Isekai Calling

In the 21st century, Isekai, as a popular culture genre, has gradually gained an important place in Japanese light novels and manga. This genre typically revolves around the narrative of “entering another world from reality” and has formed a highly repetitive structure. Isekai is not merely a genre setting, but more like a narrative device that regulates the excitement threshold. It continuously stimulates the reader's emotional response by setting clear dilemmas and breakthrough points for the protagonist. In the real world, protagonists are often portrayed as stereotypical “loser”, such as cisgender men who are portrayed as unattractive to the opposite sex, who face obstacles in their careers or studies, or whose abilities have long been unrecognized. When such characters are placed in an alternate world narrative, the story quickly transforms from frustration to compensation, granting the protagonist extraordinary abilities, social status, and emotional rewards, thereby evoking emotional resonance with the audience. Based on this observation, I decided to create a moving image work rooted in, yet deconstructing, the Isekai structure. This work does not aim to reproduce the myth of success, but rather to visualize the very mechanism of emotional stimulation through rhythm, repetition, and variation. The work explores how narrative structures influence the audience’s emotional engagement, and how exaggerating or isolating this mechanism can alter perception and meaning.