• zurohki@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    72
    ·
    1 year ago

    They do the isekai thing so then the world building happens naturally as we watch the clueless dork explore the fantasy world and encounter stuff.

    Otherwise you have to find ways to explain stuff to the audience when the characters grew up in that world and should already know all about it, so don’t need to discuss things.

    • Squids@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      85
      ·
      1 year ago

      Otherwise you have to find ways to explain stuff to the audience when the characters grew up in that world and should already know all about it, so don’t need to discuss things.

      …you mean worldbuild organically like any other story set in a universe that isn’t our own? Countless shows and stories have been doing that for centuries, why should anime get a special little exception?

      • spauldo@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        1 year ago

        Hard to do with the axe hanging over your head. “Sorry, but chapter 3 didn’t score high enough in our magazine poll so we’re killing your serialization.”

        • Syrc@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Most Isekais are Novels. Barely any pressure in writing for most of those companies (or at least, not that type of pressure).

      • randon31415@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        Countless shows and stories have been doing that for centuries, why should anime get a special little exception?

        Imagine the intelligence and attention-span of your average Anime fan. Now realize half of anime fans have lower levels of attention and intelligence.

      • BubblyMango@lemmy.wtf
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        1 year ago

        And for centuries they have been struggling to find good ways to present that newly built world in a natural way. Just because good examples exist doesnt make it an easy thing to accomplish. Bad fantasy stories have also existed for centuries.

        You may call it lazy, but you gotta admit that with isekai settings presenting a new world is easy and natural.

        And its not like only animes use that. Harry poter, Narnia, Peter Pen, Alice In Wonderland, Tron Legacy etc etc… All have clueless main characters finding themselves in a new world.

          • BubblyMango@lemmy.wtf
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I think that overusing ideas that affect the premise of a story isnt nearly as bad as overusing ideas that affect its progress/conclusion, like Disney’s plot twist villains, “i am your father” and white knight cliches.

            Stuck in another world, stuck in a death game or a “chosen one journey” cliches make the beggining seem unoriginal, but can develope in so many ways that as a reader/viewer, i dont mind if the idea is overused as long as the story that follows is good and original.

    • CoderKat@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think this is often what amnesia is so common in fiction, too, despite being extremely rare in the real world. It provides a convenient plot device, both to perform exposition and for some inevitable gotcha behind either their identity, how they lost their memory, or some other major revelation from their past (seriously, has there ever been a case of amnesia in fiction where they didn’t conveniently forget some big, plot relevant thing?).

      • snooggums@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        I would love one where the person forgets who they are and what happened to them, but they remember the big plot point and have no idea why they know or why it is important.

        Pretty sure there are some that already exist, but can’t think of any off the top of my head.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah it’s similar to why hidden world fantasy is popular. Or some rube idiot protagonist. It’s a lot harder to do something like mistborn where everyone knows what a basic allomancer can do without it either sounding weird or the author thinking it does

    • victron@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Also, japanese weebs/neckbeards need some relatable protagonist, who gets to live a life they never will, harem and all.

    • Malgas@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      How about a regular fantasy world whose inhabitants make real-world pop culture references for no adequately explained reason?

  • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    I liked the approach of Tearmoon Empire a lot. Instead of typical isekai, the main character from the same universe time travels to her past right after she dies by guillotine. Everything she does is to avoid dying again, her personality at its core doesn’t change. Would reccomend it on the next anime season.

  • demlet@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Well they tried that with arguably the most well known fantasy world in existence, D&D, and it flopped because too many people need their worlds spoon fed to them.