While watching Terrible Writing Advice's video on the subject it occurred to me that I've never seen a subversion of the isekai genre. Mind you, I don't normally go looking for isekai fics...

This doesn't have to be a fanfic either. Original works (written or even anime) would work too.

 

Re: Zero is basically a deconstruction of the isekai genre. I don't want to spoil anything, but it was really good up until the second season, so at least the first is worth watching.

 

I've had people recc Konosuba elsewhere, but my impression of it was that it's more comedy rather than subversion?

 

Konosuba is definitely a subversion, it's just not also a deconstruction. It's an isekai where literally everyone is a terrible human being and a colossal asshole, and then it mines that for laughs, because it's funny when a total cunt gets to suffer the consequences of their selfish and poor decision making, such as being swallowed by a giant frog or whatever.

 

It's a parody more than a deconstruction. The 'everyone is terrible' aspect is definitely there and they go too far with it all the time. It's past what a lot of people are willing to find funny, so I can sympathize if you don't like it, but I thought it was funny enough to put up with it.

 

Perhaps I should have clarified I mean subversion and deconstruction in the vein of Evangelion or Madoka Magica.

 

Yes, this^. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "subversion" either in this case.

If you mean what I think you mean, then This Won't End Well might count. It's a Warhammer 30k Primarch Isekai (II Legion), and is probably one of the best examples of that kind of thing if you're interested. In addition to some of the most in-depth and creative world- and lore-building I've seen from a fanfic (mostly centered on the peoples, cultures and history of Calengwag, otherwise known as Hollow, the adopted homeworld of the Second Legion), it subverts a couple of the more common Isekai tropes in the sense that

Spoiler

the isekai'd personality doesn't so much merge with or take over the mind of a Primarch as it is essentially subsumed by it. Even as a blank slate, a Primarch's mental architecture and processes are so alien to a standard mortal that the isekai'd personality and perspective gradually becomes more warped and inhuman as the story goes on.

In addition to that, when Galtine (the Primarch MC) meets the Emperor and discusses his out-of-universe knowledge and memories, the Emperor explains that this was intentional on his part, that it was the Big E Himself that ripped a collection of memories from a universe that knew the dangers the Warp might pose to the future of the Imperium, but was untouched by them. Then He crammed those memories into the infant Primarch's mind, before piecing together a human personality around this meta-knowledge to give context and drive.

So basically the Isekai'd personality learns that he is not an outside agent at all, but is in fact a barely stable construct of the Emperor's will, designed to fulfill his purpose as the newly founded Imperium's Anti-Chaos watchdog. Iirc, it's also hinted that in the canon timeline, this same thing was tried without a pre-built personality construct, and it made the Second Primarch disastrously unstable, which eventually lead to whatever happened that resulted in the Second Legion being disbanded and wiped from all Imperial records.

 

How about an Elf that gets run over by a carriage and gets transported into... our world, where he's forced to live out the rest of his days as a Salaryman.

'The High Elf is a Suicidal Salaryman.' - I even gave it a LN title.

That's prime subversion there.

 

@Gengar "The Devil is a part timer" is a thing.

 

Yeah, that's almost literally the plot of the Devil is a Part Timer.

 

It's far from a subversion, but in my opinion Mushoku Tensei is worth a watch as originator of most of the common Isekai Tropes, it's also pretty decent.

 

Definitely recommend Mushoku Tensei. It's been called the grandfather of isekai stories, where a lot of the tropes originated from. So it ends up being a lot less watered down than modern isekai anime. For example, instead of the protagonist being a grneric good looking ternage loner who manages to be good at everything, he is a 30+ fatass who has been living as a NEET in his parents house due to trauma from being bullied in high school. Instead of skipping over the early years of his life, it explores all of it; after 23 episodes, we've just reached him being...fourteen, I think?

Another isekai subversion is Log Horizon. Rather than just one OP character being isekai'd, it's an entire MMO population who get sucked into the game. The series explores how a society would develop among gamers who don't have a GM preventing them from griefing other characters, who can't die (instead getting rezzed at the cathedral), what kind of economy would form, etc. The main cast is primarily adults, another welcome change from the eternal cast of high schoolers you see in anime.

 

Mushoku is fine and all if you don't mind reading about/watching a 40yo NEET getting horny over children.

Personally, I noped out after that.

 

Doesn't that story start with him committing suicide by truck-kun after his siblings kicked him out of their parents house because he skipped their funeral and they walked in on him jacking it to child porn? Not sure how much they cleaned his origin story up for the anime.

I should probably actually give a recc though instead of just shitting on pedotensei, as much as it deserves to be shit on.

Eight,by 3seed is an Isekai/LitRPG that stands to me especially because the protagonist is an old man who reincarnates into a LitRPG world, and that's not just a flavour text that gets discarded. The dude lived his life, he got married had kids, and got to see his grandkids, and in a feat I don't think I've ever seen another isekai author achieve, he actually maintains that maturity and life experience once he's reborn. Obviously the world-building is interesting and the plot is sufficiently engaging, if a little slow to start due to a 'survive in the wild' type arc, but it's the characterization that really sets it apart for me. It's complete, for now, at 971 pages on RR and being edited for publication, last I heard. Not sure what the progress/timeline on the next book looks like, but as-is it already stands on its own as a full story, albeit one with obvious room for sequels.

 

Fifteen year old. But I can see why people would have an issue with it.

 

Fifteen is when they bang. He gets horny over her before all the timeskips.

Ultimately it's immaterial to me. I can turn my brain off to fanservice most of the time. I kind of lost interest in the show when he gets teleported to the middle of the desert. The show felt directionless at that point and I rapidly lost interest.