Exciting journeys, terrifying monsters, and high purposes.
If you want to get away from it all, if you want to leave your usual reality for at least a few hours and go on a journey into the unknown, then anime of the isekai genre is the way to go.
These are Japanese series about heroes who find themselves in another time, another country or another world.
1. Re: Zero – Starting Life in Another World, 2016-...
On a very ordinary evening, Natsuki Subaru goes to the store, but he can't get back home. An unknown force transports him into a fantasy world inhabited by strange creatures with magical abilities.
The main character doesn't get any superpowers, and a half-elf girl tries to save him from a gang of thieves who attacked him. But Natsuki is killed anyway. Then he comes to his senses at the exact moment when all this nonsense started. Natsuki is destined to live this time over and over again, but he is armed with knowledge about the rest of the day.
2. No Game, No Life, 2014
In cyberspace, they have become true legends. Players hiding under the pseudonym Blank win all the gaming championships. Their team is at the top of every table, and they beat everyone easily, even when their opponents use hacks and cheats.
However, their real life is boring and dull. Blank is brother and sister Sora and Shiro, true hikikomori, who have dropped out of society and become antisocial hermits, living only for otaku culture and games.
The real world is a torture and pain for them. One day, a mysterious gamer challenges them to a match, and if they win, he offers them to move to another reality where everything revolves around games.
3. The Rising of the Shield Hero, 2019-...
Naofumi Iwatani and his three best friends are summoned to an alternate Japan to become legendary heroes.
Each of the friends is equipped with magical equipment, but Naofumi only receives a shield. The boy is also disadvantaged in another way: he has no team, only one companion, his friends laugh at him, humiliate and finally betray him, leaving Iwatani as an outcast.
4. The Twelve Kingdoms, 2002-2003
The forty-five episodes of the series are divided into four story arcs. In the first, the viewer meets three high school students from Japan. Their names are Youko, Yuka and Ikuya.
It all started with Youko's strange nightmares – every night the 16-year-old girl was haunted by terrifying creatures. And one day, the dreams invaded reality – a strangely dressed man, Keiki, appeared right in the classroom and, claiming to be her servant, handed her a huge sword.
Youko and her friends are transported to the world of the Twelve Kingdoms, where people have magical powers and live surrounded by demons. Youko is chosen as the queen and must fight to win the throne.
5. The Boy and the Beast, 2015
Legendary director Mamoru Hosoda is particularly prolific when it comes to using isekai as a platform to explore real-life issues. The Boy and the Beast tells the touching story of two outcasts from different worlds who meet by chance.
After the death of his mother, nine-year-old Ren wanders around Tokyo and meets a monster named Kumatetsu, who is a candidate to rule a kingdom in a parallel fairy tale world. Kumatetsu unexpectedly decides that the frightened boy will be his apprentice, to whom he will pass on his martial arts skills.