The Aesthetics of Isekai Anime

Akihabara shown above. Photo by Luca Deasti on Unsplash

What is Isekai?

To define Isekai is as difficult as defining any other genre of storytelling regardless of the medium. Isekai (異世界) literally translates to "different world." In the most rudimentary sense, isekai is a subgenre of anime, manga, and light novels (the Japanese equivalent of young adult fiction) where an otaku protagonist is reincarnated or summoned into a fantasy and/or video game inspired world, usually with god-like power. Some further clarify this definition by classifying what it is not; for example, some assert that Isekai is not Sword Art Online (SAO). The reasoning is that Isekai involves transporting physically to another world rather than being stuck in a virtual reality where you can’t feel pain, as in SAO. Although SAO fulfills the majority of aesthetic elements and is often called an isekai, the main issue is the lack of a true other world. Despite the ontological liminality of SAO’s genre classification, it is arguably what launched the isekai genre as we know it into the mainstream after its debut in 2012. Isekai has since oversaturated the market for anime and manga with new isekai anime released every season and hundreds of light novels getting created all the time.

The origins of isekai are ancient. The concept of the archetypal hero traveling to another world, i.e. the unfamiliar, is seen in myths dating back to the dawn of civilization. The idea of isekai is not new but merely coated with fresh paint. Works of literature involving a more literal transition into a strange new world than the mythologies of the past include Lewis Carroll’s 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, and J. K. Rowling’s Harry among countless others. In each of these works, the characters enter a distinctly different world from their previous life. Two examples of forerunners to the isekai genre in Japanese animation include Digimon (1997), where a group of kids enter a digital world with digital monsters and Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale (2000), where a Japanese schoolgirl is transported to Sengoku period Japan. Several other examples of pre-SAO isekai exist, but none of these anime are deemed true isekai due to their lack of the requisite aesthetic qualities.

There are also many different sub-classifications of isekai. Evocation or 召喚(Shoukan) isekai is where a character is invoked by a god or group of mages or the like and is often asked to save the world – usually from a “demon lord” representative of all evil in the world (How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, No Game No Life, Rising of the Shield Hero). In transference or 転移 (tenii), the protagonist is transferred to another world by unknown means and is forced to adapt to the world, learning the culture and ways of the inhabitants (RE: Zero, The Devil Is a Part Timer, Overlord). Reincarnation or 転生 (tensei) isekai frequently involves an otaku dying and reincarnating in another world with powerful supernatural abilities. The protagonist can get reincarnated as a baby, a younger age, a different sex, an animal, or an inanimate object often with the memories of their previous life wholly intact (The time I got Reincarnated as a Slime, Konosuba, The Saga of Tanya the Evil). The last major variety of isekai is narou isekai, which is the term used to differentiate, and potentially denigrate, isekai and other genres produced from the Japanese website Shousetsuka ni Narou (Let’s Become a Novelist). Shousetsuka ni Narou is a light novel-publishing website with user-generated content – this is the main reason why Isekai has become as popular as it currently is. The rapid self-generation of content is made by fans for fans, covering every conceivable idea and iteration of already successful stories by the sheer number of its output. The Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime, for example, spawned similar reincarnation stories such as Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon and I was Reincarnated as an Onsen in an Alternate World, where an otaku gets reincarnated as a vending machine and a hot spring, respectively.

The Protagonists

The protagonists in isekai are themselves an aesthetic element to the genre. The protagonists are invariably an otaku from Japan – the same as the target demographic so they can easily project themselves onto the character. An otaku is an individual heavily entrenched in aspects of Japanese pop culture such as anime, manga, and video gaming to the point of obsession and detriment of social abilities. Other variations of protagonists are hikikomori (people who isolate themselves from society for years) and NEET’s (someone with No Education Employment or Training). These are intentionally isolated and alienated protagonists because isekai is all about escaping into another world where the viewer or someone like the viewer becomes hyper-relevant. The skill set and knowledge of the average otaku isn’t useful in their society. Isekai becomes a place otaku individuals can become gods as well as a conduit to channel the frustration of uselessness and social anxiety in many of the intended audience for these stories.

The protagonists usually become immediately overpowered through the knowledge of skills from their previous life, luck, or because they become the high level video game characters they spent countless hours playing as. The otaku often becomes their overpowered virtual personas. Except in isekai deliberately playing off the tropes, there are always intense power dynamics with asymmetrical features to favor the protagonist. Protagonists sometimes have a mini-map, status window, or holographic midair user interface as seen in video games that enable them to modify their skills and gain situational advantages by seeing an aerial view highlighting enemies and terrain or enemy statistics.

These powerful characters are often limited in their ability to communicate despite being so insanely powerful as seen in the anime Overlord and How not to Summon a Demon Lord. The protagonists in these stories end up forced to play their role, becoming what people see them as. This phenomenon is often to overcome the social ineptitude and loneliness these otaku characters face with their newly acquired usefulness; they abandon their former selves and masquerade as someone befitting their power.

Some anime like Konosuba and Re:Zero have protagonists that deliberately contrast this mold for comedic or dramatic effect. In Konosuba, an unaccomplished, jobless otaku named Kazuma sustains a lethal heart attack after thinking a slow moving truck was going to run him over. Kazuma then get summoned to fight a demon lord in another world and remains his lazy, sleazy self. The anime follows the misadventures of Kazuma and his harem consisting of a masochistic female knight, an explosion-happy sorceress, and a bumbling self-centered goddess. Re:Zero’s central figure, Subaru, is an oftentimes unlikeable, unskilled, awkward Japanese guy completely out of his element at all times constantly making mistakes. Subaru’s only ability in a world of magic is that he resets to a checkpoint every time he dies, leading to him suffering severe mental trauma.

Fan Service

A common element in all of anime and manga in general, but isekai in particular, is fan service, a term referring to the idea of giving fans what they want/expect. There are several kinds of fan service like meta-references to other anime, shipping of characters, and then the gratuitous erotic display of primarily women (though the same is found in yaoi, or boy’s love, manga for girls). Fan service usually refers to the unnecessary inclusion of scantily clad women, camera angles focusing on female characters’ butts and breasts, panty shots, and special attention given to the animation of jiggling breasts (called Gainaxing or the Gainax Bounce after the anime production Studio Gainax who originated the technique). Fan service often gives rise to shower scenes, barely censored nudity, and hot spring/beach episodes that regularly intersperse the medium of anime.

In the West, fan service is often criticized for the objectification of women and for interrupting the flow or drama of an otherwise excellent show, but the trope is unlikely to abate any time soon. Fan service is the result of a vastly different culture to the West. During the arrival of Commodore Mathew Perry, Japanese men often sported only loincloths during the summer in the hotter subtropical regions and both sexes bathed together without any concern for nudity. During the Edo period erotic prints called Shunga were passed around the dinner table. During the Meiji restoration, westernization of Japan was in full swing, leading to drastic reforms and cultural changes. Among these changes was a severe repression of sexuality in Japan. Fan service can be seen as an outlet for the modern sexually repressed Japan.

The Purpose

Isekai stories are not about becoming strong and recognized like the equally popular and ubiquitous shonen anime genre; the protagonists in isekai are nearly always overpowered from the beginning and grow stronger with no visible effort. Shonen anime features young male protagonists with an intense dream and infinite potential, and the audience follows them on their inevitable journey to the top. One could argue that perhaps isekai is even a reaction to shonen anime, where the focus is on a constant quest for power – a never ending battle. Isekai is not about the attainment of power, but rather all about what these protagonists do with their instantly acquired power, and it’s oftentimes used to compensate for personal shortcomings from their previous lives that their newfound power can’t erase. Isekai is a commentary on the meaning of true strength and what happens at the end of this familiar journey of non-stop power accumulation should it ever become realized. The battles and the quest for power in shonen are replaced in isekai with interpersonal relationships and navigating social landscapes.

Japanese Nationalism

Isekai is also heavily criticized for being mass-produced, formulaic otaku wish fulfillment fantasies. One can even argue that this subgenre is a vector for Japanese nationalism. The fetishization of modernity and the self-flattery of Japan are ubiquitous aesthetic themes in isekai – the only exceptions being self-satirizing and subversive isekai anime (Ex: Re: Zero). There are countless examples where a Japanese man enters a less developed world and brings with him the wonders of Japan and civilization. In A Veterinarian in Another World a Japanese veterinarian gets isekai-ed and improves agriculture and brings medicine to a world of human-like animal races. Gun-ota is a manga where a Japanese man, a twenty-seven year old virgin and hikikomori gun otaku, gets reincarnated and invents the gun, revolutionizing his new fantasy world. In Isekai Yakkyoku an internationally renowned physician works himself to death, gets reincarnated, and introduces germ theory (perhaps one of the most influential ideas in human history) to a medieval world in addition to drastically improving healthcare and medicine. Gate is an isekai where a fantasy world suddenly appears in the middle of modern day Tokyo and gets utterly destroyed by the advanced Japanese military, weapons, and tactics. Lastly, Isekai Houtei: Rebuttal Barrister features a god from a fantasy world resurrecting a FAILED Japanese law student to their world where the student introduces Japanese law. This god is so confident in Japanese law that it doesn’t matter that this was a failed student (rather than an actual lawyer) or the fact that this student killed himself. It carries the idea that Japanese law is fundamentally superior to native law. It’s reminiscent of US interventions in the Middle East where there is this belief of superiority bringing ideals of modernity and civilization to an utterly foreign land with different values and culture. In all of these examples the Japanese man and Japanese cultural values are equated with advancement.

In Isekai, when a Japanese man cooks something, enslaves characters (as seen in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody and The Rising of the Shield Hero), or goes to war, it is seen as refined and morally superior to the inhabitants of the fantasy world. This is even seen in the cultural commodity of food. In the isekai Log Horizon, thousands of players of a massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMO RPG) get trapped in an actualized version of the video game and the food tastes terrible and flavorless. Rather than the inhabitants of the land of thousands of years, it’s these Japanese foreigners who discover in months how to properly prepare delicious food and create Japanese dishes like okonomiyaki and takoyaki and introduce it to the world. The Japanese in Log Horizon become a political and economic juggernaut after commercializing their food and recreating the real world vibrant shopping district Akihabara in the game-world. Isekai often shows a similar one-way cultural exchange in which the Japanese show the natives how to better understand, exploit, and experience their own world. I would argue that this dichotomous relationship of Japanese supremacy is an essential aesthetic component to the genre – one that is thematic rather than visual.