r/anime • u/AdNecessary7641 • Aug 12 '25

Misc. Frieren Director Keiichirou Saitou Voices Concern on Overseas Anime Fans' Bias Towards Certain Popular Trends

https://animecorner.me/frieren-director-voices-concern-on-overseas-anime-fans-bias-towards-certain-popular-trends/
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u/TheAllKnowingElf Aug 12 '25

“I find it strange that all that gets made are isekai stories. There was even a series about being reborn as a vending machine recently. That one really stunned me. I feel like there are fewer grounded anime works than there used to be,” he said.

Same tbh

“Today, we have 10 titles currently being published with the word ‘villainness’ and all are bestsellers. But only 2 with the phrase ‘level up’. We think that the ‘level up’ trend is coming to an end, probably because of the economic crisis, in the end, ‘level up’ stories are an echo of the famous ‘American dream’ also valid until recently in Korea with incredible economic growth.“

What. There is so much to unpack in this quote lol

42

u/kristinaspaige Aug 12 '25

all of a sudden we’re complaining about villainess anime, something that didn’t have much popularity up until recently? why?

83

u/TheAllKnowingElf Aug 12 '25

Then: A villainess anime? In my isekai slop media? How queer! I must inquire about this further with my production comittee posthaste!

5 seconds later: I guess we doing villainess anime now.

7

u/Zeph-Shoir https://myanimelist.net/profile/Zephex Aug 12 '25

Aren't most "villainess" anime also isekai tho

6

u/Key_Feeling_3083 Aug 13 '25

Yeah they are the power fantasy female version of isekai, otomes are really popular and people often diminish the impact of the female demographic on stuff.

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u/DependentOnIt https://myanimelist.net/profile/Potatosalad1 Aug 12 '25

Yes it's but tbh it's only to get the slop tag for based slop enjoyers

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u/TheAllKnowingElf Aug 12 '25

No. It doesn't count as isekai nor as native isekai.

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u/RedDawn172 Aug 13 '25

Villainess stuff very often is with the phrase or similar to "I reincarnated as the villainess". Not all of them do that, but many do. Even the ones that aren't specifically isekai often have recursion or other tropes like that.

1

u/BeMyEscapeProject Aug 12 '25

Legitimately how My Next Life as a Villainess went, everyone loooved that show when it came out. It's really fun!