Isekai are normally about how "normal everyday man" has innate advantages over the new world.
Ex: Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court knew about solar eclipses. He pretends to "destroy the sun" on his day of execution. When King Arthur pleads to bring the sun back, he "does so" (or the eclipse passes I should say), and this event solidifies himself as a wizard on King Arthur's Court.
Ex2: Rimuru Tempest (That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime) uses his general-contractor knowledge to find specialists and organize his new town, becoming effectively the king of the monsters. The stronger monsters, with good leadership skills from Rimuru thanks to General Contracting knowledge, allows him to build roads, build new buildings, and advance his country faster than his neighbors. Ordinary humans simply don't have as much strength, dexterity, or stamina as Orcs, Goblins, and Oni. His former knowledge (and now monster-body) allows Rimuru to lead this group tremendously. And his general knowledge of humans allows him to play the political game with humans much better than any of the monsters could.
Ex3: Harry Potter has plenty of "Muggle Knowledge", like how to send mail / post office stuff, or interact with TVs, Telephones, and Computers, throughout his series. Wizards and witches don't understand this, so Harry Potter can do a lot of things and help out.
Ex4: "The Wizard of Oz" is himself, just a Kansas man, who knew some party tricks. These party tricks and conman-like trickery in general makes him into the leader of the Emerald City. Dorethy, herself from Kansas, is a kind-hearted young girl who knew how to use a water bucket to put out a fire... And that's all that was needed to overpower a lot of the evil-witch's spells and defeat the witch.
Ex5: Ains, from the Anime/Novel "Overlord", is a guild-leader from a popular MMORPG. He uses his guild-leader / video game organization skills to lead the new NPCs to conquer the new world. (Though its more tongue-in-cheek: a lot of Ain's "brilliance" is dumb luck. So its somewhat making fun of other Isekai, since it makes it clear that Ains really isn't that smart)
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Its not a "fish out of water" story, because Isekai is largely about wish fulfilment. You make the average, ordinary person into a hero.
So its more like this optimistic, hopeful story about how a typical person's ordinary experience can be very helpful in different circumstances. There's also normally some kind of superpower that's not fully under the main character's control (ex: Harry Potter's scar, that connects him to Volemort). The superpower helps the "fish out of water" situation, allowing the main character to focus on how "ordinary people skills" help this new world out so much.
Isekai are normally about how "normal everyday man" has innate advantages over the new world.
Ex: Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court knew about solar eclipses. He pretends to "destroy the sun" on his day of execution. When King Arthur pleads to bring the sun back, he "does so" (or the eclipse passes I should say), and this event solidifies himself as a wizard on King Arthur's Court.
Ex2: Rimuru Tempest (That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime) uses his general-contractor knowledge to find specialists and organize his new town, becoming effectively the king of the monsters. The stronger monsters, with good leadership skills from Rimuru thanks to General Contracting knowledge, allows him to build roads, build new buildings, and advance his country faster than his neighbors. Ordinary humans simply don't have as much strength, dexterity, or stamina as Orcs, Goblins, and Oni. His former knowledge (and now monster-body) allows Rimuru to lead this group tremendously. And his general knowledge of humans allows him to play the political game with humans much better than any of the monsters could.
Ex3: Harry Potter has plenty of "Muggle Knowledge", like how to send mail / post office stuff, or interact with TVs, Telephones, and Computers, throughout his series. Wizards and witches don't understand this, so Harry Potter can do a lot of things and help out.
Ex4: "The Wizard of Oz" is himself, just a Kansas man, who knew some party tricks. These party tricks and conman-like trickery in general makes him into the leader of the Emerald City. Dorethy, herself from Kansas, is a kind-hearted young girl who knew how to use a water bucket to put out a fire... And that's all that was needed to overpower a lot of the evil-witch's spells and defeat the witch.
Ex5: Ains, from the Anime/Novel "Overlord", is a guild-leader from a popular MMORPG. He uses his guild-leader / video game organization skills to lead the new NPCs to conquer the new world. (Though its more tongue-in-cheek: a lot of Ain's "brilliance" is dumb luck. So its somewhat making fun of other Isekai, since it makes it clear that Ains really isn't that smart)
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Its not a "fish out of water" story, because Isekai is largely about wish fulfilment. You make the average, ordinary person into a hero.
So its more like this optimistic, hopeful story about how a typical person's ordinary experience can be very helpful in different circumstances. There's also normally some kind of superpower that's not fully under the main character's control (ex: Harry Potter's scar, that connects him to Volemort). The superpower helps the "fish out of water" situation, allowing the main character to focus on how "ordinary people skills" help this new world out so much.