Best Isekai Anime Of All Time

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Most Exciting Summer 2025 Isekai Anime

Isekai anime are inescapable. Without fail, every season includes a few shows that send their protagonists to alternate worlds filled with magic, wonder, danger, elves, and dungeons. Oftentimes, these average guys (or gals, rarely) gain incredible abilities that allow them to lead carefree lives defined by wealth, freedom, power, and harems. Occasionally, they find themselves stuck in a dark fantasy realm where one false move could spell their end. Love or hate them, these series are popular and are here to stay. As overexposed as this concept has become, isekai anime have an undeniable charm to them, even the so-called “trashy” ones. Even at its worst, this theme can still work as a tension-free escape from reality that asks nothing from viewers. Conversely, the best isekai anime are fantastic works of art that offer adventure, comedy, action, world-building, character growth, and stellar animation. To simplify the rummaging process, let’s highlight isekai’s greatest animated efforts.

The rankings are regularly updated with new isekai anime since there is always something fresh to watch. Reverse isekai anime are also featured in a separate article.

Updated June 17, 2025, by Mark Sammut: The Spring 2025 season added very little to the isekai genre, but its successor should be better. Let’s highlight a few notable Summer 2025 isekai anime.
Most Exciting Summer 2025 Isekai Anime

Spring 2025 is almost over, and, to be honest, its new isekai content was subpar. I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire and Teogonia are somewhat entertaining, and I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Season 2 is passable fluff, but the positives mostly end there. The Beginning After The End might go down as the year’s most disappointing adaptation.

Strongest Isekai Anime Protagonists Of Spring 2025, Ranked

Spring 2025’s isekai anime are a mixed bag in terms of quality, but most of the shows feature overpowered main characters.

On paper, Summer 2025 has a superior lineup. While divisive, The Rising of the Shield Hero is still a fairly big deal, and hopefully, season 4 will be decent. Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon is far better than its name suggests, and the sequel should be fun. The season also has a few new names that will be fighting for their right to be mentioned among the best isekai anime ever. Whether they achieve that status remains to be seen, but the following series are promising.

Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra – Seemingly, 90% of isekai anime are set within worlds based on games, and they tend to go with MMOs. Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra shakes things up by taking inspiration from the strategy genre, with the protagonist (Takuto Ira) finding himself cast as the ruler of an evil civilization. The light novel and manga have been around for a few years by this point, and they have a good-ish reputation. The switch to strategy should be refreshing, as Takuto will rely on his 4X experience rather than brute strength.

Uglymug, Epicfighter – A strange pick for an adaptation as the source material finished a few years ago, White Fox’s series is nevertheless an interesting prospect. As anime with genuinely “ugly” characters are largely unheard of, Uglymug, Epicfighter instantly sets itself apart by featuring a protagonist with a unique design. When he is reincarnated in a new world, Shigure reshapes his stats so he is extremely powerful, but at the cost of his looks. This decision also comes with the price of feeling pain if he touches a woman.

Onmyo Kaiten Re:Birth Verse – 2025 has already produced an awesome original isekai anime in Zenshu, so it might seem greedy to hope for a repeat. However, Onmyo Kaiten Re:Birth Verse seems set to offer a fun blend of fantasy and battle shonen tropes, with the story following a fiery delinquent who finds himself in a world that blends the future with the past. The anime also has a time loop element, a concept synonymous with one particularly great isekai anime.

Now, on to the best isekai anime ever…
44

Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious

MyAnimeList: 7.48

Isekai loves an overpowered protagonist who can blast through skyscraper-sized enemies while barely breaking a sweat. When the goddess Ristarte summons Seiya to help her save a world on the brink of annihilation, she gets a hero who is only willing to dive into threatening situations when victory is 100% assured. Basically, this means a lot of training and taking no chances during battles. Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious is a mostly lighthearted adventure built upon the love/hate dynamic between Seiya and Ristarte. Driven primarily by humor, the anime uses its protagonist’s unique mindset to produce comedy gold.
43

No Longer Allowed in Another World

MyAnimeList: 7.28

While looking to end his life with his lover, Osamu Dazai is hit by a truck and wakes up in a fantasy world where he is quickly informed about his status as an Other Worlder with heroic ambitions. However, the Japanese author is not particularly pleased with this turn of events, and his goal is to find his partner and end his love. Fortunately, he quickly becomes surrounded by girls who would rather keep him around.

6 Best Isekai Anime Like No Longer Allowed In Another World

These series each bring a unique twist to the isekai genre, offering everything from intense psychological drama to light-hearted comedy.

A dark comedy with a charming protagonist, No Longer Allowed in Another World is a clever isekai parody that includes a few subversions of the theme’s tropes and cliches. More importantly, Dazai is just an enigmatic lead who feels very fresh compared to most modern isekai MCs. As with all comedies, the humor does not always hit the mark, but enough jokes land to make up for the misses. While always comedic, No Longer Allowed in Another World has some surprisingly poignant episodes, particularly during the second half of its run.
42

Ishura

MyAnimeList: 6.68 (Season 1)

Ishura

Release Date

January 3, 2024

Directors

Yuki Ogawa, Takeo Takahashi

Writers

Keiso, Kenta Ihara

As isekai anime have a habit of playing things too safe, a show that is willing to take risks should be commended. However, just because something is different does not automatically make it good, and Ishura does not leave a great first impression. In a world with many Visitors and other superpowered entities, city-destroying conflicts are always on the horizon, especially since the True Demon King’s death left a power vacuum. Ishura is structured unusually for not only an isekai but also anime in general. Rather than focusing on a single character, the show dedicates the first five episodes to introducing different OP archetypes, dedicating about 10 minutes to each. As these stories are only loosely connected, the first half of season one is confusing and hard to follow. However, things come together nicely in the second half, when all these characters clash in a war between two empires. Although not devoid of world-building or political intrigue, Ishura’s selling point is its fights pitting overpowered characters against each other, and the roster is diverse and absurd. Season 2 is a bit more focused than its predecessor, but it mostly exists for the same reason.
41

I’m In Love With The Villainess

MyAnimeList: 7.34

Villainess stories are starting to become commonplace, with most seasons seemingly producing a new variant. I’m In Love With The Villainess presents a nice twist on this formula since the protagonist awakens as an otome game’s heroine rather than its villainess; however, she decides to romance the latter rather than any of the reverse harem’s male candidates. Inori’s manga and light novel are both highly regarded, setting the stage for a potentially brilliant anime; ultimately, the adaptation fell slightly short of expectations, but it was still solid. Although the humor can get repetitive since jokes tend to follow a similar setup and payoff, in a vacuum, the punchlines are funny. Rae and Claire have a fun dynamic right from their first scene together, and their one-sided love affair is gradually shifting from stalker-ish behavior to something a little more wholesome.
40

So I’m a Spider, So What?

MyAnimeList: 7.45

Hey, not everyone gets to reincarnate as a powerful human with ties to nobility. Some folks must draw the short straw, and Kumoko gets the worst of it when she starts a new life as a spider. Yes, the poor girl is just an ordinary monster, albeit one with a pretty high power ceiling. Focusing on dungeon crawling, Kumoko sets out to become her best spider-self, all the while making a few notable friends along the way.

8 Most Beloved Isekai Anime Protagonists, Ranked

Not every isekai anime main character is born equal. In a genre known for divisive protagonists, here are the most loved MCs.

So I’m a Spider, So What? is a show of two halves. Whenever Kumoko takes center stage, the anime is fun, light-hearted, and even quite epic. She is an awesome MC and carries the show on her back. Unfortunately, the series is pretty evenly divided between Kumoko and the human characters (some of whom were also isekai’d), and the latter’s storylines and scenes are nowhere near as captivating.
39

KamiKatsu: Working For God In A Godless World

MyAnimeList: 6.71

The son of a cult leader, Yukito, is killed by his father as part of a ritual, and he reawakens in a world with no concept of gods. Although not as exciting as he was hoping it would be, Yukito eventually comes to see his new life as a big step up from his previous existence; however, that changes when he learns that two of his friends have been chosen to be killed simply because they fear death. A lack of spirituality has, for some reason, spawned a society that treats death as a mundane event and villainizes anyone who does not share that mentality. Luckily for Yukito, his former cult’s deity pays him a visit. A Spring 2023 anime, KamiKatsu might as well be called Tonal Whiplash: The Anime, and that is somehow a compliment. The series jumps back and forth between fairly juvenile comedy and shockingly dark scenes, and the story’s frantic pacing means these moments can take place within the same minute. Depending on the viewer, this isekai anime could be deemed awesome or terrible, but almost nobody will find it boring.
38

From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated!

MyAnimeList: 7.43

From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated!

Release Date

January 10, 2025

Network

TBS, MBS, CBC, Tulip Television, BSN, tys, NBC, HBC, RKK, i-Television, SBS, IBC, BSS, MRO, OBS, TUF, RSK, TUY, tbc, RKB, SBC, KUTV, RBC, UTY, RCC, MRT, atv, MBC

Nowadays, every season seems to include a villainess isekai anime, and Winter 2025 was no exception. Fortunately, these shows have been consistently decent, and From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated continued that trend. In fact, this series is one of the better representatives of this subgenre, largely thanks to a delightful protagonist and a fun twist on the otome game formula. A dad in his 50s, Kenzaburou meets truck-kun and reincarnates as the baddie of an otome game. While he has fragments of memories of his daughter playing the game, Kenzaburou has to mostly rely on his parental instincts to navigate the challenges of adolescent relationships and prejudice. While trying to set up a romance for the game’s heroine, he inadvertently sets the stage for a reverse harem for his character. In a refreshing twist, the anime also jumps back to Earth to show Kenzaburou’s family, and they end up contributing in their own ways.
37

.hack//Sign

MyAnimeList: 6.94

.hack//Sign

Release Date

April 4, 2002

Directors

Kōichi Mashimo

Writers

Kazunori Itô

While far from the first to tackle the concept, .hack is generally regarded as the ancestor of video game-focused isekai anime like Sword Art Online. However, most of the anime are not part of the genre, since they usually do not revolve around characters who are trapped within a game. The main exception is .hack//Sign, the first anime set within this universe. At its core, this story is about Tsukasa, a boy who is trapped within the virtual world of an MMO. While this premise might conjure up memories of dozens of subsequent shows, .hack/Sign has a wildly different tone than most of its successors. Moving at a purposefully slow pace, this isekai anime is surprisingly contemplative and mysterious, opting to ask challenging questions rather than provide satisfying answers. The result is a polarizing show that is ambitious but not necessarily all that entertaining.
36

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

MyAnimeList: 7.45 (Season 1)

While it might not seem that obvious at a glance, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! is one of the most important isekai anime of all time. Similar to the light novel medium, this project helped propel villainess stories into the mainstream, triggering a new era of dominance that is still going strong years later. Nowadays, nearly every season seems to include one show featuring a woman reincarnated as an otome game’s female baddie, and My Next Life as a Villainess got the ball rolling in a big way. Due to the influx of similar series, Catarina’s journey might not seem all that special nowadays. Like many influential anime, My Next Life as a Villainess is the prototype of this subgenre, one that sets the basics that many of its successors follow. After regaining her memories of a past life and realizing she is a villain who will die sooner rather than later, Catarina sets out to rewrite her destiny, a process she accomplishes through her irresistible charm and positive attitude. She enjoys a bit of romance, develops a harem, and even gets to occasionally show off some cool magic. My Next Life as a Villainess is just fun, and a lot of that comes down to Catarina. She is just relentlessly endearing, and she has to genuinely work to protect herself during the first season. The sequel is not quite as good since it lacks any real tension, but it is still decent.
35

Why Raeliana Ended Up At The Duke’s Mansion

MyAnimeList: 7.53

After being pushed to her doom, Rinko awakens as a supporting character in a fantasy novel she once read. To make matters worse, her host, Raeliana, is destined to meet an untimely end at the hands of her fiance. As Rinko would very much like that not to happen, she sets out to strike a deal with the powerful Noah, a duke who appears charming and noble but is really quite devilish and complicated.

Best Anime Of Spring 2023, Ranked

Spring 2023 has a packed lineup of anime, but which shows are the season’s best?

Raeliana/Rinko carries the entire show on her back, and she is more than strong enough as a protagonist to bear the burden. Smart without being omnipotent, Raeliana works as a surrogate for the audience while also having a clearly defined personality that elevates her beyond self-insert leads. Noah is also fun and mysterious, with his actions and motives being difficult to pin down.