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This Week in Anime - The Gremlins and Beasties of Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun

I would say clara is far into her own universe that she doesn't have a concept about sex and really just wants friends and connections to other people.

This has turned out to be one of my favorite series this season. Just dumb, feelgood fun. Something about it reminds me of Nanbaka, probably its colorful setting and characters and their goofy personalities. The humor may be kinda dumb, but the writing is actually pretty sharp, and it can be funny enough to lol at when you don't precisely see it coming (like the "none of that happened" moment).

It's really old-school so the definition of isekai does not apply to it.

Kirki wrote:

It's really old-school so the definition of isekai does not apply to it.

What is, in your opinion, "the definition of isekai"?

Shay Guy wrote:

Kirki wrote: It's really old-school so the definition of isekai does not apply to it. What is, in your opinion, "the definition of isekai"?

Well it is, technically an isekai, ...

I don’t know that I would say Iruma is even technically an isekai, let alone what people generally mean when they use the term. I’d say the underworld (and any other afterlife or spiritual realm) would be considered a different part of the same world rather than a another separate world, especially as the former can traditionally be physically part of the same world, just underground. In that light, I’d say Iruma is no more an isekai than, say, Bleach.

Kirki wrote:

Shay Guy wrote: Kirki wrote: It's really old-school so the definition of isekai does not apply to it. What is, in your opinion, "the definition of isekai"? Well it is, technically an isekai, ...

You are confusing definition with flavor. This fall season isekai had none of the flavor you describe (even Alicization seems to have forgotten it is a mmorpg) as well as the isekai from two decades ago had a different flavor and no doubt we will see a lot more flavors to isekai before the next fad appears.

You are confusing Iruma with Hoozuki. To this demon realm human souls don't travel to be punished, consumed or whatever and human beings are regarded as we ourselves regard demons (as nothing more than a myth like unicorns, dragons and trustworthy politicians). There is the possibility of traveling between the two worlds (but I have no idea if they will put in practice at all) just like Kagome did in Inuyasha (which technically was the same world, just a few centuries apart).

some people say even Harry Potter is an isekai story.

Yet isekai stories existed way before; I think they started with Fushigi Yuugi or Escaflowne.

But he is transported there when his parents sell him to a demon, and it is indicated that demons can be summoned by humans, both not unlike demons in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Many of the characters also take their names from various demons in the Judeo-Christian tradition (Asmodeus Alice, Valac Clara, Azazel Ameri, Sabnock Sabro to name a few). I think it would be fair to say that it is meant as the underworld, in the sense of the place where demons reside, even if it isn't in the sense of being one of the afterlifes.

It may well be the latter as well, though in that case one would wonder why only high level demons would be know that humans do in fact exist.