This episode of TWA is brought to you by Campfire Blaze.
What a lovely day to cross the street!
What happened?
Why did the animation style change?
Why are there all of these women suddenly interested in me for no reason?
Oh no!
I just got Isekaied!
Isekai is weeaboo speak that translates to “different world”, “otherworld”, “light
novel template 01”, or a more accurate translation would probably be “cash cow”.
Isekai is a genre frequently found in light novels, manga, anime, and video games and
usually takes the form of some schlub from the modern world who gets transported to a
fantasy world.
While the genre itself comes from weeaboo land, sometimes confusingly referred to as
Japan, there is no reason that any writer can’t just use this template as well.
And why not?
If most light novel authors use every Isekai cliché with zero modifications then so can
we!
So let’s get whisked off to another world to write our very own Isekai story.
Just, you know, be sure to clean up after Isekaing everywhere.
Now most stories consist of a tripod of elements; namely plot, setting, and character.
However Isekai stories, by contrast, only consist of two central pillars; the Harem
and the Power Fantasy.
Let’s start with the Harem!
Now a harem is a cutthroat cesspit of political intrigue and exploitation where enslaved women
are treated like objects.
Wait.
Sorry.
How did these historical notes get into my script?
Let me start again.
The harem is a collection of girls that can be sorted based on the magnitude of their
mammaries and all posses the singular personality trait of being in love with the protagonist.
The best thing about the harem is that it is easy to mix and match to create a huge
amount of combinations!
For example: we can combine the big boob girl with the older sister archetype.
Or we can combine the loli with the catgirl.
Um… but its okay because she’s really a 1000 years old so that makes it fine to
put her on a body pillow.
There is also a large supply of deres to choose from as well.
The combinations are endless and the best part is that they are all written nearly the
exact freaking same!
Now I could write them with a personality beyond “in love with the self-insert protagonist”?
Which is correct!
Be sure add that extra bit of characterization in the form slapping the protagonist after
mistaking his actions for being lecherous.
Accidental sexual harassment is funny!
Or how she for some reason decides to constantly send mix signals about her romantic interest
in the protagonist while endlessly calling him an idiot.
All of the usual anime cliches are excellent in avoiding any deeper characterization.
Why make any of the harem girls fleshed out characters when we can just stick to the most
stock version of their archetypes?
If I gave them actual personalities with their own perspectives and opinions they may just
decide that my protagonist isn’t really all that interesting and that they could probably
do better for themselves.
My ego… um I mean my protagonist can’t have that!
Speaking of the protagonist, how can an Isekai writer handle that?
Thankfully, Isekai protagonists are the easiest protagonists to write!
Now some writers might worry that a protagonist from Japan might be difficult to write for
someone who isn’t from that country.
But see that is the best thing about Isekai protagonists is that their nationality, culture,
and every other aspect of their character is basically as interchangeable and deep as
the cardboard packaging the blue-ray box set arrived in.
An Isekai protagonist’s personality is meant to be as flat as the loli’s chest so the
audience can project themselves onto him without something like character to get in the way.
Yes we could use the protagonist’s modern perspective as a way to generate conflict
as his values clash with the societal mores of a strange fantasy culture or we could force
the protagonist to work his way up and have to earn the trust of the locals.
But I want my power fantasy now!
Now!
There is to be no struggle, hardship, or any other kind of setback for the protagonist.
He is just all powerful all the time.
Oh no!
Does a villain have the protagonist on the ropes?
No problem.
Give him a free power up!
That was close!
We almost had some narrative tension there for a second.
Now this may present the problem of the audience struggling to root for a protagonist given
his complete lack of a personality beyond his magical ability to stumble into the girls’
changing room by accident.
Perhaps I should add something to make the protagonist a bit more sympathetic?
Like contributing to slavery!
The protagonist could decide to rescue a cute slave girl by... buying her?
Like what?
Is that really in the script?
Yeah.
There it is.
That can’t be real.
No one is dumb enough to write that into their-
Now a less skilled writer would have had the protagonist systematically destroy the slavers’
organization and make sure that the entire institution of exploitation found its way
into the dust bin of history where it belongs.
This could even be an example of clashing modern and ancient perspectives on if a person
can be considered property.
But no.
Better to use the system of slave trade to expand the harem which is the only historically
accurate part of an Isekai’s harem.
But hey, lets move to something a little less controversial… like sexual tension between
the protagonist and his underage sister.
Now not boning one’s sister is like the lowest of the low bars to clear, but if stumbling
over this hurtle proves too much for the audience then just say that the protagonist’s sister
isn’t related by blood and that makes it all okay!…
Somehow…
Or, you know, a writer could always just never specify any blood relations.
The important thing to remember that it’s not a real isekai story unless it has hentai
search terms added to it.
Now that an Isekai writer has sated their lust for power, lust for their harem, and
lust for their sister that must mean that we are done right?
Wrong!
Unfortunately all this lust still can’t exist in a vacuum, I mean, you know unless
it’s a science fiction anime.
But Isekai isn’t Isekai unless it takes place in another world.
This must mean that the Isekai writer has to set aside their lust for just a few moments
in order to create a setting and there is only one thing powerful enough to make them
forget about their lecherousness even for a moment.
Video games!
Just add video game mechanics to the Isekai world.
How do video game rpg mechanics influence a world’s social, economic, military, and
political systems?
I have no idea, but it sure is cool to have the protagonist level up when he kills a monster!
Yes the bandits can see that the protagonist is overpowered and can even see his stats,
but they will still pick a fight with him regardless.
Wow.
The protagonist didn’t even need to pay to win!
Wouldn’t the world be ruled by over-leveled, super powered characters who have the best
stats and loot?
Wouldn’t that also mean that these super powered characters would control access to
all of the best areas to level up as well as monopolize the best loot drops in order
to maintain their power?
Wouldn’t that make for a compelling story as the protagonist is forced to grind in order
to overthrow other characters who are gaming the system?
Oh no!
Can’t have any of that.
A lot of Isekai doesn’t even have a central villain, much less a cabal of villains who
actually know what they are doing.
Or like have a story arc.
Or like an overall structure.
Nope.
It’s just the protagonist wandering around being awesome and defeating the occasional
monster or bandit.
The rest is just romantic comedy hijinks that we’ve see a billion times in other anime.
Don’t forget the hot springs and beach episodes.
That’ll sell a few extra body pillows.
Does this Isekai world have any kind of political system at all?
How would these fantasy nations react to dealing with strange individuals from a completely
alien world who are basically walking weapons of mass destruction?
Wouldn’t kingdoms and empires try to woo the protagonist to their side and feed them
propaganda in order to control them for their own strategic advantage.
Or, you know, give them an actual harem to bribe the protagonist to their side?
Wouldn’t a teen with superpowers be hopelessly out of their depth when navigating court intrigue?
These would all be good questions if they didn’t get in the way of my naked power
fantasy!
This is the core problem.
Isekai should never develop its setting to generate interesting conflict that forces
its protagonist to develop.
Instead, we should develop our setting to generate loot and XP so my protagonist can
have even more power!
Now that we have a setting that is entirely conducive to the protagonist’s endless lust,
how are we going to get him there?
Why with Truck Kun obviously.
Notice me Semi!
Or don’t if your the protagonist.
You would think that Japan would start passing safe driving regulations given how many young
men keep getting killed by trucks, but getting splatted by traffic is still the best method
for getting someone into fantasy land.
I mean there is, like, a billion other ways we could get our protagonist to the fantasy
world while also kick starting the plot at the same time.
For example: They could learn magic for the first time
and accidentally transport themselves to another world.
They could be dying of an incurable disease in a hospital and their last dying wish would
be to be given a second chance only for a magical entity to offer them said chance,
but at the price of enduring a dangerous adventure.
There could be a mysterious portal in the basement that the protagonist’s parents
used to flee the fantasy world because it’s really dangerous there.
The protagonist’s powers were so overpowered that they are considered a weapon of mass
destruction in the magic world so they were hidden away on Earth where magic doesn’t
work.
That is until one day, bad guys from the magic world abduct the protagonist from Earth and
drag them into the magic world as a political bargaining chip.
An evil spirit lies to the protagonist about what a fun time they will have in a world
full of magic and all they have to do is sign their name in blood on this mysterious book
and they will totally get transported to a fun fantasy world and most definitely not
become this entity's pawn in its grand game against the gods.
The protagonist builds a portal out of SCIENCE!
And then enters it for SCIENCE!
And then they help this fantasy world full of magic by using SCIENCE!
A monster from the fantasy world shows up and eats the protagonist to gain his delicious
magic potential.
It turns out that the protagonist’s best friend is in fact the magic world’s chosen
one and they just get pulled in for the ride during the magical crossfire when the bad
guys try to abduct their friend from the normal world.
The protagonist gets pulled into the fantasy world only when they dream and they return
to the normal world when they wake up forcing them to live a double life and even begin
to doubt which world is the dream.
The entire genre of fantasy role playing games was made by a powerful entity searching for
a champion.
It finds that champion when the protagonist is the only person to beat the world’s hardest
RPG like a fantasy version of the Last Starfighter.
A wardrobe leads to Jesus lion.
The protagonist is delivered to the wrong afterlife.
The school’s magic club turns out to be a front for recruitment in the war against
the dark lord.
Join the magic armed forces!
See new worlds!
Kill exciting new orcs!
A hacker discovers a hidden magic world on the web.
Or...
I don’t know.
While avoiding an out of control truck a dragon runs over the protagonist instead?
None of these will work because that requires the author to pay more attention than the
driver of Truck Kun.
The important thing to consider is that the opening transition from the protagonist’s
old life to the new fantasy world be completely perfunctory and not try to do something stupid
like start the plot, foreshadow the primary conflict, or establish a central theme.
Plus it might also jar light novel readers from their power fantasy induced stupor.
We can’t stress out our audiences and instead we should keep feeding them the anime equivalent
of junk food.
Besides, if we need a variation on the Isekai story, then I can always say that the protagonist
is whisked away to another world, but this time I have my cell phone!
And… no bars.
Man reception is terrible in fantasy land.
They really need to install some wifi there or something.
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Our fortress of Eternal Integrity has fallen to the very hands of
greed!
Clearly the Sponsorship Wars have escalated beyond our ability to contain!
Our old tactics are no longer sufficient to curtail such wanton selling out by the TWA
expanded universe factions!
We must pull out all the stops!
SIR ADBLOCK: You don't mean…
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Yes!
We must use our ultimate weapon!
The final stern warning!
CONSPIRACY GUY: Look, I may just be the new guy here, but might I suggest trying something
different?
Like, your fortress just got nommed by eldritch hand monsters.
I think we are a little beyond issuing warnings, stern final or otherwise, at this point.
SIR ADBLOCK: Commander, the very trustworthy new guy has a point.
Perhaps we should try something more direct to try to contain the situation?
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Ah you are both right.
The Adpocalypse is upon us as was foretold.
There is only one thing that can drive away the ads now!
Only one thing so destructive and vile that no advertiser, however desperate, will ever
want to touch the TWA expanded universe again!
SIR ADBLOCK: You can’t mean!
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Yes!
We must say… the forbidden naughty word!
SIR ADBLOCK: *Gasp* But uttering the forbidden word could lead to the entire TWA universe
getting canceled!
It could very well be the end of everything!
KNIGHT COMMANDER: It’s a risk we will have to take!
CONSPIRACY GUY: So… um….
Does anyone know what the forbidden word actually is?
KNIGHT COMMANDER: No.
JP won’t tell me!
You know how cagey he gets about stuff like that.
Therefore, we only have one option.
We must go through every word in the dictionary until we find it!
CONSPIRACY GUY: Well why those fools are busy, I can claim this Video’s Sponsor Campfire
Blaze’s power for myself!
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And trust me, when you have as many plots as I do it really helps to keep everyone on
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Why me and my fellow conspirators can even collaborate to help flesh out our schemes
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SIR ADBLOCK: Sir Newguy.
What are you doing there?
CONSPIRACY GUY: Nothing!
Just… you know, making sure this nefarious ad doesn’t try anything… um… nefarious.
Since you, know.
It seems we are going to be here a while.