[0:00] why is this akai so popular
[0:03] seriously no don't get me wrong i
[0:05] understand why there's a lot of appeal
[0:06] for it one of the biggest being that
[0:07] it's kind of a wish fulfillment fantasy
[0:09] where you get to be the self-insert
[0:11] who's surrounded by pretty girls and has
[0:13] cool powers and gets to go on quests and
[0:15] the like there's nothing wrong with that
[0:17] i'm not saying that all isakai's are bad
[0:18] in fact i've even watched some
[0:20] shows that are isikai like konasuba and
[0:23] re zero
[0:23] and love them but what kind of confuses
[0:25] me is the sheer
[0:26] volume of it it honestly feels like
[0:29] every new anime
[0:30] season there's like another 50 isakai
[0:32] shows just
[0:33] there and people keep watching it and
[0:35] that's fine
[0:36] i'm not judging you watch as much as you
[0:38] want but the thing that confuses me
[0:40] about all of this
[0:41] is the fact that it's so popular despite
[0:43] the fact that on
[0:44] a purely conceptual level isakai
[0:48] is kind of boring to me
[0:53] now what do i mean by that now usually
[0:54] when you think of anisakai they have
[0:56] several qualities
[0:57] in common there's an overpowered hero
[0:59] who's ridiculously strong from the start
[1:01] he's also ridiculously generic
[1:03] in both his looks and personality he's
[1:05] quickly surrounded by a harem of girls
[1:07] and he gets transported to this world to
[1:09] just
[1:11] do stuff maybe maybe there's a demon
[1:13] lord in the end he needs to defeat i
[1:14] don't know
[1:15] i have many problems with these a lot
[1:18] first off why are the main characters
[1:19] always overpowered
[1:20] yes i get it it's a power fantasy but
[1:22] having characters who are ridiculously
[1:25] powerful from the start
[1:26] are a lot harder to make interesting
[1:29] than if they were underpowered
[1:31] stories need conflict characters
[1:34] and conflict are the two main driving
[1:37] forces behind stories behind
[1:39] all stories and if you don't have those
[1:41] things you
[1:42] don't have a story and yet isakai seems
[1:45] to love
[1:45] not doing those things having an
[1:48] overpowered character
[1:49] can very easily drain the conflict and
[1:51] in most cases in isakai this
[1:54] is exactly what it does if every time
[1:56] he's going to fight we know he's going
[1:58] to win
[2:00] then what's the point of the fight in
[2:02] the first place
[2:03] i'm not saying there's something wrong
[2:04] with creating overpowered characters
[2:06] there are plenty of them that are done
[2:08] well i'm just saying that it takes a lot
[2:10] more effort to create
[2:11] interesting and lasting conflicts with
[2:14] overpowered characters
[2:15] it's a lot easier for me to lose
[2:17] interest in these characters because i
[2:19] feel like they don't have any stakes
[2:20] whatsoever seriously there are so many
[2:22] isakai premises out there that i read
[2:25] and it and all it is is just wow
[2:29] look how overpowered this character is
[2:33] and that's it what's the story where's
[2:35] the plot do they have any actual goals
[2:38] here i just don't see what's so
[2:40] interesting about a character being
[2:42] crazy powerful for no reason
[2:44] uh i mean maybe it's a comedy but
[2:47] so far i don't really see what the joke
[2:49] is now you'd think it'd be more
[2:51] interesting for both the writer and the
[2:53] audience to have an underpowered main
[2:55] character instead
[2:56] one who starts off weak but through hard
[2:58] work and training gets stronger
[3:00] and eventually is able to defeat the
[3:03] demon king
[3:04] and save the day in a satisfying way
[3:07] you know like most video games but nah
[3:09] we need that instant gratification don't
[3:11] we boys
[3:12] i mean seriously could you imagine if
[3:14] video games work the same way
[3:15] like you start the game only to be given
[3:19] the most powerful item straight away
[3:21] like
[3:23] what's even the point of playing the
[3:25] game anymore okay but
[3:26] it's not just the fact that they're
[3:27] super powerful there are ways to make
[3:29] overpowered characters interesting which
[3:31] i
[3:31] talked about in my mary sue video which
[3:33] i will link up in the corner but a lot
[3:35] of the time isakai's don't do this
[3:37] all they do is that they just kind of
[3:40] get this huge and powerful monster
[3:42] and have the main character defeat them
[3:44] in a cool way
[3:45] also the writer can show off how cool
[3:48] they are from an ability that was
[3:50] given to them i don't get it another
[3:53] thing that the main characters always
[3:54] seem to have
[3:55] is the exact same personality the
[3:58] personality of none
[3:59] now in theory it's supposed to be that
[4:01] they're as generic as possible so that a
[4:04] wider range of audience members could
[4:06] relate to them they're supposed to be as
[4:08] relatable to as many people
[4:09] as possible but that's not how stories
[4:12] work
[4:13] i don't really relate to a character's
[4:15] personality in fact if i saw myself as
[4:17] an anime character i'd probably hate him
[4:19] what i do relate to are situations
[4:23] if i see a character go through a
[4:25] situation even in a fantasy world
[4:28] that i feel like i can relate to that
[4:31] makes me connect with them because i
[4:33] feel like
[4:33] yes i totally get that i understand what
[4:36] you're going through and this still
[4:38] applies
[4:38] even if they have a completely different
[4:40] personality to me sato kazma has a very
[4:43] different personality to me
[4:44] if i went to an isakai world suddenly i
[4:47] would not have the guts to do any of the
[4:49] things that he does
[4:50] and yet he's one of the most relatable
[4:52] protagonists
[4:54] i've ever seen wanna know why it's
[4:56] because he suffers
[4:57] he is constantly landed with tons of
[5:00] debt and bills he needs to pay he needs
[5:02] to work his butt off just to be able to
[5:04] start adventuring he has to live at the
[5:06] stables in the beginning he has trouble
[5:07] making companions who are basically
[5:09] problem children who he constantly needs
[5:11] to keep in line he feels and dies
[5:13] constantly he has no real skills or
[5:15] advantages
[5:15] and he has a terrible reputation to be i
[5:18] don't care
[5:19] if kazuma is exactly like me or not but
[5:21] when i see him have to go
[5:23] through these mundane yet painful parts
[5:27] of life
[5:28] i can't help but feel like i get him so
[5:31] knowing this there really is no excuse
[5:33] to not give isakai protagonists real
[5:35] personalities
[5:36] now they obviously don't need to be as
[5:37] exaggerated or as cultured as cosma is
[5:40] but you can still make them feel more
[5:42] like an actual person
[5:44] than a cardboard cutout there is no
[5:46] excuse for lazy characterization
[5:49] the last thing that i wanted to mention
[5:50] was about the entire reason they were
[5:52] transported here in the first place
[5:54] what are they supposed to do like they
[5:57] get
[5:57] reincarnated into this new world
[6:00] now what i mean you could fight monsters
[6:03] and get stronger
[6:04] but there's no point because you're
[6:05] already an overpowered badass so
[6:08] most of the time all the main character
[6:10] has in mind is i don't know
[6:12] i guess i'll just explore and then they
[6:14] do until they
[6:15] stumble upon some kind of plot if the
[6:18] main character doesn't have
[6:20] any real goals from the beginning then
[6:22] how can you expect me to care
[6:23] like how is that interesting to anyone i
[6:26] mean in many cases yeah sure there's
[6:28] like
[6:28] also a demon lord or whatever or
[6:31] something like that who
[6:32] has an army who's causing trouble
[6:34] throughout the world
[6:35] and that's who we need to stop but the
[6:37] thing about that is that there's no real
[6:39] motivation or reason for why the main
[6:41] character would want to do that
[6:43] in the first place other than just it's
[6:45] the right thing to do
[6:46] which in itself just makes them feel
[6:49] even less relatable since
[6:50] what teenager would ever actually have
[6:52] those kinds of goals now in some older
[6:54] shows with similar premises
[6:56] yes you've got the entire transported
[6:58] another world thing but the main
[6:59] character has a clear goal
[7:01] from the start to get back to their
[7:03] original world to get back home
[7:05] ready that's way more interesting
[7:07] because they have a solid goal
[7:09] with an understandable motivation and
[7:11] you can already picture how as they go
[7:13] throughout the story they get closer and
[7:15] closer to that goal
[7:16] even sword art online gets this step
[7:19] right there is a reason why so many
[7:21] people were intrigued by its original
[7:23] premise
[7:23] and it's for this reason i mean yeah it
[7:25] still falls into the other pitfalls i
[7:27] mentioned before but
[7:28] at least the idea is good all stories
[7:31] need conflict of some kind it doesn't
[7:33] matter what genre it is
[7:34] and yes that includes slice of life
[7:36] might make a video about that if i feel
[7:38] like it
[7:39] but when it comes to isakai as a whole
[7:41] not individual shows
[7:43] for some reason all the tropes that it's
[7:46] known for
[7:47] seem to do nothing but drain the
[7:49] conflict and a story without conflict
[7:52] is kind of boring to me that's why it
[7:55] confuses me that despite all of this
[7:58] isakai is still so popular now i haven't
[8:01] really watched a whole lot of izakaya at
[8:03] this point and the reasons are because
[8:04] of everything i mentioned beforehand and
[8:06] combine that with the fact that pretty
[8:07] much every izakaya synopsis i read
[8:09] sounds almost the exact same
[8:11] except for one major difference i can
[8:13] never really bring myself to be
[8:15] all that interested maybe i'm just the
[8:17] wrong audience i don't know
[8:18] clearly there's something that i'm
[8:19] missing that everyone else seems to be
[8:21] enjoying
[8:22] so to all the izakaya fans out there
[8:24] who's watching this video
[8:26] tell me why do you enjoy isakai as a
[8:28] genre is it the comedy
[8:30] is it the characters or is it something
[8:32] else that i just don't get
[8:34] i'm not asking this to be sarcastic i i
[8:36] genuinely want to see your responses
[8:38] or you can just tell me i'm wrong that's
[8:41] fine too
[8:41] my name is brenda reilly and that is why
[8:44] i think that isekai
[8:45] is kinda boring thanks for watching
[8:55] you