How did isekai became so big

Isekai is simply a trend like any other trend.


A couple years back in the West, there was something of a craze with young adult dystopian novels and movies like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent, etc. SNL even made a skit making fun of it. Similar to isekai, it was a trend.


Moreover, the slave harem and whatnot aspect may have come from the ecchi harem animes from the 2000s/early 2010s like Nisekoi, High School DxD, Love Hina, Rosario to Vampire, etc. Those types of anime could also seem to be wish fulfillment since the main character tends to be some bland Japanese guy.

Moreover, some of the anime in that genre may have come from galge where the main character (who represented the player) was purposely made to be bland, so it would be easier for players to self-insert themselves.

It should be noted that the MC having a slave in their harem tends to be primarily a male MC trope. While isekai'ed female MCs also have harems, there is no particular tendency for a member of her harem to be or have been a slave (and I don't think I've even read a WN or LN where there is one).


As others have noted, many of the isekai genre tend to have RPG-like elements. Fantasy based RPGs have always been common, and otaku/weeaboo media having a fantasy setting isn't a particularly new idea.

I think that before isekai, there was the idea of hero summons. At its core, "isekai" and hero summonings are very similar. Based on the original Japanese of isekai or "other world," they are both transportation into an "other world." "Isekai" is simply when the Japanese person is transported into the world essentially as a "native," rather than being a "foreigner" (at least in the eyes of the citizens of that world).

It's also possible the idea came from wanting to experience the fantasy setting as a Japanese person. You'll notice that a good amount of isekai novels have the characters introducing Japanese food.


There is also the trend of villainess girl reincarnation, which is similar to isekai, but I personally wouldn't put in what has become the "isekai" category.


I think the male MC isekai stories tend to be different from female MC isekai stories. Male MC isekai stories tend to be more adventurous while female MC isekai tend to be more slice of life I think.

 

I agree with almost everything you said, except for harem. It is more common for MC either get cockblocked or just be too dumb to get into a physical relationship with girls. On the other hand, this stuff does not bother me as much as it does you. I try to focus on the things I like rather on the stuff I hate. I do get you, however: when there is so much stuff that you don't like, you can't ignore it anymore.
Adventure guild is one of my pet peeves, though. One, why the heck does internal ID for a private organization, which does not check backgrounds, can be used as an official ID? Why can't their IDs be faked? And in some novels, although the can't be faked, they still get faked. Why does the guild never put people in ranks appropriate to their strength? You can be the strongest person on the planet, but you better go gather some herbs if you want to rank up and get some achievements. And yes, the moronic thugs that always pick on newbies. And the guild stuff that put their noses into other people's business. And also, why does it always "adventurer guild"? Just come up with some other shit already.
I just try to treat the guild as a background thing that is almost unavoidable, but sometimes they just irk me so much, I actually drop a few novels only because of how stupid the guild was.

 

I don't read many isekai stories, but I found one that was really nice and then sometimes word pumping pay by character broke people copy stuff and ruin it.
And thats how trends start.
The one I read makes fun of tropes and does not mc a teenager, its death march, https://www.sousetsuka.com/p/blog-page_11.html?m=1

 

Oh, man, now you have opened that can of worms

 

What can of worms?
Did I step on an isekai topic bomb?
...I don't know many isekai stories...

 

Well, Death March is roughly split 50-50 love-hate. And small middle ground. Especially the anime that came out. It is considered to be the collection of all the tropes basically
I am surprised that people did come and critique it already tbh.
I actually like it btw

 

There is an anime? I was reading it.

Oh wait, there was. I saw the anime art and chose to ignore its existense since it didn't match my concept of death march.

 

It came out this year and covers about 4 volumes of the light novel, which is slightly different than what you were reading. Personally, I prefer web novel version, but ln does fix some plot points

 

Wait, the anime fixes plot holes? Did the matrix glitch? Also, I retroactively edited my reply so you might want to look at that.

 

No, the light novel version does In some cases it provides a better transition between events and ties things up. For example in regards to the tiger princess that was saved, in the web novel she never appears again, but in ln she does. And there is more background to how he gets some stuff and skill too

 

Too long...
I started a similar thread: https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/why-are-isekai-novels-so-popular.86819/
Anyway you are forgetting two key points

1. The authors are amateurs, readers are comparing them to edited professionally published western works which is unfair
2. Then you have light novels which I consider semi-amateurish, which focuses more on profits than good stories and you end up with the same stories getting picked up by light novel publishers: https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/editor-claims-many-of-japan’s-light-novel-authors-can’t-write-aren’t-the-ones-creating-their-books

Case in point,
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/renkinjutsushi-desu-jijou-wa-gomibako-ni-sutete-kimashita/




*Drops the mic* Is Wuji awesome or what?

 

Who's Wuji?

Valid points.

Oh, you were talking in third person nevermind.

 

Because human get bored with reality so they want to run away from it for awhile.

 

Huh. But not always with isekai, right?

I can verify there are many more ways to practice escapism.

I am an experienced escapist, but know minimal isekai stories.

 

well... im isekai lover tbh, but i choose which to read, my favorite is ascendence of bookworm.
Mostly isekai theme kinda escapism route but well i like it because can imagine it better if compare with earth, maybe thats why it become popular, imo

 

Between 1/1/2009 and present, I would say the increased popularity of anime based on isekai or something similar can be attributed in part to SAO.

 

Mostly because a typical Adventurers' Guild is one of the world's most powerful organizations. Most city-destroying mages and army-conquering warriors are members. It handles the critical task of slaying monsters and preventing them from destroying civilization.
It's also an organization whose members need to travel a lot, especially at high ranks, but also depending on monster threat seasons.
So it just pushed the law that allows its IDs to be used everywhere and void city entry fees, and had enough influence to make it happen.
I imagine many governments were happy to outsource ID-making to other people, since totalitarism isn't popular yet.

They are used as official IDs around the world, so they come with the world's best kind of protection. You know, like modern passports - they're damn hard to fake.

Guild policies vary. Some give out ranks based on entrance exams. Some think that any mercenary can be strong, but adventurers need to prove their cleverness and resourcefulness by surviving a few adventures first. Some prefer its members to demonstrate their strength by slaying monsters, not examiners - especially if PvE is very different from PvP in the setting. Some make promotions to low ranks easy, but make requirements for high ranks really complicated (for example, Fran from "I was a Sword when I reincarnated" placed third in the world's overpowered martial arts tournament, but only got C rank out of that, because the guild expects B ranks to be capable military leaders).
But in my experience, about half of isekai protagonists could actually get ranks more appropriate to their strength quickly if they wanted to, but went out of their way to not have those ranks. Like that mage who beat up all the examiners and hypnotized them into giving him a lower rank.

The degree of guild's involvement varies, but if it's an actual guild, it's perfectly normal for it to be involved in training and advising newbies, guild politics and so on. A medieval guild is more than just a workplace.

I've seen different names. Like "explorers' guild" for people mostly involved in exploring dungeons, and "hunters' guild" for people mostly involved in slaying monsters. I think "hunters' guild" is the most honest name, because most so-called "adventurers" don't do much adventure.

 

I love the genre but I hate how it encourages untalented hacks to take advantage of it. Worst of all publishers buy into and it sells well, like really well. I heard that the LN for Kenja No Mago sold like 3 million copies LIKE WTF IS THAT ABOUT! Something like that had to be written by some grade schooler at best but here we are. Sadly a genre that should be known for its ingenuity and creativity is infamous for the complete opposite.

 

i quote many authors

"don't hate authors for writing what the market wants"

what you should hate, is the authors who write crappy novels which you are reading...

as much as we all hate the xianxia and isekai novels, they're what people read and what people pay for.

 

Zero No Tsukaima was the grandfather of all Isekai's and laid down the path of what was expected of a protagonist. Mushoku Tensei solidified the dying and random God Templates. Then it all went downhill from there.