Great Isekai Anime With No Video Game Mechanics At All

Highlights

• Isekai anime often involve video game mechanics, but not all great isekai require them to tell a compelling story.
• Now And Then, Here And There delves into the harsh realities of war, showing a protagonist out of his depth.
• The Devil Is a Part-Timer! creatively flips the isekai genre with humor and a focus on character development.

Isekai is one of the most popular genres of anime in recent times thanks in no small part to the influence of shows such as Sword Art Online, Log Horizon and the like. However, one of the features that is difficult to get away from is all the video game mechanics.

That said, there are plenty of great isekai anime without any of these elements that hold up to scrutiny. It should be noted that isekai as a genre deals with the transportation of an individual to a different world. Therefore, ‘reverse isekai’ counts as isekai. Also, magic, which is an element found in most fantasy stories is not something that can be considered a video game-exclusive element. Also, by its very nature, a lot of isekai are fantasy stories and tend to have magic involved.

8 Now And Then, Here And There

MAL Avg. Rating: 7.61

Shuuzou Matsutani is a normal kid with a love for kendo. While trying to save a girl he meets, Lala-ru, he is transported to another world. However, unlike a lot of isekai anime where the protagonist becomes accustomed to the world and is somehow empowered, Shuu is most of the time incredibly out of his depth.

The world he is brought into, a sort of dystopian earth in the middle of a war, is brutal, unrelenting, and harrowing. The story of Now And Then, Here And There is one that explores the way war defines people and how their views on the world are changed as a result.

7 The Devil is a Part-Timer!

MAL Avg. Rating: 7.73

The Devil is a Part-Timer! Follows the demon lord, Satan, as he flees from Ente Isla and winds up in Japan in the present time. However, he is also followed by one of the main heroes of his realm, Emilia. Both trapped in this strange new world, they both need to adapt and learn how to live.

What starts out as an epic fantasy story with intrigue becomes a slapstick comedy as Satan and his attendant Shirou Ashiya, have to get jobs, pay bills, while figuring out how to return home. There are no leveling systems here and Maou Sado (the name Satan decides to go with) begins to appreciate the value of humans while also getting along with Emilia who also has the same problems he does.

6 Drifters

MAL Avg. Rating: 7.89

Toyohisa Shimazu finds himself in another world after getting wounded in battle. The unique thing about this world is that it houses characters from different times and has different classes of being including elves. Toyohisa, with the help of Oda Nobunaga and Yoichi Suketaka must make his way in this new world filled with war and strife.

Drifters explores themes of war and exploitation and features characters that aren’t made by the world they come into, but from the world they come from. The art style of Drifters is distinct as it comes from the same pen and mind that brought Hellsing to life, Kouta Hirano

5 Inuyasha

MAL Avg. Rating: 8.03

Inuyasha is a classic anime that many who haven’t seen it won’t know is isekai. It tells the story of Kagome Higurashi who steps into another world that is much like earth, but with fantastical elements.

Inuyasha is a masterpiece and a great romantic tale. Kagome is a vehicle to look into feudal Japan and explore a lot of Japanese folklore and myths. The setting, which is speculated to be in pre-Nobunaga times, is also a perfect setting to tell the sort of story Inuyasha seeks to tell. The dynamic between the characters has been what has lived long in the hearts of anime fans and is a reminder of a simpler time in anime history.

4 The Twelve Kingdoms

MAL Avg. Rating: 8.03

The Twelve Kingdoms is an epic story that follows a plethora of characters in a different world. The main plot is driven by Youko Nakajima who started the story as a perfect school girl with a crippling sense of timidity. Forced to go into a new world where people are after her life, she starts to find strength to deal with the challenges ahead of her.

The Twelve Kingdoms is a sprawling fantasy story that leans more on the tropes of its source material, a fantasy novel, than many of the newer innovations that pack RPG elements into anime. It is at its heart a coming-of-age tale of a young girl finding the strength to take hold of her destiny.

3 Ascendance Of A Bookworm

MAL Avg. Rating: 8.05

Ascendance Of A Bookworm is a charming tale of a young woman, Urano Motosu, who dies before she could read more books. In the new world, instead of being born as an overpowered mage, she is instead born to a lower income family as a sickly little girl.

Now known as Myne, she strive to enrich her life, and the life of others with books. The lovely thing about this anime has always been the character interactions. Myne is OP, but not in the traditional sense of the word, as her power comes from her incomparable brilliance. But with her physical limitations, it is beautiful watching her fight to overcome them. With no levelling system in sight, Myne moves up the ladder by her personality and brains.

2 The Eminence In Shadow

MAL Avg. Rating: 8.33

The Eminence in Shadow is one of the more popular isekai titles that have hit the anime mainstream in recent times. Telling the story of an edgy teenager who dies and is reincarnated into another world where he vows to live out his fantasy from his former life— to be the villain in the shadows.

The Eminence In Shadow has many of the same things many other modern isekai with game elements have including an overpowered protagonist, a harem, and somewhat edgy storylines, it never actually features any RPG elements but rather tells a power fantasy story that is enjoyed by many.

1 Spirited Away

MAL Avg. Rating: 8.77

Spirited Away is a classic that many might not realize is isekai. It features a girl who crosses into another world and is looking to find her way home. The story really nails the difference between isekai of the 90s and early 2000s and that of the modern-day in that the former tended to tell stories where the Isekai elements were a vehicle to tell a story, while modern isekai tend to focus on the character and gimmick.

Spirited Away remains one of the highest-grossing anime movies of all time (its first place was taken by Demon Slayer) and the evergreen story of family, friendship, and maturity, is one that has kept it as a classic for many.