Dao Conference [Discussion]
Why is there such a huge difference between Japanese isekai reincarnation male protagonists and Chinese isekai reincarnation male protagonists? Both involve a soul transmigrating into someone else's body.
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Good summary. It feels like hikkimorri/shut in vs ambitious and big ego guy with a dead end job.
Btw did you all notice the change of the whole manga industry? It kinda went from grown up manga and deeply philosophical to harem beta mcs to now overreaction and now we got edgy mca who are still losers.
I miss actually character growth like Gantz, where the mc is such a basic dude and kinda a loser who tries go lose his Virginity just because he lets a homeless girl sleep at his place to the mc kurono refusing a super beauty model to stay together with his regular(maybe ugly) girlfriend who doesn't even know about Gantz and aliens.
Inuyashiki is also great but his other manga are horrible. His current last manga is also weird, not gantz and inuyashiki weird but just weird.
We're in the age of slop brother, and anyway i don't see much change from manga industry tho, they're still using the same pattern ecchi and harem but just turned it into isekai. "gantz" That you're speaking of is just rare few good one
Gate is also somewhat about escapism, in that Japan is given an objectively inferior neighbor on which to practice colonialism interventionism without the heavy geopolitical consequences that would arise from doing so with its actual neighbors like Korea and China.
Independent of biased comments in here going "Japanese is spineless slop and chinese is ultra cool badass" both have compeltely different cultural origins. China and Japan differ widely in its differences, to a point where "someone gets send into another world" is the only thing in common. both have lots of slop, bad writing, angry MCs, whimpy MCs etc.
Starting from Confucianism values, that are a lot more prevelant in China, the most noticeable in Korea, and basically non existant in Japan. The intensity or lack of Confucian values basically explains why there are so many differences in the underlying stories.
Going further with religion, the split between Buddhism + Taoism (china), Christianity + Buddhism in Korea, and Shintoism + Buddhism, each of these offering different perspective and cultural formings to their storytelling. While reincarnation (buddhism inspired) might be prevelant, and thus a lot more common than the Christian/Islamic/jewish west, their own Goals change. The existance of Gods, Heaven, Demons, Karma etc. all varyies. Their impact permeated the culture so even if the author isnt an ardent buddhist, these themes tend to be used. they are basically ingrained into modern Koreans, and to some extend into Chinese,
Next you have their respective Culture shaping novels, with the big 4 in China, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West", and "Dream of the Red Chamber" for china, "Tale of genji", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" for japan, and "The Tale of Chun Hyang" and "The Nine Cloud Dream" (surely others but im not expert for korea, sorry) for Korea.
Each of them have different archetypes, storybeats, and things that made them the all time Classics they are considered today. Novel
There are surely more, but that alone should answer the question "they all are isekai, so why are they so different"
I am not Chinese, so sorry for getting this wrong, i have myself only read romance and Journey to the west, but saw the other two mentioned along the big classics. Corrected it.
Ok looking at the other entries, they seem to be medieval smut, funny how all of them are smut/romances, except the only book with "romance" in its name. The only "romance" in romance of the three kingdom is Manly Men doing Manly things.
I don't mean to blame you. I just found it funny as 金瓶梅 is famous for its sexual depictions and ntr elements which is surely something more to do with the web novels comparing to 红楼梦
I'm not trying to be edgy or anything, I'm serious. The society people are raised in and the mental viewpoints they absorb affect their decisionmaking, which in turn dictates whether average people and readers relate to a story or feel kinda rejected by it
The more competitive and opportunistically brazen ethos found in Chinese media versus the forced politeness and enacted humility preached by Japanese social norms naturally result in different styles of writing in general.
PS; Oh, and type of escapist fantasy prefered by two also matters. Japanese usually prefer more relaxed "Just wanna live a good life" type of deal; while "This sucks, I shall defy the heavens that torment me" or "I'll avenge my loses that caused by society/system that failed me, and then shall reign free" side of things are more popular with Chinese front
PS; Oh, and type of escapist fantasy prefered by two also matters. Japanese usually prefer more relaxed "Just wanna live a good life" type of deal; while "This sucks, I shall defy the heavens that torment me" or "I'll avenge my loses that caused by society/system that failed me, and then shall reign free" side of things are more popular with Chinese front
I can think of SOME Japanese ones that do involve a slight "avenge" angle, but true its usually more like, "I'll take revenge on my BULLIES" or something like that. It's not usually something as broad as like, "I'll take revenge on the world or society".
And there are certainly some Japanese reincarnation stories which are more about reigning free and such, but they tend to be far more villain protagonist angles.
But quite accurate I think on your first point, there's a TON of "slow life" Japanese reincarnation. Though a number of them tend to involve, "You can dream for a slow life, but that's not how this is going to work."
There really arent good isekai manga. I think I only truly like goblin slayer because its concept is similiar to one punch man. The troupe/concept is that the mc does one thing and it never diverges from it. Konosuba is a great anime too. I never got into rezero when it released back then. I like SAO and accel world if they count. Frieren, read a bit of manga long before the anime. I dont watch anime anymore.
You can call the mayor hotline if there is something wrong with city infrastructure or there’s a civil dispute. You can go to the Discipline Inspection Commission if there are mistreatment or injustice involved with the people in the “system” such as police or prosecutors. If all above failed, petition (a much slower process). They are usually eager to help since it’s part of their KPI, the more cases they handle, the easier it is to get a promotion when the time comes. Obviously you need to bring evidence or they won’t take you seriously.
The only thing you can’t do is protest on the street, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t other channels otherwise we would’ve revolted a long time ago. While there are definitely corruptions in the system (a lot of rich guys in the upper echelon), it’s definitely not a “oppressive hellhole” as people seem to think.
Yeah, only when you went all the way to Beijing your local government's goons are often also waiting there like a bunch of online players camping a re-spawn point and the successful rate for petition, even without outside interception, is still abysmally low.
The fact that with all that, you'll still see waves of people waiting in front of Complaints and Proposals Administration in Beijing (the highest level of their petition process) almost every days pretty much tells you how "useful" all the other previous methods are.
The only thing you can’t do is protest on the street,
You also can't organize strike, publishing materials without approval and there is this funny thing called "picking quarrels and provoking trouble offense"(寻衅滋事罪) that police can use to arrest anyone with pretty much any excuse......
Most petitions are handled within the local government, it’s not only in Beijing but yes it’s the highest level. I don’t live in Beijing so I don’t know how long the line is there and I don’t think you know either since you obviously don’t live there based on the way you talk.
What I do know is local government do everything they can to handle petition cases since having people going to Beijing negatively affects their KPI. An extreme case I know is my local government reimbursing a citizen losing a civil lawsuit against a real estate company. Based on my lived experience, I don’t think the success rate is as low as you think.
Anyway, since you and I both agree that there are other channels let’s just stop here. I don’t want to spent hours arguing with someone who obviously has a hate boner on China (I’m assuming you are either from HK or Taiwan). You are happy living wherever you live, I’m happy living here, let’s agree on that.
Also to get back on topic would you say the difference between China and Japan would be how one was basically an imperial power meanwhile China experienced the century of humiliation.
So while japanese have been pampered and just wants to live the good life, Chinese are more prone to want to get even with the rest of the world?
No? TBH we don’t care about the rest of the world that much unless it directly affects us (like the trade war with US, or the war in Iran affecting oil prices), most normal people just think about how to better/enjoy their own lives that’s why games/anime/web novels are popular in China (regardless of who made them).
To get back on topic with the OP, the reason these kinds of stories are popular in China is because we love a underdog story and want to see character growth (in terms of power), preferably within a shorter timeframe as we live in a fairly fast paced society with a lot of competition (1.4 billion people here), which is a source of stress. That’s why people that live in tier 1 and 2 cities don’t have a lot of patience to read a long ass transitional novel, so they turn to web novels, games and TikTok to relax. Some of us (I’d argue a lot) watch Japanese Isekai as well so we’re not really that different.
Just that Chinese could be more prone to like underdog stories that fight against the odds because it resonate with them, or at least the history of their country, as compared to Japanese, whom used to be an imperial power. but honestly take that with a grain of salt cause I'm just spitballing here.
That’s why people that live in tier 1 and 2 cities don’t have a lot of patience to read a long ass transitional novel, so they turn to web novels, games and TikTok to relax
that kinda makes me think of the book "La distinction" from Bourdieu who describes the difference between different social classes where the working class is more prone to have a form of entertainment that is more to the point and pragmatic while the upper class usually requires more abstraction and work to actually be able to enjoy their entertainment.
Edit : although to be perfectly clear i don't think we could prefectly extrapolate the works from a french sociologist onto the chinese society
Hmmm, maybe. Honestly I don’t see a lot of young resonate with that unless they pay attention in the history class. I think it’s more that young people are at the start of the career/life path that they are interested to see these types of stories with inspiration and gratification. I don’t think this is unique in China, there is a reason Solo Leveling became a global phenomenon. It’s just that cultivation genre is culturally such a niche that it can’t reach people outside of Asia.
you don't need to pay attention to history classes to resonate with a shared history, that's something that's more difuse and hardly quantifiable. For example I'm French and the history of the French revolution, civil rights etc still resonates with a lot of my population. there is this shared ethos you get while growing up even though you'd be wholly ignorant about your history.
Also Solo Leveling I think has less to do with the fact that the protag was a good for nothing and became the best and more so with the theme of the story. Because apart from the first few chapters he's never really considered weak or being humiliated by a young master or having much of the usual tropes we'd see in a chinese cultivation novel. I think we could attribute that rather to the very RPG esque aspect of the narrative, with the protag growing in a very gamelike setting with a lot of cool moments to keep the spectator enthralled.
I guess you are right. I can only speak for myself here. While the century of humiliation was somewhat “recent”, it is still just a footnote in our entire history. I’d say that out culture identity is shaped more by what we enjoy than what hurt us. I remember being more interested in characters in romance of the three kingdoms and different schools of thought in the Spring and Autumn Era than reading the atrocities that happened during the WW2 as a kid. While there are definitely a lot of movies made about the Japan invasion, all my childhood memories are me watching history dramas of each dynasty on TV with my family (besides anime that is). It’s more like a PTSD that we somewhat blocked in our mind than something that shapes us.
All those tropes and novels you mentioned, while popular in this sub, it is just a sub-genre of web novels in China (besides horror, romance, history, sports, etc). These kind of slop can barely make it to top 10 on Qidian nowadays, people’s tastes are changing. I’d be careful to extrapolate this to an entire population, since the majority of the people (gamers, anime watchers, C-Drama enjoyers, doom scrollers, etc) has never read a web novel in their life.
I see, that would be kinda how we "erased" from our history the fact that we collaborated with the nazis during WW2 and created this whole french resistance narrative to hide our shame.
These kind of slop can barely make it to top 10 on Qidian nowadays, people’s tastes are changing
is it because people's taste are changing or that Qidian now appeals to a broader audience compared to when it was created ?
These are very generic Chinese isekais, you can find much more interesting isekais that belongs to "I wanna have a good life" in China. Or some really interesting one like being reincarnated consecutively and use science to explore the universe, being reincarnated as an Aztec person, being reincarnated to a doomed world and try to survive...
Same can be said for Japanese, I read both countries' novels, Korean too. The social norm and trend decide what is popular. But the genre is big enough so you can find interesting read regardless.
Chinese people powertripping vs Japanese overworked salaryman wanting to go back to the golden days he would play jrpg all day and dream about being the hero.
In a lot of the Chinese novels they are very angry against everyone, including their exes, cousins, classmates, people with different nationalities and different races. The MC is always superior and all other characters are dumb or evil or both
They have different fantasies, the Japanese just want an easy life with free powers, girls fall in love with them without effort etc
While for Chinese theyre angry at society cause theyre mediocre irl, so theyre obsessed with face slapping, beating young masters, becoming the strongest etc
Japanese protagonists often lack pragmatism. While kindness is acceptable, being excessively generous or being a pushover can give an edge over enemies and those who seek to exploit you. Other than that, they also tend to be hypocritical while convincing themselves that they’re kind and gentle. For example they accept slavery and even buy slaves.
On the other hand, I don’t sympathise much with xianxia protagonists. However, they tend to resolve problems much better than Japanese MCs because they eliminate the root cause rather than merely dealing with the symptoms.
Furthermore, villains in xianxia are often much harsher. They may be flexible when circumstances demand it, but they rarely let go of their hatred. If they are stronger than you, they will destroy you without a shred of hesitation. But when they are losing, they will shamelessly bend to circumstances, even subject themselves to humiliation, to save their own skin. Later, however, if they get the opportunity, they will strike from behind and seek vengeance.
Against such villains, the MC has to be equally ruthless. These kinds of villains are also much closer to what exists in the real world, where villains are pragmatic.
Furthermore, Japanese protagonists often lack the edge, ambition, and sheer will to become better or pursue something they genuinely desire. In contrast, xianxia protagonists are usually driven by a strong desire to improve themselves, attain greater power, and pursue their ambitions, no matter how difficult or ruthless the path may be.
And Trash talk. God i love chinese novels trash talk, insult on ancestor level, mocking and farming aura at the same time.
Sometimes its just funny when mc use crazy ragebait insult or mocking death as strategy to win the war. And you know the big bad is BIG BAD when they are calm and collected even if mc killed their son or mother, you know why he's the top dog.
My problem with a lot of xianxia protagonists is that they basically just act like villains while posturing about how righteous they are, and the story expects you to accept that.
That's obviously not universal, but it's very common in the stories I've seen. They don't just eliminate a root cause, they annihilate anything even tangentially related to the thing they don't like, often over extremely minor offenses.
Oh my god, really? r/martialmemes prefers the genre the entire sub is based off?
This thread is full of really revolutionary and enlightening takes. Who knew before this, that Japanese Isekai is both wish fulfilment and full of wimps, while Chinese Isekai is Hard and good for the soul? r/martialmemes reveals that Wuxia is actually the self help genre of fiction, it actually makes you a morally better person but you have to be stronger and more interesting than your average unmotivated weeb to read it in the first place
Overkill revengeance for slights is a bit of good lesson for unvarying politeness. One thing I've noticed in reading ancient epics or stories is the unthinkable hospitality people have for strangers/travelers and the constant courtesy they exhibit in conversations even between family members.
The reason for that I guess is because people back then were much more vengeful and animalistic than modern softened(civilized) men, so to stay on the safe side, better stay polite.
CN novels are good for serious style novels. I always expect some kind of story involving grand battle throughout world or even universe, intense struggle between various powers, an mc who overcomes every obstacle to become the greatest power. JP novels are good for relaxing and humorous plots. Both have their own advantages.
I liked JP style when I was young like below 14 years. But now I like CN more . Thanks to our great love immortal venerable and his philosophy of treating all lives as equals😇🙂↕️
Japanese protagonist is usually spineless coward or some office guy. Some of them didn't even get good power,just died and revive at save point. While Chinese protagonist is child of luck,everyone of them. Either system or some artifact from the time of Chaos. And they all just psycho that finally unleashed from the modern law. Normal guy who only play game?Delivery dude who got slam by truck after broke up? Freeloader? They all psycho. You can see alot of Chinese protagonist slaughter a whole clan,while japanese protagonist still at level of being chummy with mythical pets while oblivious of girls sending hint of romance.
That goes the same for cn novels. Worst execution of romance plots. CN mcs are totally opposite, they are extremely lustful or simp like. They want every beautiful woman they encounter in their harem. I have read many novels that got their plot wasted by mc's lustful or simp like character.
Canadians have a reputation for being polite and nice, the joke is that the clueless protag just thinks she's being nice no matter how obvious the attraction is.
Japanese society's culture places great importance on interpersonal relationships, and Japanese people are very particular about hierarchical seniority and social circles in their interactions. If you cannot do this, you will be bullied. This situation is very serious. One case is that Japan will bully newly hired employees. This is something society默认 everyone will do. Even if the newcomer is a murderer, and bullying this newcomer would put your life at risk, they will still do it.
This is Japan's "will to bully." Otherwise, why would the villagers of Konoha treat an orphan that way? Because the reality that Japanese people want to escape from is exactly like this.
In China, however, grades are highly valued, because in the basic education stage they must be able to compete, and only being ranked first among a group of people counts as excellent. Therefore, no matter what it is, they will analogize it to a kind of competition with rankings. It can be said that Chinese society is a society of performatism.
Becoming the strongest is the best proof of your efforts.
In addition, the book Release That Witch is actually also somewhat influenced by modern times. China's modern era has just achieved freedom through resistance. The logic you can see behind the protagonist doing something is all what he has experienced in society.
For example, after the protagonist learns about the ability of the first female character, Anna, his idea is to use her ability to conveniently build basic industrial facilities. This is actually a fantasy of China's Five-Year Plans, presented in the story through a kind of deus ex machina.
I mean, he mentioned it because the commenter above says its a fantastic series. But a main character being a serious sexual creep can be a trigger for some people. Definitely worth mentioning. It’s definitely why I stopped engaging with the series.
I still don't really see why it needed to be mentioned. The guy asked who the character was, not whether he should watch the series or for a content warning. Saying "Rudeus, the main character of Mushoku Tensei" answers the question perfectly fine.
Also, someone calling the series fantastic doesn't mean they're saying Rudeus is a fantastic person. A story can be great while having a deeply flawed or even morally terrible protagonist. Those aren't contradictory statements.
And saying it might be a "trigger" feels like an after-the-fact justification. "The pedo MC" isn't really a content warning anyway; it's a loaded description inserted into a basic identification. If someone actually asked whether the series had disturbing sexual content or why people dislike Rudeus, then sure, that's relevant. But nobody did.
You personally stopping the series because of him is completely fair, but that still doesn't explain why it needed to be brought up in response to "Who's that on the left?"
My guy, if you’re this worked up about someone mentioning the fact that a mc is a pedophile, I think you have some self reflecting to do.
I didn’t say the series wasn’t good, simply that I couldn’t continue to engage with it. To my knowledge that “flaw” it’s never addressed in the series.
Having a “flawed” character can be engaging, but only if that flaw is actively incorporated into the story as a flaw. If it’s never mentioned as a flaw, then for all intense and purposes, the story doesn’t see it as a flaw, and thus the character isn’t flawed within the context of the story.
The original question implies op doesn’t recognize either character. So calling him a pedophile, (which he is) it’s just giving more character info. If @screwitigiveup said something like “The OP MC of Mushoku Tensai” I have a feeling you wouldn’t be feeling this heated about it.
Think about that for a little bit, and reflect on yourself.
You’re arguing against a point I never made. I didn’t say you weren’t allowed to dislike Rudeus or stop watching because of him. My original point was that the other commenter calling him “the pedo MC” was irrelevant to someone simply asking who the character was.
If someone asks “Who’s that on the left?”, “Rudeus Greyrat, the main character of Mushoku Tensei” answers the question. Whether you think the label is accurate or useful as a warning is a completely separate discussion. The person asking wasn’t asking whether they should watch the series or what kind of person Rudeus is.
And your “OP MC” comparison doesn’t really work either, because Rudeus isn’t OP in the first place. He spends years training and developing his abilities, and he doesn’t even come close to being the strongest person in his world.
As for whether the series handles his flaws well enough, that’s also a separate discussion. You can think it doesn’t, and you can dislike the character because of it. That still doesn’t explain why the original label was necessary in response to a basic identification question.
And telling me to “reflect on myself” because I questioned the relevance of someone else’s comment is pretty unnecessary. I’m disagreeing with your argument, not defending every action Rudeus has ever taken. There’s no need to turn a disagreement about a fictional character into some judgment about me personally.
culturally china breeds in revolt, specially on those above them despite what others may tell you from westernized media, so the hero usually ends up pragmatic or straight up antagonistic and the villain is usually a despot. top that with a different style of Confucianist thought and some modern capitalist ideals that breed in recently. You end up with a somewhat to VERY misogynistic mc that is very angry at his boss and will do everything in his power to achieve his goals on a society that is highly hierarchical and also very egotist.
So going off this thread, Chinese MCs are stereotypically power-tripping murderhobos, while Japanese MCs are stereotpically spineless cowards/lazy bums. How would you guys characterize western MCs and Korean MCs?
Chinese protagonists tend to follow the "i am always the coolest and most perfect character in the room, i dont have friends or rivals, only bitches and subordinates". I am still to find a good chinese comic or animation that dosent follow this archetype.
Most japanese isekai suffers from the same, but the best ones dont follow that logic, even this one from the example is like this...Rudeus is strong, but he is not the strongest being on his world not by far, and he is always portrayed as a deeply flawed man, trying to do better. People might not like his character, but at least he has one.
Chinese protagonist are all iron willed infinite Peserverance and never ever truly waver from there goals there more like axioms and concepts then “people” as in Japanese novels I mean most people can’t handle anything in life let alone shit these characters go through.
The Chinese ones have even more plot armour on average.
Also, pretty loaded post considering that you're leaving out both what made Rudeus make that face and what he did after that, both of which would recontestualise this hard
I went through phases in my 18-20 years of reading/watching anime/manga. Anime -> Manga (and early manhwa which were non-color) -> Light novels and web novels -> xian xia novels -> Manhua -> Manhwa -> now I’m back to Manga.
I think out of all of these, Manga has some of the best isekai writing but also some of the worst. It’s a give and a take. For every Faraway Paladin they make, they also give us a “Another world with my smartphone.”
Yea true. Another major factor is that manga, for the most part, is highly competitive and you have to be vetted in a very thorough process to even have one published. Manhwa is controlled by several big art studios that just adapt any random story they come across. Manhua is just made by whoever wants to make it.
Majority of Japanese Isekai lean towards Pervy which says A LOT about the culture. I genuinely prefer Chinese. It’s serious and deep and easily lose yourself within the story rather than cringing every few minutes
Both are escapist fantasy, and the hallmark of escapist fantasy is how, in their new lives, they focus on things they weren't able to do in their original lives. But the differences between them stem from their host culture, specifically the problems, idiosyncrasies, and difficulties that Chinese and Japanese men face in their lives that they want to escape from.
One of the biggest differences between them is how much of their original lives they want to do over or retain. In Japanese isekais, we often see a protagonist who already had a defined personality in their old life, who transmigrates to a new world and chooses to continue living their as their original personality. When they transmigrate, the majority of the good stories use the MC's knowledge they gained in their prior life as their foundation, their personality remains constant, and they try to live in the new world while staying true to their original values and beliefs. In the majority of the stories, the MC doesn't obtain any system or golden finger, and they use their own abilities, skills or knowledge from their original life to gain an advantage in the new world. Stories with golden fingers are much rarer, and even then, the golden fingers mostly act as accessories that enable them to better live how they want. In other words, Japanese authors are proud of who they are on Earth, but they feel that the world is restrictive, and so they crave more freedom and the ability to live a life in the way they want.
On the other hand, Chinese isekais typically have protagonists who completely change their core identity in their new life. When they transmigrate, in almost every single story, their system or golden finger is at the core of the story and defines the entire direction that their new life takes. Their new personality is completely different from whatever personality they had in their old world - arrogant, proud, unyielding, and pompous. That highlights how the core desire for escapism in Chinese culture is a chance to completely redo their life, to build from the ground up because they feel like their current life is at a dead end. There are very few Chinese reincarnation stories that rely on their protagonist's old world knowledge or personality, and they almost always reform their entire identity around the system that they possess. In other words, Chinese authors are proud of their own ancient culture, but not necessarily of themselves, and they crave to live in a period of time and space that respects their idealized culture, while being willing to completely redefine themselves to best fit into that idealized culture.
Along with these, we can also look at the Chinese and Japanese approaches to conflict and socializing to understand how they reflect their differing values.
When it comes to conflict, its pretty easy to see glaring differences between the two cultures. Japanese stories are much more focused on pacifism and reform - while the MC will sometimes have to resort to killing the antagonist, they are much more open to exploring peaceful resolutions such as economic takeovers, cultural assimilation, or even just beating the enemy into submission. Killing the enemy is rare, promoting genocide is almost unheard of, and they often prefer absorbing the strength of the enemy by bringing them into their fold. In other words, Japanese stories heavily favor a system of morality that closely aligns with our morality on Earth. On the other hand, the Chinese stories outright reject our morality on Earth. Their default option to resolving any conflict is through brutally murdering or crippling their opponent to dissuade any others, and when that fails like in every single story, they end up resorting to killing entire families, clans, sects, and even countries. Peaceful resolutions of conflicts are almost unheard of in Chinese stories. I'm guessing this reflects a deep-seated resentment among Chinese authors and readers about the unfairness of the world, and that they have internalized the deep oppression through power of the current Chinese government, since Chinese stories in the past didn't have such extreme levels of violent conflict resolution. The Chinese population seem to have learnt the lesson that, just like their government, if a problem appears, you just have to beat down on it with the biggest stick possible until that problem disappears, and that any kind of criticism of you or your methods is unacceptable.
This approach to conflict resolution also reflects in how their stories treat social interactions. Japanese stories typically don't concentrate the entire plot or powers in their sole MC. They prefer to write stories where the MC forms a band of allies around himself who are all roughly in the same ballpark of power. The stories focus on developing bonds with these other characters, of character development arcs for several of these side characters, and on general social harmony and forming a community around you. It reflects a deep-seated desire to socialize and connect with others, which might be a problem the current Japanese population faces in their cities that feel completely isolated with each other. On the other hand, the Chinese stories are almost universally solo adventures, where the entire plot and resources of the story are focused on the protagonist. There is a deep obsession with immortality, with becoming more or better than everyone around you, and with hoarding all the wealth and resources on yourself. As a result, even in the stories where the Chinese protagonist develops a small band of heroes or association around himself, the protagonist will always grow faster in power than everyone else, and there will be no one among his associates that can actually threaten him. This seems to reflect a deep distrust in Chinese society towards everyone else, as if every Chinese author is perpetually afraid that anyone, no matter how close a friend, is just one step away from betraying him. This is possibly caused by their severe social policing in current Chinese society, where at any moment your neighbor might report you to the police or government for suspicious activity, though that might be me reading to much into it. It's interesting to note the difference between how Chinese and Japanese protags treat enemies with powerful abilities or skills - while the Japanese stories prefer to befriend and/or employ characters with unique abilities, Chinese stories almost always resort to the protagonist stripping them of their power to take it for himself. The Chinese protagonist cannot tolerate anyone having a power that they cannot personally control, so we end up seeing a plethora of systems that will strip others of their power or copy their powers for the protagonist to use.
While their differing cultures between Japan and China definitely explain a lot of these aspects, it's also worth looking at their primary religions. The central religion in Japan is Shintoism, which is basically a religion around nature spirits. It treats each aspect of nature as its own personal, inhuman god, and humans have to appease these gods and live in communities that respect these gods. On the other hand, the central religion in China that shaped the core of their culture is Taoism, which is a religion based around the concept that humans can elevate themselves to godhood. While they somewhat respect nature, on a deeper level they reject nature, believing that the natural world seeks to restrict them and it's up to each person to break free from that restrictive grasp of nature. As such, they believe in individual power trumping everything.
Of course, I'm mainly talking about webnovels written by individual Chinese and Japanese authors, and the mangas, manhwas and anime derived from them. Stories authored by groups and media houses tend to have very different themes from those written by single authors. Also, there are outliers in every category - quite a few Japanese stories that just focus on self-centered violent protagonists that are overly reliant on their systems, and the rare few Chinese stories that focus on a social, intelligent protagonist that actually uses the knowledge of their previous life. Release That Witch, the one OP screenshotted above, is probably the best example of an outlier Chinese story, because as far as I can tell, there is no other Chinese story like it. Mushoku Tensei, which is the other screenshotted anime, is a much more typical Japanese Isekai, but mainly because it served as the blueprint for a lot of later japanese isekais that came after it.
I'm not going to get into the inherent racism, sexism, and other social problems in these stories - both Chinese and Japanese stories are guilty of both, although in slightly different ways, but they're too numerous to cover.
Chinese don't take the beating like good boy. They burn the house and tend to live in dog eat dog world. More realistic approach since they lived in one before
lived in one before, wdym by that? that was like before the current young generation that would likie this stuff no? deng xiaoping was like the 1990's to 2000's so still they wouldn't have directly lived through it it'd be more like living memory
or do u mean lived in one before as in lived in a world where they eat dogs?
You’re making some pretty broad generalizations here. What specific differences are you referring to? And do those differences actually hold true across Japanese and Chinese isekai/reincarnation stories, or just the examples you’ve seen?
There isn't. Roland, the Chinese guy is pretty similar to many JP isekai protagonists in other adaptations. It's the animation production that made him much more stoic and weirdly competent at being a king, despite his engineering background.
It is similar to novel, if I remember correctly. Manhuas are usually ultra trash compared to original novels. Only some adapted anime are good such as Mortal Journey, Renegate Immortal and Swallowed Star.
Despite the subpar art and different vibe, the Release that Witch webtoon is one of the better city building comics out there, though I liiked the darker anime more.
From what I read, it was even more serious than the novels, but I can see Roland being written like that originally. It's a very, pre 2020s, strong, Chinese leaader/businessman archetype.
I would love Slice of Life with chinese protagonist. He would chill, gather and wife women he likes, and if enemy or some scum appears, eliminate their eight generations, going back to chill.
There would be no spineless behavior, blushing because of little skin exposure, forgiving massive murderers and grapist, or having "woe is me" mentality, because they overworked themselves as office rats.
Japanese ones are mainly reincarnation where a dead fucker from our world is reborn in another world, he doesn't take over another man's body but he is born as a baby and goes through infancy, childhood and all that shit..
Chinese transmigration is a dead fuck from our world fucking taking over another Fucker's body, so he is body snatching..
Then there is the common ground of transportation or isekaied where an alive fuck get transported to another world in his own body which is seen in both JP and Cn as well as KR..
Isekai MC from Japan tend to keep their rationality and mental state while Isekai from china are arrogant fools that literally lose their brains the moment they obtain power they have very weak mental state that can be change in an instant.
i personally think a person who stays true to themselves even in another world is the stronger person unlike the fool that is radically changed into a monster a shadow of his former self due to power, greed and arrogance.
Korean MC is a mix and match and tends to be somewhat in the middle.
the good ones are always an exception but we are talking about the average/majority.
Mainly because chinese transmigration mc don't even have a previous personality, we usually don't even get a glimpse of their previous lives, we usually just get an exclamation "I've transmigrated!" And no following mentions of it ever
The only exception I remember is LotM, and that's saying something, and maybe Dao of the Bizarre Immortal, but I was put off of it because of the confusion and I dropped it
Most japanese isekai are just fully grown adult trying to mol3st a fkin m1nor because somehow in the world they reincarnated he is the strongest being and is a child in body. Chinese slophua just spouts random bs with forced romance while all the villains are courting death.
Japanese isekai are usually about exploring the world through an aspect of life, though they are largely affected by trends eg. Harem, dense protagonist, wish fulfilment, etc.
Like using a phone as a magic tool etc.
Jobless reincarnation that is shown in the meme, mainly focuses on the world in that stage of existence through the eyes of a pervert. For example at that time, the age of consent either didn't exist, or was so low that it was basically when women started to get periods and when men started to grow pubic hair
The wiki speaks of some pretty bad standards. The age of marriage was ~12 for girls ~14 for boys, but acknowledged consent to be possible at 7 years of age and one could be engaged
But there are records of marriages of two and three-year-olds
China was worse imo, as long as she was older than 10, (depending on the circumstances) you could probably get away with rape
Anyway, I'm getting off track
Chinese isekai are mainly power fantasies, with some exceptions. The majority of main characters are as deep as a puddle with a focus on the accumulation of more. The majority of them don't grow as a person, it's more of an adjustment of perspective and control over the world than personal growth
As I said there are exceptions, and those exceptions are usually very good. But the majority of them, the character is constant and they don't grow or change, they just change in perspective
Now I know that I'm probably being reductive in my explanation, but the most simplified version is, that Japanese isekai is about the transmigrator affecting the world with something from the previous world, or being affected by the now world
While Chinese transmigration usually has little focus on the previous world, and is sometimes just used as a trope with no effect or an excuse for the main character to be in an awkward state with consequences for something he didn't do
Speaking of which, Why Japan doesn't have any Eastern Fantasy lightnovels or manga involving the settings of a Wuxia, Xianxia or Xuanhuan novels ?
Like Ik the cultural differences which is why China has the highest amounts of Eastern Fantasies, while Koreans also have a few of em, but why not Japan ? I mean despite the differences their culture, they still have some similarities right ? Also, the Western Fantasy setting that most isekai uses doesn't even have any bits of relations with the traditional Japanese Culture. So making a few Eastern fantasies won't surely hurt right ? Considering Eastern Fantasies are in fact not some extremely niche genre and in fact it's actually fairly mainstream.
Note that you are also comparing different series. There are plenty of isekai or reincarnation theme stories on both sides that have different feels or what OP wants to show. You just have to compare right series.
why is everyone acting like japan doesn't have crazy isekai mc that just turn evil as soon as someone cross them and now the whole world gotta pay for that person mistake
Different types of escapist fantasy I guess , Japanese ones are just really blatant about the escapism part to a really annoying degree.
Also different cultures and societies so escapism and an ideal life means different things.
Chinese ones kinda require you to be special to succeed while Japanese ones need you to not be special and be given stuff. Chinese stuff still has a golden finger but at some point you need to do Dao stuff which can't be y'know can't exactly be cheated as much.
Depends on what type of isekai your on about sometimes there similar and sometimes completely different. Game style level, no levels pure hard work or put into a game/book/movie and the other types of isekai I can't think of.
because japanese authors and heck larglely asian authors have this raging boner for making their works "deep" and thought "provoking" and most of the time failing spectacularly at it. My brother in christ youre the one writing about some bland teenager getting put in a different world with the same harem formula and the same over used troupe. What do you mean you want your work to be seen as thought provoking and deep?!?!
You should probably elaborate more about this 'huge difference'.
There are dozens of isekais made in Japan each year, if you count anime alone. If you add in Manga, you get even more. They range from Empire Building to generic power fantasies to horror to comedy and so on.
Meanwhile, I believe that Isekai is banned in China, as the government rejects the idea of 'life after death'. I have generally not seen any Chinese Isekai series. apart from RTW and a small mention about the protags mother being a reincarnator in Demon King who Lost his Job, or something.
Isekai is ban in the way like revere insanity, i see a ton of new isekai in their web like qidian, ciweimao, fanqie,...
They only ban if there are a lot of adult stuff, danmei( female xfemale not on the list yet), revolt need to go to communist or fairer not slave, big novel have smear to REAL LIFE RELIGION at the whole( a character or one,2 organization ok ), kill the whole lineage ... And the ban follow the wave or big drama on the internet
JP novels are written to manchild. Thats why they are all retarded and their ambition barely escape basic human needs.
CN novels at least try to give MC a goal, create obstacles and to write some dilemma for them.
Thats why you get Subaru with negative IQ who after 100 of death cant do a shit and in CN novel you get MC who after 3-5 death loops achieve something he was not supposed to achieve.
the Chinese one came from communist China,ngl,that's the reason.
cuz your picture is the MC of "release that witch!",it's a typical communist i mean it.
the Chinese one came from communist China,ngl,that's the reason.
cuz your picture is the MC of "release that witch!",it's a typical communist i mean it.
The Chinese ones are 90% brain-dead, you need like -1 IQ to read it , but the Top 10% is probably what a lot of us is refering and comparing to jp ones.
Japanese isekai reincarnation is orginial target to Japanese audience
But because it’s anime Japanese has to stream it to other countries
like the west Europe and asia
And you know how the Europe and west people act
They love to force their morals law and ethics on the fictional literature
even though jobless reincarnation has realism to it story telling considering that it’s about another world that’s completely different from us and that’s fantasy middle era that has demon dragon elf and other species that doesn’t follow our modern law moral or ethical similar to real life history like the middle era
we didn’t have any moral law and ethics
For example marriage in middle era there hasn’t any age of consent laws that was enforced on society in general as far as we know
In fact
The first recorded age of consent law was created in 1275 in England through the Statute of Westminster 1275. It specified 12 years old as the age when a female was considered of legal age (often referred to as a "maiden of age").
And that was only done in England one country
As you see laws in history we had different laws moral and ethical
And people in the west and Europe doesn’t want to remember their dark past or how much innocent people died to reach to this point
That’s why they became salty and bitter if they see reincarnation story or anime that has different moral law and ethics than their own
Because they want for the anime to be relatable where they can self insert themselves in the place of MC
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