#hfkjsjsjsbs finally got around to answering this yes!!!!!!

[jaekaicx]

*slams my hands down on the table excitedly* what are your thoughts. On any topic. Literally anything I wanna hear them

!!!!!!! KFNSKNSJS OKAY!!!! im glad you wanna hear my thoughts fjdhjsjsjsn

(im so sorry for putting this off for so long kfnsksn my mind just kept on blanking every time i tried to answer this. but !!! i have something now so here are the thoughts you asked for !!!!)

so my last reblog got me thinking about the way amphibia is presented as an “isekai with a twist.” but it also got me thinking about the owl house and how its also presented as an isekai with a twist. and i just think its really interesting how the two of them go about it in different ways

one of the main similarities is how there’s a sort of awareness of the fact that an isekai story is taking place, and the isekai-ed characters sort of enabling the story and making it happen out of a sense of wish fulfillment. with marcy, they didnt have much of a choice since they had no clue the music box would actually work, but we all know that if given the choice, marcy would say yes to getting isekai-ed in a heart beat. and in a sense, he actually did.

(disclaimer: i wholeheartedly believe that marcy was NOT at fault for getting the trio sent to amphibia. he helped find and open the box but that is NOT the same as knowingly sending you and your friends to a deadly frog world and nearly getting them killed. im gonna bring this topic up a bit more, so in case anyone sees this and tries to use this to paint marcy in a bad light leave right now)

and then you have luz, a kid whos lived basically her whole life with one foot in both worlds. shes longed for the chance to live in a world of magic, to live out the fantastical tales she grew up reading about. and when she finds herself in the boiling isles, she chooses to stay for her escapist wish fulfillment.

but heres where the two shows branch off. for one, marcy isnt the focus character while luz is the main character of her show. but with amphibia, marcy gets pretty much exactly what he wanted. they end up in the heart of newtopia, the capital of amphibia. they get taken in by the kind king, they’re given a title and rank and responsibilities and quests, and he goes on all sorts of wacky adventures, making a name for himself in newtopia. marcy essentially gets the whole isekai package (except for the chance to experience it all with their best friends)

meanwhile, luz actively chooses to stay in the new magical world, only it doesnt exactly live up to the azura series like luz had hoped. she ends up with a sort of “fixer upper isekai.” the boiling isles isnt all glitz and glamour and sunshine and rainbows. its dangerous and gritty, and while people can fly on brooms and use magic, its flawed and dark and actively rejects a lot of luzs attempts to create it into her isekai fantasies. season 1 is dedicated to hammering the message that, no, the boiling isles is not a place of wonder and excitement, but can be more “realistic” than earth itself

and yet, luz still manages to forge her own story despite it all. she gets her wake up call in season 1, but it doesnt stop her from making connections and finding her place in the boiling isles. she does end up getting her “isekai story,” except it only happens when she isnt actively forcing it to happen. the first time she does try she nearly gets herself killed. instead, its through her big personality and allowing herself to just be her that gets people to open up to her, and luz is able to get her found family and support network. and by the time the actual plot kicks in, when the portal is destroyed and the stakes get real, luz is able to face it because of her strong connections in the boiling isles and what she learned in her time there

..and then theres marcy. now, when i mentioned that the boiling isles was dark and dangerous and gritty, that wasnt to say that amphibia isnt either, because it absolutely is. its just that its easier for marcy to dismiss the dangers of amphibia, while the boiling isles makes you face it all first thing, but its not so bad once you face the brunt of it.

with marcy, he isnt exactly forced to confront a lot of it until it all blows up in their face in true colors. sure, marcy probably has faced danger a countless amount times in their work under king andrias, but thats likely only because he chose to. he could have easily hidden behind the walls of newtopia and no one would have stopped them, but they chose to go into fieldwork and serve with yunan on the warship. and even then, its not dangerous to the same extent as anne being dropped in the middle of the woods after opening the box, or sasha ending up in literal jail right off the bat. no, marcy got lucky, and was able to see amphibia as the wish fulfillment he’d been hoping for

only. it really wasnt in the end. sure, it was all fun and theres a prophecy and possibly even cool anime powers, but it all had a cost. marcy couldnt get away with their escapist tendencies forever. and while marcy arguably had the best introduction to amphibia, they also got the worst of it in the end

all that to say, amphibia and toh are both sort of “modern isekais,” but they both go about it in different, interesting ways. toh is a sort of “twisted” isekai, given how luz isnt just given an isekai story, but instead has to learn to step back from seeing the world as her fantasy before being able to deal with the actual main plot. meanwhile, amphibia deconstructs the whole idea of an isekai in the first place. its explained really well in the post i was talking about earlier, but tldr its an isekai that almost refuses to be one, focusing instead on this regular girl that just wants to get her friends back and go home. its funny, because toh is kind of an isekai with extra steps, while amphibia has the isekai in the background except its not exactly an isekai but its not not an isekai? just with less wish fulfillment and more consequences

but yeah i just thought it was pretty interesting! both toh and amphibia subvert isekai tropes, but toh still has a large focus on plot while amphibias story focuses solely on anne and the shenanigans she gets into. except those shenanigans eventually turned into saving the world