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If you replaced "The Hero's Journey" with the (Japanese-anime) word "Isekai", I get the same feeling here. "Isekai" is the "Trapped in another world" trope tha

If you replaced "The Hero's Journey" with the (Japanese-anime) word "Isekai", I get the same feeling here. "Isekai" is the "Trapped in another world" trope that suddenly became popular for anime/manga in the last 10 years. But the basis of the story has been backwards-applied to Wizard of Oz, a Kid in King Author's Court, and even 90s shows like Digimon, Escaflowne, and .Hack//Sign. Except "Isekai" as a concept didn't exist until relatively recently, within the past decade or so. There's no way Mark Twain was thinking of that concept when he wrote "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" over a hundred years ago. --------- Furthermore, a lot of the tropes associated with the Isekai genre can be applied to plenty of other stories (including the Hero's Journey). Harry Potter, for example, hits overpowered main character, travel to effectively another world hidden amongst people (Hogwarts), magical / fantasy tropes (classical monsters), etc. etc. ---------- There are however, certain tropes and storytelling devices that are popular amongst people. When you take an "average person" and stick them as the main character, with few defining features... it allows for the reader / watchers to "self-insert" themselves as the protagonist. See Harry Potter who comes from Muggle society, The Connecticut Yankee who represented a modern American from Mark Twain's era, Dorethy from Kansas, or the legion of Isekai protagonists from Kagome (Inuyasha), to Kirito (Sword Art Online). You give the main character a degree of wish fulfillment, including adventure, romance, and overall a positive and uplifting story. And a lot of people will like it. (The notion of "The Outsider" from Westerns and Japanese Samurai films also hits this trope) ----------- We can see that "The Hero's Journey" in fact follows a lot of similar patterns with "Isekai" itself even. Adventure is thrust upon the protagonist in the form of "The Isekai" moment (the moment where the protagonist is teleported to another world somehow). ----------- I think "The Hero's Journey" is largely the same. Its a backwards application being applied forwards. A concept created in 1944 that tries to unify stories from centuries or millennia ago, and tries to distill them into a singular "pattern" that works for today's audiences. No different from "Isekai" these days (though on a shorter timescale: a concept from the past 15 years that very well could be applied to stories from 100 years ago). Now excuse me, I have some trash anime to watch... EDIT: The trolls will joke that "Saving Private Ryan" is an Isekai. The WW2 front was a very different life, and the "Isekai" moment was getting off the boat and onto the shores of West Europe. They can't go back until they've accomplished their mission, so its an Isekai, trapped in another world.

pjz 4y ago
If the emphasis is on the the interaction between the protagonist and the new environment, I've also heard it called a 'fish out of water story'.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  The opposite. Isekai are normally about how "normal everyday man" has innate advantages over the new world. Ex: Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court knew about solar eclipses. He pretends to "destroy the sun" on his day of execution. When King Arthur pleads to bring the sun back, he "does so" (or the eclipse passes I should say), and this event solidifies himself as a wizard on King Arthur's Court. Ex2: Rimuru Tempest (That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime) uses his general-contractor knowledge to find specialists and organize his new town, becoming effectively the king of the monsters. The stronger monsters, with good leadership skills from Rimuru thanks to General Contracting knowledge, allows him to build roads, build new buildings, and advance his country faster than his neighbors. Ordinary humans simply don't have as much strength, dexterity, or stamina as Orcs, Goblins, and Oni. His former knowledge (and now monster-body) allows Rimuru to lead this group tremendously. And his general knowledge of humans allows him to play the political game with humans much better than any of the monsters could. Ex3: Harry Potter has plenty of "Muggle Knowledge", like how to send mail / post office stuff, or interact with TVs, Telephones, and Computers, throughout his series. Wizards and witches don't understand this, so Harry Potter can do a lot of things and help out. Ex4: "The Wizard of Oz" is himself, just a Kansas man, who knew some party tricks. These party tricks and conman-like trickery in general makes him into the leader of the Emerald City. Dorethy, herself from Kansas, is a kind-hearted young girl who knew how to use a water bucket to put out a fire... And that's all that was needed to overpower a lot of the evil-witch's spells and defeat the witch. Ex5: Ains, from the Anime/Novel "Overlord", is a guild-leader from a popular MMORPG. He uses his guild-leader / video game organization skills to lead the new NPCs to conquer the new world. (Though its more tongue-in-cheek: a lot of Ain's "brilliance" is dumb luck. So its somewhat making fun of other Isekai, since it makes it clear that Ains really isn't that smart) ------ Its not a "fish out of water" story, because Isekai is largely about wish fulfilment. You make the average, ordinary person into a hero. So its more like this optimistic, hopeful story about how a typical person's ordinary experience can be very helpful in different circumstances. There's also normally some kind of superpower that's not fully under the main character's control (ex: Harry Potter's scar, that connects him to Volemort). The superpower helps the "fish out of water" situation, allowing the main character to focus on how "ordinary people skills" help this new world out so much.

pjz 4y ago

If the emphasis is on the the interaction between the protagonist and the new environment, I've also heard it called a 'fish out of water story'.

dragontamer 4y ago
The opposite. Isekai are normally about how "normal everyday man" has innate advantages over the new world. Ex: Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court knew about solar eclipses. He pretends to "destroy the sun" on his day of execution. When King Arthur pleads to bring the sun back, he "does so" (or the eclipse passes I should say), and this event solidifies himself as a wizard on King Arthur's Court. Ex2: Rimuru Tempest (That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime) uses his general-contractor knowledge to find specialists and organize his new town, becoming effectively the king of the monsters. The stronger monsters, with good leadership skills from Rimuru thanks to General Contracting knowledge, allows him to build roads, build new buildings, and advance his country faster than his neighbors. Ordinary humans simply don't have as much strength, dexterity, or stamina as Orcs, Goblins, and Oni. His former knowledge (and now monster-body) allows Rimuru to lead this group tremendously. And his general knowledge of humans allows him to play the political game with humans much better than any of the monsters could. Ex3: Harry Potter has plenty of "Muggle Knowledge", like how to send mail / post office stuff, or interact with TVs, Telephones, and Computers, throughout his series. Wizards and witches don't understand this, so Harry Potter can do a lot of things and help out. Ex4: "The Wizard of Oz" is himself, just a Kansas man, who knew some party tricks. These party tricks and conman-like trickery in general makes him into the leader of the Emerald City. Dorethy, herself from Kansas, is a kind-hearted young girl who knew how to use a water bucket to put out a fire... And that's all that was needed to overpower a lot of the evil-witch's spells and defeat the witch. Ex5: Ains, from the Anime/Novel "Overlord", is a guild-leader from a popular MMORPG. He uses his guild-leader / video game organization skills to lead the new NPCs to conquer the new world. (Though its more tongue-in-cheek: a lot of Ain's "brilliance" is dumb luck. So its somewhat making fun of other Isekai, since it makes it clear that Ains really isn't that smart) ------ Its not a "fish out of water" story, because Isekai is largely about wish fulfilment. You make the average, ordinary person into a hero. So its more like this optimistic, hopeful story about how a typical person's ordinary experience can be very helpful in different circumstances. There's also normally some kind of superpower that's not fully under the main character's control (ex: Harry Potter's scar, that connects him to Volemort). The superpower helps the "fish out of water" situation, allowing the main character to focus on how "ordinary people skills" help this new world out so much.