LogFAQs > #921482066

Zeus posted...

Considering that SAO followed the likes of .hack and countless other popular properties, I find that claim silly.

What countless others? .hack//sign was awesome, but it was far from popular and focused a lot more on the interpersonal relationships and actions of players in an MMO whereas SAO was escapist fantasy. /hack//sign is what MMOs are actually like and SAO is what people wish they were like.

Also .hack//sign's main character was a girl, despite the in game character being a boy.

As for other pre SAO isekai you have stuff like 12 kingdoms (shoujo), escaflowne (shoujo), Fushigi Yuugi (shoujo), Magic Knight Rayearth (shoujo), Kyou kara Maou! (shoujo), Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: Hachiyou Shou (shoujo), inuyasha is a bit of mix but it's a girl being transported to a fantasy world. Hell even wizard of oz and alice in wonderland feature female protagonists transported to a fantasy world.

Now, I said frequently shoujo, we still had stuff like zero no tsukaima, it just wasn't all that common. Isekai clearly started booming with SAO and we got SOOOO many jrpg fantasy world isekai since then.
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