It still baffles me that there is still so much isekai, the ones i have glanced at are so unimaginative i thought people would get bored of it but somehow there is still more being made
They are terrible, but the absurd new subgenres are funny. Like now the trend is for Stardew Valley shows where the premise is that you get to enjoy the unalienated products of your labor and actually have friends.
And a harem, like last season's mid-as-hell farmer Isekai.
Ofc there's always a harem except in some of the Yuri ones
I mean Isekai in itself isn't the worst thing, but how utterly generic 99% of it is.
While I might be a bit biased towards old anime, back in the 80s and 90s (and probably 2000-2010 - I have not enough knowledge of that era) at least they didn't shoehorn UIs, stats, special abilities into it just as if the MC was in a game, and not just its setting.
It's the same reason there are so many super hero movies in the west: it's what studios know is popular, so they approve more isekai instead of taking risks that might lose money.
Of course but then why is production of isekai profitable? How are people not bored of generic isekai #87377
My theory is that modern isekai is the next level of escapism. It's not just "some guy" fighting demons and getting the girl(s), it's "literally me!", a socially awkward loser, probably still in high school, who one day wakes up in magic fun land with super special magic powers (or a smartphone). The protagonist is a blank slate for the audience to project themselves onto. Meanwhile, the side cast is mostly just tropes, which means it's easy to switch between shows and not miss much. In particular, the women/girls in the show often fall into extremely played out tropes, so the audience can just pick their favorite, and because there's only very rarely progression in a romance subplot, any coupling is canon.
Also worth noting that "Isekai"/Portal Fantasy has been popular as a genre for quite a while (I want to say over a century), so this is less something new and more just optimizing the genre towards the type of viewers who are going to spend $30k on bodypillows.
There's an actually good Isekai from 1999 you might like. Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku (Now and Then, Here and There).
It's similar to Grave of the Fireflies or Lord of the Flies. It's really depressing too.
It doesn't do the thing where it's a fantasy RPG world. It's like a post-apocalypse where a bunch of kids have to figure out how to find water.
Also Magic Knight Rayearth (1994/1995) and .hack//SIGN (2002) are good.
The first is fairly generic at first, but once it stops taking itself seriously in S2 it gets actually quite good, in addition to having a good ending.
.hack//SIGN otoh is a video game isekai, but actually done well. No power fantasies, a solid mystery plot and best of all things, it doesn't forget it's a video game and not an alternate reality with a UI.
aura battler dunbine is an isekai from the 80s by yoshiyuki tomino of gundam fame. i'm going to start it soon, but i've heard nothing but good things
It's the isekai, actually. The first anime with the concept of getting transported to another world for whatever reason.
Also SUNRISE shoehorned mecha into it, from what I heard.
Complete off topic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YjcwxvRgZM
Obscure Gundam clone which only has bad subtitles in English, but the Opening is a banger
ooooh love that bit at 30 seconds where the music syncs with the dude moving some lever
this is beautiful!
What pises me about isekai is that the protagonists come from earth they have presumably a highschool education. Even if they dont remember much they should be aware of methodological stuf like the sientific method. Thats a huge exploit.
If they used their earth knoledge say some nerd gets isekaied with the litle red book or with one of those several thousand pages highschool and college elemental phisics books. Or with a book of tables. It could get really interesting.
But the protagonist usually gets a magic cheat. If they are going to rely on magic why not make them a native from the begining?
Even the stupid harry poter book handeled the concept better on its first half.
You might be interested in Ascendance of a Bookworm, it's about a girl using modern knowledge to try to make books in ye olde medieval times. It's also the opposite of a power fantasy: she reincarnates in the body of a frail and sickly peasant girl.
she does get magic, but it's very much not something she uses to start fighting everyone and winning
fair enough, but i figured they were complaining about character having magic so they should probably be assured it doesn't turn to shit in season 2 or whatever
I enjoyed it, though it can get a little dark (they're peasants in a highly stratified medieval society after all). There are 3 seasons and unfortunately it seems unlikely to get more, though the source light novel goes way longer.
they really starts to run together. i have to assume there's a large audience of people who are just consuming every single one that comes out regardless of quality because they broke the pleasure center in their brain and that's the only way they can produce dopamine anymore.
How da fuck did you miss out on the idol anime category? Fucking Love live unironically basicaly defined pretty much half the 2ch's culture in the 2010's.
Also fuck you the Genshin anime will be great ok, its literally impossible to wrong. Its Chinese and Ufotable... :wojak-nooo:
How da fuck did you miss out on the idol anime category?
By forgetting :gigachad:
Idol hands are the devil's hands. Keep 'em out of out anime.
Here are the Good Animes (as someone that isn't a specific anime fan but likes good slop wherever it's from)
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Nichijou (the only one anyone really needs)
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Medabots (shit rules)
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Digimon (are the champions)
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Kino's Journey (Serene Twilight Zone with a talking motorcyle)
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Eva (:shinji-screm: )
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Paranoia Agent
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Serial Expierment: Lain
Edit for legal reasons: 8 The @GonzoBonzo Show AKA 100 Psychos in the Mob and that one with the Kangaroo, it had a sus name. Revolution Umami Girl.
The rest are mid.
Watch Mob Psycho then you will know what it is.
It's like if Evangelion was made by someone with way more optimism. It's about how we're nothing without human connection, but in a good way
Gonna be real, I'm probably not gonna. I've got a big list to deal with as is.
Yeah, okay. Court ruled in your favor. I have a sweet spot for people enforcing rules they just made up. Calvinball enthusiast here.
i'm imagining a better list that includes utena
any list without kangaroo violence and horny cars is no list of mine
no, the kangaroo only shows up the twice, but elephants, cows, and some other critters get episodes of their own
i like this guy a lot. his name is chuchu
i also like surrealism and feminism and queerness and art that is willing to portray a system as inherently corrupt where the only way to live a better life is to fully leave the frameworks you grew up with, but
No, it's the girl with pink hair. I think the kangaroo shows up one more time.
I don't see it come up much and that's a shame. It's got such a mood of its own. It genuinely reminds me of hitchhiking around too. It really brings home that combination of freedom and detachment that can be cool and suck at the same time.
Revolution Umami Girl
This is about a small soy sauce maker who takes up arms to seize women's liberation.
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Special mention: Finally Continued
Show that was very well received years ago either got enough source material to make a new season, or the studio that owns the rights whiffed on multiple other adaptations in a row, and are looking to cash out on an established property. Extremely likely to be underwhelming or only fun for prior fans of the property, but on occasion causes an explosive second wind for the property at-large.
(Extremely rare, except for shows you do not care about)
Don't worry, though, Rent-a-Girlfriend is getting another season this year! :pain:
I'm still holding out for The Irresponsible Captain Tylor S2, the last episode being on VHS in 1996 be damned 😤
Once the Japanese zoomers that can't physically tolerate reading a visual novel longer than the LotR trilogy are in control of the anime market, we'll finally get a proper Saber route adaptation of F/SN, I know it. Literally all of the animated adaptations of any part of F/SN to-date are predicated on having an audience of thirty-somethings with prior knowledge from the visual novel.
It's insane that a property that fucking popular has no functional telling of the groundwork version of its story that actually makes sure the audience understands how everything functions and establishes character motivations that you're expected to have prior knowledge of in UBW and Heaven's Feel. Telling people "read a fifty-hour visual novel before you watch any of the anime" is such a no-sell proposition lmao
Coming Summer 2043.
:geordi-no: Fate: Stay Night getting a proper adaptation
:geordi-yes: 900 more seasons of Carnival Phantasm
Ah shit, I forgot a category:
Necromancy
"Gundam, bringing back Ryosuke Takahashi, City Hunter, Lupin III, Urusei Yatsura? Bring it on!" "(Results may vary)"
gundam isn't necromancy, they've been making new reboots every few years for 3 decades now. idk what that is, but it's more like a precure or sentai type thing
Yeah, I know. But similarly to Lupin III, it's a show that's been around since the 70s and keeps getting reinvented, with mixed results.
Some are good, like WfM while say Reconguista in G is a mess.
that's fair, i just don't think it's the same as urusei yatsura. lupin did have a 30 year gap between part 3 and woman called fujiko mine where there weren't any tv anime so i do think that counts as necromancy, but by now it's just another ongoing series like jjba or whatever
Fair enough.
Also, while there's a gap between Part 3 and TWCFM, there was at least one movie a year since 1989 (I should know, I've watched most of them except for the ones that I know have problematic stuff in them) until 2019.
Is Witch from Mercury actually good? I've seen the first three eps and (other than the first) it seems just okay so far.
I like it, but the main part of the plot hasn't really stated yet... I think.
birdie wing was one of the best anime last year. very brave of sunrise to only make the sequel to char's counterattack 34 years later and focused on golfing lesbians instead of the giant robots, but goddammit it works
These are pretty on point, though sometimes the sports shows are actually pretty good.
Missing the bizarre, low budget, experimental fantasy show which has a unique and fascinating vibe but is undone when writers don't know where to take the premise. See Fire Hunter this season, or Sabikui Bisco, Mars Red, To Your Eternity, from the recent past.
sabikui bisco lost me literally in the plot twist that fed into the last episode. could not bring myself to finish it. you haven't done any worldbuilding that would suggest a life-after-death possibility, you are throwing "lmao mushrooms" at a literal fucking pit of fire and saying this will carry tragedy through to arising and reunion? piss off please i have wasted 11 eps now and you won't get me to waste a 12th
Having watched exactly 0 sports anime, it seems like every time there's a breakout one that everyone recommends, either the animators are going absolutely ham, or the "sport" is hand-painting playing cards or traditional Japanese standup comedy or something that's not a sport at all.
Slam Dunk is a basketball anime/manga and an extremely highly regarded one at that (the manga is in the top 20 of all time on MAL I'm pretty sure), but even if you hate basketball and really-drawn out matches, the show is hilarious enough for it to not matter much.
to your eternity is absolutely amazing... for the first like 3 episodes
It's crazy how good the first episode is compared to the rest of it. I mean I like it I'm still watching it but it's so different from how it started
cultural hegemony category carrying modern anime to greater and greater places :rat-salute:
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