im thinking about the different kind of relationships that the 'first wave' isekai protagonists had to the old world. and idk maybe you have to go all the way back and look at kirito fighting to go home for no other reason than because going home needed to happen vs sora's want to leave the old world behind in no game no life.
like theres a vast gulf between the exactly one 5 second scene in isekai smartphone where touya misses some superficial aspects of his old life and like mushoku tensei where the conceit is that rudeus is a monstrous individual that carries his trauma from the old world into the new.
and then i think about FUNAs stuff and how mile, kaoru, and mitsuha all have their baggage they bring from the old world. kaoru is the most pragmatic about it and asks god to let her say goodbye to her family and friends, but she's the only one who has a reason to really. mile dies quite young and was purposefully isolated as a prodigy. her story is one of a fresh start and making connections despite her past. and mitsuha is freshly 20 and has recently lost her entire family, hers is a story of figuring out what you can even become on your own. FUNAs work specifically has a lot of intent behind it anyway.
i think death march is pretty...idk elucidating i guess on the topic because it paints its picture pretty clearly where we see suzuki is a fairly well-adjusted adult whose company is taking advantage of him. and its a result of his long hours and selfish coworkers that he cant actually connect with anyone. its only through his death march that he's able to meet and understand another person from earth (arisa). its interesting in that way that it takes getting isekai'd for him to actually meet and connect with another person and it feeds into death march's man thrust being freedom.
and of course there's overlord where satoru is the loneliest man on planet earth pining for his guilds heyday, a time when the halls were filled with laughter. the only thing left of his former guildmates are the memories left inside the NPCs they made. the first season (and few books) is directly about this loneliness, about how satoru finally comes to terms with the 'loss' of his friends, about how their memory makes him a stronger person. his defeat of shalltear 1v1 is proof of the bonds he shared with them because he is finally and truly no longer momonga, but ainz ooal gown: the sole bearer of what came before (and the rest of the series is about how fucked up it would be if there was an immortal demi-lich trying to conquer the world).
like i said at the top from my perspective the idea that the protagonists dont try and go back is summed up by sora in no game no life where he muses that usually people would want to go home after getting isekai'd, but who would want to go back to a broken game that you cant win. and for me that represents the sort of generational divide between that and something like the twelve kingdoms. like obviously youko wants to go home her old life with her family and friends is there and this destiny being thrust onto her is A Lot. but she does it because that's what happens, because the call cannot be rejected and stay rejected.
and i think thats why a lot of shoukan series specifically reject the call and have the call stay rejected. because i think we understand at this point as humans that the call sucks! its hard and i just came from a world of hardship and you want more from me? that sucks!
of course a lot of what you might call 'second wave' isekai is about answering the call anyway, i think about omniscent saint in regards to that because sei is specifically answering the call to protect the younger and way more vulnerable aira. her duty as an adult and the time she spent actually getting to know the world and understand the politics helps her make an informed decision. and its not any less hard than it wouldve been but simply knowing its going to be hard makes a world of difference.
its why when you see shield hero's obfuscation of the heroes purpose you can kind of make sense of it. like these arent so much 'heroes' as they are political tools. and shield hero fails spectacularly at actually realising this but its there.
now i call it a generational divide because of the very real difference in conceptualising the other world. to youko the other world is real as a matter of course, but that reality is not so clear cut ìn these newer stories. the gamic elements are often overshadowing the work. because often its not just that this is a game world right, its that its a specific game world. ainz isnt trapped in a fantasy world he's trapped in yggdrasil online. except he isn't because its a totally different world thats fully realised operating on a similar kind of magic system. and often the first thing the protagonist has to do is come to terms with that. with how the game is both the same and different.
what i really want to address with all this is the thought that isekai has an inherent sadness to it because of how the protagonists interact with their past, or rather how they don't. and my point with the preamble isn't really to say that they do mourn who they were or they don't. its to say that the priorities of isekai aren't about the past, and when it is, it often does inform the protagonists actions. rudeus is ruled by his trauma, satoru is trapped by the memories of his friends, suzuki pursues freedom exactly because he was denied it in his old life.
its interesting to say that there's sadness here when what is being shown is often a sad lonely isolated person finding love and acceptance in a new world. like i think it misses that for escapism to happen there needs to be something to run from. and if that thing is the soul-crushing weight of two days labor being cramming into one day every time you show up to work i think that's very valid. that's my two cents though, thought it might be fun to write it up.
