I would hesitate before I'd call it a critique in its inheritance. Could you differentiate an isekai from any other type of fantasy story or fairy tale? Surely the poet who wrote Beowulf didn't actually slay a dragon. His story was far more engaging and interesting than whatever he was doing in the 10th century. I would much more quickly put a label of "wish fulfillment" than "capitalist critique" for these stories. In my mind, I think of the anime studio who needs easy an way to put a self-insert into a medieval setting. You don't have time as a studio to get an audience to love a down-trodden minstrel turned street urchin if you only get one season, but you can immediately sympathize with a hikkiNEET in a wacky situation.
You don’t have time as a studio to get an audience to love a down-trodden minstrel turned street urchin if you only get one season
I mean, this book is called name of the wind and it would probably make a pretty popular tv show if the adaptation ever saw the light of day. the author hooks you by showing the hero after his fall in the frame narrative and the meat of the story is him recounting his life to a biographer. by the time his parents parents die and he becomes a street urchin, you're deeply invested in the story and I think a decent TV show would try and get him off the streets and into the university in that first season. that is to say, you do have time given a half-decent narrative and characterization.
genre fantasy, including portal fantasies/isekais, can be self-inserts, but they really don't have to be. the Thomas Covenant series is famous for being a deeply engaging work of art, a portal fantasy, and featuring one of the most loathesome protagonists ever. the worst part is that he doesn't even need to be. the audience is primed by the story to forgive him at every turn and yet he manages to be unforgivable.
self-inserts are really just a sign that 1. the author is new at this or 2. the author is churning this out for cash. they're wholly a defect in the story and replacing them with a real character always improves the story.
That's fair, my exposure is mostly in re:zero, Konosuba, devil is a part timer, and shield hero. I feel confident saying those are self-interests or a subversion of it. I think we're vaguely agreeing that isekai can be a capitalist critique by having an alienated main character, but it is not necessarily. Is that a fair statement?
yes, but further that isekai is at it's strongest when it's examining the nature of wish-fulfillment and desire, or when it abandons that easy path to tell its own story (something done most straightforwardly by using the genre to serve as a basis for introducing the setting and characters, then heading off in its own direction). it's at its weakest when it plays itself straight or when it merely critiques the protagonist and their society. isekai has the relatively unique opportunity to critique two societies at once and to play them off each other. it's not really in the genre, except in an abstract way, but the Dispossessed by LeGuin takes this latter approach to amazing effect, comparing a poor, anarcho-communist society of people living on the moon with the rich, capitalist society living on the planet surface.
I would hesitate before I'd call it a critique in its inheritance. Could you differentiate an isekai from any other type of fantasy story or fairy tale? Surely the poet who wrote Beowulf didn't actually slay a dragon. His story was far more engaging and interesting than whatever he was doing in the 10th century. I would much more quickly put a label of "wish fulfillment" than "capitalist critique" for these stories. In my mind, I think of the anime studio who needs easy an way to put a self-insert into a medieval setting. You don't have time as a studio to get an audience to love a down-trodden minstrel turned street urchin if you only get one season, but you can immediately sympathize with a hikkiNEET in a wacky situation.
I mean, this book is called name of the wind and it would probably make a pretty popular tv show if the adaptation ever saw the light of day. the author hooks you by showing the hero after his fall in the frame narrative and the meat of the story is him recounting his life to a biographer. by the time his parents parents die and he becomes a street urchin, you're deeply invested in the story and I think a decent TV show would try and get him off the streets and into the university in that first season. that is to say, you do have time given a half-decent narrative and characterization.
genre fantasy, including portal fantasies/isekais, can be self-inserts, but they really don't have to be. the Thomas Covenant series is famous for being a deeply engaging work of art, a portal fantasy, and featuring one of the most loathesome protagonists ever. the worst part is that he doesn't even need to be. the audience is primed by the story to forgive him at every turn and yet he manages to be unforgivable.
self-inserts are really just a sign that 1. the author is new at this or 2. the author is churning this out for cash. they're wholly a defect in the story and replacing them with a real character always improves the story.
That's fair, my exposure is mostly in re:zero, Konosuba, devil is a part timer, and shield hero. I feel confident saying those are self-interests or a subversion of it. I think we're vaguely agreeing that isekai can be a capitalist critique by having an alienated main character, but it is not necessarily. Is that a fair statement?
yes, but further that isekai is at it's strongest when it's examining the nature of wish-fulfillment and desire, or when it abandons that easy path to tell its own story (something done most straightforwardly by using the genre to serve as a basis for introducing the setting and characters, then heading off in its own direction). it's at its weakest when it plays itself straight or when it merely critiques the protagonist and their society. isekai has the relatively unique opportunity to critique two societies at once and to play them off each other. it's not really in the genre, except in an abstract way, but the Dispossessed by LeGuin takes this latter approach to amazing effect, comparing a poor, anarcho-communist society of people living on the moon with the rich, capitalist society living on the planet surface.