this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Cross-posted from "What's up with the isekai genre? Are there any good isekais out there?" by @[email protected] in [email protected]


It seems like every manga or anime adaption nowadays are isekais with absurdly long titles. As someone who hasn't read that much manga for the past few years but just started again, it's kinda crazy to see all these pop up. Are there actually any good ones out there? Or are most of them just "guilty pleasures"? The only one I've been reading is Ascendance of a Bookworm which is kinda interesting.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I kinda find modern isekai are very formulaic. If you just want some fan service and an OP power fantasy protag who doesn't struggle at anything, then they look nice enough, but are still kinda trash.

I'd recommend watching some of the early ones when the genre wasn't so well defined:

  • Now and Then, Here and There
  • Twelve Kingdoms
  • El Hazard
  • Vision of Edcaflowne
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Or even further back:

  • GoShogun The Time Etranger - A weird abstract 1 shot OAV with the characters from the GoShogun combination mecha TV show. This was one of my favorites from the 80s.
  • Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko - A fun 1 shot OAV from the 80s, with fun direction, characters and mecha designs.
  • Aura Battler Dunbine TV show - With its great insectoid mecha, by Yoshiyuki "Gundam" Tomino
  • Super Dimension Century Orguss TV show - less clearly isekai, but it's fun work by the crew who did Macross: Noboru Ishiguro, Yasumi Mikamoto, character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto.
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

If I had to pick just one, which one would you suggest?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The OAVs: Etranger and Leda are concentrated 80s anime goodness, so go with those first.

Leda is more visually fantastic, so it's easier to get into.

It takes some dedication to watch the whole TV shows.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oygsxvHtU74

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuPwbnH1RQ

Zenshu, lol.

I promise you it isn't an "overpowered main character" kinda show. There's far too many restrictions on Natsuko's powers in practice and they run into those restrictions within a short number of episodes. It pretends to follow the formula for just a few episodes then turns into something quite unique.