Decided to make a new thread for this since isekaei anime are a big topic in themselves, so not for the recommendations thread. And there's more than recommendation talk here anyway.

I just got done Isekai Yakkyoku and it's one of the worse Isekai anime I watched. Why is it bad? Because: The story just ends, making it a shameless advert for the manga. The hero is once again given all the best powers and doesn't have to put in much work of his own. Everyone likes the hero or quickly grows to like him. And worst of all, the hero never tries to find a way back to his nor spends much time thinking about his old life.

The latter is an especially crass flaw that most modern isekai anime carry: The heroes NEVER try to return to their own world! You basically have to assume that all isekai heroes hated their old world, which imo is both a way too pessimistic outlook at our actual real life and also simply acts as an easy out for not having to explain why the heroes never want to return. When I look back at older quasi-isekai anime, like Vision of Escaflowne or the first season of Digimon, the CORE theme of the story always was: WE MUST RETURN TO OUR WORLD. And that made a lot of sense, because as "cool" as fantasy world may look to an outsider, it's actually pretty scary when you're put inmidst of it.

Of course, this scariness is offset entirely when the heroes of modern isekai anime have god-like abilities and befriend everyone, making the fantasy world nothing but weeb paradise for them.

Now you could say "well, there you have it, they don't want to return because they found their paradise". Yeah, but not only does that still make those heroes super selfish, because meanwhile your parents and family and friends are crying their hearts out over your death (in a realistic depiction, not in the lazy "nah, everyone hated me anyway" way). It also doesn't excuse why hardly any isekai heroes USE their past life knowledge for their new life! And I'm explicitely not talking about a doctor who uses his SPECIAL knowledge for making medicine - that is another horrible trope of isekai anime, where the heroe has ONE gimmick and the whole story is built around it, ugh. No, I mean a normal guy from our world, landning in medieval times and then thinking about all the things that were part of his old life. And more or less applying that knowledge. Not in a gimmick way like Dr Stone, but in a down-to-earth, grounded way, like giving ideas for stuff like planes, motors, or showing new cooking recipes, or basic stuff like "if you wash your hands before eating and bathe in the river twice a week instead of once a year, you'll stay healthier". Also, heroes never talking about their past life with anyone, always keeping it a secret. Whatever reason is used, I jused don't accept it. World full of magic, and you cannot tell you're from another world? Come on. In summary, just DO something more with your past life memories, be it finding a way back or simply surviving. Even if it just makes for a good story for newly found friends.

And then separate from the above, there's the issue that isekai anime always go for the same basic setup and it is soooo boring at this point. 99% of all isekai anime use the "hero dies irl, ends up in medieval world, and there's ONE gimmick". Ugh. There's lots of people complaining about isekai anime at this point, but I'm not one of them, astoundingly. Why? Because IN THEORY isekai anime have soooooo much potential for great stories. It's only that somehow we found ourselves in a situation where isekai equals "hero dies, lands in medieval world, has one gimmick" and creators stopped thinking at that point.

Yet when I think about isekai anime, I think of stories like (fanfiction incoming):
- a story like GATE, but done well (reverse isekai, magic and armor not being useless against modern weapons, one guy not getting all hot girls, generally a more realistic, serious story)
- group of adults is isekai'd in medieval world, have different goals, serious depiction
- timetravel isekai stories, why can't we have people being isekai'd to dinosaur times? Or any of the myriad of historical events? Countless potential here. An ancient Rome-isekai story where a group of students and their professor land in ancient Rome and need to find a way home, but first a way to survive. One or two of the students die in the first couple episodes to set the tone.

And then the most important idea of them all: If your story's hero doesn't want to return to his world, doesn't make us of his past world knowledge, and just goes on to enjoy the new life in a medieval world with magic: DONT MAKE IT AN ISEKAI! Making a proper fantasy-anime is okay, too! To this day, Record of Lodoss War is the best fantasy-anime, but not because it's unsurpassable. Because nobody even tries anymore.

Anyway, that's it for the main body of this OP. I invite all of you to tell us your own opinion about isekai anime, answer to things I said, and ofc giving recommendations: What are Isekai anime you watched that go against the generic stereotype and offer a truly good story that's worth watching? Feel free to write your heart out here. Thanks!