• They/Them

Black, Autistic, Queer, and Tired. Mostly into bad puns. Adult. Alleged comics critic? #1 Black Cyclops Truther


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in reply to @corey's post:

I keep being so confused by this "isekai is a power fantasy where a guy goes into a video-game-like world or possibly a literal video game" talk. No! Isekai is when a totally average girl gets sucked into a fantasy world where she has like, one special magical power or a prophecy about her or something and is otherwise still an ordinary teenage girl who must rely on the help of one or more hot guys for her survival! Get off my lawn!

Isekai as a modern genre formed around the beginning of the 80s, defined by works like Haruka Takachiho's novel Warrior from Another World and anime like Aura Battler Dunbine. Of course those were influenced by portal-fantasy elements in literature and folktales about people traveling to mysterious or even heavenly places.

Which isn't terribly old in the scheme of things but it's a hell of a lot older than Sword Art Online.

"Isekai" as a very specific thing where you get sent to a world where videogame mechanics are just part of the world is a new-ish thing (but .hack called, it wants its worldbuilding back), but if you widen the lens just a tiny bit more than that then it's older than dirt and Narnia is an isekai. hell, widen it a bit and Homer's Odyssey is an isekai.