The isekai genre is one that has become massively oversaturated in recent years thanks to stories like Sword Art Online and The Vision of Escaflowne showing the potential these types of stories have.
Nowadays an anime fan can look in any direction and see isekai series as far as their 'figurative' eyes can see. But, what has changed in the isekai genre over the years? Are the tropes unchanging, or have they actually adapted to the times?
9 A Trip With No Return
Older isekai stories didn't even have a genre to fall under. There wasn't really an 'isekai' genre at the time, just a bunch of stories about people going on adventures in magical new worlds. Because of the lack of any sort of precedent, the 'rules' of these stories would change from series to series.
Some had characters who could go back and forth between the isekai world and reality and some didn't. Digimon is, of course, the primary example that everyone knows of, but it wasn't the only one. There are also series like I'm Standing On a Million Lives and Inuyasha. That said, in isekai stories these days, characters are almost always stuck in their new world, and this usually (very predictably) makes their end goal 'find a way home' for the entirety of the story. The only modern example to break this trend that comes to mind is something like Gate: Thus The JSDF Fought There or Welcome to Japan, Elf-San.
8 Unique Non-Magical Or Non-Medieval Worlds
Who else is incredibly tired of seeing slight variations of the same basic high fantasy world with elves, magic, and monsters in isekai? Almost every single one for the past couple of years has taken place in this same sort of worth, with slight twists here and there.
What happened to isekai having unique settings? There are plenty of examples such as El-Hazard, MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance, or the best example, Now and There, Here and Then. Again, there is a small handful of modern isekai with truly unique worlds, but recently it feels like they're few and far between.
7 Main Characters Having To Build Themselves Back Up In This New World
Modern-day isekai protagonists are, quite simply, way too strong. Almost every single one of them has some absurdly overpowered or weird 'cheat' ability right from the get-go, or they unlock it not long after the story begins. It's great for fans of the 'power fantasy' trope, but very tedious for everyone else.
In the older days of the genre, many isekai protagonists would have to relearn everything in this new world to survive. And, even when they adapt and learn the new rules of reality, that was just the starting line. Kagome doesn't just instantly start decimating demons when she pops out of the magical well in Inuyasha, she had to learn about the world and adapt.
6 Any Sort Of Power-Scaling With Background Characters
To be fair, this is sort of a trope with both eras of the isekai genre, but it feels even more prevalent nowadays. The power fantasy of modern isekai has an unexpected side effect, and that's the fact that if the protagonist is strong enough to win against every enemy without much of a struggle, what room is there for the side characters to grow?
It's the classic Dragonball Z issue of power scaling. To sum it up, remember how basically everyone who isn't a Saiyan becomes a background character? Poor Krillin especially always got the short end of the stick (no pun intended). Recent isekai stories are like this too, but relegate their main cast characters to background characters much faster.
5 Being Upfront & Honest About Where They Come From
So many isekai protagonists try to hide the fact that they're from another world or that they've reincarnated as they think it'll immediately get them killed, but it's unnecessary. It's nice that many of them at least have understandable reasons like; they don't know how the public will react, they want a quieter life than the tragic one they came from, or they don't want to alienate those around them. But, it's still a bit tedious to see all the time.
Thankfully, there are a few modern-day examples that break this mold with a great example being That Time I Was Reincarnated As A Slime. Rimuru is pretty open relatively early on with everyone in Tempest that they used to be human and who they were before reincarnating.
4 Decently Well-Written Villains
Villains in anime, or at least villain-writing, have always been a sort of mixed bag. In some shows, a villain is nothing more than a one-note character who only serves to show how 'decent' of a human the protagonist is. In other shows, they're a tragic and misunderstood character that ended up taking the only path they felt was left to them.
In isekai (modern ones in particular) most of the villains are either Saturday morning cartoon levels of incomprehensibly evil or are literally just gross sexual predators. Where are the villains who have actual writing and depth behind their evil deeds that viewers may actually find themselves rooting for without realizing? And of course, main characters of shows who basically function as its protagonist (AKA Overlord, Saga of Tanya the Evil, and Reincarnated as a Slime) don't count.
3 Protagonists That Aren't Just The 'Otaku' Stereotype
While protagonists like Subaru in Re:Zero and Kazuma from Konosuba are some of the most hilarious and weirdly charming isekai protagonists out there, they're still both perfect examples of a recent trend of 'otaku' MCs.
When isekai was just starting out and before it even had a name, the protagonists of all these series were all over the place in terms of their appearance, background, life story, and overall personality. Nowadays, if the hero of an isekai isn't someone who was a shut-in otaku in their previous life, viewers celebrate as if it's some big achievement.
2 Non-Japanese Main Characters
This next trope is understandable, given that authors who have lived in certain countries all their lives or feel a sense of nationality would of course have their main character (if possible) originate from their country as well.
But, in isekai, it's a bit tiring these days seeing every single protagonist come from Japan, try and recreate soy sauce or rice in their new isekai world, and so on. That's not an exaggeration, genuinely, as there are tons of isekai stories that put a substantial amount of runtime towards showing the MC fiending for all types of stereotypical Japanese food items.
1 Actual Romance & Not Just Harem Fanservice
And lastly, let's talk about romance in isekai and the total mistreatment of it. In the current day and age, if an isekai has any romance in it, it's usually just the same old power fantasy harem romance, and the female (or male in an Otome setting) partners barely have any depth to them outside of basically worshipping the MC.
There's no courtship, no palpable chemistry between the characters, and no steady build from strangers to friends and finally partners. This genre used to have enough well-written romances that made the more 'slice-of-life' isekai so absurdly comfortable.