Why would I lie to you?

because genre is best thought of as the coincidence and interrelation of a vague multiplicity of elements (including context, precursors, intended audience), not a simple rule-based definition. e.g. you can't define reggae purely in terms of a certain rhythm or harmonic style while ignoring rastafarianism, smoking weed, the history of echo fx units, etc. boring answer, sorry.

It predates anime, thus it would be more correct to say that isekai is whatever rubric fits ACYiKAC most aptly rather than the other way around.

>>25425080
Time travel isn't isekai, retard

>>25425182
It is a very common isekai plot, actually. Traveling to apparently another world only to find out it was your own but many years in the future or whatever.

>>25425080
it objectively is. who says it isn't?

so is Alice in Wonderland, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Chronicles of Narnia, Barsoom, The Night Land, and whole bunch more

Don Quixote is sort of a native isekai. The madness is just the truck that sent Alonso Quijano to that world.

>>25425182
imagine the looks of pity and disgust you'd get if you went to a Time Traveler Conference and admitted that you were looking for Camelot

>>25425206
Would me having a drug fueled rampage where I fight demons(the homeless) be an isekai then? The cousins does send me to another world

>>25425206
Heeeh.

>>25425209
yes. that's quite literally Alice in Wonderland

>>25425302
No, you confuse the author for Alice.
The mental state of the main character thinking they are somewhere else is NOT isekai.

>>25425418
by this argument The Wizard of Oz isn't isekai when it demonstrably is by every definition

>>25425585
You believe Dorothy was just trippin?

>>25425208
Alright I see your point. For some reason I assumed that people in Mark Twain's day thought Camelot actually happened