5 Most Common Things In Isekai Anime

Isekai is one of the most popular anime genres. After the shounen category, it is one of the most popular categories. Throughout anime history, there is much anime that was released in the Isekai genre. So what is Isekai anime? what is it all about?

What is isekai anime?

To put it into simple words, the “isekai” word literally means “different world” or “other world”. In this genre, a person gets transported into another world and tries to survive in the world. The whole story is based on the survival of the hero. It is mostly from a normal world to a supernatural world. Isekai is used in anime, manga, and light novels.

History

If you search deeply on the topic, you may find out that it is nothing new in Japan. In fact, it also happened in Japan’s literature way back in history. The same concept has been used in ancient Japanese literature, the story of a fisherman Urashima Taro. It is a quite famous story where a fisherman named Urashima Taro saves a turtle and finds out a kingdom under the sea. He spends five or four days in the kingdom and goes back to his village. Surprisingly, he finds out that it’s been 300 years in the future. The story is adapted into a film in 1918. There are some same concepts used in English literature and other literature but the Isekai genre is mainly influenced by this Urashima Taro.

The Most Common Things In Isekai Genre

Most of the time when you watch isekai anime, you would notice certain things. Here are the things you would normally notice in isekai anime.

Main Protagonist

Most of the main protagonists of this genre are either a Japanese NEET or an anti-social guy who has at least one skill. In most of the story, the protagonist is super intelligent or a gamer before reincarnation. You can see “Mushoku Tensei” and “How Not To Summon A Demon Lord”. The protagonist always tries to live a better life than he had once. These are some common characteristics the main protagonists usually have.

Reincarnation

Most of the time the main protagonist usually gets transported into a world by either dying or mysterious summoning or hit by a truck.

World

Literally most of the time, every isekai anime is based on a supernatural world. It has supernatural beings like demons, elves, or some other species like these. For example – Mushoku Tensei, Konosuba, How Not To Summon A Demon Lord, Re:zero anime series, all these anime have a common ground on the world structure.

Power Level

The main protagonist always will be either super power or weak and intelligent. If they are in a game world, he will gather a four man squad to the way of his journey. If you have watched Mushoku Tensei, you would see the main character Rudeus is super powerful whereas in Konosuba, the hero is pretty weak but he is intelligent.

Harem

It’s not like all isekai anime is harem anime but there are some similarities also. Most of the harem anime like How Not To Summon A Demon Lord, Konosuba & Mushoku Tensei have harem characteristics. You can see the main character is not engaged with only one female character but multiple and the male character has not chosen one specifically.

Story Progress

Story progression of isekai anime are pretty similar like shounen anime with little different approach. Most of the time the story focuses mainly on the protagonist’s journey and survival. the strength or power level usually don’t increase afterwards except for Mushoku Tensei. But the main protagonist gains new experience and make it work to defeat stronger villains.

Famous Isekai Anime

• Re:zero
• Mushoku Tensei
• Konosuba
• How Not To Summon A Demon Lord
• The Rising of the Shield Hero
• Overlord

Surely there are lots of other isekai anime. Click here to see the full list.

The Isekai genre is surely popular. This genre tries to show what will people do when they get a second chance.