I went off anime when the isekai and moe craze took off about 10 years ago.

I tried to get into modern anime, but couldn't (JoJo is based off an 80s manga, that doesn't count as modern to me).

But I'm on episode 3 and I'm really digging Dungeon Meishi/ Delicious in Dungeon. I'm watching the English dub and It's like if Monster Hunter and Dimension 20 had a baby. The humour is great, I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. The world is cool too.

I like how it isn't following the anime tropes. The characters aren't high schoolers, the women act like real human beings, there's no Shonen toy commercial BS. It's just a good fun adventure.

My only criticisms are that it's a little videogamey, it makes me hungry and that the title Delicious in Dungeon makes no sense, it should be Delicious in THE Dungeon.

Senshi is my favourite.

  • micnd90 [he/him,any]
    ·
    25 days ago

    The problem is not isekai itself, some of the most beloved animes like Fushigi Yuugi, Inuyasha, Spirited Away are isekai (specifically, girl-isekai) and even Digimon, all of them are fantastic. It is a great way to introduce a protagonist with background you can relate into fantastical world (Spirited Away is the best example for this).

    What poisoned the chalice is the mid 2010s onwards Japanese light novel - anime adaptation - merchandise meta. This is why modern isekai has a long, clickbaity title such as "I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level" or "I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too". The meta is so that the people pick up the light novel just because of clickbait title, and based on 1st volume sales alone one can get an anime adaptation, then make money off selling waifu merchs. So what happened is that the initial transport is not well-thought of (hence, truck-kun joke for the mechanic of transporting the protag), video game rules (in a sterile, bright colored, generic medieval fantasy world) and waifu-harem cast (to sell merchs).

    • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
      ·
      25 days ago

      The meta is so that the people pick up the light novel just because of clickbait title, and based on 1st volume sales alone one can get an anime adaptation, then make money off selling waifu merchs.

      To add on a bit, the clickbaity titles are literal clickbait because what happens is that a lot of these stories start out by being published online for free on what are essentially fan-fiction boards in the hopes that publishers will pick up the most popular ones and they get book deals. That's the reason for the overly long titles summarizing the plot, also why most of these aren't well written (usually the first time an editor sees the script, it'll be when the story is picked up for publishing and usually there are very few rewrites etc).