Isekai: What’s it all about?

Literally meaning “another world”, Isekai (異世界) refers to the genre of anime and manga where characters from one world travel into another. These tales fall under the broader genre of Portal Fantasy. So, as you can imagine, this genre is nothing new. Whilst some might believe isekai is distinctly Japanese, English novels, films, and even games have their own examples like The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Forgotten City.

Tales of ordinary people stepping into extraordinary worlds are found throughout global folklore. Even today, superstitious people in Ireland will still avoid fairy rings and forts from fear of the wee folk putting a curse on them, or stealing them away altogether. Most famously, a council in County Clare redirected an entire motorway in 1999 to avoid such a fort. Tales of mortals braving the journey to the underworld and back can be found in almost every culture, from Orpheus and Eurydice in Greece to Princess Bari in Korea to the hero twins Hanahphu and Xbalanque in Mexico.

These stories have stood the test of time for a reason. So it is unfair that isekai today has become synonymous with repetitive slop chasing the success that Sword Art Online and My Next Life as a Villainess achieved. Good isekai didn’t end with Inuyasha and Spirited Away; it’s alive and well! As such, here are a selection of my personal favorite Isekai from the last five years.

Zenshu

Format: Anime
Vibes: Dark fantasy, what if your anime crush became real, escapism, dealing with trauma,  living out your fix-it fic dreams, learning about yourself, found family, a love letter to animation

Natsuko Hirose is an award-winning director who took the anime industry by storm with her smash hit delinquent magical girl series. She’s now been given the chance to work on a brand new original project, where she’s to be given full creative control. But art block has hit her hard, and she’s finding it difficult to trust anyone else with this precious project. When she finds out that the director of her favorite anime, A Tale of Perishing, has died from food poisoning, she is heartbroken. A Tale of Perishing might have been a complete flop, but it was the series that inspired her to pick up a pen to begin with.

When she suffers the same fate as her idol thanks to some out-of-date fish, she is transported into the world of A Tale of Perishing. Not only is she now friends with the characters who inspired her throughout her life, she’s now been given the magical ability to reanimate their world, turn its tragic ending around, and save the characters who saved her.

This original series flew under the radar when it aired earlier this year. Some complained that it was inappropriate for its studio MAPPA—known for overworking their animators—to produce a series where an animator dies in the middle of a project. That said, Natsuko’s death isn’t from overwork but instead due to not relying on others, as well as the dangers of eating seafood past its use by date.

Ueno and Yamazaki’s love for anime shines through in every scene. Natsuko’s journey pays tribute to the medium’s past, present and future. Zenshu isn’t just a classic adventure story, but also a story about looking inwards and deciding who you are and who you want to be.

Director: Mitsue Yamazaki
Series Composition/Script: Kimiko Ueno
Studio: MAPPA

The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices

Format: Manga, Light Novel
Vibes: Dark feminist fantasy disguised as cheesy romance, fake/pretend relationship, princess/bodyguard, world building done right, a critical yet loving look at Boys’ Love and Isekai tropes as a whole

After being accidentally killed by a speeding van, Maki gets reborn into her favourite Boys’ Love series: The Noble King. She’s now the protagonist’s beloved little sister, Princess Octavia! Which might be fun, but sadly her destiny in the novel is only to solve the issue of inheritance. She volunteers to give her first born children to the pair of lovers so as they can be together without any problems occurring. But that’s not the life this Octavia wants. She doesn’t want to just give birth to other people’s children for the rest of her life. She’s also grown sick and tired of having to hire a new bodyguard every six months because her previous one has run off with his male paramour. BL series might be fun to read, but they’re a horror to live in if you’re a girl. When her new bodyguard Klifford swears total fealty to her, though, the deep dark lore of The Noble King unspools before her.

I absolutely adore this series and it pains me to never see it on recommendation lists. I think it’s because too many of us have been burnt before by the idea that all men being gay means terrible hardship for straight women. It makes being gay the problem, and not the patriarchy. Which is exactly what is happening here. Princess of Convenient Plot Devices both celebrates and critiques modern isekai and BL. The kingdom of Esfia is only a queer utopia in the way that Ancient Athens once was. Whilst rich men are free to love each other without consequence, the women of the city don’t. They’re forced into being breeding stock, married off to men who will never love them so they can provide offspring who’ll they’ll never get to raise. The rich might live in the lap of luxury, but the poor must still fight for every bite of bread.

These stories of travelling into your favourite novel or video game are incredibly common in shojo isekai (examples include: I’m the Villainess So I’m Taming the Final Boss and Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter). But they never explain why the protagonist was transported in the first place. Here, we know exactly why it was, which is part of the cosmic horror Octavia is choosing to ignore.

Mamecyro’s descriptions are what sell this series for me. It’s clear how hard she has thought about every moment that would be involved in being reborn with all memories of your past life intact. It’s not a pleasant story, and it brings far more horror than joy. If you have ever wished a series would dive deeper into the weeds of isekai tropes, this is a must-read.

Writer: Mamecyoro
Artist: Kazusa Yoneda
Character Design: Mitsuya Fuji
Translator: Sarah Moon
Publisher: Yen Press

Reincarnated as a Sword

Format: Manga, Light Novel, Audiobook, Anime (Sub/Dub)
Vibes: Found family, kill all slavers, adorable cat girls, sword dads, loving adoptive father/daughter platonic relationship

Reincarnated as a Sword is the unlikely story of a sentient sword and his adoptive cat girl daughter. Before they met, the sword had no memory of his own name even though he could remember everything else. But then he meets Fran, a young cat girl forced into slavery. After killing all the slavers and freeing her, she uses him to kill a ferocious bear. Now the pair are bonded for life! She names him Teacher, a name that fills him with parental pride. The two of them head off into the big wide world together, so that Fran may prove that black cats have what it takes, and that there’s no place for slavery in any world.

There’s a worrying trend in isekai stories where slavery is considered acceptable and not something you should fight against. For example, the protagonist of the series Jobless Reincarnation is said to “save” female slaves. In reality, he’s just buying them, with no plan to fight back against slavery itself. Reincarnated as a Sword is different. The first thing that Teacher does when he comes across slavers is to slaughter them all. He and Fran do the same for all other slavers they encounter as the series continues. One small cat girl and her sentient sword dad can’t overthrow a system overnight, but they can certainly save as many lives as possible along the way.

I also love that the relationship between Fran and Teacher is absolutely platonic. There’s not even a hint of inappropriate sexual behaviour from Teacher. Tanaka prefers to derive comedy from Teacher as an overprotective father who dotes on his daughter, than to portray him as a lecherous old man spying on women’s baths. While the overarching story of journeying across a kingdom to become an S-Rank Adventurer is generic, the comedy, heart, and extended found family is what makes this series stand out from other object-based isekai.

Writer: Yuu Tanaka
Artist: Tomowo Maruyama
Character Design: Llo
Translation: Mike Rachmat
Adaption: Jaymee Goh (Light Novel) and Peter Adrian Behravesh (Manga)
Narrator: Josh Hurley

Sasaki and Peeps

Format: Manga, Light Novel, Anime (Sub/Dub)
Vibes: Tired office drones, adorable birbs, comedy, adventure, found family, Madoka Magica but with 40 year-old-men

Sasaki is staring down his 40s while working a low wage office job with no hope of promotion. He’s just happy to have job security, given the fact that he’s already lived through two financial crashes. In order to bring a little more joy to his life, he buys an adorable pet java sparrow. But it turns out that this sparrow is more than meets the eye; he’s actually the reincarnation of an all-powerful sage from another world! The pair make a pact together so Peeps can channel his magic through Sasaki. Together they venture through worlds and make a tidy profit along the way. It’s a Chateaubriand steak life from here on out! Assuming nobody on Earth finds out about his new magical abilities.

Sasaki and Peeps throws everything at the wall to see what sticks, and it turns out everything is solid gold. It’s part “reincarnated as an unexpected creature in a strange world,” part magical girl series, part fodder for people who are horny for middle aged office workers. It’s funny, and sweet, and goes in places you simply never expect it to. I love how it combines both regular isekai and reverse isekai tropes in a perfect mixture. While some isekai get a little samey with their “knowledge from the future” attitude, with protagonists becoming millionaires by ‘inventing’ chocolate and shampoo, Peeps and Sasaki sell things from the 100 Yen store. You don’t need to spend time milking goats when you can just buy and sell batteries.

I also think it’s wonderful how the English dub team copied the Japanese production’s gag of hiring actors who all have the name “Sasaki” to play background characters by recruiting as many people named Chris as possible.

Writer: Buncololi
Artist: Pureji Osho
Character Design: Kantoku
Translator: Alice Prowse

I’m in Love with the Villainess

Format: Manga, Light Novel, Audiobook, Anime (Dub/Sub)
Vibes: Yuri, tumblr stan as protagonist, the difficulties of class warfare when you’re crushing on the elite

After being literally worked to death, otaku Rei Ohashi is reincarnated as Rae Taylor—the protagonist of her favourite otome game, Revolution! The game is set in an elite boarding school for learning magic, which for years has been the sole right of the nobility. Now, though, more and more commoners are given the chance to hone their skills. Not only is Rae a commoner, but she has the rare ability to wield two different types of elemental magic, which draws the attention of the three princes attending the school. But as a card carrying lesbian, she has no interest in any of them. Instead, she’s head over heels for the game’s villainess: Claire François. The game is called “Revolution” for a reason, though, and Rae must find a way to ensure Claire’s happiness before it’s too late.

If the Pokemon Z-A discourse I’ve seen around not being able to pick the female rival as well as the female player character is anything to go by, I’m in Love with the Villainess should be relatable for many. It’s a fun take on the “reincarnated into a dating sim” genre that isn’t afraid to say gay. Rae explicitly says that she is only interested in women and identifies as gay. While some might find her obsessive attitude towards her crush to be intrusive, it still makes for a fun time as she convinces Claire that her feelings are real. She also never believes that Claire will ever return them, and seeks only for her happiness (and for all the boys to leave her alone for once.)

It’s rare for a yuri series to be animated, and even rarer for it to be done so well. The audiobook is also read wonderfully, so I highly recommend checking that out too.

Writer: Inori
Artist: Anoshima
Character Design: Hanagata
Translator: Jenn Yamazaki
Adaption: Nibedita Sen
Narrator: Courtney Shaw

The Batman Ninja Films

Format: Anime
Vibes: Bruce Wayne’s Bizarre Adventure, samurai movies, love letter to Batman and japanese pop culture, so butch it’s now camp

From Director Junpei Mizusaki (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders and Stone Ocean OPs), and Screenwriter Kazuki Nakashima (Promare, BNA: Brand New Animal) comes an all original adventure for Batman and his comrades. In the first film, Batman is sent into the past by Gorilla Grod. Now stuck in feudal Japan, Bruce must work with the cult of the bat to hone his ninja skills, take down Lord Joker and save Japan’s future. In the sequel, all is still not well as the Justice League has gone missing! They are trapped in a parallel world with no memory of their past selves. They also now work for the Yakuza under the control of Ra’s al Ghul. It’s up to Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood to return everyone to normal and save Gotham from a terrible disaster.

If this were a TikTok video, this is where I’d be bringing out the cake and the kebab sticks. So, hear me out… these films rock. The first came out in 2018 and the sequel in 2025. Both are excellent and worth your time for different reasons. They’re a bit of a fever dream, but the absolute best kind. The first film does one of my favourite tropes in animation, where the art style changes depending on what type of story they’re trying to tell. Director Mizusaki emulates different periods of Japanese artwork, from beautiful ink brush work to dynamic mech fights. Screenwriter Nakashima also shoehorns every aspect of Japanese pop culture into this work. The second film is more structured, but its aim of reimagining these characters through a Japanese lens remains true. Harley Quinn appears as a yankee, Superman as a Yakuza Boss, and the Flash as a straw chewing wandering samurai. We even see Wonder Woman in a kimono belting out some classic karaoke!

Batman fans may be a little disappointed at some of the characterisations. I myself am particularly upset that Stephanie and Duke don’t show up despite being Robins. But overall there’s so much to love about this ridiculous joy ride. It’s the kind of over the top fun that’s been missing in so much Batman media of the last decade. As an Isekai, too, it’s just beautiful. These films transport Batman into different cultural timelines, while also asking,  what might Batman have looked like  if he had been created in Japan? While the first Batman manga was published in 1966 (inspired by the Adam West series), Batman Ninja is still the first piece of Batman media I’ve known to actively embrace the ninja aspects in a way that didn’t feel culturally appropriative. If anything, American culture is appropriated here!

So settle down with your favourite beverage and snacks, and enjoy this camp romp that symbolises everything good and fun about isekai. You don’t need any knowledge of Batman in order to enjoy these films, just a willingness to have fun and not think too hard about anything else. Especially the monkey army. Don’t think too hard about the monkey army.

Directors: Junpei Mizusaki and Shinji Takagi
Japanese Screenplay: Kazuki Nakashima
English Screenplay: Leo Chu and Eric S. Garcia
Original Creators: Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Gardner Fox
Studios: Kamikaze Douga, YamatoWorks

The Journey’s End (for now)

Hopefully, I have been able to show you that the world of isekai is far larger than some might think. While it’s true that every season brings a new anime about a man who finds a harem after being reincarnated into a video game, that’s not all there is. There are also heartfelt series that tackle real life feminist issues; silly and adorable found family shows that reject the problematic tropes people have come to associate with isekai; hidden gems that are worth finding even if you’ll never have anyone to talk to them about.

Isekai isn’t a dead end for creativity, it just needs somebody creative. And trust me, these creators are at the top of their game.

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