[0:00] love it or hate it itai has had a
[0:02] veritable strangle hold on anime manga
[0:04] and light novels for years at this point
[0:07] the continued dominance and popularity
[0:09] of these types of stories has triggered
[0:11] no shortage of commentary Regarding why
[0:13] this specific storytelling device
[0:15] remained so popular in fact the very
[0:17] first video I made for this channel was
[0:19] on this very question but today I want
[0:22] to take a different approach what if
[0:24] there is a scientific explanation for
[0:26] the Evergreen popularity of isekai
[0:28] stories perhaps the animals of
[0:30] peer-reviewed academic literature
[0:32] secretly holds the answer to this query
[0:35] after perusing the Realms of psychology
[0:37] sociology media studies cultural
[0:39] anthropology among others I've developed
[0:42] three buckets from which we can
[0:43] understand the enduring popularity of
[0:45] esaki the first is psychological the
[0:48] story structure of isekai allows viewers
[0:50] to better connect and immerse themselves
[0:52] in the work the second is sociological
[0:55] the mechanics of isekai are particularly
[0:57] appealing to a growing class of young
[1:00] people who were disillusioned by a lack
[1:02] of Economic Opportunity a problem that
[1:04] originated in Japan after their economy
[1:07] stagnated in the early 1990s but has
[1:09] since spread to other parts of East Asia
[1:12] and the developed world the final bucket
[1:14] is technological specifically about the
[1:16] mechanics of how new isekai are created
[1:19] isekai stories come from a uniquely fan
[1:21] driven environment on the Japanese
[1:23] website SCH setat and it's that
[1:26] crossover between consumers and
[1:28] producers that creates a virtuous cycle
[1:30] by which isekai continued to be turned
[1:32] out to start with the psychological
[1:34] Dimension it's useful to confront the
[1:36] broader philosophical question of why do
[1:39] we consume fictional narratives at all
[1:41] on the surface it seems like a trit or
[1:43] even idiotic question but the more you
[1:46] think about it the more the answer is
[1:48] perhaps not as self-evident as it might
[1:50] initially seem by definition fictional
[1:53] stories are not real so why then do we
[1:56] as a species invest so much Collective
[1:58] effort time and brain power to the
[2:00] pursuit of stories worlds and characters
[2:03] that are completely made up after all
[2:05] thinking about fictional narratives
[2:07] wouldn't have helped our ancestors hunt
[2:09] great beasts or avoid dangerous
[2:11] predators one answer to this question is
[2:13] that perhaps a predilection towards
[2:15] fictional narratives may have in fact
[2:17] helped our ancestors survive and
[2:19] reproduce in Psychology there's an idea
[2:21] called theory of mind which essentially
[2:23] refers to our ability to understand
[2:26] others by ascribing motives emotions
[2:28] beliefs and desires to them that are
[2:30] different than our own individuals who
[2:32] are better able to understand the
[2:34] intentions of others both good and bad
[2:37] are much more likely to avoid
[2:38] undesirable outcomes like being
[2:40] ostracized from your village and more
[2:43] likely to achieve desirable outcomes
[2:44] like procreation in her 2006 bug why we
[2:48] read fiction the literature and
[2:50] cognitive science scholar Lisa Sunshine
[2:53] argues that theory of mind is essential
[2:55] for understanding why we are driven to
[2:57] consume fictional stories by Nature sure
[3:00] all fictional stories require engaging
[3:02] theory of mind to this end Zed proposes
[3:05] a thought experiment to imagine how
[3:06] fiction would work in a world in which
[3:08] there is no conception of theory of Mind
[3:10] a world in which we are unable to
[3:12] conceptualize how others might have
[3:15] different thoughts desires and
[3:16] motivations from our own Sunshine argues
[3:19] that in such a world the role of fiction
[3:21] would be significantly diminished if not
[3:23] completely eliminated intuitively this
[3:26] makes sense if we were completely
[3:27] incapable of understanding other people
[3:29] inner workings and how their thoughts
[3:31] might differ from our own there is a
[3:33] little reason to spend time absorbing
[3:35] madeup tales about other people
[3:37] Sunshine's core contention throughout
[3:38] her book is that our drive to consume
[3:40] fictional narratives is driven by a
[3:42] desire to exercise our social reasoning
[3:44] and Imagination she analyzes literary
[3:47] Classics like Bea wolf Don kote or
[3:49] Lolita to show how they employ
[3:51] rhetorical tricks to exercise and
[3:53] stimulate our theory of mind for example
[3:56] take the case of Lita which centers
[3:58] around Humbert humbert's obsession with
[4:00] the ttit Lolita the story forces readers
[4:03] to understand that Humbert is an
[4:04] unreliable narrator requiring the reader
[4:06] to perform the mental exercise to
[4:09] understand how his predilections and
[4:10] Neurosis color The Narrative that's
[4:12] presented to them in short we have an
[4:14] evolutionary drive to process and
[4:17] understand the mental states of others
[4:19] that is mediated through fiction so what
[4:21] does this have to do with isekai I'd
[4:23] argue that the mechanics of isekai can
[4:25] help to enhance theory of mind the
[4:27] central premise of isekai of course is
[4:29] it's where a person from our world finds
[4:31] themselves transported into some other
[4:33] Fantastical world what's interesting
[4:35] about many of the highest rated isekai
[4:37] like yojo seni or No Game No Life Is
[4:40] that the protagonists all come from very
[4:42] distinct pre isekai experiences T deura
[4:45] was a Cutthroat salary man who was
[4:47] murdered by a disgruntled former
[4:48] employee he fired Shido and soda are not
[4:51] just NS which is a fairly common Trope
[4:53] among isekai protagonists but rather
[4:55] they're defined by their obsessive skill
[4:58] and compulsion towards game playing
[5:00] these characters all carry defined and
[5:02] clear experiences and temperaments into
[5:04] their new lives such that the viewer is
[5:06] forced to reason about how someone with
[5:09] those characteristics and background
[5:10] would approach the novel and Fantastical
[5:13] situations thrown at them in their new
[5:15] reality a common plot device at isekai
[5:17] stories is having the main characters
[5:19] knowledge and experiences from our
[5:21] reality translate into success in the
[5:23] fantasy world which naturally encourages
[5:25] the viewer to think about how the
[5:27] experiences of the main character or
[5:28] even themselves would translate into the
[5:31] fantasy world an increasingly popular
[5:33] subgenre of iseki stories are
[5:35] reincarnation villainess Works
[5:37] essentially these Works will feature the
[5:39] protagonist being reborn as a character
[5:41] from one of their favorite books or
[5:42] video games from their previous life
[5:44] they then use their knowledge of said
[5:46] book or game that they got reborn into
[5:48] to influence the plot in essence the
[5:50] mechanics of having a person from our
[5:52] reality transported into a Fantastical
[5:54] one could help enhance the kinds of
[5:56] perspective taking that allow us to
[5:58] enjoy fiction of of course one of the
[6:00] primary criticisms of isekai stories is
[6:02] that most of them do not feature these
[6:04] kinds of unique or particularly
[6:06] memorable characters the kinds of low
[6:08] brow cookie cutter isekai stories that
[6:10] have made these plot devices widely
[6:12] ridiculed are scorned because these
[6:14] stories are seen as uninspired and
[6:16] feature Bland unmemorable characters
[6:18] well many of the genre's best shows
[6:20] feature characters of clearly defined
[6:22] and unique personality traits and
[6:24] experiences these are perhaps the
[6:25] exception rather than the norm one of
[6:28] the defining characteristics of lowbrow
[6:30] isekai stories is that they usually
[6:31] feature completely unremarkable Bland
[6:34] milk toast protagonists usually with the
[6:36] pr elction towards light novels anime or
[6:38] games they then very conveniently find
[6:41] that these traits allow them to become
[6:43] extremely overpowered in their new life
[6:45] The Supporting Cast is often little more
[6:47] than a Pastiche of well trotted anime
[6:49] tropes and the plot generally fares not
[6:51] much better with these kinds of stories
[6:53] trotting out the same W RPG elements and
[6:56] generic fantasy settings it's with these
[6:58] kinds of stories that the theory of Mind
[7:00] explanation starts to fall apart this
[7:03] kind of narrative setup does not
[7:04] particularly challenge one's theory of
[7:06] mind the entire purpose of having these
[7:08] kinds of protagonists is for the viewer
[7:10] to self-insert into them none of these
[7:12] characters typically have any kind of
[7:14] deeper character motivations for the
[7:15] audience to understand or dissect this
[7:18] leads into perhaps one of the more
[7:19] prominent reason why isekai tropes have
[7:21] stuck around for so long namely that
[7:23] they encourage Transportation into
[7:25] narrative worlds and identification with
[7:27] the protagonist as the name implies is
[7:29] transportation into narrative worlds or
[7:31] Transportation Theory as it sometime
[7:33] referred to in the literature refers to
[7:35] the ability of a fictional work to fully
[7:37] immerse or transport the viewer into a
[7:40] narrative if you have ever for instance
[7:42] binged an entire season of anime without
[7:44] any regard for the time you've
[7:46] experienced narrative Transportation
[7:48] when someone is strongly transported
[7:50] into a narrative they often lose track
[7:51] of their surroundings and the real world
[7:53] and they become highly engrossed and
[7:55] connected with the characters through
[7:57] scientific study researchers have been
[7:59] able to identify distinct
[8:00] characteristics and factors that predict
[8:02] narrative transportation in a 2014 meta
[8:05] analysis Tom van leer and his colleagues
[8:08] examined 76 studies on narrative
[8:10] Transportation they identified several
[8:12] key characteristics of the story
[8:14] receiver or the person reading watching
[8:17] or experiencing a narrative and how
[8:18] those influence the likelihood of
[8:20] experiencing narrative Transportation
[8:23] first they identify familiarity as a key
[8:25] driver of narrative Transportation the
[8:27] more knowledge a person has about a
[8:29] story topic or genre the more narrative
[8:31] Transportation they experience to this
[8:34] extent the mass proliferation of isekai
[8:36] works as a kind of virtuous cycle where
[8:38] the ever expanding Universe of isekai
[8:41] stories only increases people's
[8:42] awareness and familiarity with the
[8:44] genres conventions and troops and thus
[8:46] makes them even more likely to be
[8:48] transported into future isekai stories
[8:51] second they point out that certain
[8:52] people are just inherently more willing
[8:54] to be transported when you think about
[8:56] the typical isekai demographic it's
[8:58] usually Young men often without much
[9:00] else going on in their lives thus the
[9:03] specific demographic that isekai stor
[9:05] has appeal to have an inherently High
[9:06] propensity for transportation third they
[9:09] look at more General demographic
[9:11] characteristics they find that young
[9:13] people are more likely to be transported
[9:15] which checks out with the general eite
[9:17] demographic they also found out that
[9:18] more educated people are more likely to
[9:20] experience narrative Transportation
[9:22] likely as a function of the fact that
[9:24] they read more Japan as a society of a
[9:27] high degree of educational attainment
[9:28] fits this Bill the final finding here is
[9:31] a little interesting they find that
[9:33] women generally report higher levels of
[9:35] narrative Transportation than men while
[9:37] we often think of isekai as primarily
[9:39] appealing to young men as I have
[9:41] likewise assumed isekai as a plot
[9:43] mechanic has and continues to be quite
[9:46] popular with female audiences one of the
[9:48] earliest instances of an isekai style
[9:50] story was at the 1976 chjo manga OK no
[9:53] Mano or the crest of the royal family
[9:56] which revolves sort a young girl being
[9:57] sent back in time to an Egypt isekai
[10:00] stories were quite popular in shjo manga
[10:02] during the 1990s such as fushiki Yuki a
[10:05] story about two Junior High School girls
[10:07] they're transported back to ancient
[10:09] China from a book they find in their
[10:10] library of course there's also the most
[10:12] famous example in Inu Yasha which
[10:14] features a girl who was transported to
[10:16] feudo Japan through a well in her family
[10:18] Shrine and as I've previously mentioned
[10:21] we've also seen a recent rise of
[10:22] villainess isekai which primarily appeal
[10:25] to women however many of the
[10:27] characteristics from Van ler at all
[10:29] study are not necessarily unique to
[10:31] isekai the same demographic factors that
[10:34] make young men and women particularly
[10:36] likely to transport into isekai stories
[10:38] could easily apply to other types of
[10:40] narratives for instance before isekai
[10:43] became the invogue genre the early 2010s
[10:45] were heavily saturated by battle Herm
[10:48] shows exemplified by works like data
[10:50] live High School DxD the aster war or
[10:53] shivalry of a failed Knight to name a
[10:55] few both battle Herm shows and isekai
[10:58] share many similar characteristics both
[11:00] generally feature male protagonists that
[11:02] often seem plain or unassuming but
[11:04] conveniently have some kind of unique
[11:06] power that makes them incredibly strong
[11:08] both are often ridiculed for being wish
[11:10] fulfillment fantasy shows for young men
[11:12] however there are a couple of subtle
[11:14] differences that account for isi's
[11:15] enduring popularity while battle heram
[11:18] shows have largely died out the first is
[11:20] a bit on the nose but isekai likely
[11:22] evokes better engagement from the
[11:24] viewers because of the literal plot
[11:26] device of the main character being
[11:27] transported into a new world as I've
[11:30] previously argued this act might make
[11:32] consumers more likely to become invested
[11:34] in and become narratively transported
[11:36] into the story the second part of my
[11:38] argument is a bit more involved and has
[11:40] to do with the sociological conditions
[11:42] of particularly Japanese young people
[11:44] but also an increasing share of young
[11:46] people globally specifically I want to
[11:49] deconstruct a common criticism leveled
[11:51] at isekai stories namely that they often
[11:53] devolve into vapid escapism and wish
[11:55] fulfillment for socially maladjusted
[11:58] young men and boys it's worth
[11:59] interrogating what this contention means
[12:02] what exactly are these people escaping
[12:04] from and why has the narrative device of
[12:06] going to another world become the
[12:08] preferred means from which to execute
[12:10] this escapism people regularly criticize
[12:13] what they perceive to be a glut of
[12:14] unoriginal entr tropy isekai Series
[12:17] without considering the underlying
[12:18] reasons why these stories continue to be
[12:21] successful in our master's thesis fatuma
[12:24] Muhammad argues that isekai consumption
[12:26] has become endemic not as what she calls
[12:28] a quote ill advised coping mechanism or
[12:31] as a sign of Failure to Launch end quote
[12:33] but as a reimagining of the coming of
[12:36] age Tales of old isekai is particularly
[12:39] successful because it navigates the
[12:40] increasing unattainability of the
[12:43] idealized Japanese life for today's
[12:45] youth a defining characteristic of most
[12:47] isekai is that the main characters are
[12:49] usually explicitly defined as being
[12:51] ordinary or unassuming in the real world
[12:54] while there are some exceptions like
[12:56] Tanya who was once a reasonably
[12:58] successful businessman Man by and large
[13:00] these stories revolve around
[13:02] protagonists who have no real skills in
[13:04] their real lives except reading light
[13:06] novels in manga watching anime and
[13:08] playing video games these protagonists
[13:10] are often hii Kodi or people who live
[13:12] excessively withdrawn lives and have
[13:14] little social contact and rarely leave
[13:17] their houses a status exemplified by
[13:19] rudas from mushok kensei this contrasts
[13:22] starkly with the traditional Shonen
[13:24] protagonists people who are ambitious
[13:25] driven and constantly seeking to
[13:27] strengthen themselves even even though a
[13:29] common Trope of battle heram shows
[13:31] involves staring ostensibly forgettable
[13:33] or unassuming protagonists these
[13:35] nobodies usually go through a fairly
[13:38] normal Shen protagonist Arc of
[13:40] strengthening themselves and proving
[13:41] themselves to others consider for
[13:43] instance chivalry of a fail Knight while
[13:45] the protagonist the titular failed
[13:47] Knight is called so because of his
[13:49] inability to invoke magic he Masters a
[13:52] unique fighting style that allows him to
[13:54] defeat those who are supposedly much
[13:56] stronger than him his Arc revolves run
[13:58] him constantly over overcoming
[13:59] challenges and proving his strength on
[14:01] the contrary modern isekai protagonists
[14:04] rarely seem to encounter meaningful
[14:06] obstacles or barriers they transition
[14:08] seamlessly from people who are
[14:09] marginalized from Real World society as
[14:11] neat losers into veritable gods in the
[14:14] fantasy worlds that get transported to
[14:16] think of Ian from Overlord or Sid kago
[14:19] from Eminence and Shadow they're all
[14:21] granted essentially Godlike powers and
[14:24] rarely encounter any meaningful
[14:26] challenges or threats to themselves this
[14:28] character istic of isekai stories as
[14:30] power fantasies is often criticized for
[14:32] being narratively lazy which in all
[14:35] fairness it kind of is one of the
[14:37] fundamental characteristics of good
[14:39] fiction writing is that your character
[14:40] should encounter legitimate challenges
[14:42] that allows them to grow and change as
[14:45] characters however it's precisely
[14:47] because the characters are overpowered
[14:49] and encounter no meaningful challenges
[14:51] that ERS them to the core is aai
[14:53] readership unlike in a traditional
[14:55] shownin story where the characters
[14:57] encounter seemingly insurmountable odds
[14:59] but are ultimately able to Triumph and
[15:01] grow as a result the kinds of people
[15:03] that are drawn to isekai stories
[15:05] fundamentally don't buy into this notion
[15:07] of hard work being justified and
[15:09] rewarded these are people that are often
[15:12] economically marginalized and sometimes
[15:14] rightfully observe that working hard is
[15:16] no guarantee of success in the real
[15:18] world some people work their asses off
[15:20] and reap little reward While others
[15:22] seemingly continually fail upwards
[15:24] despite putting in no effort on their
[15:26] own the popularity of this specific
[15:28] narrative style and form of escapism is
[15:30] a result of persistently poor economic
[15:33] conditions in Japan historically the
[15:35] idealized notion of male adulthood in
[15:37] Japan revolved around a system of
[15:40] Lifetime employment or shushin coyo
[15:42] where people are hired by a firm after
[15:44] college and work at the same company for
[15:46] the rest of their lives the system was a
[15:49] product of the unique conditions of
[15:50] post-war Japan where the country had a
[15:53] significant demand for labor to fuel its
[15:55] booming post-war economy but much of the
[15:57] country's prime age M working population
[16:00] died in the war so to attract labor
[16:02] companies would enter into these
[16:04] lifetime employment agreements providing
[16:06] stable employment pensions and even
[16:08] housing assistance in exchange for this
[16:10] job security people are expected to
[16:13] extend that same loyalty back to the
[16:14] company by working long hours or even
[16:17] being willing to relocate across the
[16:19] country at your boss and the company's
[16:20] request the obvious problem here is that
[16:23] the system relies on a steady rate of
[16:25] economic growth to sustain itself if
[16:27] your employees are guaranteed lifetime
[16:29] tenure the only way to create new
[16:31] opportunities is to constantly expand
[16:33] and grow your business this worked for
[16:35] the 40 years between 1950 and 1990 when
[16:38] the Japanese economy grew at a truly
[16:40] exponential rate however the system
[16:42] would come crashing down in the late
[16:44] 1980s and early 1990s with the collapse
[16:47] of the Japanese asset pricing bubble
[16:49] which plunged the Japanese economy into
[16:51] a deep economic malaise that has never
[16:54] truly recovered from in response to the
[16:56] rapid contraction of the Japanese
[16:58] economy the lifetime employment system
[17:00] that once Define Japanese working life
[17:03] had become completely untenable during
[17:05] an economic recession companies usually
[17:07] respond by firing and laying off workers
[17:10] but Japanese firms didn't have this
[17:12] option due to their lifetime employment
[17:14] agreements as sociologist Hoshi Ono
[17:17] noted Japanese firms instead responded
[17:19] to the New Economic environment by
[17:22] freezing the addition of new lifetime
[17:24] employees in order to avoid having to
[17:26] lay them off the end result of this was
[17:28] that the generation that graduated into
[17:30] the job market of the 1990s and Beyond
[17:33] were confronted with the uncomfortable
[17:35] reality that the vaed status of Lifetime
[17:37] employment was simply no longer
[17:39] available to them the 1980s marked the
[17:42] ascendence of so-called neoliberal
[17:44] economic policy in much of the angl
[17:46] sphere exemplified by the policies of
[17:49] Ronald Reagan in the United States
[17:50] Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom
[17:53] and Brian morone in Canada neoliberalism
[17:56] is characterized by a focus on private
[17:58] Enterprise and the free market
[18:00] neoliberal economics promoted reductions
[18:02] in government regulations in spending
[18:04] privatization of formerly state-owned
[18:06] Enterprises and reductions in Union
[18:08] power and greater flexibility in
[18:10] employment it's this last Point that's
[18:12] particularly relevant for the Japanese
[18:14] context by the 2000s these same policies
[18:17] had started to make their way over to
[18:19] Japan in 2001 Japan's ruling liberal
[18:22] Democratic party proposed the succinctly
[18:24] named basic policies for economic and
[18:27] fiscal management and reform better
[18:29] known as HB noin or literally the big
[18:33] boned policy designed to write Japan's
[18:36] alien economic ship the big boned
[18:39] policies were a set of neoliberal
[18:41] reforms put into practice by prime
[18:43] minister Juno qumi who served as Prime
[18:46] Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006
[18:49] among them was the privatization of the
[18:51] Japan post and reductions in industrial
[18:54] subsidies persistently weak economic
[18:56] conditions also gave Japan's major
[18:58] business interests much more leverage
[19:00] allowing the weakening of labor laws
[19:02] that were designed to protect the
[19:03] lifetime employment system the end
[19:05] result of all these economic reforms was
[19:07] the effective end of Lifetime employment
[19:10] for people who came into the workforce
[19:12] after the 1990s while those who were
[19:14] grandfathered into lifetime employment
[19:16] Arrangements were largely able to keep
[19:18] their jobs new workers increasingly had
[19:20] to rely on part-time employment or
[19:22] non-standard employment Arrangements
[19:24] that provided none of the economic
[19:26] stability and benefits provided by
[19:28] lifetime Employments while keeping all
[19:30] of the terrible working hours and
[19:32] expectations of Japanese work culture
[19:34] between 1990 and 2001 the percentage of
[19:37] young people between the ages of 15 to
[19:39] 34 that were classified as featurers or
[19:42] young people that were either unemployed
[19:44] stuck in part-time or temporary
[19:46] employment Arrangements more than
[19:48] doubled from 10.4% to
[19:51] 21.2% amounting to more than 4 million
[19:54] people in 2001 this problem has only
[19:57] gotten worse in recent years in 2022 the
[20:00] percentage of people stuck in part-time
[20:02] contract or other irregular work
[20:04] agreements has ballooned to nearly 40%
[20:06] of the entire Japanese Workforce by
[20:09] contrast part-time workers make up less
[20:11] than 20% of the US Workforce his
[20:13] increasing Reliance on part-time labor
[20:15] has led to extremely depressed wage
[20:17] growth in Japan with average wages
[20:19] having increased only
[20:21] 11.7% between 1995 and 2020 whereas
[20:25] average wages have jumped over 50% in
[20:27] that same period in the US in 2013 the
[20:31] Japanese government passed a law
[20:32] designed to address the increasing
[20:34] divide between lifetime employees and
[20:36] irregular employees mandating that
[20:38] employers transition their irregular
[20:40] employees into lifetime employment after
[20:42] 5 years and stipulating that the
[20:44] employment conditions should not have
[20:46] quote unreasonable differences
[20:49] unfortunately this law has been
[20:50] effectively moved because the definition
[20:52] of unreasonable has been construed so
[20:54] broadly by the Japanese legal system as
[20:57] to effectively render this law un
[20:58] enforcable given it's essentially
[21:00] impossible for many Japanese youth to
[21:02] access these kinds of vaunted Lifetime
[21:04] employment agreements that once
[21:06] characterized the right of passage into
[21:08] adulthood is it any Wonder then why so
[21:11] many young people have rejected
[21:12] conventional Norms of growing up and
[21:15] entering the real world and are instead
[21:17] retreating into the fictional worlds of
[21:19] isekai by no fault of their own these
[21:21] people are bored into a culture that is
[21:23] not caught up to the current economic
[21:25] reality expectations for men in Japanese
[21:27] Society have largely not changed over
[21:29] the years with men expected to graduate
[21:31] into the workforce and work long hours
[21:34] to support a family that they often
[21:35] rarely get to see even if these jobs
[21:38] were attainable many people are
[21:39] rightfully questioning whether the
[21:41] lifetime employment system was truly the
[21:43] ideal it was held up to be if you've
[21:45] ever watched one of those day in the
[21:46] life of a Japanese acts on YouTube
[21:48] you'll probably see what I mean the day
[21:51] in the life of an average Japanese
[21:52] salary man in Tokyo is genuinely
[21:55] depressing with the subject of the video
[21:57] working nearly 14 18 hours from 7:00
[22:00] a.m. to 900 p.m. despite the fact that
[22:02] Japan is often held up as a modern and
[22:05] advanced Society their working culture
[22:07] is shockingly Antiquated fax machines
[22:09] are still a regular fixture in a
[22:11] Japanese office despite the fact that
[22:13] most of these machines are probably
[22:15] older than I am as someone who does
[22:17] business for Japanese clients for my day
[22:19] job I often find myself scratching my
[22:21] head at some of their business as usual
[22:22] practices of course the realm in which
[22:25] this is the most problematic is in work
[22:27] life balance or lack thereof even though
[22:29] companies are increasingly relying on
[22:31] irregular workers the total share of
[22:33] work to go around has largely not
[22:35] changed a problem that is worsened by
[22:37] the weird reluctance of many Japanese
[22:39] firms to adopt modern labor saving
[22:41] Technologies this results in employees
[22:44] being forced to work longer hours in
[22:46] suboptimal conditions for Worse paying
[22:48] benefits traditional Japanese firms are
[22:50] heavily hierarchical mired in
[22:52] bureaucracy and prioritized FaceTime in
[22:55] the office over actual productivity it
[22:57] isn't exactly a secret that Japan has an
[23:00] exceptionally brutal working culture
[23:02] with the language literally having a
[23:03] term kadoshi for death from over work
[23:07] admittedly a lot of the most undesirable
[23:09] factors of Japanese work culture have
[23:11] gradually improved in recent years Co
[23:14] especially forced a lot of Japanese
[23:16] firms to wildly diverge from what were
[23:18] sometimes decades long entr trenched
[23:20] Norms but the broader point about a lack
[23:22] of Economic Opportunity Still Remains
[23:24] Japan has been trapped in a decades long
[23:27] cycle of deflation resulting in wages
[23:29] that have barely budged since the '90s
[23:31] this criticism that isekai is a lazy
[23:34] plot Point designed to appeal to
[23:35] maladapted young men isn't unique and
[23:38] has been a recurring part of the anime
[23:40] manga discourse for decades indeed the
[23:42] term otaku is a term to describe someone
[23:44] who was obsessed with anime and manga
[23:47] originated in this context the first
[23:49] instance of otaku being applied to anime
[23:52] manga fans is usually traced back to a
[23:54] column written by nakami Akio in the
[23:57] lollycon magazine aaiko in which he ran
[24:00] a short-lived column called otaku no
[24:02] kenu or otaku research in which he
[24:05] denigrates otaku as immature and
[24:07] dysfunctional weirdos who are unwilling
[24:09] to grow up and have normal relationships
[24:11] with women we should probably not be
[24:13] surprised that isai has stuck around for
[24:15] as long as it has because it's simply a
[24:17] direct method of appealing to one of the
[24:19] core attributes of the otaku demographic
[24:22] for decades the preeminence of recycled
[24:24] isekai stories is merely an evolution of
[24:26] a phenomena that has been present in
[24:28] anime since the '90s in his seminal 2001
[24:31] book otaku Japan's database animals
[24:34] author Azuma hioki makes a central claim
[24:37] that the defining characteristic of
[24:38] otaku is that they no longer consume
[24:40] so-called Grand narratives and instead
[24:43] focus on database consumption where
[24:45] anime Maga fans isue complex stories in
[24:48] favor consuming less complex content
[24:50] focuses around the constituent elements
[24:51] of the narratives such as familiar
[24:54] character archetypes and plot points low
[24:56] brow isekai stories are essentially the
[24:58] epitome of database consumption where
[25:00] authors construct their stories from a
[25:02] database of familiar isekai troops
[25:04] resulting in a glut of familiar or
[25:06] otherwise unoriginal isekai stories that
[25:08] have flooded the landscape while the
[25:10] particular socioeconomic factors that
[25:12] have contributed to the rise of isekai
[25:14] originated in Japan I'd argue that one
[25:16] of the reasons that isekai has remained
[25:18] such a dominant player in the anime
[25:20] manga and light novel landscape is
[25:22] because these kind of Escapist power
[25:24] fantasy narratives increasingly have
[25:26] transnational appeal instead of M the
[25:28] appealing to the unique dysfunction of
[25:30] the Japanese economy we're seeing a
[25:32] similar story play out in much of East
[25:34] Asia including China and Korea in both
[25:36] countries we've seen a rapid rise of
[25:38] power fantasy web novels that have many
[25:41] of the same trappings of Japanese isekai
[25:43] such as ridiculously overpowered
[25:45] protagonist and repetitive genre
[25:47] conventions much like Japan China's days
[25:50] of Rapid economic growth are behind it
[25:53] with youth unemployment now a rampant
[25:56] Problem official youth unemployment
[25:58] statistics apparently climbed so high to
[26:00] a record 20% that the Chinese government
[26:03] decided to just stop releasing youth
[26:06] unemployment statistics in South Korea
[26:08] the situation isn't much better with the
[26:10] country carrying on many of the most
[26:12] Antiquated and toxic elements of
[26:14] Japanese work culture in the Western
[26:16] World we're seeing a separate phenomenon
[26:18] where young men in particular
[26:20] increasingly struggle to find purpose
[26:22] and value for men aged 25 to 54 labor
[26:26] force participation rates in the US have
[26:28] declined from 98% in 1954 to 89% in 2024
[26:34] this decline has been particularly
[26:36] pronounced for men without a college
[26:37] education while men with a college
[26:40] degree have a labor force participation
[26:41] rate of 94% men with only a high school
[26:44] degree sit at 85.7 7% with this
[26:48] declining even further to 81% for those
[26:51] without a high school diploma meanwhile
[26:53] young men have rapidly fallen behind in
[26:55] educational attainment women now make up
[26:58] 60% of all college students and are now
[27:01] substantially more likely than men to
[27:03] graduate at all levels of Education as a
[27:06] 20-some yearold living in America one of
[27:08] the trends I've noticed among people my
[27:10] age is a deep sense of pessimism about
[27:13] not just their own prospects but also
[27:15] about the trajectory of society in
[27:17] general there's often a deep sense of
[27:19] hopelessness particularly on economic
[27:21] issues like housing affordability and
[27:23] wage growth even among people who are
[27:25] ostensively well off complaints from
[27:27] Zoomers or younger Millennials about how
[27:29] they'll never own a home or be able to
[27:31] support their family are extremely
[27:33] common and widespread it used to be that
[27:35] when you ask kids what they wanted to be
[27:36] when they grow up theyd give you a
[27:38] somewhat far-fetched but otherwise
[27:40] normal profession like doctor teacher
[27:43] firefighter astronaut Etc but nowadays
[27:45] when you ask that same question the most
[27:47] common answer is that kids now want to
[27:49] become social media influencers of
[27:51] course most of them presumably grow out
[27:53] of this and face reality but it's an
[27:55] interesting reflection of how the young
[27:57] are increasingly skeptical towards the
[27:59] traditional Paths of economic success
[28:01] the broader sociological point I'm
[28:03] getting at is that while it's easy to
[28:05] deride lowbrow isekai stories as smly
[28:07] the product of laziness and consumers of
[28:10] bad taste to insist on consuming the
[28:12] same Escapist power fantasies each
[28:14] season it's worth interrogating what
[28:16] exactly it is these people are escaping
[28:18] from and why these kinds of explicitly
[28:20] Escapist stories have become more and
[28:22] more common across a variety of cultures
[28:25] the consumption and preference for these
[28:27] kinds of isekai stor can be seen as a
[28:29] kind of resistance to increasingly
[28:30] unattainable traditional Norms of
[28:33] getting a quote unquote good job
[28:35] settling down and raising a family the
[28:37] core story structure of isekai is deeply
[28:39] appealing to the kinds of people who
[28:41] feel trapped by an economic system they
[28:43] feel does not work for them it's not a
[28:45] coincidence that the protagonists of
[28:47] isekai stories are almost always young
[28:49] people who are defined by society as
[28:51] being Ena and undesirable they are often
[28:54] obsessive game rard needs with little in
[28:56] the way of traditional educational or
[28:58] job success yet these characters are
[29:00] able to find the kinds of success
[29:01] belonging and meaning in the new worlds
[29:03] they're transported to more sently it's
[29:06] often the very characteristics that make
[29:08] them undesirable in the real world like
[29:10] their obsession with games and mayor
[29:12] manga that make them so successful in
[29:15] their new realities take sort and Shido
[29:17] from No Game No Life who or transported
[29:19] into a world literally designed for them
[29:21] to use their gam playing skills take Ian
[29:24] from Overlord whose Obsession of a dead
[29:26] MMO transforms him from a dead end Life
[29:29] as a salary man into one of the most
[29:31] powerful figures in his new reality look
[29:33] at the large number of villainess
[29:34] stories where the main characters
[29:36] obsession with whatever particular game
[29:38] or story they get trapped in becomes
[29:40] critical to their survival and success
[29:42] the world of isekai provides young
[29:44] people disillusioned with the harsh
[29:45] realities of our world with an idealized
[29:48] alternative reality where their skills
[29:49] and predilections are rewarded and
[29:51] celebrated a final point that helps to
[29:54] understand the nature and Persistence of
[29:55] isekai is the unique method by which is
[29:58] light novels and later then Manga and
[30:00] Anime adaptations are produced before
[30:02] the Advent of the internet aspiring
[30:04] mangaa or light novel authors would
[30:06] submit their Works to literary contests
[30:09] that major publishing houses would hold
[30:11] and if your story tickled their fancy
[30:13] they would pick up your manga or light
[30:14] novel for serialization however this
[30:16] started to change during the mid 2000s
[30:18] with the Advent of the internet in 2004
[30:21] the website
[30:22] show or literally let's become a
[30:25] novelist was launched for convenience
[30:27] I'll be referring to this website by its
[30:29] domain name of cetu because the full
[30:32] name is a mouthful as the name implies
[30:34] the website is a platform where people
[30:36] can post or light novels for others to
[30:38] read most famously while not actually
[30:40] published on cetu sorted online
[30:43] originated as a self-published web novel
[30:46] on author kawaha Rei's personal website
[30:49] from 2002 to 2008 before being picked up
[30:52] by asy media Works in 2009 the breakout
[30:56] success of siio essentially open the
[30:58] floodgates for web novel adaptations
[31:00] particularly those from suu since 2010 a
[31:04] huge number of isekai stories from the
[31:06] website have been adapted into Manga and
[31:08] Anime just to name a few Log Horizon
[31:11] rising of The Shield hero konosuba M
[31:13] kensei slime tensei Overlord and isekai
[31:16] cheat magician all originated on the
[31:18] website suu has even given us some non
[31:21] isekai stories like Alia sometimes hides
[31:24] her feelings in Russian or I want to eat
[31:26] your pacas much like how the
[31:28] protagonists of isekai Stories asso the
[31:30] typical conventions of success in the
[31:32] real world the authors of isekai Works
[31:35] themselves have come to prominence by
[31:36] forgoing the typical conventions of
[31:38] literary success unlike traditional
[31:41] publishing in media which has full to
[31:43] the brim with Gatekeepers most writers
[31:45] onsu presumably started as readers and
[31:48] purveyors of isekai fiction which drove
[31:50] them to write their own stories in the
[31:52] website but stories get picked up by big
[31:54] publishing houses is ultimately often a
[31:56] function of how popular a story is on
[31:58] the website rather than the opinions of
[32:01] some literary agent or editor isekai
[32:03] stories are at their core written for
[32:06] and by the same audience with consumers
[32:08] of isekai fiction frequently crossing
[32:10] over into producers of said fiction the
[32:13] interplay between fans and creators that
[32:15] defines the modern isekai pipeline is a
[32:18] prime example of what the University of
[32:20] Southern California Professor Henry
[32:22] Jenkins describes in many of his seminal
[32:24] books on media studies such as his
[32:26] textual poaches con virgin's culture and
[32:29] participatory culture in a networked era
[32:31] Jenkins publication of textual poaches
[32:34] in 2003 essentially single-handedly
[32:36] willed the serious studies of fans into
[32:39] the academic discourse jenkin's Central
[32:41] Point in textual poachers is that rather
[32:43] than thinking of fans as brainless
[32:45] consumers social outcasts emotionally
[32:47] immature or fundamentally divorced from
[32:50] reality he makes the case that fans are
[32:52] actually active producers of meaning
[32:54] construct their own culture out of
[32:55] elements posted from various texts
[32:58] likewise while it's easy to think of
[32:59] consumers of isekai as similarly
[33:01] brainless or out of touch with the
[33:03] reality these isekai fans have become
[33:05] shockingly integral to the light novel
[33:07] manga anime industrial complex through
[33:10] their active poaching of different
[33:11] character archetypes settings and plot
[33:13] points at new texts on suatu isekai fans
[33:16] produced serious monetary and cultural
[33:18] value through their Endeavors the
[33:20] development of new isekai storus is a
[33:22] largely bottomup phenomenon driven by
[33:24] fan publication on cetu rather than a
[33:27] top- down one where media Executives
[33:29] decide what kind of media to produce
[33:31] show satsuka Naro is also an interesting
[33:33] microcosm of what Jenkins termed
[33:36] participatory culture an idea he
[33:38] introduced in textual Poes and
[33:40] subsequently refined and built on over
[33:42] the years in the 2007 white paper
[33:45] Jenkins gave the following definition of
[33:47] participatory culture a participatory
[33:49] culture is a culture with relatively low
[33:51] barriers to artistic expression and
[33:53] Civic engagement strong support for
[33:55] creating and sharing one's creation and
[33:58] some type of informal mentorship whereby
[34:00] what is known by the most experienced is
[34:02] passed along to novices a participatory
[34:05] culture is also one in which members
[34:07] believe that their contributions matter
[34:09] and feel some degree of social
[34:10] connection with one another or at least
[34:12] they care what other people think about
[34:14] what they have created the
[34:16] characteristics of the kind of particip
[34:18] culture fostered on places like shatu or
[34:21] other online web fiction publishing
[34:23] platforms is diametrically opposed to
[34:25] the kinds of characteristics and values
[34:27] that these people encounter in their
[34:29] real lives while access to good jobs and
[34:31] success in our world is heavily gatee
[34:33] kept and restricted shut n provides a
[34:37] platform by which anyone can write and
[34:39] theoretically become successful
[34:41] familiarity with light novels Manga and
[34:43] Anime is something that actually AIDS in
[34:45] your success in this Arena rather than
[34:47] being a source of scor and ridicule like
[34:49] in the real world publishing online and
[34:52] receiving comments from readers provides
[34:53] a sense of meaning in Social community
[34:56] that many of these people lack in their
[34:57] real lives given this it's not
[34:59] surprising that most isekai stories
[35:01] start out in this kind of direct to
[35:03] Consumer web fiction model instead of
[35:05] traditional models of media creation
[35:07] where business Executives or editors
[35:09] determine what kind of works they think
[35:10] will appeal to the public it's a
[35:12] naturally self-reinforcing cycle where
[35:14] the kinds of people drawn to isekai
[35:16] stories congregate on places like shetu
[35:19] producing popular works that draw in new
[35:21] people that are ultimately remixed and
[35:23] built upon into new isekai stories two
[35:26] the characteristics about partic
[35:28] cultures that Jenkins highlights in his
[35:29] 2015 book is that participatory cultures
[35:32] are inherently Democratic and diverse
[35:34] cetu and other web fiction publishing
[35:37] platforms like Royal Road Archive of Our
[35:39] Own watpad Etc have enabled thousands of
[35:42] socially and economically marginalized
[35:44] people to bring their own stories to the
[35:46] public while the anime manga industry
[35:48] has long revolved around Fan
[35:50] participation exemplified by the Bly
[35:52] ritual of comiket where hundreds of
[35:54] thousands of people Gather in the Tokyo
[35:56] big site to sell self-published binci
[35:59] the internet radically lowered barriers
[36:01] of entry and democratized who could have
[36:03] creative success whereas previously you
[36:06] had to depend on the whims of editors
[36:08] and suits at the major publishing houses
[36:10] to give your manga or light novel a
[36:12] chance the internet gives everyone that
[36:14] chance to prove the success and
[36:16] popularity of their own ideas the
[36:18] process of sidest stepping traditional
[36:20] Gatekeepers and creative success to
[36:21] instead appeal directly to individual
[36:24] consumers is an interesting reflection
[36:25] of the psyche of the core is a High
[36:27] readership the kinds of people who feel
[36:29] marginalized and left behind by an
[36:31] economic system that they feel no longer
[36:33] works for them essentially created an
[36:35] entirely new paradigm for Creative
[36:37] success in the anime manga industry a
[36:39] symbolic rejection of the traditional
[36:41] Norms of success and a prime example of
[36:44] how fans proactively create meaning
[36:46] rather than being just passive consumers
[36:48] of media the rise of isekai is
[36:50] interesting because it's both a product
[36:52] of the story itself and the macro Trends
[36:55] affecting much of the developed World
[36:57] these story are narratively effective
[36:58] because the prime narrative concept of
[37:00] having a character transported into a
[37:02] different world is essentially
[37:03] equivalent to the psychological action
[37:06] that one takes when you enjoy a
[37:08] fictional story but the broader point
[37:10] I'm trying to make and indeed the one I
[37:11] spent most of my time on is
[37:13] interrogating what is exactly meant by
[37:15] the common critique of isekai as wish
[37:17] fulfillment or escapism what exactly are
[37:20] the kinds of desires these people are
[37:21] trying to vicariously feel to their
[37:24] anime manga and light novel consumption
[37:26] what exactly are these people people
[37:27] trying to escape from in their
[37:29] day-to-day lives the case I'm making is
[37:31] that the enduring popularity of isekai
[37:33] is driven by a complex constellation of
[37:35] Economic sociocultural and technological
[37:38] Trends and until the underlying Trends
[37:40] pushing young people towards wish
[37:42] fulfillment media namely bad economic
[37:45] conditions and lack of opportunity
[37:47] improved were likely to continue seeing
[37:49] isekai Remain the top dog of the anime
[37:52] manga and light novel landscape