If any kind of anime has exploded, it’s definitely isekai.

Because if you really think about it, action, comedy, thriller, romance, that’s all you can get out of Hollywood. But the isekai seems to be the best gift from our design friends in Japan.

If you’re not familiar with the term, it literally means transported to another world and is usually inspired by MMORPGs and fantasy worlds.

And for this list, we present our best anime iskai that are really worth watching.

40th Swordsmanship Online

Sword Art Online feels like a pioneer of the genre, which has absolutely exploded after only a few episodes.

Its reputation has deteriorated as people like to point out the emptiness and lack of inspiration of the main character (Kirito Christ).

But I think the show is still a lot of fun.

The animation is excellent, the fights are very animated, there was one of the best pilot episodes, and some of the stories are very interesting.

It also has a million spin-offs, so you’re sure to find at least one that suits your tastes. Gun Gale is my guilty pleasure, to be honest.

39. Door

Gateway is one of those shows that immediately hooked me because of its premise.

A portal appears in the passage connecting the modern world with the imaginary world. All sorts of ogres, dragons and demons begin to infiltrate modern Japan and very quickly bring it to the post-apocalypse.

But then you remember that weapons are a very important thing, and they are very effective at eliminating anything that moves.

This is how the two sides confront each other. But since neither side can achieve a decisive victory, an armistice must be declared.

And that’s easier said than done.

38. Arifureta: From mediocrity to the strongest in the world

As the title suggests, it’s a story that starts from scratch for the hero.

It all begins when our hero Hajime and his class are transported to an imaginary world on a mission to save the world.

Everyone gets very strong fighting power, except our boy Hajime, who ends up getting niche transmutation power. His class quickly set him up, and he stayed in the maze to fight for himself.

He uses his ingenuity to make this niche even more powerful and eventually become the most powerful in the world. The show is a debt of pleasure, because it may not have the best writing, but damn, it’s entertainment.

37. My next life as a villain All roads lead to destruction!

This show is deceptively good.

The premise is exactly what the title promises: A man is struck by lightning in an accident, and God speaks: I’m sorry, my family, how can I make it up to you? How about a fantasy world plus what you want?

And the MC immediately asks to bring his smartphone.

The series switches to harem mode pretty quickly, but the main character in this position is much cuter than most MCs. And the way he behaves in battle is also quite fascinating.

The whole series looks like a parody of an Isekai series, which I can fully identify with.

35. Horizon Magazine

As for MMORPGs, I don’t think any other isekai has captured its essence as well as Log Horizon.

That’s because Log Horizon doesn’t have a single overpowering hero who deals damage to enemies in one hit and never gets hurt. The world actually works like an MMORPG.

There are spawning points, raids, mafia spawning grounds, guilds, constructs, classes, and the battle is not about brute force. But more important is the strategy, the juggling with agribusiness, the composition of the team, the positioning, etc.

Even if you haven’t immersed yourself in World of Warcraft or a similar game for half a decade, you can still appreciate the realism with which this series depicts such a world.

34. Oda Nobuna Ambition

You don’t often hear the words pretty girls and historic battlefields in the same sentence.

But, well, that’s what cartoons are for.

Oda Nobuna’s ambition follows a man named Yoshiharu who was sent back in the past. However, he soon realizes that this chronicle of Japanese history has some crucial differences, one of which is that the warlords are all cute girls now.

So he uses his knowledge of history, acquired in the video game of course, to predict battles and help the head girl Oda Nobune to conquer Japan.

33. The devil is a timer!

The devil is a partial stopwatch that can be considered a reverse isekai.

Indeed, isekai shows a person from the normal world transported into a video game or imaginary world. But this time Satan, his right-hand man and the legendary heroes are literally transported to modern Japan.

Their magic is practically non-existent. And they will soon have to face their most powerful enemy: capitalism and the minimum wage.

The series is a comedy and stays with that from one episode to the next, so I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t already.

32. How not to summon the devil lord.

If we’re going to talk about demons and devils, we might as well include this show.

Installation is as simple as possible at Isekai: The man is the best in the game and he is now transported to the game where fan service and harems await him.

The show itself, however, seems oddly fresh.

First, the ultimate goal of the show is to literally break the spell that has disturbed a young girl and enslaved her to the demon lord.

Second, instead of the usual sample of the week format, there is a linear scenario.

He doesn’t win any literary prizes. But the series is really fun, and the MC is interesting enough that you never really lose interest.

31. Prudent Hero: Heroes are overworked, but too cautious

Isekai’s titles sum it all up, don’t they?

So yes, the protagonist is extremely dominated, but very carefully, how will it work as a hook for the plot? It’s actually quite good.

The humor is very absurd, like the main character blowing up an entire village just because he wanted to kill the level 1 slime the right way, and very unpredictable.

The secondary protagonist also has a watery vibe, and her actress voice is simply excellent. Trust me, you’ll walk around the show with no regrets.

30. Familiar zero point

So, what gesture makes the Isecai table familiar from the ground up?

MC loves video games, check it out.

MC is overloaded, check it out.

He’s actually a slave to the girl who called him. What? Yes, the main duet of this series consists of a girl who can’t shine because of her magic and a boy who is summoned from modern Japan to meet him.

As you may have guessed, having an MC as a confidant is very helpful if you want to get stronger.

29. KonoSuba

When it comes to comedy, KonoSuba is one of my favorites.

The plot is fairly standard: A man dies, meets a goddess who proposes to resurrect him in another world, then wanders through the system and takes him away, etc.

However, the symbols are not standardized.

The male leader has no moral code and desperately wants to stop reprimanding a woman in the name of equality. A goddess is anything but. His chariot is a pervert and his wizard is a whip with a penchant for destruction.

The show is hilarious and has my full approval.

28. Prime contractor

Overlord’s main selling point is certainly the wordplay of the MMORPG and the absolute power of its protagonist, Ainz.

The problem is that only Ainz is transported to this world and the rest of the NPCs are just coming to life, which means he can transform everything, but has no real use.

He decided to conquer the world. But only as a means of gathering information and finding other actors.

His attitude is the backbone of the show, because people constantly see him as a god, even though my buddy is just a passionate player, which forces him to do everything on the spot.

27. Grimgar: Ashes and illusions

Grimgar is essentially the opposite of Overlord.

We have a wide range of people, all of whom are equally important, none of whom have memories of the past, none of whom have metadata, and none of whom are overworked. In fact, they are all bad at what they do.

But that’s the beauty of the show. We see a group of people growing up in the world of role-playing, constantly struggling but never giving up.

Basically the other players let them die and now they do or die.

The pace of the show may be a little slower than one would expect from the isecai. But that only helps to draw you more into the world.

26. Raising the shield of Heroes

In Rise of the Shield Hero, we see a man who takes the letter L from life and then gains power.

Our protagonist, Naofumi, is transported to another world along with three other people, each of whom is given a weapon.

Naofumi pulls out the short straw and is caught with the tag.

The stick is all the shorter because it is quickly expelled from the entire kingdom.

So we see him forming a team of comrades, slaves or not, and trying to help those around him while giving the king the finger of honor. It really is a feast for the eyes.

25. No game no life

No Game No Life is known in the community for giving us one of its best seasons and then quickly disappearing from the scene.

The concept is quite simple: Two big brothers and sisters are transported to a fantasy world where everything is solved through play.

It may sound boring, but remember that siblings are literally geniuses. The world is awesome, and the other characters have been playing games for their own good all their lives.

All this leads to the most exciting and unexpected chess game you’ve ever seen, with 300 live IQ games.

24. Restaurant to another world

The show wasn’t as good as it was.

Instead of the usual struggle for survival we’re all used to, this program is literally about managing a restaurant.

But the problem is that if the restaurant looks like any other establishment during the week, on Saturday it opens its doors into a world of fantasy. Suddenly you’re serving a dragon his favorite meat or drink.

The show is a lot of fun, the atmosphere is really relaxing, and I honestly have to give credit to the person who came up with the concept.

23. Driver

If you like history, hell, fantasy, war or a combination of all four, Drifters is for you.

Great warriors from across the Earth’s timeline are transported to the fantasy world and given the title Drifter. Their job is to fight the people called the Ends in an all-out war.

The cast includes Toyohisa Shimazu, Nobunaga Oda (making her second appearance on this list) and Yoichi Suketaka Nasu.

If you’ve been annoyed after hearing any of these names, you know what to do.

22. The time I was turned into slime.

Honestly, I can’t even explain what makes this show so good.

It’s about a man who turns into slime. Surprise, huh?

But he soon begins to crush his powers as he absorbs the dragon and swings about to infinity. Then he builds the village and does what the village chiefs have to do.

You know, it participates in peace treaties, protects its citizens, seeks outside investment. It all seems so typical, and yet the show touches on everything so well that you immerse yourself in it one day and remember it fondly a year later.

21. Nobunaga Concert

Nobunaga, is that just Stan Lee of the isekai type?

The man suddenly finds himself in feudal Japan and comes face to face with Nobunaga himself. The fact is that they are very similar and Nobunaga is very tired from the immense pressure he is under.

So they just switched places. It’s a classic story we’ve heard many times before.

From then on, our protagonist lives simply as Nobunaga and must do his best to prevent the country from collapsing and surviving the ordeal.

20. Book Worm Street

If you don’t fancy another world or another military conspiracy, but still want the Isekai sauce, Ascension of the Bookworm should be enough.

The premise is quite unique to be honest, it’s about a girl who loved to read so much that she was reborn and still loves to read.

However, she was trapped in a fantasy world. So books are not regularly available and she has to be very creative in the way she wants to arrange things.

Shaw is practically on life support, but the execution goes as planned. So there’s a lot more invested than you might think.

19. Destruction company

Is there no Otaku culture in your community? Have you tried spreading Haruhi’s holy word on the streets?

If you answered yes to these two questions, then you have a lot in common with the main character of this series, Shnishi.

The only twist, of course, is that this missionary otaku goes out into the imaginary world to do his holy work.

It’s a harem, it’s a parody, and it’s a comedy.

For newcomers to Otaku culture, this series may seem like a strange one. But for us dedicated worshipers, it’s preaching to the choir.

18. Amatsuki

Usually in Isekai, the protagonist is transported to the world he loves. But not this time.

Our main character, Tokidoki, hates learning history and bombs every history exam.

He is therefore sent to a museum that has a simulator with which he can experience what he has learned.

That’s a great idea. But he’s quickly stuck inside, and he’s much more than a peaceful observer, which means he could die.

Bonus danger points: There are demons walking around.

He works with the two samurai, praying for his survival and for him to at least learn something about the story.

17. Didn’t I say my skills should be average in the next life!

People always say it’s another masterful main character, but they never ask how it is.

In this series, the main character literally struggles to succeed because she has lived her entire life alone and isolated because people were jealous of her abilities.

When the opportunity arises to be reborn in another world, she asks Heaven to make her pretty average.

But the air is full of trolls and makes her the daughter of a nobleman with superior magical powers.

So she tries to be humble with her ability to live the ordinary life she’s always wanted, but it proves difficult.

16. Re: Scheppers

We often hear about a particular writer who brings his art to life. Well, the Re:Creators didn’t just take it literally, they took it personally.

Thus, ladies and gentlemen, fictional characters begin to appear in the real world with their personalities and abilities intact.

And in the beginning they were all beloved benefactors. But a certain lady in a top hat starts playing with characters from her own show, and our heroes must find a way to stop her.

But they soon learn that the relationship between author and creation is much more complicated than they initially thought.

15. I’m in Million Lives.

This series attempts to renew the Isokai formula in two main directions.

First, chance is an important feature, as the game master who sends our hero into this world essentially flips a coin to determine a certain statistic. So we have a group that consists of a warrior, a mage and a farmer.

Second: The characters are from the universe. So there are basically two graphic lines.

Like many other series, this stupid series is fun, so don’t expect to find the meaning of life in the show. But you don’t have to totally shine either.

14. Knights and Magic

Did you notice that there is an animation group that is not on that list yet?

That’s right, sweetheart, don’t tell me you didn’t think boys would be like that!

Aside from the fur, this show is pretty standard.

The male protagonist forms a group with two girls, they all go to a magical school to learn how to fight the bad guys. They fought and they said bad things. The end.

But men make Mechs look cool. Even the workouts give the show a unique futuristic feel.

13. Princess Connect! Re:Dive

When I see an adaptation of a mobile phone game, I usually expect it to be a waste. And yet I recommend Princess Connect here.

The show is pretty simple: a man falls from the sky into a fantasy world with no memories and manages to surround himself with girls, who form a guild.

But honestly, the man doesn’t matter.

This series gives the impression of cute girls doing cute things in anime, with the three female leads showing the most interest and humor.

So we have an anti-social cat girl, a feisty boss with a black hole for a stomach, and a rambling monologue – I’m kidding Kokoro, you know I love you.

12. Surely problem children come from a different world?

When you read the title of this anime, do you think of things like this isekai? Or will these deranged kids set the world on fire?

And the answer is: Yes and no.

The main trio consists of teenagers who already have paranormal powers and are bored to death in the real world. But one day a rabbit offers to take them to another world and relieve their boredom.

Of course they do. How can you say no to a rabbit?

Soon they find themselves fighting under a guild called No Name.

Because they were overworked before they were born, they have some attitude problems. I’m looking at you, Izayoi.

11. Spiritual Journey

I want to put Spirited Away here because I feel like people never classify it as Isecai. Although that’s probably true.

The whole plot consists of a girl who accidentally falls into the spirit world, where she now has to find a way to survive and also help her family.

It’s not about fighting or learning secret magic, it’s about understanding spirits and knowing the world.

This movie is a true Ghibli classic (and an anime classic in general). And if by some miracle you’ve never seen him before, change that as soon as possible.

10. Fake-Kekkai

Kekkai Sensen seems like a sequel to The Gate to me, because like in The Gate, a portal is opened that connects the human world to the world of monsters, half-humans, aliens, etc.

However, the story begins 3 years after the opening of the gate. And we witness a city where humans and monsters are completely intertwined.

Aesthetics alone were a big plus for me, as we see a normal guy drinking coffee next to a monster insect while a monkey bounces around the room at high speed.

9. From time to time, here and there.

With this show you quickly get the impression that it comes from another era, 1999 to be exact.

Not only because of the artistic style, but also because of the way isekai is treated.

The beginning is typical: a boy finds an interesting girl, the girl is attacked, the boy tries to save her and ends up in another world.

But instead of chasing drool or discovering his affinity for magic, the show projects him into a world at war. And I mean a real war, not a spotlight on one man.

The protagonist must therefore learn how to survive and fight, while searching for the girl he has not yet abandoned.

8. Vision on Escaflowne

Since we’re already in the 90s here, we might as well mention Escaflowne’s vision.

It starts with a typical high school girl suddenly seeing a man and a dragon coming out of the sky. He helps humans defeat the dragon with his spider-like senses and eventually teleports him to his world.

And his world is a bit depressing, to be honest.

There’s a war on. The man is actually a prince, so his head is very precious. And there are Mechs flying around.

I just want to point out that it’s one of the few shows where a girl gets Isekai-D, I don’t know why, but that’s the way it is.

7. The boy and the beast

In this masterful film, a boy named Wren is simply fed up with the world. And rightly so, given the way she treated him.

So he manages to traverse a world full of beasts, or beastmen, I suppose. There he meets Kumatetsu, a glorious bestiary looking for a student to prove his worth as a teacher.

He and Ren made a deal, trained and grew up together.

It may not seem like much. But the show is absolutely thrilling, and I don’t want to give anything away, so watch and see what you think.

6. Inuyasha

You know how in isekai the main character is usually run over by a truck and then reborn, or his RV helmet just steals his soul?

Well, at Inuyasha, the heroin is just dragged down by a demon.

The early 2000s was a more creative period.

She is dragged down as a powerful pearl of desire is reborn in her body, but it accidentally breaks. So she summons a demonic man-dog (the precursor to the bearded man, in my opinion) to pick up the shards and make sure they’re not used at the end of the world.

5. Puzzle game

You only have to look at this anime cover to know it’s a shoujo, and a good one at that.

Because this series is also slightly older than the mid-90s, there are no trucks or helmets here either. But more like a book.

In this book about the bending of space and time, two girls meet in ancient China.

But not plain old China. After all, this is Isekai, not time travel.

Thus the two daughters become priests of the two opposing factions and must find their heavenly warriors to invoke Shenron, that is, the god Seiryuu, who will grant all their wishes.

4. Tanya’s Saga of Evil

This anime is about a man who has remained atheist in the face of God.

After death, he meets an all-powerful being. But he refuses to acknowledge his existence, so this god reincarnates him as a little girl in a land at war.

But even then, Tanya, with a fresh face, refuses to accept any holy power and becomes just a soldier.

God throws magic into the mix. But Tanya uses it to kill everything and everyone in her path.

For an omniscient being, you’d think he’d be a little more prescient.

3. Re: Zero

Re : Zero is one of the most famous isekai. And for good reason.

It’s very gritty and incredibly intriguing.

He’s not doing anything unusual: The guy is just transported to an MMORPG-like world and tries to live his life.

The main difference is that there is a residency system for our mentally ill future hero.

If he dies, he’ll just be pushed back to some point of safety. And the boy often dies.

It’s a bit like Log Horizon, except here the mental trauma and separation are completely over.

2. Do you like your mother and her versatile attacks?

I’m putting this on for someone who really likes trash iskai, because in my opinion he is the absolute king of trash iskai.

In fact, many people in the community have coined a new term for this particular show: Milfsekai.

That’s right, that’s the usual isekai formula, only the main duo consists of a boy and his mother who love him very much.

If you turn off your brain and don’t think about the implications of this show, it will be pretty funny. Here we go.

1. Isekai Quartet

And to wash my soul of the sin of our dolphin, we have the Isekai Quartet, a small animated series literally made for Isekai fans.

The concept is pretty big.

The characters of the popular isekai all get together instead of going to school and just getting along.

We’ve got Overlord, KonoSuba, Tanya the Terrible, Re: Zero, and later a Shield Hero entry.

So if you’ve seen all these shows, Isekai Quartet is really cute and very entertaining.

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