This episode of TWA is brought to you by Campfire
Blaze. What a lovely day to cross the street! What happened? Why did the animation style change? Why are there all of these women suddenly
interested in me for no reason? Oh no! I just got Isekaied! Isekai is weeaboo speak that translates to
“different world”, “otherworld”, “light novel template 01”, or a more accurate translation
would probably be “cash cow”. Isekai is a genre frequently found in light
novels, manga, anime, and video games and usually takes the form of some schlub from
the modern world who gets transported to a fantasy world. While the genre itself comes from weeaboo
land, sometimes confusingly referred to as Japan, there is no reason that any writer
can’t just use this template as well. And why not? If most light novel authors use every Isekai
cliché with zero modifications then so can we! So let’s get whisked off to another world
to write our very own Isekai story. Just, you know, be sure to clean up after
Isekaing everywhere. Now most stories consist of a tripod of elements;
namely plot, setting, and character. However Isekai stories, by contrast, only
consist of two central pillars; the Harem and the Power Fantasy. Let’s start with the Harem! Now a harem is a cutthroat cesspit of political
intrigue and exploitation where enslaved women are treated like objects. Wait. Sorry. How did these historical notes get into my
script? Let me start again. The harem is a collection of girls that can
be sorted based on the magnitude of their mammaries and all posses the singular personality
trait of being in love with the protagonist. The best thing about the harem is that it
is easy to mix and match to create a huge amount of combinations! For example: we can combine the big boob girl
with the older sister archetype. Or we can combine the loli with the catgirl. Um… but its okay because she’s really
a 1000 years old so that makes it fine to put her on a body pillow. There is also a large supply of deres to choose
from as well. The combinations are endless and the best
part is that they are all written nearly the exact freaking same! Now I could write them with a personality
beyond “in love with the self-insert protagonist”? Which is correct! Be sure add that extra bit of characterization
in the form slapping the protagonist after mistaking his actions for being lecherous. Accidental sexual harassment is funny! Or how she for some reason decides to constantly
send mix signals about her romantic interest in the protagonist while endlessly calling
him an idiot. All of the usual anime cliches are excellent
in avoiding any deeper characterization. Why make any of the harem girls fleshed out
characters when we can just stick to the most stock version of their archetypes? If I gave them actual personalities with their
own perspectives and opinions they may just decide that my protagonist isn’t really
all that interesting and that they could probably do better for themselves. My ego… um I mean my protagonist can’t
have that! Speaking of the protagonist, how can an Isekai
writer handle that? Thankfully, Isekai protagonists are the easiest
protagonists to write! Now some writers might worry that a protagonist
from Japan might be difficult to write for someone who isn’t from that country. But see that is the best thing about Isekai
protagonists is that their nationality, culture, and every other aspect of their character
is basically as interchangeable and deep as the cardboard packaging the blue-ray box set
arrived in. An Isekai protagonist’s personality is meant
to be as flat as the loli’s chest so the audience can project themselves onto him without
something like character to get in the way. Yes we could use the protagonist’s modern
perspective as a way to generate conflict as his values clash with the societal mores
of a strange fantasy culture or we could force the protagonist to work his way up and have
to earn the trust of the locals. But I want my power fantasy now! Now! Now! Now! There is to be no struggle, hardship, or any
other kind of setback for the protagonist. He is just all powerful all the time. Oh no! Does a villain have the protagonist on the
ropes? No problem. Give him a free power up! That was close! We almost had some narrative tension there
for a second. Now this may present the problem of the audience
struggling to root for a protagonist given his complete lack of a personality beyond
his magical ability to stumble into the girls’ changing room by accident. Perhaps I should add something to make the
protagonist a bit more sympathetic? Like contributing to slavery! The protagonist could decide to rescue a cute
slave girl by... buying her? Like what? Is that really in the script? Yeah. There it is. That can’t be real. No one is dumb enough to write that into their- Now a less skilled writer would have had the
protagonist systematically destroy the slavers’ organization and make sure that the entire
institution of exploitation found its way into the dust bin of history where it belongs. This could even be an example of clashing
modern and ancient perspectives on if a person can be considered property. But no. Better to use the system of slave trade to
expand the harem which is the only historically accurate part of an Isekai’s harem. But hey, lets move to something a little less
controversial… like sexual tension between the protagonist and his underage sister. Now not boning one’s sister is like the
lowest of the low bars to clear, but if stumbling over this hurtle proves too much for the audience
then just say that the protagonist’s sister isn’t related by blood and that makes it
all okay!… Somehow… Or, you know, a writer could always just never
specify any blood relations. The important thing to remember that it’s
not a real isekai story unless it has hentai search terms added to it. Now that an Isekai writer has sated their
lust for power, lust for their harem, and lust for their sister that must mean that
we are done right? Wrong! Unfortunately all this lust still can’t
exist in a vacuum, I mean, you know unless it’s a science fiction anime. But Isekai isn’t Isekai unless it takes
place in another world. This must mean that the Isekai writer has
to set aside their lust for just a few moments in order to create a setting and there is
only one thing powerful enough to make them forget about their lecherousness even for
a moment. Video games! Just add video game mechanics to the Isekai
world. How do video game rpg mechanics influence
a world’s social, economic, military, and political systems? I have no idea, but it sure is cool to have
the protagonist level up when he kills a monster! Yes the bandits can see that the protagonist
is overpowered and can even see his stats, but they will still pick a fight with him
regardless. Wow. The protagonist didn’t even need to pay
to win! Wouldn’t the world be ruled by over-leveled,
super powered characters who have the best stats and loot? Wouldn’t that also mean that these super
powered characters would control access to all of the best areas to level up as well
as monopolize the best loot drops in order to maintain their power? Wouldn’t that make for a compelling story
as the protagonist is forced to grind in order to overthrow other characters who are gaming
the system? Oh no! Can’t have any of that. A lot of Isekai doesn’t even have a central
villain, much less a cabal of villains who actually know what they are doing. Or like have a story arc. Or like an overall structure. Nope. It’s just the protagonist wandering around
being awesome and defeating the occasional monster or bandit. The rest is just romantic comedy hijinks that
we’ve see a billion times in other anime. Don’t forget the hot springs and beach episodes. That’ll sell a few extra body pillows. Does this Isekai world have any kind of political
system at all? How would these fantasy nations react to dealing
with strange individuals from a completely alien world who are basically walking weapons
of mass destruction? Wouldn’t kingdoms and empires try to woo
the protagonist to their side and feed them propaganda in order to control them for their
own strategic advantage. Or, you know, give them an actual harem to
bribe the protagonist to their side? Wouldn’t a teen with superpowers be hopelessly
out of their depth when navigating court intrigue? These would all be good questions if they
didn’t get in the way of my naked power fantasy! This is the core problem. Isekai should never develop its setting to
generate interesting conflict that forces its protagonist to develop. Instead, we should develop our setting to
generate loot and XP so my protagonist can have even more power! Now that we have a setting that is entirely
conducive to the protagonist’s endless lust, how are we going to get him there? Why with Truck Kun obviously. Notice me Semi! Or don’t if your the protagonist. You would think that Japan would start passing
safe driving regulations given how many young men keep getting killed by trucks, but getting
splatted by traffic is still the best method for getting someone into fantasy land. I mean there is, like, a billion other ways
we could get our protagonist to the fantasy world while also kick starting the plot at
the same time. For example:
They could learn magic for the first time and accidentally transport themselves to another
world. They could be dying of an incurable disease
in a hospital and their last dying wish would be to be given a second chance only for a
magical entity to offer them said chance, but at the price of enduring a dangerous adventure. There could be a mysterious portal in the
basement that the protagonist’s parents used to flee the fantasy world because it’s
really dangerous there. The protagonist’s powers were so overpowered
that they are considered a weapon of mass destruction in the magic world so they were
hidden away on Earth where magic doesn’t work. That is until one day, bad guys from the magic
world abduct the protagonist from Earth and drag them into the magic world as a political
bargaining chip. An evil spirit lies to the protagonist about
what a fun time they will have in a world full of magic and all they have to do is sign
their name in blood on this mysterious book and they will totally get transported to a
fun fantasy world and most definitely not become this entity's pawn in its grand game
against the gods. The protagonist builds a portal out of SCIENCE! And then enters it for SCIENCE! And then they help this fantasy world full
of magic by using SCIENCE! A monster from the fantasy world shows up
and eats the protagonist to gain his delicious magic potential. It turns out that the protagonist’s best
friend is in fact the magic world’s chosen one and they just get pulled in for the ride
during the magical crossfire when the bad guys try to abduct their friend from the normal
world. The protagonist gets pulled into the fantasy
world only when they dream and they return to the normal world when they wake up forcing
them to live a double life and even begin to doubt which world is the dream. The entire genre of fantasy role playing games
was made by a powerful entity searching for a champion. It finds that champion when the protagonist
is the only person to beat the world’s hardest RPG like a fantasy version of the Last Starfighter. A wardrobe leads to Jesus lion. The protagonist is delivered to the wrong
afterlife. The school’s magic club turns out to be
a front for recruitment in the war against the dark lord. Join the magic armed forces! See new worlds! Kill exciting new orcs! A hacker discovers a hidden magic world on
the web. Or... I don’t know. While avoiding an out of control truck a dragon
runs over the protagonist instead? None of these will work because that requires
the author to pay more attention than the driver of Truck Kun. The important thing to consider is that the
opening transition from the protagonist’s old life to the new fantasy world be completely
perfunctory and not try to do something stupid like start the plot, foreshadow the primary
conflict, or establish a central theme. Plus it might also jar light novel readers
from their power fantasy induced stupor. We can’t stress out our audiences and instead
we should keep feeding them the anime equivalent of junk food. Besides, if we need a variation on the Isekai
story, then I can always say that the protagonist is whisked away to another world, but this
time I have my cell phone! And… no bars. Man reception is terrible in fantasy land. They really need to install some wifi there
or something. KNIGHT COMMANDER: Our fortress of Eternal
Integrity has fallen to the very hands of greed! Clearly the Sponsorship Wars have escalated
beyond our ability to contain! Our old tactics are no longer sufficient to
curtail such wanton selling out by the TWA expanded universe factions! We must pull out all the stops! SIR ADBLOCK: You don't mean… KNIGHT COMMANDER: Yes! We must use our ultimate weapon! The final stern warning! CONSPIRACY GUY: Look, I may just be the new
guy here, but might I suggest trying something different? Like, your fortress just got nommed by eldritch
hand monsters. I think we are a little beyond issuing warnings,
stern final or otherwise, at this point. SIR ADBLOCK: Commander, the very trustworthy
new guy has a point. Perhaps we should try something more direct
to try to contain the situation? KNIGHT COMMANDER: Ah you are both right. The Adpocalypse is upon us as was foretold. There is only one thing that can drive away
the ads now! Only one thing so destructive and vile that
no advertiser, however desperate, will ever want to touch the TWA expanded universe again! SIR ADBLOCK: You can’t mean! KNIGHT COMMANDER: Yes! We must say… the forbidden naughty word! SIR ADBLOCK: *Gasp* But uttering the forbidden
word could lead to the entire TWA universe getting canceled! It could very well be the end of everything! KNIGHT COMMANDER: It’s a risk we will have
to take! CONSPIRACY GUY: So… um…. Does anyone know what the forbidden word actually
is? KNIGHT COMMANDER: No. JP won’t tell me! You know how cagey he gets about stuff like
that. Therefore, we only have one option. We must go through every word in the dictionary
until we find it! CONSPIRACY GUY: Well why those fools are busy,
I can claim this Video’s Sponsor Campfire Blaze’s power for myself! Campfire Blaze is a browser based writing
organization tool to help aspiring authors, dungeon masters, and most importantly shadowy
cabals to keep their plots straight. Campfire Blaze allows conspirators, and I
supposed writers as well, to organize their plots using timelines to help visualize the
plot’s flow. And trust me, when you have as many plots
as I do it really helps to keep everyone on the same page. Why me and my fellow conspirators can even
collaborate to help flesh out our schemes in real time. Not to mention the word processor, character
sheets, character arcs, relationship details, and even tools to flesh out magic systems,
languages, and artifacts. Try the free version or build your own subscription
by choosing only the modules you need by going to bit.ly/TWABlaze. TWA fans can also use the code TWA21 at checkout
to receive 20% of all lifetime purchases of Blaze modules! Link is in the description below. SIR ADBLOCK: Sir Newguy. What are you doing there? CONSPIRACY GUY: Nothing! Just… you know, making sure this nefarious
ad doesn’t try anything… um… nefarious. Since you, know. It seems we are going to be here a while.
Hey, please check our updates about this sub, its rules and its aims: https://www.reddit.com/r/animecirclejerk/comments/i5jvex/ok_folks_back_to_our_usual_jerking_rules_updates/.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
The irony is that many of the concepts he thought up for isekai series have been done.
For instance, many series have the MC get accidentally summoned alongside the actual heroes and the kingdom goes “oh you’re too weak”, throwing him out... and then just segueing into a generic isekai power fantasy
And the idea for another world in your dreams was done by Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf.
Thank you people who shit on isekai, cause fuck that.
I don’t hate Isekai, but holy fudge has it oversaturated the anime fantasy genre.
"Truck-kun"
I died after hearing that, holy shit this is some good stuff, how have I not heard of this channel before?
The primary purpose of 99% of Isekai is to give a false sense of normalcy to the deeply alienated and depressed people Japan's hypercapitalist society creates
You know whats a half decent Isekai idea if they actually stick to it and just not abandoned it for generic isekai plot like alot of them? What if the people summoned have like, completely different "Gameplay" to the world, like summoning a GTA character or a western rpg character to your jrpg isekai world on accident.... its a stupid idea not leaving my head, and i already know theres like one isekai about like, a super sentai/mecha (Forgot which) character in your standard jrpg isekai world
can someone bully me to delete all my isekai manga bookmarks
like i know how shit it is but i cant stop the escapism...
/uj I would use terrible writing advice to write my stories if I wrote