Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Reincarnated in Another Column
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2352 |
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Andrew Cunningham
 Posts: 511 Location: Seattle |
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Do-Over Damsel is written by a woman for one of the few clearly female-targeted light novel labels so we don't need to worry about male gaze. Honestly it doesn't even seem interested in doing an actual romance at all, just making (not especially funny) jokes about how they get shoe-horned into series (like Nina, which is already forcing it in awkwardly) that don't need them. I'm totally down for pint-sized cannonball punching.
I'd also like to die on the hill of reincarnation in the same world not being isekai. There's no other world! It's just sekai! (Not actually a viable usage.) And again for the cheap seats, litrpg elements are often found in isekai/narou-kei but aren't actually part of the genre itself any more than harems or I dunno, buying slaves. These kind of misunderstandings are pervasive enough without professional writers perpetuating them, even if you're mostly joking. |
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Fluwm
 Posts: 972 |
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The best part of the seasonal deluge of isekais is reading through the ensuing TWIAs. So much more enjoyable and entertaining than actually watching any of these shows.
That said, as fun as it is to poke fun at these isekais, I think there's an angle here that's unfortunately rarely, if ever, brought up -- the scorn they earn is very much not deserved. At least, not to the extent that even the worst isekais accumulate it. All of these stories are the products of amateur writers effectively writing fanfiction. Not only is it understandable for their work to not be very good, that's kind of... the point of it. Bad isekai anime/light novels don't come from nowhere: they come from the deep systemic failure of the publishing and animation/manga industries. When a web novel is picked up, they have a certain responsibility to the authors to help them improve their work -- otherwise they'll never stop working at the amateur level. Likewise, when adapting a story to a new medium, new creative forces have a duty to alter that story to best reflect the strengths of the new medium. All these bad isekai stories all have the same root cause, I think: an abnegation of professional responsibility across multiple industries. This is a hill that I will die on. Like, it's fun to make fun of That Time I Was Reincarnated As a Slime for being so clumsy with exposition that 90% of its runtime is dedicated to meeting room conversations either describing events that just happened, or describing events that are about to happen... but that's not solely down to Fuse (the author), but the wider industry and culture that's failed them -- and that's why 20 volumes deep, they're still relying the same, amateurish, clumsy techniques. The writers aren't being empowered to improve their craft, and the animators and manga artists are compelled to be so deeply beholden to to the source material that they effectively have no room for their own creative input. It's a miserable, rotten situation for everyone involved.
I think it depends on the story. A "different world" can mean many different things. If it's a reincarnation into a different era, that's a different world all right -- that good ol' "fish out of temporal water" trope. But reincarnated into the same lifetime? Not so much. |
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bassgs435
 Posts: 352 |
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I mean, you say about helping the authors improve and such. But the problem is: these adaptations are done to capitalize on an existing fanbase. Changes just risk you losing the fanbase. Just because these stories are horrible to outsiders, it doesn't mean those who like them shoulod be punished to satisfly outsiders. Quality is very much a subjective thing, anyways. But back to the point: People want stuff faithful to the source, and it's not limited to Narou stories. How many years have Soul Eater manga readers been demanding a new adaptation that is faithful to the manga instead of having to diverge?. Thus, any idea of improvements just risk you angering the fanbase and not getting any new fans to compensate. It's not a worthy bet
This is why adaptations of longrunning material prefer to end incomplete now and push people to continue through the source than the anime original routes seen in older material like FMA 2003, Soul Eater, Pandora Hearts and many older shows. It is the rejection of such changes in the past why now the industry prefers to not do many changes in adaptations. |
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Hal14
 Posts: 710 Location: Heart of africa |
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I second this. Those are their own genre: LitRPG. You didn't mention shangri la frontier or GunGaleOnline, why not? After all those also feature game elements and GGO is a spin-off of SAO. It's almost like there is a nuance to the categorization instead of just calling any show with tropes you dislike Isekai. Like, of course a genre is going to seem massive and unending when you keep expanding the definition to include any new trend you dislike or have grown tired of. For instance. the "Kicked out of the Party" trend of fantasy shows might share some DNA with isekai, but they are typically pure fantasy shows. |
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InfiniteNothingness
 Posts: 186 |
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Find myself deeply agreeing with the majority of what's come before me (not really interested in picking apart the finicky little things I disagree with either since I get it otherwise), from "LitRPG" being its own thing, to the inherently amateur nature and so much unearned derision no matter how much I care for not a lot of these (I say as someone that is receptive to reincarnation and isekai and an awkward fan of the latter), and assorted.
But I also want to mention how oddly mean-spirited so much of this column felt? Like, I intellectually get it and emotionally understand after subjecting myself to enough of the same, there's a lot of cookie-cutter writing and reliance on templates and the works, I'm just a little, how do I say. Raising my eyebrow and the assertions made towards creatives as an outlet for exclusively worst impulses and nothing else — unless when it is good actually, even though they can similarly be inspired by something as familiarly generic and welcome as "that kickass feeling when you get challenged in a tough game". Of course the aforementioned would be pointed to as an example the rises above the chaff, not unlike Aoi Yūki Tiny Spider Simulator, with the matter of execution even mentioned in the article. So when I see an unfunny remark about palates or whatever I just roll my eyes. Not due to offense, but knowing I've seen better from the reviewer in question and that you don't need to make odd jabs to criticize industry failings. At any rate this is like the third time recently I've seen Do-Over Damsel mentioned in a worthwhile enough light for me, so I guess I'll give this a shot. Hopefully the animation holds up well enough, Nina already left me feeling a little deflated and content with the manga, except I'm not sure I've got the same eagerness here for its LN (manga, probably). |
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