Let's talk about isekai seriously

@Otakupervert890 bro watch eminence in the shadow

I despise the entire genre with a burning passion and avoid any isekai show like the plague. That's why the number of shows I watch each season has significantly decreased over the years. It's the bane of the entire industry since it heavily encourages formulaic and unimaginative writing at the expense of true creativity.

I've noticed ones either with a female MC or in a renaissance setting are better than ones with male MCs in a medieval or RPG setting with exception to gag comedies. I feel they really under utilize the whole other world setting, like where is the wildly fantastical worlds instead of just these very trope filled ones? Also it's better when the MC isn't OP as some gift but instead has to work for it and you get to see a gradual growth with struggles.

@traed I think this is already a more question of tastes than objective quality.

@RobertBobert
It can be but Im not alone

@traed I know. Many prefer Female content over Male, convincing themselves that the matter is in objective quality instead of just admitting that they like the content with girls more.

@RobertBobert
Well it isn't just the gender of the character just how they get written is slightly more effort sometimes and if jot written better at least nicer to look at, plus often a female lead appears more in different genres and themes more frequent so it's actually a loose proxy for other qualities to look for.

@traed All this is very subective, all the more you yourself admit that it is simply "nicer to look at."

@RobertBobert
I would definitely say that it's more than just "[female protagonists are] nicer to look at".

There is less of an universal idea about what power fantasy means when it comes to girls. I think this is the main reason why to me isekai with female protagonists has on average more diverse plots and especially more diverse protagonists. It's still isekai so it's often still full of tropes, but there really isn't as much of an equivalent to the "cookie-cutter gooner slop" that some people complain about.

Isekai are basically the modern form of the ecchi harem anime. Back in the day was a constant slew of harem anime, some were good, some were awful, you had die-hard fans and folks saying it was "destroying anime". Of course ecchi anime are still made, but that niche in the market has completely switched over to isekai/fantasy anime. I personally find it interesting as there were a lot of fantasy anime in the 80s and 90s, so it's a bit of a return to form (but heavily modernized), but like, you could easily draw comparisons between something like Konosuba and Slayers for example.

I'm fine with isekai/fantasy anime existing, they aren't anything new (like Zero no Tsukaima is technically an isekai and that came out in 2006). They're just one side of the industry, just like how harem anime were in the past, tons of other shows are still produced. That said, I do enjoy isekai anime, seen some really good ones that play with the formula (the first season of Re:Zero being a good example), and more comedy-driven series' like Konosuba are excellent too (only gave the first season a 7, but the rest is phenomenal). It can definitely be done right, and it's pretty easy to tell what's going to be generic from just the synopsis.

All in all, there's some good, some bad, some middle-of-the-road, but that can be said for any genre.

@Shimapan-chan I would rather say, fantasy/Action Harems. Since the idea of ​​isekai as a synonym for fanservice harems is quite exaggerated.

@RobertBobert I'm saying they fit the same role in the industry, not that they're the same. You made your account in 2012, you should remember how many harem anime were made back then, and be able to see how isekai anime steadily replaced them over the years.