Isekai was a thing before the word was popularized and normalized in the west to describe the subgenre of fantasy. I'd argue The Neverending Story is clearly an isekai, for example. And there's been great conventional anime isekais in the past, such as Vision of Escaflowne.
What I'm sick of is the "oh this is like a video game and the NPCs can be manipulated because they're just programs susceptible to cheat codes" gimmick. It's gross and I find it intolerable to follow any "hero" that dehumanizes other characters under any excuse to build a virtual capitalist empire with an infinite harem. It's :epstein: tier :brainworms: to me.
I don't want to automatically reject something I hear about because I hear it's an "isekai" but all too often it means "another video game world with NPCs to exploit!" :capitalist-laugh:
What an empty sort of metagamey victory to fantasize about. How alienating and sad for such "heroes," even if they still deserve :gulag: in general.
I just want Vision of Escaflowne back QQ
A guess the one silver lining is that the new hotness is isekai where the protag fucks off to the country side with his busty 30 something girlfriend to start a farm instead of save the world.
There is a specific beauty about the 90s thing where fantasy is for girls and sci fi is for boys.
You can have mech battles but if you have a harem of boys there needs to be a dragon in it.
Then there's shows like Magic Knight Rayearth, which is a 1994/1995 Mecha Shojo Isekai.
spoiler
Even if mechs only show up in the imo better S2.
Uncharitably saying that 90's Japanese pop culture reflected that boys must be forced to relive the trauma of losing WW2 well into the future (just with giant robots) while a strong independent young woman who has her choice of romantic partners was confined to the realm of fantasy.
Memes aside realistically it probably was everyone bandwagoning Miyazaki and Tomino. Then Anno came and fucked everything up.