Exploring Isekai offers the first comprehensive study of isekai in anime, manga and light novels in which characters from the "real world" are transported, summoned, reincarnated or trapped in fantastical realms.
Challenging the misconception that isekai is mere escapism, the volume brings together an international group of contributors to consider how the genre reflects contemporary anxieties, desires and social structures through game-like world-building, moral frameworks and recurring underdog heroes. Examining classics like Spirited Away (2001) alongside globally popular series such as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2013–25) and Overlord (2015–), the volume traces the thematic and aesthetic evolution of isekai, revealing how these narratives reimagine identity, labour and belonging in an increasingly digital and transnational world.
eBook - PDF
Exploring Isekai
Mapping Worlds through Anime, Manga, and Light Novels
- 329 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
Exploring Isekai
Mapping Worlds through Anime, Manga, and Light Novels
About this book
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Subtopic
Film & VideoTable of contents
- Cover
- Halftitle page
- Global East Asian Screen Cultures
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on the Use of Japanese Language
- Introduction Not a Death March Rhapsody—Isekai’s Incredible Momentum1
- Part One Isekai in Historic Perspective
- 1 The First Anime Isekai Aura Battler Dunbine’s Origins and Cold War Fears
- 2 Isekai Enactment in Millennial Japan Mediating Violence within a Dislocated World in
- 3 Worlds Beyond, Selves Within Mythopoeic Metamorphosis in Select Isekai Anime
- Part Two Understanding Isekai
- 4 Exploring Isekai The Window into Another World
- 5 Alice in Borderland and Beyond Examining Existential Crises through an Isekai Manga
- 6 Open for Otherworldly Business Work, Life, and Fantasy in Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement
- 7 Intersecting Media Utilizing Game Systems as Narrative Tools in Linear Fiction in Kumo desu ga, nani ka?
- 8 Social Significance of Isekai A New Narrative Type in the Age of Fiction?
- Part Three How Fiction Influences Reality
- 9 Sokushinbutsu and Isekai in Takahashi Rumiko’s Inuyasha
- 10 Creation of a New Transcendent Isekai and Religious Affordance in Overlord and My Next Life as a Villainess
- 11 “Now Go, and Don’t Look Back” Spirited Away, Anime on the Global Stage, and Extratextual Isekai
- Part Four Gender Perspectives on Isekai
- 12 Queering Isekai The Executioner and Her Way of Life
- 13 Power, Transhumanism, and Gender Differences in Preference for Isekai Anime
- 14 Control, Autonomy, and Slavery in Isekai
- Contributor Biographies
- General Index
- Index of Non-Japanese Novels and Fiction Authors
- Index of Anime/Manga/Light Novels
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Yes, you can access Exploring Isekai by William B. Ashbaugh,Shintaro Mizushima in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Film & Video. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.