The isekai genre of anime is far past the point of over saturation. As things currently are, there’s some new isekai show every season (or multiple). Featuring protagonists who suddenly find themselves in new or strange situations, most of these stories feel like they’re all cut from the same cloth.

There are standouts such asRe: Zero, Reincarnated As A Slime, or more recently The Faraway Paladin, but those are few and far between. Thankfully, there are still quite a few amazing isekai manga to pick from as far as future adaptations go. Here are some of the best examples for potential future shows.

Updated February 8th, 2021 by Jacob Buchalter: The isekai well runs deeper, far deeper than it appears at first glance. One might think that there are only a moderately sized group of amazing isekai manga that have yet to be adapted, but there are always more to be found.

So, let’s take another look through the pages upon pages of ongoing isekai series and see if there are any fan favorites that were left out last time that need to be included now.

13 How Not to Use Healing Magic: Recovery Team Running Through the Battlefield

How Not To Use Healing Magic is one of the more creative isekai manga out there, even among the all-time greats, simply because the actual “isekai” aspect of it isn’t played up too much. For the most part, the story is about a normal guy who has an aptitude for healing magic, going through the most grueling training to be the world’s best “healer.”

It’s a hilarious, well-done twist on the classic trope of healers in games or fantasy media being easy targets or useless in combat. Ken Usato is trained to use his healing magic to heal his tired muscles while working out, slowly turning him into a superhuman above everyone else in terms of stamina, durability, speed, and strength. It does a lot of things differently, and is constantly surprising the reader with new ways for Usato to shock and awe the people around him. Quite frankly, this might be one of the best isekai manga out there currently.

12 Welcome To Japan Ms. Elf

Welcome To Japan, Ms. Elf is not like many of the other Isekai. It’s actually both a regular isekai manga as well as a reverse isekai manga. Firstly, the main character, Kazuhiro Kitase, only travels to the other world in his dreams, returning to modern Japan when he wakes up (or when he’s “killed”). Additionally, it’s a light-hearted romance series between Kitase and Maribelle, an elven Spirit Sorceress from the other world. The story spends more time showing her reactions to modern Japan than his reactions to the isekai world in his dreams.

Finally, this manga has this relaxingly slow “slice-of-life” tone to it. The monster fighting and “isekai” aspects take a backseat to the adorable interactions between Mari and Kazuhiro, which are the real heart of the story and are what make this such a good manga overall.

11 Re: Monster

Re: Monster is one of the “trashier” isekai manga series out there as it has some absurd power fantasy stuff in it and a whole lot of (honestly gross) fan-service, but if a reader can get past that, every other aspect of the story is really fun. Much like So I’m a Spider, So What takes the “game” aspect of Isekai to its utmost limit, Re: Monster manages to take it even higher by introducing a main character who already had superpowers in his original world, and then gets to double down on his powers in the Isekai world he’s reincarnated within.

Main character Rou AKA Yatendoji is about as overpowered as isekai protagnoists can get, and he quite literally grows stronger with every single meal he eats. And, while it’s exciting to see what Rou eats next and what skills he obtains, that’s only part of the appeal. Frankly, a lot of the enjoyment of Re: Monster comes from all the characters and events around Rou, Stuff such as his little community steadily growing into what eventually becomes the Parabellum Mercenary group, what variant the other goblins and creatures around him will become by the next chapter, and what world-shattering event he’ll stumble into next. It’d be tough to adapt, but if they managed to pull it offthe Re: Monster anime would be comparable to some of the best isekai anime of the last year.

10 Reincarnated As An Aristocrat With An Appraisal Skill

Reincarnated As An Aristocrat With An Appraisal Skill, or let’s just say Aristocrat Reincarnation, is a pretty fresh and uniquely good Isekai manga. For one, it’s one of the only Isekai in recent memory where the main character isn’t mind-blowingly strong in combat. In fact, Ars Louvent (the protagonist) is pretty weak on his own. But, because of the Appraisal skill he was gifted with when reincarnated, Ars has the best eye for talent, literally.

Basically, anyone he looks at has a “stats” box that Ars can see that shows their current level of prowess with a variety of skills, as well as their maximum possible potential with each skill. And, with this, Ars manages to surround himself with a merry group of masterclass fighters, wizards, strategists, and so on that are entirely dependent on him. It’s just a lot of fun to see what underestimated outcast Ars stumbles across next and how he’ll expertly add them to his entourage using a sickening amount of goodwill and honesty.

9 Survival Story Of A Sword King In A Fantasy World

Survival of a Sword King in Another World is a roller coaster ride. What starts out as an interesting (and dark) concept quickly turns into an action-comedy isekai series with an ever-expanding plot. It follows a man named Ryu Han-Bin who has just finished his mandatory military service and is finally back home, right as he’s transferred to another world. But, before being thrown into the classic Isekai fantasy world, Ryu is brought to a “tutorial” universe where a series of pop-up prompts (called a “Guideline) tell Ryu he’ll be brought to this fantasy world after he clears it.

The problem is that his Guideline malfunctions, and Ryu doesn’t get taken out of the tutorial after he defeats the tutorial mob. In fact, he doesn’t get out of there for an absurd amount of time, all while being forced each day to fight an enemy relative to his current strength, which keeps growing with each kill. By the time Ryu finally does manage to leave, he’s a completely different person physically with a ton of trauma to boot. So, it’s even more impressive that the series manages to pivot from this dark start to being more comedic so well.

8 Yakuza Reincarnation

Yakuza Reincarnation is a relatively recent isekai manga series, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. An old, hardened Yakuza elite is caught in a trap by one of his closest friends and killed, and starts to go through the process of being reincarnated in another world.

But instead of being reincarnated in a younger male body, he “takes over” the body of a princess running away from her kingdom that has betrayed her. Suddenly, he’s gone from a 60-year-old man’s body to a frail and physically weak young girl. Seeing this adorable princess slam open doors and act like a Yakuza boss is something that readers didn’t know they needed.

7 Dungeon Reset

Dungeon Reset is about humans who are suddenly pulled to another world, or “dungeon,” to fight for survival at the hands of some mysterious puppeteer. Protagonist Dawun is thought to be dead at the bottom of a spike trap and is left behind as the Dungeon resets itself, making readers believe this is another story where the protagonist dies early on.

This causes him to become a sort of “glitch” in the system, allowing him to exist outside the rules of the game. From there, this isekai manga story involves Dawun’s steady progression of learning new skills (all of which appear useless, at first), grinding up these skills until they become useful, moving on to the next area, and so forth.

6 A Veterinarian in Another World

A Veterinarian in Another World isn’t exactly a typical isekai setup, but it isn’t quite an atypical one either. Kazami Shingo is reincarnated in a fantasy world not as some slime or spider, but as a normal human who has all his knowledge as a veterinarian. There are a couple of other series like it (such as Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated In Another World As An Aristocrat) where an MC with a hyper-specific specialty gets pulled into another world exactly because of this expertise, and Verterinarian in Another World is one of the best.

This is a story perfect for people who always wondered about the more mundane aspects of fantasy-world creatures. Plenty of viewers wonder if dragons live in stables, if harpies build nests, or if Griffins can be domesticated.

5 The Ideal Sponger Life

The Ideal Sponger Life is another romance-based Isekai manga series. It’s one part political drama, one part isekai magic, and one part romance story, and that blend works better than one might expect. Yamai Zenjirou is dragged to another world by a powerful queen named Aura who wields space-time magic. She just has one simple request for him: marry her!

Obviously, Yamai eventually accepts. He is pulled back to her world one last time to live a lazy and luxurious life as a consort with the woman he fell in love with at first sight.

4 The Berserker Rises To Greatness

This series is a bit of an odd one. It starts off with the typical isekai setup with the main character who “awakens” in a new world. But Kelvin is a bit different, as it turns out he’s traded his memory of his past life in exchange for double growth potential as a summoner. He remembers nothing of who he was before reincarnating.

This series isn’t exactly revolutionary in terms of an isekai. The plot jumps all over the place, the main character stumbles upon a harem of women who fall in love with him, he grows more powerful than anyone else in a fraction of the time, and so on. However, while every plot point is pretty typical, it’s also done exceedingly well and is written and illustrated beautifully.

3 The New Gate

This story has a similar beginning to Sword Art Online or .Hack, where a bunch of people are trapped inside a VR MMORPG and forced to clear it to survive. InThe New Gate, though, the “trapped in a game” section of the adventure is just finishing up as the story begins. The main character, Shin, has just finished clearing the final boss, and is expecting to be transported back home.

However, he is actually transported to the same game world. This time it’s 500 years later, and all the NPCs have become sentient. From there, Shin must find his old NPC companions, figure out what happened to the world in the 500 years, and see if there’s any way possible to return to his original world. It’s still a bit too early in the series to tell, but so far The New Gate is shaping up to be one of the better trapped-in-a-game isekai stories out there.

2 The Gourmet Adventure Of Legendary Tamer

Many isekai place a big focus on cooking, and The Gourmet Adventure of the Legendary Tamer is the funniest example. As opposed to an isekai focused around cooking, it’s a cooking series that just happens to be an isekai. Mukouda Tsuyoshi was summoned to another world along with three other heroes, but his only “cheat” skill is being able to open a menu where he can purchase items from an “online” supermarket.

After being thrown out of the castle for his lack of power, Mukouda ends up accidentally making friends with the Legendary Wolf Fenrir thanks to his cooking skills. The latter enters into a familiar and master construct with Mukouda in order to eat his cooking all the time. It’s a bunch of wacky fun, and would make a great show to watch before eating.

1 Reincarnated As A Sword / Reincarnated As A Dragon

These two series have very similar concepts, but both deserve anime adaptations. Reincarnated As A Sword is a fantastic series, which starts off with a man waking up as a sword stuck in a pedestal. After his initial freakout, this sword then learns to control his body, and gains an absurd amount of skills, stats, and power from slaying nearby monsters. It’s another “atypical: isekai setup, but is one of the more well-written ones out there.

Meanwhile, Reincarnated As A Dragon Hatchling has a lot in common with So I’m a Spider, So What. Instead of a spider, though, the hero is reborn as a literal Dragon’s Egg. Thankfully, he’s not trapped in the bottom of a labyrinth, but he’s still a helpless egg in the middle of a dangerous forest. It has a lot of game aspects incorporated into it, and the art style and comedy of the series are memorable.