Isekai Tropes I Am Tired Of

[00:00] why is this akai so popular

[00:03] seriously no don't get me wrong i

[00:05] understand why there's a lot of appeal

[00:06] for it one of the biggest being that

[00:07] it's kind of a wish fulfillment fantasy

[00:09] where you get to be the self-insert

[00:11] who's surrounded by pretty girls and has

[00:13] cool powers and gets to go on quests and

[00:15] the like there's nothing wrong with that

[00:17] i'm not saying that all isakai's are bad

[00:18] in fact i've even watched some

[00:20] shows that are isikai like konasuba and

[00:23] re zero

[00:23] and love them but what kind of confuses

[00:25] me is the sheer

[00:26] volume of it it honestly feels like

[00:29] every new anime

[00:30] season there's like another 50 isakai

[00:32] shows just

[00:33] there and people keep watching it and

[00:35] that's fine

[00:36] i'm not judging you watch as much as you

[00:38] want but the thing that confuses me

[00:40] about all of this

[00:41] is the fact that it's so popular despite

[00:43] the fact that on

[00:44] a purely conceptual level isakai

[00:48] is kind of boring to me

[00:53] now what do i mean by that now usually

[00:54] when you think of anisakai they have

[00:56] several qualities

[00:57] in common there's an overpowered hero

[00:59] who's ridiculously strong from the start

[01:01] he's also ridiculously generic

[01:03] in both his looks and personality he's

[01:05] quickly surrounded by a harem of girls

[01:07] and he gets transported to this world to

[01:09] just

[01:11] do stuff maybe maybe there's a demon

[01:13] lord in the end he needs to defeat i

[01:14] don't know

[01:15] i have many problems with these a lot

[01:18] first off why are the main characters

[01:19] always overpowered

[01:20] yes i get it it's a power fantasy but

[01:22] having characters who are ridiculously

[01:25] powerful from the start

[01:26] are a lot harder to make interesting

[01:29] than if they were underpowered

[01:31] stories need conflict characters

[01:34] and conflict are the two main driving

[01:37] forces behind stories behind

[01:39] all stories and if you don't have those

[01:41] things you

[01:42] don't have a story and yet isakai seems

[01:45] to love

[01:45] not doing those things having an

[01:48] overpowered character

[01:49] can very easily drain the conflict and

[01:51] in most cases in isakai this

[01:54] is exactly what it does if every time

[01:56] he's going to fight we know he's going

[01:58] to win

[02:00] then what's the point of the fight in

[02:02] the first place

[02:03] i'm not saying there's something wrong

[02:04] with creating overpowered characters

[02:06] there are plenty of them that are done

[02:08] well i'm just saying that it takes a lot

[02:10] more effort to create

[02:11] interesting and lasting conflicts with

[02:14] overpowered characters

[02:15] it's a lot easier for me to lose

[02:17] interest in these characters because i

[02:19] feel like they don't have any stakes

[02:20] whatsoever seriously there are so many

[02:22] isakai premises out there that i read

[02:25] and it and all it is is just wow

[02:29] look how overpowered this character is

[02:33] and that's it what's the story where's

[02:35] the plot do they have any actual goals

[02:38] here i just don't see what's so

[02:40] interesting about a character being

[02:42] crazy powerful for no reason

[02:44] uh i mean maybe it's a comedy but

[02:47] so far i don't really see what the joke

[02:49] is now you'd think it'd be more

[02:51] interesting for both the writer and the

[02:53] audience to have an underpowered main

[02:55] character instead

[02:56] one who starts off weak but through hard

[02:58] work and training gets stronger

[03:00] and eventually is able to defeat the

[03:03] demon king

[03:04] and save the day in a satisfying way

[03:07] you know like most video games but nah

[03:09] we need that instant gratification don't

[03:11] we boys

[03:12] i mean seriously could you imagine if

[03:14] video games work the same way

[03:15] like you start the game only to be given

[03:19] the most powerful item straight away

[03:21] like

[03:23] what's even the point of playing the

[03:25] game anymore okay but

[03:26] it's not just the fact that they're

[03:27] super powerful there are ways to make

[03:29] overpowered characters interesting which

[03:31] i

[03:31] talked about in my mary sue video which

[03:33] i will link up in the corner but a lot

[03:35] of the time isakai's don't do this

[03:37] all they do is that they just kind of

[03:40] get this huge and powerful monster

[03:42] and have the main character defeat them

[03:44] in a cool way

[03:45] also the writer can show off how cool

[03:48] they are from an ability that was

[03:50] given to them i don't get it another

[03:53] thing that the main characters always

[03:54] seem to have

[03:55] is the exact same personality the

[03:58] personality of none

[03:59] now in theory it's supposed to be that

[04:01] they're as generic as possible so that a

[04:04] wider range of audience members could

[04:06] relate to them they're supposed to be as

[04:08] relatable to as many people

[04:09] as possible but that's not how stories

[04:12] work

[04:13] i don't really relate to a character's

[04:15] personality in fact if i saw myself as

[04:17] an anime character i'd probably hate him

[04:19] what i do relate to are situations

[04:23] if i see a character go through a

[04:25] situation even in a fantasy world

[04:28] that i feel like i can relate to that

[04:31] makes me connect with them because i

[04:33] feel like

[04:33] yes i totally get that i understand what

[04:36] you're going through and this still

[04:38] applies

[04:38] even if they have a completely different

[04:40] personality to me sato kazma has a very

[04:43] different personality to me

[04:44] if i went to an isakai world suddenly i

[04:47] would not have the guts to do any of the

[04:49] things that he does

[04:50] and yet he's one of the most relatable

[04:52] protagonists

[04:54] i've ever seen wanna know why it's

[04:56] because he suffers

[04:57] he is constantly landed with tons of

[05:00] debt and bills he needs to pay he needs

[05:02] to work his butt off just to be able to

[05:04] start adventuring he has to live at the

[05:06] stables in the beginning he has trouble

[05:07] making companions who are basically

[05:09] problem children who he constantly needs

[05:11] to keep in line he feels and dies

[05:13] constantly he has no real skills or

[05:15] advantages

[05:15] and he has a terrible reputation to be i

[05:18] don't care

[05:19] if kazuma is exactly like me or not but

[05:21] when i see him have to go

[05:23] through these mundane yet painful parts

[05:27] of life

[05:28] i can't help but feel like i get him so

[05:31] knowing this there really is no excuse

[05:33] to not give isakai protagonists real

[05:35] personalities

[05:36] now they obviously don't need to be as

[05:37] exaggerated or as cultured as cosma is

[05:40] but you can still make them feel more

[05:42] like an actual person

[05:44] than a cardboard cutout there is no

[05:46] excuse for lazy characterization

[05:49] the last thing that i wanted to mention

[05:50] was about the entire reason they were

[05:52] transported here in the first place

[05:54] what are they supposed to do like they

[05:57] get

[05:57] reincarnated into this new world

[06:00] now what i mean you could fight monsters

[06:03] and get stronger

[06:04] but there's no point because you're

[06:05] already an overpowered badass so

[06:08] most of the time all the main character

[06:10] has in mind is i don't know

[06:12] i guess i'll just explore and then they

[06:14] do until they

[06:15] stumble upon some kind of plot if the

[06:18] main character doesn't have

[06:20] any real goals from the beginning then

[06:22] how can you expect me to care

[06:23] like how is that interesting to anyone i

[06:26] mean in many cases yeah sure there's

[06:28] like

[06:28] also a demon lord or whatever or

[06:31] something like that who

[06:32] has an army who's causing trouble

[06:34] throughout the world

[06:35] and that's who we need to stop but the

[06:37] thing about that is that there's no real

[06:39] motivation or reason for why the main

[06:41] character would want to do that

[06:43] in the first place other than just it's

[06:45] the right thing to do

[06:46] which in itself just makes them feel

[06:49] even less relatable since

[06:50] what teenager would ever actually have

[06:52] those kinds of goals now in some older

[06:54] shows with similar premises

[06:56] yes you've got the entire transported

[06:58] another world thing but the main

[06:59] character has a clear goal

[07:01] from the start to get back to their

[07:03] original world to get back home

[07:05] ready that's way more interesting

[07:07] because they have a solid goal

[07:09] with an understandable motivation and

[07:11] you can already picture how as they go

[07:13] throughout the story they get closer and

[07:15] closer to that goal

[07:16] even sword art online gets this step

[07:19] right there is a reason why so many

[07:21] people were intrigued by its original

[07:23] premise

[07:23] and it's for this reason i mean yeah it

[07:25] still falls into the other pitfalls i

[07:27] mentioned before but

[07:28] at least the idea is good all stories

[07:31] need conflict of some kind it doesn't

[07:33] matter what genre it is

[07:34] and yes that includes slice of life

[07:36] might make a video about that if i feel

[07:38] like it

[07:39] but when it comes to isakai as a whole

[07:41] not individual shows

[07:43] for some reason all the tropes that it's

[07:46] known for

[07:47] seem to do nothing but drain the

[07:49] conflict and a story without conflict

[07:52] is kind of boring to me that's why it

[07:55] confuses me that despite all of this

[07:58] isakai is still so popular now i haven't

[08:01] really watched a whole lot of izakaya at

[08:03] this point and the reasons are because

[08:04] of everything i mentioned beforehand and

[08:06] combine that with the fact that pretty

[08:07] much every izakaya synopsis i read

[08:09] sounds almost the exact same

[08:11] except for one major difference i can

[08:13] never really bring myself to be

[08:15] all that interested maybe i'm just the

[08:17] wrong audience i don't know

[08:18] clearly there's something that i'm

[08:19] missing that everyone else seems to be

[08:21] enjoying

[08:22] so to all the izakaya fans out there

[08:24] who's watching this video

[08:26] tell me why do you enjoy isakai as a

[08:28] genre is it the comedy

[08:30] is it the characters or is it something

[08:32] else that i just don't get

[08:34] i'm not asking this to be sarcastic i i

[08:36] genuinely want to see your responses

[08:38] or you can just tell me i'm wrong that's

[08:41] fine too

[08:41] my name is brenda reilly and that is why

[08:44] i think that isekai

[08:45] is kinda boring thanks for watching

[08:55] you