Yeah but this is issue is also why isekai is so damn rampant. As an author it’s a bit of a cheat to have your MC not know anything so obviously they get things told to them instead of doing more subtle world building.
My favorite example of world building is the John Wick movie. First one. Nothing is outright explained. It’s shown and you understand. Those gold coins especially.
NineSwords@ani.social 3 weeks ago
I don’t think this is an isekai problem. While yes, it’s a narrative crutch that makes exposition easier, it’s not used in the way you mentioned. As shown here in this anime it can even be a detractor. I’ve read hundreds of isekai novels that don’t fall into the same narrative traps as seen here. I think in this case it’s just a bad author (or screenwriter) and the exposition would be just as bad without the isekai aspect. The audience needs exposition regardless of the setting.
Where the isekai setting helps as a narrative crutch is explaining things to the reader/viewer in modern earth terms. I.e. “that dragon was as big as a school bus”.
Your John Wick example is a great example of “show;don’t tell” exposition where the writer/director had faith in the intelligence of the audience. We get it even without spelling it out. And if we don’t we’ll look it up online or discuss it with our peers until we get it. I really wish this type of exposition were the general rule, but I feel like it’s being used less and less. It’s this “no viewers left behind” mentality where studios are afraid to confuse even a fraction of the audience.