this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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There's a big trend in recent isekai to just outright kill the character at the beginning. So, you're either reincarnated into another world or your soul is snatched upon death and body recreated in the other world as an explanation for why the character isn't spending their whole time just trying to get back, but I do think that would be an interesting angle to explore.
Yeah it would be cool to be really overt about it, have the character be perfectly able to go home but they're just like "nah, fuck that place" lol. I'm sure it exists somewhere but I don't think I've seen it before.
I can only think of two Isekais where the whole plot is the main character trying to get home, and the anime fans are gonna hate which two things those are.
A Kid in King Arthur's Court and Farscape.
3 if Quantum Leap could be counted as an isekai.
The Wizard of Oz, which Futurama is parodying, definitely counts! Yes, Dorothy wants to help the randos she meets, but the whole reason she's going to the Emerald City in the first place is to try to get home to live in poverty with her dirt-farming, teetotaling aunt and uncle.
Futurama, too. But without the "wanting to go home" aspect.
Interestingly, when Fry is actually presented with a way to get home via a forward-traveling time machine and a universe that resets, he never brings up getting off at 1999 and it's never mentioned in any way.
Because the future is where he belonged. The nibblers would just find another way to bring him to the future.
He had already fulfilled his destiny of defeating the brain spawn three seasons prior. Although judging by this scene he wasn't in too much of a hurry to go back in time:
Since we're talking that era, Sliders was a great show early on and it's a tragedy nobody knows it.
I liked it, but then it got weird
Fucking love that show... its a shame he missed his home world because his mother just had the gate fixed but also I don't actually think it was the correct one
Quantum leap is an Isekai. Getting home is a mainstay of the "Summoned Hero" genre of isekai.
Anime examples include:
The Rising of the Shield Hero
My Status as the Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's
My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One In This Other World Stands A Chance Against Me!
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest
Non anime example: Black Knight
Is a cursed thing to hear and it's absolutely true.
I wasn't sure because the only reason I even say A Kid in King Arthur's court counts even though he just goes back in time is because he goes so far back in time, nothing he knew about the world he knows really applies. Sam never goes back too far, but, then again, wasn't he also from the far future? 🤔
Spider-Man Unlimited 1999
There is also Those who hunt elves.
That one was always hilarious. I've never actually finished it though, always stalling after the first few episodes.
Calling Farscape an isekai took me out.
And I mean... you're not wrong.
Inuyasha.
The plot does not revolve around anyone trying to get home in that, tho. Kagome gets to go home whenever she wants, and does frequently.
Eh, she has to get the gem pieces to stop the destruction of the past so she can stay home and often struggles to return to the present and stay there for any amount of time.
She even at the end stays in the past, missing it as her found home.
Its very isekai adjacent.
No, no. It's an isekai for sure, it just isn't one that revolves around the protagonist trying to get home. The "getting home" plot line is the thing I haven't seen much and could only think of those two examples off the top of my head.
Plenty of isekai where the main character doesn't care to go home or can't go home (usually because they died and the other world is some kind of reincarnation or afterlife). Such as with Inuyasha, Futurama, and nearly all those animes with the super long titles about being overpowered in another world.
Heck, the ending of the orginal Fullmetal Alchemist turned it into an isekai when Edward ends up in the real world's WW2 era Germany.
Jesus that first ending of fullmetal alchemist where someone thought they weren't being obvious enough with the fascist metaphor...
I guess its not a good escape fantasy if you are reminded of the place you are trying to escape from all the time.
But I have 2 more off the top of my head and you won't like either.
Sword Art Online
Digimon Adventures
Technically both about children trying to get home after disaster. It seems to be the only group that tries to go home.
I haven't seen Sword Art Online, but isn't that one sorta kinda like .Hack//Sign? Like they're trapped in VR?
Yup trapped in VR except its using peoples real bodies instead of character models with their real world fitness (at first, coma people ain't doing all that) and die in game die for real.
So like as close to a full isekai but reversible if they beat the game (100 level MMO), which the protagonist doesnt want to do but everyone else does because he is so edgy until he finds love and can have it in the "real world"
But its like 10,000 people get isekaid mentally at the same time. Second season is about going back in to get someone that didnt manage to come back the first time either.
There is a really really fantastic abridged series on YouTube by Something Witty Entertainment if you like crass but wholesome humor. Fixed a lot of the character flaws and terrible writing.
Hmm... That sounds a lot more interesting than just being trapped in a VR headset. I might just start watching it now.
Fabiniku is more along these lines. With the additional twist of the protag's boon being his best friend getting dragged in with him to help him out, so there's some exploration of why one or both would want to go back home.
...and genderbending.