Summary
Isekai animeis filled to the brim withtales of fantasy and adventure in another world, but some fans have begun to notice that there’s an overflow of these types of stories, which has led to an overcrowded market. While it is true that the Isekai genre in manga and Light Novels is still going strong, anime has suffered a bit in the last few years.
Except for anime likeEminence in Shadow,Overlord, andMushoku Tenseiwhich are extremely popular, some smaller Isekai have been having trouble lifting their acceptance rates. So, why is that? That might be due to one (or more) of the reasons why Isekai anime can drive fans away.
7It Relies Too Much On Stereotypes
The Audiences Are Tired Of Seeing The Same Characters With Different Skins
The Isekai genre might be using up too many templates of the same characters just to try to follow a trend. When we analyze it carefully, most Isekai have the edgy but good-natured inside the main character,a main love interest(or several) who orbits around praising the male lead, a healer with several traumas about losing people, the silly but “best wife material” girl who always loses to the main female lead.
It needs to stop: all these stereotypes that can be found in 90% of the Isekai anime series nowadays are nothing but a crutch for the plot, and though some fans just love to see something they’re used to, at the end it just makes the plot stale and unsavory. Maybe that is one of the reasons why Isekai is becoming such a niche by the day.
6The Harem Issue Is Getting Out Of Control
The Existence Of A Harem In Your Typical Isekai Makes Romance Meaningless
One of the pillars of fantasy narrative is and has always been romance. If there’s no romance between the two characters, there’s no hope for the future, the most old and powerful motivation for human beings to fight against an enemy they know might kill them. So, what’s the point of eliminating romance from a fantasy story? It makes no sense.Having a Harem is a formula for disaster: every single time, under any circumstances, love is selfish, there’s just no way three or more people can coexist normally under the same roof with all smiles and zero jealousy.
In fact, the Harem trope is driven by these issues in co-existence, with all the typical scenes that accompany this: fights between girls for a boy (or between boys for a girl), the “pact against the common enemy” (generally a stereotype threat in the form of a pretty more mature female) or in shoujo Isekai: the two (or more) supernaturally good looking fellows trying to work together to save the girl from the dragon. At the end of the day, this makes romance meaningless, and the outcome so predictable it hurts to watch.
5The Demon Lord/King Conundrum
Where’s A Hero, There’s A Villain, Even If It’s A Copy/Paste
Every time an Isekai Hero gets summoned, a Demon Lord gets his wings, or so they say. It is something that the Isekai culture seems to have embraced and even made it one of those “must-have” clichés in every story, except maybe those where the gods are the villains, or the protagonist is the Demon Lord itself. In most cases, the Demon Lord serves as an excuse for Gods, Kings, Princesses, and Priestesses to summon students from Japan (or people from other places, although it rarely happens)to their world to do their dirty work.
Worst case scenario, it all becomes a carnage and the students betray one of their own, often the weakest, giving birth to the issue Nº1: the driven by revenge/edgy character. But, does it need to be this way? Mushoku Tensei doesn’t play by the rules, and neither does Grimgar of Ashes and Illusion or, if we get nitpicky, Eminence in Shadow. So, the point is proven: the story doesn’t need a Demon Lord/King for an Isekai to be good, or successful. Though most fans know this, they have often manifested that this is one of the most annoying clichés in modern Isekai.
4Excessive Use Of CGI And Even AI
It Is Becoming Quite A Recurrent Issue
While more traditional studios likeGhibli tend to use CGI wisely and sparingly, others don’t quite have the budget to hire hundreds of artists to animate layouts like madmen. So, there, CGI plays a decisive role in the proliferation of modern anime studios dedicated to Isekai anime - and that’s not a bad thing.
The problem begins, like with most things in life, in excess. When 50% of an anime series is animated through CGI (and bad CGI at that) it is noticeable, and the fans become angry. When the show is outright made by AI-powered CGI, things become way more complicated. Creatures become whacky: their movements are stiff, and bone structure/meshes are ridiculous and poorly made. The audience knows, so if they misuse AI to save costs or abuse CGI made in a rush, this will chip down the score of the show by a lot, and that’s a bad thing.
3The Level Of Fan Service Is Over 9000
Isekai Writers/Producers And Their Obsession With Risqué Scenes
Needless to say, fan service isn’t something inherent to the Isekai genre, but to anime in general. The question is, do fans consider fan service as something necessary? A quick browsing through forums like Reddit, as well as audience reviews present on sites like Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, says otherwise.
Fans mostly agree with the fact that excessive fan service isdamaging the plot of many good Isekai series, while it is also true that most of these appeal to certain demographics, and producers seem to be fine with that. At the end of the day, it’s impossible to make everyone happy, but the very existence of different genres serves that purpose. For example, there’s a particular genre where fan service is basically the plot, so why force it in fantasy and Isekai anime? It scares people away.
2It Relies Too Much On Cliché Tropes
When The MC Is Not Expelled From The Hero Party, Is Either Betrayed Or Killed
In Isekai anime, there are some tropes that are always present in one way or another. While betrayal, revenge, and all the possible consequences of that series of factors are powerful catalysts for the plot, the overuse of these in modern fantasy anime is getting tiresome. The same thing goes with dying and regressing, traveling back (and forth) in time, and other similar tropes.
It makes the audience predict the plot since they expect the MCs to take revenge on those who wronged them. So, what else is to be expected but a revenge plot where the people left for deadrise to power and pursue an act of bloody revenge? They might as well dig two graves: the fantasy animation and the Isekai genre. If they keep relying too much on the same old tropes, then it’s game over for this genre.
1Excess Of Visual Impact
The Audience Is Not There To Suffer Or To Enjoy Unnecessary Cruelty
It is a fantasy world, but whose fantasy are we watching? Needless to say, there’s a limit to how twisted an animated series can be, and though there are many cases where fantasy anime plots cross the line, others seem to misuse cruelty as a motivator for Isekai heroes to change their perspective. Of course, if these tropes are dealt with in moderation, and do not present themselves as the main engine of the narrative, then it is okay. In a medieval-like setting, cruelty and slavery are a common thing, but watch out for crossing the line.
At the end of the day, most fans avoid extremely cruel scenes or cliché tropes like “hero goes shopping to a slave trading,” since it’s appealing to the wrong audience.
