The wordisekai(異世界) means “a strange/different world”. The origin of its concept can be traced to Japanese folktales — the legend of Urashima Tarou, in which the travel to a fantastic world is represented by the Dragon Palace, is considered a precursor of the isekai genre in anime. It is largely inspired in JRPGs and other video games as well; however, these “other worlds” usually draw inspiration from Western fantasy tales, such asThe Lord Of The Rings, Dungeons And Dragons, Dragon Quest,being a subgenre of fantasy in which the protagonist or a group ends up in a fantasy world, which does not necessarily need to be a physical one, it can be a realistic virtual one, and that is the case withSword Art Online, for instance. Even in the beginning, when most isekai anime was mostly inspired by Western fantasies taking place in other worlds, there were many Asian-inspired titles, such asInuYasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale.
In isekai adventures, the protagonist or group is usually teleported to this other world involuntarily. With the recent isekai craze, the genre evolved, and we havecharacters who die and are reincarnated in other worldsinstead of just being sucked into them like the players were just trapped in Aincrad, in the very first arc of the aforementionedSword Art Online, and there is a new wave of isekai in which characters are trapped in otome game-like scenarios.
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The Cradle Of Isekai
At the beginning of the 1990s, some titles covering the premise of alternative universes started to come up in Japan. TheshoujomangaFushigi Yuugistarted to be published in 1992, and it covered the adventures of two girls that are transported into the world and the plot of a book.
In the following year, CLAMP released the mangaMagic Knight Rayearth, one year later adapted into an anime series. In 1995,El Hazard, an anime with an original story, debuted on Japanese television. In 1996,InuYashastarted to be serialized in the magazine WeeklyShonenSunday. In 1997, as an incentive for children to buy Tamagotchi, those virtual pets, theDigimonanime was created, in which a group of friends is transported into the digital world which, despite not being commercialized as isekai, fits the genre definition.
Coming Back Into The Scene & Being Trapped Into A Digital World
In 2002, the genre came back with total force, with three new and now very famous titles:Spirited Away, .hack,andSword Art Online. Studio Ghibli’sSpirited Awaywon the Oscar for best-animated feature film. The project of the.hackfranchise involved games and books, in addition to anime. With the release of the anime.hack//Signand the game.hack//Infectionand the success they achieved, the franchise rapidly expanded and covered the main areas of entertainment.Sword Art Onlinewas a book by Reki Kawahara that was published online between 2002 and 2008, being adapted into the light novel format in 2009, and with the first season of the anime series debuting on Japanese television in 2012.
Sword Art Onlinebecame extremely popular and promoted a revival of the genre’s popularity. After that, some of the most popular fantasy stories told in alternative worlds were created, in the light novel format, and, in 2014, the first of these titles to be adapted into an anime wasNo Game No Life.After that cameOverlord,in 2015, andKonoSubaandRe:Zero, in 2016.
Since then, the number of isekai stories has only increased – as well as their titles have become longer, in this new “batch” of isekai stories. FromThat Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, It’s That Reincarnated-as-a-Virus Story— and this was written before the COVID-19 pandemic, but published after it started —, toReincarnated As A Sword,we have main charactersbeing reincarnated as very strange beings/items, which creates a lot of new possibilities to tell new stories. There is even a webtoon namedThere Was A Time I Got Reincarnated As A Rock. Isekai anime likeI’m a villainess, so I’m taming the final boss,Romantic Killer,Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games Is Tough for Mobsare three examples of what can be considered the“dawn of the otome isekai era”.
Why Is Isekai So Appealing?
Isekai as a genre has been a thing for a while, and the incoming Winter 2023 season counts on some promising titles in this genre. However, they have become a trend in the 2010s and are regaining their power once again with their long titles and brave new worlds, with an increase in the popularity offemale protagonistsas well.Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire, there is a nice twist, in which the King is reincarnated as a female. Not only he ceases being a king and becomes a squire, but there is also this gender-bending twist, which makes the premise very promising.
Escapism has always been present in storytelling, from tales of ore likeAlice In Wonderlandto modern ones likeBOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense, they share the base of having their realities based on the mechanics of fantasy – and modern versions have embraced the digital world, now a trend, which started off withDigimon. That is, the “old” escapism has only been adapted for our modern and very technological and digital era, but it never ceased to be there. Not only are they wish-fulfillment distractions, but these stories can also become hallmarks to be analyzed in the future, which reflect our aspirations and difficulties in a world that is so demanding. For now, it is good enough that they provide welcome reprieves from the harsh realities of real life.
