What was the first isekai? or proto-isekai?

>>159443665
Magic Knights of Rayearth did it better, Isekai was originally a Shoujo genre.

>>159443665
Ask Twain

In animu? Aura Battler Dunbine (1983) is the oldest I'm aware of.

But of course there are much older antecedents in books and probably mythology too.

Isekai was hot as fuck during the 80's

>>159443665
Alice in wonderland is proto-isekai.

>>159443850
>>159443850
When do you begin to consider the "modern day" of isekai?

>doesn't know about my drifting classroom

>>159443906
.hack

>>159443665
Alice in Wonderland.

>>159443665
Obviously the story of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God born unto this world.

>>159443665
>proto
dude
(see >>159443801)

>>159444038
In anime.

>>159443665
Gulliver's Travels
Inferno
The Bible
The Rigveda

>>159444030
>not the Serpent coming to Earth to tempt Eve

The Chronicles of Narnia deserves a mention too.

>>159444157
>implying the big-bang wasn't about God getting run over by a truck in another universe

>>159444353
>tfw Truck-kun is the god of all gods

>>159443665
>escaflowne
>first
I really hope you don't believe this.

iliad and the odessey

>>159444686
Isekai anime fans are all underage, what did you expect

>>159445636
Winner.

>>159444686
Escaflowne was the first good Isekai anime and one of the very few ones too.

Dunbine or something

John Carter of Mars

>>159443665
>the first isekai
hownew.ru

>>159445758
Escaflowne could have been a masterpiece if it weren't for that convoluted ending.
It just needed more episodes.

>>159445758
>first good isekai anime
It is good, but the first good one? Debatable.
> one of the very few ones too.
And that's just factually untrue, isekai anime existed for over a decade before Escaflowne came along, and it certainly wasn't the first isekai to feature mecha or have appeal outside of a primarily-male demographic.

>>159445941
Rereading your post, I guess you meant "one of the very few GOOD" isekai anime. I agree with that, although I think the number is a bit higher than "very few".

>>159445866
The only thing about the ending that was truly irredeemably bad was going "lol just gonna leave all my friends and husbando to go live as a miserable nobody back on earth!"

>>159443665
There is too much Japanese isekai, let me just try some western stuff
>Narnia
>wizard of Oz
>Alice in wonderland
Fug

>>159443665
Izanagi traveling to the Underworld to retrieve Izanami.

First isekai.

>>159446383
The Little Prince
Peter Pan
(both of which have animu versions, too)

>>159446506
Izanami going to the underworld too.

Aura Battler Dunbine was pretty early. Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru in the later 80s as well.

Capricorn, Genmu Senki Leda, Tobira wo Akete, and dozens of other OVAs from the 80s and 90s as well.

Rayearth, Fushigi Yuugi, and El Hazard all precede Escaflowne. Rayearth is debatable, FY is fujo/shoujo bait, but El Hazard is closer to what we get these days, the normal guy who gains a harem and never changes out of his uniform unless he'd crossdressing.

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>>159446383

If we're talking just in animation then probably that short in Heavy Metal where the orb teleports a nerdy kid into a fantasy world with a musclebound body.

>>159443665

Narnia or Alice in Wonderland, reminder Isekai belongs to us Brits.

>>159443921

Does it really count as Isekai when you travel to the future of your own planet?

>>159443760
And it was done much better in the shojo genre.

Men should not be the target audience of isekai. It turns into a cesspool of over the top pandering to sell figs in place of worldbuilding and character development.

I think we should define Isekai in terms of modern Isekai since Isekai used to be so much different then. "proto-modern Isekai" is a mold of El Hazard, .hack, and Now and then here and there

>>159443883
Nah, fantasy has it highlights in the 80s but Cyberpunk and Space Opera were Kings of the 80s. Isekai got popular in the 90s (Magic Knight Rayearth, El Hazard, Maze: The Mega Burst Space, Fushigi Yuugi, etc).

>>159447784
Fuck, I forgot Escaflowne too.

>>159447764
Eh, I can see why you would think that but El Hazard wasn't really harem though despite the amount of girls and fanservice in it.

>>159447508
>we will never get another omni-pandering isekai like Maze.

But yeah, current isekai is shit because they are really harems with isekai dressings. I blame Accel World/SAO for that although SAO didn't make any sense because Asuna wins pretty early and the rest of the girls just in pointless one-sided love with Kirito.

>>159443665
Isekai always existed, the thing is that it wasn't FUCKING EVERYWHERE

>>159447979
>El Hazard wasn't really harem
It was as close as it could get though. Harem didn't exist as a genre til several years later

>>159445866
The whole time I expected her to realize the wish granted would grant her wish too. She'd wish the wish granter destroyed saving their world but losing any chance of going back home in the process.

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>>159443665
God I will never forget the chills I got when the giant mecha factory appeared.

>>159448790
Really? I would've expected harem series to have been a little older than mid nineties.

>>159443665
Aura Battler Dunbine was the first.

>>159443906
>When do you begin to consider the "modern day" of isekai?
Now and Then, Here and There

>>159448790
Is Ranma harem? I've never watched it. Only close contender I can think of for genuine harem and not love triangle is Tenchi Muyo.

>>159449448
>Is Ranma harem
Yes.

>>159449406
>NTHT
time travel isn't isekai

>>159443946
truly you are a man of culture. I would say SAO is the accelerant that lead to current isekai plague.

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>>159449608
Shu was brought so far into the distant future that it was an entirely different world, and they only mentioned it was time travel three times and were very vague about it until the last scene.

>>159447338
When there is a drastic setting/time change it is

>>159449791
While I agree its a whole new world I don't consider it an isekai as contradictory as that sounds.

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>>159443665
This

>>159449448
That and City Hunter

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Dunbine

>>159449988
Nah, isekai trope you are transported into a different world. Time traveling is not an isekai because you are literally in the same world, just a different time period.

>>159449448
Ranma is the proto-harem. Although the harem part wasn't really focused on outside of wacky hijinks and scheming. Plus, Akane was the obvious winner, who also had a reverse harem herself (Ranma, Ryouga and Kuno were the main three).

>>159451698
North and South America used to be called the "new world". You are just getting hung up on there being an actual different planet. I would go so far as to say that Roman bath anime would be isekai as well.

>>159443946
Isn't .hack "trapped in vidya"? Or is that considered the same thing as isekai now? I guess you could consider it a subgenre of isekai.

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>>159443760
Rayearth is actually pretty bland and feels like watching someone's Let's Play of an 80s JRPG, but it's still better than the neckbeard wish fulfillment fantasy isekai that's taken over these days.

>>159451879
No, the proto-harem is Urusei Yatsura.

>>159451698
What about time travel where they don't make it obvious that it's actually time travel, and the difference in time makes the world unrecognizable from what it was in the present?

>>159452574
But all the girls hate Ataru. Maybe Not harem would be a better indicator of the plot.

Lets just all agree

Isekai written by actual writers = good

Isekai written by otaku webnovelists = shit

>>159449988
Planet of the Apes then
(and Female Robot)

>>159454034
I'll allow it

>>159445636
>>159445686
>iliad and the odessey
Do you even know what they're about or are you just naming ancient literature? There's no travel to another world involved in those.

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>>159443665
>Escaflowne

>>159446682
I don't think The Little Prince is isekai; he was from that planet originally and the story is about him traveling around to other planets. It's more of an adventure story.

>>159447027
I think I'd like isekai better if they all had a bunch of people from Earth get sent to the other world together, instead of one teenage chode who falls into elf tits. El Hazard had a bunch of kids and even an actual adult who got his own romance(?) subplot.

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If we're talking isekai by Japanese authors, I'm pretty sure this was the first one.

>>159443801
My favorite book. I'm still surprised they never made an anime version of it in the 70's or early 80's.

>>159455661
Which Twain book is that? Or is there a book called Ask Twain?

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>>159443665
You want top tier Isekai? Well here you go.

Harold Shea, the man who mathed so hard he figured out how to travel to worlds of myth, legend, and literature. Who straight up stole a waifu from a poem, fought alongside both Cu Chulainn and Thor, and constantly fucked up his spellcasting because he really didn't understand how it worked.

Also the only Isekai I can remember that gets around lolguns by having the worlds run on their own mythological/literary physics/logic.

>>159456160
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

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>>159456160
This.

Though honestly, the first literature we can really call "isekai" as in
>MC is a normal human
>Transported to another world
>Uses his normal human knowledge to BTFO the new world
is probably Gulliver's Travels.

>>159456496
New Testament is kind of Isekai too, only it's God coming to our world as his Son using his knowledge to BTFO humans and their sins.

>>159454974
I was referring to him travelling to other planets.

>>159443665
With regards to anime, I guess no one here remembers Paul's Miraculous Adventure, which aired in 1976 and was known in some countries as 'Paul in Fantasyland'. Had a 50-episode run, even.

>>159457964

Mostly anything before the 80s with few exceptions (being tied to a big name creator) will have been forgotten.

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>>159447508
>Men should not be the target audience of isekai. It turns into a cesspool of over the top pandering to sell figs in place of worldbuilding and character development.
Right as opposed to shoujo isekai and their bishie parades and wall scrolls.

>>159451515
>there will never be a nude brown animu dejah thoris

>>159458140
That bug is a "bishie"?

>>159458238
The 90s were a weird time.

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>>159443665

How about Labyrinth?

>>159459301
Actually that's pretty good evidence for the theory that shoujo isekai is better.

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>>159458140
The Twelve Kingdoms was originally a female-oriented light novel. That alone proves shoujo isekai is superior and you can't prove me wrong.

>>159460242

Doesn't hurt the argument that Escaflowne is one the best anime of the 90s period. Even the film that most people hate I still love, especially for the more depressed and suicidal Hitomi. Wish the film was less of a mess and focused more on that aspect of her being "rescued" in Gaia.

>>159460302
Totally agree with this. I always hated how the movie made Folken a generic bad guy that's bad just for the sake of being bad, and removed the whole Dornkirk subplot, but the new take on Hitomi and the worldbuilding was way more interesting.

>>159444086

I'd say more like A Princess of Mars and the Narnia books.

>>159450141
I get what you're saying. There's more to a genre than its initial premise. There are certain moods and storytelling devices associated with them as well. It's like how American Psycho and Death Note aren't horror stories even though they're about serial killers.

>>159457964
I was here to back up the Dunbine guys, but apparently you win.

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>>159443665

>>159443760
Yes

KIMI NO MYSTIC EYES!

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Not really Isekai, but Wingman is the great grandfather of every shitty LN out there

A True Story by Lucian of Samosata in the 2nd century AD could be considered one of the earliest isekai in western culture.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_History

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>>159463816
Oh, god, how I hate C.S.Lewis.

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>>159449022
>watching episode 14 for the first time

>>159449406

ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK

>>159443665
>>159443760
>>159443801
>>159443850
>>159443883
>>159443894
>>159443906
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>>159444030
>>159444038
>>159444083
>>159444086
>>159444157
>>159444292
>>159444353
>>159444378
>>159444686
>first isekai
Doraemon.

>>159445636
>>159445673
>>159445686
>>159445758
>>159445764
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>>159445864
>>159445866
>>159445941
>>159446064
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>>159447040
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>>159447338
>>159447508
>>159447764
>>159447784
>>159447812
First isekai is Doraemon.

>>159447979
>>159448215
>>159448721
>>159448790
>>159448836
>>159449022
>>159449165
>>159449406
>>159449448
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>>159454374
What about Doraemon? Isn't that the first isekai?

>>159454873
>>159454974
>>159455118
>>159455203
>>159455661
>>159456160
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>>159456496
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>>159463217
Doraemon aren't the first isekai?

>>159463816
>>159465624
>>159465634
>>159465646
>>159465764
>>159465911
>>159466111
Doraemon is first isekai.
Hope my post got your attention.

>>159466310
>>159466337
>>159466352
>>159466373
>>159466397
It's not fucking isekai. Doraemon is not the MC, the latter living in our shitty world (even if he goes on escapades with his friends from time to time).
tldr: your a faggot.Nice bait, though.

>>159443665
>Man dies and is reincarnated in a world full of demons he fights until he reaches the king of the demons, Satan, and defeats him
Isekai stories have existed for a very long time.

>>159466551
I'm probably retarded, because I don't see which old stories you are referencing.
All in all, I'm pretty sure that "The Book of Badass Zachariah, Demon Hunter" is not in the Bible. A shame, though.

>>159466506
They did go to another world from time to time though, which is a literal meaning of isekai.
Use your brain for a bit before replying, retard.

>>159466551
Does Jesus going to Hell before resurrecting count as isekai?

>>159467063
>even if he goes on escapades with his friends from time to time
I even said it, man.

>>159466310
Not fair man, Doraemon basically cover everything from mecha,isekai,romcon to spaghetti western

Even the main premise of the show was how Nobita gonna NTR that bloke who married Shizuka

>>159450141
It is kinda. it uses the same formula Isekai has back then with the damsel in distress was from another timeline and our headstrong protag from the original timeline met and the mc will stop on nothing to save her back. Upon arrival on the new world the protag will be hanheld by bunch of senpais and comrade so the MC can easily understand how thing works in the real world and in most cases the protag have this deus ex machina magic/skill that would help the mc if he is in a tight spotwith NTHT however the MC was plunged into literal hell alone with no magical super power keep getting shit on by numerous people and failed to do anything spectacular that benefit this new world. Only be the end did he manage to convince the spirit of Earth to gave humanity one more chance trough the sheer power of his unbreakable will /spoiler]

That was the old definition of Isekai imho, nowdays Isekai are more related to MC getting trapped in virtual game and if that's the case I think the first modern isekai is Hack.

>>159443760
Escaflowne has superior animation, writing, direction and OST, what are you talking about
Rayearth is okay at best.

>>159443760
Now, when you said about it, one my very first Isekai was Fushigi Yuugi.

Holy fuck I hated the main girl. shes annoying as fuck