So lots of story’s reference the typical isekai, summoned hero goes on a quest to grow stronger and defeat the demon king. Along the way he learns about the power of Yada yada .... but I’m thinking and I’ve never read one like that . So I got to thinking does the typically generic isekai exist? Or is it a fantasy made up to exist inside other isekai to explain why the mc wants to be lazy
It does, but there are way too many genres to choose from. Most isekai have heroes summoned to defeat the villain, but their life changes due to their particular experiences. Some become villains, some choose harems. And some just do nothing at all.
generic isekai is like generic otome game. everyone knows it, it usually contains myriad subgenres and yet... it's very hard to find a novel that is the very original generic style that started everything off.
I have never read a novel where the summoned hero goes on a quest to defeat the demon king accumulating party members on the way and defeating the demon generals. Only read that this an supposedly overused trope in the novels and how this novel overcome it. Anyone knows such a novel then please recommend
generic isekai uses to be so generic that to break free from the generic-ness authors wrote it with different tweaks at this point what was generic was no longer the generic isekai but the isekai that was trying to break free from the generic or that was a tale I thought up of I'm thinking where does the generic isekai come from, but I didn't research how isekai started perhaps it comes from the fairy tales where a hero saves the princess from the evil dragon with a party of 4 or something
Same goes for the Hero himself right? Wields a sword, (too) great sense of justice, loyal to a fault, thinks everyone and their evil undead grandmother are actually good guys and shouldnt be killed. That's the image I have of the the 'generic isekai hero' but ive only ever seen this type as either an annoying side-character or straight up antagonist. PLUS, they're bland and boring. Much rather have a selfish hero or abandoned hero or what have you.
Sigh. To find the generic isekai like you said, you'd have to go back to before isekai was a genre. I'm talking about series like magic knight rayearth and digimon adventure 01. Those are literally chosen heroes going to another world to save it from the big baddy.
Lol I’d like to read it too! The closest thing I can think of is Lotr and maybe dragon lance chronicles? And neither are isekai... True! I enjoy a good anti hero! Was just curious why this became a trope is all. Maybe we can blame dragon quest games? *bookmarks magic knight* Ahhh was digimon an isekai? It felt mor like a pre apocalypse type show to me
Do they go to another world? Yes. So it's isekai. That's really the only requirement for something to be isekai. Anything else window dressing. Edit: sidenote, isekai is more from stories of people being 'spirited away' from something supernatural like fae in Europe or similar things in 'insert culture here.'
Both the generic isekai and the generic otome stories exist but not in the way you might expect. The new school isekai novel is primarily based on the Dragon Quest video games; in particular the early ones. The dead giveaway for this influence is how common it is to see horned rabbits and slimes as basic enemies in these books. Likewise the influence for otome stories isn't otome video games but rather old school shoujo manga. I'm mostly talking about manga from the '70s, '80s, and '90s like Glass Mask or Aim for the Ace. It's also no surprise that the books that better understand what makes these manga work are also the best in the genre.
Hmmm I see. I always took to as part of their world with the digiverse directly affecting their world with all the catastrophes and what not.. ohh now that makes a bit of sense it would explain the presence of druids in a lot of these kinds of story’s and references .. hmmm yeah the dragon quest references are brutal imho... mid there any of the series that stand out above the rest that you would recommend?
The "generic" isekai or hero quest story in these cases are really an amalgamation of multiple popular tropes, so while there are plenty of older stories that serve as as the inspiration, it is rare to find ones that tick all the boxes.
Some other old-time isekai animations are El-Hazard and The vision of Escaflowne. Tbh I don't remember much of the plot of both but the protagonists were very much "High school student that seems to have nothing going on for themselves but suddenly holds the key to the salvation of another world".
There are plenty of examples of summoned hero stories. I have seen/read plenty. The generic is a stripped down version, but it is the generic because that type of story was to common before Isekai became a (sub)genre. But you also need to go back farther into Japanese pop culture then most do. Isekai is just another name for Portal Fantasy, which is old as F#^&, just with a few extra common tropes in the mix. But ya, world travel via some mechanism is the only requirement, and necessary.
If you want to read something that's from before tropes and clichés, try City Series. Also, something something Senki with old illustration. I don't know where to read it, I read it years ago, but it must be somewhere.
I mean... If you exclude the Summoned Hero part, it's not particularly hard to find stories about goody-two-shoes with no personality that go out in a journey to save the world. Look no further than the very first Final Fantasy for that, like... It's about as generic as it can get. Making a summoned hero behave like those goody-two-shoes heroes is not a particularly big stretch~
I'd say that these old school isekai novels don't bear any real resemblance to the modern stuff. Hell, even the high school student thing isn't that representative of the modern stuff anymore. Instead, it's usually young otaku.