Why does Isekai have so much hate?

[Lysander_Works]

Summarized and self-answered, I don't think it is the origin, tag, or device of Isekai that is a problem. It's popularity has been boosting for years in both literature and anime. A majority seem to complain about the same issue: lack of quality control. I think readers are simply burned out by titles featuring overused plot tropes or writing that seems devoid of any style beyond very passive speech.

It's kind of sad. The tag isn't the problem, but some people blacklist it for themselves entirely.
I get it. If you smell a rotten egg sandwich once, chances of taking a second or third whiff will be lower.

That said, I think it is more or less a problem that will solve itself. The bar to make a good isekai is much higher now than it was before, and it needs to be, not in just the writing but in presentation as well.

 

[Kurayami]

I think it's well-loved. Anytime I write an isekai it gets lots of readers. Sure, there are haters, but they're a vocal minority.

 

[SacralSage]

I think it's mostly just oversaturation. Too much of anything can be a bad thing, and Isekai as a genre is just kinda one of those things.

Some people might not vibe with most of the wish fulfillment in most of the genre, no matter how much a writer might attempt to balance it out with a good story or interesting characters. However, I do agree that the fans of it vastly outnumber the ones who actually hate the genre.

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

Had no idea Isekai gets hate

 

[Rezcore]

What I hate are the people who come to the tags they hate, just to shit on it. Like Bro, I don't come to you "I have no personality" spot and shit all over it!

 

[Bald-san]

Summarized and self-answered, I don't think it is the origin, tag, or device of Isekai that is a problem. It's popularity has been boosting for years in both literature and anime. A majority seem to complain about the same issue: lack of quality control. I think readers are simply burned out by titles featuring overused plot tropes or writing that seems devoid of any style beyond very passive speech.

It's kind of sad. The tag isn't the problem, but some people blacklist it for themselves entirely.
I get it. If you smell a rotten egg sandwich once, chances of taking a second or third whiff will be lower.

That said, I think it is more or less a problem that will solve itself. The bar to make a good isekai is much higher now than it was before, and it needs to be, not in just the writing but in presentation as well.

I don't think they get much hate though

 

[JayMark]

I discovered that Lit-rpg gets more hate than Isekai.

 

[GreenStudio]

If done right, an isekai can be one of the greatest fantasy stories you'll ever read (I'm talking stories like mt, tensura, konosuba, overlord etc).

In my opinion, stories like that are the epitome of immersion. The protagonists are almost always people from an ordinary world, living a shitty life. The idea of starting over in a new world is like crack for those in similar boats. So we find ourselves able to connect with them.

That said, the magic there is in the mc, not necessarily the world. Problem is, these days the mcs are just carbon copies of one another. No goals, no passions, no personality. I mean shit, half the time they don’t even have a memorable name. Get enough of that and the genre starts to turn into a hot steaming pile of doodoo made for the sake of self-inserting.

The same old stale piece of bread can only ration out so much before the people are fed up.

 

[RainyLiquid]

cause

 

[Lysander_Works]

Exactly.
Maybe more lovers but I do bump into a few forum posts of people dumping on the tag though

 

[Jerynboe]

What I want to know is what will be the next popular over saturated market! If I find out now I can clout chase by preemptively writing an actual book based on that premise and then releasing it while it’s still rising in popularity, thus becoming one of the classics of the subgenre through precognitive selling out.

 

[Eldoria]

I'd say a story with a simple, albeit clichéd, idea can be an amazing story if executed well. Conversely, I'd say a story with a bombastic, subversive idea can be boring if executed poorly.

In the case of isekai, I suspect that many (trial and error) authors take shortcuts to ride the 'isekai hype', resulting in a lot of half-baked or raw works circulating, thus lowering the quality of isekai stories themselves. It's like Sturgeon's Law.

 

[EdwinLovato]

Alice in wonderland is isekai too.

 

[Snake99]

The story of a person from planet Earth having an adventure in another world is simply very good.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

Hate might be a strong word.

Here. On another site i was on, we had a lot of "isekai" discussions round table.

we would get a lot of writers, asking questions about the genre tag of isekai, as with any other tag.
You publicly pitch your couple sentences, paragraph idea of what you;re thinking.
people go around round robin and give thoughts on iyt. A sounding board. brainstorming. call it what you will.

here's what I noticed...
its a fairly rigid genre system. you can say it doesn't have "rules" you sort of must follow, but... it kinda does. Now, the language that gets used can be very soft. "see, you need to understand. readers expect certain story beats, and you have to give them these things." I've also heard it said. "Isekai, is a contract. a promise. you say isekai, the reader better get the things he expects to see."

writers then produce a first chapter, which some will post up for ideas on it. its their treatment.
then here come the "rules".
--- no, no, no. the person just gets killed, that's it. Immediately. one or two sentences. that's it. no describing the moment, no lingering, none of that. They get truck-kun'd or whatever... done and move on. Then, no "traveling". Again, maybe a sentence or two, that's it. they just wake up there, and go about your story.

--- no, no, no. the person better not be ass-pulled to the other world for a specific purpose. They're just there, and that's it.

and yeah, writers will go ahead and *try* to do things, but... the results are the results. You basically take the rules and don;t vary from them. or you won't gain popularity.

the person pulled? all recommendations (rules?) are that they be no one special, no nothing to them. Just.... basically some losewr or nobody. Typically, they get OP MC powers quick or steadily. Its a rigid trope fantasy, for a self insert. with popularity at stake, there's not much wiggle room.

or can someone show me this totally ground breaking, trope destroying isekai that enjoyed big popularity.

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now that's just what seems to be the rules of the isekai genre game.
on top of that, we have to add the ever present "rules" of web-novel-ing in general.

and what do you end up with, by the time you're done.
the same situation as the old time harlequin romances.
fans typically reward the books that do what they're "supposed to do" for the genre.
critics? say they keep trying to read the genre, but its the same story every time, over and over again.

Me, I find soap operas... to be repetitive and boring.
fans though... they get withdrawal symptoms if they miss a single minute of "their soap".

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is anything I summarized here, wildly incorrect?
I don't know how or why, but certain types of stories, you are not allowed to "do much" with the basic formula.
other types of stories, you better do something original.

I was told, stick to mystery or investigation type things, off the wall originality might be well rewarded there.
but, not in many of the most popular web-novel tropes.

hey. I was there, I heard authors talking. Ones to do make money off this stuff.
they said it openly.
to get started? take a really popular web-novel.
read it slowly, outling the basics with no specifics as you go.
when you're done? write yours to that outline, inserting "your stuff" in for the left out specifics.
names, locations, time periods, weapons or fighting styles, things like that you can play with.

they make it sound like paint by numbers, but you have to write well to do it.
how did things get like this? I have no idea.

 

[ShrimpShady]

because i don't like it :(

 

[TinaMigarlo]

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The story of a person from planet Earth having an adventure in another world is simply very good.

it is. it sounds exciting.
Just seeing that first sentence on one of my old paperbacks back covers?
Yeah, I'd have read that one next.

but me, if i next read 2 or 3 more, and it started to seem like the same exact formula... i'd quit grabbing for it.
this happened to me with the "serial killer investigation" novels. I got burned out on the tropes.
it got to where I could check stuff off a list as I read one.

when's the big autopsy scene, with weird info that will be later useful? oh here we go. called it.
i wonder which boss will be incompetent, preventing the star investigator from getting the job done? Oh, there they are.
hey, will it be a stripper or a hooker, that conveniently knows the critical information. there she is!
where's the dead witness, i wonder where they will hide the body at this time... oh, freezer again? ha.

then, the big one on one fight, detective against the evil crazy killer, cornered.
dude, why even carry a gun? you know it goes hand to hand, and you almost lose ten times, until you JUST squeak out a win.
*happens*

I got bored.

 

[EdwinLovato]

----------------------------

it is. it sounds exciting.
Just seeing that first sentence on one of my old paperbacks back covers?
Yeah, I'd have read that one next.

but me, if i next read 2 or 3 more, and it started to seem like the same exact formula... i'd quit grabbing for it.
this happened to me with the "serial killer investigation" novels. I got burned out on the tropes.
it got to where I could check stuff off a list as I read one.

when's the big autopsy scene, with weird info that will be later useful? oh here we go. called it.
i wonder which boss will be incompetent, preventing the star investigator from getting the job done? Oh, there they are.
hey, will it be a stripper or a hooker, that conveniently knows the critical information. there she is!
where's the dead witness, i wonder where they will hide the body at this time... oh, freezer again? ha.

then, the big one on one fight, detective against the evil crazy killer, cornered.
dude, why even carry a gun? you know it goes hand to hand, and you almost lose ten times, until you JUST squeak out a win.
*happens*

I got bored.

It is trend effect. hyped because of the trend, getting bored because of the executions.

 

[SirContro]

It's overdone and lazy. Many writers can't be bothered to come up with a narrative reason as to why the protagonist needs to be someone from our world crossing over, as opposed to someone who was just born in that world. Like any genre, isekai can be good if the author is talented. But because isekai is a popular genre, that means that if a less creative/talented author tries their hand at it, it will have a higher chance of attracting an audience, and so there is an incentive to oversaturate the genre with subpar works.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

Many writers can't be bothered to come up with a narrative reason as to why the protagonist needs to be someone from our world crossing over, as opposed to someone who was just born in that world.

okay, this is where I have to throw a flag.
This, was one of those "rules" that kept coming up.
I wasn't the only writer that thought this needed to be explored, even at length. perhaps even be a major theme of the isekai novel. everyone kept drilling it into my head. No, no, no. You *never* give *any* reason, for the ass-pulling. Why? i'd ruin the self insert. because if the person is special or has some needed talent, then the average person can't easily fit into the self insert.

it was explained to me that it works as a universal power fantasy, because the person that has this fantasy wish, is by definition weak, ordinary, powerless. They need to feel that they are the exact type of person that would get what the MC is getting.

I thought it made sense to do an extended death scene, everyone argued no. sentence or two, move on.
i next thoguht the traveling would be a nice surrealistic trip moment, again a no. sentence or two, or better yet they just wake up there, sentence one, no explanations.

heck, even here. I *think* it was... which member here was doing the "low attention span" reviews? I remember they did an isekai review, and they explicitly complimented one writer on just that. Hey, i like how they just wake up in the world, sentence one. You did it 'correctly', the way it should be done.

you can call it in soft language, an expected beat? or you can just say its a rule... but in the end its the same thing.

MLA was always an "example' because of its viral success.
it was explicitly pointed out, over and over.
see how they just wake up in the world? That's how its done. don't screw that up.

everything I thought would be a good thing to do different?
it was explained to me.
i was thinking "like a trad pub novelist"
and this was web-novel, its different, there;s different rules and guidelines.

it was always pointed out to me.
go ahead and try it, but don't be surprised when you get nothing out of all the work.
do it the way it should be done?
you get readers.

I don't make the rules, i just try to notice them.