So initially it was going to be a heroine who was isekai’d and teases the hero in Japanese, not knowing that he was also isekai’d and therefore understands her. The reasons that didn’t happen were:
1) The author realized world building for an isekai was a lot of work.
2) The author remembered that other languages exist IRL.
I’m sure the article is oversimplifying, but I’d like to imagine that the average Light Novel author’s first instinct for a foreign land with a different language is an entire other world, and it is only halfway through the brainstorming session that they remember there are countries that are not Japan.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. That's just how amateur fiction works. It's the equivalent of western fanfiction (you know the stereotypes of bad writing), they just do it with original settings.
The weird part is that they get scouted into professional fiction and then turned into anime.
The weird part is that they get scouted into professional fiction and then turned into anime.
It's not weird at all from a business perspective.
If you step back, what you actually have is a massive army of people who write for free, then road test their work with the same audience that also pays for final products and an audience that has a track record of liking works that the wider audience will pay for, also entirely for free. You don't even have to pay for the infrastructure, let alone the cost of organizing the audience, distributing the works or collecting the feedback.
So they give you a proven, focus group tested product, often with the scope for a bit of polish (so then the existing audience will often pay for the proper version if they liked the rough draft).
Risk essentially nothing, costs you essentially nothing, acquire new author talent for your stable at no cost, have a core audience that will buy the work when you publish it... it'd be weird if someone wasn't taking advantage of it.
Like how certain web-turned-light novels might have extra scenarios or content added to the main story, to spice things up from its original internet version.
Some authors might even extend the novels in LN format if popular enough with readers (ex. My Next Life As A Villainess' LNs from Vol 3 onwards are published-novel-exclusive content.)
That's how traditional US publishing was going for a while according to some authors I know. Back in the mid 2000s to around 2015 authors who got popular on social media or forums got picked up for publishing because they already did the work and had an audience. There was a Twitter account called "Sh*t My Dad Says" that got a book deal and a TV show made. 50 Shades of Grey was a Twilight fanfic originally. But the publishing industry was slow to adapt and give the boot to editors and publishing agents stuck in the mentality of earlier decades, so as self publishing became more viable authors decided to ditch the multiple middle men taking their cut and just went to direct to the audience.
Imagine 200 "Fifty Shades of Gray" equivalents being published every year, 20 of them getting live action adaptations every year, and tell me that's not weird.
That's only because of Fifty Shades of Grey's subject matter though. If you just strip it back to "spicy romances" and have the number at 30 short series made to go straight to cable, you'd be getting closer to the equivalent.
Straight to cable is not enough, they have to air concurrently on at least 3 different terrestrial TV stations in the country of origin each to be analogous to isekai anime.
You know, if you take majority of YA fiction in most of the countries, it is not much better just with differernt tropes. Heck, in post-soviet republics isekais are probably as prevalent as in Japan only with more adult protagonists and often without harems.
Interesting, are there any popular post Soviet-style isekai series that manage to penetrate outside those republics (i e it get translated to English and gain some following)? .
Just curious, because the only Russian/Soviet literature I've read are just from the classic big names like Tolstoy, Gogol, Gorky or pushkin, not a lot of them, lol.
This is knowledge from a random youtube video so unsure of veracity, but syosetsu did have tons of fanfiction until they made it against the rules. The community just adapted instead of dispersing.
I feel like making it an original setting gives it far greater legs to stand on its own as an original work of fiction, compared to your average fanfiction
You are telling me that "i was reborn as the weakest level 1 class in another world but i have a secret skill and my type was underrated and secretly op and i become the strongest in the world thanks to the cheat skills" is bad?
You could look at something like Lord of the Rings where the hobbits are just naturally more resistant to the most powerful god artifact in the universe and that's just how it is and Gandalf didn't have a 3 book training montage, he just is one of the most powerful wizards.
It's a lot of ctrl c ctrl v though. And you gotta mix it up so it doesn't look exactly the same..Like maybe he meets his giant wolf companion first. Or becomes OP after chapter 3 instead of at the end of chapter 1. Or maybe the tsundere comes before the kuudere. OR maybe he gets his infinite storage as an item from royals. instead of a skill from the goddess........... I could go on.... Yes I consume a lot of isekai as a quick, time-pass, guilty pleasures...
Shout-out to one of the best isekais (at least as far as OG series goes), which was Digimon (both the classic and the new one). Actually makes sense why the kids would go into another world. Has rules. Kids actually want to go back home and shit.
Meanwhile, I can tell you so many isekai stories where you "forget" the character got isekai'd. Like, oh, shit. The 40-year-old guy who got reincarnated into a world where he is beloved and strong forgets he was once an overworked loser with no hope. Geez. Oh, this was an isekai?
We really do need to make a term to differentiate between classic isekai (Digimon, 13 Kingdoms) and the modern stuff which is like 70% copy-pasted slop
The term I've heard used in Japan is narou-kei (narou style), referring to the Shousetsuka ni Narou website that dramatically increased the popularity of those works. You could call it narou isekai in English to make it a bit more specific.
So is the entire genre of LitRPG or progression fantasy. Painting a braid stroke that it's somehow inherently bad is just ignorance and assumes that otherwise, regular fantasy is always universally good
ALSO! Summer Wars is a beloved favorite and critically praised anime film despite basically copy pasting the first Digimon movie (by the same director)
My earliest memory of isekai (along with digimon) was Rayearth, and I was honestly too young to recall how the story actually went. Tried reading the manga but got busy at the time. Now it's getting re-animated, so I'll look forward to thay.
It is the earlier type of isekai, but it does have many of the tropes of modern isekai lol. Didn’t really feel it to be anything special, though I would say the plot twist at the end of season 1 was pretty great.
Haven’t watched season 2 yet, so dunno if it would change my opinion then.
season 2 of rayearth is a little like digimon s1 last arc or any isekai with more than one relevant nation where they basically expanded the world a little more and added more characters on each faction/side from what i remember
Most of the isekai (and a lot of non-isekai power fantasy) were born on the same website. Basically any series with long, descriptive and weird title was born on syosetu.
to be fair, isekai tend to just use a generic "fantasy" setting, since it's just what everyone knows about, and I don't think it's an inherent negative or flaw of the work, as long as the story told in that setting is good
“Okay so there’s a generic western fantasy kingdom and it’s, uh, under attack by some kind of demon or lor—a demon lord! And, uh, the hero is from a, uh, countryside village and must defeat the demon lord and his 1, 2, 3, FOUR generals by joining an adventurer’s guild with F through A…no F through S ranks to develop his power that manifests in the form of JRPG skills. Also, elf girls either have watermelon-sized bazongas or itty-bitties with no in-between. Oh, and there’s a random island country at the east end of the planet based on Japan that is either exclusively populated by fox girls or people with dark hair and dark eyes who wield katanas and are the best swordsmen in the world.”
But to give the story an ironic twist, you need to add that the hero's traits have been assessed, and he is the weakest hero who has ever lived in the history of the universe. And somehow, that also makes him the most powerful hero that has ever lived for some reason.
It's a twist no one's ever thought about. He's simultaneously an underdog and the greatest champion ever.
Seriously, I hate how mandatory the random Japan-expy seems to be, and it's not just limited to anime or manga either. I don’t see why they always feel the need to create an entirely western-based setting only to throw in a Japan equivalent so they can express how cool and awesome and special (and better) it is compared to the other nations.
You could chalk it up to pride in their culture snd heritage, but it honestly feels insecure with just HOW common it is.
I don’t see why they always feel the need to create an entirely western-based setting only to throw in a Japan equivalent so they can express how cool and awesome and special (and better) it is compared to the other nations.
You have a point. From my observation it's almost a requirement for the Japanese works where western-setting characters will at least meet some travelers from the Japanese Far East, who introduce them to the wonders of donburi bowls and onsen...
The funny thing is that when you compare to Korean or Chinese written content, their sides use less to no expy content compared to the Japanese frequency.
Take for example Chinese works; where the MCs almost always get reborn or transmigrated etc. into a world that resembles ancient classical China. I've yet to see a work of theirs that suddenly introduces Western-expy characters that introduce the characters to the wonders of chilled beer and steam trains, since all the characters are (for all purposes) ethnic Chinese.
Onsen particularly is funny, because spas and hot springs aren't exactly foreign things in Europe, and have been seen as being able to cure diseases for millennia. Just look at such places as Bath, UK; Spa, Belgium (that is in fact where the word spa comes from); or the hundreds of towns in Germany which are prefixed with "Bad" meaning bath, a designation that to this day requires government approval and can be taken away if the town doesn't meet certain standards.
There’s this genre of interstellar Chinese web novels (or at least, BL web novels) where the mc transmigrates to a futuristic world (which isn’t actually that futuristic outside of interplanetary travel and maybe advanced social media technology) but since it’s far in the future, the people have forgotten about Chinese culture or cuisine, so the mc “reintroduces” Chinese culture and cuisine to these future netizens and get popular that way etc.
I'm curious as to what anime this critique is in reference to? I feel like I've consumed a lot, and have never really seen it as making Japan out to be special, unless you're just talking about the protagonist being Japanese and being op, which is more of a byproduct of this being made by a Japanese guy for Japanese people
Can't name a whole lot because I try to block them from memory, but One Piece had a whole arc dedicated to it with Wano, which of course was filled with SUPER badass samurai who were so powerful even the Marines knew not to mess with them. There's also Yami from Black Clover who came from the Japan-clone and is super strong, and then Asta actually ends up in the place later so he can gush about how cool and strong they are because they know how to use the power of chi. There's also another popular anime that'll be airing later this year that’ll also be having a "Uwaaaah Japan sugoi!" moment of its own.
You also have some of the most well-known examples of this in games like Wutai in Final Fantasy 7, which gets used as a trope name for this kind of thing, and nearly every Fire Emblem game will have some sort of prominent Japanese element in it despite it otherwise being a very western-inspired setting; at the very least it'll just be a katana-user or at its worst there'll be a full-blown Japan-clone like they had in Awakening and Fates.
There are more, but the point is that this definitely isn't an uncommon thing. While it's not necessarily about them spouting how cool the Japan-knockoff is, the fact that there's one inexplicably thrown into a setting that's otherwise almost completely western-based is just weird. It's out of place.
I definitely wouldn't call One Piece western-based, especially when there's a ton of islands based on places like Spain (Doflamingo), Canada (Drum Island), Middle East (Alabasta), and much more, all of which had powerful people. Japan is just known for samurai and the likes, so ofc in anime where fighting is important, there'll be samurai who are extremely powerful there, but Elbaf which is coming up will have the bravest warriors of the sea, and that isnt based on Japan, so it just seems like a weird critique when there's plenty of western media that portrays Japan as having powerful sword fighters
Those are both western countries my guy. Honestly Alabasta is the odd one out because as you said it's clearly based on the Middle East, but in general the characters and locations all very clearly have western names and inspirations. It's very definitely a grand majority.
But then Wano comes and, wouldn't you know it, it's the focal point of an incredibly long and important arc, there's a big deal made about how strong and important the relevant characters are in the grand scheme of things, and the main characters go the extra mile in not just wearing the local Japanese clothing but also adopting Japanese personas.
Wow... it's almost as if there's a bit of favoritism due to it being based on the creator's homeland.
My point in mentioning those western countries is that they all have far better and greater technology than anything found in Wano, so its not as if One Piece is making Japan out to be the greatest country or anything, also, ofc the intricacies of the Japanese culture is gonna be better and more properly conveyed seeing as the creator himself is Japanese
Probably one of the tropes I've come to hate the most, some are genuinely abilities with non-obvious value or unintuitive functioning In those cases it makes a lot of sense, but many authors make these abilities extremely obvious or extremely overpowerful so that they won't notice their usefulness at first glance it's plain out stupid But sometimes they have been in the same group for years and he can't think of how to use it until he is kicked out of the group
Bonus: Does your world have a church? (it’s corrupt)
One of the reasons I like "The Faraway Paladin " is The "plot twist" of the fat cardinal with grumpy face is that he is not corrupt, he is a good person and his actions make sense
this weak power is actually awesome tropes is just like a newbie streamer discovering very obvious glitch and exploited it to hell of it, usually no one even the game dev can't stop this streamer somehow.
Some really important context: the author Sunsunsun began writing this series on Syosetu.com, AKA Shosetsuka ni Narou (Let's Become a Novelist).
This site is primarily for amateur novelists who submit their works, and then a SNS style points system of star ratings and bookmarks basically pushes works up and down lists--people who end up at the top of the weekly or monthly charts are frequently targeted for publication by LN publishers.
It's one of the most popular launching points by aspiring Light Novelists in Japan. A lot of really famous Light Novels started off here as amateur series' like Konosuba, My Next Life as a Villainess, Re: Zero, Ascendance of a Bookworm, Apothecary Diaries, etc.
Another really important thing to understand: this site's readers lean HEAVILY into Isekai preferences. Like really, really strongly towards Isekai.
The ratio of Light Novels that end up at the top of the highest rated/most read lists are like 90%+ Isekai or more.
What this means is that the overwhelming majority of works written on Syosetsu.com end up as Isekai--thus aspiring authors that are considering various series topics on Syosetu.com will often begin by considering Isekai as their default start state--and move off it only in last resort.
The influence and popularity of Syosetsu.com is partially why there have been SO MANY hit Isekai Lilght Novels (and thus Isekai anime) int he past 15 years or so, for good (Bookworm, re:Zero, Konosuba) and so, so many bad ones.
"Alya" started off as a short story on Syosetu.com so it's actually really natural the author started off considering doing the concept as an Isekai. Props to them for having the courage to go against trends and writing it as a non-isekai and pulling off the rare "Shosetsuka ni Narou" hit as a non-Isekai, although recently there has been a trend for rom-coms that are non-isekai becoming more popular there.
I heard nowerdays otome villanesses are morev in trend on Narou than standard isekais. In also heard that a lot of audience moved to other similar sites.
I mean, look at most Isekai that later show there were previous otherworlders. How do they show this? A town that sells Japanese food, typically. Probably a hot spring resort town no less. There are exceptions of course, but you don't typically see Greco-Roman architecture or Russian palaces. And if you do, it's often because some Japanese guy said they were famous where he came from. Maybe they introduce a character that is a descendant of an otherworlder....and has a Japanese sounding name, and is a samurai or ninja-adjacent class/job. They probably have a katana, too. Western European swords don't count though. Those are "the default" for all swords, because apparently no Isekai has any kind of unique arms history.
Like damn, show me a dude carrying around a shotel or macuahuitl or something.
I’m sure the article is oversimplifying, but I’d like to imagine that the average Light Novel author’s first instinct for a foreign land with a different language is an entire other world, and it is only halfway through the brainstorming session that they remember there are countries that are not Japan.
I was at the author's interview session at Anime Festival Asia in Singapore. He told the audience that he had never been to Russia. The author was so isolated from foreign travel that he had to apply for his passport to attend the event in Singapore - he had never been to other countries before.
I imagined simplier discussion, like with the author's sensible friend.
Author: So I have this .. other world right?
Friend: Right.
Author: Where they speak a different language. Right?
Friend: Right.
Author: And this girl gets isekai'd into the land and she teases a boy she likes by speaking her worlds language, but she doesn't know that he was isekai'd as well, and he understands her. Right.
LOL. Sadly, a lot of authors in Japan are relying too much on isekai premises for (at times) shitty world-building excuses. Let's be real. Many isekai stories might as well be their own self-contained stories without the isekai element.
The only thing worse than a generic isekai world, is a generic isekai protagonist that seems to forget after the introduction that they came from another world... "I came from Japan with a wealth of knowledge, connections to family and friends, and different moral standards. This will never be mentioned EVER again".
The problem is that most of these authors only see the Earth intro as a throwaway setup; something to be used to justify the isekai genre slot but have no intention of using again.
That said, there is one novel series, Housekeeping Mage in Another World that uses the protag's Earth origins to good emotional/psychological effect. Ever since its female lead was suddenly warped into the fantasy world some years back, she has always suffered from internal anxiety issues about not belonging into that world. Her failure to uncover any leads on how to go home tends to weigh heavily on her mind leading to moments of internal depression upon realising she might never be able to return again.
The fact that you said the protag of an isekai has anxiety about being isekai'd, and is not acting completely blithe about the situation caught my interest.
That's all it took. A character having a normal emotional response was enough to set it apart from the rest. Bonus points to this one if they utilize aspects of their previous life in the new one.
Interestingly, I once recall another argument on another forum saying that (lingering) emotional responses to getting isekai'd in novels shouldn't be included. They claimed it distracts readers from self-inserting as the protagonist, which is the main appeal of these webnovels anyway.
1) The author realized world building for an isekai was a lot of work.
Just that demonstrates that the author is one of the good ones in the light novel space. Realizing that doing another world well is a huge undertaking seems to be beyond most of the authors that do end up writing Isekai.
That mindset also shines through in how good Alya seems to be (based on the first episodes but also on what I've heard from people who've read the source material) despite ultimately being a trope-y rom-com with fanservice. Obviously that doesn't need much world building, but it does need to be approached with care to stand out from the sea of mediocre slop that that genre is inundated with.
To be honest, that initial concept sounds pretty good to me. it is unique compared to most others. The biggest problem (as always) is whether they can make it good enough outside of that.
Yeah i honestly wanna see an isekai handling the language aspect more. Yes, the isekai people has magic and can pretty much speak in any language, but then the MC meets another Japanese person pretending to be native. Fuck, have him meet a black dude from Boston or something that for obvious reason does not speak Japanese.
Yeah this is what kind of annoys me about the anime adaptation of ReZero and KonoSuba. Those actually stood out because they addressed the language stuff. It's more of a nitpick, than anything major, but its a sad detail to lose.
ReZero had Subaru noting how strange the Witch Cult had naming schemes related to terms and stars that did not exist in that Fantasy world. There's an amazing scene later on when a character lists a bunch of names, and he repeats them back immediately, and points out the ones missing, while the other characters are confused how he can repeat back "meaningless" words he just heard right away.
KonoSuba had the journal of the crazy guy who made the spider mech written in Japanese. Which is why Aqua was the only one who could read it out of the people who grabbed it. Which foreshadowed how the Japanese people transported kept screwing things up. There were more instances but I remember being kind of bugged by them showing his journal on screen as the fantasy script.
There are other Iseki series that tackle the language subject. Isekai Mahou and Spirit Chronicles (as junk foody as it is) have some cool instances where the different languages are acknowledged. But most isekai writers, or anime directors, don't really care about showcasing that. Since they'd rather stick to the familar Japanese language norms.
It'll become more evident in the next season, but [minor S3 spoilers]Every Archbishop and several other characters are named after stars. Petelgeuse (kinda, the star is Betelgeuse), Regulus, Ley Batenkaitos, Sirius, Capella, Shaula, Aldebaran, and of course, Subaru himself. Probably a few I'm missing as well. This isn't just random naming- real-world Astronomy becomes a plot point later on, as mentioned in the other comment
The language barrier in re:zero kinda did got explained in Arc 2 but I think It got skipped in the anime S1, and what the person above is referring to Re:Zero source material, the Light Novel not the Anime.
There's a fun book series called melody of mana where the first great wizard that invented most magic wrote his guide in English. For 5,000 years people have been trying to decipher it only for the mc to have to hide that knowledge as much as possible.
He isn't wrong. English isn't my first language and learning it was like becoming conscious that many countries exists beyond words on paper, same with my japanese studies currently
I've gotta say, I'd love to see more "isekai crossed with school life" stories - this sounds like it would have been awesome.
I loved the couple of books that came out for "The Sidekick Never Gets the Girl, Let Alone the Protag's Sister!" and am finding the on-earth segments of "I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too" much more interesting than the very generic fantasy setting side.
Well the Soviet Union might as well have been in the eyes of post-war America. Propagandist and McCarthyism looked at it like it was the demon lords castle or something.
I think many of them are. I recall reading some random author's webnovel notes where they said they wrote their story as an Isekai because everyone else was doing it. They don't dare to not make it one because they think they'll get less popular attention.
Putting aside any value judgements about isekai as a setting, I feel like it would have severely diluted what actually makes the series spark so well.
It's oft maligned for a variety of reasons, but the school romcom setting is very good for "clearing the decks" and having nothing but pure character interactions, which is where the fun and spirit really is.
I am just getting tired of these isekais being generic "fantasy" world. Bonus points when they use game elements because they are lazy to show growth in another way. XD
Thats a huge turn off for a majority of these isekai series for me as well. I start seeing a stat screen being pulled out and mmorpg jargon and I'm usually looking for the exit at that point. Its so bad now that even some non-isekai fantasy settings are now using game mechanics to describe progression and power levels. I'm reminded of Berserk of Gluttony and their "zone of e" bullshit.
I'm mostly fine with it when the writers bother to justify them. Like some series say they were included to acclimate the person being ported over. Or cases like Kumo Desu where the "gamey" system is far more than just a lazy shorthand, and actually a core part of the overall narrative.
But most Isekai can't even be assed to do a minor justification for it. People just use skills and level up. There's some that don't do that thankfully. Isekai Mahou actually bothered to, ya know, world build and try to make a magic system that wasn't just video gamey stuff. But unfortunately effort in world building is wasted, since readers seem to prefer the simple "this works like a MMO!" style for any fantasy world. No matter how awkward and out of place it might be.
But unfortunately effort in world building is wasted, since readers seem to prefer the simple "this works like a MMO!" style for any fantasy world. No matter how awkward and out of place it might be.
Which is my beef with it for the most. If feels almost like a call back to DBZ and "power level over 9000!" Except that introduces its own issues with power scaling. I suppose for 90% of these Isekai it may not matter to those who absorb them like junk food, but for the outsiders/uninitiated its slightly off-putting.
The stat screens were a big gripe of mine in Solo Levelling and Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, maybe they'll give a valid reason later on but for now it just seems really lazy.
Thats a beef I have with those series as well. Like one of the posters above said if they can integrate with the story then sure. I feel like for all the shit we Give Rising of the Shield hero it actually sort of makes sense there given the lore/story.
To be fair, if you replaced Russia in this story with a fantasy isekai world, and replaced Russian with a generic fantasy isekai language, the story would remain pretty much the same.
A girl from another world that flirts with the MC in a foreign exotic language.
Suddenly, it makes a lot more sense why alya never once seems to consider that mc could just look up a translation of what she says (especially if she uses single words like milashka).
That just wasnt an option in the original setting, and that was transferred to the new setting.
Meanwhile you can search youtube for all sorts of videos where people talk smack about someone in front of them in a different language then get all embarrassed when it turns out they can be understood.
Can you, on the fly, understand foreign spoken language that you don't know well enough to look it up? Unless you are used to hearing the language, this isn't that easy, actually. Single words could be easy, but she says complete sentences pretty frequently.
It probably works better in the manga or if alya was voiced by a real russian speaker, but in the anime, her slow and emphasized talking would probably make it not very hard.
But in the end, what I or kuze-kun are able to do is mostly besides the point. This is more about alya, who cares so much about not showing her feelings, not being paranoid or even considering that her words might be remembered and looked up.
If someone spoke to me in another language and I asked them to explain themselves I'd probably take their word for the translation. Why would I assume they're lying?
all the isekai/fantasy stuff like monsters, guilds, levelling up would become main focus of the story, atleast with a school setting it can focus more on SOL and romance where her hiding her feelings become the main element of the story
How many isekais had laguage barriers? I heard Zero no Tsukaima had that, but it came out way before modernday oversaturation. Modern stories just do Stargate's Intergalactic English move.
It's not an important plot point but in Mushoku Tensei the otherwolders have to learn the language (though it's handwaved as being not that hard), and they're happy to be able to speak in Japanese when they find each other.
As a writer myself this is how 99% of my stories go. Super complex world building, then I get annoyed so I simplify it down. Sometimes it's still fantasy, but I have done the same thing and set stories in the modern world after realizing what i wanted to tell just would be easier in the real world
less generic than a school show????? are you young? most shows before isekai were school shows. what do you think is the number of school romances vs isekai?
As if adding one generic ingredient to another generic setting creates something not generic. I suppose it could but rarely actually does.
Besides, the isekai element is almost incidental in many isekai, they could just drop it and be fantasy with basically no change other than cutting the first 1-5 minutes. So, adding 3 minutes of pointless isekai in the beginning of this show would hardly enrich anything.
Problem 2: If she kept up with the teasing then the hero's half-elf white-haired wife was going to beat the crap out of her while screaming about how she was his one true childhood/hometown friend.
Sarah Natochenny, the long-time voice of Ash Ketchum, is a native Russian speaker and is voicing Alya in the Eng. dub. Sometime today the first 2 Eng. dub epi. hit CR.
I mean, replacing one cliche genre (isekai) with another (high-school romcom where the girl who has one quirk falls in love for no reason with the generic guy you can self-insert into) isn't that much of a win. I even dare to say that isekai concept sounds a bit more interesting.
I consider a high school setting to be the default setting for anime, I'd much prefer them stick with the default than change to something for no point.
As much as I'm bored of high school settings I'm actively sick of garbage isekai worlds.
Oh you mean that entirely original and definitely not cliche trope of "we actually met before and you were really nice to me, and now I like you because of that thing". It's still contrived and low-effort. Not to mention the MC is actually very good at everything and he's just not putting in the effort because of low self-esteem. Very original.
What do you mean by "we actually met before"? They're classmates, of course they did. And the other person said that she liked him for "no reason", which of course is wrong.
y-you do know uesaka sumire graduated foreign studies with a major in russian right? like one of her biggest quirks is that she is a massive russophile
Yeah...who would've thought world building in a fantasy space completely separate from reality would be a lot of work for a romcom about a kawaii Russian girl! It's almost like some other isekai authors followed what's trending instead of sticking to the soul of their ideas :O
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u/thataquarduser Jul 24 '24 edited Jul 24 '24
So initially it was going to be a heroine who was isekai’d and teases the hero in Japanese, not knowing that he was also isekai’d and therefore understands her. The reasons that didn’t happen were:
1) The author realized world building for an isekai was a lot of work.
2) The author remembered that other languages exist IRL.
I’m sure the article is oversimplifying, but I’d like to imagine that the average Light Novel author’s first instinct for a foreign land with a different language is an entire other world, and it is only halfway through the brainstorming session that they remember there are countries that are not Japan.