in an earthquake. She uses all of her modern knowledge to make books common enough that she'll be able to run a bookstore, like she wanted to do before dying of books. It's good for a lot of reasons that don't really fit in a comment.

@CDexie

2 жыл бұрын

What's the bathroom scene of All Quiet on the Western Front?

@gnarthdarkanen7464

2 жыл бұрын

One only needs play through Duke Nukem to find out "The bathroom is the BEST place for a truly horrific fight scene. ;o)

Here after season 2 episode 21 of The Owl House Red was right They are gonna pull a trope subversion of the magical other world This single episode made this show from an S teir to a "This show is gonna be talked about for years" I wasn't this excited since I saw Avatar the Last Airbender or the Infinity Train

Didn't realize Astrid Lindgrens "the Brothers Lionheart" was actually an Isekai anime

One of my favorite Isekai stories is “Ascendance of a Bookworm”, because the isekai’d character really shapes the world around her by recreating things from our world to make life easier for the lower class in her new world, which, in combination with her near-deadly high levels of magic, *really* catches the attention of the magical higher class…

@syabilaazri7834

2 жыл бұрын

Mine is M.A.R. which is one of the classic Isakai that the manga maybe have a rush ending but at least the anime is pretty good

@sempersolus5511

2 жыл бұрын

It's also the _only_ Isekai I have ever seen where the protagonist bows their head in apology, only for the NPCs to be all, "WTF is this?" In the other ones, bowing is universal. As a Westerner, I find it jarring.

@TheWrathAbove

2 жыл бұрын

@@sempersolus5511 To be somewhat fair, universal symbols westerners use show up pretty often in their fantasy media as well so I think it's a pretty normal thing for writers to do in general.

@guilhermetesch9771

2 жыл бұрын

Ascendence of a Bookworm is such a good story and is definitely my favorite Isekai

@Gleamiarts

2 жыл бұрын

Same I love ascendance of a bookworm. I also learnt a lot from it too

You missed one aspect of this trope. The inversion where the POV character is from the otherworld and is transported to our mundane reality. Also, one of my favorite subversions of this trope is when the protagonist is transported to the otherworld, uses their outsider perspective to see how dangerous/dysfunctional it is, then decides they're not touching that mess with a 10ft pole and just leaves to start a slice of life adventure.

@Adrian_1114

2 жыл бұрын

Can you name some of the ⁿ⁰2 category because it sounds cute af

@AZombieWizard

2 жыл бұрын

@@Adrian_1114 Beware of Chicken on RoyalRoad. Guy is reincarnated into a sect in a xianxia world, says screw this and leaves to become a farmer. Only sane response to being dropped in a xianxia world imo

@Adrian_1114

2 жыл бұрын

@@AZombieWizard thank you! :)

@Cerebrum123

2 жыл бұрын

My favorite of example of this is Code Lyoko. Aelita just wants to have a normal life with her new friends. She lost her family to the project to create XANA and Lyoko, but she's been trapped in there. She only gets to interact with her friends through them coming to her or through computers for a long time. Let's just say I can really identify with Aelita wanting to be able to just live a normal life with those that care about her.

I really like the otherworld stories where the protagonists are trying to go back home, but eventually realize it's straight-up impossible and all their efforts were for naught, and now they have to reflect on all they've gained and done in the otherworld and pick up the pieces because up until that point they had still been hanging onto the idea that they could go home and now have to reflect on their futures with the knowledge that that future doesn't involve them ever returning home. It's something about the hope-in-despair aspect of it that makes it compelling for me.

Man, this made me realize a piece of media I enjoy is a really good Magical Otherworld Story. Context: the media in question (a video game) has a magical otherworld that everyone goes to at some point in their life when they come to a sort of turning point of tough moment, but once you leave you're supposed to forget about it so you can face your issues in the real world but having a subconscious sense of resolve. The protagonists of the story have trouble with trusting others and friendship, so an entity of the world decides to let the protagonists and their friends *keep* their memories of the magical other world in order to have friends once they leave. It's very sweet imo.

@teaartist6455

2 жыл бұрын

That actually sounds pretty cute, could you give me a name?

The real world equivalent to staying in the otherworld forever I can think of would be moving to another state/country you visited for work/studying abroad because you found it happier even if it meant leaving behind family in your hometown. And even when it just represents an escapist fantasy, I can't fault a story for that if it's the logical outcome.

@streamofthesky

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly! It feels more mature and rewarding when the isekai protagonists initially wants to go back to the cozy old life they knew but over the series grows to love the new world and decides to stay there. I completely disagree w/ her.

@ymous9109

2 жыл бұрын

I partially agree but usually if you move somewhere, you will be able to communicate with your family and friends you've left behind, and see them occasionally. Not so if you are in a whole other world. There are situations where it'd make sense and stuff but the decision to never see any of the people you knew, or any of the previous world ever again is a much heavier decision than moving town.

@Ucatty2

2 жыл бұрын

@@ymous9109 North Korea and South Korea would disagree

@ymous9109

2 жыл бұрын

@@Ucatty2 that's not the devastating response you think it is. Like I said, there are situations in which staying makes sense, one of which being if your life was bad in your old world. However, I was explaining that it is not an equivalent choice to moving town. It is a decision that some people would make, but it is a very weighty decision

@timothymclean

2 жыл бұрын

I mean...I feel like if a story makes a bad or unsatisfying decision because it's the logical outcome of the story, it still deserves _some_ fault for making _that_ the logical outcome. Not necessarily true in this case, but I've seen the Thermian Argument used in much stupider situations.

Regarding the escapism of a character staying in the otherworld forever: If their real reward is more the friends they made along the way and they stay there more to be with those people than it doesn't feel as much like pure escapist fantasy to me. A story like that could be rewritten to work in the real world; in real life you can visit another place, meet people you like, and decide to move there, the otherworld just adds fun magical elements to the plot. If the reward the protagonist gets by staying in the otherworld is getting to be hero-king of the world with fame and riches and power, that feels more totally escapist to me. There's no real-world equivalent to that story you're just spicing up with magic, it's something that can only happen with magic.

@demi-fiendoftime3825

2 жыл бұрын

curently slowly working on a story where the hero gets abducted to another world where high fantasy magic is used like technology and finds it much more enjoyable and peacful then our world despite the on going conflict with the demons who abducted him in the first place only reason he wants to find a way back home is to let his loved ones know he's ok that is until he finds out the earth has been invaded by the same demons who have been causeing trouble in this other world and leads the charge of knights to go back to earth to save the day only to find while its been two years for him it's been five years for everyone else, half of mankind is dead, banished to other dimensions or enslaved, multiple citties and nations destroyed, his younger sister is now the same age as him, his parents are dead, and the humans working with the demons are being lead by his childhood best friend who has now become a mad tyrant. This isnt the earth he left behind this isnt home anymore as the time that was home for him has long since pased not just beacuse of the disaster and changes that have hapened on earth while he was gone but his time in the otherworld has changed and matured him. The earth he returned to isnt his home anymore its the otherworld now as thats where he has more friends and a life now which is why even after saveing earth and opeing travel between the two worlds he chooses to stay in the otherworld as thats where his home is now.

@matthewturpin6429

2 жыл бұрын

One of my favorite of this genre does something akin to this. The character ends up in the world by DYING, but still spends most of the series yearning to return to earth. Eventually he comes to terms with his own death, and realizes that his family will have to carry on without him. Along with *that* realization is another, that the people he has met in the otherworld need him just as much as his family on earth did. In the end, the story isn't that he decided to stay in the otherworld because it was better, rather he accepted his place IN the otherworld and devoted his energy to that, rather than getting home. Edit: By request, the series is the Celestine Chronicles. Be forewarned, its quite lewd, but genuinely well written mythology mash-up fantasy

@user-tq3qp7sp7h

2 жыл бұрын

@@matthewturpin6429 can we get the title, please?

@Caterfree10

2 жыл бұрын

@@matthewturpin6429 seconding the need for the title for this series tbh

@Dyneamaeus

2 жыл бұрын

@@matthewturpin6429 You going to share that with the class?

There's also reverse-otherworld... Where our relatable character comes from the magical world while the exotic otherworld is our world that magical hero ends up stuck in for some reason.

@avivastudios2311

Жыл бұрын

I like that kind of story.

I think a fun example of this trope I like is in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, involving three characters who all have very different thoughts about having been pulled in to another world with the central issue being that the means of escape remains in possession of the person who least wants to return to reality because their life is so much better there.

It feels weird hearing this music and not hearing the phrase "A LOVE TRIANGLE!" associated with it.

@Mr_Fish10

2 жыл бұрын

TRUE

@marviengello4228

2 жыл бұрын

And a weirdly charismatic bartender from the west narrating everything

So glad that the Owl House is used as example, as it usually indicates Red watches it and is probably a fan. Kinda sad Amphibia isn't here which I guess means Red hasn't seen it yet. Hey Red, if you see this, I highly recommend Amphibia! It's a great show and basically hits the Hero's Journey beats well and gives a reason why the isekai-ed characters want to go back to their own world.

@oscarwind4266

Жыл бұрын

Honestly, as much as I perfer TOH overall, I think the use of Amphibia's magic otherworld is a bit better. Mostly for the ending, the entire revel around Marcy and the message. Reality freaking sucks dude. Its chaotic and messy and harsh but... its real and its not healthy to try to escape it forever. That really speaks to me because if I was 13 year old me and found a magic box to possibly take myself and my freinds to another world and escape this place forever, I think I'd take it for the exact same reason Marcy did.

Surprising that Inkheart wasn't mentioned, the concept of the characters from an otherworld getting stuck in OUR world is really novel and a neat inversion on the trope

This video kinda highlights why I love how the owl house handles Luz wanting to go back home It starts with her choosing to stay in the demon realm because she had the choice of going back if she needed and knew her mom wouldn’t worry because she was supposed to be away at camp anyways. Then the season 1 finale happens and the portal is broken. Suddenly the plot is about trying to get back home. She’s starting to get worried about her mom because she was supposed to be back from camp at this point. And finally Yesterday’s Lie and the episodes after. She gets to see her mom again and explain what’s been happening. Luz sees how her mom’s heart breaks when she realizes that Luz chose to stay there back in season 1. Almost every episode after she talks about how much she wants to see her mom again. “Reaching Out” especially enforces how this is affecting Luz. Even tho she made a flower and sent it off with Amity, it’s not the same. They manage to establish why Luz stays in the beginning and why she wants to get home so badly after while still keeping it completely believable. She’s only 14, of course she’d want to stay in her escapism world and switch to wanting to see her mom once reality sets in!

@floricel_112

2 жыл бұрын

Really? To me, right now it seems like Luz would rather stay in the magical world than go back Earth, or at least try to come up with a method where she can somehow live in both worlds

@mikato2

2 жыл бұрын

@@floricel_112 A large segment of the fandom is placing our bets on "makes a new portal door and visits regularly". There's a whole doomsday *thing* between now and the possibility of her going home at all, mind, but after that it's probably free game. Besides, she Amity she'd show her around Gravesfield. Gotta make that happen.

100% agree on the "The world you see for 95% of the story is fake" is such a letdown and depressing trope

@Kartoffelkamm

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah. That's another reason why I love Log Horizon, because you only see glimpses. The first episode starts off with the main character already in the video game world, along with every other player that was logged in when the new expansion dropped, and no one has any idea what's going on. Sometimes there's flashbacks, mostly of people sitting in front of the PC and playing the game, and when a character dies, they find themselves in a grayscale version of the real world until they are ready to go back and try again. The NPCs are mostly considered flat and boring by the players, until they slowly realize that those people have lives, hopes, dreams, and so on. Heck, one guy even lives with an NPC, and she is the man in the house, even though he could kill her 100 times over before she dealt 1hp, and he's immortal. Dude has a short temper, is violent, and completely out of her league, and yet she has the balls to boss him around. It's amazing.

@Stratelier

2 жыл бұрын

It's really not too different from the infamous "it was all a dream" endings when you phrase it that way.

@Maxisamo1

2 жыл бұрын

@@Stratelier "It was all a dream" mostly falls under this category with the exception of the cases where the dream is somewhat real, like Alice in Wonderland

@ianr.navahuber2195

2 жыл бұрын

@@Maxisamo1 alternatively where the "it was all a dream" is used as a deus ex machina to save the characters because things were ending so badly, them being told at the end "it was only a bad nightmare. but it is all right. everything is fine now" is a happy ending (see Grant Morrison's Animal Man run's final arc, or a more bittersweet that still keeps the story going in Young Justice S1 episode failsafe)

Some underrated modern titles that immediately came to mind that use this trope: - Strange The Dreamer - A Darker Shade of Magic - The Archived - These Hollow Vows - The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (yes, that is the actual title) - The Young Elites (in the last book in the series) - The Bargainer series

Isekai gets a namedrop, of course. But nobody's talking about Dante's Divine Comedy. It's DIVINE. And it's a Comedy. What is WRONG with you people!?

The fact that Red actually mentions Fushigi Yuugi (even if only as a background example) is so cool, it's an amazing story that really deserves more attention. Also, in regards to the Inuyasha "where'd all the magic go" question I have a personal theory that most of Rumiko Takahashi's works take place in the same world, where magic USED to be plentiful but is now pretty rare because of human expansion and technology, and people who still possess super-human abilities tend to become either martial artists or monks/magicians making a living through founding schools

@snowyowl235

2 жыл бұрын

My cousin has the theory that the youkais were getting smaller with time, and then they barely exist on Kagome's era.

@BonaparteBardithion

2 жыл бұрын

Fushigi Yuugi hits all the isekai harem power-fantasy boxes and through various portal and reincarnation shenanigans manages to hit every type of ending at some point. I don't know why it doesn't come up more in discussions about the genre. Escaflowne is also pretty classic otherworld from the same era. A lot of heroine escapist fantasy at the time.

To note a very good Otherworld story, I want to mention "The Never-ending Story", but specifically the book there-of. If you know the classic 80s movie, that is only the first half of the story and the second half involves Bastian, the kid reading the book, going on an adventure through Fantasia. However the drive slowly pushing him to wanting to go home is the mechanic of him making wishes, but they have to be deep desires, thus they end up being important to him personally. However the second half of that is for each wish granted, he loses a related memory - like one of his first wishes changes his physical form, thus he forgets that he ever looked like the somewhat dumpy kid he really was. It ends up a journey of self-understanding that leads him to his way home, and his truest friends in Fantasia helping him find his way because they know practically his whole story when he has forgotten it. TL;DR, read the book of "The Never-Ending Story". It is deep, thoughtful and massively more than the movies were (yes, the second movie was loosely based on the third quarter of the book. I however deny that any other movies ever happened).

@M0ssP1glet

2 жыл бұрын

Fantasia, yes! I thought the movie was fun when I was a kid, but discovering the book years afterwards was mind blowing.

@TheMimiSard

2 жыл бұрын

@@M0ssP1glet Word. I stumbled across the book by literal accident, as I was at a church kids' summer camp and someone left their copy sitting around. I later bought a copy when the second movie came out. That book has been lost along the way, I wouldn't mind a new copy.

My favorite "magical otherworld" stories are where the character STARTS in the magical otherworld, but neither the audience nor (most of) the characters know it. And once they find out (usually at the beggining of the third act), they try to escape. Princess Tutu and Revolutionary Girl Utena are really good examples of this. Also they both have weird time properties, tutu is set in an ambiguous time period and the characters seemingly don't age, and in Utena, time moves forward outside the academy, but not inside. Plus things that happen in the present can effect the past, and time seems very cyclical.

@robincolo1662

2 жыл бұрын

Also in both examples the otherworld is controlled by a God who is diametrically opposed to the character's goals

Kind of wished their was a Brutal Legends reference on the past magic world. Because honestly that was just about as otherworldly as otherworldly has gotten.

I think while a lot of isekai focuses on “power fantasy,” others used the related idea of your skills being useful or there being a place for you in that world even if it isn’t “look how awesome I am and how much everyone loves me.” This is because as I see more of the genre there are many shows where the protagonist is not the chosen one, but a humble shopkeeper or some other minor figure who finds peace in the calm nature of everyday life. While the power fantasy aspect might be running away from your problems, I also see the other end as a form of therapy, where you are able to slow down and enjoy the simple life with your buds, away from the endless grind of modern corporate society.

@CelestialNerd336

2 жыл бұрын

Dude, my escapist fantasy as an adult is getting to be a happy nobody doing a peaceful skilled trade in a small city with no violent crime. Bonus points if all my friends and a hot date or two live within walking distance. Real earth and Middle Earth alike are ravaged by wars, and people still swing on you in countries that don't know war. I love me some grimdark, but the real comfort fantasy is escape from everything in the last sentence.

@ShadeSlayer1911

2 жыл бұрын

@@CelestialNerd336 My escapist fantasy is living on a peaceful farm in a small rural town with a small collection of livestock and crops to care for, having enough time to make bows and other old weapons. And of course, a close-knit group of friends and family.

@Hyperencrpted12345

2 жыл бұрын

Headhunted to another world has the most unrealistic escapist fantasy: A good boss.

@BlastedRodent

2 жыл бұрын

Isekai iyashikei is an interesting combination, and as an adult I can definitely see the appeal. Reincarnated into the world of Aria where every dayis calm and beautiful, work is fulfilling without being exhausting, friendships are stable and meaningful, and you don’t have to live in fear of a bad gondola review getting you fired? Yes please.

@valdamirlebanon4508

2 жыл бұрын

There's also another similar variant that is kind of a blend between the two, that being situations where you're transported/resurrected into the other world but are only special because of the knowledge you couldn't have gained without having lived in our world. This is admittedly much more rare, and will usually focas on the main character trying to rebuild our world (or something like it) but better this time. A decent example of this, I'd argue, would be Dr. Stone; which is an isekai where the world gets petrified for millions of years, all of Humanities inventions are destroyed by time, and the main characters are all just modern humans who use their scientific understanding to slowly develop a stone age civilization. Admittedly the titular main character has intelligence that borders on being magic, but that's mostly used as an excuse for the writers to come up with interesting inventions which probably took them days to actually research.

I wonder if "technology out of time" is a common enough troupe to talk about. You know, caveman with a gun, teenager with a laser, knight with a smartphone

@timothymclean

2 жыл бұрын

Knight in another world with his smartphone... There's definitely a good bit of variation. You have the version where the tech is brought by a character from the future, or a more advanced contemporary civilization, or even a more advanced precursor civilization, which are similar but with slightly different connotations; all of those can be split into cases where the character _just_ brings the tech (but not the knowledge of how to build/fix it) and ones where the character brings the knowledge (but may need to build the tech, or even an entire industry, there), which obviously has big implications. There's the version where it's just precursor tech someone dug up, and the version where some super genius scientist solved centuries of scientific questions and engineering conundrums in one weekend bender and now we've got someone making guns in the Iron Age. Not sure whether there's more to do than dissect the taxonomy of the trope and the implications of each version, though. Possibly a discussion of how pop culture treats technology in general?

@twistedtimbers

2 жыл бұрын

@@timothymclean i know what you mean but the concept of a teenager of ANY time always being wildly out of place with a laser is super funny to me. once you turn futuristic-20 it's totally normal tho

@therilyncobrin2372

2 жыл бұрын

this seems like maybe covered by the "time travel" otherworld, like in Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court where the dude has future knowledge that lets him make modern tech.

@bumfricker2487

2 жыл бұрын

applies to Army of Darkness, at least

@TheWrathAbove

2 жыл бұрын

For all it's many many issues, few things will ever top the sheer bewilderment and hype I got when halfway through season 1 of Familiar of Zero it's revealed that the ancient scroll of destruction is just a fucking Rocket Launcher.

I think the main benefit of having the main character be transported to the otherworld ala isekai is it makes exploration of the worldbuilding more natural to the audience or at least easier for the author to write. It's easy to exposition-dump when the main character is asking the same questions the audience is.

15:24 "With the power of SPOILERS and a rampant disregard for other people, I'm unstoppable!" Okay I legit laughed at that line, it was really funny

One thing I kinda wished they showed more of in the Overlord Anime was the world the main character was from. Because the game Overlord is based on Yggdrasil seems kinda predatory with P2W mechanics and grindy systems. But when we realize the main chracter is from a world so bad that nature and being able to see the sky are no longer possible in the real world as it exists as a dystopian society, it makes the characters reactions to being isekai'd a bit more interesting why does he like the idea of flying to the sky and looking out at the forest and the world, it also makes us sympathetic to why he would put up with a game with systems that constantly exploit his wallet. Turns out the real world is doing that already and he would gladly fork out his life savings for an actual escape from it.

The staying there forever aspect can be better used when it changes the characters involved and explores the pain and struggle of never returning home. Re-zero, ascendence of a bookworm and mushoku tensei do this by showing how they had of lot of stuff worth living for but the fact being they can never return or undo those mistakes.

that intro sequence has made me want a webcomic where a narratively important main character is roommates with normal person

15:13 The Digimon series kind of removes this problem by having the dangers of the Digital World actually pose a threat to the real world.

Sometimes it's fun to read/watch the "after story" Isekai. Basically the MC did the whole main plot and now has either returned to the real world, or tries to settle down in the other world. Gives a whole "Now here's the rest of the story" feel

@danielschott4639

2 жыл бұрын

In a sense of karma, I'd like to see an epilogue where the harem lead realizes he still needs to care for his 4+ wives and army of offspring. Yeah, didn't think this through did ya dumb-dumb.

@najibzubir7699

2 жыл бұрын

Isekai ojisan

@danieladamczyk4024

2 жыл бұрын

@Prey R There is also a film with this same premise. But i forget.