Exploring Isekai: Mapping Worlds Through Anime, Manga, and Light Novels (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781350465565)

Exploring Isekai offers the first comprehensive study of isekai in anime, manga and light novels in which characters from the "real world" are transported, summoned, reincarnated or trapped in fantastical realms.

Challenging the misconception that isekai is mere escapism, the volume brings together an international group of contributors to consider how the genre reflects contemporary anxieties, desires and social structures through game-like world-building, moral frameworks and recurring underdog heroes. Examining classics like Spirited Away (2001) alongside globally popular series such as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2013-25) and Overlord (2015-), the volume traces the thematic and aesthetic evolution of isekai, revealing how these narratives reimagine identity, labour and belonging in an increasingly digital and transnational world.

Author: William B. Ashbaugh
ISBN-10: 1350465569
ISBN-13: 9781350465565
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Language: English
Published: 04/02/2026
Pages: 328
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 1.10d