Okay, this blog post isn’t really about the “other world” (if there is one), but instead it is about the genre. In the past few years, such stories have become more common in anime, thanks to the huge proliferation of light novels in this genre.
To summarise, the “another world” or isekai (異世界) genre involves some individual (typically the protagonist) being sent to a world separate from Earth. While the genre itself is very broad, there are several patterns by which many such stories follow. The genre itself is quite old, but I’ll only be speaking about some of the more recent variations, namely, those typically found in anime, manga and light novels.
What I’ve noticed in the past few years is the rise in the number of blatant “wish-fulfillment” power fantasies in the genre itself. Often they involve some male NEET, otaku or salaryman somehow being transported to another world by varying methods and somehow becoming surrounded by a harem of girls who unquestionably fawn over this man. Said protagonist often gains so-called “cheat” abilities, effectively wiping the floor with anything that might even so much as look at him funny. Of course, such a premise is not very conductive to storytelling, since you’re not going to get a decent conflict without a diabolus ex machina (i.e. pulling obstacles out of thin air).
Of course, despite the glut of wish-fulfillment stories, there are a few that go this pathway, and depict the protagonist as (initally) weak. Two of the more well-known “another world” light novels that have received anime adaptations, Konosuba and Re:ZERO, do indeed have the protagonist start out as weak. The former is a deconstructive parody of the “reincarnate into an RPG verse”-type stories, as the protagonist starts at the equivalent of level 1, his “cheat item” is a near-useless party member, and two other party members don’t really walk the walk, due to limitations to their abilities or lack of power or whatever. In fact, early on he only gathers barely enough money to even eat; no money spiders or metal slimes here. In the latter, the only special ability the protagonist has is, well, the ability to return to a previous point in time after death (i.e. save scum). While he does end up with several girls, they’re as much of a liability as they are decently powerful, as they can die or whatever, leading to, yes, going back to a previous point.
(Disclaimer: I have not watched or read these two, nor do I have any plans to. If you have followed my blog, you know what kinds of stories I watch, read or play, and these two do not fit into my criteria and are not grandfathered. As such, there may be inaccuracies. In fact, some of my information comes from TV Tropes.)
The other thing I’ve seen is deconstructing the very fact that the protagonist is overpowered. There are a number of ways in which this can be carried out. One way is to portray the protagonist in the eyes of the inhabitants of the world. At this point the protagonist becomes less “hero” and more “outside-context problem”, and the story follows accordingly.
One light novel I’m reading, Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! (which, incidentally, is receiving an anime adaptation sometime in the future), also deconstructs the concept of an overpowered protagonist. In the story, the protagonist Misato Kurihara dies after saving a girl from getting hit by a car. When given the chance by God to reincarnate in another world, her request was to have her abilities be “average”. Of course, God’s idea of “average” left a lot to be desired, and Misato, now Adele von Ascham, has abilities halfway between lowest and highest. And since the statistical distribution of those abilities are not symmetrical, she is now vastly overpowered when compared to a normal human. Half the magic power of an elder dragon. Presumably half the physical strength of an elder dragon, and half the endurance. Even her “authorisation level” with the nanomachines that power magic, which affects her affinity with magic, is halfway, but between God and a normal human.
Because Misato only wanted to live a normal life, having spent her first life with exceedingly high expectations on her thanks to her talents, and no friends as a result, Adele has to hide the true extent of her power (although she does give her friends pointers on how to improve their magic, knowing how magic works in this world better than anyone else in the world). There are a few times, though, where she allows the full extent of her power to show, but the first time leads to a chain of events that ultimately results in Adele fleeing the country and her father and stepsister being arrested for usurping the Ascham bloodline, all because Princess Morena was curious about that girl who was an “avatar of a goddess”. As of the end of Volume 3, the only ones from my understanding who have any sort of idea just how powerful Adele is are the “Wonder Trio” (Marcela, Monika and Aureana, who were Adele’s friends at the academy) and three of the four members of the “Crimson Vow” hunter group (namely, Mavis, Reina and Pauline; the fourth member, Mile, is Adele herself).
In the cases where Adele’s power is shown in full, her foes often are at a loss at what to do. Throughout the story one can see glimpses of her full power, from outright blocking attacks without using ice-, earth- or wind-elemental magic, to catching fireballs bare-handed; from forging unbreakable swords, to wiping the floor with elite soldiers. Even when she is hiding her power, her ability to use thunder-elemental magic is unique (the elements I’ve seen in the story up to Volume 3 are fire, water, ice, earth, wind and thunder; most attack spells use fire or ice, while Pauline also attacks with boiling or spicy water).
The story actually goes into some detail on how a person with immense magic power and a far greater understanding of magic, as well as the knowledge of a more technologically advanced world, influences the magic abilities of those around her. The Wonder Trio is an excellent example of this influence; originally, only Marcela could use magic, and only weak magic at that. With some guidance from Adele, Monika and Aureana found themselves able to use magic as well, and the three girls’ magic power increased to the point where they could qualify as D-rank hunters.
Anyway, that’ll be it from the work itself; I’m not going to put a full review of it here (at least, not now).
Anyway, some of the stuff I’ve been working on do include some “another world” elements. While I have mentioned a few things about it in this blog, Yume ni Aruku does technically fall into this genre. It involves a world separate from Earth, and characters from Earth being sent to this world. However, it itself is not influenced much by the “another world” light novels that have risen into prominence lately, namely because I had conceived the basic concepts long before I’d even heard of them (it was actually inspired by an obscure “another world” webnovel whose main drawing point is the aversion of a completely different trope). The main differences include the fact that three separate groups of young girls are sent to the other world, instead of a single person or group, and that past a certain point in the story travel between worlds is fairly easy. And, of course, I won’t ignore the fact that time also passes on Earth and that things also happen there (something I’ve only found in a single “another world” manga among recent stories).
Anyway, that’ll be all for now.
P.S. I’ve finally implemented spoiler tags. Maybe if I had relied on Google earlier I would’ve been able to use them in earlier posts.