Isekai is "normal fantasy setting" but you must explain everything to the MC, which is useful because you had to find a way to explain that shit to the audience anyway.

[–] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 39 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Yeah Tolkien should’ve made Lord of the Rings an Isekai because I didn’t understand the fantasy and I want everything in the world of Middle Earth hamfistedly explained to me.

Isekais are just lazy writing. Even for manga which are often already relying too much on exposition.

[–] Pipoca@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

Portal fantasies aren't exactly new.

The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are classics that aren't generally considered lazy.

Isekai tend towards the lazy, self-insert escapist portion of portal fantasy, sure. Most don't have great writing. But keep Sturgeons law in mind - every genre has a few gems in a sea of turds.

[–] Maultasche@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

There was an original framing story about an Anglo Saxon sailor who finds the straight road and ends up in Valinor.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Tolkien kinda has something like that in story with the shire being fairly disconnected from the outside world. It still allows for some exposition, but also fits much better into the themes and flow of the story.

[–] EndlessApollo@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

That's true, other writers use different methods to explain things to the audience, therefore this entire subgenre is just lazy for not doing it the same way

[–] TallonMetroid@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago (3 children)

That's just being lazy. Just incorporate all that into the story organically, like everyone else has to.

[–] mrbubblesort@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago

Frieren is currently doing this perfectly

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My favorite example of this is Redline. There's exposition, but it's basically all in the form of news broadcasts about the racers.

[–] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

Redline is wonderful.

[–] EndlessApollo@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

How is explaining things to a character that doesn't know them inorganic? If anything that's a lot more natural than characters just going out of the way to explain things everyone in the universe already knows. It's just another way of letting the audience know what's up, it's not horrible and evil and lazy just bc some anime you don't like do it

[–] ZILtoid1991@kbin.social 22 points 11 months ago

Isekai is "normal fantasy setting", but it has RPG babble all over the place, and it's the favorite game of the MC.

[–] FunkyMonk@kbin.social 12 points 11 months ago

plus the MC's internal monologue can keep relating outsider fantasy concepts in fun 'downhome' kind of ways. Fireball is just like a truck! or something.

[–] Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If a protagonist isn't affected by what they left behind, the isekai is failing its genre. That's why Moshuko Tensei (Jobless Reincarnation) is one of the best isekai. Not because the MC is likeable, but because he is haunted by what he left behind and is influenced by the personality he formed in his "home world"

[–] voodooattack@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

That is absolutely correct. It allows you to take a lot of the exposition the narrator normally has to do in order to explain things to the reader and integrate it in dialogue/narrative itself, and the protagonist doesn’t have to be a child/amnesiac/etc to ask obvious questions.

[–] Johanno@feddit.de 3 points 11 months ago

Well in an isekai hentai they explain jack shit why the MC needs to cum in all those women. Just that they are obsessed and he "frees" them.