Shonen Author Critiques Isekai Stories as Having “No Originality”

It’s hard to dispute that the isekai genre has gained some serious traction in the anime world in the last few years. Franchises such as Sword Art Online, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Overlord, Jobless Reincarnation, and Konosuba are just a few examples of the biggest anime falling in this category. While the genre continues to grow, a shonen creator has shared some controversial thoughts on the isekai movement, stating that the stories are seriously lacking when it comes to the originality department.

The author in question is Usagi Nakamura, the creator of the shonen series known as Gokudou-kun Manyuuki, aka Gokudo The Adventurer. Arriving as a light novel series in 1991, the anime adaptation arrived in 1999 and ran for twenty-six episodes. Featured in a podcast titled “Real Sound”, Nakamura didn’t pull any punches when it came to criticizing the isekai genre, “…When I see so many stories being mass-produced about people suddenly being given amazing abilities, being popular with girls, and being in a harem ……, I wonder where the originality of these stories lies. I wonder if people are not ashamed of writing the same kind of novels.”  

An Isekai By Any Other Name

The Isekai genre will normally find a mundane protagonist who, either through happenstance or their own demise, is placed into a magical world wherein they might be overpowered or granted new abilities that come with their new status. In the recent discussion, Nakamura stated that the isekai genre all felt as though it was written by the same person, “This is a long time ago, but I was once selected as a judge for a male-oriented erotic novel, and when I read the shortlisted works, they were so similar that I thought they were all written by the same person. I think the same thing is happening to novels. I think the authors of “otherworldly reincarnation” novels are all written by the same person, or to put it another way, they are so similar that even I, who have lost my Ranobeki brain, could write them.”

What do you think of the isekai genre? Do you agree with Nakamura’s take on the genre that has taken the anime world by storm? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of isekai. 

Via Anime Hunch