Anime's Dark Secret: Why Isekai Silently Dominates the Industry

Complaining that there are too many anime about generic protagonists reincarnating in another world is the internet's favorite sport, but the numbers tell a very different story. This Monday, within the anime industry, a new market analysis confirmed that isekai is secretly dominating the competition, becoming the safest and most successful business for Japanese animation companies.

An invisible success on the internet

Although no one talks about these series on social media and they almost never trend, Japanese streaming platforms like dAnime Store and U-NEXT report that reincarnation stories always fill the top 10 most-watched lists every week. Outside of Japan, isekai is officially the second most popular anime genre on the planet. The trick is that its audience doesn't make noise; they simply sit on their couches, watch their episodes religiously, and wait for the next season without fighting with anyone online.

Veteran otakus are to blame

Who is watching all these magic and monster series? Data revealed that the true consumers aren't loud teenagers on the internet, but adult men. In Japan, the majority of viewers are men between 30 and 40 years old. In Latin America and the rest of the world, the average age is around 29. These veteran otakus are incredibly loyal to the classic formula; they consume many hours of television, but they rarely buy plastic figures or post about their favorite characters.

The studios' gold mine

From a business perspective, these series are the perfect bet to avoid losing money. Giant publishers like Kadokawa and Alphapolis don't stop pouring money into these projects for three reasons that directly benefit their wallets:

• Low budget: Making an isekai with average art costs much less money than animating the massive fights of a famous shonen.
• Guaranteed audience: Even if the animation isn't top-tier, fans will always watch the series out of habit to have a relaxing time.
• Book sales: The main goal of these cheap anime is to function as a giant television commercial so people go to stores to buy the original light novels.

Seeing that stories about a protagonist traveling to another world are a profitable and very cheap business to produce, do you think Japanese studios will stop trying to create original ideas simply to keep squeezing this same magic formula?