[0:00] Isekai has a bit of a bum wrap. I know
[0:02] quite a few anime enthusiasts who won't
[0:04] even look at a show if there's so much
[0:06] as a whiff of truckkun or cheap powers.
[0:09] And honestly, I can't say I blame them.
[0:12] Speaking as someone who's watched most
[0:14] isekai, most isekai are terrible.
[0:16] Notably worse at a notably higher
[0:18] frequency than basically any other genre
[0:21] of anime. And that's speaking as someone
[0:23] who's also watched most Harums. A
[0:25] sizable portion of the isekai audience
[0:27] will slurp up any old slop so long as it
[0:30] stars a nerd from Earth like them with a
[0:32] nonzero chance of pulling some elfy
[0:35] eventually in like 30 seasons or so. And
[0:38] I really do mean any old slop. The
[0:41] lowest rated isekai in any given season
[0:44] will almost always pull higher
[0:46] viewership numbers than the best
[0:47] original anime of any given year. As you
[0:50] might recall from my worst of 2024 list,
[0:53] Failure Frame is an isekai in which
[0:55] literally every fight scene is just
[1:08] and paralyze and poison until you just
[1:10] want to make out with a P320. And it has
[1:13] a 4.4 out of five on Crunchyroll with
[1:16] 85,000
[1:18] ratings. For context, Apocalypse Hotel,
[1:21] the best anime of 2025 so far, has
[1:25] barely 4,000. That's a thousand less
[1:28] than Ugly Mug Epic Fighter. An isekai
[1:30] that looks like this and is called Ugly
[1:34] Mug Epic Fighter. Some of y'all really
[1:37] will watch [ __ ] anything. And the
[1:39] anime industry is more than happy to
[1:42] give it to you. But that's not the
[1:44] problem with isekai. At least not the
[1:46] one that any of us can do anything
[1:48] about. So, not worth making a video
[1:50] about. I can't stop everyone else from
[1:52] watching bad anime. But I can at least
[1:55] help you watch some better ones because
[1:58] there is one crucial factor that every
[2:00] good isekai gets right and almost every
[2:03] bad one gets wrong. something that
[2:05] anyone writing an isekai should keep in
[2:07] mind if they want any chance of it being
[2:09] halfway decent. And anyone watching
[2:12] isekai should keep an eye out for for
[2:14] much the same reason. It's so important
[2:16] you can use it to clock if an isekai is
[2:18] worth watching in just one episode. And
[2:21] I'm going to tell you exactly what that
[2:23] problem with modern isekai is after I
[2:26] solve the problem with my rent this
[2:28] month. This video is brought to you by
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[3:54] learning today. Now, there are quite a
[3:56] lot of isekai with quite a lot of things
[3:58] wrong with them. From flat, boring power
[4:01] curves to altogether too many villains
[4:03] who turn out to be
[4:04] >> babies. That's right.
[4:06] >> To several what one might call tacit
[4:09] endorsements of slavery. But none of
[4:11] these problems are the problem. The
[4:14] power curve thing is a pretty big
[4:16] problem to the point I made a whole
[4:17] other video about it. But plenty of
[4:19] isseekai don't completely dunk that up
[4:21] and still manage to suck butts. And a
[4:23] few that basically disregard it entirely
[4:26] still turned out pretty awesome.
[4:27] Figuring out if a power system is
[4:29] interesting and satisfying to progress
[4:31] through can also take several episodes.
[4:33] Sometimes so many you don't even realize
[4:36] there is a power system until like
[4:37] season 2. And I did promise you a litmus
[4:40] test that could judge isekai in one
[4:42] episode or less. The root of the problem
[4:45] lies at the very core of the isekai
[4:48] concept. A story about a person from a
[4:51] world, usually this one, being
[4:52] transported to a cool new world.
[4:55] Basically, every isekai author has that
[4:57] second part covered, or at least tries
[4:59] to. I'm sure their moms think their
[5:01] worlds are cool. It's the first part
[5:03] that really trips them up, if they even
[5:05] think about it at all. Because isekai
[5:07] aren't just stories about cool worlds.
[5:10] We already have a word for those.
[5:12] Fantasy.ai
[5:14] are stories about people from worlds.
[5:18] Usually this one. Far too many fantasy
[5:21] light novel writers see that as little
[5:23] more than a cheat code for creating
[5:25] relatability. The isekai concept does
[5:27] easily facilitate the creation of
[5:29] fantasy heroes who are just like me for
[5:32] real without actually having to explain
[5:34] how that kind of guy could come to exist
[5:36] in 14th century Europe or whatever. You
[5:39] want to pat out some generic Tolkenesque
[5:41] fluff with an endless stream of game and
[5:43] anime references where the protagonist's
[5:45] personality ought to be, just pluck some
[5:47] nerd off the Tokyo pavement, pop him
[5:50] down in the starting town with one or
[5:51] more waifuss, and watch him go. On that
[5:54] note, making your story an isekai also
[5:56] has a lot of structural advantages. Not
[5:58] the least of which being you don't have
[6:00] to figure out how to get your
[6:01] protagonist to where the story starts.
[6:04] Just truck, bam, now he's there. He
[6:07] probably doesn't know [ __ ] all about the
[6:08] world he just dropped into either,
[6:10] giving him the perfect excuse to ask
[6:12] anyone he meets for an exposition dump.
[6:14] And that's on top of all the free
[6:16] dumping you get to do in the scene where
[6:18] he meets his travel agent. Just
[6:21] wondering, won't I have to learn this
[6:23] world's language?
[6:24] >> Details, just hurry it up already. I've
[6:27] got loads more dead humans to guide
[6:29] besides you. You know,
[6:30] >> the portal fantasy trope is an
[6:32] undeniably versatile tool for
[6:34] kickstarting a quick and dirty escapist
[6:36] fantasy quest. But it's so much more
[6:39] than that. Fully half the premise of
[6:41] this genre. What makes isekai
[6:44] interesting? What sets it apart from
[6:47] regular fantasy is the inherent
[6:49] conflict, the clash of perspectives,
[6:52] ideals, worldviews that comes with
[6:55] suddenly immersing a person in a totally
[6:58] foreign place, time, and jurisdiction of
[7:01] the laws of physics? How does that
[7:03] change someone? How would the world
[7:05] change in response to them? How does the
[7:07] new world compare to the old one? These
[7:10] are deep wells of thematic potential,
[7:13] opportunities for profound commentary on
[7:16] the world we live in and the people who
[7:18] live in it that most isekai writers
[7:21] completely ignore. Well, okay, not
[7:24] completely. The new world is better
[7:26] because it's more like a video game,
[7:28] unless it's a hard video game with lots
[7:30] of blood and guts, in which case it's
[7:32] better with an asterisk. That world
[7:34] changes the protagonist from an incel
[7:36] into a guy who's had his dick sucked by
[7:38] an elf, and he changes it in turn by
[7:41] setting a new bar for how many elves can
[7:43] suck one guy's dick. Sorry, spoilers
[7:46] for, you know, it's probably easier to
[7:48] just list the isekai that doesn't spoil.
[7:50] And that's precisely what makes all the
[7:53] ones it does so fundamentally worthless,
[7:56] at least after you've watched your first
[7:57] one or 20. Don't get me twisted. There
[8:00] is obvious value in raw escapist
[8:02] fantasy. A lot of stuff worth escaping
[8:04] on this [ __ ] of a late capitalist
[8:06] earth, but it's the exact same flavor of
[8:09] value over and over and paralyze and
[8:12] poison until all you can taste is slop.
[8:14] And maybe that's all you need. Maybe you
[8:16] just want to feel numb for 20 minutes a
[8:18] week. That is very valid. But aside from
[8:21] that, past a certain point of
[8:22] diminishing returns, you got to be a
[8:24] real weirdo who delights in watching
[8:26] other weirdos loudly tell on themselves
[8:29] through fiction to get anything out of
[8:32] watching more slop isekai. And most
[8:34] people are not me, which is why I've
[8:36] devised an elegant litmus test to
[8:38] identify and avoid the slop. After
[8:41] watching one or two episodes of a new
[8:43] isekai, all you got to do is ask
[8:44] yourself, what was the hero's original
[8:47] world like? And how did they fit into
[8:49] it? If the show gave you answers, or at
[8:52] least enough clues to speculate, you're
[8:54] probably watching something with
[8:56] something to say, at least something
[8:58] more than what if you lived in a video
[9:00] game. That doesn't guarantee that what
[9:02] it has to say will be good or
[9:05] interesting. Failure Frame uses a whole
[9:07] mess of backstory just to say, "What if
[9:09] you lived in a shitty gotacha game and
[9:11] also were a school shooter?" But at the
[9:13] very least, you know that the hero being
[9:15] from another world is going to matter to
[9:18] the story at least a little bit on some
[9:20] level. Yes, that's how low the bar is.
[9:23] But the sky is the limit for the shows
[9:26] that do clear it.
[9:28] >> Can I really believe that the people I
[9:31] care about also care for me?
[9:41] I probably shouldn't turn two of these
[9:43] things in a row into stealth glazing
[9:45] sessions, especially not in the same
[9:47] calendar year. But ReZero is one of the
[9:50] best examples out there of a character
[9:53] fundamentally changed by his journey to
[9:55] another world. When he arrives in
[9:57] Laguna, Natsky Subaru is a hot mess. And
[10:00] while we are only given the briefest
[10:02] glimpse of his life on Earth before he's
[10:04] torn away from it, it tells us quite a
[10:06] lot about him. He's the kind of guy who
[10:08] reads Jump in the Kini without actually
[10:10] buying it. The kind of guy who knows he
[10:13] should be eating miso natto cup noodles
[10:15] but gets tonkatu instead, plus some
[10:18] chips, cuz [ __ ] it. But also, he is the
[10:21] kind of guy with the presence of mind to
[10:22] catch a rare coin in his change and hold
[10:25] on to it. His eyes especially tell us so
[10:28] much about him. First with the way they
[10:30] follow that couple walking by in their
[10:32] school uniforms, then dart back to his
[10:35] sad single tracksuit encrusted Hikamorei
[10:38] ass, expressing a lifetime of
[10:41] self-hatred with one glance and a sigh.
[10:44] Then there's the way those eyes light up
[10:46] when he realizes he's been isekai. He
[10:49] wants this. He needs it. There is
[10:52] clearly something he hates about life
[10:54] back on Earth, and we don't know what
[10:56] that is yet. Subaru desperately does not
[10:58] want to think about it. So, it will be
[11:00] many episodes before we finally get
[11:03] around to unpacking why exactly he is
[11:06] like this. But it's enough to know that
[11:08] the writer has an answer to that
[11:11] question. Chamate a sec there, though.
[11:13] Didn't I just get done complaining that
[11:16] the only way most writers use isekai is
[11:18] to insert an earth nerd into striking
[11:21] range of some elf [ __ ] Is ReZero not a
[11:24] prototypical example of that? Sure, a
[11:27] lot of Subaru's early characterization
[11:29] is the same sort of self-aware, genre
[11:32] savvy, reference spouting anti-swagger
[11:34] we've seen from a billion other Kyitoes
[11:36] before. But the key difference is that
[11:39] Subaru is savvy to the wrong genre.
[11:42] Stuck in a much darker horror fantasy
[11:45] type thing where his nerd quips are
[11:47] painfully out of place and so frequently
[11:50] are his organs and limbs. Far more
[11:52] important than just doing something
[11:55] different with its otaku protag though,
[11:57] Re:Zero actually bothers to define who
[12:00] he is with more than that one word and
[12:04] to explore what life was like for him
[12:06] back on Earth when he wasn't watching
[12:09] anime and playing video games. There's
[12:11] depth there, space for an actual
[12:14] character arc. Sloppy Sakai heroes have
[12:17] character development. Your average
[12:20] Kyito will probably get a little more
[12:22] confident as his stats go up and maybe
[12:24] like learn to be slightly more
[12:26] responsible and less lazy or whatever,
[12:29] but they never have character arcs
[12:32] because it's impossible to draw an arc
[12:34] if all you know is where it ends. You
[12:37] need a fixed starting point with a
[12:39] clearly defined trajectory. and by
[12:42] treating the Portal Fantasy as nothing
[12:44] but a cheat code to spawn a backstory
[12:46] audience insert for their regular boring
[12:49] gamelit thing that frankly didn't need
[12:51] to be an isekai in the first place. All
[12:53] of these anime and manga and light
[12:55] novels sacrificed their ability to
[12:58] create that point. Now, of course, there
[13:00] are other areas where these isekai can
[13:03] still excel. They can have a solid plot,
[13:05] an interesting and immersive setting, or
[13:08] some quality waifuss. But I mean, they
[13:11] immediately set themselves way back in
[13:14] the waifu department by making the main
[13:16] guy those waifuss are going to interact
[13:18] with a pair of pants, which also affects
[13:20] the non-Waifu characters, if the anime
[13:23] decides to have those. And it kind of
[13:25] doesn't matter how fraught your world's
[13:28] political situation gets, how crazy the
[13:30] magic system is, or how deep the lore
[13:32] is, if the people living in it don't
[13:35] feel real. So, that's a massive uphill
[13:38] battle, even for a really good writer.
[13:41] And let's be honest, there's not a lot
[13:43] of those working in this space. It's not
[13:45] impossible, though. This season's the
[13:47] water magician has a very strong
[13:49] supporting cast who even get to save the
[13:52] day all by themselves while protags busy
[13:55] risen up the elf [ __ ] in the library.
[13:57] The adventurers guild that they're part
[13:59] of has a fleshed out bureaucracy behind
[14:01] it and its operations are subject to the
[14:03] whims of other political forces within
[14:06] the kingdom, not to mention economic
[14:08] forces. There's a whole plot point where
[14:10] fetch quests start drying up because the
[14:12] market's gluted with monster parts.
[14:14] There are other kingdoms too that we
[14:16] have to worry about. Plus a presumably
[14:19] evil empire with a really dumb name.
[14:27] [Music]
[14:32] The world generally feels alive and like
[14:35] it keeps existing when protagon isn't
[14:38] looking directly at it. which is a very
[14:41] good thing because Rio is easily the
[14:44] weakest link in his own story. He's not
[14:46] awful to be clear. He's got some fun
[14:48] quirks like being irritated by dumb
[14:50] sounding fantasy names and even some
[14:53] well-defined personality traits that
[14:55] synergize with the rest of the cast. The
[14:57] show takes its time giving him chances
[14:59] to flex and get elf [ __ ] too, which
[15:02] makes it all the more satisfying when he
[15:04] finally does. And while he is yet
[15:06] another crazy overpowered silent casting
[15:09] battle mage, at least there's a specific
[15:12] unifying theme to his silent casted
[15:14] magic that allows for some creative
[15:17] choreography and gives the show's action
[15:19] a unique identity. As pants go, Rio is
[15:23] very well tailored with some fancy
[15:25] embellishments, but at the end of the
[15:26] day, he's still Pants. We have no idea
[15:29] where he came from or why he is who he
[15:32] is. What did he go through on Earth to
[15:34] make him want to live alone in the
[15:35] middle of nowhere for years? Does he
[15:37] miss anyone back home? Do they miss him?
[15:40] Besides magic and sword fighting, what
[15:42] is he good at? What were his interests
[15:44] and hobbies? His personal goals. No
[15:47] matter how much time we spend with him,
[15:49] we never really learn anything more
[15:52] about him and what motivates him, which
[15:54] leaves this gaping hole in the story
[15:57] that only grows with each passing
[16:00] episode. And that hole doesn't need to
[16:02] be there because like many modern
[16:05] isekai, the water magician doesn't need
[16:08] to be an isekai. The only thing that Rio
[16:11] being from Earth really does for the
[16:13] story that couldn't be accomplished by
[16:15] just making him a weird guy who grew up
[16:17] in the middle of nowhere is explain how
[16:19] he knows what water molecules are, which
[16:22] does make his magic more powerful. So
[16:24] that's kind of important, but also you
[16:26] could like come up with an ancient
[16:27] civilization or a million other ways to
[16:30] explain that to him. And if he were
[16:33] native to this world, then the necessary
[16:35] explanations for how he ended up living
[16:38] in no man's land, how he discovered and
[16:40] learned his distinct form of magic and
[16:43] so on would all create opportunities to
[16:46] expand and ground his character. Secrets
[16:49] of the Silent Witch, also from this
[16:51] season, is a prime example of how much a
[16:54] fantasy story about an overpowered
[16:56] silent casting mage stands to gain by
[16:59] just having the courage to not be an
[17:01] isekai. And it makes a great point of
[17:04] contrast because like the water
[17:05] magician, it has an interesting,
[17:07] politically complex, lore rich world and
[17:10] a huge cast of thoroughly entertaining
[17:12] characters. So, we can see just how much
[17:15] making the protagonist an actual
[17:17] character adds to that. Monica Everett's
[17:20] OP incantation free magic isn't just an
[17:23] isekai cheat power. It's rooted in her
[17:26] love of math, which is all that she has
[17:29] left from her dead father and the
[17:31] crippling anxiety that makes her
[17:33] incapable of saying spells out loud,
[17:35] which is itself the result of being
[17:38] taken in by an abusive uncle at a young
[17:40] age. She also has an entire academic
[17:43] career behind her. Peers who really
[17:45] respect her, co-workers at her current
[17:47] government job who give her a hard time,
[17:49] a full life lived prior to the start of
[17:52] the story, which we slowly uncover
[17:54] through flashbacks and other emotional
[17:56] beats that would just be boring downtime
[17:59] in something like The Water Magician.
[18:02] But the effect isn't just additive, it's
[18:04] multiplicative because that extra side
[18:06] of the story interacts with all the
[18:09] other sides. Monica's past adds context
[18:12] and weight to her present development,
[18:14] allowing moments like making her first
[18:16] friend, discovering a passion outside of
[18:18] magic, and speaking up for herself for
[18:21] the first time to hit harder because we
[18:23] understand how hard those things are for
[18:27] her. It also lets her relate to the
[18:29] other characters and what they're going
[18:31] through on more than a surface level and
[18:33] vice versa. It just makes everything
[18:36] about the entire show better. And it
[18:39] does it without sacrificing the wish
[18:41] fulfillment of going to a fancy fantasy
[18:44] high school that isn't a magic school
[18:46] but does have magic electives, having a
[18:48] bunch of hot rich guys fall for her, and
[18:50] kicking ass with crazy OP spells. It's
[18:53] an escapist fantasy through and through,
[18:55] but not a mindless one. It's
[18:57] introspective, insightful, rich in
[19:00] character, a story with valuable things
[19:02] to say about anxiety, what it's like to
[19:05] live with it, and how we can overcome
[19:08] it. It doesn't just whisk you away from
[19:11] your miserable reality for 20 minutes a
[19:13] week. It gives you something to think on
[19:16] when you get back. Ways to understand
[19:18] and address the problems that make its
[19:21] heroine so relatable in the first place.
[19:23] That sort of mindful escapism also
[19:26] characterizes my favorite non-anime
[19:29] isekai, which Quest for the best
[19:31] listeners will be very familiar with.
[19:33] Dungeon Crawler Carl, a series of
[19:35] English language heavy novels that I can
[19:38] best describe as Sword Art Online meets
[19:40] The Running Man meets Hitchhiker's Guide
[19:42] to the Galaxy, in which the survivors of
[19:45] an alien fishnazi invasion must clear 18
[19:49] increasingly deadly levels of world
[19:51] dungeon on the universe's hottest
[19:54] reality TV show to win our planet back
[19:57] with methhead goblins, cockfighting
[19:59] cobalts, pyramid scheming hive mines,
[20:01] and some really really [ __ ] scary
[20:04] clown standing in the way, plus a
[20:06] psychotic AI with a foot fetish acting
[20:08] as dungeon master. That will be a whole
[20:11] lot easier said than done, even with the
[20:13] power of magic that the dungeon somehow
[20:16] makes real. But lucky for Carl, he has
[20:18] the survival skills he learned in the
[20:20] Coast Guard, a beautifully supple pair
[20:23] of feet, and his ex-girlfriend's
[20:26] prize-winning Persian show cat, Princess
[20:28] Donut, who, due to various
[20:30] circumstances, can talk now and shoot
[20:33] magic missiles from her eyes. Plus,
[20:35] she's much more media savvy than Carl,
[20:37] which really helps in a dungeon where
[20:40] stream stats matter just as much as
[20:42] character stats. If all this sounds
[20:44] silly, that's only because it absolutely
[20:47] is. Dungeon Crawler Carl is easily the
[20:50] most fun I have ever had in a story with
[20:52] this many stat screens. But that never
[20:54] stops it from getting deadly serious
[20:57] when it needs to, or from treating
[20:59] everyone we meet in this zany hell hole.
[21:01] from fellow crawlers to alien talk show
[21:04] hosts to fish LA resistance members as
[21:07] complex individuals with history,
[21:09] baggage, deeply personal motivations,
[21:12] and nuanced opinions on Gossip Girl.
[21:14] Despite the conceptual similarities to
[21:17] SAO, this is no massively singleplayer
[21:20] lit RPG. Though of course, Carl and
[21:22] Donut are the best characters of the
[21:24] bunch. Carl's past, in particular, is
[21:27] something the series really takes its
[21:28] time unpacking and exploring. He doesn't
[21:31] even fully confront it until six books
[21:33] in, but its weight can be felt through
[21:36] his every word and action, even
[21:38] especially when he doesn't want to talk
[21:41] about it. A conceit that allows Carl to
[21:44] present the more relatably nerdy surface
[21:46] level aspects of his personality upfront
[21:49] and suck that escapist fiction audience
[21:52] in before they realize just how little
[21:54] he actually is like them for real. It
[21:57] also allows the book to jump right into
[22:00] the action and start having fun with it.
[22:02] Then slowly layer on its more profound
[22:05] themes of found family, how trauma
[22:07] transforms us immediately and over time.
[22:10] How oppressive systems use trauma to
[22:13] beat us into compliance and turn us
[22:16] against each other to keep us from
[22:17] fighting back. And what you, yes you,
[22:20] can do about it if you're ever in the
[22:22] same room as the people responsible.
[22:24] [ __ ] gets so much darker than you would
[22:27] ever expect from the intro. And page two
[22:30] of that intro involves an old lady being
[22:33] decapitated. Yet at the heart of all
[22:36] that darkness burns a small, resilient
[22:39] flame of hope that shines all the
[22:42] brighter for it. And more than rich
[22:44] lore, strong characters, and wonderful
[22:46] humor, that is what really makes Dungeon
[22:49] Crawler Carl worth reading or listening
[22:52] to. The audio book is actually peak.
[22:54] It's also, I think, the biggest thing
[22:57] that modern isekai is missing and the
[23:00] real root of the problem. I don't know
[23:02] if you've noticed, but they don't really
[23:04] make isekai about people trying to get
[23:07] home anymore. The most recent ones I can
[23:09] think of are Ari Ferretta, Sunny Boy,
[23:12] and Dad's Been Reincarnated, which is
[23:14] like three of the last 200 or so. It
[23:17] used to be the entire genre. Esaflon,
[23:21] Rayear, Aben Obashi, Wizard of Oz, Alice
[23:24] in Wonderland, Digimon. No matter how
[23:27] otaku ccentric the anime was, no matter
[23:29] how fun the other world seemed, going
[23:32] back was always at least a question.
[23:35] Sometimes the hero would be tempted to
[23:37] stay, and sometimes they'd give into
[23:39] that temptation or just find out there
[23:41] was no way back. But there were always
[23:44] people back home that they'd missed,
[23:46] goals they'd leave unfulfilled, things
[23:48] they'd be giving up, consequences
[23:51] for the choice. Nowadays, there's this
[23:54] persistent feeling across the entire
[23:57] genre that nothing on Earth is worth
[24:00] going back to. Of course, some of that
[24:02] shift comes down to an increased use of
[24:05] the reincarnation angle. mine bookworm
[24:07] already died, for instance. So, it would
[24:09] be weird if she went back to Earth to
[24:11] read some books and see her mom again,
[24:13] no matter how bad she wants that. And
[24:15] her story is still full of hope. It's
[24:17] about making the most of what you have
[24:20] instead of pining for what you've lost.
[24:22] But that's the exception that proves the
[24:25] rule. Most modern isekai, reincarnation
[24:27] types included, exist solely to comfort
[24:30] and console their audience over how much
[24:33] [ __ ] generally sucks while offering no
[24:36] solution beyond, wouldn't it be neat to
[24:38] go somewhere that doesn't suck. Sure,
[24:41] the bullies at school are relentlessly
[24:43] cruel and your boss values you slightly
[24:45] less than his paper shredder, but hey,
[24:47] look on the bright side. You might get
[24:49] hit by a truck today. It's [ __ ] bleak
[24:53] if you think about it for even a second.
[24:56] But of course, not thinking about it is
[24:59] the whole point. These shows are
[25:01] designed to make you comfortably numb.
[25:04] So that situation you can't really
[25:06] escape from is at least a little easier
[25:09] to accept. And clearly there is a huge
[25:12] market for that. But in capitalizing on
[25:14] it, isekai creators sell themselves,
[25:17] their audience, and their art short. I
[25:20] can be about deep personal journeys,
[25:23] worlds shaken to their core by tenacious
[25:26] heroes with bold new ideas and universal
[25:29] human truths that transcend our present
[25:32] time and space. Instead, we're just
[25:35] drowning in so much elf [ __ ] it
[25:38] doesn't even feel like anything anymore.
[25:41] I'm Jeff Thu, professional escapism
[25:43] artist, and for my next trick, I'm going
[25:45] to sit on stage reading a book for 20
[25:47] hours.