The Best Isekai on Crunchyroll Is A Dark Fantasy Gem More Fans Need To Watch

Summary Drifters is a dark fantasy anime that turns isekai norms upside down with a violent approach to the genre.

Unique for bringing historical figures into a battle of good versus evil, this series is not a power fantasy.

Drifters demonstrates the true horrors of war and the impact historical figures can have in a grim new world.

Drifters is an anime that turns the tables on the norms of isekai, and one of the best hidden gems currently available on Crunchyroll. The series was created by Kouta Hirano, best known for the Hellsing franchise, and it was originally published as a manga in 2010, gaining an anime adaptation in 2016. Drifters is a dark fantasy to its core, as it distances itself from the normal tropes that fans see in isekai with a much more of a violent approach to the genre.

Every anime fan is looking for a new hidden gem to pique their interest and find a new series to binge on. Isekai has become a trendy genre in the anime universe with many different examples. Most isekai starts similarly, with the protagonist meeting some unfortunate end and waking up in a new world where they instantly spring themselves into a heroic role in this new world they find themselves in.

This has become the norm in the genre, making it so well-known that anime fans have turned it into a parody. However, Drifters takes the genre in a completely different direction.

What Makes Drifters So Unique

The Violent Approach Is Apparent From the First Episode

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The story first starts with the Battle of Sekigahara, as the main protagonist, Shimazu Toyohisa, is shown fighting against the Eastern Army led by Naomasa. Toyohisa makes his last stand by charging forward and, after being pierced by multiple spears, he pulls out his gun and shoots Naomasa off his horse. The Eastern army retreats and Toyohisa, with heavy injuries, starts heading back to Satsuma but is sucked into a large corridor with many doors.

Toyohisa wakes up in another world and learns that he is now something called a Drifter, persons pulled out from different historical periods on Earth and transported to a mysterious new world. He soon meets Oda Nobunaga, a famous warlord who conquered most of Japan in the Sengoku Era, and Nasu no Yoichi, a famous general of the Genpei War. They soon find themselves entangled in a war against an army of monsters led by a mysterious individual known as the Black King.

Drifters Diverts From the Power Fantasy

The Narrative is Written Much Differently Than Most Isekai

What's unique about Drifters is that the series transports various historical figures into this new world to replicate the long fight between good versus evil. This series is a great blend for fans of anime and history alike. Drifters is not a power fantasy and has been written to show the true horrors of war. Unlike most isekai, the new world that these characters are plunged into isn't happy but just as gruesome as the one they left behind.

It shows the harsh realities of what war is like and the tactics used by the heroes in their previous lives become a fundamental asset in this new reality as well. The protagonists of Drifters are just as bloodthirsty as the villains because that's what they have experienced in their lives. Each protagonist lived through some of the darkest periods of human history and left an impact on the new world (this includes Hitler, who is also a Drifter, building a new Reich).

Drifters is essentially a strategy game that pits two sides against each other. There are heroic Drifters like Toyohisa who was put into the world by a mysterious man he met in the corridor. This man is known as Murasaki and his opponent in this game is known as EASY. All the Drifters in this game are historical figures who are being used as pawns for a game of godlike beings. Unfortunately, the manga has been marred by long hiatuses and a slow release schedule, which ultimately hurt its popularity.

While there is only one season of Drifters, and it's hard to tell if more will come in the future, for fans of isekai, this can be a new look into what the genre is often missing. Drifters is an isekai that demonstrates what happens to a group of belligerent individuals when they are forced into a world that relies on war and what impact that can ultimately impose on them.