isekai hasn't gone anywhere yet, but I think it's mostly a matter of trends, everyone who's not mining the schlock mines of recycled previously popular story ideas is looking for a new idea, but most of them don't catch on. Once someone finally does come up with a new hit story idea that catches on, isekai will be consigned to the dustbin of history as the "just do the popular thing again" media industry shifts gears to the new hotness for the next decade.
a lot of writers seem to understand 'dark fantasy' as "hey do you have an absolute worst, totally unacceptable fetish? add that"
It didn't help that there was a big blockbuster TV series at the time that used this formula successfully for 7 seasons
Paladin on
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
What were the popular trends just before Sword Art Online? I feel like isekai sucked much of the light novel writers' attention and tropes away from "high school but with magic/superpowers and the protagonist is weak but secretly the strongest and gets a harem" schlock, although perhaps that was never quite as oversaturated as isekai has gotten.
It didn't help that there was a big blockbuster TV series at the time that used this formula successfully for 7 seasons
Game of Thrones is undoubtedly an influence on the GRIM 'N GRITTY trend within fantasy stories, I wonder if the Dark Souls games also had some significant influence in Japanese fantasy writing in the last 10 years.
My favorite isekai will always be The Vision of Escaflowne, which is an isekai that was isekai'd to a time when there was no isekai
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
The problem isn't Isekai per se, is that writers use it as a background for yet another creepy, fetishy Harem Anime because what sells is putting tits and asses on the screen.
Fantasy series? Harem. Sci Fi series? Harem. Slice of Life? You better believe there's some Harem.
SAO basically was just lucky. It hit just as Bleach, one of the Big Three, had ended and quickly absorbed enough attention to become a dominant force. That's what kicked off isekai anew.
Pretty sure harem stuff was The Thing before isekai stories hit it big.
I still think it's funny that dot Hack and SAO landed around the same time with a similar premise (scaled down though it was in SIGN), but one was a power fantasy and the other very much wasn't.
To be fair we didn't actually know it was a similar premise at first in SIGN because Tsukasa had no memory of outside the game and it was up in the air if they were actually a player or not for a good while.
I still remember BT explaining the origin of her name and laughing my ass off at the seriousness of the conversation
The problem isn't Isekai per se, is that writers use it as a background for yet another creepy, fetishy Harem Anime because what sells is putting tits and asses on the screen.
Fantasy series? Harem. Sci Fi series? Harem. Slice of Life? You better believe there's some Harem.
Now that you point it out, yeah this is hitting the nail on the head. The constant with the trends of shitty oversaturated genres is they're vehicles for low quality erotic writing. That's what they're really shoveling out most of the time with light novels and manga in certain trashy magazines, and the scores of anime based thereupon. The shitty isekai trend isn't about isekai stories so much as it's another genre to tell the low quality harem romance stories in that were already crap and have been around forever.
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
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PiptheFairFrequently not in boats.Registered Userregular
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
0
PiptheFairFrequently not in boats.Registered Userregular
look, miura~san has to play idol masters or the universe ends
it's in the contract
+5
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Isekais becoming a thing was just people realizing they didn't have to go through the work of finding a POV character to explain things naturally to, they could just insert Japanese Person into whatever setting they wanted and then have them react to the world and require explanation to things.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Oh, speaking of SAO type stuff, I rediscovered a manga I was reading. It's basically a cross between SAO and Bofuri in that the story's about a guy who spends all his time playing this single player MMO-style game that was developed by a team of devs who simultaneously could not give a shit about proper coding practices and also had a hate boner towards their own playerbase. We're talking devs who implemented the ability to propose marriage to anyone or anything in the game, provided the player followed the necessary steps to trigger the event, but then made a successful proposal trigger a fail state in the game so it couldn't be completed and the player had to start a new file because they purposely made the game overwrite the save on the proposal .
He ends up getting sucked into the world of the game because of his friend's dumbass wish and the entire story is about him trying to complete the game with his extensive knowledge while avoiding or exploiting every glitch, trick, and bug he's ever known while doing his absolute best to avoid dying from increasingly bullshit mechanics.
I do think there's some bits of grimdarkness that Miura would take back now if he could. He started writing the thing like right as he was graduating college, he was quite young still. There's a decent share of '90s edgelordyness in there sometimes, especially early on.
But also Berserk becomes psychologically complex and well-written, filled with interesting characters and a compelling artistic vision. Stuff that Goblin Slayer and Shield Hero just don't have.
Like it totally works that Susumu Hirasawa's Guts' theme is this kinda sad, meditative beautiful song:
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
+7
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I think that in Berserk's case, it kinda earns it? Like yeah, the Eclipse is a bit much, but it's also the culmination of Griffith's whole arc. It's not shock just for the sake of shock.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
The problem isn't Isekai per se, is that writers use it as a background for yet another creepy, fetishy Harem Anime because what sells is putting tits and asses on the screen.
Fantasy series? Harem. Sci Fi series? Harem. Slice of Life? You better believe there's some Harem.
Yeah, I've enjoyed plenty of isekai stuff, it's just that the whole harem/slavery/stat wank stuff is so lame and so frequent it eclipses the good dumb fun ones.
One of the ones I do follow is still terribly, terribly schlocky but more or less the opposite of an harem, and it's great. It's absolutely a power fantasy, except the power fantasy on display, rather than "become maximally powerful and have two dozen women in my harem", is "luck out into a deeply, mutually loving marriage with a queen of a fantasy land, become her trusted king consort". And you know what, that is the kind of power fantasy I can be sold on.
Between the three seasons of (Old? if we're calling it that) Higurashi, I'd be surprised if they missed much. I don't begrudge anyone seeing this for the first time, I think it's an interesting story, but I do wish they'd only spend money on remakes to shows that were fundamentally flawed or went off course in some way.
as someone who specifically passed on the anime the first time around and fell in love with the VN years later, the studio deen adaptation leaves a lot to be desired
besides the animation quality there were big swathes either glossed over or cut entirely, i'm not expecting the new anime to cover everything but i do hope it does its characters justice. ryukishi reportedly has more direct involvement this time around so I'm hopeful
also, the 2020 version
may possibly not be a straight remake? it's still too early to tell but there is some completely new stuff in there, if they do wind up going the Eva Rebuild route i would be... curious about that, i mean i did enjoy FF7 a lot
Between the three seasons of (Old? if we're calling it that) Higurashi, I'd be surprised if they missed much. I don't begrudge anyone seeing this for the first time, I think it's an interesting story, but I do wish they'd only spend money on remakes to shows that were fundamentally flawed or went off course in some way.
as someone who specifically passed on the anime the first time around and fell in love with the VN years later, the studio deen adaptation leaves a lot to be desired
besides the animation quality there were big swathes either glossed over or cut entirely, i'm not expecting the new anime to cover everything but i do hope it does its characters justice. ryukishi reportedly has more direct involvement this time around so I'm hopeful
also, the 2020 version
may possibly not be a straight remake? it's still too early to tell but there is some completely new stuff in there, if they do wind up going the Eva Rebuild route i would be... curious about that, i mean i did enjoy FF7 a lot
Oh, speaking of SAO type stuff, I rediscovered a manga I was reading. It's basically a cross between SAO and Bofuri in that the story's about a guy who spends all his time playing this single player MMO-style game that was developed by a team of devs who simultaneously could not give a shit about proper coding practices and also had a hate boner towards their own playerbase. We're talking devs who implemented the ability to propose marriage to anyone or anything in the game, provided the player followed the necessary steps to trigger the event, but then made a successful proposal trigger a fail state in the game so it couldn't be completed and the player had to start a new file because they purposely made the game overwrite the save on the proposal .
He ends up getting sucked into the world of the game because of his friend's dumbass wish and the entire story is about him trying to complete the game with his extensive knowledge while avoiding or exploiting every glitch, trick, and bug he's ever known while doing his absolute best to avoid dying from increasingly bullshit mechanics.
It's called Kono Sekai ga Game
Now that I'm home here's some pages from it to get an idea.
Oh, speaking of SAO type stuff, I rediscovered a manga I was reading. It's basically a cross between SAO and Bofuri in that the story's about a guy who spends all his time playing this single player MMO-style game that was developed by a team of devs who simultaneously could not give a shit about proper coding practices and also had a hate boner towards their own playerbase. We're talking devs who implemented the ability to propose marriage to anyone or anything in the game, provided the player followed the necessary steps to trigger the event, but then made a successful proposal trigger a fail state in the game so it couldn't be completed and the player had to start a new file because they purposely made the game overwrite the save on the proposal .
He ends up getting sucked into the world of the game because of his friend's dumbass wish and the entire story is about him trying to complete the game with his extensive knowledge while avoiding or exploiting every glitch, trick, and bug he's ever known while doing his absolute best to avoid dying from increasingly bullshit mechanics.
It's called Kono Sekai ga Game
Now that I'm home here's some pages from it to get an idea.
hahaha, holy shit
+1
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
That is fuckin ice cold holy crap
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
0
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
I don't know what I expected from Burn The Witch, but it wasn't Cross Ange X Reign of Fire.
0
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Chainsawman Ch 87
Omg the last two panels. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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It didn't help that there was a big blockbuster TV series at the time that used this formula successfully for 7 seasons
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Game of Thrones is undoubtedly an influence on the GRIM 'N GRITTY trend within fantasy stories, I wonder if the Dark Souls games also had some significant influence in Japanese fantasy writing in the last 10 years.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Magical Knights Rayearth predates it by two years, IIRC.
It's isekai all the way down.
Fantasy series? Harem. Sci Fi series? Harem. Slice of Life? You better believe there's some Harem.
I still think it's funny that dot Hack and SAO landed around the same time with a similar premise (scaled down though it was in SIGN), but one was a power fantasy and the other very much wasn't.
I still remember BT explaining the origin of her name and laughing my ass off at the seriousness of the conversation
Now that you point it out, yeah this is hitting the nail on the head. The constant with the trends of shitty oversaturated genres is they're vehicles for low quality erotic writing. That's what they're really shoveling out most of the time with light novels and manga in certain trashy magazines, and the scores of anime based thereupon. The shitty isekai trend isn't about isekai stories so much as it's another genre to tell the low quality harem romance stories in that were already crap and have been around forever.
Berserk (for the most part) doesn't feel like it's servicing a fetish though
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
berserk is good though, is the key difference
For a rate of 1 page every full moon it better be
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
look, miura~san has to play idol masters or the universe ends
it's in the contract
I love this typo
He ends up getting sucked into the world of the game because of his friend's dumbass wish and the entire story is about him trying to complete the game with his extensive knowledge while avoiding or exploiting every glitch, trick, and bug he's ever known while doing his absolute best to avoid dying from increasingly bullshit mechanics.
It's called Kono Sekai ga Game
But also Berserk becomes psychologically complex and well-written, filled with interesting characters and a compelling artistic vision. Stuff that Goblin Slayer and Shield Hero just don't have.
Like it totally works that Susumu Hirasawa's Guts' theme is this kinda sad, meditative beautiful song:
Yeah, I've enjoyed plenty of isekai stuff, it's just that the whole harem/slavery/stat wank stuff is so lame and so frequent it eclipses the good dumb fun ones.
One of the ones I do follow is still terribly, terribly schlocky but more or less the opposite of an harem, and it's great. It's absolutely a power fantasy, except the power fantasy on display, rather than "become maximally powerful and have two dozen women in my harem", is "luck out into a deeply, mutually loving marriage with a queen of a fantasy land, become her trusted king consort". And you know what, that is the kind of power fantasy I can be sold on.
curiouser and curiouser..
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My dream would be someone like UFOTable taking over a proper Umineko adaptation if this does well.
Now that I'm home here's some pages from it to get an idea.
hahaha, holy shit