This community is the place to discuss and ask questions about anime, anime news, and related topics.
Currently airing show discussion threads are created by our resident bot, [email protected]. If it doesn't make a thread for an episode that you want to discuss, see the user guide on the wiki for instructions on how to request that rikka make a thread for you to use.
Check out our wiki to find:
I didn't read the source for this one, so the story is 100% new for me. It seems fun.
...okay, got to admit that, when I see people "reinventing" stuff from Earth, it makes me wonder why the locals never thought about it. If you have machines that can output wind/water/fire/earth, in controlled amounts, a hair drier is kind of obvious, isn't it? (At least it wasn't mayo or soy sauce.)
At least it wasn’t mayo or soy sauce.
Someday I hope to see an isekai that acts to humble the audience instead of cheerleading Earth culture. Imagine a Japanese high schooler MC waking up, ready to wow the world with Japanese cuisine, smartphone technology, and knowledge of modern medicine... only to realize:
I am sure it would not sit well with test audiences since no one likes being told their culture is bad, but even Earth cultures are incompatible across sufficient geographic distances and spans of history.
[bullet points]
Damn. Now I want a solarpunk isekai.
I am sure it would not sit well with test audiences since no one likes being told their culture is bad, but even Earth cultures are incompatible across sufficient geographic distances and spans of history.
I have a personal example confirming that:
When I started cooking Japanese dishes at home, some of my folks here found the Japanese savoury dishes too sweet, and they liked them better when I subbed ginger for black+red pepper. To make it less exotic, more similar to what they typically eat.
And yet they live in the same world and the time period as people who live with those dishes, whom mirin (the sweet ingredient) is part of a holy trinity!
Is Japanese food bad? Fuck no! (At least for me. I cook it for a reason.) But for people in isekai, Japanese dishes wouldn't be just "exotic", they're alien. Getting everyone to say "omaaaae! oishiiiiii!" because the MC prepared something from Japan feels silly.
Damn. Now I want a solarpunk isekai.
Recommendation: I just finished The Terraformers (2023) which basically has all the bullet points. It opens with a rich kid being executed by a forest ranger for LARPing a carbon negative campsite on a private planet to eat some skewed rabbit. Wealth inequality is still an issue, but technology is crazy; people figured out Earth animals were people the whole time, and baseline Homo sapiens are treated as animals if commercial interests are not restrained by government. I would be a miserable monster living in that arguably better future simply because of my upbringing: I love me a good burger and feel squeamish about people being born from bioprinters. It really humbled me, making me realize the current status quo must change if we want to improve society for everyone; a typical Japanese isekai MC would be a complete fish out of water.
There is a lot more of that coming. There is no way to sugarcoat it. Try to think about it this way: magical toolmaking requires magic and not everyone can just go and become an inventor in that world. So there is a lack of tools that aren’t in higher demand. Stuff that is just convenient instead of a necessity has not been at the forefront of development. It’s a flimsy excuse but that’s what I run with.
Good adaptation so far. The source starts at a different point in her life and her childhod is told more in memories and flashbacks. That they start there in the anime shows me that the naime will proably respect the slow-burning romance aspect of the source instead of rushing through the material to get to the fan favorites (looking at you, loathsome Bookworm adaptation).
Where on earth is Dahlia streaming already?! I'm waiting on it to hit the high seas...