Analyzing Losers and 'NEETs' in Isekais: Where MiSide Failed and Others Succeeded
This article comes after I decided not to include discussion of the protagonist's real life outside of the phone game world in MiSide purely because I believe the subject requires a lot more dedicated thought than a footnote in a light-hearted review.
The following contains spoilers for Re:ZERO, MiSide and Futurama, weirdly.
You might be wondering why MiSide has come up and it's because that's a game I played most recently where I found the use of this plot device to be most egregious. So much so that I felt the need to write this. The plot device in question?
'No Life To Go Back To'
So to just speed things on a little bit, I'm gonna assume everyone reading this knows what an Isekai is. It's an animé where the main character is sent to another world. A NEET stands for 'Not in Education, Employment or Training'. I just wanted to get that out there so we can move on without extensive padding.
Isekais often star characters you would describe as NEETs because, in order for them to not yearn for home or question the circumstances with which they were transported to a fantastical place, they have to had a boring life to want to leave behind. This is so the question of logic or escaping does not come up and the narrative can have a fish-out-of-water character from 'our' world without the protagonist needing to waste time discover it or observe it from afar for instance. If The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe began with all of the children being run over simultaneously and transported to Narnia, it would be a way less interesting book and movie.
This is not to say that it's not effective though. From a writer's perspective, it makes writing fantasy way easier when the main character knows nothing about the world and they can discover it with the reader/viewer as well as the writer not needing to think of an explanation as to how they know nothing about the outside world.
Subjective Complaints
I've never watched Konosuba. Please don't ask me about it.
This is going to be a pretty subjective section ultimately. It's difficult to objectively assess this method of storytelling practically or from the perspective of the reader.
From my point of view, these types of protagonists are hard to invest in because you don't know anything about them, by design. Obviously, the way a lot of this fiction is set out, you find out more about the character from the situations that they're in. I believe that you are supposed to assume that because they're a NEET, they haven't lead an interesting enough life worthy of remark. I don't really like that strategy because I don't self-insert into any kind of media even though, you're kind of supposed to with Isekais.
Fundamentally though, Tappei Nagatsuki succeed with making a character progression in Subaru Natsuki in Re:ZERO from a loser to a somewhat believable hero without having him be the literal king of the universe like in other inferior isekais.
I've also heard Baan is very good at better utilizing the isekai genre but I have not seen it yet so i can't comment on anything I've not watched.
The Popularity
It's died a death at this point in current history but it was pretty epidemic 10 years ago. Many have sought to work out it's popularity and it's a lot simpler than the backhanded "male fantasy" explanation.
A lot of people are not going to want to hear this, including me, but i have somewhat unfortunate news to report...
Isekais are very easy and fun to watch. Junk food for the eyes and brain. A lot of them aren't as serious as I'm giving this topic in this article because it's often played for laughs and it's way easier to take your medicine if it's wrapped in cheese. Sometimes, you have to be a good boy and eat your slop. Whilst the notion of it being an escape into a power fantasy - often for men - is definitely there, you'd have to put almost all superhero lore and westerns in there.
People like fantasy and D&D too. I don't but people who like Isekais do and it makes sense if you want to see a formula repeated but within a whole new world where anything can happen.
Where MiSide Comes Into It
As part of the ending of MiSide, the protagonist is forced to live his repetitive, boring life as a programmer who has the same routine every day. This is to be shown that this is the alternative to being trapped in a mobile game with a murderous animé girl who wants to hold him hostage.
My big issue with this is that you are obviously supposed to think that they are showing you a NEET lifestyle and I thought "That's interesting because he's clearly a programmer ... so maybe, I'm wrong?" The problem is that if I'm wrong then what is actually the point of all this? Repetition is bad? That's what having a job is, what being in school is like and/or what training to become something is like. These thoughts made me question a lot more than I'd like to.
Male Fear of Being Useless
Something that I haven't mentioned yet is that most isekais have male protagonists. There are some that exist with female or otherwise protagonists like I've Been Fighting Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level whereby the lead is an office worker. But it must be said that the genre is very much in the shonen ballpark for a teenage audience.
What doesn't need to be said necessarily is that predatory psychological terrorism that targets young boys is instilling fear of failure, especially sexually and/or financially. Extending upon the traditional idealogue that men must be providers and that somehow, life is expected to be a meritocracy. You know all that stuff and it's become a tired subject so I'll try and keep it brief.
My point here is that I don't like how MiSide tries to paint a struggling guy working a hard job with difficult endeavors as being "no home to go back to". The character tries to resist this in the narrative but it's only on the basis that Mita will kill him and that's bad which uh... yeah.
What struck me is that being a NEET is no longer enough to be declared a loser. Even Subaru had a loving family who misses him and he has a complex about "the real him" and that, compared to the rest of the characters in the known universe with all these special powers that make him unique, he learns that he is not special. He needs to make himself useful.
That's when I realized that, actually, is the isekai genre more tapping into the fear of being useless? I obviously mean the ones like Re:ZERO and Rising of the Shield Hero and not... y'know, the other ones.
Part of why I'm not frightened or saddened by the notion of the mundane work is because I've made peace with the simple routine of my life, plugging away. We're all in the same boat - all trying to row down an endless river. I don't know if that's stoicism but I've become a more reasonable person in my twenties that isn't terrified of the idea that I won't be a millionaire by the time I'm thirty. When I was 16, I mentally prepared myself to be sleeping on a cold hard floor and eating instant noodles whilst I struggle for work. This guy at least has a bed.
It frightens me that other people are frightened by this. They have to be for this to work as a plot device in so many things. I don't fear my normal life.
Maybe, I'm overthinking all of this and this was all a massive, rambling waste of my time and yours but I'm autistic so shut up.
You Don't Have To...
I know I put animé in the title but it was only so you'd click on it.
People may dispute this but Futurama ticks all of the same boxes that isekais do. Phillip J. Fry effectively travels to another world by going forward in time by a thousand years and there is no going back. They also go into great detail about how his life is going nowhere fast and he hates everything.
Also, like the common isekai, Fry fits in way more and finds it incredibly easy to adjust to a fantastical world AND it is revealed halfway into the show's original run that he is the most important person in the universe.
The writers of the show achieve all this without sacrificing Fry's past life, ignoring how he got there in the first place and not making it totally unachievable to get back there either. His character development comes with how he is always around the corner from realizing his own brilliance but is never intelligent enough to recognize it, giving him pathos without advancing him to a higher status within the environment.
Concludification
Well, this was a fucking mess.
This article was the result of me becoming extremely irritated by one specific scene in an anime horror video game and not knowing how to process it because men will literally start a blog instead of going to therapy. I don't really like making soapbox-y posts/articles/write-ups because I am too impatient and I know a lot of people don't care but I wanted to see it through to the end, by hook or by crook.
I'll be surprised if anyone reads this far. Especially, after I promised not to ramble on about isekais and NEETs and how I promised not to overexplain them before proceeding to do exactly those things. I just wanted to see how I feel about this being out there and published and not gived-up-on in my drafts alongside 25 other failed colleagues.
I just care a lot about the subject of men's mental health and not in an unserious "meninist"-type way but the trouble is that there isn't a lot that could be said that isn't markedly obvious or, at least, explains itself.
I'll review Re:ZERO Season 3 at some point, just not now. I'm playing a tone of these wee visual novels (or adjacent) type games because I love writing about them right now.
Games currently on my list:
Zero Time Dilemma (halfway through)
AI: The Somnium Files
Mucorales
Mouthwashing
Daemonologie
Hisuragi
Clannad
I may also restart my Danganronpa series that I stopped because it was way too much work.
You can stop reading now.