High Fantasy or Isekai?

[ThisAdamGuy]

Do you like high fantasy or isekai stories better? They both take place in an alternate fantasy world, but while high fantasy takes place entirely in the fantasy world, isekai involves the main character starting in our world before somehow being taken to the fantasy world.

I like high fantasy better. Isekai has the benefit of the main character being just as clueless about the new world as the readers, so they learn about and experience it alongside each other. But that comes with the downside of the hero being a permanent outsider. No matter how at home they start to feel in the new world, they will always look at everything from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't really belong here. In high fantasy, the hero was born and raised in the fantasy world. All the strange and magical stuff that someone from our world would see as abnormal is normal to them. That makes it easier for me to feel immersed in the story, because I'm sharing the headspace of someone who isn't constantly questioning the world around them and having to have basic things explained to them.

 

[John_Owl]

both have their place. As for which I like more... I can't really say. I used to read high fantasy more, but in recent years, it seems like 95% of high fantasy stories are framed with an isekai premise, as it's just so insanely easy to justify the MC not knowing anything when they're complete and total novices.

I will say i get a little giddy when reading/watching isekai that have the protag as something other than "human from another world".

Like in story Two Faces is *technically* an isekai, as there is a character from our world. but the MC isn't that character. The transplant is the MC's system. She died and woke up as a system. the MC, however, is a changeling that gained sentience right about the same time she woke up. so they both became aware of their existance at the same moment, give or take a few nanoseconds.

 

[Glitched]

Isekai is often done poorly imo. A lot of isekai stories are just self inserts that could be fine as just high fantasy, but the author wants to make it isekai instead. I prefer high fantasy because it's more appealing. Isekai is almost always weird cause it feels like an outside viewpoint with low immersion. So high fantasy ftw.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

High Fantasy for sure.

 

[AncestorDuck]

I hate them both.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Most of the Isekai I've seen was also high fantasy so they are not incompatible... I prefer "straight" High Fantasy over hybrid/Isekai'ed High Fantasy but like both (and Isekai kind of grew out of the "English Schoolchildren find Gate to Fantasy World stuff of Edith Nesbitt, C. S. Lewis and, more recently, Joy Chant)

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Oh, I had to elaborate, right? I like high fantasy more purely because I am tired of isekai at the moment. Way back I would've picked isekai because it was actually fresh and interesting. Now? High fantasy or low fantasy. I also prefer low fantasy over isekai.

 

[beast_regards]

Those are not mutually exclusive.

The purpose of the portal fantasy (or isekai, if you speak weeaboo) is to give you the protagonist with the modern context.

The portal fantasy (isekai) could be high fantasy.

In fact, the high fantasy is a default setting for the portal fantasy (isekai).

Unlike the other fantasy sub-genres, the high fantasy is often the heroic one, with the in-built necessity to have a hero unspoiled by the world to fight the evil, and the average everyman would perform this role relatively well, even better than the innocent farm boy unaware of the question he should ask.

Of course, people often mistake "isekai" with self-insert or LitRPG, while in truth it is neither. You could have self-inserts without the portal fantasy, and you could have LitRPG without the computer game settings and players, so "non-isekai" rarely stopped anyone.

You will end up with the fantasy farm boy, which is secretly a dragon, of course, and speaks like he was raised on Reddit, and no one could tell you anything. Well, they would tell you something, usually unappealing, but that's the Internet for you.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Tbh, one of the biggest draws for a story for me is learning how everything works. That is almost always better done in isekai than straight fantasy.
Also, I like magitech, and High Fantasy authors inevitably write medieval stuff. Isekai authors like to have their former earth people make earth tech and scifi tech, so that's also a win for isekai.

Theoretically, I'd prefer no Isekai, but the current popular tropes and trends mean that High Fantasy isn't capable of offering me what I want. So Isekai wins, technically.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Tbh, one of the biggest draws for a story for me is learning how everything works. That is almost always better done in isekai than straight fantasy.
Also, I like magitech, and High Fantasy authors inevitably write medieval stuff. Isekai authors like to have their former earth people make earth tech and scifi tech, so that's also a win for isekai.

Theoretically, I'd prefer no Isekai, but the current popular tropes and trends mean that High Fantasy isn't capable of offering me what I want. So Isekai wins, technically.

I would've argued isekai nowadays does it worse, simply info dumping bits and pieces, and the rest is "I know you know how it works", but I probably read wrong works.

 

[beast_regards]

I will say i get a little giddy when reading/watching isekai that have the protag as something other than "human from another world".

A space mecha dragon is isekai'd to Cleveland for his hate crimes against elves!

 

[Aijikan]

I'd prefer your mom

 

[beast_regards]

I'd prefer your mom

How I should imagine her?

 

[Aijikan]

How I should imagine her?

Just an hour glass m!lf :)

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

Those are not mutually exclusive.

If it takes place 100% in the fantasy world, it's high fantasy. If it starts with the main character living in our world before being taken to the fantasy world, it's isekai or portal fantasy. Lord of the Rings is not an isekai, and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is not high fantasy. So yes, they are mutually exclusive.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

If it takes place 100% in the fantasy world, it's high fantasy. If it starts with the main character living in our world before being taken to the fantasy world, it's isekai or portal fantasy. Lord of the Rings is not an isekai, and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is not high fantasy. So yes, they are mutually exclusive.

Well, ackhchually, they are not. ?

 

[Cipiteca396]

So yes, they are mutually exclusive.

Hard disagree.

Here's the wiki def:

High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy[1] defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot.[2] High fantasy is usually set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world, rather than the "real" or "primary" world.[2] This secondary world is usually internally consistent, but its rules differ from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set on Earth, the primary or real world, or a rational and familiar fictional world with the inclusion of magical elements.[3][4][5][6]

It specifically leaves room for High Fantasy Isekai like the Chronicles of Narnia, or Low Fantasy stories set in not-earth worlds like typical medieval fantasy.

 

[beast_regards]

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is not high fantasy

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (or Narnia if you like) has ...

Setting different that ours, metaphysically connected to ours, just like Lord of the Rings.
Magic is the forefront in the series, usually as the evil force, just the Lord of the Rings.
Scale is an epic battle of good against evil, just the Lord of the Rings.
Morality is strictly black and white, just the Lord of the Rings.
There are common heroes without any connection to the world raised to fight the greater evil, just the Lord of the Rings.
...and of course, both works are biblical parallels, written by the devout Christians, and created to indoctrinate people on Christian values while ironically being inherently heretical

Only difference between is that the kids from the Chronicles of Narnia are from rural England, while Hobbits represent the rural England, but otherwise they are not quite connected to the world as they could

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (or Narnia if you like) has ...

Setting different that ours, metaphysically connected to ours, just like Lord of the Rings.
Magic is the forefront in the series, usually as the evil force, just the Lord of the Rings.
Scale is an epic battle of good against evil, just the Lord of the Rings.
Morality is strictly black and white, just the Lord of the Rings.
There are common heroes without any connection to the world raised to fight the greater evil, just the Lord of the Rings.
...and of course, both works are biblical parallels, written by the devout Christians, and created to indoctrinate people on Christian values while ironically being inherently heretical

Only difference between is that the kids from the Chronicles of Narnia are from rural England, while Hobbits represent the rural England, but otherwise they are not quite connected to the world as they could

Fantasy is an overarching genre, but isekai and high fantasy are two clearly defined and separate subgenres. Yes, LOTR and TLTWATW are both fantasy, but the way their stories play out separates them into their respective subgenres. Nobody from the "real" world is sent to Middle Earth, so LOTR is not an isekai. The Pevensie siblings begin the story in our world before being sent to Narnia, so it is not high fantasy. Point out what the two franchises have in common all you want, that doesn't change what they are any more than saying Star Wars is hard sci-fi because Star Trek has space ships too.

 

[Cipiteca396]

I think I'm on someone's Ignore list.