Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - The End of Isekai as We Know It?
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Greed1914
 Posts: 5345 |
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Hard to say how this will go. I do agree, that it's not like isekai will disappear overnight. Contracts are far enough out and one relatively recent report isn't going to have production committees cancelling projects and possibly eating cancellation fees.
As nice as it would be for potentially fewer anime being made to result in better pay and conditions for those making them, that is unlikely. Studios bidding for fewer jobs will add to the race to the bottom. A more hopeful scenario might come of it is that if there isn't a "next big thing" to fill that genre gap, then maybe production committees will diversify the projects and try to see if they land on something. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2691 |
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Honestly, caring about wishfullfiling is hard to. When Shield Hero started I cared more about Naofumi's revenge against those who falsely accused him over a horrible crime rather than his slaves. When this plot element is removed, Shield Hero's plot feels empty it instead moves to taking care of the two small characters who of course happen to be female.
I used to enjoy Konosuba too but when the movie was released, it just felt awkward how Kazuma was actually romantically interested in Megumin. Mushoku Tensei felt like it started fine since the sex jokes were basically Dragon Ball stuff. However, when season 2 started I had mixed feelings about Rudeus attending a school rather than keep searching for his relatives. The fact that he cheats on his wife and later made polygamy made me feel uncomfortable though. The only isekai that attracted me from day 1 was Rezero. Maybe it's my love for horror movie or how the writer was willing to show Subaru at his lowest made me feel such story stand out among other isekais. |
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crh1985
Posts: 96 |
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It is not that big of a deal, anime runs in cycles just because Isekai has been around for 15ish years now (and many animes/Light novels/mangas are mislabeled with it) the anime media will just shift again like it did from schools (because of Harry Potter) and post apocalyptic cities (movies like blade runner) and other things that get popular in Japan and the anime media just changes to the next popular thing.
To me i have never felt like Isekai is a bad plot device (over used, sure) but the plots in the story are bad and the entire Isekai genre is attacked over it. |
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meiam
Posts: 3674 |
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Whats the breakdown of where revenue come from for anime these days? Like is it something like 60% streaming rights, 30 % merchandise 10% blue ray sales, or something? Are Isekai that different from the average?
I'm guessing a big trend is also China (and other market) making more and more anime locally and being more restrictive toward Japan anime. I'm just not sure there's really an isekai fatigue so much as a the massive increase in attention anime got over the last decades or two just so happens to coincide with Isekai and now the market is just returning to baseline slowly. If isekai are really dying, I guess it'll go like the magic school that were so prominent before isekai got around (and were very similar in power fantasy style), isekai will go down to one or two show a year, and something technically different, but still entirely focused on power fantasy, will just take its place instead and the audience will seamlessly shift over. |
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Hellsoldier
 Posts: 1149 Location: Porto,Portugal,Europe,Earth,Sol |
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Problem number one: Most isekai, and I assume this to be true with any genre bubble, is that most plots are interchangeable with one another, with little care in developing worthwhile characters, even if the plot is somewhat standard.
Problem number two: Whishfulfilment, whilst not a problem per se, became the dominant force in the genre. Re Zero will stand the test of time precisely because it was willing to tell a story and challenge its protagonist. Problem number three: A continuation of the previously mentioned problems. There is less of a focus on storytelling and more of a focus on database culture, where people check anime in search of the archetypes they most like seeing. Whilst archetypes are a very useful guideline on developing characters and a story, variations must exist. Otherwise you'll start mixing the anime in your mind. To sum it up, we stopped caring so much for storytelling, themes, and worldbuilding, and started caring much more about satisfying our fantasies. You can do all of these in a balanced way. But that choice has not been made. What saddens me the most is that, as the bubble finally bursts, Smartphone managed to get a second season, whilst Grimgar, a great work, only manages to get one season. Priorities, I guess. |
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2714 |
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Outcast meets Cute Girl is the next big trend.
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kgw
 Posts: 1536 Location: Spain, EU |
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I am afraid that, as long as they keep on releasing new Dragon Quest and Otome games, "we" will never be free of Reincarnations, Villains and isekais
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OtomeGay
 Posts: 256 |
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As someone who plays otome games, I don't think villianesses trend will keep existing and bloating the market, at least not for too long. "Villainesses" have never actually existed in otome games, rather otome isekai seem to take Rosalia, the rival from the first otome game Angelique (herself inspired by the oujosama-type rivals of Aim for the Ace! and Glass Mask) and turned it into a whole trope of the "Villainess." Most otome games now, if you look at what companies like Otomate make, aren't really focused on Western European settings, nobility, or elite schools (though they do exist), and go more for various fantastical, historical, or modern settings. [/i] |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 5145 Location: New York |
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The cycle of genres falling in and out of fashion is an eternal one. Still, it’s not like Isekai will stop. We still have Masters of the Universe in two weeks. I will say that there will be far less as the pendulum swings elsewhere. Because that’s what always happens, regardless of medium.
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Lactobacillus yogurti
 Posts: 916 Location: Latin America |
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Ah, if only. Isekai, tensei and villain/ness stories have oversaturated the market, to the point where other kinds of stories end up feeling like a breath of fresh air.
So if the isekai bubble pops... Well, good riddance! |
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Jabootu
Posts: 417 |
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: I think the "dominance" of isekais is wildly overstated. The article notes that "there are 30+ new isekai anime released every year." (Admittedly, that statement in ambiguous. Would a new season of, say, Re:Zero fall into this number, or does it actually mean 30+ brand NEW isekai anime released every year, in addition to new seasons of preexisting shows?)
30 shows is 7.5 per season, and each season now seems to offer up 60 to 70 shows. So we're really talking about new isekai anime representing 10 to 15% of each season's offerings. Flip that, and it means 85% to 90% of each seasons shows are NOT isekais. Even if you raise that to 20%, it's still hardly like nothing else is getting released. I would certainly agree that the genre could profit from a culling of the truly mediocre / bad shows, but aside from the biggies (Re:Zero, Mushoku Tensei, Konasuba, Reincarnated as a Slime, Overlord, etc.) there are plenty, perhaps dozens, of second tier shows that I really myself rather like: Eminence in Shadow, Reincarnated as a Sword, Tanya, Campfire Cooking, etc. Those are among my favorites of the second tier--by which I mean "B" level--but I'm sure many other shows I'm not as interested in are other people's favorites. In the end the market will solve the problem. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2499 |
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I for one welcome a big reduction of the isekai glut that was bandwagoning on a trend.
The popular ones (the ones people actually like to watch or will hate watch) will remain. Re;Zero, Shield Hero, Mushoku Tensei, Konosuba, Eminence in Shadow, Tanya, etc. will still be around while the also-rans fade out. An occasional exceptional one may still get greenlit based on it's established novel/manga popularity versus anime made simply to sell copies. The major replacement will be good contemporary fantasy - where the characters simply inhabit their worlds as is. Sentenced to be a Hero was a good one, and I am wishing that Nihei's Tower Dungeon also gets an adaptation. Both these feature powerful heroes with traits that put them above the rest which naturally fit the power fantasy feeling without the isekai game-borrowing cheats. Just give us good traditional fantasy stories without needing some guy from our world moving there. |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1415 |
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On the note, I'll say the nicest thing about the isekai trend is how it hasn't actually totally cannibalized everything else: since 2010 I think I've watched like...four, five series that are considered isekai? Probably not more than 10 max. And yet I've always had plenty to watch each season, sometimes too much, especially since 2015-ish. If all of this other good stuff is basically funded by isekai shows, as seems to be the thought, and nothing replaces it, I suppose that is a little more worrisome. But that would be more of a "people ceasing to watch anime" problem, which doesn't seem to be the issue. |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1749 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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That Redo of Healer jumpscare.
 Couldn't have picked a more fitting screenshot.
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garfield15
 Posts: 1557 |
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I would be fascinated to see what would happen if isekai goes the way of past trends like visual novel adaptations, battle harems or even mecha, because like what does that anime landscape even look like? It's considered normal to get something like 5-10 isekai or reincarnation stories a season. Who knows what that gets changed into.
Also, you brought up webtoons. Man that was flash in the pan. I remember distinctly people thought that would be the next big thing and they just weren't.
I think that's just a different flavor of romcom. Which I think is an evergreen genre next to battle shounen, as in, it'll never not be around. |
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