What Is Native Isekai? Isn't that Fantasy?
Anime offers viewers a variety of exciting story concepts and genres, from action to romance to sci-fi to fantasy.
In this article, we will discuss one of the genres that has attracted attention recently, which has recently been resurfaced even though it was previously discussed a few years ago. This genre is Native Isekai, a concept that emerged from fans.
In this article, we will discuss what Native Isekai means, and whether Native Isekai is the same as Fantasy.
What is Native Isekai?
Native Isekai is not an official genre in the world of anime, but rather a term that emerged from fans to describe the anime genre that uses a medieval setting, but the main character is not a reincarnation from another world, but comes from the original world from the beginning.
If fans refer to the term "Isekai" as a character who is reincarnated into another world that is a fantasy world, then "Native Isekai" is described as a character who is not reincarnated, aka really comes from the fantasy world since he was born .
The term first appeared in 2018 in the 4chan community, when a user noted that many popular fantasy anime have main characters who are not reincarnated from another world. The term "Native Isekai" was created to separate this type of story from the general Fantasy genre.
Examples of anime that are described as Native Isekai today include Goblin Slayer, Sousou no Frieren, and more.
What is the difference with fantasy?
Although many isekai anime are fantasy genres, not all fantasy anime are isekai.
If we look closely, both isekai and native isekai are actually the same fantasy genre. Isekai and Native Isekai are just branches of the fantasy genre that were intentionally created to separate some things. However, for Native Isekai, this certainly still sounds unfamiliar, because it is indeed not an official term.
In this case, we actually don't need to say that the story in another world whose main character is not reincarnated or comes entirely from that world is Native Isekai, because the mention of Fantasy is actually more than enough to describe Native Isekai. Even the term Native Isekai is currently considered a misconception.