Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Back From Far Away
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mdo7
 Posts: 8215 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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The isekai genre that was aimed at female demographic, that really needs to come back because most modern isekai titles these day are really too much male-oriented and probably are turning off most female audiences from watching them not knowing that once upon a time, there was isekai titles that are aimed at female audiences like Fushigi Yugi, and Magic Knight Rayearth. So yeah, I hope the Rayearth reboot could help bring that back.
Also, speaking of retro isekai, I hope Gen Z's love of retro nostalgia could help crossover to those Gen Z anime fandom demographic meaning I hope older isekai like Now and Then, Here and There, Aura Battler Dunbine, Escaflowne, etc... could find newer audiences, and the world-building in these older isekai could do better impression then the generic MMO-esque design that are coming out of these recent isekai titles. |
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kameoosama
Posts: 50 |
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I like this look back and these shows but it's funny to be like "Bring Girl Isekai Back" when we literally get several a season and like they're not all winners but I've been generally enjoying them. I Want a second season of the one where the protagonist scammed her way into being besties with the princess and teleported a PMC to quell an invasion and bazooka a dragon. Also MagiRevo if there's more material, that one was really good.
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Tamer Sakura
Posts: 41 |
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If having an opposite gender protag alienates fans then wouldn't that just alienate male fans in return?
I guess the article just means what the most popular ones. Although the 80s and 90s had plenty of "male Isekai" as well like the mentioned Digimon, El Hazard, Aura Battler Dunbine, Mashin Hero Wataru, Monster Farm, and many others. I don't like the notion that isekai "used to be for girls" when there's always been male protags since forever or anything like that. It just seems like pointless gender war nonsense for a common as hell trope that's existed for ages and has always been about both boys and girls |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5289 |
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I know it's just a me thing and I'm sure that Japan was using the term to describe these stories back then, but man, I hate it when "isekai" gets applied to classic female-led series like Escaflowne and Twelve Kingdoms. That word has become so tainted in my mind that it feels like it's sullying these masterpieces by association. We didn't need a special loanword for these series when they first came out. They were just...fantasy. Or maybe "portal fantasy" if you wanted to get really specific, in the same way that four English children went into a wardrobe and found themselves in Narnia.
Regardless I'm very happy to see that there are more classic manga in that vein getting animated. Really hope they turn out well. Last edited by Top Gun on Thu Jun 04, 2026 12:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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quoss
Posts: 130 |
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Talking about 90s anime, one thing that has to stand out for me is the art. I only got into anime in the late the 2000s when moe was king and older anime was of zero interest to me; no Inuyasha, Dragon Ball, not even Sailor Moon; was all-in on CANAAN, Lucky Star, Squid Girl, Katanagatari.. Tried Escaflowne and I don't think I finished the first episode. Art was a major turn-off, I recall clearly; looking back, it is wild to think about those opinions and how I now adore basically all the trending styles from previous decades until we hit, like, 2020. Which may just be my usual stuffiness and am looking forward to perhaps being able to better appreciate the art now in 15 years. Just finished SDF Macross and watching Minky Momo which is a riot, I love her very much.
With that said, the descriptions and screenshots of works referenced here are super exciting and hurray for "new" things to check out! indeed I kept thinking "why remake Rayearth? it looks great and it's only going to look worse in a remake, JUST WATCH THE ORIGINAL" but see above! |
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mdo7
Posts: 8215 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Well, to answer your questions: probably, and to be honest, the question is so subjective that I can't give a 100% definitive answer. I mean it depend on the male demographic, it's not a monolith. But given that there are more female audiences in anime/manga fandom (the last time I read about that was from a few years ago, but again that's very subjective), I think having a lot or too much male protagonist in recent isekai titles could be turning off female fans when these same female fans also discovered shojo isekai titles like Rayearth, and Fushigi Yugi, and even mainstream title like Inuyasha could make these same female fans ask question like "why don't we have female protagonist in isekai anime? I mean it has been done before in well-known isekai from decade ago like Fushigi Yugi, Magic Knight Rayearth, and even Inuyasha and they're still beloved even to this day!!! I don't see the problem with bringing back female protagonists if those past isekai anime with female protagonists did well back in the day, why not do it again?". I mean an anime fans including male one that did a lot of history background and found out about Fushigi Yugi and Magic Knight Rayearth probably wouldn't mind having a female protagonist in a future isekai anime title. |
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pi8you
 Posts: 281 Location: Minneapolis |
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Escaflowne and Fushigi Yugi were ones I watched way, way back in the days of going to Suncoast and picking up DVDs that looked cool (but not as far back as getting my personal isekai favorite, El-Hazard, on VHS), and after making my way through the manga version last year I really ought to revisit Escaflowne if I can ever find the time.
I was very late to the party with Twelve Kingdoms (via the Tokyopop editions of the novels before getting ahold of the anime), Rayearth, and Red River, which I instantly regretted as soon as I got through them. Rayearth and Twelve Kingdoms especially would have rewired a younger me if I'd caught them at the time, while Red River in VIZ's current omnibus releases has been a fantastic soap opera that keeps finding new ways to put our girl Through It over the 21 volumes it's covered so far, so I'm primed for that adaptation. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 19136 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I'll dispute the claim that "it's CLAMP" automatically makes something better artistically, since frankly, I've never cared much for their character design style in particular.
That aside. . .
One of the "villainess" series last year had some of this. (That the series in question has this is a big mid-season spoiler, so I'll put the name in spoiler tags: spoiler[From Bureaucrat to Villainess] Concerning Vision of Escaflowne, agreed that its OP belongs among the all-time greats, and the OST overall (which includes some operatic numbers as well as what sounds like chanting medieval monks) is also awesome; picked it up a couple of decades ago and still occasionally listen to it on long drives. But I'm also one of the apparently-rare people who also likes and respects the alternate retelling in the very pretty movie version. Concerning The Twelve Kingdoms, anyone interested in checking out the novels should be aware that Yuka, as presented in the anime, is an anime-only character. (She is mentioned very briefly early in the first novel as a background character in a classroom scene but doesn't appear beyond that.) She was given a vastly expanded role in the anime version to allow for a visualization of heroine Yoko's internal conflicts and provide a way to show some of the other things going on outside of Yoko's purview. Also worth pointing out that not all of the arc protagonists in 12K are female, so it differs some from the other examples mentioned in this column.
I'm perfectly fine with a "classic isekai" vs. "modern isekai" differentiation. They both still use "transported to another world" mechanisms even if the styles are very different. |
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musouka
Posts: 738 |
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The majority of the Twelve Kingdoms novels were published under Kodansha's X White Heart label, which was a shoujo novel label. (Originally, the publisher was concerned Twelve Kingdoms was too heavy for the female audience, but it turned out to be a commercial success and was eventually reprinted under a general audience label.)
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Hellsoldier
 Posts: 1148 Location: Porto,Portugal,Europe,Earth,Sol |
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So many good ones from that era. Escaflowne in particular is an all-time favorite. A more recent example would be The Twelve Kingdoms, which is a tad bit more recent. But Rayearth having a new series is sure something many of us wouldn't have on our bingo cards a while back.
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Purple Tentacle
Posts: 41 |
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This is just like when "moe" became a thing in the K-ON era and people got upset when older anime like Azumanga Daioh started being referred to as moe and it upset them because they associated the term with shows they didn't like. It's not surprising to see isekai in the same boat now. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2760 Location: United States |
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Funny how this article drops the very day the MediaOCD store drops a new batch of Deep Dives, with Rayearth and 12 Kingdoms being among them.
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ZelosZoidberg
 Posts: 1054 |
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We really do need to bring the Chibi cut-away gags back. If not that at least the commercial break cut-away.
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Covnam
 Posts: 4368 |
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Glad to see Escaflowne and Twelve Kingdoms weren't left out =)
Count me among them, because I also enjoyed the movie. Not only does it also have another great soundtrack, but I enjoyed the alternate versions of the characters from the TV series. Perhaps it helps that it used to be more of a thing that series got new versions when they changed from OVA to TV series to movie, so I didn't find the movie being an alternative version a turn off. I was just listening to that opening on the way home from work a night or two ago, so agreed on it being among the all time greats too =) |
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 753 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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Yeah, from what I saw of the Rayearth reboot while the art is more faithful to the manga the lack of TMS squash and stretch chibis will be sorely missed. The manga had them too so I don't know what gives. |
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