Everyone is a Normie and no one is only a Normie.

Normie is a relative term, Gamers talking among other Gamers will use the word Normie of people who aren't particularly into Video Games, while others might perceive gaming itself to be a pretty Normie interest to have. 

Lately Anime is the fandom I’ve been most into and so past uses of Normie on this blog are in that context. In fact it was in the Anime fandom I first heard the word and so it’s among a list of terms I at one time mistook for terms the Anime community coined. So it was jarring for a part of my brain while watching a YT not too long ago I saw someone in the context of what they’re talking about refer to Anime as being for Normies. 

I'm talking about this because recently I realized some people use the word Normie thinking it has a more objective non relative meaning, that there is a class of people only into the most Mainstream things with no Niche hobbies at all. I don’t think such a hypothetical person exists, everyone is a fan of something that most people haven’t heard of. 

And even when we're talking about the most Mainstream interests one could theoretically have, being a hardcore fan of that thing is still not actually normal. Star Wars movies and now Disney+ shows are normal to have seen but having read any of the books is not.  DC and Marvel Superhero movies are watched by everyone but very few actually read the Comics. Even the most theoretically mainstream interest you can have in American culture, Sports, do you really think the Sports fan who can tell you at the drop of hat what happened in Games played before they were born and don’t even involve their favorite team aren’t using the exact same brain energy we Comic Book nerds are? 

The reason I felt I needed to make this point is because of a video I recently watched about the Fascist adjacent thinking that has always been present in Sci-Fi fandoms even going back to its early days. 

Indeed some will argue that using the word Normie at all is a Fascist adjacent practice.  I would disagree, I think a group having a catch all term for everyone outside their group simply is objectively linguistically useful. In fact it’s Nazis who love to claim Jews are committing some sin against all Goyim by simply having the word Goyim. 

What matters is how you perceive the outsiders that term refers to. I see them as fellow humans with different interests. 

Was 1990-2004 the Peak era for Fantasy?

I made a prior post inspired by a BookTuber named EverymanReads where he argued for that.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2026/02/booktuber-overing-classic-fantasy-novels.html

There we were talking just in the context of Prose Novels. Looking beyond that the case becomes even stronger.

For movies we have Hook, Army of Darkness, Peter Jacksons' LOTR Adaptations and the first two Star Wars Prequels to name just the first that easily pop into my head.  For TV we had Hercules and Xena, that Sam Neill Merlin miniseries. And Urban Fantasy was largely defined by shows like Forever Knight and the Buffyverse and Charmed and Anime like Witch Hunter Robin. 

Speaking of Anime and Manga, this era had classics like Berserk and Escaflone and forgotten classics like Maze, and adaptations of some of those LNs I talked about, and most of the most defining entries of the Magical Girl Warrior subgenre as well as Battle Shonen.

But Video Games is where things were even more genre defining. It'd almost be easier to name what Video Games aren't either Fantasy or Sci-Fi in some way, the defining franchises of the medium like Mario and Sonic and Kirby and Pokémon are distinct Fantasy settings that only Gaming as a medium could come up with. 

But even if we limit ourselves to Games that feel more inline with conventional Fantasy there is still a lot.  For Zelda this period includes A Link To The Past, Link's Awakening, Ancient Stone Tablets, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Oracle Games, The Winder Waker, Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and The Minish Cap. All those genre defining JRPGs of the SNES and PlayStation that were important to prior post of this blog are this era, as well as much of the PS2 and Game Cube era. Then there's Castlevania and lots of classic Star Wars Games. 

And spinning off from that are Visual Novels like YU-NO: The Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound Of This World, Higurashi, Tsukihime and it's sequels and Fate/Stay Night. 

For Otaku media I almost want to shift it a year to be 1991-2005. I don't even know much what I'd be loosing dropping 1990, but I know I'd be gaining Fate/Hallow Ataraxia, Mai Otome, the second seasons of Nanoha and PreCure, most of the Shuffle Anime Adaptation.  Or heck maybe even 1992-2006.

Even EverymanRead's reading list doesn't include all English language fantasy novels form this era, it for examples includes no Star Wars EU novels. This era includes all the Bantam books and the first 5 years of Del Rey which includes the New Jedi Order series containing the Yuuzhan Vong War and the earliest Prequel Era novels. Maybe for Star Wars we could move the era up a year since nothing notable came out in 1990 but 2005 has Revenge of The Sith and a number of EU novels tying into it directly including the Dark Nest trilogy in the Post-Endor saga. Or with an April 91 through March 2006 timeframe we could include Timothy Zahn's Outbound Flight. 

The late 90s also includes the three Willow novels by Chris Claremont. 

Why limit myself to 15 years per era? Because it feels like that's the average for the pretty agreed upon language for talking about eras of American Superhero Comic Books.

And speaking of which the 90s and early 00s is when most of my favorite DC Comics came out as well, most of which have some degree of Fantasy in them. The Triangle Era of Post-Crisis Superman Comics begins in November of 1990. And related to the other timeframes I've mentioned, 1992-2006 is also the timeframe of the DCAU. In the Comics the first half of 2006 was Infinite Crisis, so more or less the end of the era of DC Comics I'm most Nostalgic for. 

Video Games and Anime that turn 30 this year

I’ve kind of already talked about the importance of 1996 to Video Games when I argued it’s the start of the Silver Age of Gaming.  

But to sum it up the original Pokémon Games in Japan, the Launch of the N64, Super Mario RPG, DKC3 and Kirby Superstar as a trio of swan songs for the SNES and in the world of Japanese Bishoujo Games the birth of the Visual Novel with Shizuka and Kizuato from Leaf alongside Welcome to Pia Carrot and Kakyusei and to end of the year Otaku Culture’s Princess of Mars turned John Carter in YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World. 

Remember that Commercial for Super Mario RPG about the Elderly man rambling about the plot of the game to his Grandchildren? I was 10 for most of 96 and I consider myself possibly on the younger end of people Nostalgic for this game.  So we’re now halfway to the point of that commercial becoming real.

For Anime that turns 30 this year, due to what my focus has been lately Detective Conan is what I’ve been hearing about and talking about the most. Netflix has some of the earliest important episodes streaming both Dubbed and Subbed, the two part pilot at the start of the Black Organization collection and then the first five episodes of the Rivals Collection are episodes that aired in 96.  But there are still many important 96 episodes not there like the Moonlite Sonotata Murder Case, Kogoro’s Class Reunion Murder Case, and the Mountain Bandaged Man Murder Case. They can all be watched Subbed on Crunchyroll, and they do have old English Dubs for those who know where to look. Episode 42 (or 43 of the international count) was the last to air in 96. 

It looks like that’s the only TV Anime to start in Winter 1996 I’ve even partially watched. Looking at what shows have their second or last cour during Winter of 96 could cement an argument for viewing Spring 95 as the start of the year that begins the Bronze Age of Anime. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam Wing and Wedding Peach. 

For Sailor Moon this year ends SuperS in March and then airs most of SailorStars. 

For OVAs we have Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team, the Sonic The Hedgehog OVAs which became localized as Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie, Fire Emblem which I don’t remember the details of right now, it stars Marth and I think is the first time he was voiced by who still his voices him in Smash, but that’s the Japanese VA in the English Dub he’s Spike Spencer.

I like Inma Youjo enough to break my usual resistance to mentioning Hentai in these kinds of posts.  Its second and 3rd episodes came out in 96 and the 2nd in January is possibly the one I like most,  I have a sneaking suspicion Maya’s character design from the first two episodes influenced Utena. 

In Spring we got Escaflowne, Kodocha and Slayers Next and the first Shamanic Princess OVA on a date that’s technically Summer already, the birthday of John The Baptist, I can’t find dates for its other episodes.  That exact same day is also the release date of the 2nd of the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy OVAs which is the wildest one with its early Internet plot.

For movies we have Tenchi Muyo In Love which was good and Lupin III Dead or Alive which is probably fun but I don’t remember it as well as other lupin movies I’ve seen, Lupin’s TV Movies were better during the 90s, which we see in August with Lupin III: The Legend of The Twilight Gemini which I consider a personal favorite. The film version of Clamp’s X/1999 came out this year, but I’ve only seen the TV Anime version. 

Summer’s OVAs include the Maze OVA which is another fun hidden Gem of 90s Isekai.  But I’ve seen no TV Anime that started in Summer of 96, just continuations of prior shows. 

Fall had the Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy TV Anime once localized as Magical Project S which I do highly recommend. Another anime from Fall that’s notable but I haven’t seen yet is Martian Successor Nadesico. And Those who Hunt Elves also aired out this season. 

In the OVA department the year ends with Galaxy Fraulein Yuna and Wedding Peach DX and 08th MS Team reaching its halfway point.

For Western Weebs, this year is I’m pretty sure when Sailor Moon first aired in America after the DiC Dub initially broadcast in Canada in late 95. I’m pretty sure catching early Sunday morning broadcasts of Sailor Moon in 96 was my very first exposure to any Japanese Animation. 

Years should begin and end around the Spring Equinox rather than the Winter Solstice.

This is as many know The Biblical Reckoning, the year begins with the month Aviv later renamed Nissan and ends with Adar. All the traditions about alternate New Years including the popular Tishrei New Year are Extra-Biblical, the only Biblically ordained reckoning for the year is the one that starts with Aviv. 

Weebs also eventually learn that while Japan nominally uses the Gregorian Calendar a lot about how they do things is clearly built around years that begin with April and end with March. Including their School Year. 

As a former fan of Wrestling I miss the days when the WWE’s calendar truly revolved around WrestleMania, that event in late March or early April was a culmination of many months of build up and then the Raw the day after felt like a new beginning. 

I feel like everyone intuitively, subconsciously, knows this way of thinking about years is what actually makes the most sense. 

Spring feels like a time of birth, of beginnings, of fertility. 

While Winter is poetically a time of Death, it clearly feels like the nighttime of the year.  Only the start of Winter is ever a time we feel like celebrating, after that it’s three months of waiting for Spring to arrive.  

For the last few years I’ve been using Calendars built around screen shots from classic Video Games.  And I keep noticing that the ability to make the Levels associated with each month match the vibe of that month is hindered by the natural impulse to start with World 1-1. 

Video Games usually open with Levels that feel like the embodiment of Spring, Grass Land, Green Hill Zone, Green Greens.  Even when they aren’t named something like that just look at them, Bob-Omb’s Battlefield is a very Green stage. 

Meanwhile Ice worlds are usually saved till late game, yes technically mainly because they are so difficult.  But it winds up creating a theme. 

This observation about Video Game design won’t pan out when applied to everything, clearly they aren’t usually consciously thinking of building the game around going through a Biblical or Japanese Year.  And not all popular Level themes are as easy to pin to a time of year. I could say Desert Levels are summer because deserts are hot but also winter because they’re barren. 

The point however is that it feels natural to begin in a setting that looks like Spring.

Low Church Fantasy

I’ve noticed a trend lately of YouTube videos analyzing how fictional religions in Fantasy settings often don’t feel authentic to how real Regions function, including one focusing specifically on the lack of Schisms. 

So I want to talk about something that perhaps only I care about.

Fantasy religions Aesthetically based on Christianity are always specifically based on High Church Christianity, usually quite specifically Roman Catholicism. More disorganized local spirituality in Fantasy stories are usually more inspired by Animist polytheism like you’d see from Indigenous Tribes of North America or the Sami or local Shintoism. 

This probably has to do with the simplified understanding of Christian History where there is no Protestantism till the Middle Ages are over so therefore it’s assumed Baptist or Quaker inspired communities would be out of place in a Medieval Europe inspired Fantasy Setting.  

However I have seen plenty of Fantasy settings that extend their real word inspirations into the Renaissance, Enlightenment or even Victorian period. Like all those Otome Villainess settings, or really any with a Magic Academy element.

But besides that Medieval Proto-Protestants of different kinds did exist, most relevant here would be the Waldenses/Waldensians. Talking about the Waldenses as Low Church Proto-Protestants is made more controversial than it should be because of how they factor into the imagined revisionist histories proposed by Landmarkists.  I do not believe in the core Doctrine that often lies behind Baptist Successionism theories (that being in the “True Church” requires an unbroken chain of Believers Baptism back to the Disciples), so whether or not there is direct continuity between the Waldenses and 15th Century Anabaptists doesn’t concern me. However I am convinced there is plenty of solid evidence that many Waldenses (they were probably not always all the same) were Credo-Baptists who practiced Congregational Polity. 

There's also the Lollards from English History, some of them were more Low Church then the others, Wycliff himself was certainly not a Credo-Baptist but I think some later Lollards did come to that conclusion.

But also Medieval Europe inspired Fantasy sometimes is unlike real Medieval Europe in more ways then just the Supernatural stuff. Just look at all those Fantasy Anime with Chattel Slavery as part of the setting. So who cares about the precedent, I want Fantasy Baptists. 

George MacDonald was a Congregationalist Minister who was a huge player in the origins of the Fantasy Genre being a cited influence on both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.  The way Goblins tend to be depicted in Fantasy began with him and he also arguably wrote the first Isekai. Unfortunately his influence was filtered through a Catholic and an Anglican. His position on Church Polity is not the deviation from the Established Church of England MacDonald is most well known for, and indeed Universal Salvation is also something I’d like to see in the Fantasy Genre more often.

The major impact this could have on both the Mechanics and Lore of a Fantasy Setting is the question of Apostolic Succession.  

High Church denominations believe the Spiritual Authority Jesus gave the Apostles is only truly inherited by the Clergy, while Low Church Christians believe strongly in the Priesthood of All Believers.  Today most major Baptist denominations are Secessionist on the question of the Spiritual Gifts meaning they believe the more explicitly supernatural manifestations of that authority don’t really happen anymore. However most Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations are also Low Church in form, and the Quakers have their Inner Light doctrine. 

So you could easily still have your Catholic Church like institution be the one wielding the most institutional power in Society, seeking to restrict the knowledge and use of Healing Magic (and other forms of what a Final Fantasy player would call White Magic) to the Clergy, even pressuring Adventurer Guilds to refuse to give proper Healer licenses to anyone not properly ordained.  While the Low Church Schismatics are teaching that such powers can be called upon by anyone who has Faith. 

People also criticize how passively Pro Monarchy the Fantasy Genre often seems. Well I’ve written before about how Congregationists were the harbingers of modern Democracy and Socialism, so perhaps having some Low Church Schismatics is also how to bring about a Revolution in a Fantasy World?

Baptists and Quakers also have a long history of opposing Slavery, the Southern Baptist Convention were the exception not the general rule, John Brown was a Congregationalist and Nat Turner a Baptist. A Fantasy story inspired by the history of The Baptist War in Jamaica could be interesting. 

Update May 17th 2026: I've recently learned that contrary to what I'd long assumed contemporary Japan has more Protestants then Catholics. 

This completely recontextualized what I'd assumed about the matter of why most Anime seem like they don't know non Catholic forms of Christianity exist, with the main exceptions specifically depicting the Anglicanism of England. 

It means that the people who write the Web novels that become Light Novels that become Manga that become modern Fantasy Anime really should broaden their horizons. Tokyo has Baptists and Presbyterians and a Non Church Movement. They do have a frame of reference for what Low Church Christianity looks like. 

Catholics get more respect because they've been there longer. But so much else in Anime is the product of post Meiji Westernization, it's time Christianity in Anime reflected that too. 

Pokémon and Nintendo Fandom

One thing I feel is missing from how many people reminisce about the early days of the Pokémon fandom is how the Pokémon Fandom and the wider Nintendo fandom related to each other. 

Pokémon is the only franchise represented in the original Super Smash Bros. that wasn't old enough to even have an SNES game, a few others had no NES games but only Pokémon had no SNES games.

The way Pokémon so quickly jumped to being arguably the most mainstream popular of all of them and certainly bigger than every franchise but Mario and Zelda did garner some degree of subtle resentment from the more long-time Nintendo fans.  Not me though, I was a Nintendo loyalist for years already before I heard of Pokémon but once I discovered Pokémon I quickly thought of it as part of the family.  But I noticed that for example early Sprite Comics predicated on being epic Nintendo crossover fics never included Pokémon.  And when there were Pokémon references it sometimes felt kinda mocking.

Today Pokémon isn’t different from other Nintendo first party franchises because it’s seen as too new, Pokémon is older now then Mario and Donkey Kong were when the first Smash came out (in fact so is Smash itself) and some even younger franchises are firmly part of the Nintendo pantheon now.  But Pokémon does feel a little different still in some hard to explain way.

Nintendo loves dropping Easter Eggs to their other first party franchises in various games, but Pokémon does feel a bit left out of that tradition, both in terms of being referenced and making references. Smash seems to be the only place Pokémon coexists with the other Nintendo franchises and it’s not first party only anymore. 

It might be because Pokémon is by many thought of as a Multimedia franchise rather than a Video Game franchise first.  The whole Pokémon saying only their own names trope is an Anime invention that proper Pokémon games rarely incorporate and when they do only really for Pikachu. Except Smash of all places where Jiggleypuff also still does this (I do appreciate how Rachel Lillis name is immortalized as part of the Smash Ultimate credits).

In which case it does go both ways.  Comic Party is an Anime from OLM the same studio as the Pokémon Anime that I refer to as the Lucky Star of the early 00s, more specifically it is for OLM what Lucky Star is for KytoAnimation on a meta level. And yet Pokémon is the one OLM Anime left out of all that referencing even though it was by far their biggest franchise.  Perhaps because Nintendo didn’t want their new Crown Jewel being so directly linked to Otaku Culture. 

Pokémon is by money earned the largest IP franchise of all time, beating out even Star Wars and Batman.  So it’s perhaps the one franchise Nintendo feels they don't need to cross promote. 

On a Fandom level Pokémon’s long term ubiquity has made it now the opposite of what I observed in the early days.  Pokémon references inevitably show up in fan content related to other Nintendo and other Anime franchises.  But a Pokémon specific YouTube channel is not likely to bring up Metroid.

It’s a shame because I think there is a lot of fun you could have with fan theories based on connecting Pokémon to the rest of the Nintendo multiverse, like the parallelism I see between the Lake Guardians and the Golden Goddesses. Or how Kirby could be a Pokémon anatomically related to Clefairy and Jiggleypuff.  Heck one could go beyond just Nintendo and speculate on a relationship between Deoxys and Jenova.

And if Link isn’t out of place in Mario Kart then Pikachu certainly wouldn’t be.  If a Side Stepper can somehow drive a Go Kart so can a Krabby.

Is Anime a Genre?

The simple answer is No, because the definition of Genre I expect to be the first to pop into your mind is a type of Story or Setting for a Story, and Anime is not one of those.  And a number of Anime YouTubers have expressed annoyance at it being called a Genre thinking of that definition. 

But the word Genre is actually broader than that in application, it really just means a Category, it is etymologically cognate with Gender.  In the context of Video Games we don’t usually use Genre to mean Story or Setting but to categorize the way a Game is played Mechanically.   Platformer, First Person Shooter, RPG, Point and Click Adventure Game, ____ Simulator, ____ Like and so on. 

So a Medium can be a Genre, as can an Art Style or any other definition for Anime you can come up with.

The thing about Anime being mistaken for a Genre in the first sense is that I can understand why many in the Anime Fandom hate it because of a fear that it will make people think Anime has less variety than it actually does. But I also think that conflation has caused some of what I like about the Anime Community. 

Back in the 2000s and even much of the 2010s when I was still more Western in my Nerdy interests and only dabbled in a select few Anime, I’m sure I was far from the only person into DC Superheroes and Star Wars type stuff but also Teen Dramas, but as far as how people engaged in such fandoms openly online they were very segregated.  And often a perceived crossing over between them was a source of hostility, people hated Twilight for tainting their precious Masculine Vampires with Teen Girl Melodrama.

The Anime Fandom was the first Fandom I ever encountered where it was normal to appreciate those different kinds of Story Genres together.  Where the same Vloggers will give weekly coverage to both currently airing Isekai and currently airing Romantic Comedies.  That I can talk about Nana with the same people I talk about Gundam.  

Because Anime itself was a distinct Category of content to be a Nerd for, the variety of Genres within it could coexist in a way they couldn’t elsewhere.

That’s not to say there are no internal beefs within the Anime community along these lines, the Anti-Shoujo and Anti-Moe “OldTaku” were and still are a thing.  But it manifests differently precisely because Anime was always crossing over these things. Western media has its own long history of hybridizing Teen Drama and Superheroes going back to the 50s Superboy Comics.  But with Anime this has been the default form, it’s Superheroes being Adults that’s a novelty.

I created a Playlist on YouTube called Anime Defined where the true nuances of what the word Anime means is broken down and certain popular misconceptions are refuted.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepj2gZet-357KQT3bgJjLErC 

But one topic not covered in any videos there yet is how I think the most interesting difference between how Westerners and those in Japan use the word Anime is that only we use it for a “Style” of Character Design. A Character who looks like this….

…is called an Anime Girl even though she hasn’t yet been in any Animated Media. And certain Video Games are called “Anime Games” because of the style of their Character Designs.

In Japan Anime is not given priority among the various Mediums these Styles have appeared in. The oldest Styles used in the Oldest Anime would probably be called Manga Styles if anything because they were usually adapting Manga or imitating older shows adapted from Manga.  Plus the word Manga in Japanese is more analogous to the English word Cartoon then Comic.

However the particular kind of Anime Style associated with what Westerners typically mean by “Anime Games” I’m pretty sure actually started with the Games, it was Anime adapting and/or imitating those Games that created the styles of modern Anime. 

The Puyo Puyo series started in 1991 (spinning off from something older if I remember correctly), Doukyuusei and Galaxy Fraulein Yuna then came out in 1992, Tokimeki Memorial came out in 1994 as did Panel de Pon.  Their OVAs were among the first Anime to have this style, but even in 1995 TV Anime still didn’t quite look like this yet.  1996 was the big breakout year with Shizuka and Kizuato and Kakyuusei and Welcome to Pia Carrot and YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound of This World. And then 97 had To Heart and Dosei and Moon followed in 98 by One.  Then 99 had Key’s Debut with Kanon and Overflow’s with Large Pon Pon, and the To Heart Anime being I would argue the first popular TV Anime with this style.

So yeah, it’s actually Anime that looks like those Games, not the other way around. 

Those Games however I believe were in turn influenced by Shoujo Manga trends in both subject matter and the Bishoujo/Bishounen style.

Turns out everyone likes to watch someone else play a Video Game.

I consider myself a bit of an apologist for Sword Art Online, but one key detail of it's climax hasn't aged well.

The original Web Novel version of Aincrad was published in 2002 before YouTube existed, but the Anime aired a decade later.  So Kirito saying "there's no fun in watching someone else play a video game" was already being proven wrong by the time it was Animated.

Honestly I kind of lament how nearly dead the original Let's Play format is.  Live Streams and edited videos about challenge runs are also fun.  But watching people commentate on their casual play through without having to deal with a Live Chat is something I miss.

Live Streams with some Chat interaction are more tolerable when I'm watching someone smaller. But once their Chat has a larger population then some cities it can become an inevitably frustrating distraction.

Still there's lots of fun Casual Gameplay based YT videos being made which I still enjoy. 

How many VRMMO Anime are actually about VR?

In shows like Sword Art Online and Quality Assurance in Another World the being literally unable to log out plot device is enabled by it not being Virtual Reality but rather more like your Brain is literally plugged into the Game. And it seems like it functions the same way in BOFURI even though it doesn't have a similar plot point. Infinite Dendrogam is another one of these.  "Full Dive" is sometimes the term for it and there is an Anime with that term in the title I didn't watch much of. 

Then there are shows like And You Thought There Is Never A Girl Online and My Love Story With Yamada-Kun where the Games being played are just regular contemporary MMOs, the way the In Game world is Animated is an artistic liberty for the benefit of the audience, it’s not meant to be diegetic.

The various Isekai about a Game world becoming real in some form presumably were actual VRMMOs but that’s not what they’re experiencing anymore.  These would include Log Horizon, Land of Leadale, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man, and kind of Overlord.

At the end of last year when I finally started watching some old .Hack Anime it kinda hit me how different it is because it is in fact actual Virtual Reality.  The ability of whatever the given plot is to trap people in the game or harm people in real life is presented as seemingly Supernatural and I don’t think is fully explained in any of what I’ve watched yet.

It’s mostly very small things, but they become in hindsight quite notable, like the references to someone using graph paper to help them navigate.

It’s not just an Anime thing, SciFi is often skipping the Virtual Reality phase for some more truly Transhumanist plug-in, like in 2009’s Caprica.

It might have to do with Virtual Reality being technology that does already exist, and has since the early 90s at least, it’s just not widespread and normalized and cheap enough yet to be the standard way Video Games are made to be played, and perhaps it never will be.

Or maybe Virtual Reality is a broader term then I’m treating it and does technically apply to what SAO depicts.  But you know what I mean.  These “Full Dive” things are not something I think I’d ever want to do, but standard VR might be fun to try some day.

Update October 2025: I had forgotten when I first wrote this about the Netflix Anime Good Night World which I watched when it first dropped in October of 2023.  I rewatched it this month and noticed it's Game is an actual VRMMO.  It is in a few ways perhaps the most like ,hack of any modern Anime.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town?

Is the name of a Winter 2021 Fantasy Anime I haven’t watched.  I recall trying to but didn’t finish even the first episode.

However I can’t stop thinking about the title.  The implication of that title is that ‘Starter Town” is functionally synonymous with being a bustling Urban Metropolis and what I recall of the first episode confirms that.

So it confuses me because these LN based Fantasy Anime are operating on a very Meta level, the title implies that because its audience would expect it to be the norm.

But my general experience with the Fantasy Genre is the opposite, the Hero’s Journey usually starts in the Boonies, from The Hobbit and LOTR starting in The Shire to Luke Skywalker growing up on a farm far from the big city on an outer rim planet to Pokémon starting in Pallet Town (which in the Games and Anime seems smaller then it’s real world inspiration) to even Zelda usually starting Link off in some obscure settlement like Kokori Forest, Outset Island or Ordon Village.

But only one of those fits all the requirements for counting as a JRPG and even it is an edge case. 

In Japan the by far most popular JRPG franchise is Dragon Quest with Dragon Quest III specifically being the main blueprint for what most of these Japanese Gamers would think of as a standard RPG formula.  And indeed that adventure does start in the Castle Town where the King lives.

Even the original Final Fantasy also has the first city you visit be the Royal Capital of a Kingdom.  And VII starts in Midgar.

In the Mairo RPGs Mario’s house seems not to be in any town but located very close to Toad Town where Peach’s Castle is located.  The Thousand Year Door starts in Rogueport, a Mos Eisley style port city.

I also notice in Anime about playing MMORPGs you usually spawn in what seems like an Urban Center so that meeting up with other players can be done conveniently.  

And I think that is why RPGs so often depart from the Tolkien set precedent.  RPGs are a kind of game where the Multiplayer form is the original and the Single Player form came later.  The Quest needs to start in a place where players from diverse backgrounds can believably happen to meet up and form a party, like the opening premise of the Anime Ningen Fushin.

The association of the Last Dungeon with the Boonies I still don't get though.

Update December 22nd 2024: Well I have watched it now.

It doesn't really confirm or deny the thesis I originally made this post for. 

The central Meta Gamer Logic Joke is that this MC comes form a late game area and so is overpowered in this early game area without realizing it because in these "boonies" the the most common monsters are stronger then early game bosses.

In a typical RPG you will reach a point where even the lowest Mooks you do battle with technically now have higher states then Bosses you fought early on.  For example in Super Mario RPG the Gu Goombas of Bowser's Keep are stronger then the Hammer Bros of Mushroom Way.  But because the player has leveled up along the way they feel just as easy to one hit KO as regular Goombas.

Update October 2025: I think I do fully get what the title is going for now. 

It's taking the common cultural perception that people who grow up in rural areas are probably tougher then city folk because they grew up in a harsher environment living a more labor intensive lifestyle.   And mapping that neatly onto those RPG conventions I talked about above. 

Shizuku is the first Visual Novel

Amelie Doree is a great YouTuber who's videos I highly recommend to everyone seeking to learn more about obscure Japanese Video Games from the 90s and 2000s.  I want to make that clear up front given how this post is about my disagreement with on specific thing she says in her video on Shizuku.  

Now the part about it not being the first Dempa seems to be true, Dempa I don't know much about but it seems like she's correct there.  However I am very invested in properly understanding the history of Visual Novels and other similar kinds of Games.

Her reasons why it's not the first Visual Novel are all very technical, I'd dare say even semantical.  One of my prior posts on Visual Novels takes the position that the mechanical distinction between them and other Games I feel are wrongly called Visual Novels is the dialogue choices being the only interactive element, and I learned from this YT video at least one prior game fits that definition.  But there's a lot about my older posts on Visual Novels I have come to regret since the fall 2023 Anime season.

Let's compare this to the debate about if the Slasher genre began with Halloween.  By every technical standard there are plenty of pre-Halloween films that fit the bill.  However what makes Halloween so vital is the fact that once people were making movies with the premediated concept of a Slasher being the genre they are making, Halloween and it's first sequel were the primary model they were using.

With Visual Novels it's similar, once we're in the time period when Visual Novels undisputedly exist, Leaf's spiritual trilogy not any prior games that technically fit the definition were the inspiration, the first two which are more Horroeqsque are very directly the inspiration for games like Tsukihime when you compare what Tsukihime originally looked like to what they look like.  And then To Heart is clearly the inspiration for One and Key's Seasons Trilogy and Rumbling Hearts and Shuffle.  Then over time those games became more directly influential then what influenced them.

However the difference between the Slasher situation and the Visual Novel situation, at least in the way I chose to describe the Slasher situation, is that no one was making Tsukihime or Kanon thinking of "Visual Novel" as the name of the Genre they are working in.  Because in Japan "Visual Novel" has never been a genre name, it's only the Leaf series that are called that and it was part of their Branding not a subjective flexible Genre label.  So in that context it's even more indisputable, to the nation that makes all these Games we're talking about there are only 4 Visual Novels and Shizuku is unambiguously the first.

Bowel of Lentils videos on the history of Visual Novels and how that became a term more commonly used in the west then in Japan I highly recommend, and another prior post I made on VNs I kind of regret is the one disagreeing with them.  I have mostly abandoned my past refusal to classify Visual Novels as video games.  Though I still think something more specific then Adventure Game is needed to be the umbrella term for both the undisputed Visual Novels and Dating Sims and other games with this Style.

And that's why I'm indebted to the Fall 2023 Anime 16bit Sensation: Another Layer.  That show has helped make me and others in the Western Fandom aware of how the Japanese term for these kinds of Games is Bishojo Game.

Visual Novel though is still a more distinct subcategory within that.

Nintendo was right to stick with Cartridges for the Fifth Generation

So many YouTube videos on gaming history still repeat the old conventional wisdom that Nintendo’s refusal to jump to CDs right away was one of the greatest blunders of all time.  And I’m tired of it.

No one denies that Nintendo 64 Games like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were the key groundbreaking developments of true fully 3D Gaming.  The original PlayStation and Sega Saturn never made a fully 3D game like those.  And what is more well known to non industry insiders now than it used to be is that if Nintendo had jumped to CDs that console Generation they would not have been able to make those games for it.  So many 3rd Parties wanted the CDs because they wanted FMVs and less limited audio options, but there was a trade off for that which fans and journalists didn’t understand at the time.  Nintendo then like now prioritized actual innovation in how Games are played over flashy cosmetic things that look cool in a trailer.  

And the thing about Final Fantasy VII is that the FMVs are exactly the part of the game that visually hasn’t aged well.  Most of the time I find these failed attempts at “cinematic” animation ugly and would much rather have watched those scenes play out with the charming 32 bit models.  The only one that works is the opening Cinematic, but it’s so minimalist compared to the others that when I look at CutScenes in N64 Games like Jet Force Gemini and Majora’s Mask I see no reason the same scene couldn’t have been done on it.

And another thing, the Sony PlayStation launched in 1994, it was on North American store shelves in September of 95.  Yet the great Iconic PlayStation games didn't start coming out till 1997.  It took seeing Nintendo break 3D ground in the spring of 96 for them to even start tapping their own inferior console’s full potential.

Yet still so many of those 97 PlayStation Games do nothing in the actual game play that couldn’t be done on the N64, in fact I see little that couldn’t be done on the SNES.

And it’s not like only Nintendo themselves could make great games for the N64.  Rare had a slew of Classics.  And then look at what Star Wars did on the Console, Shadows of The Empire, Rogue Squadron and Pod Racer.  George Lucas had a similar innovation over superficiality spirit to Nintendo so it makes sense his IPs were among the few licensed games on the N64.

The FFVII we got was a great game, but it could have been so much better on the N64.

By the next gen things had advanced enough so using CDs wouldn't hold Nintendo back mechanically anymore. 

Fandom Wiki Network sucks

I'm definitely a supporter of the growing Anti-Fandom movement in the Fan Wiki Community. 

mossbag and Connorsseur both have YouTube videos on the subject I highly recommend.

Some of the franchises I often need to use wikis for don't have their Fandom alternative even as the second option to come up on a search, partly because of their not so straight forward names.  So I want to share some here real quick.

DetectiveConanWorld.Com has a Wiki that is a great resource for Case Closed.

TolkienGateway.Net is great for Arda Lore.

WikiMoon.Org is a non Fandom Sailor Moon Wiki.

FinalFantasyWiki.Com, Dragon-Quest.Org and SaGaWiki.Org don't seem to be as comprehensive as they need to be to compete with Fandom yet, but they can be made better simply with the help of new contributors.

I was also already a user of some of the more well known ones mentioned in those YT videos like Bulbapedia and the Mario Wiki.

However there are some I'm still frustrated to see have no Fanodm alternative, at least not one I've found searching.  Wookipedia is still the only option for Star Wars, DC Database is still the best option for DC and the others are also on Fandom.  PDSH is also a Wiki I like to use and wish would migrate.

And getting back to my Weeb stuff, ToAru, and the Nasuverse and Code Geass and Overflow still only have their Fandom options.  For Overflow there's a lot of information on the broader School Days Universe only available in English on that wiki, I wish that would change.

I also have occasional interest in the DereTypes Wiki so wish it would migrate, as well as the Dubbing Wiki and Audio Drama Wiki.

Update February 1st: I felt like mentioning this Megaman Wiki I stumbled upon.

https://megaman.miraheze.org/wiki/Mega_Man_Knowledge_Base

Here's a page where Miraheze attempts to comprehensively list their Wikis.

https://meta.miraheze.org/wiki/Gazetteer_of_wikis

Update February 19th: There is a non Fandom Song of Ice and Fire Wiki.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Main_Page

Update July 2024: A non Fandom Star Wars Wiki now exists.  

https://starwars.archivum.wiki/

Update September 5th 2024: Now I've found a non Fandom Madoka Wiki.

https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Main_Page

Update April 30th 2025: I recently learned on BSKY that for Wikis without an alternative you can add "anti" before "fandom" in the URL to create a more useable alternative.  A truly independent Wiki is the ideal, but this will prove helpful especially for my continued dependence on the Overflow Wiki.

Update June 1st 2025: I've learned there is a Non Fandom Touhou Wiki.

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki

Update August 2026: I just learned about this interesting Wiki.

https://evilbabes.miraheze.org/wiki/EvilBabes_Wiki

Ages of Video Games

After making my post on The Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages of Anime I started thinking about the same thing in regards to Video Games.  But my thoughts here aren't as deep though.

Video Games are an even younger medium then Anime and so frankly I think we're still in the Bronze Age.  Gaming still hasn't even reached a true Modern Age.

I'm going to go ahead and say the Golden Age began with the release of Pac-Man.  The Action Button YouTube Channel has a good video on Pac-Man breaking it down and documenting it's importance in Gaming History.  All I can add is that I'm a lifelong Nintendo Brand Loyalist and so me being willing to give the honor of being the Action Comics No.1 of Video Games to something that isn't a Nintendo First Party should really prove how strong the argument for it is.  But don't worry Donkey Kong can still be the Detective Comics No.27.

I'm next going to say that the Silver Age began in 1996.  For those of us who are card carrying Evangelists of The Church of Nintendo the importance of that year as ushering in a new era of Gaming is established first by Pokémon Red and Green then by Super Mario RPG and finally by the launch of the Nintendo 64 including Super Mario 64.  Meanwhile Kirby Superstar and Donkey Kong Country 3 were good swan songs for the side scrolling Golden Age.

But I'm also an Otaku, and in the world of Bishoujo Games 1996 saw in January the first Visual Novel Shizuku, then later the second Visual Novel Kizuato and the dating sim Welcome to Pia Carrot were released the same day.  It also had another important dating sim in Kakyuusei. Sakura Wars also left a big impact.  And then at the end of the year on the Feast of Stephen Elf dropped YU-NO A Girl who Chants Love at The Bound of This World a game who's impact on the culture can't be understated and the west's ignorance of it explains a lot of what we get wrong.

96 also had the first Persona Game.

For PlayStation fans however 1997 is the year that console finally made a name for itself with Symphony of Night, Mega Man X4, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Tactics and SaGa Frontier all coming out in one year.

For Bishoujo games it was an ultimately less important year then 96 but does put a few important developments on what 96 started with To Heart completing the original Visual Novel trilogy, then Dosei being the first non Leaf Visual Novel and Moon being the first game from the team that would go on to create Key, and the launch of the Age studio.

Finally the current/Bronze Age of Video Games started with the Wii-U,/PlayStation 4/Xbox ONE generation.

Tedium doesn't bother me as much as it does other Gamers

At least people who make YouTube videos about Video Games.

Take for example discourse about The Water Temple in The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time.  When I first discovered that online group think considered it the hardest Dungeon that made sense to me, it was the one that I remember taking the longest to figure out, but I never felt it was bad design, I always saw it as a difficult puzzle that was rewarding to figure out, I didn't need this modern genre of Zelda Dungeon Design breakdown videos to convince me it had a good design, I always knew.

What shocked me was when I learned a large part of why so many people were allegedly frustrated by The Water Temple was that they hated needing to go into the item menu every time they put the Iron Boots on or took them off.  Because that never bothered me at all, I just did it without even thinking about it all that much.

There is a limit to how much Tedium I can take however.  In Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door I hate how much back tracking I have to do in Chapter 4 specifically, that is the worst part of the game as far as I'm concerned.  

But it's the only place where it really bugged me that much, in online discourse I've found out even fans of TTYD tend to criticize it as a game almost defined by excessive backtracking.  Not only does most of it in other chapters not bother me but I also genuinely love the entire General White Joke in chapter 7, it's the kind of genre self parody that I love the Mario RPGs for.

And I've noticed many other examples of this watching YouTube reviews of Video Games, the reviewer expresses annoyance at something being Tedious that doesn't bother me at all.  I don't specifically remember all of them right now but I know it's happened a lot.

But there is one more thing I want to comment on that perhaps isn't actually the same as all this but I feel is related.

YouTube Reviews of Video Games love to treat Cut Scenes not being skippable as an Unforgiveable Sin.  But to me allowing them to be skippable would be the Sin.

Number 1. I would almost certainly sometimes skip a scene by accident.

Number 2. No matter how little you value the story parts of a video game they are part of the experience for any Game that has them.  Many artists put a lot of work into making those Cut Scenes they deserve to be watched.  If you want Games to be seen as Art then you can't be upset when the Artist doesn't want you skipping over parts of their Art. 

Number 3. To those who maybe only want to skip them after they've been seen them once and don't want to see the same pre Boss Battle scene over and over and over again.  My response is Get Gud and stop losing.

Dating Sims vs Visual Novels, what's the difference?

The reason I feel this is necessary is because Anime Database websites when saying what the source material of an Anime is will classify as Visual Novels a number of different kinds of Games that have some similar elements but aren't actually the same, Dating Sims are just one of them but probably the most inherently confused with Visual Novels.

YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound Of This World is in fact neither but really a Point and Click Adventure Game with a lot of Text to sit through between all the pointing and clicking.  I myself have called it a Visual Novel on this blog in the past, mostly because I naively took others calling it one at their word.

The first Anime adapted from an actual Visual Novel was To Heart in 1999, the source material of To Heart was the 3rd Visual Novel ever made and the first to have essentially the same narrative premise as a Dating Sim.

In a pure Visual Novel like the original Leaf trilogy the only interactive element is the branching paths, the dialogue tree, it's basically a digital choose your own adventure book.  While in a Dating Sim like Tokimeki Memorial or Doukyuusei you have a calendar and a map, and sometimes more numbers to keep track of then most RPGs.

Notice I said "pure", there is a kind of spectrum between pure Visual Novels and something I wouldn't consider a Visual Novel at all.  Doki Doki Literature Club has the poem creating minigame, but it's mostly just an elaborate way to choose which girl you currently want to pursue, so it's mostly still a visual novel.  School Days has a status bar telling us which girl Makoto is currently leaning towards, while Shiny Days has a similar one focused on only one girl.  But the Dialogue Tree choices are still entirely what effects that status bar so they're also principally Visual Novels.

School Days and Shiny Days are the only Visual Novels I've actually played and only DDLC have I watched full play throughs of.  So my ability to comment on other less then pure Visual Novels is limited, but what I've heard about how say the SciADV games function they have significant other variables that make me question them.

So when exactly a Visual Novel has too many other elements to still be a Visual Novel is difficult to pin down exactly, but there is a limit.  This kind of overlaps with the debate about if Visual Novels qualify as Video Games, pure Visual Novels I'm inclined to agree do not otherwise every Choose Your own Adventure novel would be a Game of the non visual variety.  And I guess my point here is the more of an actual Game you make a Visual Novel the less it still is a Visual Novel.

JRPGs as a concept are an American Misconception.

Years ago I watched an Extra Credits video on YouTube about JRPGs and Western RPGS and I always considered it a fairly bad video but now that I know so much more about the history of RPGs I realize their first mistake was conceding the very idea of JRPGs as being a thing in the first place.

I'm not arguing there are no differences between RPGs in the West and RPGs made in Japan caused by distinct cultural differences.  But they are the same as how every genre and medium of story telling seems different in Japan.  The only other one where the Japanese version is virtually treated as a completely different thing is Animation aka Anime.  In that case though it is increasingly well understood now that what we think of when we hear the word "Anime" is principally certain kinds of Anime that even in Japan are actually a niche interest.

When you look at the history of Japanese RPG Video Games that either never got localized, or even if they were were never as popular over here as they were in Japan, or if they did get popular over here were popular in a way that kind of compartmentalized them from other RPGs in how pop culture thinks about them.  You'll realize that what American Gamers first think of when we think of JRPGs is really much more specifically Squarsoft Games of the SNES and PS1 (and not even all of them really), Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, the SaGa series, Super Mario RPG ect.  Just look at that old College Humor Video parodying JRPGs, every specific game it will make you think of is Square, it's story is mostly a Parody of FF7's plot with visuals taken from Final Fantasy Tactics and Mario RPG.

The main example for that third situation is Pokémon.  I saw a Twitter argument sometime last year where some people were getting annoyed at other people not counting Pokémon as a JRPG.  And yeah Pokémon officially is one, but it's just as different from our standard perception of a JRPG as any Western RPG is.  When you compare the first Gen Pokémon games to prior Game Boy RPGs mechanically and visually it kind of is a natural development, but Game Boy RPGs were never the foundation of how JRPGs were defined, even series that started there gained their true notoriety when promoted to home consoles.

Recently I was watching YouTube videos about NES and SNES Video Games that were officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons games.  And in one the person making the video talked about not liking pseudo 3D first person Dungeon Crawlers but referred to that as being specifically a characteristic of Western RPGs in contrast to "what they do in Japan", but I'm well aware that there are plenty of Japanese RPGs that also do that.  I also dislike that kind of dungeon gameplay, but since I have such a unique history with how I learned about RPGs I never thought of it as something you'd go to Japan to get away from because my first experience with being annoyed by it was Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System, and then learning the Megami Tensei games also did that is why I never tried to play any of them.

In Japan DragonQuest is the most popular RPG franchise, it doesn't just edge out Final Fantasy it dwarfs Final Fantasy.  And there is one Trope we Americans associate with JRPGs that DragonQuest has pretty much been the exact opposite on.  The Killing God or God being Evil trope is mostly a Square and Atlus thing, in DragonQuest God is usually The Goddess and pretty benevolent.  And that is a more accurate reflection of general Japanese Spirituality where Amaterasu is arguably the centerpiece of the Shinto Pantheon.  However back in the 2000s when edgy Atheism was still the trendy thing in Online Culture the Megami Tensei and FF Tactics approach was what American internet Nerds latched onto.  The subject of Goddess Worship in Japanese Media is something I may have to go deeper into someday.

DragonQuest so thoroughly dwarfs everything else in Japan that every Manga or Light Novel or Anime set in a "generic RPG setting" is very clearly using specifically DragonQuest III as the model.  And secretly I think that's the key to why so many American Weebs be hating on these shows.  The reasons they say they don't like them I think are a little disingenuous, the truth is these American Gamers would much rather be Isekaied to a discount Final Fantasy.  Hell I personally would love an Anime set in a world modeled after SaGa Frontier.

But as is the Anime I would recommend to Final Fantasy fans are more Anime that were an influence on Final Fantasy rather then the other way around.  These include Ghibli films like Nausica of The Valley of The Wind and Castle in The Sky.  And I feel like I'm the only person who notices that Sephiroth's character design was clearly inspired by Kunzite from Sailor Moon.

But going back to that Extra Credits video, their main thesis was that JRPGs are not really the same genre but some coincidental independent development.  And that ignores how Western RPGs were and still are played in Japan, specifically the Ultima Series was a very well documented influence on early DragonQuest and early Final Fantasy as was Wizardry.  The RPG is a Western concept in origin including the Role Playing Video Game specifically, that Japanese Gaming Culture made several different distinctly Japanese variations on, but only one of those was ever popular enough in America during the formative years of Gamer Culture to really define how American Gamers stereotype Japanese RPGs.

Update: On Mastadon this interesting conversation was brought to my attention.

https://beehaw.org/post/664403

On Second Thought The Eminence in Shadow might qualify as a more Final Fantasy Esque Isekai.  It's resemblance to "Magic Academy" Anime breeds a similarity to Final Fantasy VIII, and then there's the very concept of a prominent background character named Cid.

Wedding Peach had an All Star writing staff

[Update December 8th: I'm now worried the entire premise of this past was based on misinformation.  Regarding Terada's perceived connection to Zelda]

Princesses can outrank Queens

 So there's a YouTube Vidoe that fully breaks down the History of the title "Prince of Wales".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_AP3Z6KvkM&pp=ygUeaGlzdG9yeSBvZiB0aGUgUHJpbmNlIG9mIFdhbGVz

And one thing I realized is this is largely the origin of the use of the English Word Prince as we know it entirely.  And one major point is when certain Welsh rulers started using the Title it was due to it's connection to the Ancient Roman Imperial title of Princeps viewed as outranking the title of King.

On the show The Tudors set well after all that history you'll notice that a King can also be called a Prince even while they are a Ruling King.  Machiavelli's book titled The Prince was always intended to be about a status equal to that of a King not inherently lesser.

Princess is the feminine form of Prince, even though we all know that we fail to think of it the same since Reissuance Germany and Italy never had any ruling Princesses, all the states called Principalities always had male rulers. 

Yet at the end of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra the Queen Cleopatra is called a Princess by her handmaiden.  This was based on a quote taken from Plutarch's biography of Marc Anthony.

When translating The Hebrew Bible into English multiple words get translated "Prince", most notably Sar, Nagyim and Nasi, but the only uses of "Princess" in the KJV are the feminine form of Sar, Sarah.  However the use of "King" in these translations is more consistent always being a form of Melek.  Yet I remember being told once that at least Assyrian Sources definitely thought of Sar as being a higher ranked title then Melek.  In fact the oldest version of "King of Kings" seems to Sar Sarrani, the Melek version came later.  And none of these Prince words are ever used in The Bible with the meaning of "Son of a King".

And yet because Princess in modern dictionaries gets defined as meaning only a Daughter of a King/Queen or Wife of a Prince, lots of Internet Nerds get all pedantic about certain Nintendo characters being called Princess when they are also clearly presented as being the ruling Monarch.  Princess Peach/Toadstool, Princess Zelda in some eras of the "Timeline", Princess Daisy.  And I think we even see it beyond Nintendo in some other Video Game Franchises like Final Fantasy.

A lot of this could be read as just making fun of Nintendo's very make it up as they go world building.  The NES Games never thought about about how the world works beyond the handful of Sprites we actually see, and then later games with more needed worldbuilding didn't want to make the female leads of these franchises subordinate to someone else.  But I also think it's a little influenced by Star Wars where Leia was still called a Princess after her Parents were dead.

But occasionally someone says this with a more serious criticism in mind, that it demeans or infantilizes these characters who are actually Queens to call them the same title we do Disney Princesses.  But I say just remember how the English word Prince originated.  I would rather not see Zelda or Peach or Daisy ever demoted to being a mere Queen.

Isekai ramblings

So this is for some Isekia related thoughts I've been wanting to document on this Blog but that I don't think any on their own could justify a whole post.

First is how historically I've come to feel like the Summer of 2017 was a key turning point in Isekai discourse, at least among English speaking Anime onlies.  Before then people being transported to another world may have already been observed as an increasingly popular plot device, but I think that Anime season with Smartphone and Restaurant was the beginning of it being spoken of as a Genre.

I'm pretty sure English speakers using the Japanese word Isekai at all was not as common before that season, like there were prior shows with that word in the title and so English speakers who liked to use the Japanese title would have been saying it in that context, (that word being in Japanese titles goes back to at least 2009 with War on Geminar), but I think that was mostly it.  When I look back on 2016 and early 2017 AniTube videos about Konosuba, Re:Zero, No Game No Life and Gate from people like YGG, Mother's Basement or Gigguk I don't think even they were using the word yet.

But maybe that's just my biased perspective from that being the season I became a fan of the genre principally via In Another Worl With My Smartphone.  I just did another rewatch of Smartphone which I mentioned on Mastadon and it still holds up.  Thing is while I see a lot of unique distinct value in that show it kind of is the first Anime to really tick off all the boxes of the current conception of a Generic Isekai.

I've been contemplating that it's about time I tried giving some rewatches to some of the other Isekai I've watched seasonally since and mostly liked at the time, see how their rewatch value holds up.  I just tried returning to Deathmarch to a Parralel World Rhapsody which I recall being the second Isekai I watched seasonally, and I wasn't into it but I kind of figured it would be the kind of show I wouldn't want to rewatch that much.

Shows I think might hold up better when I rewatch them include Isekai Cheat Magician, Make my Abilities Average (which I think I actually did already rewatch some of), Reincarnated as a Slime (season 1 at least, I kind of didn't like season 2), Highschool Prodigies, 8th Son, Spider-Chan, Million Lives Isekai, and In The Land of Leadale though that might be too recent still like the Lesbian Executioner one.  Some others might've slipped my mind.

Since these Isekai are supposed to be Fantasy settings with Medieval Western Europe principally England and France as the model, there are two common trends in these worlds I consider odd deviations from that model.  The presence of Chattel Slavery which during the real middle ages this specific region was just about the only place where that wasn't practiced.  And a tendency for the otherwise vaguely Aesthetically Catholic dominant Church to be seemingly Matriarchal with even the Pope analogue being a High Priestess.  I find it amusing how together both these details make these societies more like Ancient Athens then Medieval Europe.

I wonder if this is another carry over from Dragon Quest III?  For those who still don't know in Japan the Dragon Quest franchise actually tops even Final Fantasy as the most popular JRPG franchise, with Dragon Quest III specifically usually being the primary model for what "Generic JRPG" tropes are.  For example Dragon Quest II was the origin of Orcs being depicted as humanoid Pig/Boar creatures which I observed being a common thing across these shows in 2018 and 2019.  So Dragon Quest as a whole and III specifically is kind of the Ur Text for a lot about why the Fantasy Worlds we see in Isekai and other generic Fantasy Anime are the way they are.

But without playing the game myself the question of Slavery and Matriarchal Religious institutions are a more difficult world building question to simply google, they aren't simply in the Bestiary the way the Orcs are.  So It's something I'd have to ask people who've played them.