Did SAO invent the Isekai genre? Or was something else first?
Did SAO invent the Isekai genre? Or was something else first?
Nolan Jenkins
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Zachary Gomez
It definitely helped popularize if not kickstart the current trend, but isekai has been around in anime for ages. In the 2000s you had things like Kyo Kara Maoh and even in the 1990s you had stuff like Fushigi Yuugi.
Evan Jackson
yes, by not an isekai
Brayden Davis
>genre
based retard
Joshua Rivera
There's been at least 50 isekai anime before SAO.
I think the first Japanese isekai anime was Aura Battler Dunbine in 1983.
And the first isekai involving being stuck in a video game world was Knight Ramune in 1990.
And the first isekai revolving around a boring self-insert, his special powers and his generic harem was El Hazard in 1985.
Also, inb4 people cite Western "In Another World" stories as isekai.
Benjamin Diaz
El Hazard in 1995****
Oliver Taylor
Even without going Western you can still say the Japanese fairy tail of Urashima Taro inspired isekai. At the time of writing, going to a sea palace is considered the same thing as going to another world.
And, if we're going to stretch the definition that far, then The Odyssey qualifies for similar reasons. Sailing to a new yet undiscovered shore was going to a new world. That's why America was referred to as "the new world" for some time after its discovery.
Adam Ross
The reason why I consider it fucking dumb to conflate Isekai and Western "another world" stories into one umbrella is because isekai is a Japanese term and only started being used to describe a genre within the last decade to describe a specific style of Japanese storytelling. It would be like calling the Simpsons anime because anime means animation.
It also enables to smartasses who think they're clever by dropping Narnia or Alice in Wonderland when people ask about the history of isekai when they're obviously looking for Japanese answers.
Zachary Cooper
"isekai" didn't really exist before SAO, so you could say that. But there are older anime that would be now considered isekai, that predate it.
Angel Gonzalez
There was actually an isekai boom in the 90s, but back then it was primarily aimed at the shoujo demographic.
Samuel Bailey
Before SOA there was .hack, and before that there was uhh a bunch of battle royal series that then gave birth to modern isekai series. SOA was literally one of those battle royal series.
Jaxson Bailey
Name a series that is not Escaflowne or Inuyasha.
Carson James
El Hazard
Dual Parallel Trouble (This one is more of reverse isekai, but still)
Strange Dawn
And those are just off the top of my head.
Luke Hill
Rayearth
Twelve Kingdoms
Fushigi Yugi
Ethan Foster
Magic Knight Rayearth
Fushigi Yuugi
Twelve Kingdoms
Legend of Himiko
Red River
The stereotypical 90s isekai trope was "generic school girl gets sent to a fantasy world full of handsome men", which is quite funny.
Tyler Mitchell
Why are modern female writers so averse to the classic formula now? Everyone rides the villainess train even if it doesn’t fit the story they want to tell and the few that don’t are about generic office ladies rather than generic schoolgirls.
Kevin Harris
There's actually a ton of 90s isekai, at least in proportion to the amount of anime being made then. You have to keep in mind that back then there was only like 50 new anime a year compared to today's 200 a year, so to us it doesn't seem like there was a lot of 90s isekai.
William White
If we're counting Inuyasha (time travel), as isekai, there was also
>Now and Then, Here and There
>Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko
Blake Gutierrez
Because those writers grew up. Not in the psychological maturity sense, but in the literal sense.
They've grown to be bitter and disillusioned adults that want to lash out as villains as their form of catharsis.
And instead of Middle/Highschoolers getting isekai'd, it's now Wagecuck Salarymen and Depressed OLs that are getting Isekai'd.
Jose Ross
Time travel isn't isekai. If we're counting time travel, we might as well count VR as isekai.
Bentley Green
He's correct
Isekai is a genre
Ryder Green
It's obviously silly to pretend they're part of the same writing tradition, but something like Princess of Mars hits much the same tropes as modern isekai LNs, except the MC is a tough guy already and it's not a Dragon Quest ripoff.
Aaron Wilson
I agree with you, but he cited Inuyasha as isekai when it's clearly a time travel story.
Now and Then, Here and There kind of qualifies as isekai though since it's set so many eons in the future that Earth isn't even recognizable, the flora and fauna have completely changed, and being Earth is only revealed in a last minute plot twist.
Liam Campbell
SAO just popularize it the isekai concept existed long before
Carter Hughes
Digimon technically counts as an Isekai. SAO did not invent anything but instead made adapting anime from light novels derived from web novels mainstream. Sao was the web novel anime genre
Jaxon Cruz
>Aura Battler Dunbine
tomino singlehandedly popularized light novel adaptions and invented isekai as we know it, say something nice about him
Adam Price
What is the -quintessential- pre-2000s isekai? Not the best, not the first, but the most stereotypical?
Michael Morris
.hack
digimon
Alexander Moore
this garbage
youtube.com
Sebastian Cooper
It got lucky that it aired during a time where kids were coming of age for gaming and the year anime was legally really being easily accessible to people. LNfags didnt give a shit about it before the anime aired telling us that the bare story was meh at best.
Jacob Gutierrez
While I understand the frustration with memelords I don't think the stories are that far removed from each other to be that nitpicky about it. To use your example The Simpsons has more in common with Crayon Shin-chan than all the seasonal shit we talk about here. I'm not saying the Simpsons is anime but in the bigger discussion about a genre it's ok to look at these other stories.
If there is a dividing factor it has to be that video game logic is applied in canon.
Nathaniel Miller
Whoa, this is a post written by the seat of your pants. SOA...need not be explained. "Battle royale series have birth to isekai"...wtf. This fucker never played...wait... probably never even grasped the concept of an MMORPG. This lack of off center wirting screams high school 9th grader. We have summerfags but is coronafags a thing yet?
Aaron Allen
did kirito fuck asuna in the real world or is it in the VR world only
Anthony Lewis
You weren't around for LN threads, retard. Stop pretending you were.
There was no "luck" involved in SAO. It had good production value, Yuki Kajiura OST, good VAs, etc etc. It was always going to be a success, they just didn't know how much of a success.
Michael Sullivan
No way they were not fucking offscreen. Did you watch Ordinal Scale?
Benjamin Davis
underage b& detected, isekai is as old as Narnia
Levi Stewart
It was also one of the more popular early web novels and then exploded with the LN, anime, manga etc.
Isaiah Miller
According to aniDB the first isekai was Seisenshi Dunbine (that's "Aura Battler Dunbine" for all you filthy gaijin).
Aaron Anderson
Those Who Hunt Elves
Christian King
Alice in Wonderland
Jaxson Evans
isekai is not a genre
Jackson Collins
The part one story of SOA is literally all players in the MMO can't log out and need to beat the boss of the game or else they are stuck in it forever. If that is not Battle Royal or Death Game then what is?
Charles Turner
>no one mentioning MÄR or Monster Rancher
Isn't Alice in Wonderland even older? Heck, it's probably not even the oldest example.
Connor Hill
nice try OP
Asher Rogers
Not the guy you're replying to, but I wouldn't say it a Battle Royale because they don't have to fight each other
Kayden Brooks
>Dragon Ques
All isekais are based on wizardry and D&D
Oliver Hill
SAO popularized the "Ore Saikyou" self insert power fantasy genre and manifested it using isekai as a trope.
Now Isekai in general was used as just another trope back then and people wrote magnificent stories like MKR and Digimon where the characters acquire their power through hardwork and guts, and experience ups and downs in their lives
The current cancer series, instead of utilizing Isekai as a trope, have based their whole identities on being "isekai" like how some faggots base their whole identities on their LGBTQ-ness. That, combined with power fantasy, results in masturbatory writing of the highest degree
Aaron Price
Not that guy, but Narnia is closer to what is usually considered Isekai, considering it's about going and beating some evil while Alice is just abot a girl wandering around, unless we're talking about more modern adaptations, which suck except American McGee's
Jace Parker
Alice in Wonderland and Narnia were way earlier than SAO, but SAO popularizes the 'Cool, handsome, powerful mc with harem' isekai subgenre.
Andrew Watson
SAO might've somehow popularized that garbage, but it's sure as hell not a power fantasy. Looking at it beyond a surface level makes that very obvious.
Maybe thats the reason why SAO continues to be popular while all the seasonal isekai garbage never gets off the ground.
Julian Ramirez
At least not beyond the first arc. Fairy Dance completely subverts that when Kirito gets punished for trying to live a power fantasy when he runs into the Admin who fucks him up and would've raped his girlfriend had they not been saved.
Ryder Williams
Garzey's Wing
Noah Martin
People who take the word isekai literally are idiots. First and foremost it defines a way of storytelling and not the premise of a story.
This is proven by the fact that protagonists behave mostly like it doesn't matter where they come from. They could have amnesia or whatever, it has no effect on the story. The real effect is about how the protagonist interacts with the world and it's characters. By not knowing anything about or anyone in this world it is easy to introduce the reader piece by piece to this world. It makes it more natural to dump information in the story.
That is the true reason why isekais and fantasy settings are to closely tied together. Fantasy worlds need some sort of explanation.
SAO implemented a lot of tropes you see in most isekais
>There are no guys besides the MC allowed
>all girls want MCs dick
>Some weird abstract evil force that needs to be dealt with but there is no urgency at all
>video game mechanics that faviour the MC because the is the chosen one
If you seriously think that these similarities are less defining for the genre than these two minutes where truck-kun has his big moment you are a pretentious retard.
In that sense yeah, SAO was in the first real isekai.
Brayden Rodriguez
It's not even an Isekai.
Fuck man, Digimon was more of an isekai than SAO.
Wizard of Oz was more of an isekai than SAO.
Nolan Bell
SAO only really follow those tropes in the first arc, and it's only the haremshit at that which isn't ever the focus aside from being played up for comedy at times. Beyond that, SAO really isn't much of an isekai. It's more of a sci-fi drama that features VR-technology.
David Wilson
shota Kirito is for _____?
shota Eugeo is for _____?
Angel Garcia
forgot pic cause I'm retarded
Adam Williams
Brody Ramirez
> Shota Kirito
You already know user
Benjamin Ross
Since this is half a SAO thread I'll ask, what do you want/expect in Lycoris? Personally, if there's no war, I hope there's at least a story DLC where Gabe brings Itsuki and Lievre alongside PoH, get the Donut's squad there too, so Gabe can hurt the Donut and have Itsuki turn on him
Luis Ward
I love SAO to no end. The sheer hostility it gets from gaijin will always amuse me.