Welcome to c/anime on Hexbear!
A leftist general anime community for discussion and memes.
Simple rules
Be nice.
Use spoiler tags.
Don't sexualise underage characters, including 1000 year old loli ones.
Don't post hentai here. This is an anime community.
High quality threads you should definitely visit
Gigathread: Good Anime Talks, Presentations, Conventions, Panels, etc
Piracy is good and you should do more of it. Use https://aniwave.to/ and https://4anime.gg/ for streaming, and https://nyaa.si/ for torrents. Piracy is the only means of digital protest that audiences have to fight poor worker treatment.
The world's most notorious "talker" runs the world's greatest clan
Should've known from the light novel ass title 
Are there even any good isekai anime? They all seem tasteless and disgraceful wish fulfilment with zero actual examination of its own premise. I suppose anime like Spirited Away and Inayusha are technically isekai, but obviously when anyone says Isekai it is more a modern Japanese young person being transported into a RPG setting, so the genre is more about nondescript young adult deep in alienation exercising power and agency over others in the most generic euro-fantasy with absolutely no self-awareness whatsoever.
It's not even that you can't make a story out of power bringing worst out of someone or circumstances driving people into exercising their agency to harm of others or even the simple idea of how people can do bad with good intentions, no. It's just they have slaves and a harem of girls while they had nothing back in their "old" life, that's all. Even character development as much as it exists seems to just come down to them moving past insecurity and inaction to become a go-getter in a way that reminds of hustle culture except fantasy.
Everyone who replied already with an anime from the 80's/90's is correct, in that isekai back then were typically adventure stories about young adults growing up, ironically mostly aimed at teen girls with stories centering young female protagonists with maybe a hot guy love interest (Fushigi Yuugi is kinda the problematic template for that.) The characters usually go into the other world and have a character arc overcoming their weaknesses before returning having saved the world and/or bagging the hot boyfriend. Y'know typical heroes journey type stuff, the original template was more Never-ending Story or Chronicles of Narnia than... Ready Player One I guess.
Buuuuuut post-Sword Art Online that all changed and most of it's all lowest common denominator escapist fantasy. Having said that, it's been done to death so much that there are subgenres within it now (Reincarnating as the Villainess of a Visual Novel, Retiring to the countryside with my middle-aged busty wife, Guillotining the aristocracy with my lesbian polycule) that aren't icky apologia for slavery power fantasies, but sifting through all the trash for half decent (or rather, a different flavour of trashy) doesn't seem worth it to me. Admittedly, lately I've become a media snob who'll never admit in public to watching the Minecraft movie, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
Anyway, more recent recs that stretch the definition of "good"-
Log Horizon is a probably the best "trapped in a videogame" story just based on the sheer amount of worldbuilding that goes into imagining how a MMO-ized fantasy world would even work, even if all that worldbuilding is in service to making the point that Free Market Capitalism coupled with Keynesian economics is the be-all-end-all ideology. The author got got for tax evasion irl. Stop after S1 tho, the next two seasons try to cram too much of the novels into too short a runtime.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash you could say is the forerunner of shows like Frieren or Dungeon Meshi, where the focus is on the harshness of the fantasy world and the logistics of trying to survive- ironically these things seem to have fallen into the purview of straight fantasy as opposed to isekai, but hey at least this show was trying something different at the time. Has a gorgeous art style. Sadly only got 1 season. Also those other two straight fantasy shows are much better that anything else on this list. Dungeon Meshi especially.
My Next Life as a Villainess is a thrashy fun comedy about a proletarian inadvertently averting the death of the aristocrat whose body she is inhabiting by dint of acting distinctly un-aristocratic. Most of the comedy comes from watching our heroine unknowingly make everyone fall in love with her, regardless of their gender... by simply not acting on the privilege her position in society grants her. It's really dumb but I honestly enjoyed it a lot.
I know a bunch of Hexbears enjoyed The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady even if it wasn't for me. I liked how aggressively and un-apologetically gay it is tho.
I hear good things about Ascendance of a Bookworm from people I trust but I haven't seen it myself so I can't say for sure. Including it cos why not.
There's probably other show's that are borderline "good"-ish that I just didn't bother rec here like Re: Zero or Slime Reincarnation, but imo the shows I gave a synopsis of are what I'd actually recommend to people on this board.
edited for clarity
I am not a media snob, opposite really I don't really watch many movies or series except things that seem to specifically appeal to me or if someone asks to watch something with me so indeed shifting through that much of a genre to wade through its various subgenres for the love of the game is not something I imagine myself doing. However I did watch both Frieren and Dungeon Meshi as both of those appealed to me, as I do like fantasy with focus on the human element. So I'll keep these recommendations in mind if I end up watching something similar in future. Genre deconstruction comedy is also something I like, so that may be something I watch with someone if that happens. Thank you for recommendations.
Becoming a film snob in 2025 mostly just means drunkenly binge watching David Lynch films while crying yourself to sleep so yeah don't worry about it, glad I could help.
If this is up your alley, KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! is just a straight parody of wish-fulfillment fantasy isekai. Unfortunately later on the jokes start to dip into problematic homophobic/transphobic territory which is why I didn't recommend it initially, but it mostly works as a comedy show barring that.
Excuse me. I would like to know more.
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady and The Executioner and Her Way of Life are recent examples I think (although maybe not exactly as revolutionary as I hyperbolically suggested).
There are other LN's and manga's that haven't been adapted to an anime yet, there were threads here about a manga that for the life of me I can't remember the title, will look later.
Good rule of thumb for all media, the queerer it is (usually) the more radical it is.
Grimgar was okay. It definitely avoided a lot of the problematic isekai tropes and is really well animated. I think it's because it drops the isekai premise almost immediately and plays as traditional fantasy. It was kinda mid, though, plotwise. The characters are basically the same as when they started and questions about the world they're in don't get resolved.
Re:Zero sucks and Reincarnated as a Slime is okay buy could seriously use some volcel policing.
I kinda agree that Girmgar is mid, but sadly a mid isekai is above average compared to the rest of the genre. Something actually good like Now and Then, Here and There sadly remains the purview of the 90's. But also I dunno if I'd recommend that one, there are some really strong CW's and I haven't watched it recently to see if it holds up.
I only saw the first season of Re: Zero, thought it was trying for the Evangelion/Madoka "this is the edgy subversion of the genre" style but I don't know whether it succeeds at it or not because I didn't watch the other seasons since I couldn't get invested in the characters.
Likewise only saw the first season of Slime isekai but the "we must build society by going through the means of production" premise held some promise, unfortunately I couldn't care about the characters for the life of me.
I stopped watching the slime anime after they introduced a 12 year old girl, ahktually a 1000 year old demon, who wears a bikini. I liked watching them build their little kingdom but I couldn't get past that.
God damn, sounds like I dodged a bullet there
Catarina Claes wass the peak of the otome isekai protagonist.
Bookworm is a great ride, but it's one where you really need to just bite the bullet and read the books, rather than wasting time with the anime. There's pretty much zero chance of the whole thing actually getting adapted, and they made some changes early on that put it totally at odds with how things wind up playing out in the books, so I'm not sure how even a benevolent, otaku sponsor could fix it with a fully funded adaptation, short of just doing a complete reboot of the series and starting over.
I liked I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level. Like it's still "anime", don't get me wrong, it's not particularly deep or anything, but it's really broadly chill iyashikei found family type stuff with yuri undertones that's kind of the antithesis of that sort of hustler slave harem nonsense that isekai's known for. The second season just started and it's been a good few years since I last watched the first, but yeah, enjoyable.
※ DO NOT CONFLATE WITH THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SLIME. THEY ARE BOTH ISEKAI WITH "SLIME" IN THE TITLE BUT THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ONE ANOTHER.
I'm in Love With the Villainess is pure genre fiction slop (isekai slop, and generic magic school slop, and generic villainess slop), but with some redeeming qualities like being class-conscious yuri. I don't remember how much of the commentary on homophobia and repression and how unrequited love is toxic and unfair to both parties made it from the light novel to the anime though, and it's probably not going to get another season which means most of the best content is left unadapted. The protagonist is still a piece of shit in that, though, although she's at least somewhat aware that what she's doing is bad, actually.
Spoilers:
Rae is basically grooming and gaslighting a straight teenage girl, and despite reflecting on how that's actually a very not-good thing to do a number of times she just keeps on doing it, justifying the whole scheme as just trying to save Claire regardless of whether she wins her as a prize for this good deed or not. And then instead of maturing as a person and giving up on this unrequited obsession and finding a more appropriate partner, she is in fact just rewarded with Claire's affections as a prize for doing enough good deeds.The Executioner and Her Way of Life is actually pretty decent and is fairly creative despite also being more genre-mashup slop. Notably the protagonist is not* one of the isekaid characters and instead has an adversarial and comically yuri-bait relationship with one. This one also probably won't get any more seasons, but the novels are ok and are about to wrap up this year.
* Spoilers from the novels:
She's actually the clone of one of them, specifically Hakua: the villain of the story who's so obsessed with Akari that she's been conspiring for a thousand years to sacrifice the entire world just so she can return home with her. You know, normal very good friend stuff. It's still up in the air whether it's bait or not, but at this point it's so absurd that if it is it's almost a pisstake on yuri-bait because of how egregious all the "flowery declarations of love, explicit horniness, and Menou and Akari literally merging their souls together so that they're one person split between two bodies - truly the very best of friends" shit is.I cannot believe I'm saying this, but despite its author and series Sword Art Online: Alicization is ~~actually sort of halfway decent~~ ok on reflection it's not actually halfway decent because despite having more redeeming qualities than any other mainline SAO and also than basically all isekai series it has way more SA than I remembered at first: Kirito is depowered and/or in a coma for like 95% of it, the US and US-collaborators are the villains, the harem shit is replaced with yaoi-bait and later a bunch of characters arguing over Kirito's comatose, withered husk in something so egregious and dumb it circles back around to being very funny, and explicit humanization of the designated-ontologically-evil-by-the-simulation-devs peoples. I mean it's still SAO so it's still weird, gross, and incredibly dumb with shoddy worldbuilding, but unlike the rest of mainline SAO it actually manages to have fragments of an interesting core premise with the literal artificial human souls shit and its conclusion that they are, in fact, people too and killing or exploiting them is bad, actually. It really benefits from having Kirito in a coma so other characters get to move the plot and resolve things too.
Thank you for the explanations. I watch few series, anime or not but at least knowing that there is a bit more to it than some of the more popular stuff that I hear about is good. Still I have to say the examples you give seem to be basically having all the same faults within category of its genre just shifted a bit more towards having bit of character exploration and a touch of self-awareness. However that's surprisingly optimistic still even if I don't watch those since it means it's not as static as I imagined even within its specific category but there are a lot of these things apparently much more than I thought especially when the novels are involved.
In a lot of ways, yeah. Like I'm in Love with the Villainess is 100% still a wish-fulfillment fantasy about a depressed gay office worker getting to have a healthy, normal life with the video game character she developed a parasocial relationship with and also she has cheat powers and complete meta knowledge of the setting and everything that's going to happen to accomplish that goal with, but it's also self-aware and includes cogent commentary on real-life LGBT issues.
Honestly, I think the biggest trend I've noticed is that an isekai with a female protagonist (whether they're the isekaid hero or someone else) tends to be meaningfully better even when it's still horny trash or just fluffy slop, while isekai centered on male protagonists tends more towards the "incel loser gets a harem by redeeming special good boy points in another world, continues being awful" pattern. Though I will say that for all the scorn that SAO (deservedly) gets (seriously, it's a bad series from a mid author who just can't help but write bad and gross things even when he's earnestly trying to be better about it), it does get some credit for making Kirito end up a well-adjusted, sociable guy with a diverse friend group who just kind of ignores the harem shit because he's too earnest a wife guy to ever think about anyone other than Asuna.
I have noticed also from what you have said and from what was written both here and elsewhere female protagonist, LGBT themes or both seem more commonly move past some of the worst impulses of anime, at least ones that aren't outright fanservice or queer-baiting. Not to say that there isn't any of this in any other LGBT-oriented media, but perhaps maybe it is has more of a baseline of self-examination and introspection. Sword Art Online just seems to be both ur-isekai for the category I have in mind and and also the ultimate slop of its own genre somehow, which is interesting.
I watched executioner recently, and yeah the anime didn't feel baity but more like the clear romance thread doesn't need to be explicitly spelled out. I get where the phrase yuribait comes from (fuck you, sound euphonium!), but unless you're willing to call the same thing but with a characters gender changed to man heterobait, idk.
it was a fun watch though, seeing menou struggle and not be an overpowered girl who wins without any help is fun to see, and Akari in general is left in a place where she might be interesting to watch. also free momo from the curse of not having requited feelings
I'm going off the first seven novels (I haven't read the eighth yet and the others aren't translated and/or released yet), which you might want to read for the rest of the story since I'm pretty sure the anime will never get another season let alone the 4-5 seasons it would take to finish it without huge cuts. The prose isn't great, whether that's a translation issue or a problem with the original text, but it's not terrible either.
I think Momo is the only character who remains 100% unambiguously gay, while Menou continues being kind of ace and
who's baffled by the attention she gets and never displays any sort of attraction towards anyone, and Akari is kind of inscrutable even to her own inner monologue for plot reasons. Even after all the spoiler stuff happens they're still textually "very good friends." There's a reason I'm calling it absurd and egregious: Menou and Akari so obviously have a romantic relationship and are literally soulmates that when we see their internal monologues where they textually don't see it that way it's jarring to the point that it seems like parody.
sad :(
The original isekai anime, Aura Battler Dunbine, is good. It's kinda cheating, though, since it's by Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino and is based on some of his novels
Anime is like "gaming." Sure, enjoying it doesn't inherently make you a chud, but it means enough to you that you in any way see it as a personality trait, you need to accept that you're going to be (rightfully) written off by society.
I agree somewhat, in the sense that association with anime as a personality trait seems to be basically a political statement but I also don't think being judgmental towards people who have been alienated by society is a productive or kind thing to do in itself, particularly because society has no qualms about not writing off some terrible people. Media is escapism to us all and anime in particular is a very varied medium. Ergo, we live in a society.
Fundamentally, if I'm having a serious discussion, you're completely correct. In short, "things for losers", as seen via popular culture and stereotypes correlate highly to things like "things for people with neuro-divergence" or "social quicks" or "family/isolation issues" or "anxious self-aware types" or simply those who developed quicker in certain ways, or are more introspective and unimpressed by the most common "popular stuff" for their age-group which doesn't challenge them intellectually or morally, or socially. (We could say both anime and VG are now those popular things. As a guy in my late-30's, that was very much not the case growing up.) But these are the things which I'm lampooning with my hyperbole types and various other groups you'd like to include.
That said, as someone who doesn't watch anime, and with full knowledge there is good "anime" (and having watched some good ones, imo) and having a story told via an animated medium doesn't somehow make a well told story inherently bad.
Also said, anime is for loser weebs and attracts pedos who excuse themselves because "technically she's 900 years old, because the other pedo who wrote this said so, so it's cool bro"
Also said, as someone who plays video games, video games are for fat loser virgins' dopamine addicts too, and they also double up on many of anime's issues and absurd sexualization.
Not because either is, as it stands fundamentally true as some natural law... but because, sociologically/psychologically the only people who are truly personally upset and offended by those dumb, worthless, statements, frankly, almost certainly, deserve to be upset. These things are entertainment, not moral failings or moral superiority. Realistically, someone who "likes anime" should see that stupid statement and think, "Yeah, wish those losers weren't associated with this entertainment medium I enjoy." rather than "Sorry, I an ANIME/GAMER guy, so if you insult ANIME/GAMER, you insult me! GAMERS RISE UP!"
And that's why "GAMERS RISE UP!" types are such, sad, pathetic, undeniable losers. Buddy, you play one of the most popular things on the planet, most designed specifically to target and foster dopamine addition and syphon money from you. Playing a good game doesn't make you a hero, even if it bucks the trend and is a quality example. More so, playing mediocre or shitty ones sure doesn't either. Get a real personality. This is like saying "Meat-Eaters rise up!" The fuck are you talking about? You're one of the most common types of people consuming one of the most common types of food, and morally, we can say, overall, it's a negative even if it's "more complex than that." If that's your "personal identity" then you simply don't have one. Not to mention, technically speaking, it's probably better if said identity didn't exist (as a non-vegetarian, I also admit that's a moral failing of mine). You're just a broken person, and some broken people need help to be fixed. Some, unfortunately, need to be shattered completely, though that should never be the default assumption.
John Brown wouldn't give a fuck about your Waifu, or if your favorite character in Marvel Rivals is OP or not. He'd give you a musket or shoot you, depending on which anime you watch or videogames you play. *(Sorry, Gacha gamers, and people who modded BG3 to turn Wyll white, but frankly you deserve it no questions asked)" The truth is, what you enjoy can stand on its own merits, or it can't, in which case you should be a little ashamed. Like me enjoying my treats while living in a dying American empire. Still, McDonalds has a .99cent any-sized coffee on their app I get a few times a week. I'm shit for getting it. Call me out on it, you're right, but I'm not going to cry about it. I know. I know. You're right. Life is dumb, people are hypocrites, including me, and I want my cheap shitty, iced coffee I can get for driving 3 minutes like a car-brained idiot with my doggie who loves rides. I may be shit, but I ain't closest to the most disgusting pile of shit out there. Not even in the top half of "desperately needs to be wiped away" filth. And maybe, I too, need to be cleaned... but, ya know... I'll gladly be wiped away when my turn comes... when it comes. After the black mold and roach infestations are dealt with.
If anyone here is honestly, emotionally, upset I'm ragging on 'gamers', sorry, but seriously... not that important bro (as a person who spends, likely as much or more time playing games as anyone on Hexbear) Likewise with anime. The ability to understand the difference between yourself, and the media you consume, is the difference between us and chuds -- I would hope.
Sure, I lean into being hyperbolic about it at times -- or often -- but that's the point. Taking this shit seriously is a problem. Grave of the Fireflies isn't good (or bad) because it's animated, it's good because of the story it tells. The medium can be replaced. Understanding that is the difference been a mindless "consuuumer" and someone who enjoys something. Me shitting on "anime" doesn't actually distract from the story and the history of a good work of art. Me being a hypoerbolic, pseudo-internet troll doesn't take away from a well told animated story of one of the worst atrocities of human history. And if we're being serious -- I would never disrespect that -- but we're not. We live in post-parody Trump/Elon clown world, where gamers are losers, anime watchers are pedos, and all of us need to do better, but it won't make a difference, so lets play games and watch anime until we finally break and "One Of the Mario Bros" the people who deserve it, because the unfortunate truth is that's the only real difference any of us will make in the world, if we're brave or broken or desperate enough to make it.
Still... gamesbad. Ya know? Sure, Disco Elysium is good but... ya know. It's good because it's atypical for a successful videogame. Harrier may be a depressed, sad, addict loser, cop (and as we all know, ACAB, including him) clinging to the past. But, ya know, that's that makes his story good. That's what makes him good, as a character, even if he's a fucking pathetic loser just trying to survive and taking a world he can't comprehend one step at a time, because he, like all of us, either has to choose to end it all now, or keep moving forward. The medium, video game or not, doesn't matter. I know it's a good game -- because it's atypical. Because the "typical game" is the absolute opposite. I'm considering getting a DE tattoo. A video game tattoo. I look down on people with video-game tattoos, even if just slightly. The truth is, I also look down on myself. Probably more than I do others. The medium might be pathetic, but the story, the art ,and the meaning isn't. Which is why I'm okay dismissing the medium, because the rest of it stands on its own.
Speaking of differing mediums, man, -- Disco Elysium novel -- I'd love to see it.
Also, sorry, I'm drunk but enjoy my diary entry.
Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy
Magic Knight Rayearth
The Vision of Escaflowne is another good old-school isekai.
Digimon