Isekai where the MC is pissed and wants to go home

[Psyren]

(If there's an isekai based on a videogame or gamelike world that isn't terrible I haven't heard of it)

I've heard good things about That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, but I haven't yet gotten around to it myself. (No spoilers please.)

[GloatingSwine]

I've heard good things about That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, but I haven't yet gotten around to it myself. (No spoilers please.)

As long as all you want is a bit of light comedy with no tension, drama, or stakes, that doesn't realise that if it wanted to be that it should have been a slice of life but isn't....

[137beth]

Supernormal Step.

[Ibrinar]

I've heard good things about That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, but I haven't yet gotten around to it myself. (No spoilers please.)

It's okay. It is the standard OP MC isekai with better writing quality but is ultumately still an OP MC isekai.

[moonfly7]

It's okay. It is the standard OP MC isekai with better writing quality but is ultumately still an OP MC isekai.

Funnily enough, when I read isekai where the main character is weak and has to work for anything, all I can find in the comments are people complaining that he's a weak wimp.

[Traab]

I've heard good things about That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, but I haven't yet gotten around to it myself. (No spoilers please.)

Overlord is another good one. The game its based on is a fascinating combination of your standard mmorpg and dungeons and dragons with a rather well developed but still vague enough for some slack set of rules. The main character isnt actually in that game world, but a different one that seems to function on similar rules minus hard coding things like levels and such. Like, he meets this one legendary warrior and its not like he sees a "level 35" over his head, but he is able to estimate how powerful he would be by his game worlds standards. And his own abilities, specifically stuff like immune to physical or magical damage delivered by someone below a certain level, still seems to work that way. Be aware that he is NOT a heroic protagonist. While there is a lot of humor, there is also a lot of dark stuff. The main character is a max level evil elder lich and all that entails.

But as far as the original topic is concerned, nope. Dude has no interest in going back to the real world. In the real world he is a nobody salary man with no real future. In this world he is a max level ruler of powerful minions and such. He comes to that conclusion rather quickly upon realizing that he is somehow stuck as his character in a new world.

[Anteros]

Funnily enough, when I read isekai where the main character is weak and has to work for anything, all I can find in the comments are people complaining that he's a weak wimp.

I think most people who are drawn to the genre are looking for wish fulfillment and escapism. The genre is full of Mary Sue protagonists, because that's what most of the readers want.

Well, give him some credit - that is actually far harder to do when you don't have a HUD tracking the precise timers, can't get a UI mod to show you the rest of the raid's key buffs and their timers, and have to personally recast/reactivate your skills or shout at your raid members to do so in time instead of hitting a hotkey and having it go off instantly. Most people's sense of time isn't that precise - if you ask 10 people to count off 10 seconds, you'll get 10 different periods of time.

Still a pretty standard skill for anyone who raided in games 10-15 years ago before all the descriptive huds and mods came out that basically hold your hand the entire time. Especially since you can just refresh the debuff slightly early to be safe.

(If there's an isekai based on a videogame or gamelike world that isn't terrible I haven't heard of it)

SAO is the best of them, and I don't even mean that as praise for SAO because it's pretty bad. The first handful of episodes where it's basically slice of life in a MMO are decent...it's just that everything after those first few are really, really bad and cliche. It gave us SAO abridged though, so at least that's something.

[Rynjin]

(If there's an isekai based on a videogame or gamelike world that isn't terrible I haven't heard of it)

The Wandering inn is real good, though doesn't fit the example of what the OP is looking for. Most people just kind of settle in and make the best of it, for various reasons.

Spoiler: Minor Setting Spoiler from way late in the series but isn't super plot relevant so is probably fine to read

Show

In part this is because something in the spell that summoned them there, or maybe the world itself, makes them not think about home or their families very often. Unless something actively reminds them, it just kind of slips their mind. A few people go out of their way to get their family's names tattooed on them so they can remember more easily.

[GloatingSwine]

Overlord is another good one.

Where the main character is boringly overpowered, there are no stakes for him, and it's idea of a personality for a female character is "please fondle my breasts protagonist-kun I am so devoted".

Then when it wanted to suddenly have stakes it took an entire episode of exposition about the rules of a made up videogame to explain why this time it would be Totally Serious.

And this is kind of the problem. It's not that every videogame/gamelike isekai is uniquely bad, they're all bad in almost exactly the same ways. If protagonist-kun wasn't already the bestestest before they were put into the other world the plot will basically run as if they were anyway. Nothing will significantly challenge them, nothing will make them grow or change as people, their decisions or the way they live in their new world will not have serious negative consequences that cause them to choose differently next time.

And those things are the fundamentals of an arc. Like if the events of the plot mean so little to the protagonist that nothing that happens can make them reassess themselves as people, why should we in the audience care either?

SAO is the best of them, and I don't even mean that as praise for SAO because it's pretty bad.

I think even Reki Kawahara doesn't think early SAO is very good any more. (especially not how the series treats Asuna and how regularly it leans on sexual assault of female characters as a motivator for male characters).


Anyway, if you want an isekai where everything sucks for the protagonist, watch Now and Then, Here and There. But be warned it's heavy stuff and nobody is having a nice time because it's about the experiences of child soldiers in real conflicts.

[Saph]

And this is kind of the problem. It's not that every videogame/gamelike isekai is uniquely bad, they're all bad in almost exactly the same ways. If protagonist-kun wasn't already the bestestest before they were put into the other world the plot will basically run as if they were anyway. Nothing will significantly challenge them, nothing will make them grow or change as people, their decisions or the way they live in their new world will not have serious negative consequences that cause them to choose differently next time.

You realise that this doesn't actually describe the most popular isekai very well? It's a good description of the problems of the mediocre to bad ones (of which there are a lot) but not most of the successful ones. Re: Zero doesn't work like this, Shield Hero doesn't work like this, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash DEFINITELY doesn't work like this, etc etc. I mean, it doesn't even describe SAO well, and that's the iconic isekai that inspired all the others. Kirito's a very very good swordsman, but he does run into challenges – it's just that they aren't always ones that can be solved in a swordfight. (And if you pay attention, the times he isn't fighting random lower-level monsters but has to duel an actually serious opponent, he often loses.)

I know it's fashionable to hate on SAO, but when something's that popular, it's usually worth considering that if so many people like it, there's probably something there, even if you can't see it.

[Traab]

Where the main character is boringly overpowered, there are no stakes for him, and it's idea of a personality for a female character is "please fondle my breasts protagonist-kun I am so devoted".

Then when it wanted to suddenly have stakes it took an entire episode of exposition about the rules of a made up videogame to explain why this time it would be Totally Serious.

And this is kind of the problem. It's not that every videogame/gamelike isekai is uniquely bad, they're all bad in almost exactly the same ways. If protagonist-kun wasn't already the bestestest before they were put into the other world the plot will basically run as if they were anyway. Nothing will significantly challenge them, nothing will make them grow or change as people, their decisions or the way they live in their new world will not have serious negative consequences that cause them to choose differently next time.

And those things are the fundamentals of an arc. Like if the events of the plot mean so little to the protagonist that nothing that happens can make them reassess themselves as people, why should we in the audience care either?



I think even Reki Kawahara doesn't think early SAO is very good any more. (especially not how the series treats Asuna and how regularly it leans on sexual assault of female characters as a motivator for male characters).


Anyway, if you want an isekai where everything sucks for the protagonist, watch Now and Then, Here and There. But be warned it's heavy stuff and nobody is having a nice time because it's about the experiences of child soldiers in real conflicts.

Yes the protag is overpowered, but thats because the story isnt about the protagonist and his struggles against an enemy, its about the protagonist and his attempts to learn about where he is, what this setting could mean, his running question of if his minions no longer being npcs means they might turn on him if they learn he is just some dude wearing a lich suit, and finding out if any other players also made it to this world like him, and if so, are they a threat to him unlike 99% of this world so far? And of course ensuring the tomb of nazarick, the home he and his guild built, and the people they created that he sees as the children of his friends are all ok. The only part I agree with is how stupid the whole albedo thing is. Its a joke that got driven into the ground a couple of books into the series and its still going. The only thing that keeps me going as I read those sections is seeing how it seems to be getting worse for her and wondering if that might lead to something interesting. Like a full on yandere freak out of some kind he has to deal with.

[Lord Raziere]

personally I think My New Life as a Villainess is pretty good, as its a straight actionless comedy about someone in an otome game trying to avoid their own death or exile because they got reincarnated as the antagonist and thus does a lot of things both heartwarming and eccentric to avoid that (such as taking up farming when they are a noble, not realizing they've accidentally made every single candidate male and female including the games protagonist fall in love with them with efforts to fix their psychological issues and thinking that they are still interested in each other.)

[t209]

Well, what about Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, where a group of kids teleported to Mystara after a roller coaster ride.

[Hopeless]

Well, what about Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, where a group of kids teleported to Mystara after a roller coaster ride.

Its not Mystara I always assumed from the way they called it the Realms it was a take on Faerun but I suspect that was just an easter egg given Baldur's Gate had one on the animated series in that game.

Wasn't there a reverse of this with visitors from another world stuck on Earth and wanting to return?

[t209]

Its not Mystara I always assumed from the way they called it the Realms it was a take on Faerun but I suspect that was just an easter egg given Baldur's Gate had one on the animated series in that game.

Wasn't there a reverse of this with visitors from another world stuck on Earth and wanting to return?

From 1d4chan,
"Of the three, it perhaps closest resembles Mystara, being a pulp-influenced "weird fantasy" world rather than the neo-Medieval Europe and neo-Renaissance Europe feels of Oerth and Faerun. With three suns and as many moons, the Realm is a land of strange and bizarre natural terrains and creatures; rivers that rain upside down, forests of skyscraper-sized mushrooms inhabited by malevolent snail-men, three-year-storms (as in, it rains for three years at a stretch) and more."

[Brother Oni]

Probably a older example, but the film Labyrinth. All Sarah wants to do is to make up for her mistake and rescue her baby brother from the Goblin Kingdom, although she comes to terms with needing her friends from there after she returns.

[oxybe]

Those who hunt elves.

A military otaku girl, an actress and a muscleheaded karateka are accidentally summoned to a fantasy world by an elven ritual and must recreate the magical sigil that summoned them to return home.

unfortunately the sigil was split into pieces and tattooed onto various elves (as part of the backfire curse).

cue fanservice and mid 1990's anime slapstick and fourth wall breaking humour. it's definitely dated, but i had chuckle here and there.

also: a magical tank contolled by a ghost cat.

El Hazard is another mid-90's isekai anime, this time about 3 teens and their teacher trying to make their way home. each of them have some sort of superpower.

one of the teens, jinnai, is the main antagonist as he wants to rule the new world and blames all his problems on the MC. also his laugh is incredible.

[HolyDraconus]

I actually like Log Horizon. It feels like it was designed by people that actually played an MMO, unlike SAO.

If you want boring isekai, .hack takes that crown.

Woah woah woah! That's fighting words!

[Rynjin]

Woah woah woah! That's fighting words!

Or at least it would be, if your main character wasn't moping or wandering around aimlessly all the time nyuk nyuk nyuk.

[HolyDraconus]

Or at least it would be, if your main character wasn't moping or wandering around aimlessly all the time nyuk nyuk nyuk.

That's going off the really old school Dot. Hack. Which was supposed to be more oriented on the theme and concept of it and less on actual action, though it does have action. GU is where it picks up, and you wouldn't even HAVE GU's main character if it wasn't for .Hack's events. It really helped start this genre, and side stories of .Hack had far more action the later in life they came to please more modern audiences. I still feel that Haseo/Sora is still a far better character than Mr. Black Swordsman will ever be.

[Rynjin]

Yeah, sorry, no .hack protag is better than Guts.

[HolyDraconus]

Yeah, sorry, no .hack protag is better than Guts.

....Guts isn't an Isekai... I meant Kirito.

[Rynjin]

....Guts isn't an Isekai... I meant Kirito.

Ah. I've never actually seen SAO; not really my bag.

Do they actually call him that?

[Kantaki]

Ah. I've never actually seen SAO; not really my bag.

Do they actually call him that?

Well, he uses a sword* and wears that silly black coat most of the time**, so it sorta makes sense?

*To the point he plays a Jedi-chick (not really, but the avatar looks like a girl and he uses a lightsaber) in a shooter game
**Or several similar looking coats?
A style/appearance slot item?
No idea how that worked.

[GloatingSwine]

It's pretty clear Kirito being called "black swordsman" is primarily a reference to Guts.

It's a pretty safe bet that if you think something in an anime or videogame might be a Berserk reference, it's a Berserk reference.

[Anonymouswizard]

Ah. I've never actually seen SAO; not really my bag.

Do they actually call him that?

YEp.

Which was fine in and of itself. The problem to me was the next year, when my uni's anime society was full of SAO fans and the new members started trying to post 'Guts is the fake black swordsman' memes on the society's Facebook page.

The only time I saw more concentrated sarcasm in a comment thread was the 'are traps gay' post.

Because it turned out that while the old guard was massive SAO fans, about 80% of them were even bigger Berserk fans. The most passive aggressive comment war I've ever seen followed, where a lot of Third Year students were attempting to explain how it was a reference and why Guts was so influential, and First Years utterly confused as to why people got so passionate over a meme. Berserk was practically sacred.

So yeah, the problem was the fans who started to attack series they'd never seen because it was 'fun memes'. It actually turned me off SAO, and it's why I've not watched any other portal fantasy anime (except for an attempt at MAR, which I'd read as a kid).

[HolyDraconus]

YEp.

Which was fine in and of itself. The problem to me was the next year, when my uni's anime society was full of SAO fans and the new members started trying to post 'Guts is the fake black swordsman' memes on the society's Facebook page.

The only time I saw more concentrated sarcasm in a comment thread was the 'are traps gay' post.

Because it turned out that while the old guard was massive SAO fans, about 80% of them were even bigger Berserk fans. The most passive aggressive comment war I've ever seen followed, where a lot of Third Year students were attempting to explain how it was a reference and why Guts was so influential, and First Years utterly confused as to why people got so passionate over a meme. Berserk was practically sacred.

So yeah, the problem was the fans who started to attack series they'd never seen because it was 'fun memes'. It actually turned me off SAO, and it's why I've not watched any other portal fantasy anime (except for an attempt at MAR, which I'd read as a kid).

I didn't mean for any of that. I think he was called that in one of the seasons but if what you're saying is true thats...hmm.

[Anteros]

YEp.

Which was fine in and of itself. The problem to me was the next year, when my uni's anime society was full of SAO fans and the new members started trying to post 'Guts is the fake black swordsman' memes on the society's Facebook page.

The only time I saw more concentrated sarcasm in a comment thread was the 'are traps gay' post.

Because it turned out that while the old guard was massive SAO fans, about 80% of them were even bigger Berserk fans. The most passive aggressive comment war I've ever seen followed, where a lot of Third Year students were attempting to explain how it was a reference and why Guts was so influential, and First Years utterly confused as to why people got so passionate over a meme. Berserk was practically sacred.

So yeah, the problem was the fans who started to attack series they'd never seen because it was 'fun memes'. It actually turned me off SAO, and it's why I've not watched any other portal fantasy anime (except for an attempt at MAR, which I'd read as a kid).

I'm not sure anyone in that story comes out looking good. I like Berserk as much as most people who have seen it, but anyone who gets upset over a silly meme like that needs a reality check.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

(If there's an isekai based on a videogame or gamelike world that isn't terrible I haven't heard of it)

Do you mean the video game design specifically, or the anime as a whole? Actually, either way I've heard good things about Bofuri (where the game has some problems but in-universe the designers are actively making constant improvements) and Infinite Dendogram. Have a link to a video explaining why the game design on display in those two is so much better than in SAO.

Back to the OP, Sword Art Online: Abridged kind of fits; perhaps better than SAO proper (For those unfamiliar with it, SAO: Abridged is partly about parodying the original, but puts at least as much effort into constructing a solid story/characters and fixing plot-holes and other problems with the original). Kirito certainly doesn't care about helping the people trapped in SAO with him, but he loves living in the game world, not least because it gives him the power to tell all the idiots around him to screw off. His character arc is all about learning to care about people around him, so by the end of the first season he is willing to give all that up to help everyone escape the game. So that's both points: resenting the people in the world with him and refusing to help them, and trying to leave, though not at the same time.

[Anonymouswizard]

I didn't mean for any of that. I think he was called that in one of the seasons but if what you're saying is true thats...hmm.

It was during the first series, he's called that during the first arc. The second arc increases the Berserk reference by giving him a mini-Dragonslayer as a one handed sword.

I'm not sure anyone in that story comes out looking good. I like Berserk as much as most people who have seen it, but anyone who gets upset over a silly meme like that needs a reality check.

It's equivalent to the times I've seen people get annoyed at 'Prachett copied Rowling', the point of the anger was that you should read the older work before making such statements. Out of line certainly, but the for motivation was sound.