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===Gripes about the worlds=== * While most isekai stories used to be about the protagonist wanting to escape the otherworld to get back to reality, it has become increasingly common for the protagonist to not be able to go back or them not even wanting to go back. As a result, most isekai stories could easily work as regular fantasy stories with few alterations, making the whole isekai aspect pointless. * The worlds travelled to are so god damned painfully bland and unoriginal, usually the JRPG version of the [[standard fantasy setting]] at that. Not only is this oversaturated but, coming from ''an Asian nation'', why in all the Yama hells bring your characters into Not Thirteenth Century Catholic Germany all the time? When Westerners do it to (say) Arabian Nights they get called "Orientalists" [[weeaboo|or worse]]. Suppose we spot each other this on condition we don't make our counterparty DAMN LAME. Seriously, where in the proverbial fuck are our Mesoamerica's, the Middle-Eastern civilizations, the South Asian and Southeast Asian ones? Hell, even in the European setting that every single Isekai is teleported in, it is blatantly cut-and-paste when in reality, Medieval Europe was shockingly diverse in terms of beliefs, culture and architecture. The orthodox buildings of the Byzantines for example, looks completely different from the Gothic architecture of Western Europe or the paganistic runes of Northern and Eastern Europe. So even in the very setting it is trying to emulate, Isekais are blander than wall paste. **This is most likely because the ''Dragon Quest'' vidya gaems are some of the best-selling media of all time in Japan, so basically every Japanese kid is nostalgic for their fantasy land with slimes and magic swords; but are niche and usually flop everywhere else, so it just comes across as a bunch of bland RPG pastiches ripping each other off. * And because they're JRPG the isekai will often go so far as to define the world in terms of ''RPG mechanics''. We shit you not. People in isekai worlds speak of levels, classes, and experience as real and tangible things as opposed to the mechanical abstractions fa/tg/uys normally recognize them as. Outside of Isekai stories that actually take place inside of tabletop or videogame RPGs, this is inexcusable. To make matters worse, this has started appearing in [[Goblin Slayer|fantasy series that aren't isekai]]. Seriously, say what you want about SAO, but at least ''it has the excuse of being inside an actual video game'', so the RPG mechanics makes sense in-universe. But when a 'supposed' fantasy world does it? It automatically breaks several levels of immersion. There is nothing more off-putting than a medieval setting suddenly having a voice announcement out-of-fucking-nowhere to let MC-kun know which class to level up. * The worlds of Isekai frequently (read "almost always") have a problem with what's known as a "Second Order Idiot Plot". An Idiot Plot is, of course, a plot that only happens because everyone involved is an idiot (and it can be done well; see, for example, ''Burn After Reading''); but a Second Order Idiot Plot is a plot that only happens because ''everybody in the world'' is an idiot--frequently, either some obvious solution is overlooked for dumb reasons, some obvious phenomena is ignored, or some baldly obvious lie is widely accepted. This is generally abused to create easy problems for the protagonists to solve. * Magic being treated as a "I Win" button. Every single overpowered Isekai protagonists (And friends!) are only overpowered due to the aid of some [[Bullshit|bullshit]] magic enhancement. Name me <u>'''''ONE'''''</u> Isekai protag who became powerful largely based on his/hers swordskill with no magical bullshit enhancements involved. Now, in a ''good fantasy'' with a ''good'' magical system such as Witch Hat Atelier or Full Metal Alchemist, magic (Or whatever it is called in the setting) has both a set of universal rules that grounds the user from being a one-man army and has its own limitations and issues that prevent it from going all out. For Witch Hat Atelier, magic is ''drawn'' rather than spoken and one must have ''years'' of training to properly draw all the runes and glyphs that will affect the type, power and size of the magic. And even then, the type of spells one can cast is heavily regulated and restricted; creating a self-limitation to avoid another magical world war like before. For Full Metal Alchemist, extremely dangerous alchemy is incredibly risky as under the Laws of Equivalent Exchange, the alchemist in particular must be willing to sacrifice something that is a part of him/herself in the process. Therefore, greatly limiting the overall affects of alchemy unless you are willing to literally give up your humanity in the process. But in shit Isekais (Read: All of them), the MC can just know a very convenient spell he pulled out of his ass and nuke the goddamned place, without any limitation whatsoever. And even with limitations, the protag can just find a loophole and handwave it out of existence, making said limitation [[EPIC FAIL|''utterly pointless''.]] * Since some Isekai protagonists are so powerful, no one in the new world is capable of opposing them; that includes the cliche "great demon king" who had terrorized the world for centuries only to get one-shotted by the MC in one chapter, thus erasing any conflict and tension and making the story even duller. Other type of villains like high-status types (king, nobles) or anyone in the world whom had grudge or a bone to pick with the protagonist may be introduced, but due to how the human civilization of the other world [[Medieval Stasis|are incapable of advancing their technology]] in most isekai, [[Always Chaotic Evil|these villains]] are arrogant, ignorant, and often underestimate the MC and their otherworldly knowledge (see the Emperor from GATE). Therefore, they will inevitably get their asses handed to them by the MC and their modern Japanese knowledge + JRPG cheat stats when they tried to sabotage or kill the MC's party and fail again and again. In short, Isekai lacks proper and inspiring villains. * Speaking of Demon Kings/Lords: the main villains of an Isekai are almost usually this and, like the very world they live in, look generic as fuck, resembling more of a hot bishie dude with horns than some monstrous abomination. This isn't limited to ''just'' the 'demon lord' however; nearly any monster in an Isekai is also blatantly generic-- stock D&D dragons, goblins, orcs, trolls, giant spiders, etc. You want them in? Fine, but at least have the creativity to give them an interesting backstory, character design and motivation beyond "RAAAWR! ME TAKE OVER THE WORLD!". If your antagonist(s) looks like it was copied and pasted from Microsoft Word, then you have created an uninteresting and boring adversary, and nothing is worse in a story than to be ''boring''. * Badly-done racism. This one is especially unforgivable considering that racism has been a way of life in Japan for hundreds of years and you'd think they would understand something about it by now. Having drama where the humans hate the elves or the beastfolk is fine. The part that so many series forget is setting up an actual reason that so much bad blood exists, and considering exceptions such as sailors and merchants (who are historically the least racist bunch in real and imagined existence) who don't care whom they do business with. They even fail to consider that maybe some of the characters might have different opinions on the other races or ''simply do not care'' when a light elf sees another elf of delicious chocolate variety, because God forbid there be any dimensions to the cast. Of course, setting up the world to be full of people who are spiteful for absolutely no reason means that your main character gets to show off how ''accepting'' and ''benevolent'' he is compared to the backwards fantasy peasants. Which brings us to...
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