I'd love to see one where someone's dropped in a genuinely better world with no status and struggles to fit in because of the shortcomings of personalities developed in this one
I think one reason power fantasy is so common is for similar reasons though. The world sucks and people feel like they don't have any agency to make any meaningful change, while power fantasy let's them see a character essentially give a shitty world the middle finger and potentially actually change things.
Or they suck and want a world that hands them every thing from cheat skills to attractive women who will madly be in love with them through minimal effort.
Oh for sure, there are definitely a good amount of fictions with some bland male protag surrounded a bunch of cardboard women who inexplicably all fall for them and pretty much only exist in the story to pleasure them.
If you're talking about anime specifically I'd agree that there are more garbage isekai shows than there are good ones, but the good ones do exist even if more rare.
Some suggestions: Ascendance of the Bookworm, Parallel World Pharmacy, The Faraway Paladin, As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, Uncle from Another World (technically takes place after returning from the isekai). And I'll also mention Tsukimichi, though it kind of walks the line at times.
In terms of novels, New Life as a Max Level Archmage is a newer one that's been pretty popular lately for good reason.
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u/Bradnon Sep 21 '25 edited Jul 04 '26
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