How Anime Isekai influences the future of the metaverse
art by: Jeffrey Read
Colonel:
But maybe we weren’t meant to meddle... with that ultimate power.
Doctor:
You mean... the power of a God?
- Akira (1988)
Anime has always played an influential role in popular culture. Akira (1988) introduced a barrage of recurring visual themes that to this day make its way into pop culture mediums. Every time you see a rendition of the side view of a motorcycle sliding to a screeching halt, that’s from Akira. Kanye West’s Stronger music video is a retelling of the Akira movie released 2 decades earlier. I could go on and on naming anime references in the mainstream but that deserves its own article that I’m sure someone else already wrote. My focus is on the anime sub genre called Isekai. Isekai is when the main character travels to another world and plays a role in shaping a major event. Popular Isekai include Inuyasha, Sword Art Online, Digimon Adventure, That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Re: Zero and Is it wrong to try and pick up girls in a dungeon. The amount of world building that these Isekai do is truly astounding. From rethinking that world’s financial system to mapping out complex political allegiances to defining power scaling schemes and having our modern world as a backdrop for comparison. Japanese Isekai lays the groundwork on how to build interesting and complex worlds in the metaverse.
Isekai is important to consider because many brands will represent themselves in the metaverse the same as on a website. They will post static images and text as the bare minimum. That strategy misses the point. The metaverse is more than upgrading a website to a 3D space. Similar to an Isekai, a brand’s metaverse needs to provide roles, activities, environments and incentive structures that create intrigue and excitement around interacting in that world. Similar to Subaru Natsuki arriving to the world of Re:Zero and failing his way throughout a world full of magic, assassins and witch cults. A brand’s metaverse should represent a unique interaction between the user and the brand.
When a user arrives to a brand’s metaverse, there needs to be a sense of adventure and discovery. Hidden mechanics the user discovers by exploring that world. If the brand’s metaverse sells products then create a merchant NPC with an interesting backstory. Feature an area where consumers of the product are rewarded with a greater rank for the more products they own. Have a location where high rank users can converse. Don’t just have a metaverse that exist simply to say that brand has a presence in the metaverse but go the extra mile and provide those engaging experiences similar to the ones you can find in an Isekai.
I can’t hide my excitement of living in a time period where it is possible to interact with some of my favorite anime as metaverse worlds. Obviously I have a list of all the anime worlds I can’t wait to visit and interact in. The first is of course my favorite anime of all time, Rurouni Kenshin or Samurai X to western audiences. Experiencing the Meiji Reconstruction Era where participants role play as Emperors, masterless Samurai, Ninjas and outlaws is such an interesting concept. This concept will also lead to more metaverse worlds that tell the history of particular countries in a certain time period. The second anime world I would love to visit in the metaverse is Gundam UC timeline. Just imagine being a Federation pilot climbing into a Gundam suit then facing off against the Red Comet himself Char Aznabel as he insults you as only he can. I can go on and on but I prefer to just introduce the concept of living in your favorite anime world in an attempt to expand our expectations of the metaverse.
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