The isekai genre showcases a situation where a character is suddenly transported from their world into a strange and unfamiliar one. With isekai growing more popular over the last few years, light novels featuring the genre's tropes have been getting more attention from readers.
Most isekai anime typically use light novels as the source material, showing how good a form of entertainment they are. Unlike anime series, light novels give readers the ability to flexibly imagine various events as they like within a framework of a depicted world. Furthermore, with light novels getting released much faster than their manga or anime counterparts, more and more anime viewers and manga readers are beginning to shift their attention to light novels.
6 Overlord
The Overlord series tells the tale of a Japanese salaryman who logs into YGGDRASIL, a virtual online game. With his undead character Momonga, he leads a non-human guild known as Ainz Ooal Gown. It has been 12 years since YGGDRASIL's release, and now the servers are going offline. Momonga, in his zombie state, decides to continue in the game while the servers go down, only to find that YGGDRASIL itself does not go away.
Now trapped in the game, Momonga sets out to explore the game world and the reason he finds himself stuck within it. However, the permanent appearance of a new overpowered undead sorcerer sets YGGDRASIL in a state of chaos as the balance of the native tribes is broken and uncertain.
5 Youjo Senki
Tanya Degurechuff, a former salaryman, is resurrected into a new world by a Being X, who proclaims himself as God in a light novel series written by Carlo Zen. Tanya, an orphan who was reincarnated as a woman, denies that she is Being X. Being X warns her that her soul will be expelled from the cycle of reincarnation and cast to hell if she does not die of natural causes or have confidence in him.
Tanya joins the military as a means to avoid this fate, and she places a premium on advancing rapidly through the ranks as a commander so that she may one day enjoy the perks of her position while also protecting herself from harm. Nevertheless, Tanya's skill is recognized and put to good use, and she is frequently dispatched to the front lines of the ongoing war, where she proves herself to be both efficient and brutal.
4 The Eminence In Shadow
Dreaming of becoming a mastermind who controls the whole world from the shadows, a young boy in modern-day Japan gets into an accident and dies. He then gets reincarnated into a fantasy world as Cid Kagenou and continues to pursue his dream of controlling the world from the shadows.
After his reincarnation, Cid comes across an elven girl with a disease. Curing her, Cid makes up a story of the world being at the mercy of an evil Cult, with his Shadow Garden organization being the only one keeping them at bay. However, Cid's make-believe fantasy turns out to be authentic, but he denies the reality of the situation.
3 Mushoku Tensei
Rudeus Greyrat was formerly a 34-year-old antisocial and unemployed man before being resurrected. After being evicted from his home after the death of his parents, the 34-year-old man sacrifices his life to save a group of kids from being run over by a truck.
Reincarnated into a medieval realm of magic with his memories intact. Rudeus Greyrat works to make sure his new opportunity in life is nothing like his past. With his 34-year-old memories intact, Rudeus demonstrates a magical prowess and critical thinking ability, considerably outstripping his peers. Rudeus strives to make the best of his new existence by studying magic with the talented mage Roxy Migurdia.
2 No Game No Life
Step-siblings Sora and Shiro use the alias Blank in the video game community, where they are nearly unbeatable. They accept a chess challenge from Tet, a god from an alternate universe, and end up winning. In short order, the siblings are whisked away to a parallel universe called Disboard, where disputes are handled through a series of video games.
They meet Stephanie Dola, a human girl who wants to be the next queen of humanity, as they travel and explore this world with 16 races. The siblings are so struck by Stephanie's resolve that they decide to lend a hand as she attempts to win the crown and elevate the human species to its rightful place among the other races. They then eventually set off to make humans the ruler of Disboard.
1 That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime
Satoru Mikami, a regular guy with a day job at the office, was stabbed in the back while trying to save a friend from an attacker. At the end of his life, Satoru Mikami hears a voice in his head and accepts most of what it says to him, hoping it will help ease the pain he's in.
Later, Satoru Mikami figures out that he's a slime in a parallel universe. Veldora, a storm dragon responsible for the destruction of a town, is imprisoned by a strong mage in the parallel world where he finds him. Befriending the imprisoned Veldora earns him the dragon's name, Rimuru, which further improves his already impressive starting stats. Rimuru, intent on assisting in Veldora's escape from his magical imprisonment, travels far and wide to discover new lands and sets up a civilization of monsters.