• themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    Isekai is “normal fantasy setting” but you must explain everything to the MC, which is useful because you had to find a way to explain that shit to the audience anyway.

    • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Yeah Tolkien should’ve made Lord of the Rings an Isekai because I didn’t understand the fantasy and I want everything in the world of Middle Earth hamfistedly explained to me.

      Isekais are just lazy writing. Even for manga which are often already relying too much on exposition.

      • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Portal fantasies aren’t exactly new.

        The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are classics that aren’t generally considered lazy.

        Isekai tend towards the lazy, self-insert escapist portion of portal fantasy, sure. Most don’t have great writing. But keep Sturgeons law in mind - every genre has a few gems in a sea of turds.

      • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        Tolkien kinda has something like that in story with the shire being fairly disconnected from the outside world. It still allows for some exposition, but also fits much better into the themes and flow of the story.

      • Maultasche@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        There was an original framing story about an Anglo Saxon sailor who finds the straight road and ends up in Valinor.

      • EndlessApollo@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That’s true, other writers use different methods to explain things to the audience, therefore this entire subgenre is just lazy for not doing it the same way

    • ZILtoid1991@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Isekai is “normal fantasy setting”, but it has RPG babble all over the place, and it’s the favorite game of the MC.

    • Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      If a protagonist isn’t affected by what they left behind, the isekai is failing its genre. That’s why Moshuko Tensei (Jobless Reincarnation) is one of the best isekai. Not because the MC is likeable, but because he is haunted by what he left behind and is influenced by the personality he formed in his “home world”

    • Johanno@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      Well in an isekai hentai they explain jack shit why the MC needs to cum in all those women. Just that they are obsessed and he “frees” them.

    • FunkyMonk@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      plus the MC’s internal monologue can keep relating outsider fantasy concepts in fun ‘downhome’ kind of ways. Fireball is just like a truck! or something.