Unfortunately, I don't see the isekai trend dying in the near future, though I hope I'm wrong since it's amongst the lowest quality genres in the medium and responsible for diluting its creative integrity--Mushoku Tensei included, of course. A lot of the new anime watchers got into anime during the peak of the trend between 5-10 years ago and therefore were exposed to the genre since the very beginning. And for a lot of them, it's easy to fall in love with such works when you have low exposure to the medium, which naturally inclines you to seek out more of the same out of comfort; in which you have a highly accessible vast expanse of when it comes to something with a similar feel, storytelling and characters to your favorite escapist isekai.
At the end of the day, the industry is a business and it will try to capitalize on what's being consumed the most by producing as much of it as it can in a short amount of time. Japan in particular is really good at the whole "milking out" process, and in the light novel world, that big trend right now is isekai. Naturally, new light novelists are incentivized to create what's most popular and successful with the consumers and promoters are incentivized to push out likewise. That's why LNs are so strongly associated with the genre. It's an ouroboros of consumers consuming something and promoters making that thing that the consumers are going to buy.
As for modern isekai's obsession with slavery, it's because the isekai genre now is very lowly in literary value and very high in degenerate pandering. It's fairly realistic for the medieval setting, therefore you can use that as a green light to simplify your plot because you're a low-tier writer. Want an easy way of creating companions whilst catering to a core demographic of degens who consume this wish-fulfilment trash? Easy, just have your MC buy female slaves. Since your MC has nothing going for him, he'll look good for doing the bare minimum any normal human would by treating them well and in effect his helpless slaves will be endlessly grateful and join his harem!
I wanted to address Mushoku's slavery shitshow in my review, but that would've qualified as a spoiler probably. I remember Mushoku fans trying to defend the (especially) cringe episode of Rudeus and Sylphiette having a laughably romantically-charged, casual conversation whilst strolling through a slave market (Wow, so cute and romantic!) with that braindead strawman "Rudeus can't change the world, he's just living by in this new environment of his. When in Rome, do as the Romans do." First off, you'd expect a 21st-century first-worlder magically transported to another world at the very least not to engage in slavery, and it makes me wonder how Mushoku fans would act in that situation if this is the argument they're making. No one was expecting him to abolish slavery right then and there; and it's especially gross how the author didn't even bother to portray this 21st-century first-world psyche showing any aversion or moral revulsion--even internally--to the practice.
The author did himself no favors by proceeding to come out and confirm "...it's true that I wrote Rudeus as someone who is not averse to slavery... About Rudeus: He doesn't really have any feelings of hatred for slavery. He feels like; it's not necessarily the case that all slaves are universally unhappier as slaves than they were before becoming slaves." Dude should've just stayed silent since he couldn't abate a controversy to save his life lol.
Thanks brother, I'm content with the reception it's gotten.
I can´t lie that I liked the first season despite the general degenerecy and power fantasy stuff going on. I just enjoyed the aesthetics I guess, I felt like the world in total seemed like a way more believable Medieval-inspired fantasy world than most isekais are able to muster today.
I get this and I believe it's the primary origin for the amount of fans the anime mustered in the first place, not because of its second-rate narrative elements, which are mostly defended retroactively. Aesthetics, atmosphere and good character designs are important values for a respectable anime, after all. But it's pretty obvious that the comparatively high production values from the sea of isekai slop carried this anime to popularity. Otherwise, I doubt that it would've ascended beyond talk of the season under the perception of "this isekai's zany gimmick is that the MC is a pedophile" (which Mushoku Tensei essentially is, except it has two-dimensional characters instead of one-dimensional ones).
If you're familiar with the source material, the story and characters only get more degen from here lol. And the romanticism of immersing yourself in a high definition medieval fantasy is effectively gone because the first season will be the most extended sequence in that narrative style that you'll get. It gets interesting in different ways, but it probably isn't capturing the glory of season 1 again.
I'm sorry, my bad. I wrote that review when I was crazy about the D.C series. And when I read it now it's pretty obvious that my review doesn't look neutral, lol. In essence, try watching the anime from D.C 1 to 3. From there you will get to know some of the mysterious characters that appear in D.C 3.
Umm yeah that doesn't make sense...I think I meant to say 'cup size' or some other suitably witty comment but just switched off for a second, thanks for pointing it out :)
All Comments (7) Comments
Unfortunately, I don't see the isekai trend dying in the near future, though I hope I'm wrong since it's amongst the lowest quality genres in the medium and responsible for diluting its creative integrity--Mushoku Tensei included, of course. A lot of the new anime watchers got into anime during the peak of the trend between 5-10 years ago and therefore were exposed to the genre since the very beginning. And for a lot of them, it's easy to fall in love with such works when you have low exposure to the medium, which naturally inclines you to seek out more of the same out of comfort; in which you have a highly accessible vast expanse of when it comes to something with a similar feel, storytelling and characters to your favorite escapist isekai.
At the end of the day, the industry is a business and it will try to capitalize on what's being consumed the most by producing as much of it as it can in a short amount of time. Japan in particular is really good at the whole "milking out" process, and in the light novel world, that big trend right now is isekai. Naturally, new light novelists are incentivized to create what's most popular and successful with the consumers and promoters are incentivized to push out likewise. That's why LNs are so strongly associated with the genre. It's an ouroboros of consumers consuming something and promoters making that thing that the consumers are going to buy.
As for modern isekai's obsession with slavery, it's because the isekai genre now is very lowly in literary value and very high in degenerate pandering. It's fairly realistic for the medieval setting, therefore you can use that as a green light to simplify your plot because you're a low-tier writer. Want an easy way of creating companions whilst catering to a core demographic of degens who consume this wish-fulfilment trash? Easy, just have your MC buy female slaves. Since your MC has nothing going for him, he'll look good for doing the bare minimum any normal human would by treating them well and in effect his helpless slaves will be endlessly grateful and join his harem!
I wanted to address Mushoku's slavery shitshow in my review, but that would've qualified as a spoiler probably. I remember Mushoku fans trying to defend the (especially) cringe episode of Rudeus and Sylphiette having a laughably romantically-charged, casual conversation whilst strolling through a slave market (Wow, so cute and romantic!) with that braindead strawman "Rudeus can't change the world, he's just living by in this new environment of his. When in Rome, do as the Romans do." First off, you'd expect a 21st-century first-worlder magically transported to another world at the very least not to engage in slavery, and it makes me wonder how Mushoku fans would act in that situation if this is the argument they're making. No one was expecting him to abolish slavery right then and there; and it's especially gross how the author didn't even bother to portray this 21st-century first-world psyche showing any aversion or moral revulsion--even internally--to the practice.
The author did himself no favors by proceeding to come out and confirm "...it's true that I wrote Rudeus as someone who is not averse to slavery... About Rudeus: He doesn't really have any feelings of hatred for slavery. He feels like; it's not necessarily the case that all slaves are universally unhappier as slaves than they were before becoming slaves." Dude should've just stayed silent since he couldn't abate a controversy to save his life lol.
If you're familiar with the source material, the story and characters only get more degen from here lol. And the romanticism of immersing yourself in a high definition medieval fantasy is effectively gone because the first season will be the most extended sequence in that narrative style that you'll get. It gets interesting in different ways, but it probably isn't capturing the glory of season 1 again.
cheers much love