Greetings! It is great to be back. Many of us love the appeal of an isekai, fantasy, or science fiction story. The idea of being sent to another world with some things that are vastly different from our own is great. It is one of the appeals of these type of stories for myself and many others. Who doesn’t like to experience a new place and discover new and exciting things. A common question that I see posted in fan groups online is the whole ” which world would you rather in” thing. Usually you will see a few worlds from popular series/games with a choice about picking one which you want to live in. The question in itself makes sense and is a fun one to answer. Weighing the pros and cons of the world of My Hero Academia against the ones of Hunter x Hunter or Attack on Titan, breaking down what makes those worlds tick, or just simply looking at which characters would be the best to hang out with are all fun as hell to do. I’m sure many of you are asking whether I have a world that I would love to live in. Well the answer may surprise you.
To be perfectly honest, as much as love these fantastical places, I actually would probably never want to live in any of them. Of course I expect some backlash for this sediment so I’m going to address a few small things immediately concerning my answer. I’m not stating this as a copout answer because well I just can’t pick. And I am not trying to trigger people- this is my genuine take on this topic.
I have a couple of main reasons why I feel this way. The first one is kind of obvious but I will discuss it anyway. Many of the worlds are quite dangerous to live in. For series like Attack on Titan this is obvious, that world is not a nice place to live. But even for some more light hearted series the danger of those worlds is pretty real. Yes, I acknowledge that our world is not a great place to live right now with many dangers and issues of it’s own but some worlds in anime or video games would be in some ways worse on a day to day basis. Sure these worlds have heroes with many great abilities but they wouldn’t be heroes without mortal dangers to address. You would have collateral damage with super powered battles, instances where heroes are just unavailable to help and so forth.
In some cases too, one would lose many of comforts and convivences that we are used to. Sure there are worlds like the ones in MHA and One Punch Man which are exceptions but many of them would place you in a place where you would lose you some freedoms (worlds with lords for example) and some quality of life comforts as well. Sure there is magic but if everyone could solve problems with magic then those worlds wouldn’t need heroes anyway.
I know some of you are saying- “Well you are certainly taking the fun out of this discussion. How do you enjoy anything?” And yeah it can be interpreted that way. I can’t help it, it’s just the way that I am wired I guess. I would not enjoy fiction if I didn’t have any ability to suspend my disbelief at all. That is the whole point after all of enjoying fictional works such as anime and games- letting go of the world and reality for awhile. And I totally agree that reality can completely suck a lot. But before you dismiss me completely, I have one other core reason that I wouldn’t want to live in another world.
For me living in another world would simply take away what makes those worlds so special in the first place. The main appeal of these settings is that they are so different from the world in which we live in. One of the reasons vacations are so great is that you have the excitement of a new experience, a change of setting, a departure from the routine. Once you take an exciting place with new things and make it your everyday existence, it becomes the new normal and luster is just simply lost. I have had plenty of vacation experiences that were amazing and I would love to go back to those places. But if I did it all of the time it would cheapen the experience. The appeal of many of these worlds is the fact that you would want to escape to these places and get a break from the mundane and routine, but what happens if you can’t do that anymore?
I just want to make clear that I would love to have ability to visit the worlds and meet and interact with the amazing characters that inhabit them. That would be absolutely awesome to be able to get away to different world for just a bit, meet and hang with awesome characters the likes of which we don’t have in our world. I think that is one of the reasons that cons are such a great experience is that you can take a step in the direction. By cosplaying, interacting with fellow fans, and interacting with the creative talent behind these worlds we get closer to those worlds. It is not an everyday experience and that is part of what makes it special.
And of course moving to those worlds would mean not having access to all of the great anime/manga/video gaming entertainment that we have in our world. Not having that would certainly be a huge loss- outweighing the gains of moving to another world. Yes, this world has it’s issues and there are plenty of times where it is hard to deal with but having a great passion like my enjoyment of anime/manga/games makes it all worth it. If you are one of those people who would love to move one of the world, I don’t blame or judge you for it. I just feel that while those would be great places to visit, there is enough amazing things and beauty in our world to make it worthwhile to stay here and yes anime/manga and their amazing stories and characters is one of those things.
Before I wrap this up, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you that have given support for the blog during this quasi hiatus it was under. Thanks for be understanding through all of this. I wanted to come back with something a little different. This was something that was a middle of the night idea for a topic. Hope you all enjoyed it and I would love to hear what your thoughts on it are. So until next time, this is Railgunfan75 signing off. Stay safe, stay respectful, and stay geeky my friends! See you soon!
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Even if I crave for living in different and dynamic worlds, I think living in a consistent world is much better. Isekai world’s are always very active and highly adaptive, so you do need to become too much adaptive. Which I think is very hard.
By the way, great post!!!!
Thanks! Glad that you enjoyed it!
And that is a valid point as well- the stability of many of those settings are questionable at best. That certainly wasn’t a point that I thought of myself but makes perfect sense. An Op person changing the rules of the world would be really disruptive to the world and it’s people. Heck one of the major driving forces in Log Horizon is that very idea. Appreciate the comment and feedback!
Most fantasy worlds would be incredibly dangerous to live in, particularly for someone who just arrived there and didn’t know what was dangerous. Still, fun to dream about being in another world.
Oh yeah it’s certainly fun to dream about going to those worlds. I just wouldn’t want to stay in most of them. That would be an amazing basis for a story. Would love to see an isekai with that as it’s hook.
While I’d love to Full Dive into Aincrad or ALfheim, I’m not sure I’d want to live these. And I’d sure as hell would want a log out button!
And that’s pretty much true of a lot of anime places, not so much I want to live there as I’d love to visit, to vacation there.
Yeah going to those places would be awesome as long as it’s safe. The gamer in me would certainly try it out if it became reality.
I get where you’re coming from.
Growing up, as a fan of Star Trek, I always thought I’d love to visit other worlds. But the older I get, the less I think about that. Part of it’s natural. I have a family who depends on me, including my first grandson. If I went to another world, I’d have to leave them behind. Because sure as heck no one’s taking a newborn to those other worlds!
Now, I’m more likely to see stories of those other worlds as either escapism or, more importantly, thought experiments about keeping our world less dangerous.
Thought I like DerekL’s idea — I wouldn’t mind visiting if the log out button worked.
I completely agree that a working log out button is a must!
And yeah leaving family and friends would certainly be a major downside to it all. It’s bad enough to learn a new world but to do it solo- no thanks on that one.
The fact that many of the stories told in other world settings applies to our world and experiences just enhances the quality of a lot of those series. I think it works because the mechanism allows for a degree of separation that real world stories just don’t have.