30 Best Isekai Manga You Need to Read in 2023
As all fans of manga will know, the art form includes a variety of different worlds and settings, making it one of the most diverse art forms in the world. Whether it’s Western or Eastern, the cultural influences found in manga are truly diverse and one very popular subgenre is the isekai subgenre. Isekai literally means “different world” or “otherworld”, and is a widely present and quite popular topic.
In it, the hero of the story (who is usually a very average guy), through a set of usually strange and fantastic circumstances, ends up in a completely different – usually fantasy – world where he suddenly becomes the ultimate powerful hero. The genre does have a lot of tropes, but the fantasy worlds depicted in it are usually great. In this article, we are going to bring you a list of the 30 best isekai manga you need to read.
1. InuYasha
Original Run: November 13, 1996 – June 18, 2008
Number of Volumes: 56
During the Sengoku period, a half-demon (hanyō) named InuYasha steals the Shikon Pearl (Shikon is not in the original; Jewel of the 4 souls or the Sphere of the Four Spirits in the Castilian anime adaptation) with the aim of using it to become into a full demon (yōukai).
However, her plan is foiled by a priestess named Kikyō who, on the verge of death from a very serious wound, using the last of her strength, shoots a sacred arrow at him, nailing him to the sacred tree (Goshinboku); leaving him paralyzed and asleep for 50 years. Minutes later, the priestess, before dying, asks that his body be burned along with the jewel.
2. Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World
Original Run: January 24, 2014 – present
Number of Volumes: 29 + 5 side stories & 6 short story collections
Re:Zero revolves around a Japanese high school student in a tracksuit named Subaru Natsuki who is transported to a parallel world without any explanation. While trying to make his mark in this new world, Subaru is attacked by a band of bandits.
On the verge of death, he is saved by a silver-haired half-elf named “Satella,” accompanied by a cat-like spirit, Pack. To reciprocate, he decides to help her with her daily chores, including finding the badge stolen from her by Felt, a young girl living on theft.
Later, in the slums of the city, they are attacked and killed by a mysterious person. Before dying, Subaru promises Satella that he will do anything to save her.
3. Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01
Original Run: November 21, 1998 – August 21, 2003
Number of Volumes: 9
In Digimon universe, Taichi is involved in a tournament of virtual pets, and apparently cannot participate under the pretext that he is not a real Digimon. After the tournament ends, Taichi plays against the winner, a boy named Neo Saiba, in a match that surprisingly turns out to be completely legal, even though it was supposed to be impossible.
Taichi is later called to the Digital World by Digimon Lord HolyAngemon. Once there, he meets Zeromaru, a mysterious Digimon emanating from his V-pet, Veedramon. Taichi and Zeromaru make their way through Lord HolyAngemon’s castle with the help of Gabo (Gabumon), and soon after Lord HolyAngemon begs Taichi to find the Five Digisaviors symbol and fight Daemon, who is causing trouble in the Digiworld.
Along the way, other humans are brought into the Digital World by Daemon, including Neo Saiba, Rei Saiba, Sigma, Mari Goutokuji, and Hideto Fujimoto.
4. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Original Run: May 30, 2014 – present
Number of Volumes: 19 + 2 extra
Satoru Mikami is a 37-year-old single salaryman living in Tokyo: he would be almost satisfied with his monotonous life if he could have had a girlfriend. While he meets his younger brother in the street, who introduces him to his fiancée, panic takes hold of the sidewalk when an imbalance armed with a knife rushes through the crowd.
Satoru is fatally injured in the back while intervening to protect the couple. As he conducts a brief reflection on himself during his agony, a “voice” listens to him and interprets his “last words”.
5. KonoSuba
Original Run: September 9, 2014 – present
Number of Volumes: 14
KonoSuba is set after the untimely and embarrassing death of Kazuma Satō, a Japanese hikikomori teenager who meets a goddess named Aqua, who offers him to reincarnate in a parallel world with MMORPG elements, where he can embark on adventure and combat. against monsters.
Although offered a divine item or overpowered ability to use in this new world, Kazuma, following a taunt from Aqua, chooses her to accompany him to Axel’s town, where he quickly finds that the latter’s lack of judgment is of little benefit to him.
6. Sword Art Online
Original Run: April 10, 2009 – present
Number of Volumes: 26
The story of Sword Art Online takes place in the year 2022, when a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing video game – VRMMORPG, for its acronym in English (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) – called “Sword Art Online” has just been released.
There, players can control their avatars just as they would their real bodies through the NerveGear, a virtual reality headset capable of stimulating their five senses through their brains. However, players find that they cannot get out of the game.
7. The Saga of Tanya the Evil
Original Run: October 31, 2013 – present
Number of Volumes: 12
For insulting God, an arrogant Japanese salaryman, at the time of his sudden death on February 22, 2013, is doomed to be reborn in another universe similar to the Europe of the 1910s, in an empire torn by countless wars with all its neighboring countries.
The salaryman is reborn in the guise of an orphan girl, Tanya Degurechaff, who at age 9 becomes a second lieutenant in the Imperial Army. According to God, whom Tanya calls “Being X,” if she is unable to die a natural death or refuses to have faith in Him, her soul will leave the circle and be sent to Hell for the countless sins that Tanya has. committed in his previous life.
8. Knight’s & Magic
Original Run: January 30, 2013 – present
Number of Volumes: 10
Following a traffic accident in which he dies, Tsubasa Kurata, an otaku genius computer scientist with a passion for mecha and robots, sees his soul reincarnated in a different world where there are giant robots, called “Silhouetted Knights”, who are the main fighting force in this world.
Medieval knights of this world use these giant robots and magic to fight voracious beasts, demons, and animals that devour whatever is within their sight.
Tsubasa is reborn in this new parallel world as Ernesti Echevalier, a boy born into a noble family; he was able to keep his memories and is still enthusiastic about the mechs. Thus, he is determined to achieve his own figure knight in order to defend his kingdom.
9. Bleach
Original Run: August 7, 2001 – August 22, 2016
Number of Volumes: 74
The 15-year-old high school student Ichigo Kurosaki has had the ability to see ghosts since childhood. One day he meets the shinigami Rukia Kuchiki who is hunting a hollow. Seriously injured during the fight, she is forced to transfer her powers to Ichigo to defeat the hollow in her stead. Until Rukia recovers, Ichigo must now do the work of a shinigami.
Rukia enrolls at Ichigo’s school and moves into his closet. Over time, the two become friends. Since Rukia Kuchiki has exceeded her stay in the human world, Rukia is forcibly returned to Soul Society by her stepbrother, the commander of the 6th Division of the Gotei 13, Byakuya Kuchiki, and his lieutenant, Renji Abarai, where all deceased souls, including the Shinigami reside.
10. BURN ☩HE WITCH
Original Run: August 24, 2020 – present
Number of Volumes: 1
The story takes place in “Reverse London”, a city hidden in the shadow of London, scarred by the damage caused by dragons, creatures invisible to most humans and causing enormous problems in a world that nevertheless has them. seen living together.
A third community is linked to the first two: the wizards, forming a group called Wing Bind, with among them Noel Niihashi and Ninny Spangcole whose main objective is to protect the inhabitants of the city from the sudden threat that these dragons and find a common understanding between them.
11. No Game No Life
Original Run: April 25, 2012 – present
Number of Volumes: 11
In No Game No Life, Sora and Shiro are inseparable brother and sister, both in reality and in video games (they are not actually brother and sister but see each other as such). As a team, their individual skills make them invincible: Sora has a shrewd intuition, great culture, very high intelligence, and unwavering insight, while Shiro possesses an intelligence beyond genius.
In the real world, they are reclusive, antisocial, and hikikomori. In the video game world, they play together as 『 』 (white), a mysterious group of online gamers unaware of defeat, finishing first in every game they participate in. Because character account names are always empty spaces, they are known as “White”.
12. Log Horizon
Original Run: March 31, 2011 – March 20, 2018
Number of Volumes: 11
With the release of its twelfth expansion pack, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Elder Tale has arguably become the most played MMORPG in the world with a user base of millions of players.
However, following the release of its twelfth expansion, Novasphere Pioneers, 30,000 Japanese players, and several thousand others around the world logged in at the time of the update find themselves trapped in the game with no ability to log out.
Among these players, Shiroe, an unsociable young adult, and his friends Naotsugu and Akatsuki. In order to overcome the obstacles and dangers of this world now become their reality, they decide to team up.
13. Overlord
Original Run: July 30, 2012 – present
Number of Volumes: 14
The story of Overlord begins in Yggdrasil, a very successful online virtual role-playing game, which is about to close for good after 12 years of existence. The main protagonist, Momonga nevertheless finds it difficult to accept it, he has no family, no friends, no girlfriend, and no longer finds meaning in living in “reality”.
He is the leader of one of the 10 best guilds in the game, the Ainz Ooal Gown guild, composed exclusively of “non-human” characters, and whose headquarters is the “Great Tomb of Nazarick”.
14. Fushigi Yûgi
Original Run: December 1991 – May 1996
Number of Volumes: 18
Miaka is under the stress of exams. One day, while accompanying Yui, her best friend, to the library, she finds a book called “The Writings of the Four Gods of Heaven and Earth”. But this book is magical, and the two young girls are sucked into it.
In the world of books, which resembles ancient China, she becomes the priestess of Suzaku, one of the four gods, protector of the South country, with the task of protecting the kingdom.
15. The Devil is a Part-Timer!
Original Run: February 10, 2011 – August 7, 2020
Number of Volumes: 27
Satan, the demon king, aims to conquer Ente Isla, a world made up of four continents, with the assistance of his demon generals, Alciel, Lucifer, Malacoda, and Adramelech.
After fighting with Emilia Justina and her allies and defeating Malacoda and Adramelech, Satan Jacob and Alciel flee through a portal that transports them to Tokyo. However, since there is little magic in the modern world, Satan and Alciel are forced to assume human forms.
16. Kekkai Sensen
Original Run: January 5, 2009 – February 19, 2015
Number of Volumes: 10
Three years ago, a catastrophic event occurred in New York City when a rift between Earth and an alternate dimension opened. The destruction and rebuilding of the city resulted in New Yorkers and extra-dimensional beings being trapped in a bubble-like structure.
The city formerly known as Hellsalem’s Lot has been transformed into a paranormal hub where magic and insanity coexist with the mundane. It is a place where all kinds of humans with extraordinary abilities gather to tap into the supernatural.
Someone threatens to breach the Bull and unleash the horrors of New Jerusalem, but the mysterious super-agents of Libra are fighting to prevent the unthinkable from happening.
17. Amatsuki
Original Run: 2002 – August 28, 2017
Number of Volumes: 24
Tokidoki Rikugō is an ordinary schoolboy but not very sociable. After failing his history exam, he takes a virtual tour of Japan in the Edo era. In the complex that houses the exhibition, he will meet Kon Shimonome, who will serve as his guide. But Tokidoki will get lost and attacked by a strange puppet riding a ferocious beast.
He owes his salvation only to the intervention of Kuchiha, a mysterious young girl who wields a peerless sword. Upon regaining consciousness, the young man realizes that he has been transferred to a parallel world identical to that of the Edo period. He will find Kon in this very strange universe where mystical and demonic forces clash.
18. Nobunaga Concerto
Original Run: May 12, 2009 – present
Number of Volumes: 22
The story takes place in the twenty-first century in Japan. On his way home from school and by a crazy coincidence, a student named Saburo is transported to the sixteenth century in Japan the Sengoku era. There he meets Oda Nobunaga, chief of the Oda clan, and a very influential person in the country’s history.
The two young men look alike like two drops of water and Nobunaga has poor health, the latter asks Saburo to take his place. Saburo accepts the request and must ensure that all historical events in Nobunaga take their course if he is to be able to return to his modern times.
19. The Rising of the Shield Hero
Original Run: August 22, 2013 – present
Number of Volumes: 22
The Rising of Shield Hero follows Naofumi Iwatani who was summoned to another world along with three other boys from parallel Japan to become the “Legendary Four Heroes”, or “Four Ancestral Saints,” of this world.
Each of the Heroes was equipped with their own legendary equipment as soon as they were summoned: Naofumi received the “Legendary Shield”, the only defensive equipment of the four, while the others respectively received an offensive weapon.
Due to Naofumi’s lack of charisma and experience, he ended up with only one teammate to accompany him, an attractive young woman, while the others received several: unfortunately, on the second day, Naofumi is betrayed, stripped, and falsely accused by a said teammate.
20. The Familiar of Zero
Original Run: June 25, 2004 – February 24, 2017
Number of Volumes: 22 + side story collection
In the world of Halkeginia, all nobles are born with a gift that allows them to use magic. However, the young Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière, a student at the Magic Academy of the Kingdom of Tristain, presents such disastrous results in her various attempts that her comrades doubt her powers, hence her nickname of “Louise the Zero”.
Being in her second year, she wishes to take advantage of the familiar ceremony to prove to everyone that she has powers, a ceremony which consists of the summoning of a being who will accompany her mage until the end of her days.
21. The Ambition of Oda Nobuna
Original Run: August 15, 2009 – June 20, 2019
Number of Volumes: 22
Yoshiharu Sagara, a high school student passionate about video games about feudal Japan, especially Nobunaga’s Ambition games, suddenly finds himself in the Sengoku era in the midst of battle. He is saved by a man who would later become Hideyoshi Toyotomi, but at the cost of the latter’s life.
These events have completely changed the story, and Yoshiharu will try to put things back in order. However, the story takes a different course than what he learned. Nobunaga Oda is now a bright young girl, but the young one is not named Nobunaga Oda but Nobuna Oda.
22. Digimon Chronicle
Original Run: 2003 – 2004
Number of Volumes: 4
Digimon Chronicle recounts a period during which the Digital World was controlled by a computer called Yggdrasil. In the past, Digimon multiplied so much that Yggdrasil found itself unable to support such a large amount of data and frequently overheated.
Yggdrasil will then create a “new Digimon”, composed of the past, present, and future (Urd, Versandi and Skuld, respectively), and will exterminate the excess Digimon using a computer program. However, Digimon with another program called Antibody-X, make them stronger, change their form, and make them immune. Yggdrasil will then send the “Royal Knights” (literal translation): thirteen volunteer Digimon protecting the Digital World.
At the same time, Kouta, Yuuji, and Shinji, three chosen humans, find a way to access the Digital World, and meet their Digimon partners; Dorumon for Kouta, and Ryuudamon for Yuuji. Kouta and Yuuji resist Yggdrasil and the Royal Knights, while Shinji seemingly joins Yggdrasil.
23. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord
Original Run: December 2, 2014 – present
Number of Volumes: 14
The protagonist, Takuma Sakamoto, is a regular human who suddenly finds himself transported to the virtual world of Cross Reverie, taking on the appearance of his own in-game character, the powerful Demon King Diablo.
Takuma is summoned by the young girls, Rem and Shera, who try to use a spell to make him their servant. However, the spell backfires and they end up with magical necklaces around their necks, making them his slaves instead.
Even though Takuma has severe social anxiety, he takes on the role of his character and relies on his high stats and extensive knowledge of Cross Reverie to interact with others and thrive in his new surroundings as he travels.
24. Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
Original Run: June 25, 2013 – present
Number of Volumes: 19
When Haruhiro wakes up, he is in the dark. He doesn’t know where he is, why he is there or where he was coming from. Around him, there are more people in the same circumstances.
Haruhiro and his companions find themselves in a world called Grimgar, there they must form a team, cooperate, and learn new skills to survive together in this hostile new world.
25. Restaurant to Another World
Original Run: February 28, 2015 – present
Number of Volumes: 5
Western Restaurant Nekoya is a restaurant located in a mundane corner of a Tokyo shopping district that offers non-Japanese cuisine, most of the food is from the Western world. It is open on weekdays according to normal opening hours and is closed during holidays and weekends.
But in reality, the restaurant is secretly open on Saturdays for a rather special clientele, in fact, during the weekends doors connecting to the restaurant appear in another world.
26. Outbreak Company
Original Run: December 2, 2011 – August 2, 2018
Number of Volumes: 18 + 2 specials
Shin’ichi Kanō is a young boy who is passionate about anime, manga, and video games. He is offered a job because of his vast knowledge in these areas. However, things take a strange turn when he is kidnapped after his first meeting with his new employer and wakes up in a fantasy world that looks quite different from his own.
Shin’ichi is then informed that he is in fact selected by the Japanese government to help improve diplomatic relations with the “Holy Eldent Empire” and to propagate more culture in this potential new market.
27. Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!
Original Run: May 14, 2016 – present
Number of Volumes: 16
Misato Kurihara is a genius. This is what she was told ever since her exceptional abilities started to emerge, making people expect a lot of her. But on the day of his high school graduation ceremony, an inattentive driver rushes in the direction of a little girl.
Without thinking, Misato jumped into the street, protecting the little girl at the cost of her life. When she wakes up, she meets God, the Creator, who explains to her that the girl she saved will lead a life of great fame.
28. I’m Standing on a Million Lives
Original Run: June 9, 2016 – present
Number of Volumes: 13
The ninth-grader, Yusuke Yotsuya, is a practical boy with no friends and is not a member of any club. But one day, he and two classmates are transported to another world where they must work together to survive. Yotsuya is a “lone wolf” and has always lived his life satisfying himself, but how will that work now that he is a hero?
29. Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Aren’t They?
Original Run: April 1, 2011 – April 1, 2015
Number of Volumes: 12
The story follows Izayoi Sakamaki, a boy who misses the world. One day, an envelope arrives at his house. By opening it, he finds himself in an instant transported to a parallel world.
From there, he discovers that two other “problem children” have also been carried by the same envelopes: a taciturn girl named Yo Kasukabe, as well as a beautiful and haughty young girl called Asuka Kudo.
Subsequently, a young girl, Kuro Usagi, appears and informs them that she has summoned all three of them to the “No Name” community to overthrow a demon.
30. Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?
Original Run: January 20, 2017 – April 17, 2020
Number of Volumes: 11
Masato Oosuki is a simple high school student looking to get out of his mother’s petticoats who remains very attached to him. One day after taking a random poll, he finds out he’s involved in a secret government scheme and finds himself in a role-playing video game world.
This seems to be a boon for the latter, he who wanted to get away from his mother, and as a passionate player, to be able to quickly show his talents in this new world.
