Isekaiand medieval fantasy worlds inanimeare usually synonymous with each other since it’s by far the most convenient way to create a power fantasy for the protagonist. A dash of magic and the viewers can suspend their disbelief as much as they like. There are those, however, that boldly break the mold and choose the more risky path.
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Isekai that pick their setting in a contemporary, sci-fi, or some odd extra-dimensional environment stand out from the sea of medieval fantasies in the genre. It also just so happens that they are fewer in number since they can be more difficult to pull off. Isekai, after all, is all about pure escapism. Theseanimespiced up that formula a bit and took some risks.
Updated April 18th, 2022, by Sid Natividad:The isekai genre remains popular as ever thanks to its primary contributor, Truck-kun. Truck-kun mostly sends his roadkill victims to medieval fantasy worlds, resulting in a rather bloated amount of medieval fantasy isekai. From time to time, however, some protagonists find themselves in non-medieval fantasy.
Sometimes it’s in a post-apocalyptic world or maybe even in a far-flung corner of the future. Others are reverse-isekai’d where medieval fantasy characters end up in a non-medieval fantasy world— usually the modern one. In any case, isekai fans looking for a refreshing break from the fantasy world monotony would do well to check out some of these additions.
13Re:Creators
All things considered, reverse isekai is still isekai andRe:Creatorsis one of those. The plot is set off when an aspiring artist named Souta looks to anime for some inspiration for his manga. To his surprise, he’s briefly transported to the anime world he’s watching but manages to return to the real world, thankfully.
The hiccup is that he brought home a plus one— one of the anime’s protagonists. Now, he has to adjust to his new life while looking after her and the worst part is more of the medieval fantasy world characters came pouring into the modern world and turned a contemporary city into a battle royale playground.
12Cop Craft
Cop Craftisn’t unlikeRe:Creatorswhen it comes to the reverse isekai trope. The premise here is that medieval fantasy characters and creatures are being reintegrated into a contemporary world similar to the filmBright. It’s all thanks to a hyperspace gate which spewed out tons of fairies and other creatures into the modern world.
Now, fairies are rampant and some of them are being trafficked like slaves by underworld crime organizations. From there, a jaded cop named Kei has to deal with the turbulence in his life after getting yanked back into action by a police fairy. It’s essentially a buddy cop anime.
11Hinamatsuri
But enough about medieval fantasy characters getting reverse-isekai’d. It’s time for a young sci-fi egg girl to unceremoniously forces her way into a middle-aged man’s life. Sound like comedy doesn’t it? Well, that’s the kind of reverse isekai offered byHinamatsuri.
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The egg-girl, Hina, suddenly drops on Yoshifumi’s head. He’s a brash Yakuza member whose life is a mess. Now, he has to look after Hina since she’ll only explode and level the whole city if she doesn’t use her immense powers (telekinesis, etc.) frequently. Thankfully, Hina’s powers have proven quite useful for a Yakuza organization.
10Gargantia On The Verdurous Planet
It’s sci-fi through and through, but there’s a certain element of time travel or some kind of meddling with the space-time continuum that propelled the plot forGargantia on the Verdurous Planet.A futuristic mech pilot named Ledo gets knocked unconscious in his mission gets flung by a wormhole into a waterlogged Earth.
The problem is, Earth was more or less stuck in its primitive phase, far detached from the privileges and technology which Ledo is used to. Now, he has to adjust to his new life while still trying to link up with his comrades and head back to a war where he’s needed.
9Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventureis a simpler premise as far as sci-fi isekai goes. It’s about a high school nerd named Kazuki who always daydreams about robots fighting one another, and he even dedicates his own website to catalogue and record these dreams and visions.
Turns out they weren’t mere ideas— they exist in a parallel world and Kazuki gets a ticket to that sci-fi setting. For better or worse, he gets signed up to participate in their long-standing mech war where he sides with a company to fight against the RaRa who yearn to conquer Kazuki’s world.
8The Super Dimension Century Orguss
It’s rare to see a sci-fi Isekai despite it being a ripe setting for exploration.The Super Dimension Century Orgusscalled dibs on that notion back in 1983, during the height of the space race. The creators probably overestimated the speed of human development back then since this anime supposedly takes place in 2062.
In that version of the future, a large intergalactic war ensues and a pilot named Kei Katsuragi is tasked with detonating a space/time disrupting bomb in a desperate attempt to win the war. Only, that bomb unleashed multiple dimensions, so Kei now has to work on fixing the problem he caused.
7Show By Rock!!
Not many expect a mashup of music and Isekai into one anime butShow by Rock!!pulls it off with flying colors. It begins when an aspiring music nerd and musician named Cyan gets a little too absorbed into her rhythm music game—literally. She gets sucked into the game world where music reigns supreme, and the best musicians have the most power.
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Thus, she started her journey of becoming one of the top musicians within her favorite rhythm music video game. As always with anyIsekai protagonist, Cyan has the potential but lacks the confidence to take a leap of faith. That’s nothing a few newfound friends can’t fix.
6Flip Flappers
If one can get past the silly title (which is saying something for an anime), thenFlip Flapperswon’t disappoint. In fact, it will likely awe and inspire anyone who goes to see it in a blind binge. Think of it as a mix betweenSailor MoonandAlice in Wonderland,except with robot exoskeletons.
Cocona is one of the main heroines here and initially, she was merely a normal high school student. All that changed when she meets a lively girl named Papika who invites her into the odd organization named Flip Flap. After that, she gets dragged into a surreal sci-fi world called Pure Illusion where nearly anything goes and she now has superpowers.
5Now And Then, Here And There
One of the reasons why it’s a bit difficult for a battle and actionIsekai animeto be set in a setting other than medieval fantasy is that other themes and settings are a little too pessimistic.Now and Then, Here and Thereis a good example of this. The story follows the struggles of a boy named Shuuzou who inadvertently gets kidnapped to another world after he tries to save a weird-looking girl.
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Sadly, for Shuuzou, his new world is a dystopian society where water is the most precious resource of all. That says a lot about the desert world. Shuuzou then had to endure the horrors of torture, war, and starvation as he keeps to his myopic goal of saving the same girl who got him in trouble.
4The Saga Of Tanya The Evil
The Saga of Tanya the Evilis also an anime epic about war— World War 1 to be more specific. However, it’s alittle less depressingthanNow and Then, Here and Therewhich is pretty much an anime equivalent ofGrave of the Fireflies.Saga of Tanya the Evilsees a dead Japanese salaryman reincarnated as a nine-year-old war freak girl who gets conscripted to fight in World War 1.
Such a case was only possible thanks to Being X, a god who playfully reincarnated the salaryman into a little girl in the said time period. The salaryman, now Tanya, doesn’t relent and in an act of defiance, rose to the military ranks to prove to Being X that he/she won’t lose a second time.
