Inconspicuously becoming one of anime’s most dominant genres,isekai stories are largely associatedwith light novels, fantasy webtoons, and video games. Many anime fans are unaware that even the home of mainstream battle anime,Shōnen Jump, has its own collection of projects and stories that use the other-worldly formula, that is, isekai.
While their titles rarely followthe typical reincarnation playbook, they do well to bend the rules to fit all the right angles in the best ways. From digital realms and parallel timelines to demonic detectives and dimension-hopping antagonists, Shōnen Jump’s catalog features more adjacent isekai projects than most fans can identify.
8Toriko: Gourmet World Act (2008, Weekly Shōnen Jump)
Torikoalready presents the story of a world where the pursuit of the ultimate meal drives human civilization. However, by the time theGourmet World Actkicks in, the series evolves intosomething closer to classic isekai.
Following the events of the manga’s first act, theGourmet World actcovers the journey of Toriko and his group, the Four Heavenly Kings, as they venture beyond their known human territory into the massive, unknown continent that is the Gourmet World, in search of the legendary Acacia’s full-course menu.
With an ecosystem that does not obey nature’s laws, every step taken in the Gourmet World feels like crossing into a different plane of existence, quite literally. The story’s scale of danger immediately skyrockets with god-tier predators and food-based evolution that totally reimagines the stakes at hand in this flavored series.
7Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days (Shōnen Ace, Kadokawa)
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Daysoffers a rare look into an alternate timeline where Shinji Ikari, Asuka Langley, and Rei Ayanami aren’t pilots in a war-torn world. Instead, they are high school students navigating teenage love, jealousy, and the awkward social dynamics that come with being young.
Based on a brief dream sequence fromThe End of Evangelion, the manga reinvents the characters in a completely different universe, one without Evas, or the apocalyptic battles, and the emotional trauma (mostly). This narrative pivot can be classified as an emotional isekai of some sort, not one of physical transportation, but of existential contrast.
Readers see what these characters could have become had they been born in a gentler world. While the manga keeps the psychological undertones that made theEvangelionseries famous, it also softens the blow by focusing on the characters' interpersonal growth instead of their survival.
6Yu-Gi-Oh! (1998, Weekly Shōnen Jump)
Largely dismissed as a glorified trading card commercial,Yu-Gi-Oh!is actually one of anime’s earliest and most consistent isekai-adjacent franchises ever. At its center, the story follows Yugi Muto, a teenager who shares his body with the spirit of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.
From the moment he unlocks the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi is thrown into a supernatural conflict spanning multiple timelines, different dimensions, and shadow realms.Subsequent anime installments of the franchise, such asGX,5D’s, andArc-V,push the series’s isekai boundaries even further, introducing interdimensional dueling academies, time-travel tournaments, and shadow realms separate from reality.
Particularly, theArc-Vspin-off series creates an interconnected multiverse where dueling styles evolve based on alternate histories. While it may not be your typical reincarnation story,Yu-Gi-Oh!matches the isekai DNA with its shifting worlds, identity duality, and high-stakes otherworldly rules.
5Neuro: Supernatural Detective (2005, Weekly Shōnen Jump)
Neuro: Supernatural Detectivereally flips the isekai formula on its head by making the otherworldly being the protagonist. Neuro Nougami is a hell-born demon who arrives in the human world to consume its greatest mysteries, literally. Teaming up with a high school girl named Yako Katsuragi, Neuro becomes a private detective of sorts.
Using the supernatural means available to him, his only goal is to extract the truth from criminals while satisfying his appetite for mental puzzles. This reverse-isekai blends supernatural intrigue with a grotesque and rather unsettling tone. The human world is viewed through Neuro’s cold, analytical eyes, and every case he tackles feels like a descent into a warped version of reality.
The series combines horror, mystery, and dark humor in ways few other Jump titles have ever dared to explore. Consequently, if you ever wondered what would happen ifL fromDeath Notehad to outsmart a literal demon,Neuro: Supernatural Detectivewill be your answer.
4Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (2001, Weekly Shōnen Jump)
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobois one of those anime that defies genre categorization. At its core, it’s a surreal parody of battle-shonen tropes, complete with wacky martial arts, fourth-wall breaks, and absurd comedy. But in its execution, the series often feels like an isekai where logic has really been thrown out the window and only chaos reigns.
Set in a dystopian world where the bald emperor of the Maruhage Empire has banned all hair, Bo-bobo and his crew travel across the most bizarre of landscapes to defeat his army. With every episode, you feel like you’ve stepped into a new, rule-defying realm with its own comedic logic and visual style.
3Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (2004, Weekly Shōnen Jump)
Katekyo Hitman Reborn!begins as a gag manga about a baby mafia tutor teaching a supposedly no-good teenager, Tsuna, to become the next boss of the Vongola Family. But as the story wears on, the series gradually transforms into a high-octane battle shonen filled with supernatural abilities, time travel, and alternate realities.
The true shift happens in its later arcs, particularly the Future Arc, where Tsuna and his friends are transported ten years into the future. There, they face deadly mafia families, improved weapons, and futuristic versions of themselves. It is this pivot toward time travel and the exploration of parallel timelines that gives the series its isekai-adjacent flavor.
Though the show never ditches its mob/gangster roots, its mix of reality-hopping, power escalation, and fate-altering events scratches the same itch as any multiversal isekai. Plus,Reborn!’s stylish character and world designs make it one of the more visually memorable series of its era.
2Digimon Adventure (1999, V-Jump)
Initially originating inV-Jumprather than Weekly Shōnen Jump,Digimon Adventurehas all the labels of a classic isekai and is quietly one of the earliest iterations of the genre alongside the likes ofYu-Gi-Oh!. The story revolves around a group of children at summer camp who are sucked into a digital world governed by monsters, mysticism, and adventure.
With nothing to rely on but devices called Digivices and strange creatures called Digimons, the children quickly find out that survival is crucial in this new world. What sets the series apart is its emotional maturity. Each of the seven children faces not only battles but personal growth arcs tied to their inner struggles of fear, self-worth, grief, and responsibility.
With its many sequels (Digimon 02,Tamers,Frontier, and the 2020 reboot), each of them introduces new layers to the story’s multiverse and digital rebirth themes. Hence, the series is the ideal binge option for fans of the genre.
1Time Paradox Ghostwriter (2020, Weekly Shōnen Jump)
Hardly your conventional isekai or anime for that matter,Time Paradox Ghostwriterplays with alternate futures and the idea of a character interacting with a parallel timeline, branching out of the typical isekai dilemma. The short series follows Teppei Sasaki, an ambitious but struggling manga artist who, one day, is mysteriously struck by lightning in his apartment.
Following his close call with death, Teppei discovers a microwave-printer hybrid that unexplainably spits out manga issues ofWeekly Shōnen Jumpfrom ten years in the future. Among those issues is a manga calledWhite Knightby Itsuki Aino, a brilliant series that doesn’t yet exist in his timeline.
Believing himself to be hallucinating, Teppei decides to put down this “new idea” of a manga, and eventually gets it published, launching his career. However, the real creator, Itsuki, eventually emerges, and what follows is a tense moral exploration of fate, originality, and artistic integrity. The story’s world-hopping conceit, although temporal, makes it an isekai with an intellectual note.
Shonen Jump
Shonen Jumpis one of Japan’s most successful manga anthology franchises, published by Shueisha. Launched in 1968, it is the source of some of the most beloved and popular anime and manga series, such asOne Piece,Dragon Ball, andNaruto. The franchise has extended into multiple adaptations across various media, including anime, films, video games, and merchandise.
