We don’t have an Isekai genre. We have an Other World subgenre of fantasy that Japan made another name for and weebs apply to everything similar.
Chronicles of Narnia is a better fit. Diana Wynne Jones wrote one. There’s like … lots more. This was THE young adult genre for a couple decades.
Those are British though. Though I’m sure there are also American examples.
Peter Pan, Alice in wonderland, and The Iron Man were also all written by UK authors. Although I haven’t read The Iron Man for a very long time so I can’t remember how closely the Iron Giant movie uses the source material.
British authors, but extremely popular in the US. I guess we could call these Anglo-isekai?
Removed by mod
The 2007 Disney movie, Enchanted, is a reverse isekai.
Edit: I just found out they made a sequel last year.
I feel like a fantasy world that you can semi-freely travel to without death is not isekai.
I mean, Inuyasha exists.
Which is not an isekai, so…
Uh, the main character Kagome falls through a well into feudal era Japan and cannot get back.
Not sure how that doesn’t qualify as an Isekai.
She goes back and forth a lot tho.
After a huge amount of time, she’s stuck there for a while.
My favourite part is when Alice gets run over by the truck.
I don’t know that word, can someone weeb-translate please?
Part time weeblet here
Isekai if I remember right translates to other world. However in the context of the genre it’s when the protagonist gets transported to what is usually a fantasy world from what is usually death or reincarnation and sometimes summoning
Another trope I’ve seen is protagonist just wakes up in an MMO as their character and all the NPCs are sentient
I’m sure there are more but in anime it mostly boils down to: character is in fantasy now and knowledge of our world could give them an edge
When done right and done good it’s also a great trope for a fresh start and world building cus we don’t know the world, and the protagonist doesn’t know the world so we learn with them.
I never knew that was my favorite type of anime… Also one punch man
How well does Tron fit this genre?
That seems like such a broad genre to pass judgement on. That’s like if someone said “Ah-ha! You do have fish-out-of-water genres in the US!” I mean, ok; whatever. Who actually cares either way to debate this…?
I agree
IMO in anime it’s been overdone
I like it cus it can be pretty broad like most genres can be but I get tired of “lOsEr GeTs ReInCaRnAtEd InTo FaNtAsY wOrLd”. Idk maybe I’ve been watching too much as of late
I present the real OG of Isekai…
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court written in 1889 by American author Mark Twain.
Which has multiple film and TV adaptions. Such as Walt Disney’s A Kid in King Arthur’s Court.
Not the 1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which also has the same credentials but, as you can see, is earlier?
Still not sold on calling all of it Isekai regardless, but at least check your own facts
Like I said in another thread about good isekai stuff, my favorite isekai is Farscape.
