An Isekai is any anime series where the protagonist is transported to another world such as the Escaflowne or Sword Art Online franchises. In the last few years, Isekai has become one of the most. It’s summer break and school is out for students. The break serves as a great time to catch up on some anime and get transported away from the sweltering heat in certain parts of the globe. Crunchyroll provided its top getaway isekai series for anime watchers to binge during the summer. For fans familiar and.
Isekai anime are ones where the protagonist gets transported to a parallel dimension and has to find their way back to their own world, all the while facing a lot of problems along the way. There are a lot of Isekai anime out there, and I’ve picked out the best ones for you today. Let’s begin.
10. Restaurant to Another World
This anime is set in a world where people can freely move between worlds once certain conditions are met. The story revolves around food, and if you’re into Isekai anime, you’ll definitely love this one.
9. No Game No Life
No Game No Life is an amazing Isekai that I’m sure all of you are aware of. It aired back in 2014, and has become one of the best ever we’ve seen over time. Once you watch it, you’ll definitely be glued to your seats.
8. Vision of Escaflowne
Kanzaki Hitomi is an ordinary girl with an interest in fortune telling. However, due to the appearance of something strange, her world turns upside down. This anime is up there with the most unique Isekai anime, and I believe you’ll find more than one reason to love it, once you start watching.
7. Youjo Senki
This anime is focused on a girl named Tanya, whose body hosts the soul of a man who once challenged an entity known as Being X. This anime is focused on wars with magic, and of course, Tanya, who aims to climb to the top despite Being X getting in her way.
6. GATE: Jietai Kanochi Nite, Kaku Tatakaeri
This anime focuses on the life of a person named Itami Youji. His world is all peaceful, when suddenly, a portal appears out of nowhere, and supernatural stuff wreaks havoc everywhere. He goes through the portal to investigate everything that happened later on.
5. Drifters
This anime is nothing like it sounds. It is focused on the life of Shimazu Toyohisa. In a huge battle, he sustains a serious wound, and he finds himself isn’t the medical unit. Instead, he is a hallway, where there are hundreds of doors, and he gets thrown into a completely different world through one of them.
4. Re:Creators
Humans are basically Gods in this anime, and they are responsible for the creation of a lot of worlds. One creator, named Mizuno Souta, is the focus of this anime. He is transported briefly into a battle, and when he returns, he has some uninvited guests with him.
3. Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!
Satou Kazuma wants to buy a new game, and heads to the store to buy it. Little did he know he’d never make it. He dies on the way, and is then offered a chance at life again, in a different realm, where he can play a game. But this time, he gets to be in the game that he plays.
2. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
I’m pretty sure you all have heard of it. Subaru is your regular worthless anime protagonist, who heads to the store to buy some stuff, but on his way to home, he is suddenly transported into a different dimension, where he must protect those close to him from the Witch and her cult.
1. Hataraku Maou-sama!
This anime is quite different from the others. The protagonist is the Demon Lord Satan, who is defeated and then sent to a different dimension, where he is a powerless boy. Just when he thought he could conquer everything, he actually starts liking the human world and forgets about everything else.
Isekai is a sub-genre within the fantasy genre that is used to describe series in which the main character is transported to another world, thus the label, with “isekai” translating to “strange world”. Of course, most people can name a handful of popular shows that fall into the isekai sub-genre right now. While it has been around for awhile, it wasn’t populated enough to merit any thought. However, in recent years, it has exploded with a number of hit series not only running with the tropes, but also finding innovation in upending them.
Digimon
For many, Digimon probably evokes some fond memories from childhood. However, you probably never thought about it as an isekai show, but that is exactly what it is. From the original series all the way through its many other incarnations, this series is about a group of kids getting transported to the digital world, often without a desire or knowledge of what is happening, then having to figure things out from there. First premiering in 1999, Digimon probably wasn’t the first series to go isekai, but it signaled the beginning of a craze.
Inuyasha
This is another beloved childhood classic, but it is only somewhat of an isekai show. It begins that way with main girl Kagome being thrown down a well and transported to Feudal Japan, which, contrary to history, is flush with demons. However, it isn’t long before she finds a way back to the modern world, allowing her to transport herself back and forth. Yet, this long-running monster still counts as one of the earlier isekai series.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
The Grimgar anime series only sports a few hints of it being an isekai series and they are brief. The characters find themselves without memory of how they got to a fantasy land, but characters have sparse bits of modern knowledge despite not remembering much other than their own names, like how the main character had the instinct to reach for his cell phone, but then wonder what a cell phone was.
Throughout the first season, this mystery was never addressed, but it followed the typical isekai trope of showing the characters as they tried to adapt to this new world, but struggled to survive both fighting and financially.
No Game No Life
No Game No Life was leeching onto the coat tails of other recent isekai series by transporting characters to a game world. However, instead of being a fantasy MMO-type world, the world in No Game No Life is just another world where citizens resolve disputes via games. As notoriously great gamers from the real world, needless to say, the main characters Shiro and Sora dominate in this new world.
Log Horizon
Log Horizon has the unfortunate circumstance of premiering after Sword Art Online, which means a lot of hype train fans saw it as a rip-off. However, the truth is that Log Horizon provided a story that was more mature and had the potential to be a better “trapped in an MMO” isekai story. As it focused on a group of players rather than just a solo player that interacted with others, there was more of a focus on tactics and teamwork rather than just OP moves. However, there is no denying how similar their overall plots were.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
Who says an isekai series can’t be just pure fun? Apparently most creators who make a modern ones. While Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is a little dated, it combines all the fun of a parody series under the guise of an isekai plot. Throughout the series, the characters try to navigate and escape various worlds that are ultimately based upon Sasshi’s geeky boy hobbies and interests.
.Hack//Sign
While the debate between which is better – Log Horizon or Sword Art Online – is a fierce one, there is always the low-key good series that was Hack//Sign. The .hack series was the original “trapped in an MMO” isekai series made when even MMOs were a young genre. Still, for its time, it was daring and surprisingly well made with a plot that was intriguing enough to draw you in.
The Devil is a Part-Timer
Typically isekai series focus on your average run-of-the-mill student being transported to another world where they find themselves slightly more special. The Devil is a Part-Timer shows a different take on the isekai idea by taking a villain from another world and transporting him to modern day Japan. There that villain is rendered inept without any magic and thus turns into your run-of-the-mill citizen who gets a part-time job to scrap by. While many of the major plot points are his interactions with other characters from his world coming over, it is still an exciting and hilarious take on a dead horse of an idea.
Sword Art Online
Ah, yes. When people say isekai (and you actually know what it means) this is likely what you think of. Some say that Sword Art Online is responsible for the explosion of the idea as well as series featuring people stuck in games, and they might be right. After all, when something is as wildly popular as Sword Art Online was, other creators tend to copy it in order to cash in.
Overlord
Like the Devil is a Part-Timer turned certain parts of popular isekai tropes on its head, so, too, does Overlord. In this series, a gamer is logged into his favorite MMO right before it is shut down. However, when midnight strikes, he still finds himself in the game with the NPCs come to life. Instead of actively trying to get out, he decides to conquer the game world.
Now and Then, Here and There
Most isekai series aren’t exactly what you would call “brutal,” they are more wondrous with a heavy dash of comedy. However, Now and Then, Here and Now features a kid who gets transported to a world that is significantly worse than his own. It is a world filled with cruelty and injustice making this isekai far from a happy series.
KonoSuba
Despite the extreme rise in isekai series, almost all of them decided to take a more serious route. Like Abenobashi of old, KonoSuba decided to do things a little differently by making a series that is almost exclusively about comedy. It takes the isekai sub-genre as well as the game world setting and makes it hilarious by combining characters that are terrible people and terrible at everything they do.
Re:Zero
Re:Zero is the most recent isekai phenomenon, and while it started off playing it straight, but things began to change. As you get further into the series, you find the traditional tropes that people used to love, but now are sick of, and turned on their head. Of course, audiences loved it. Carried heavily by its many characters, Re:Zero worked hard to earn a place in our hearts, and while it started off as a slow burn, as it went on, you couldn’t get enough.
Think we missed any more great isekai recommendations, tell us about them in the comments section below.