Considering Escaflowne came out over twenty years ago, I'm surprised there aren't other isekai that explore what happens if a historical figure got isekai'd before you, and you having to deal with the shit they started over there.
Mazumeshi Elf to Yuubokugurashi (マズ飯エルフと遊牧暮らし) does this, a bit, although the major historical figure is Xu Fu which is arguably a cliché all in itself. Previous isekais play a large role in the worldbuilding, anyhow.
It's not a fantastic series, but it's enjoyable. It's in that weird subgenre of "professional cook gets isekai'd and lives a casual life amongst people unused to that quality of cooking" - in this case it's nomadic elves.
Chairman Meow at
+1
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited April 24
Skimming the novel section of RightStuf just gives me a headache. They probably had to extend the coding for their line breaks, good lord.
Considering Escaflowne came out over twenty years ago, I'm surprised there aren't other isekai that explore what happens if a historical figure got isekai'd before you, and you having to deal with the shit they started over there.
Doesn't Overlord do this?
It pretends like it's going to and then it never comes up again as the plot goes up its own ass
And yeah rando mmo players, not real life historical figures
Just finished Mob Pyscho 100 II (yeah, it took me a bit to get around to it):
As always, the more simplistic art style allows for more creative and impressive animation. I wish more anime would follow its lead, honestly.
The two episodes featuring Reigen trying to go on without Mob and the episode focusing on Mob’s trying to place high in a race without using his powers show how much range and heart this show has.
The final episodes definitely went to the action side of the spectrum, but still had a lot of heart with Mob being able to win over one former villain by relating to him and being willing to sacrifice himself so that another villain he thought he couldn’t save wouldn’t die alone. The idea of being controlled by one’s own powers is a very interesting, more sympathetic take on the classic “power corrupts” adage. The final villain of the season was alienated from the rest of the world by the “realization” that his power made him the most “free” person in the world, which Mob argued against by saying that people need bonds with one another to grow (though even he couldn’t help but momentarily be overtaken by the thrill of fighting someone on his level, which he soon felt ashamed of).
I’m honestly a little bit envious of how many kind and supportive people Mob has in his life who aren’t much like him, like the very supportive and kind members of the Body Improvement Club, though even he attributes his situation to luck and feels empathy for his opponents who weren’t as lucky as he was. This was alluded to earlier in the season with the spirit Mogami temporarily trapping Mob in a mindscape where he had none of his friends and was surrounded by cruel people before finally losing control, using his powers against them.
A recent YouTube video I watched did ask a good question:
How many contemporary isekai actually have proper endings? Like, I honestly can't think of any that fully resolve even if the anime itself only got one season
A recent YouTube video I watched did ask a good question:
How many contemporary isekai actually have proper endings? Like, I honestly can't think of any that fully resolve even if the anime itself only got one season
None- they’re all overlong commercials to sell 40 volume light novels.
Surprisingly few light novels or manga actually have endings at all, feels like the majority are written to trundle on indefinitely until the author starts to run out of ideas and it gets unpopular and dropped, maybe with a perfunctory concluding chapter if lucky.
Surprisingly few light novels or manga actually have endings at all, feels like the majority are written to trundle on indefinitely until the author starts to run out of ideas and it gets unpopular and dropped, maybe with a perfunctory concluding chapter if lucky.
A recent YouTube video I watched did ask a good question:
How many contemporary isekai actually have proper endings? Like, I honestly can't think of any that fully resolve even if the anime itself only got one season
Ironically, some of the "oldest" of this generation of isekai do have endings in their light novels. Jobless Reincarnation and Shield Hero for example both have a definitive ending. It's the ones taking more after Sword Art Online that just meander around forever.
Surprisingly few light novels or manga actually have endings at all, feels like the majority are written to trundle on indefinitely until the author starts to run out of ideas and it gets unpopular and dropped, maybe with a perfunctory concluding chapter if lucky.
Or the author dies.
See: Zero no Tsukaima.
or berserk
I didn't know the zero author had passed away, actually.
Chairman Meow on
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Surprisingly few light novels or manga actually have endings at all, feels like the majority are written to trundle on indefinitely until the author starts to run out of ideas and it gets unpopular and dropped, maybe with a perfunctory concluding chapter if lucky.
Or the author dies.
See: Zero no Tsukaima.
I thought that got finished with the author's notes.
It’s part of why I tend to cut most of the original anime I watch a little slack - since they’re not pulling from an established property and know they’re getting one season they tend to at least finish even if the endings don’t always work.
Chairman Meow on
+2
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited April 24
The lack of any concrete endings definitely feels like a glaring weakness of the current trend of adapting light novels
Incidentally some of my favorite non-isekai LN series do either have concrete endings (and an anime adaptation that captured those endings) or at least thoroughly resolved arcs at the point of their hiatus
Katanagatari and Durarara!! especially come to mind
No, manga is very similar in that. They're both often serial stories meant to be ongoing as long as their popularity lasts, made with no complete story in mind.
And of course there are exceptions in both mediums, but they are exceptions.
Chairman Meow on
+1
LasbrookIt takes a lot to make a stewWhen it comes to me and youRegistered Userregular
edited April 24
Watching the G Reco movies before gundaminfo takes them down and I get why this would be a handy function to have for like long deployments or whatever but I am NOT a fan of having the cockpit double as a toilet. Ain’t no way that entire thing isn’t just filthy.
I don't think it's necessarily even a bad thing. Lord knows no horror movie literally ever ends with "And the serial axe murderer was defeated forever and that's the end of that." No, it's always... "OR WAS IT!? DUH DUH DUUUUUUUUUUUH!" But Japanese media tends a lot more towards bloat and not wanting to actually finish arcs. Light novels especially more than manga tend to introduce these grandiose quests or big bads but not actually want to ever kill them off or the like in the way even Dragonball, Bleach, or whatnot might, and then they have to be incorporated into every story, making the bloat problem worse and worse as they go on. Once a character is introduced, the only way they'll be shelved is if they're wildly unpopular. But you gotta maintain the status quo too, so nobody can really develop, grow, or change either or you might ruin what got you your popularity.
I'm rambling now though. I do think it's a major weakness of Japanese approach to writing that they're not willing to reinterpret or reinvent stories on existing material for shorter, compact, and punchy one-off stories in the way Western media is more geared towards. I assume it's the undue reverence given to the source, but then I remember that there's an official One Piece spinoff about a version of Luffy with a rubber dick he uses to whip people with, so... no. Probably not.
Considering Escaflowne came out over twenty years ago, I'm surprised there aren't other isekai that explore what happens if a historical figure got isekai'd before you, and you having to deal with the shit they started over there.
Drifters kind of does this.
Chairman Meow at
0
J-bobJ-bob in gamesDeath MountainRegistered Userregular
edited April 24
I'm sure The Winds of Winter will get an announcement any day now.
Chairman Meow on
0
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited April 24
There's generally three ways for a Jump series to go
It's unpopular and gets axed
It goes for a long time until fatigue sets in and then they finish it out
It has a set story structure and only goes long enough to tell it's story (Exceedingly rare but it does happen, like with Demon Slayer)
With light novels, I feel like what ends up happening more often than not is that anime adaptations never even bother to try and adapt it until the end
Often the manga adaptations never even bother to keep going for the whole duration
I dunno if it's just easier to keep a light novel going or something
There's generally three ways for a Jump series to go
It's unpopular and gets axed
It goes for a long time until fatigue sets in and then they finish it out
It has a set story structure and only goes long enough to tell it's story (Exceedingly rare but it does happen, like with Demon Slayer)
With light novels, I feel like what ends up happening more often than not is that anime adaptations never even bother to try and adapt it until the end
Often the manga adaptations never even bother to keep going for the whole duration
I dunno if it's just easier to keep a light novel going or something
releasing novels (especially online) is just a bigger space than individual weekly/monthly print magazines or the animation industry, in terms of how many different series are going at once.
if a floundering novel series is struggling along but still generally profitable? There's not much downside to letting it keep going, it's probably not interfering with the publisher's capacity as a whole. If a series in jump is just doing okay? That series could be replaced by a younger, hungrier, more merchandise-moving series next week. It's a liability to keep letting it take up valuable pages.
Hey we finished Utena, here's the best thing ever happening in the last episode.
Seriously, fuck that guy.
Chairman Meow on
+6
miscellaneousinsanitygrass grows, birds fly, sun shines,and brother, i hurt peopleRegistered Userregular
edited April 24
not gonna post any heavy analysis right now but my fun fact for you is that the final episode (and 6 other eps throughout the series) was storyboarded by mamoru hosoda
Light novel series can stretch on forever but at least several of them eventually end.
Demon King Daimaou had a ... Ending.
Devil is a part timer ended as well.
If it's for my daughter actually had a pretty short run at 8 or so volumes.
Arifureta had 11 volumes and an ok ending.
Death March in another world ended as well.
Jobless is probably the only one that has a real good ending.
Most just suffer heavily from some real conflict creep. Start as school comedy > end as multidimensional godbeings fighting in the void of creation for a millennium to rewrite existence.
I don't even know how many of them could even be adapted into decent anime arcs.
I've been pondering it, and Utena might've been better as a 24-26 episode, two season/cour show. Looking back on it, there's a ton of filler that's just 'incident leads to duel' without advancing the story. Especially when it's introducing a one-episode-only character.
Shorten it down to three 8-episode arcs, put the Nanami recap episode right before the last one starts. Make the whole cycle of having to fight each main rival over again more obvious by cutting out most of the stray one-shot characters. And, you know, put more hints of the actual story in the first 2/3 of the show.
Posts
Mazumeshi Elf to Yuubokugurashi (マズ飯エルフと遊牧暮らし) does this, a bit, although the major historical figure is Xu Fu which is arguably a cliché all in itself. Previous isekais play a large role in the worldbuilding, anyhow.
It's not a fantastic series, but it's enjoyable. It's in that weird subgenre of "professional cook gets isekai'd and lives a casual life amongst people unused to that quality of cooking" - in this case it's nomadic elves.
That said, this looks gorgeous, and I had no idea it got rereleased:
https://www.rightstufanime.com/El-Hazard-The-Magnificent-World-OVA-12-Collection-Blu-ray
It pretends like it's going to and then it never comes up again as the plot goes up its own ass
And yeah rando mmo players, not real life historical figures
The two episodes featuring Reigen trying to go on without Mob and the episode focusing on Mob’s trying to place high in a race without using his powers show how much range and heart this show has.
The final episodes definitely went to the action side of the spectrum, but still had a lot of heart with Mob being able to win over one former villain by relating to him and being willing to sacrifice himself so that another villain he thought he couldn’t save wouldn’t die alone. The idea of being controlled by one’s own powers is a very interesting, more sympathetic take on the classic “power corrupts” adage. The final villain of the season was alienated from the rest of the world by the “realization” that his power made him the most “free” person in the world, which Mob argued against by saying that people need bonds with one another to grow (though even he couldn’t help but momentarily be overtaken by the thrill of fighting someone on his level, which he soon felt ashamed of).
I’m honestly a little bit envious of how many kind and supportive people Mob has in his life who aren’t much like him, like the very supportive and kind members of the Body Improvement Club, though even he attributes his situation to luck and feels empathy for his opponents who weren’t as lucky as he was. This was alluded to earlier in the season with the spirit Mogami temporarily trapping Mob in a mindscape where he had none of his friends and was surrounded by cruel people before finally losing control, using his powers against them.
How many contemporary isekai actually have proper endings? Like, I honestly can't think of any that fully resolve even if the anime itself only got one season
None- they’re all overlong commercials to sell 40 volume light novels.
Or the author dies.
See: Zero no Tsukaima.
Ironically, some of the "oldest" of this generation of isekai do have endings in their light novels. Jobless Reincarnation and Shield Hero for example both have a definitive ending. It's the ones taking more after Sword Art Online that just meander around forever.
or berserk
I didn't know the zero author had passed away, actually.
I thought that got finished with the author's notes.
Katanagatari and Durarara!! especially come to mind
I mean, is it any different for most manga? Particularly of the Jump variety?
And of course there are exceptions in both mediums, but they are exceptions.
Steam
I'm rambling now though. I do think it's a major weakness of Japanese approach to writing that they're not willing to reinterpret or reinvent stories on existing material for shorter, compact, and punchy one-off stories in the way Western media is more geared towards. I assume it's the undue reverence given to the source, but then I remember that there's an official One Piece spinoff about a version of Luffy with a rubber dick he uses to whip people with, so... no. Probably not.
It's unpopular and gets axed
It goes for a long time until fatigue sets in and then they finish it out
It has a set story structure and only goes long enough to tell it's story (Exceedingly rare but it does happen, like with Demon Slayer)
With light novels, I feel like what ends up happening more often than not is that anime adaptations never even bother to try and adapt it until the end
Often the manga adaptations never even bother to keep going for the whole duration
I dunno if it's just easier to keep a light novel going or something
if a floundering novel series is struggling along but still generally profitable? There's not much downside to letting it keep going, it's probably not interfering with the publisher's capacity as a whole. If a series in jump is just doing okay? That series could be replaced by a younger, hungrier, more merchandise-moving series next week. It's a liability to keep letting it take up valuable pages.
Time for AniMenagerie to revolutionize the world.
that's not how you properly draw a horse!
Seriously, fuck that guy.
Also Wolf Children, whose trailer looked so sad I decided to avoid anything else about it forever.
Wait but that's how I deal with melancholy!
Then it's off to Season 3!
Needed more of the raincoat ninja tho.
Demon King Daimaou had a ... Ending.
Devil is a part timer ended as well.
If it's for my daughter actually had a pretty short run at 8 or so volumes.
Arifureta had 11 volumes and an ok ending.
Death March in another world ended as well.
Jobless is probably the only one that has a real good ending.
Most just suffer heavily from some real conflict creep. Start as school comedy > end as multidimensional godbeings fighting in the void of creation for a millennium to rewrite existence.
I don't even know how many of them could even be adapted into decent anime arcs.
Yup, still good.
There is a volume 12 in the works. And the web novel is more after stories then main story at this point.
Shorten it down to three 8-episode arcs, put the Nanami recap episode right before the last one starts. Make the whole cycle of having to fight each main rival over again more obvious by cutting out most of the stray one-shot characters. And, you know, put more hints of the actual story in the first 2/3 of the show.