Isekai isn't a complicated subject when you relate it to the Otaku's Journey where a regular individual suddenly becomes awesome because they are not a NEET anymore but a super powerful chick magnet...

However, there's more to this trope than what meets the eye. You all must know by now what this trope-becoming-a-genre means by now, right? It's basically being sent into Another World.

However, though it's recently become popular, Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz did it before being Isekai'd by Truck-kun became a meme. The amount of Anime references on this is amazing!

...Amazing, but also limiting in a way. The true potential of Isekai can't even be reached by those who awkwardly try their hand at writing, their eyes become tainted by the tropes already established.

So instead of introducing you to all those meaningless tropes that only work if you're writing a very specific Power Fantasy, let us talk about the bare bones basics to get this trope to work.

Firstly, you need to transport someone to the Other World somehow (magic is the most generic but not mandatory. You can even make it a 'portal' from science fiction as well). 

Secondly, you need a world to transport them to. 

Thirdly, an overarching plot in the story.

And lastly, your character needs a drive (it can range from surviving to being the best at being a trap).

Anything other than these four points are just established tropes people keep reusing like the oddly familiar RPG-esque Medieval Fantasy World to the fact it always has to be about fantasy elements.

"Isekai's are great because the reader understands the very vast world as much as the main character."

My only question to those senseless writers who take this benefit at face value is: So what?

I've said in my Shounen Formula analysis that overarching plots must be mixed with motives.

For example: What does the character want? And what does the world they travelled to want?

Maybe the world wants to be saved in your typical Demon King Vs Hero plots. However, what is the point of your character being Isekai'd into that if his existence of being an Earthling means nothing?

In Knight and Magic, they added a robot otaku and engineer even though his past was irrelevant...

Do people not even care about 'mystique' anymore?

Even Isekai Smartphone was a better Isekai than the uninspired Fantasies churned out these days...!

Jobless Reincarnation (Mushoku Tensei) isn't getting an Anime Adaptation for no reason. The entire point of why that Isekai actually worked wasn't because it showed the character as a baby but because the author already aligned his motives with the plot.

He wanted to become a better and more hardworking person than in his past life, and the world was just the right stage for the main character to do just that! That story also showed clear understanding of redemption arcs and was much more aware that people don't change at the drop of a hat even if they realised their errors. It takes repeatedly going against your nature and understanding empathy to truly change inwardly.

What I'm trying to say ISN'T to create a world that has a plot that perfectly aligns with his goals but have a more broader creative ambition than just shoving any old nobody into a Medieval Fantasy World. No one cares how powerful your character's Holy Sword is compared to others nor do they care about a guy who is cheating the game of life.

What people want is drama and the consequences of being reincarnated when your motives doesn't align with what the world wants. If you shove a normal guy into a Medieval Fantasy World where a Summoned Hero must help humanity... he might not choose to save the world, but might even take the Demons side since to him, all Humans of this other world are just aliens. Not only that but they most likely don't have methods to send him back if he actually had a life on Earth before being summoned.

In other words, if you're going to write seriously then stop thinking of tropes and 'what is now popular'.

Isekai is supposed to be about someone from beyond, an alien like us, transporting to someone else's home world. How they deal with that change is exactly what Isekai is about... not Fantasy!

If you don't have a reason to use this trope, don't as it only worsens what could become a good story if you focus on other areas. Don't simply use it as a tool for giving the MC what amounts to amnesia.

That's all I got. Thank you for reading and be sure to tell me in the comments of more Analysis requests.