Except instead of the main character using his knowledge of modern technology to acquire cat girl sex slaves, it's a critique on capitalism. Which is kinda cool. Maybe I should read it again
Aren't most old sci-fi/fantasy's isekais? Alice in Wonderland, John Carpenter of Mars, Narnia, etc. Its like the default for those genres.
Yeah I mean it's definitely a thing. Hell, isn't our favorite book of all time here a Isekai? HARRY POTTER
Also I feel like one of the major tropes of Isekai is utilizing your superior knowledge from your world to basically coast in the one you're plopped in (the Yankee starts a soap business and convinces people that they need soap to manufacture demand). Also you're given some kind of cheat power as well (in this case it's the Yankees gun).
John Carter being a dumbass compared to most Martians but he's got the power of earth gravity and genteel antebellum racism so he's better than everyone else.
Yeah thats the natural conclusion of dropping your hero into foreign world. Either they will use their outsider knowledge and flourish or be a total moron and perish. You dont have a story with the latter.
I suspect that before Isekai's you had stories with ambassadors or explorers in a foreign land. Road to El Dorado has all the markings of an Isekai.
Harry Potter could be considered an Isekai but it blends several subgenres that overshadow it. English Boarding school, and Boy-Wizard are their own genres.
There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
-- Mark Twain
Yes, the Western Portal Fantasy is like Isekai, but I maintain it's a different subgenre.
Portal Fantasy's (Against the fall of night, Wizard in spite of himself, Man who came too early) generally have a lot more focus on Social and Technological History rather than being a raw power fantasy (though there is a bit of that)
"Man who came too early" I heard Kamala wants to ban this book.
Damn I had this book forever ago. The same version as this picture; got it at the thrift store for a quarter. Watched it on my shelf for a decade before I gave it away without reading it; I thought it sounded too cheesy
You sometimes see people quote it here: "THERE were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood..."
I'm working on an isekai and I took another look at Connecticut Yankee (I had read it many years ago). There was casual racism against "Asiatics" and Native Americans on the first few pages IIRC. Twain might have been decent for his time, but I'm not sure that makes him good enough for ours.
