We Are Happy Here

This article examines aesthetic appeals in slice-of-life isekai stories. It first discusses the gamic world-building in the genre, addressing how this transmedia element literalizes the neoliberal gamification of life and reveals the genre’s attachment to neoliberal aspirations. The discussion then elaborates on the notion of ordinariness celebrated in the three slice-of-life/isekai texts as a means to counter neoliberal ideology. However, a close examination of these texts demonstrates that traces of attachment to neoliberalism remain, despite their emphasis on the joy that ordinary life can yield.