Is Shadowbringers an Isekai?

I was having a debate about this with a friend, and we couldn't come to an agreement.
I don't think it's a true Isekai, but it is borderline or at least possesses Isekai elements.

What do you all think?

Technically it's not another world. It's a reflection of the same world.

Although I do like the idea of calling Shadowbringers a zombie isekai.

Sorta yes, kinda.

The main element is transporting or reincarnating to another world, so technically it is. But then technically, it isn't because it's a reflection of the same world, but I say ignore that, because everything else inside the First is completely different.

I don't recall getting hit by a truck.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

I don't recall getting hit by a truck.

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LMAO This is the major thing.. tho that is for new age isekais. It is an old school one. The old ones have wells you jump into, pipes, books that suck you in, tvs, lamps, backwards hats etc etc.

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Originally Posted by Gameovers

LMAO This is the major thing.. tho that is for new age isekais. It is an old school one. The old ones have wells you jump into, pipes, books that suck you in, tvs, lamps, backwards hats etc etc.

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Go into a Chronicles of Narnia fan forum and tell them it's an isekai. Then duck and cover.

No.


/10char

Yes.

https://i.imgur.com/RS6VzAk.png

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

I don't recall getting hit by a truck.

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Nor was I running with toast hanging from my mouth....

Isekai in the pure sense of a rebirth in a different world as a whole new person with special abilities, no. I don't even think you could call it an isekai since we are pulled from the source from a summoning ritual, but I suppose you could under that same pretext.

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Originally Posted by Tranquilmelody7

I was having a debate about this with a friend, and we couldn't come to an agreement.
I don't think it's a true Isekai, but it is borderline or at least possesses Isekai elements.

What do you all think?

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I would say yes, it is. It's got the hallmarks of the genre: an overpowered protagonist, said protagonist gets transported to a different/alternate world involuntarily, said protagonist handily destroys some of the most powerful non-Gods in existence, etc.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

Go into a Chronicles of Narnia fan forum and tell them it's an isekai. Then duck and cover.

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That's horrible, yet so incredibly morbidly tempting that I won't be able to get it out of my head.

Strictly speaking, "isekai" only means "another world". So being transported to another world not like your own is by definition one.

As for whether it conforms to the typical tropes of the most common modern isekai series, I guess? Person from another world is transported to another one to save it from its ongoing crisis and proceeds to make it better along the way. This isn't an inherently bad thing. It's just that the isekai genre has become so saturated with cookie-cutter plots and trashy tropes that the credibility of the trope has sort of been dragged through the mud.

The whole game is an isekai mate.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

Go into a Chronicles of Narnia fan forum and tell them it's an isekai. Then duck and cover.

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That would make my whole afternoon right there.

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Originally Posted by Tranquilmelody7

I was having a debate about this with a friend, and we couldn't come to an agreement.
I don't think it's a true Isekai, but it is borderline or at least possesses Isekai elements.

What do you all think?

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According to the definition of Isekai, probably.

Although some would say that other worlds exist in the universe as the two worlds exist in an isekai.

Isekai literally means "other world", so yes. The first reflection is another world.

No need to argue for 300 years...


Personally, I don't care about classifications as long as it is coherent and gives me an adventure.

It's Magic Knight Rayearth an isekai?

The Source and the reflections are different worlds, and although they all came from the same source, they have developed into different things. It's not somewhere you can actually go at will, you either have to break the laws of time and space (G'raha), or get "called" to it (even if it's botched).
The only one who "could" hop from world to world are Aliens, and the OG beings... but even those had body restrictions.

Ergo the First and other shard are different worlds from the Source. Therefore, it's an isekai.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

I don't recall getting hit by a truck.

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Mayhaps not, but you surely got hit by the mack truck of all headaches. ;3

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

I don't recall getting hit by a truck.

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I was thinking the same thing "Wait, did I miss Truck-kun?"

To the OP, I think it could qualify because isekai can involve parallel worlds and doesn't always involve someone being fully reborn or inhabiting a person there, though those isekai are a bit rarer. But I read one recently called "As You Wish, Prince" where an author was pulled fully physically into her own work and we were pulled over to the First in a similar manner.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

Go into a Chronicles of Narnia fan forum and tell them it's an isekai. Then duck and cover.

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I was waiting for this.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

I don't recall getting hit by a truck.

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https://imgur.com/a/PMcjNbC

there you go and sound on

Lol. Well, you can have the simple answer or the pedantic answer.

Simple - Yeah, sure. Its another world

or:

Pedantic - Well, what's your definition of another world?

In that case, it would differ from person to person. If we take world to mean a star or planet (as most isekais are not on Earth, but usually some mid-late medieval fantasy token world), then no, cause the first and the rest are not different worlds, just shattered reflections of the source, sub-dimensions if you will in a way. On the other hand, one could consider another world to simply be someplace that is vastly (or in many ways) different from your old world. In this case, yes, while reflections are basically sub-dimensions of Ethryis, so essentially the same planet just different, it's another world, hence you're in an Isekai. Take your pick I guess about how pedantic or specific you want to be cause the word Isekai is simply too generic and open to interpretation as to what you consider another world (be that a star, dimension, alternate universe, whatever). Remember, 異世界 literally just means "another world", combine the word "世界" meaning "world" with kanji for 異なる, which means "to differ; vary". And so it really is up to your interpretation of what "another world" is defined as. If we were to take the character meanings literally, that is in order, different/strangeness (異), society/world (世) and boundary (界), we can term to mean something like "different world/society boundary", in which case, Shadowbringers would comply cause the First is a different location, different place, and a different society and so would seem to match, but really, this is getting too into the weeds of it and so simply take the simple answer cause honestly it's most straightforward. It's a place not like your own, and substantially different from your own, so why not?

The real question is how have they gotten away with 2 expansion packs about a zombie apocalypse? First light-aspected zombies, and now depression zombies.

COFFEEEEE, SOOOOODAAAA
COFFEEEEE, SOOOOODAAAA

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Originally Posted by hydralus

The real question is how have they gotten away with 2 expansion packs about a zombie apocalypse? First light-aspected zombies, and now depression zombies.

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Make it three and give us actual zombies, please.

No, really - straight up undead are woefully lacking in their presence in this game despite being a common staple of the genre. I have a hunch as to why that might be but even so...

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Originally Posted by Theodric

Make it three and give us actual zombies, please.

No, really - straight up undead are woefully lacking in their presence in this game despite being a common staple of the genre. I have a hunch as to why that might be but even so...

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To be fair, ARR had actual zombies. HW too, at least to some degree. Just not the rotting flesh kind.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

To be fair, ARR had actual zombies. HW too, at least to some degree. Just not the rotting flesh kind.

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Oh, I know. I just want more. Maybe it's because I've been replaying Dragon's Dogma recently. :p

I don't recall being followed around by a group of women with a combined intellect below a block of wood. Granted they could have just downed in the rain or something and nobody would have noticed.

but anyways since you can't have an Isekai with some group of bimbos following the mc around shadowbringers can't be an Isekai.or you can but it just takes effort and talent one of the two

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Originally Posted by hydralus

The real question is how have they gotten away with 2 expansion packs about a zombie apocalypse? First light-aspected zombies, and now depression zombies.

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Still waiting for my eldritch horrors on the moon. I'm sure that expansion will come any day now...
*looks wistfully out the window*
*blue bird flies into the window*
._.

Isekai in Japanese simply means "another world." Being hit with a truck and being reborn in another world is called "Tensei-mono" in Japan. "Tensei" referring to reincarnation (mono meaning "genre" / "style" / "type").
The word "Isekai" itself doesn't include any notion of death / rebirth in the Japanese language.

Well, at least it was not some throne room surrounding by medieval soldiers, king and princess when we were summoned.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

I don't recall getting hit by a truck.

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You actually were. The Exarch channeled his summoning power in form of invisible truck, sending Scion members to the First left and right. Finally, he understood truck-kun could not do anything to bring WoL to his world, and decided go with the portal method instead.

Technically yes, spiritually no