Isekai is popular because people love watching slop called like Transported to Another World Where The Age of Consent Doesn’t Exist
I think it’s also part knowing a better world is possible while struggling to see the middle portion to get there. It’ll be nice to be reincarnated into a world where you’re better off financially and you can get a job you want to do and that job would grant you a better standard of living.
And then you throw away a lot of the bullshit we accumulate in a society so blatantly driven by capitalism.
Some people are frustrated and want to start over on a more even playing field. And some of those people also believe that even playing field would let them have a waifu.
Don’t get me wrong, I think a lot of the isekai stuff out there is shallow slop, but I also think the popularity of escapist fantasy is resonant to material conditions.
I’m not dissing escapism in general, just the popularity of this particularly unimaginative and often problematic genre
Oh I see. Yeah, that’s a pretty clear distinction. That part of the genre has dehumanizing wish-fulfillment vibes that reminds me a lot of romanticizing colonialism.
While escaping to a magical land full of whimsical adventure sounds fun. Im not sure if the actual occupation of adventurer isnt kind of terrible not even talking about the danger you put yourself into.
Then again …running a tavern in a fantasy world sounds like it could be fun.
I don’t know if isekai has always been this way, but usually the protags aren’t ever in much danger because they’re also super OP in the new fantasy world they occupy. I would think that’s the other thing that appeals to people.
Thats true most Isekai protags are brokenly OP. I just think that if I would be transported to a magical realm my first thought would be - fuck how am I gonna make a living or survive. Since most of these worlds are some form of feudalism.
But yeah Isekai mostly just means wish fulfilment for the main character.
that’s why these stories always default to ‘adventurer’, because the only actual work available to an unbound stranger in a feudal economy is unaccountable violence-dispenser, slave, or criminal.
someone shows up without family ties, guild ties, merchant ties, political ties… they’re automatically the lowest rung of society and will have to rely on charity until they could raise their station & acquire those ties through wealth or political clout—and the best way to get both of those in lieu of having anyone to ‘put in a good word for you’ is violence.
:truck-kun:
The bots are out in full force with anti capitalist propaganda in the anime feed. Nice.
Except for Berserk wherein the world is brutal and no one is happy except for mad god Griffith.
Eh, Griffith is suffering pretty bad from a terminal case of bottomless ambition. He has everything he ever wanted and yet he’s still miserable and desperate for more.
Stabbing everyone who he ever held even the tiniest amount of camaraderie with in the back isn’t great for one’s mental health, surprisingly.
Is this new berserk lore? I don’t remember him giving a fuck but its been ages
It’s more implied than explicit. He gets his kingdom but wants to extend it to the whole world. Guts’ refusal to submit continuously gets under his skin even if it’s just a mild annoyance. He doesn’t seem to enjoy his minions as much as he did the Band.
It doesn’t undermine him as a villain because he’s constantly doing more stuff, but it does sort of build a sense of a person drinking ever more seawater to try and cure their thirst.
