---
title: 'The Problem With Isekai'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=1kU-ULTs-vQ'
video_id: '1kU-ULTs-vQ'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 1562
---

# The Problem With Isekai

> Source: [The Problem With Isekai](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1kU-ULTs-vQ)

## Summary

The video argues that most isekai anime are terrible because they fail to use the core premise of the genre: the clash between the protagonist's original world and the new one. The key to a good isekai is exploring how the hero's past shapes their journey, which most shows ignore in favor of lazy escapism.

### Key Points

- **Isekai has a bad reputation** [0:00] — Many anime fans avoid isekai because most are terrible, with notably worse quality than other genres.
- **Low-quality isekai still popular** [0:16] — Even the worst isekai get high viewership, like Failure Frame (4.4/5 on Crunchyroll with 85k ratings) compared to better original anime like Apocalypse Hotel (barely 4k ratings).
- **The root problem: ignoring the protagonist's original world** [1:55] — Good isekai use the hero's past to create depth and character arcs; bad ones treat it as a cheat code for relatability without exploring it.
- **The litmus test for good isekai** [8:41] — After one or two episodes, ask: 'What was the hero's original world like and how did they fit into it?' If the show answers, it likely has something to say.
- **Re:Zero as a positive example** [9:28] — Subaru's backstory is hinted at early (e.g., his self-hatred, desire to escape) and explored later, giving him a real character arc.
- **The Water Magician: a flawed but decent isekai** [13:47] — Has a strong supporting cast and living world, but the protagonist Rio is a 'pair of pants' with no backstory, making him the weakest link.
- **Secrets of the Silent Witch: better without being isekai** [16:49] — Monica's past (dead father, abusive uncle, anxiety) is integral to her character and powers, showing how a non-isekai fantasy can have deeper characterization.
- **Dungeon Crawler Carl: mindful escapism** [19:33] — A non-anime isekai that balances fun with serious themes like trauma and systemic oppression, using Carl's past to add weight.
- **Modern isekai lack the desire to go home** [22:57] — Older isekai often questioned returning home; now, most assume Earth is worthless, offering only comfort without solutions.

### Conclusion

Modern isekai sell themselves short by ignoring the protagonist's past and the potential for meaningful commentary, instead offering mindless escapism. The genre could be about deep personal journeys and universal truths, but it's drowning in repetitive slop.

## Transcript

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