It has long been an accepted fact that the trope of being transported to another world has become an established concept within anime. Now named isekai, this genre has produced masses of shows in recent years, with many falling by the wayside due to repeating tropes or concepts.
There are still many isekai that are beloved by anime fans, however, from Re:Zero and KonoSuba to Log Horizon and many more. It isn’t always an exact science with the consistency of an isekai anime’s popularity, and there are some great shows that are vastly underrated. This can either mean that they are considered an acquired taste to some people, or they simply haven’t been exposed enough to the wider anime audiences.
10 Grimgar: Ashes And Illusions Is A Gritty Survival Isekai
Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions is the anime adaptation of the light novel series titled Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash. A group of adventurers awake in a new world with hazy memories about how they got there, but they form a party to press on regardless.
The mysterious origins of their former lives are never really brought up again, with the group having to instead focus all their attention on staying alive. Grimgar is a dramatic isekai, with the group doing everything they can to survive, staring death in the face on a daily basis. Grimgar: Ash and Illusions is a perfect fantasy isekai to get into, despite it only having 12 episodes to its name.
9 Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Is The Light-Hearted Counter To Sword Art Online
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear has similarities to Sword Art Online in regards to its initial premise, albeit without the death game stipulation. Yuna is a bored teenage girl who spends too much time playing an online game called World Fantasy Online. She is subsequently transported into the game world by the administrator, along with an embarrassing bear costume she had just received.
Yuna is unable to log out, but she chooses to embrace her situation. She makes several new friends and even earns a reputation as a solid fighter, known as “Bloody Bear.” It is a light-hearted and fun isekai anime with plenty of comedy.
8 My Next Life As A Villainess Stands Out With Its Unique Premise & Entertaining Characters
My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom! gets its deserved recognition as a fun and unique twist on the usual isekai tropes, but it still feels rather underrated. A girl is hit by a car and killed while traveling to school, and naturally, she ends up being reincarnated into the world of a game she used to play, Fortune Lover.
What makes My Next Life As A Villainess unique is that she is reincarnated into the game’s antagonist, Catarina Claes, much to her initial dismay. The events that follow see the titular villainess doing everything she can to avoid death flags and the subsequent death situations. A nice person trying to change a villainous character for the better is an interesting premise and makes for an entertaining anime.
7 Didn’t I Say To Make My Abilities Average In The Next Life?! Is Musato’s Reaction To Her Reincarnation
Musato Kurihara is a girl genius who struggles to make friends because of the general gap in intellects. So when she gets the chance to be reincarnated into another world when she is killed by the classic vehicle trope, she takes this opportunity to request being given average abilities. The title of this anime, Didn’t I Say To Make My Abilities Average In The Next Life!? is a pretty good indicator as to how that turns out for Musato.
In spite of her request, she is reborn as Adele von Ascham, the daughter of a noble who possesses considerable magic powers, definitely not average. This is a fun fantasy-comedy isekai with the refreshing stance of the main character simply wanting to be normal rather than overpowered, the opposite of the usual isekai dynamic.
6 Restaurant To Another World Is The Wholesome Anime Everybody Needs To Watch
Restaurant To Another World is a slice-of-life food anime with an isekai twist. While the Western Restaurant Nikoya is a popular establishment in Tokyo for the residents during the week, it has a different clientele on the weekends.
On Saturdays, the restaurant opens up to other worlds, with all sorts of magical beings turning up to dine at the Western Restaurant Nikoya. It is an enjoyable enough watch as it is with just the food and cooking aspects, but with mythical creatures and other beings being the customers, it adds another dimension to the show. Restaurant To Another World is another enjoyable and relaxing isekai to get into.
5 Cautious Hero’s Unique Premise Is Hilarious But Deserves More Recognition
Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious is arguably one of the funniest isekai out there but still deserves more respect as also being a great anime. As the detailed title suggests, Seiya Ryuuguuin is summoned to save the world Gaeabrande from annihilation, but despite him being powerful, he is overly cautious.
This anime is very self-aware, with this unique gimmick adding a spin on the classic tropes of so many other isekai, as well as plenty of comedic moments. It is a concept that can certainly be applied to several gamers out there, with them taking every precaution to ensure they don’t die unnecessarily.
4 Ascendance Of A Bookworm Celebrates The Joys Of Reading
Ascendance Of A Bookworm follows the titular bookworm, Urano Motosu, as she is ironically crushed by her beloved books before being reincarnated in another world. She is now a 5-year-old girl named Myne, who aspires to become a librarian in this world, as she was so close to doing so in her previous life.
Ascendance Of A Bookworm has its wholesome slice-of-life moments, but it is still a solid isekai entry. Myne is an adorable protagonist, and the pure nature of wanting to read despite everything else that is going on is a concept that deserves more credit.
3 Fushigi Yuugi Is An Intriguing 90s Isekai To Check Out
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Fushigi Yuugi, or Mysterious Play, was a 1990s anime that drew from multiple genres for its 52 episodes. It was an isekai before the concept really took off, with two middle-school girls, Miaka Yuki and Yui Hongo, being transported to another world via a mysterious book.
The world resembles ancient China, and things are immediately mixed up when Yui is taken out of the world, leaving Miaka as the book’s heroine. Miaka is believed to be the Priestess of Suzaku and takes up the role, immersing herself within this world. While the concept may not stand out too much compared to the present-day influx of isekai ideas, it is still worth checking out to see how isekai has grown since.
2 Now And Then, Here And There Is Surprisingly Thought-Provoking
Now And Then, Here And There is another isekai from the late 1990s that deserves more love and attention than it gets. The protagonist Shu takes a liking to a mysterious blue-haired girl Lala-Ru and tries to befriend her before some mysterious attackers appear from another world.
Shu is transported to their world while trying to defend Lala-Ru, with him having to fight through an unforgiving unknown land to get back to his new friend. While a simple enough concept on the surface, this anime delves into some serious moral issues that arise with the various consequences of war. It is a compelling and thought-provoking post-apocalyptic adventure that deserves more credit.
1 Re:Creators Brings Fictional Characters To The Real World
Re:Creators deserves far much more credit than it receives. It starts with Sota Mizushino simply enjoying watching an anime for inspiration for his own creative ideas before he is suddenly sucked into that world in the midst of a fight scene. He returns to his world with that anime’s Selesia, and this opens things up for all manner of anime, video game, manga, and light novel characters to appear in the real world.
This sees all kinds of genres mesh together in interesting reverse isekai scenarios. With thrilling fight scenes between these characters accompanied by a stellar soundtrack by the iconic Hiroyuki Sawano, Re:Creators is a hectic amalgamation of numerous creative art forms.