2026's Most Underrated Anime Is The Genre Resurrection Isekai Needs (Exclusive) — Gaming

The Forsaken Saintess Is Resurrecting An Underrated Isekai Genre (Exclusive)

Ville blushing with his mouth open in front of a bubbly background in The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World.

Over the past decade, Isekai has emerged as a powerhouse in the anime industry, and one show is attempting to resurrect one of its subgenres.

Over the past 15 or so years, isekai has emerged as a powerhouse genre in the anime industry. Though its biggest shows aren't and will likely never be quite as popular as the biggest names in battle shōnen, the sheer number of isekai titles released each anime season is proof enough of the genre's immense and ever-growing popularity. And as time passes since isekai's major 2010s breakthrough, the genre is beginning to see some evolution.

A number of subgenres falling under the isekai umbrella have risen in prominence over the years, and one currently-airing show is aiming to lead the way in another. The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World, based on the novel series of the same name by Yoneori and Nana Kogami, is a 2026 anime series produced by EMT Squared that began airing on July 6th as part of the summer anime lineup.

Though the title and premise are nothing new to isekai, The Forsaken Saintess is taking a bit of a different approach than many of its peers, forgoing much of the action and other typical tropes and instead fitting itself snugly into the cozy isekai subgenre. One that series director Atsushi Nigorikawa believes is exactly what audiences are looking for at the moment.

The Forsaken Saintess' Director Believes the Series Is What Viewers Are Looking For

Rin from The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World sitting on top of a magic circle.

In a sit-down with Atsushi Nigorikawa and Ayumu Hatori at Anime Expo 2026, the director and producer of The Forsaken Saintess spoke with ScreenRant and touched on the growing cozy isekai subgenre, a trend that began to surface only a few short years ago but has rapidly risen in popularity with fans of differing tastes in regions all around the world. On why they feel The Forsaken Saintess is what viewers are looking for, Nigorikawa and Hatori said:

Nigorikawa: "In both Japan and America, technology and society are advancing so quickly that daily life can feel exhausting. People are mentally tired. So entertainment that lets you relax and slow life down hits exactly what audiences are looking for right now."

Hatori: "I feel the same. People in Japan are very tired these days. That’s why anime like this, where characters take things slowly, enjoy food, camp, and have fun together, are becoming more popular. It’s therapeutic."

The cozy slice-of-life genre, also known as iyashikei, which translates to 'healing', is not new to the popular anime scene. For decades, shows have made the gentle and relatively low stakes of their narratives the main point. Titles like Laid-Back Camp and Mushi-shi, despite belonging to two very different genres, both fit the iyashikei or cozy label, prioritizing their slow-paced, healing qualities over anything else.

Now, in the midst of isekai's seemingly unending rise in popularity, shows like Campfire Cooking in Another World and the now-airing The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World are attempting and succeeding at bringing cozy anime to the isekai genre. A genre which, until recently, most often prioritized action and adventuring.

The Isekai Genre Continues to Evolve as Its Popularity Grows

That Time I was Reincarnated As a Slime Ending After 11 Years

Isekai has a large and growing number of subgenres underneath its wide umbrella, the term translating to 'other world'. Though it's a relatively simple concept, there are quite a few ways the genre can be approached. Some stories involve reincarnation, others involve transportation, some focus primarily on romance, and others lean into the power fantasy of their action. Some shows themselves are a parody of the genre to which they belong. And in recent years, cozy slice-of-life isekai has risen as a serious subgenre of its own.

From the Truck-kun to the Tempest Federation · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Isekai Anime? “In another world — with my smartphone.”

🎯AincradDeath-game MMO

⏳Re:ZeroReturn by Death

🔮KonoSubaUseless goddess

🥻Tempest SlimePredator Skill

👻OverlordAinz Ooal Gown

The Japanese term “isekai” (異世界) is now the catch-all label for stories about ordinary people transported, summoned or reincarnated into a fantasy realm — from Sword Art Online to Konosuba to Mushoku Tensei. What does the word literally translate to in English?

✓ Correct! “Different world” or “another world.” The word breaks into i (different) + sekai (world). The genre traces back as far as 1990s OVAs (Vision of Escaflowne, Fushigi Yuugi, Inuyasha) but exploded in the 2010s thanks to Sword Art Online (2009 LN, 2012 anime), Re:Zero, KonoSuba, Overlord and the “Narou” web-novel ecosystem of Shōsetsuka ni Narō.

✗ Wrong. The answer is “Different World.” Isekai breaks down literally to “i” (different) + “sekai” (world). It’s now used as a publishing-industry shorthand for the entire genre of transported/reincarnated/summoned-hero stories that boomed across the 2010s.

Re:Zero — Starting Life in Another World’s protagonist Subaru Natsuki is a hikikomori who’s pulled into a fantasy kingdom and given a single, brutal supernatural ability: when he dies, time rewinds to a fixed checkpoint and he relives the same stretch of days, retaining his memories. Name this signature ability.

✓ Correct! Return by Death. Subaru’s ability is treated by Tappei Nagatsuki’s novels as a curse rather than a power — the Witch of Envy locks his memory of it (he physically cannot tell anyone he can rewind), and every “reset” means he genuinely dies. Re:Zero is widely credited with redefining the modern isekai psychological lane and remains one of the genre’s most acclaimed entries.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Return by Death. None of the other names are official. Tappei Nagatsuki’s web-novel-turned-LN coined “Return by Death” specifically and made the death-and-rewind a thematic engine: every reset means a real death and accumulating trauma.

In KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!, NEET protagonist Kazuma Sato dies and is offered a wish by an obnoxious goddess. He chooses, out of pure spite, to take her with him to the fantasy world. She becomes the party’s perpetually-dunked-on, Drain-Touch-fearing water-and-resurrection priestess. Name her.

✓ Correct! Aqua. The goddess of water, useless and proud of it. Kazuma’s entire character arc is being saddled with three of the most dysfunctional party members in any RPG — Aqua (the goddess), Megumin (the explosion-only Crimson Demon mage) and Darkness (the masochistic crusader who can’t hit anything). Aqua’s mortal terror of Drain Touch and undead is one of the show’s longest-running gags.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Aqua. Megumin is the explosion-magic mage. Darkness is the masochistic crusader. Wiz is the lich shopkeeper. The goddess Kazuma drags into the fantasy world — and the source of about 90% of the party’s problems — is Aqua.

In That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Mikami Satoru is stabbed in modern Tokyo and reincarnates in a fantasy world as a low-tier blue slime monster — only to discover his new body has the absurd Predator Skill that lets him absorb anything he eats. He soon names himself after a great storm dragon he befriends in a cave. What name does he take?

✓ Correct! Rimuru Tempest — surname taken from Veldora Tempest, the Storm Dragon Rimuru befriends and absorbs in his first cave. By the time the series gets going, Rimuru is the founder and ruler of the monster nation Tempest, a Demon Lord, and the most powerful single character in his world. Fuse’s web novel started in 2013, Kawakami’s manga adaptation is over 25 volumes deep, and the 8-bit Studio anime is still ongoing.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Rimuru Tempest. Lugh Veleno is the protagonist of The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated. Hajime Nagumo is the lead of Arifureta. Naofumi Iwatani is the Shield Hero. The slime who eats Veldora and names himself Tempest is Rimuru.

In Overlord (2015–), the Yggdrasil MMORPG’s servers shut down on the player Momonga, but instead of logging him out, he and his Great Tomb of Nazarick are pulled into a parallel world. He renames himself after his old guild — the same name that gives the show its menacing brand-villain register. What does he rename himself?

✓ Correct! Ainz Ooal Gown. Originally the name of Momonga’s 41-member Yggdrasil guild — the “Nine’s Own Goal” in original Japanese — he reclaims it as his personal alias to honour his absent guildmates. Maruyama’s LNs and Madhouse’s anime treat the protagonist as a slow-burn villain: a skeletal Eldritch Lord trying to figure out what he’s become while his floor guardians worship him as a god.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Ainz Ooal Gown. Albedo and Cocytus are NPC floor guardians of Nazarick. Demiurge is another floor guardian. Touch Me was a famous member of the original guild but isn’t Momonga’s alias. The protagonist takes the guild’s own name, Ainz Ooal Gown.

Sword Art Online’s first-arc death game traps Kirito and 10,000 players inside a 100-floor floating-castle MMO — if you die in the game, you die in real life. Each floor is a distinct biome and boss fight, and the only way out is to clear all 100. What is this castle/MMO called?

✓ Correct! Aincrad — the floating fortress designed by lead-developer-villain Akihiko Kayaba. Reki Kawahara’s LN began as a 2002 web novel and was adapted by A-1 Pictures in 2012, kicking off the modern isekai boom. The series moved through other servers/worlds across its sequels (Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online, Project Alicization’s Underworld) but Aincrad remains the foundational setting and the brand image of the franchise.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Aincrad. Alfheim is the fairy-themed VRMMO of Season 1’s back half. Gun Gale Online is the FPS arc. The Underworld is the simulated world of the Alicization arc. The first-season death game is the floating fortress Aincrad.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (2021–) is widely cited as the foundational modern isekai web novel — published online from 2012, it’s often credited with defining the genre’s template. Its protagonist is a 34-year-old NEET reincarnated as a baby in a fantasy world, retaining his adult mind. What’s his new-life name?

✓ Correct! Rudeus Greyrat — born to swordsman father Paul and maid mother Zenith in the Buena Village in the Asura Kingdom. Rifujin na Magonote’s web novel ran from 2012–15 on Shōsetsuka ni Narō and is widely credited as the prototype for the modern reincarnation-isekai template. Studio Bind’s anime adaptation (2021–) is one of the genre’s most lavishly produced.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Rudeus Greyrat. Cid Kagenou is the lead of The Eminence in Shadow. Ars Lalatoya is Rudeus’s son later in the series, not Rudeus himself. Subaru Natsuki is the protagonist of Re:Zero. Rudeus is the reborn-as-a-baby protagonist of Mushoku Tensei.

A huge proportion of modern isekai (Re:Zero, Mushoku Tensei, Overlord, Slime, KonoSuba and many others) started as free amateur web serials hosted on a single Japanese user-generated-novel website — effectively the AO3 of the isekai boom — before being picked up by light-novel publishers. Name the platform.

✓ Correct! Shōsetsuka ni Narō (literally “Let’s Become a Novelist”), commonly abbreviated to “Narou.” Launched in 2004, by the early 2010s it had become the dominant funnel for amateur isekai web novels — with publishers like Kadokawa and Shueisha trawling its leaderboards for hits to acquire. So many isekai LNs originated there that “Narou-kei” (Narou-style) became a publishing-industry shorthand for the genre’s tropes (overpowered protagonist, cheat skill, harem dynamics, RPG status screens).

✗ Wrong. The answer is Shōsetsuka ni Narō (Narou). Comico is a Korean-style webtoons platform. Pixiv Novels is a sister site to the Pixiv illustration platform but isn’t the dominant isekai pipeline. Niconico Books doesn’t exist as a major publishing platform. Narou is where the modern isekai boom was incubated.

Status Window · Final Tally Your Isekai Standing

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Demon Lord-tier — or just a Truck-kun victim?

The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World began airing this July and is currently available to stream on HIDIVE. Fans of the genre will want to check out why its creators believe the series is exactly what audiences are looking for.