![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Great Isekai Review List
What is isekai?
According to Mangarock's definition of the genre:
"Isekai translates to "another world." This genre typically has a narrative where a protagonist somehow gets transported to a different world. The new world is more often than not in a fantasy setting, occasionally with traits pulled from JRPG games."
TV Tropes also goes further indepth into the idea, putting it under the trope name of "Trapped In Another World", which is basically just what "Isekai" means. Some people genre savvy to the idea might immediately think of a high school boy arriving in a JRPG fantasy world where they're super overpowered when it comes to combat, whereupon they get the attention of a stunning beautiful woman (or five). It's the definition of a power fantasy, especially for cis straight guys. However, even western works such as "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", "Alice in Wonderland", and "The Wizard of Oz" could all theoretically count as "isekai".
For this post, however, I'll be focusing mainly on isekai series that have gotten a manga adaption of some sort, often from Japan or occasionally China and Korea, which have also started to lean into the trend. That means they'll be falling into a lot of Japanese tropes and cliches, although these aren't necessarily bad things.
All of the isekai I've read through and even vaguely enjoyed are included down below in the comments section, and all of them will be utilizing this same form:
Some of these categories are self explanatory even to people unfamiliar with the genre (Title, Main Character), but a few deserve some particular notice or explanation.
Cheat: A "cheat ability" is basically a power uniquely granted to the Main Character (MC) that allows them to have the upperhand in the world they've been transported to. That sort of thing isn't entirely unusual for many stories, as it is a handy way of making a MC notable, but it is a quality that is inherent to the power fantasy aspect that isekai series often at least nod to. However, the nature of that cheat can take on quite a variety of forms depending on the series. Some do a very basic sort of ability such as access to a never before seen magic, or simply a lot of magic. Others take a more subtle approach, such as a character using their knowledge of a modern world to improve a more medieval one. Seeing the different types of "cheats", how characters use them, and how it affects the setting is one of the things that I find charming about the isekai genre.
Transport: In other words- how did the MC arrive in another world/life? Sometimes, it's because a character was summoned, either by a god or a powerful magician. Other times, it's left as a mystery. Lots of isekai even have the MC die, and their soul is reincarnated in another world with memories of their past life. Depending on how the MC got there, and the whims of the author, it can have quite an impact on the MC's goals or emotions.
Pros and Cons: While they're named as that, these categories could more accurately be called "what I did and didn't like about this series", which means they're completely subjective and from my point of view. The summary will cover what the series is about, sure, but this goes more into my personal opinions.
General Warnings: This will be a simple list of general things to watch out for, such as gore, murder, rape, or sexual assault, along with anything else I think people might appreciate a heads up on.
Fanservice: This one is fairly self explanatory, with fanservice often being women scantily clad or men getting to be in sexy positions with them. Considering how much of a range fanservice can be, I'll be listing this rather in a scale of 1 to 5.
1 - No fanservice whatsoever
3 - Some fanservice, but no so much as to be describing
5 - Hope you like tits and ass, because there's going to be a lot of that
I'll give my reasons and some examples for this category, so that people have a slightly more substantial idea of what will happen.
Harem: Power fantasies don't only include having super amazing powers, but they also dabble in areas of romance, where the (often male) MC will have a bunch of women falling for him and sometimes even having multiple wives.
According to Mangarock's definition of the genre:
"Isekai translates to "another world." This genre typically has a narrative where a protagonist somehow gets transported to a different world. The new world is more often than not in a fantasy setting, occasionally with traits pulled from JRPG games."
TV Tropes also goes further indepth into the idea, putting it under the trope name of "Trapped In Another World", which is basically just what "Isekai" means. Some people genre savvy to the idea might immediately think of a high school boy arriving in a JRPG fantasy world where they're super overpowered when it comes to combat, whereupon they get the attention of a stunning beautiful woman (or five). It's the definition of a power fantasy, especially for cis straight guys. However, even western works such as "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", "Alice in Wonderland", and "The Wizard of Oz" could all theoretically count as "isekai".
For this post, however, I'll be focusing mainly on isekai series that have gotten a manga adaption of some sort, often from Japan or occasionally China and Korea, which have also started to lean into the trend. That means they'll be falling into a lot of Japanese tropes and cliches, although these aren't necessarily bad things.
All of the isekai I've read through and even vaguely enjoyed are included down below in the comments section, and all of them will be utilizing this same form:
Some of these categories are self explanatory even to people unfamiliar with the genre (Title, Main Character), but a few deserve some particular notice or explanation.
Cheat: A "cheat ability" is basically a power uniquely granted to the Main Character (MC) that allows them to have the upperhand in the world they've been transported to. That sort of thing isn't entirely unusual for many stories, as it is a handy way of making a MC notable, but it is a quality that is inherent to the power fantasy aspect that isekai series often at least nod to. However, the nature of that cheat can take on quite a variety of forms depending on the series. Some do a very basic sort of ability such as access to a never before seen magic, or simply a lot of magic. Others take a more subtle approach, such as a character using their knowledge of a modern world to improve a more medieval one. Seeing the different types of "cheats", how characters use them, and how it affects the setting is one of the things that I find charming about the isekai genre.
Transport: In other words- how did the MC arrive in another world/life? Sometimes, it's because a character was summoned, either by a god or a powerful magician. Other times, it's left as a mystery. Lots of isekai even have the MC die, and their soul is reincarnated in another world with memories of their past life. Depending on how the MC got there, and the whims of the author, it can have quite an impact on the MC's goals or emotions.
Pros and Cons: While they're named as that, these categories could more accurately be called "what I did and didn't like about this series", which means they're completely subjective and from my point of view. The summary will cover what the series is about, sure, but this goes more into my personal opinions.
General Warnings: This will be a simple list of general things to watch out for, such as gore, murder, rape, or sexual assault, along with anything else I think people might appreciate a heads up on.
Fanservice: This one is fairly self explanatory, with fanservice often being women scantily clad or men getting to be in sexy positions with them. Considering how much of a range fanservice can be, I'll be listing this rather in a scale of 1 to 5.
1 - No fanservice whatsoever
3 - Some fanservice, but no so much as to be describing
5 - Hope you like tits and ass, because there's going to be a lot of that
I'll give my reasons and some examples for this category, so that people have a slightly more substantial idea of what will happen.
Harem: Power fantasies don't only include having super amazing powers, but they also dabble in areas of romance, where the (often male) MC will have a bunch of women falling for him and sometimes even having multiple wives.
Moon-led Journey Across another World
Title: Moon-lead Journey Across Another World
Other Titles:
Author: Kei Azumi, Kotora Kino
Main Character: Misumi Makoto
Gender: Male
Cheat: Understands the language of monster races (but not the usual races), World Toughness, Unique Magic Aura
Transport: Godly Intervention
Summary: Just your average teenager in the archery club, Misumi Makoto doesn't expect to be suddenly requested to go to another world... and he definitely isn't expecting to be told that it's because his parents were actually from that other world, having made a promise to exchange that which is most precious to them. So that his sisters aren't taken, Misumi agrees to go instead. However, the goddess of that other world doesn't find him to be perfectly anime attractive, so she banishes him to the outskirts of her world where there are monsters, the only creatures whose language she'll let him understand.
Pros: Inter-god Conflict of interests, Multiple Isekai'd "heroes", Monster Allies, Silly Side Characters, Spite Motivation, Anime Trope Teasing, Deeper Than Expected Plots, Excellent Humor
When an isekai opens up with the MC and their summoner immediately clashing, I can't help but be automatically intrigued by it. When it's because a vain goddess calls the MC out on not being Anime Pretty (tm) and the MC becomes immediately bitter about her despite now living in the world she governs, well, the interest stays.
That is one of the reasons why I ended up staying around for this series, especially because it's not only those two who have conflict. Our story starts in media res, after the MC has already been tossed out of the isekai heavens by the petty goddess, but we soon flashback a little bit to only a couple of hours earlier. As it turns out, it wasn't that goddess who initially invited him, but rather a Japanese god who was working alongside her. The goddess' disregard and callous treatment gets on the god's nerves, and he makes a promise to the MC that he'll figure something out after communicating with some of the other gods. It's this situation that kept me intrigued, wondering what divine issues might arise. Some forty chapters in, and we haven't yet seen the Japanese god carry through on his promise just yet... But that's more than fine. The plot thread has been set up, and I eagerly await when it weaves its way back into the story once again.
Until then, there's a whole lot more interesting aspects to the story which have all been revealing themselves a lot more clearly. The only "gift" the goddess bestows upon our put-upon MC is the ability to speak the languages of inhuman creatures- a category that can go as benign as simple animal people traders to monsters that are normally aggressive towards the common "beautiful" race. Combined with where he starts his adventure, and this immediately allies him with a group of pig-like Orcs. As the story progresses, he continues to make allies with the only groups he can immediately understand. It puts him in an interesting position that I love to see in my isekai stories, where he has to deal with being on a side that doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. In recent chapters especially he has to deal with the kind of persecution not only monsters but simple demi-human races have to deal with.
However, even outside of anything to do with monsters or the MC's connections to them, the world of humans has its own dangers and unexpected pitfalls. The story can seem almost typical at some points, with even the MC thinking of particular video game tropes (albeit with a piggy monster girl instead of a pretty damsel in distress), but it soon begins to show how complicated things can actually be beneath the surface. My favorite example of this is something I don't want to give away too soon, only that it's in a recent arc, and is fascinating to me as a display of how character perceptions can all be different and complex. Handlings of the truth can be quite a difficult thing, as one character even reflects.
Beyond specific plots, this is also reflected quite nicely in a plot point the Goddess mentions fairly early on and eventually gets looked into in later chapters. She gives an excuse for not dealing with the MC because she ended up already picking up two new heroes to her liking while the connection between worlds was open, so that they could protect "her" world from demons in the MC's stead. We get a couple of chapters focusing on those heroes, and, I have to say, they're pretty interesting from a story telling standpoint. The creators use these two heroes, along with the MC, to look at different aspects of isekai and general anime tropes, sometimes played straight and sometimes with a twist to them. This series does that a lot, actually- playing with tropes and the expectations that come with them. Sometimes it's simply for a good joke, like the MC panicking that he might end up on a "marriage route" if he saves the orc princess's tribe. Other times, it's explored a little more darkly, such as why one character in particular keeps having women fall for him. This leaves the story flexible and fascinating for me, as I wait to see what things will be played straight, what things will be a joke, or even what will be twisted around in a way that has me perking up in interest.
While this can sound dark in a lot of ways, the story has some excellent humor that acts as both a palate cleanser for the serious moments and also a good stark contrast to really drive home when the horrible happens. I find it to be an excellent balance, although this is of course subject to taste. What helps this aspect of the story the most would be the various oddballs that the MC picks up to work alongside him. The weeaboo dragon who partners up purely because she wants to see more memories of those times when the MC watched hammy historical dramas, the sadomasochistic giant spider who can't tell if the MC is a snack in one way or the other, the amateur dork adventuring party, the workaholic dwarf who swears to make a mana-draining item that WILL kill the MC.... and in the middle of it all is the MC himself, the Straight Man (tm) to all this asinine monster ridiculousness who's struggling to get some sort of control over the whole disaster. What makes it even better are the times when he has outbursts of his own, such as his deep grudge against the goddess who cast him out and his spiteful determination to learn the common language, because he won't let her stop him!!!
All in all, it's high notes are delightful to me, and the times where it gets low and dark are fairly gripping. I enjoy it a great deal.
Cons: Ch 38's Attempted Rape Scene (Woman on Man)
If there's one down side to this series, it would be a scene where the MC's two notable female companions corner him on a bed. Up until this point, their blatant interest in him and how it goes over his head (with how disinterested he is) has been something of a joke. However, after seeing him getting flustered by an apparent sex worker pressing in on him, they haul him back to an inn they're staying at and confront him on the issue. As they press in on him, starting to undress, they ignore his attempts to tell them to stop... So the MC creates some space with a hasty spell and escapes in the confusion back to their portal dimension home.
Stuff like this would often get me to stop reading and be frustrated for a long while- there's a series that I started to read which seemed like a pleasant relaxed farming isekai before it immediately went south in a similarity shitty rape scenario. However, to my surprise, one of the women actually apologizes to him immediately in the very same chapter, and agrees to not do something like that to him again when he tells her not to. Because of that, some of my frustration eased up, and I felt comfortable to continue my read.
"James, that sounds like an extraordinarily low bar." IT SURE IS. That should probably tell you the kind of bullshit one runs into for anime, and that sort of thing has a tendency to be worse when it's sexual violence related to male characters. I'll leave it to individual readers if this is good enough for them and if they want to bother with the series at all.
General Warnings: Shonen Violence, Drug Torture, Implied Torture, Attempted Rape
On the torture end, nothing is ever done explicitly. Rather, in both cases, we're only shown the end result for the most part: a woman on the ground with her eyes rolled back and drooling (she gets better), a man chained up bleeding and missing a limb. Nothing is really explicitly done, or shown with the kind of horror movie attention to detail that would make one queasy.
Slavery: No
Fanservice: 3 - Some female character outfits show off cleavage and the like, and there are sexual moments such as the above scene plus something featuring another character... but for the most part, it's not a huge prevalent issue.
Harem: Yes