Can Jap Isekai Novels send their MC in a world that is not inspired by Fantasy Medieval Europe?

  • #34
I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary  
 
  • #35
Every single popular Japanese isekai novel gets translated one way or another.  If it's not translated it's because it's not very popular.  Realistically, you're unlikely to see either realistic or interesting settings out of these books because the writers are precisely trying to avoid that kind of thing.  Hell, the setting is considered so unimportant that there are a ton of books that don't even bother naming their kingdoms or the rulers of these kingdoms until hundreds of chapters in. 
 
  • #36
There's already post-apocalyptic timelines, parallel planetary timelines, and quantum lock timelines. These three mostly cover majority of another world fantasy/science fiction settings. The only new setting that is possible is starting in a completely different culture and species world. Not of any Western or Eastern influence at all. 
 
  • #37
Tell me about it! The other day, I was trying to write a slice-of-life cooking novel, then truck-kun comes out of nowhere and my MC ended up with a magic knife in medieval Europe. 
 
  • #38
True.

On this one I've been trying stuff out to get people interested, which did unexpectedly work a bit. But really, the problem is that no one reads novels with less than 15 or 20 chapters translated, so you have to at least 20 chapters before you find out if people want to read it or not. 
 
  • #39
It's not the setting that gets me, it's more that every time Japan tries to write Tolkienesque fantasy it has a heavy Dragon Quest stench to it even when it's not outright LitRPG. 
 
  • #40
Do you know what's popular before isekai? High school battle royale with romcom harem in it. 
 
  • #41
Eh, they isekai them to the Sengoku Era, too. I'm convinced now that half of Oda Nobunaga's army/acquaintances (if not the man himself) must hv been transmigrators.

Edit: Most recent isekai is written by amateurs hoping to gain quick results by aping the tried, tested and successful formula of their predecessors rather than experimenting or venturing into new territories/settings. This genre has come to represent the height of unimaginative fiction. 
 
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