Important takeaways
- Shōnen anime is still popular, but shojo anime is making a comeback in recent years.
- The success of shojo anime adaptations such as Dress Up Darling and Horimiya has garnered attention online.
- The decline in isekai popularity may be due to oversaturation and a shift towards more relatable segment-of-life content.
Shonen will always be at the top of the charts, but seasonal shonen anime tends to share the spotlight with a “trendy” genre following close behind. Dozens, if not hundreds, of the seasonal anime have been anime with insanely long titles and cookie-cutter harem stereotypes, where the main character is explicitly OP and conveniently never loses. There are exceptions to the Isekai rule that are actually well done or give a new take on the genre, of course; Re: Zero, Konosubaand The time I was reincarnated by a slime are some of the more notable examples of Isekai.
But times are changing. The only successful Isekai of late are continuations of already successful franchises; new Isekai tend to be fewer, farther apart, and not as highly rated. While shonen has always been at the top of the game and won't be slowing down anytime soon, there's a new contender to compete with this year's popular shonen… and it's the exact opposite.

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Shojou Anime is finally shining again
Romance, Slice-of-Life, and other Shojou sub-genres populate the charts
While shoujo manga and anime had their heyday in the early 2000s, the genre has fallen short for over a decade, leaving the well of shoujo anime relatively dry and barren with only a few exceptions. However, recent years have seen an explosion in shojo manga. This naturally leads to shojo manga adaptations. Some of the flashbang hits of recent years are Dress up baby, Horimiyaand what is currently being broadcast Yakuza fiance taking over social media. Some other recent hits Kaguya-sama: Love is warthe Fruit basket restart, Komi cannot communicateand others.
Some of these, including the aforementioned Love is war and Fruit basket temporarily exceeded Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and was the highest-rated anime on the infamous anime tracking website MyAnimeList, causing enough of a stir to gain attention online.
On the note of Fruit baskets reboot, many of the popular Shojo anime from the 90s and early 2000s are all starting to get right now; Ranma 1/2 be among them. Even Crunchyroll reports on what they call the “Shojo Renaissance” in an article this year, noting the anime Kimi ni Todoke is finally getting a third season after a 13-year hiatus, and popular manga likes Signs of affection and Honey Lemon Soda is finally getting adaptations after years and years of waiting from fans. Shojo anime is really making a comeback, influencing how other genres handle their romance in its wake.
Why was Isekai so big?
Why did Isekai explode in popularity in the first place?
Isekai as a genre usually involves being trapped in a fantasy world, usually an MMORPG or other type of video game, but would almost always include a fantasy world of some kind. This provided a level of escapism for anime fans everywhere. The immense and intense popularity of Sword Art Online certainly contributed to isekai success overall; most anime studios wanted to recreate the phenomenon that Sword Art Online became But another contributing factor to Isekai's success was escapism to the ultimate power fantasy of an average gamer becoming the protagonist of their favorite game.
In isekai anime, it was often a regular player who was reincarnated or transported into a fantasy game they were already playing. And these days, most MMORPG players are also anime fans, since most modern MMORPGs have modeled themselves after anime, so there is a large amount of crossover between the two niches. So logically, these hybrid gamers and anime fans would be attracted to an anime that shows someone they relate to simply, traveling through an immersive video game world similar to games they already play, right?
So why isn't Isekai as popular anymore?
What has changed in Isekai's world?
There are a couple of theories that may contribute to isekai's declining popularity. The most obvious is oversaturation. When any genre takes center stage as the trendy, popular genre, fans of an entertainment medium are likely to burn on them. This is especially true for anyone trying to keep up with seasonal anime over the last decade, and has seen the isekai genre slowly gobble up the space held by a wider variety of genres.
“The isekai genre doesn't need to die, but it does need to be reborn in a less caricatured form. That has already started to happen, but the process needs to accelerate. Anime studios in particular should also be much more selective about the number of isekai they are willing to adapt themselves for a season, and writers who want to write isekai would do well to invest in trying something else.”
Another theory that points to Isekai's fall is that we as a whole don't need to flee as much as we did a few years ago. Depending on which country you are in, covid-19 lockdowns were on and off for a few years and hampered experiences with the outside world for a considerable amount of time. Many otaku spent time during lockdown watching anime and playing video games, so isekai was more relatable. Now that the world is out and experiencing the world again, and what is relatable are characters in more realistic, grounded situations like that seen in shoujo anime. Most people spent years with limited contact, social events being shut down and school over the internet rather than in person. When people experience these in real life again, people want to see the same experiences and events emulated on their screen as well.
The Isekai genre itself is starting to reflect this, with dozens of slice-of-life isekai coming out alongside the typical action fantasy adventure variety. While isekai is definitely not unpopular, shojou anime ratings have been creeping up and even sometimes surpassing isekai. The genre's dominance won't last much longer, unless they can find a new way to reinvent themselves.

Kaguya-Sama: Love is War
- Seasons
- 3 + the OVA series
- Studio
- A-1 pictures
- MyAnimeList Score
- 8.41 (Season 1)