Lurker > hmnut7

Lokarin posted...

I'm saying that if you remove Episode 1... isekei are basic power fantasies

but because of Episode 1, people just want to die

Giving you the absolute maximum (and last) benefit of the doubt, I think that may just be what YOU see in isekai. Aka maybe that's YOUR fantasy.

First not all (I don't even think most) start with the main character in their normal life. Many start with the MC in the fantasy world.

Isekai could be a stand in for death, but it is much more directly a stand in for CHANGE. And change could mean any number of things.

Isekai's popularity is exactly the same as "chosen one" fantasy, where the draw is telling the audience

Hey I know you think you've been told you're like everyone else but actually you're super duper special, you just need to wait and sooner or later someone is going to show you how special you are, or take you someplace where they realize how special you are.

People are not happy with their lives, this is true, but isekai gives the fantasy of change, not specially death.

Isekai is a pretty straight forward wish fulfillment fantasy of going from the boring world to a more interesting world. OR at least going to a world where you (projecting on to the protagonist) can be a more interesting person.

Since 99.9999% of isekai is boring person with boring life goes to fantasy world and becomes Awesome McAwesomeson... isekai is the most wish fulfillment of all wish fulfillment.

If the desire with isekai was a death fantasy, then conservatively the focus would be less on how awesome the person becomes in their new life and more how important it was to let go of their old life.

the focus would either be on how they were weak or sick or incredibly sad or lonely, or specifically ready to "move on".

Isekai can have those things but it is not a common enough theme to say 'that's' what the whole genre is about.

Many (if not most) Isekai barely address the old life, usually just a few random references (usually just to establish how ordinary the protagonist was).

I think you have to dig really really deep into subtext and metaphors to read a death analogy into isekai as a whole, and if you're going that deep down the rabbit hole, you've passed the "reason something is popular"

My family and job are here, otherwise I would have been gone a few years ago.