Summary
- Netflix isekai anime offer a fresh twist on traditional genre tropes, with unique world-building and character dynamics.
- Series like Overlord and High-Rise Invasion provide exciting adventures, while Uncle From Another World adds comedic charm.
- 3.Explore classic isekai like InuYasha, or heartwarming tales like A Lull in the Sea to experience the genre’s diversity.
With the high turn-over rates for the many shows on Netflix, especially anime, it’s about time to reconsider the best of the isekai genre that the platform has to offer. Many popular shows have left the Netflix catalogue, such as Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, The Devil is a Part-timer, and No Game No Life. What is left behind are hidden gems and unexpected entries that stretch, or even overturn the definition of an isekai.
The word isekai in Japanese directly translates to “another world”, conjuring images of fantasy, new landscapes, and endless possibilities for redemption. Although this blazingly popularizing genre is highly trope-dependent, many authors have tried to subvert expectations with ideas such as being reborn as a vending machine in Reborn as a Vending Machine Now I Wander the Dungeon, or a librarian who transmigrates to a primitive society that lacks books in Ascendance of a Bookworm. However, isekai is more than just the physical transportation of bodies or souls across space. The only prerequisite is that characters are led to experience a world vastly different from their status quo.
15 Best Isekai Anime You Should Watch Right Now
Even with the oversaturation of the genre, there are still plenty of excellent isekai anime shows that every fan should consider streaming.
11 High-Rise Invasion Has a Good Concept But Seriously Stumbles
Based on the Manga By Tsuina Miura & Takahiro Oba, Animated By Zero-G
Mixing the popular death game genre with a slight isekai twist, High-Rise Invasion is certainly a unique anime. The series follows a high schooler named Yuri who one day finds herself transported into a concrete jungle filled with skyscrapers and the titular high-rises. There, she’s pursued by a group wearing white masks who are Hell-bent on killing her and other teenagers trapped in this bizarre new world. Together with her new companions Mayuko and Kuon, Yuri fights for survival against the killers after her.
High-Rise Invasion has a few things going for it out of the gate. The series’ skyscraper setting adds a fun visual twist to what could have been a quite standard death game anime and the many mysteries presented by the opening episode are a great hook to keep viewers watching. High-Rise Invasion’s Maid also ranks among anime’s creepiest villains, as do all of the white-masked killers.
Fans of death game anime might also want to watch Darwin’s Game on Netflix.
Unfortunately, the rest of the series falls apart. High-Rise Invasion’s uninteresting characters and animation hold it back while the gratuitous fan service often feels out of place. Still though, the use of isekai does elevate it, so fans looking for some trashy fun might want to try High-Rise Invasion.
10 7 Seeds is a Disappointing Adaptation of a Classic Manga
Based on the Manga By Yumi Tamura, Animated By Gonzo & Studio Kai
7 Seeds is a post-apocalyptic anime series that follows a group of young people who are cryogenically frozen to survive a massive meteorite headed for Earth. Once Earth becomes habitable again, groups of 5 are periodically unfrozen to make an honest go at surviving in the new Earth. Unfortunately, that’s no easy task, as Earth has become more dangerous than ever in the many years since the meteorite’s impact.
New Isekai Anime Subverts Expectations With a Big Twist on the Wrong Hero Summoned Trope
The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases isn’t even an isekai where the hero gets wrongly summoned, but the same formulas are there.
The 7 Seeds manga is a certified classic that is commonly considered one of the best Shojo manga in recent memory. Unfortunately, 7 Seed’s anime adaptation lets the brilliant source material down with bland animation and poor writing choices. Still though, the source material and premise are strong enough that they shine through. While most isekai is based around fantasy, the idea of going to sleep in the modern day only to wake up in a strange and dangerous new world is what isekai is about at its core.
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8 Overlord Features a Fun Twist on the Classic Isekai Premise
Based on the Light Novel Series By Kugane Maruyama & So-bin, Animated By Madhouse
Overlord is a fun twist on the typical isekai premise that has earned it a great deal of acclaim. The series takes place in a future where a VR MMO named YGGDRASIL is about to be shut down. Just as it is though, the game’s last player, Momonga, is transported to a world where the game’s setting is real. Taking on the appearance of his skeletal avatar, Momonga becomes a Suaron-esque despot in an attempt to find his way back to the real world.
Netflix’s most recent isekai anime, Overlord is a massively popular series for good reason. The contrast of Momonga’s intimidating appearance and evil persona with his true self is always a riot that the series gets a great deal of mileage out of. While isekai heroes committing horrible acts is common, Overlord is revolutionary because of how upfront it is about its protagonists being the bad guys. All of this makes Overlord a solid watch for any isekai fan with a Netflix account.
7 Ni no Kuni Deepens the Game’s World
Based on the Video Game Published By Bandai Namco, Animated By OLM
Based on a video game series of the same name, Ni no Kuni, released in 2019, explores the RPG-isekai relationship in the context of parallel worlds. This feature-length film produced by OLM and directed by Studio Ghibli animator Momose Yoshiyuki constructs a riveting world of monsters, princesses, and quests, while balancing character identities between two distinct worlds, hence the meaning of the title, which translates to “the second country”.
While the world-building is exquisite, the movie ultimately serves to supplement the related game. As a result, character development leaves room for improvement, and narrative structure is undermined by excessive ornamentation, placing it at number nine on this list.
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6 Good Night World Brings Family Online
Based on the Manga By Okabe Uru, Animated By Studio NAZ
Studio NAZ has added a twist to the video game genre through exploring familial relationships in Good Night World. Aired in 2023, this original net animation (ONA) is an isekai in the sense that its characters experience a contrary online reality. The four main characters create a family, The Akabane Family, in the game Planet, but unknowingly, they are also family in reality.
Good Night World takes dramatic irony to the next level, pitting an ephemeral feeling of online kinship against neglected real-world relationships. The series is rare for an isekai in that its primary focus seems to be on social commentary. Specifically, Good Night World is about the barriers people put around themselves that keep them from relating to the people most important to them. Although the series gives substantial commentary on online relationships, and the line between fantasy and reality, common isekai tropes are unavoidable.
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5 Uncle From Another World Disassembles the Conventionally Attractive Protagonist
Based on the Manga By Hotontoshindeiru, Animated By AtelierPontdarc
Uncle From Another World, or Isekai Ojisan, is a fresh take on established isekai tropes. Produced by studio AlelierPontdarc in 2022, this series follows Shibazaki Yousuke, who was comatose for 17 years, and his nephew, Takaoka Takafumi, who teaches him the ways of modern technology. The twist is, Shibazaki claims to have been transported to a fantasy world during his time asleep.
This anime is a comedic rendering of an uncle’s retelling of adventures in another world where he was ostracized for being ugly, and the monetization of his abilities, which truly exist, in the modernized world. What makes Uncle From Another World so fun is how it shows the aftermath of a typical isekai. Many isekai aren’t too concerned with what happens to their heroes after they leave their isekai world, so seeing the aftermath of that makes the series funny and interesting in equal measure.
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4 InuYasha, the Unsuspecting Isekai Classic
Based on the Manga By Takahashi Rumiko, Animated By Sunrise
InuYasha aired in the year 2000, adapted by Sunrise Studios from the manga of the same name, and is an early example of an isekai that goes unnoticed as such. Having preceded Sword Art Online by over a decade, InuYasha is a story of a young, modern girl who stumbles upon a well which is connected to a feudal Japan ripe with demons and supernatural abilities. There, she meets the half-demon Inuyasha.
Made long before isekai was one of anime’s biggest genres, InuYasha is an isekai in the purest sense, as a fixed portal allows travel between and exploration of two worlds separated by space and time. Kagome is far from the typical isekai protagonist, and her relationship to the titular Inuyasha is always to fun. With its memorable cast and plotting, InuYasha perfectly balances narrative and character development, with isekai elements only serving as support.
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3 Hunter x Hunter: Greed Island Arc (Season 4) Brings an Isekai Twist to Classic Shonen
Based on the Manga By Yoshihiro Togashi, Animated By Madhouse
Hunter x Hunter
- Cast
- Issei Futamata , Megumi Han , Cristina Valenzuela , Mariya Ise , Michael McConnohie
- Release Date
- April 17, 2016
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator(s)
- Yoshihiro Togashi
Hunter x Hunter is a fairly long anime that goes through a wide variety of arcs. While most of Hunter x Hunter’s arcs follow shonen battle tropes, the 2011 series’ fourth season, Greed Island, is essentially an isekai. Season 4 sees series protagonists Gon and Killua transported into the game world of Greed Island where they’re able to train their new nen abilities with the assistance of the powerful Biscuit Krueger. Facing off against old threats and new ones, Gon and Killua’s strength is put to the test in new and exciting ways.
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Hunter X Hunter Creator’s Planned Ending For the Series In Case of His Death, Explained
Yoshihiro Togashi has revealed the ending for Hunter X Hunter fans should consider canon in case he dies before completing the series.
While it may seem odd to rank a single season of a much larger series among Netflix’s best isekai, Greed Island is such a strong candidate for the genre that it warrants an inclusion. Greed Island truly does follow an isekai’s formula, with Gon and Killua trapped in a video game with life or death consequences. While they do train and develop their nen abilities, the duo also contends with the unique mechanics of Greed Island. All of this makes Greed Island a fantastic isekai story originally conceived long before many of the genre’s tropes would be codified.
2 A Lull in the Sea: New Worlds Within New Worlds
Based on the Manga By Maeda Risou, Animated By P.A. Works
A heart-warming, eye-opening series that flips the isekai on its head, A Lull in the Sea, adapted from the original manga by P.A. Works in 2013, creates connections in storytelling and real-world commentary through fantasy. The story follows a group of childhood friends who live under the sea, which was allegedly the norm in ancient times. The group is unfortunate, or fortunate, to be forced to leave their homes in the water, and attend school on the surface.
The characters of A Lull in the Sea diverge from a status quo foreign to the audience, and categorize the modern world as fantasy. This simple, but deep-seated and well-executed ideamakes this anime one of the best isekai that Netflix has to offer.
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1 KonoSuba is One of the Most Popular Isekai Anime for Good Reason
Based on the Light Novel By Natsume Akatsuki & Kurone Mishima, Animated By Studio Deen & Drive
In many ways, KonoSuba is the prototypical isekai anime, but what makes it impressive is just how much justice it brings to the standard isekai premise. The series follows a young man named Satou who is a complete shut-in. After a chance encounter with the goddess Aqua, Satou is transported to an incredible fantasy world where he’s able to fight monsters and adventure. Together with a mage named Megumin and a warrior named Darkness, Satou and Aqua go on a quest to slay the Devil King.
KonoSuba is widely regarded as one of the best isekai of all time, and there’s a reason it’s regarded as such a classic. Above everything else, KonoSuba is just a fun series that is consistently hilarious and thrilling. The characters are likable and watching their conflicting personalities play off each other is always a good time. While some of Netflix’s isekai offerings stray pretty far from what fans would expect from the genre, KonoSuba is Netflix’s best isekai because it gives fans of the genre exactly what they want.
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