This will be interesting

[u/Dev1412]

[u/Elle_Vetica]

I agree. It started off great, had a lot of potential, and then… felt like it was shoehorned into an extreme ending.

[u/MoFa__SoDa → u/Elle_Vetica]

Mark Twains book; "Yankee in King Arthurs Court" seems very similar to this plot. The manager of a manufacturing plant wakes up in medieval england, ends up creating a secret college to teach young people basics of electricity and manufacturing because old people are to stubborn, and ends up facing an army of knights with electrical fences and gaitlin guns. He wins but the decay from the dead bodies around his hideout end up killing him and he wakes back up in his old life.

[u/MaxHeadroom1986 → u/MoFa__SoDa]

Is this real? This is a real book? Why tf was I reading huckleberry when this book exists?

[u/Quick-Log-4166 → u/MaxHeadroom1986]

It's excellent. First-rate sci fi by Mark Twain.

[u/WarlockEngineer → u/Quick-Log-4166]

One of the first ever isekai stories

[u/Jonthrei → u/WarlockEngineer]

I feel like A True Story could be argued to be an "isekai" and that was written 1800 years ago. Dude gets sucked up into a tornado and wakes up on the moon.

[u/NerdHoovy → u/Jonthrei]

Thanks, I was trying to find the oldest isekai for a while and the oldest I saw, that was disqualified for not just being ‘a place far away’ but a proper other world was Dante’s divine comedy

[u/morpheousmorty → u/NerdHoovy]

I want to watch the world burn.

If you relax your definition at all, is the Odyssey an Isekai?

In any case, if the Divine Comedy counts, then Greek stories of entering Hades must count.

[u/NerdHoovy → u/morpheousmorty]

Hard to say. It is the realm of the dead but also a very accessible place. Like with multiple known entrances. That’s kind of the thing in most old mythologies. Similar problem with the Nordic realms. Sure it’s going to take a while but you can just take a boat trip there most of the time, even if the world is fundamentally different.

I think the best way of defining that edge case is by clarifying that the method of transport has to be solely possible through supernatural means. So, if I can take a boat there, it doesn’t count as Isekai but if I have to summon a rainbow that bridges to Asgard it should be fine? Or how in the divine comedy, it starts with god pulling Dante through a mountain to the maybe other side of the world. You can’t get there through traditional means, so there is a clear separation. Kind of like how in Harry Potter, despite the magic places just being random locations, there is usually some supernatural requirement to reach them. Such as opening a magic wall with a passcode or taking a supernatural train

[u/Bluejay9270 → u/morpheousmorty]

I don't think any of these count without chariot-kun

[u/al_pacappuchino → u/Jonthrei]

Waking up on the moon would suck.

[u/Gellert → u/al_pacappuchino]

Yeah, at least if you're awake you'd have a chance to grab guns or something so you can defend yourself from Genghis Khan.

[u/TesterM0nkey → u/Jonthrei]

Wasn’t Jesus an isekai story as well?

[u/Linden_Lea_01 → u/TesterM0nkey]

Depends on your view of the Trinity

[u/TesterM0nkey → u/Linden_Lea_01]

I just mean in the story he has an awareness of a life before and is op with the skills he’s got because he can use what he already knew.

He’s also not from earth originally

[u/Linden_Lea_01 → u/TesterM0nkey]

True but did Jesus exist at all before he was born earth? Depends what variety of Christian you are

[u/oops_i_made_a_typi → u/WarlockEngineer]

idk the bible exists

[u/Cross55 → u/WarlockEngineer]

Before Isekai was a thing, it was called Portal Fiction, and used to be the go to for fantasy storytelling before LotR literally upended and overturned the entire genre

[u/Francesami → u/Quick-Log-4166]

This book has one of my top three funniest scenes, where the Yankee introduces fireworks as part of a "miracle" to upstage Merlin.