Exploring Isekai

Shintaro Mizushima is Associate Professor of International Studies and English Communication in the College of Letters at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. He is the author and illustrator of Manga de wakaru danseigaku [Learn men’s studies through manga] (2016).William B. Ashbaugh is Professor of History at SUNY Oneonta, USA. He teaches East Asian history, World War II, anime and manga history, and US foreign relations. He also serves on the editorial board of Mechademia: Second Arc, the leading journal of East Asian popular culture.

With isekai booming in popularity all around the world, this book is essential. Packed with experts and enthusiasts like Zoe Crombie, Barbara Greene, Yaochong Yang, and Michael Cserkits, this exciting text is perfect for the bookshelves and coffee tables of fans and scholars alike. Whether you research isekai, or simply love it, this piece is worth your time.

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Notes on the Use of Japanese LanguagePart One: Isekai in Historic Perspective1. The First Anime Isekai: Aura Battler Dunbine’s Origins and Cold War Fears — Shintaro Mizushima and William B. Ashbaugh2. Isekai Enactment in Millennial Japan: Mediating Violence in Now and Then, Here and There — Brett Hack3.Worlds Beyond, Selves Within: Mythopoeic Metamorphosis in Select Isekai Anime — Ananya SahaPart Two: Understanding Isekai4. Exploring Isekai: The Window into Another World — Michael Cserkits5. Alice in Borderland and Beyond: Examining Existential Crises through an Isekai Manga — Alayna L. Vander Veer6. Open for Otherworldly Business: Work, Life, and Fantasy in Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement — Zach Long7. Intersecting Media: Game Systems as Narrative Tools in Kumo desu ga, nani ka? — Giovanni Tagliamonte8. The Social Significance of Isekai: A New Narrative Type in the Age of Fiction? — Jessy EscandePart Three: How Fiction Influences Reality9. Sokushinbutsu and Isekai in Takahashi Rumiko’s Inuyasha — Jon Morris10. Creation of a New Transcendent: Religious Affordance in Overlord and My Next Life as a Villainess — Barbara Greene11. “Now Go, and Don’t Look Back”: Spirited Away, Anime on the Global Stage, and Extratextual Isekai — Zoe CrombiePart Four: Gender Perspectives on Isekai12. Queering Isekai: The Executioner and Her Way of Life — Travis Nishii13. Power, Transhumanism, and Gender Differences in Preference for Isekai Anime — Stephen Reysen, Thomas R. Brooks, Courtney N. Plante, Sharon E. Roberts, Kathleen C. Gerbasi, Rhea Joshi, and Cole Rehbein14. Control, Autonomy, and Slavery in Isekai — Yaochong Yang and Matthew ValenzuelaContributor Biographies General Index Index of Non-Japanese Novels and Fiction Authors Index of Anime/Manga/Light Novels