The Isekai genre
This is not going to be an in-depth or exhaustive article on the anime genre itself since that would lead me to open too many parenthesis and I would probably end up wasting too much space. I will however give a brief overlook on this subgenre to at least make you understand what the hell I’m talking about.
First thing’s first, Isekai literally translates to ‘different world’ or ‘otherworld’ and in the anime industry of the last decade or so (yes, I know the genre is way older but bear with me) refers to series that see their main character transposed in a secondary world, mostly either a fantasy world or an in-game world. Although started as a niche genre, today it is one of the most mainstream types of anime out there; just take a look on Crunchyroll to see for yourself. Furthermore, amongst the most common ways a protagonists is transported to this secondary world is either by reincarnation (usually due to a deadly incident featuring truck-chan) or through a computer interface (coma is the lazy writer’s best friend in this case). Frequently the protagonists are given a unique feature such as potent magic, a superpower, money (which in itself is a magical superpower) or anything of the like and they set of for their journey. The goals of the characters may differ, but usually what the Isekai genre explores is how these protagonists face their new circumstances.
My personal rant with this subgenre is how many people acclaimed Sword Art Online as being one of the first of its kind and indicating how unique a setting featuring a videogame world was. To that I would advise people to watch .hack, something that preceded the fame of this trope by almost a decade (.hack//Sign was made in 2002).
The Isekai deconstruction paradigm
Now that we understand how the genre behaves, let’s address the other-world elephant in the room: the anime industry today is oversaturated with Isekai. Given the fame SAO received and several other big titles and due to the fact that every studio was able to give a spin on a simplistic story, more and more similar anime with generically-unique-but-not-quite-so-unique protagonists started to flood the market. As one would expect the genre became stale, so the studios had to adapt. The easiest way to re-invent the genre without changing the formula excessively was to add an alienating or subversive element to the mix.
In other words, it was enough to change just one detail and viewers would be interested again. And, sincerely, this worked quite well to a certain extent. This process of deconstructing a genre, taking one of its fundamental building blocks, mixing it up a bit and creating a ‘new-ish’ series has produced quite a lot of titles. Here are just some examples from the top of my head – quick fire round go.
- How about we make the protagonists not resurrect as a human but as a slime? – Got you covered – That time I got reincarnated as a Slime
- How about we make the protagonist resurrect alongside his mother? – Do you love your mom and her two-hit multi-target attacks? (Yes, that is a title)
- How about making someone reincarnate in a vending machine? Reborn as a Vending Machine, I now wander the Dungeon.
- How about Isekai but it’s essentially grim Groundhog Day? – Re:Zero
- How about we make the MC hear the voice of God but also is a middle age man in the body of a loli and has magical powers and fights for a dictatorial regime? – Yup, we got that too – The Saga of Tanya the Evil.
- How about some parody? – so many titles at this point, but let’s just go with KonoSuba.
You know what? I’m feeling that some readers would assume this is shitposting at this point, but these are actual titles and premises for anime series. Let’s just move on.
The Ojisan and the reverse Isekai
So the reverse process is not entirely new; it simply asks the question what if the characters from an Isekai come to the primary world instead of vice versa? A beautiful example of this is Re:Creators, an interesting spin which I won’t analyse here since it would deserver an article on its own.
Here is one thing that I wanted to discuss however, one of the recent deconstruction in the Isekai genre. Isekai Ojisan (or Uncle from another world) answers the admittedly specific question: what would happen if the older uncle who was in a coma returns from another world and still has the magic and items he acquired during his adventures? Apparently, the answer is that he becomes a You-tuber to make a living. I am not even joking.
Isekai Ojisan however has it’s charm and while one would assume that it would concentrate on how the figure of the uncle would have to cope with the circumstances of the real world, him having overpowering magical capabilities and whatnot, that is not the case. The real world is actually just a framework, a narrative ploy that is used to get back to a normal Isekai. There are many aspects that are just for mere parody effect, but that is exactly what makes the series work. It is not meant to be serious, or awkwardly enough a deconstruction of the genre. Isekai Ojisan simply uses the tropes that have been consolidated in the past decade to deliver on a simplistic series; the humoristic elements just make it flow smoothly.
Are we at the point where Isekai just did a 360 and it subverted and deconstructed so much itself to just become standard Isekai again? Meh, who cares – the industry will just figure out how to make even more content.