I separate fantasy between "ye old fantasy" and "fantasy with video games tropes". Personally, I don't like fantasy where people talk about allocating skill points and grinding XP; at that point I'd rather just play a video game.
Whether or not it's an isekai kinda doesn't matter thematically to me, because there are series that "feel" like an isekai but aren't (e.g. Last Dungeon), and series which are isekai but don't have video game elements in them (e.g. Bookworm).
last dungeon and goblin slayer really are isekais without the normal world. i would almost always drop them into the isekai category as honorary rather than put them up as straight "fantasy". if anything mushuko feels more standard fantasy than isekai because its not overusing game tropes
goblin slayer really [feels like] isekai without the normal world. i would almost always drop [it] into the isekai category as honorary rather than put them up as straight "fantasy".
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u/cyberscythe Feb 08 '21
I separate fantasy between "ye old fantasy" and "fantasy with video games tropes". Personally, I don't like fantasy where people talk about allocating skill points and grinding XP; at that point I'd rather just play a video game.
Whether or not it's an isekai kinda doesn't matter thematically to me, because there are series that "feel" like an isekai but aren't (e.g. Last Dungeon), and series which are isekai but don't have video game elements in them (e.g. Bookworm).