About

How this list is compiled

IsekaiCentral is a single catalogue of every isekai anime released in Japan from 1976 to 2026: 382 titles, each with its Japanese premiere date, format and, where it matters, an editorial note. This page explains what counts, where the data comes from, and what changed in each revision.

What counts as isekai here

A title is included when its protagonist is transported, summoned or reincarnated into another world (including game worlds, otome-game worlds, and VRMMOs that become real), or when the reverse happens and a character from another world arrives in ours (reverse isekai). Reincarnation within the same world does not count.

Editorial rules for borderline titles

  • Sword Art Online and Log Horizon are listed with the note "VRMMO" (MyAnimeList tags them Video Game rather than Isekai). Voluntary VRMMOs with a working logout (BOFURI, Infinite Dendrogram, Full Dive, Shangri-La Frontier) are treated as borderline or excluded.
  • Digimon entries are listed only where MyAnimeList carries the Isekai tag (Adventure, 02, Tamers, Frontier, Xros Wars, Adventure: 2020); the films, Savers, Appmon and Ghost Game are borderline.
  • Inuyasha and Yashahime are listed with the note "MyAnimeList tags Time Travel"; Fate/Grand Order Babylonia and Solomon are borderline.
  • Iruma-kun, Kakuriyo and Utawarerumono are borderline, for consistency with the 2025 and 2026 entries.
  • Reverse isekai that MyAnimeList does not tag (The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Re:Creators, Jahy-sama, Cop Craft, Dead Mount Death Play, Edomae Elf) is listed with a note; thinner cases (Jashin-chan, Dragon Maid, Gabriel DropOut, Zatch Bell) are borderline.
  • Adaptations of Western literature (Oz, Alice), adult titles, Chinese donghua and Korean productions are excluded from the main table even when tagged Isekai elsewhere.
  • Pure recap films and cinema "manner" shorts get no row of their own; OVAs, specials and ONAs with a story of their own do.

In the catalogue, 22 titles carry the Reverse isekai note, 18 the VRMMO note and 39 the Borderline note. 18 titles were added in revision 3.

Sources

For 1976–2023 the backbone is the MyAnimeList Isekai genre listing sorted by release date, checked title by title for premiere date and tags, plus the Wikipedia "year in anime" articles, Anime News Network's encyclopedia, LiveChart and histories of the genre for the pre-2012 era. For 2024–2026 the same chain runs Wikipedia, then the MyAnimeList and LiveChart tags, then seasonal preview coverage. Dates are Japanese premiere dates.

Artwork, synopses, episode counts, studios and scores are retrieved from the AniList public API and stored locally; rights to the artwork belong to the studios and production committees. Scores shown are AniList community averages, not IsekaiCentral ratings.

Revision history

  • Revision 3 (): extended backwards to 1976 (Paul's Miraculous Adventure), one table per year, consistency rules above applied across every period. The 2024–2026 section of revision 2 kept as is.
  • Revision 2: the 2024–2026 section cross-checked against Wikipedia, MyAnimeList, LiveChart and seasonal previews; newly found titles marked "Added in rev. 3" in the catalogue.
  • Revision 1: the initial 2024–2026 season list.

The eras

  • Pioneers, 1976–1993: Sporadic, zero to four titles a year, mostly mecha-fantasy for children (Dunbine, Wataru, Lamune & 40) and OVAs. Years with no new isekai are listed as such. Browse 1976–1993
  • Classics, 1994–2002: The shoujo and seinen classic wave: Rayearth, Fushigi Yuugi, El-Hazard, Escaflowne, Digimon, The Twelve Kingdoms, Spirited Away. Browse 1994–2002
  • Otome & summons, 2003–2011: Otome-game adaptations (Harukanaru, Kyo Kara Maoh!), The Familiar of Zero, Dog Days. Two to six titles a year. Browse 2003–2011
  • The name arrives, 2012–2015: Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, No Game No Life, Overlord, GATE. The word "isekai" starts being used as a genre name. Browse 2012–2015
  • Web novel wave, 2016–2019: KonoSuba, Re:Zero, Tanya, Slime, Shield Hero. From 2019 on, twenty to forty-five entries a year. Browse 2016–2019
  • 2020 to 2023, 2020–2023: Reincarnation, villainess and slow-life variants multiply; reverse isekai returns. Browse 2020–2023
  • 2024 to 2026, 2024–2026: The current wave, with the October 2026 season still ahead. Entries marked "Added in rev. 3" surfaced in the latest cross-check. Browse 2024–2026

About the site

IsekaiCentral is an independent, non-commercial catalogue. It does not stream anything and sells nothing; "My List" is saved in your own browser only. Corrections are welcome: if a date, format or classification is wrong, the fix goes into the next revision.