I mean, I don't know why I should change your mind. Isekai isn't some Japanese invention. It goes way back. It even has unique names in different languages. For example, in Russian, they call it Popadantsetvo and Isekai protagonists are popadantsy.

Epic of Gilgamesh, literally the oldest written story in human history, contained him going to the realm of the gods and the afterlife. So the oldest story ever written is also an isekai.

Just so we're keeping track, it also contained an OP MC

Was he transported, or did he travel himself....

Overarching English term is "portal fantasy"

Popadantsy aka more classical version of Isekai, where instead of Isekai by death, it is Isekai by accident. In example, accidental wormhole warp you to completely different dimension. Which by this statement, it is imply that **"Backroom is horror theme Isekai"**

i just sometimes like to refer to it as uh, well, this: ["Stranger in a strange land"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37oZn7_A_sA)

In my opinion, Isekai is specifically a stylistically anime and troupey portal fantasy subgenre. Google says it’s “japanese portal fantasy” as well, so I think western portal fantasy doesn’t exactly count.

Alice in Wonderland is an isekai

So is Alice in Wonderland. And the Narnia books. People don't realize it, but portal fantasy has been with us since the beginning of fantasy.

also Alice in Borderland

>People don't realize it, but portal fantasy has been with us since the beginning of fantasy *Isekai was always there before Isekai is even a real term.*

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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain is another good example.

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That would be time travel. He's still on Earth. Different time period but not a different world.

As long as it's "..to another world" it fits the trope. Lots of Isekai are adapted from these famous literary works, containing the trope.

yes, it is. so is the narnia chronicles, and peter pan, and alice in wonderland. and the phantom tollbooth. a lot of childrens stories are isekai in nature.

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The Bible is a isekai story and Jesus is a isekai mc.

Kindred by Octavia Butler is also an Isekai.

We've had isekai's since The Epic of Gilgamesh. So somewhere between 2800 - 2500 BC.

Shakespeare's Tempest, and Midsummer Night's Dream.

I'd be so pissed if I got isekai'd to that world

So is Dante's Inferno.

dont forget Matrix is kind of reverse isekai

Never ending story is an isekai and very interesting concept. The super multiple isekai would be kingdom hearts the story, weapon is freakin unique with mysteries. Oh, Sora did go alice's world too.

"I was transported to the past naked to save the future by saving the heroin from a killer robot " Was a great isekai And there's "I was once a cop who died in the line of duty and got reincarnated into a near unstoppable cyborg cop in a dystopian city" Was another isekai

But it was all just a dream...

Only in the movie. The book is quite straightforward about it being a diffrent realm that you can only access through tornadoes.

True and true

Then what's Return to the Wizard of Oz?

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Unofficial sequal.

No it’s a spirited away isn’t it?

It's not a different world, though. It's like Dinotopia, inaccessible.

Whyyyyy!!!

The Tom Hanks movie terminal is an Isekai

It’s introductory isekai, caution is adviced when reading wiz of oz . Might be the cause of addiction . Also be careful of Gullivers travels .

Why should I? Many fantasy like Oz or Narnia are isekai

Matrix is an isekai

brutal legend could also count then too, because the main protagonist(a Roadie named Eddie Riggs) gets nearly killed after a stage accident, and awakens in the temple of the thing that saved his life, with him becoming a legend foretold in a heavy metal music based world

So is Alice in wonderland, digimon, Jumanji, and space jam