Tenshi.moe

Artificial heavens

A schoolgirl falls down the well of her family shrine and climbs out in feudal Japan. An office worker is stabbed by a robber and wakes in a cave as a small blue slime. A gamer logs into a new virtual world and finds that the only way out is to clear its hundred floors. Japanese animation has told stories like these for almost forty years, and in the 2010s they became a genre of their own, with a name that every fan now knows: isekai, the other world. Tenshi.moe, whose name joins the Japanese word for angel to the old fan word for a strong love of a character, gathers 156 anime series of other worlds and sorts them on twelve shelves, in three families.

Every series of the guide has an English synopsis, its seasons and episodes, its cast of voice actors and a Watch now button that opens it on JustWatch, where you can see the services that offer it in your country. The oldest series is Mashin Hero Wataru, of 1988, a boy who climbs a mountain of seven worlds with a dragon robot, and the newest began in 2026; together the 156 series carry about 33,900 votes on TMDB, with an average rating of 7.46. The most voted is Sword Art Online, of 2012, with about 2,200 votes, and the best rated are InuYasha, of 2000, and Digimon Tamers, of 2001, with an 8.6 each. The guide Start with Tenshi.moe picks one series from each shelf, and the guide What is isekai tells the history of the genre.

The first family, Through the door, holds the heroes who cross into another world alive: the classic portals of the 1980s and 1990s, the heroes summoned by a king or a goddess, the dark worlds where the crossing is a curse, and, the other way round, the visitors from other worlds who arrive in ours. The second, Born again, holds the heroes who die and are reborn: as warriors and mages, as creatures and objects, as the villainesses of romance games and as the lords of kingdoms. The third, Play and rest, holds the worlds of games and screens, from Sword Art Online to Digimon, the comedies of other worlds and the slow life of farms, kitchens and shops.

The name and the look

The Wayback Machine keeps tenshi.moe from 2016 to 2023. In 2018 the address carried a small anime site called AHO Streaming, with weekly, monthly and annual top lists, and from 2020 it carried tenshi.moe itself, with the motto Artificial Heaven and a dark page in the style of the chat applications of the time. The home page of January 2022 opens on a fixed slate bar with a menu button, the name in white, which becomes 天使 on a phone, and a search bar in the middle; below come Top Picks, with tabs for the day, the week, the month, the year and all time, each marked with its kanji, 日, 週, 月, 年 and 全, then Latest Anime and Latest Episodes. Its lists are full of other worlds, under their Japanese names, from Mushoku Tensei and the Shield Hero to Arifureta, Seirei Gensouki and the realist hero who rebuilds a kingdom, and this guide takes that thread and follows it across the whole genre.

The look follows the stylesheet of December 2020. The page is a dark grey blue, the bar, the panels and the lists are a lighter slate with fine borders, the text is a soft grey and the titles are almost white. The main colour is the blue violet of the buttons of the old site, with its pink for ratings and its green for bookmarks, and the posters sit in rows with a coloured top edge, the year and the rating in round translucent pills in the corners, and the tag of the shelf on a dark band at the bottom. The board of the home page, called Other worlds 異世界, replaces Top Picks: three columns of slate tiles, one per family, each topped by its colour, blue violet for Through the door, pink for Born again and green for Play and rest. The guide The look of Tenshi.moe explains each colour.

How the worlds work

Every series of the guide is a Japanese animated series, chosen by hand from TMDB among the series that it tags with isekai, reincarnation, parallel worlds, virtual reality or a summoning, and then checked one by one: a series stays when its hero crosses from one world to another, is reborn into a new life, is trapped in a game or a digital world, or meets a visitor from another world in ours. Each series sits on a single shelf, chosen by its main idea, and each shelf keeps its thirteen most voted series, listed by votes, so that the best known come first. Films are left out, as are the many short spin-offs, with two exceptions that have their own full seasons, The Slime Diaries and the Megumin series of KonoSuba.

The synopses are in English, from TMDB, and the titles are the English titles that TMDB uses, which are often the titles of the official streaming releases: InuYasha keeps its name, but Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken becomes That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, and Hataraku Maou-sama becomes The Devil Is a Part-Timer. The ratings and votes are those of TMDB in October 2026, and a series counts as still returning when TMDB says so. The guide How the worlds work sums up the rules.

What is isekai

Isekai means another world, or a different world, and the stories it names are as old as fairy tales: Alice falls down the rabbit hole, Dorothy is carried to Oz by a cyclone, the children of the Narnia books step through a wardrobe. Japanese animation took up the idea in the 1980s, in the adventures of children carried to fantasy worlds with a robot or a magic sword, and in the 1990s it gave it to schoolgirls: the three heroines of Magic Knight Rayearth are summoned from a school trip to Tokyo Tower, the heroine of Fushigi Yugi is drawn into an old book, and the heroine of The Vision of Escaflowne is carried to a world where the Earth hangs in the sky beside the Moon.

The modern isekai was born on the internet. In the 2000s and 2010s, thousands of amateur writers began to publish novels in chapters on Japanese websites, above all Shōsetsuka ni Narō, whose name means Let's become a novelist, and the most read of them were stories of other worlds. Publishers bought the best, printed them as light novels with illustrated covers and sold the rights to animation studios, and from the success of Sword Art Online in 2012 and of Re:ZERO, KonoSuba and Overlord a few years later, each season of Japanese television began to carry several new isekai at once. The heroes of these stories are often adults in a dead-end job, and the most famous way to reach the other world became a joke among fans: the hero is hit by a truck, and wakes up in a new life. The guide What is isekai tells the story, and the guide The light novel wave follows the books behind the series.

Through the door

The first family, Through the door, gathers 52 series in which the hero crosses into another world alive, with about 13,400 votes and an average of 7.41. It holds the oldest series of the guide and the classics of the genre, from InuYasha to Re:ZERO, and it ends with the stories that turn the door around and bring the other world into ours. The guide Through the door sums up the family.

Classic portals

The shelf Classic portals holds thirteen series from 1988 to 2011, the isekai of the age before the light novel wave, and it is one of the best rated shelves of the guide, with an average of 7.58. Its most voted and best rated series is InuYasha, of 2000, from the manga of Rumiko Takahashi, made by the studio Sunrise: Kagome, a schoolgirl of Tokyo, falls down the well of her family's shrine into the age of warring states of the 16th century, frees the half-demon Inuyasha from a spell and travels with him to gather the shards of a sacred jewel, over 193 episodes with its final act, rated 8.6 with about 2,100 votes.

The schoolgirls of the 1990s follow her. Magic Knight Rayearth, of 1994, by the artists of CLAMP, sends three girls of three different schools to the world of Cephiro, rated 8.4; The Vision of Escaflowne, of 1996, created by Shoji Kawamori, with the music of Yoko Kanno, carries the high-school runner Hitomi to the world of Gaea, among dragons and giant armours, rated 8.1; Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play, of 1995, from the manga of Yuu Watase, draws Miaka into a book of ancient China, where she becomes the priestess of a god, and The Twelve Kingdoms, of 2002, from the novels of Fuyumi Ono, takes the quiet student Yoko Nakajima to a world of twelve kingdoms ruled by the will of heaven, rated 7.9.

The rest of the shelf shows how wide the genre already was. The Familiar of Zero, of 2006, the second most voted series of the shelf, rated 8.4, is a comedy of magic school in which the clumsy mage Louise summons a Japanese boy, Saito, as her familiar; Now and Then, Here and There, of 1999, is its dark opposite, a boy taken to a dying world where children are made soldiers. The oldest series of the shelf are boys' adventures: Mashin Hero Wataru, of 1988, with 142 episodes, and Shurato, of 1989, a teenager carried to a heavenly realm drawn from Hindu myth, rated 7.8. Dog Days, of 2011, summons a boy to a world of animal-eared people where wars are fought like sports, and the two series of the 2000s that complete the shelf, Kyo Kara Maoh!, of 2004, a boy flushed through a toilet into a kingdom of demons that crowns him its king, and Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar, of 2009, prove that the comedy of the door is old too, with El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, of 1995, the lowest rated series of the shelf, at 5.8.

Summoned heroes

The shelf Summoned heroes holds thirteen series from 2017 to 2024, and in most of them the hero is called to another world by someone else, a king, a goddess, a mage or a magic circle under a classroom; eight of the thirteen began on AT-X, the pay channel of anime. Its most voted and best rated series is The Rising of the Shield Hero, of 2019, made by Kinema Citrus: Naofumi Iwatani is summoned as one of four legendary heroes, but his weapon is a shield, and when he is betrayed and accused of a crime he builds a new life with a young raccoon girl, Raphtalia, bought from a slave trader, who grows into his sword, over four seasons and 62 episodes, rated 8.5 with about 1,600 votes.

Two more series of the shelf reach 8.4. Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest, of 2019, follows Hajime Nagumo, the weakest student of a class summoned to another world, who falls into the depths of a labyrinth and climbs out with a gun and a monster's strength, and TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy-, of 2021, made by the studio C2C, follows Makoto Misumi, whom a goddess finds too plain to be a hero and throws to the edge of the world, where he gathers dragons and spirits around him, a series still returning. Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, of 2018, sends a tired programmer into a world that looks like the games he writes, and In Another World with My Smartphone, of 2017, sends a young man killed by a mistake of god with his phone, which still works in the new world.

The rest of the shelf shows the many jobs a summoned hero can get. The Saint's Magic Power Is Omnipotent, of 2021, rated 7.8, follows Sei, an office worker summoned as a saint and then forgotten, who finds her calling in the herb gardens of a research institute; The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, of 2024, rated 7.9, the newest series of the shelf, follows Usato, summoned by accident with two classmates and trained as a healer in a squad of rescuers; The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made, of 2021, gives its bullied hero a fruit that transforms him; Handyman Saitou in Another World, of 2023, makes a handyman the key member of a party of adventurers; Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World, of 2022, became known for its adult scenes; Summoned to Another World for a Second Time, of 2023, brings a hero back to a world he saved once, and I'm Standing on a Million Lives, of 2020, and High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, of 2019, the lowest rated series of the shelf, at 6.0, close it.

Dark other worlds

The shelf Dark other worlds holds thirteen series from 2014 to 2024 in which the other world is a place of death, war and revenge rather than a dream. Its most voted series is Redo of Healer, of 2021, a revenge story of a healer abused by the heroes he served, who turns back time to punish them, known for its graphic violence and sexual scenes, rated 8.3 with about 1,060 votes. Its most famous is Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, of 2016, made by White Fox: Subaru Natsuki is pulled from a convenience store into a fantasy kingdom, and discovers that each time he dies he returns to an earlier moment, so that he must live through every disaster again and again until he finds the way to save the half-elf Emilia, over 85 episodes, rated 8.1.

The afterworld has a shelf of its own here. Death Parade, of 2015, made by Madhouse, takes place in Quindecim, a bar at the edge of the next world, where the dead arrive in pairs and play a game, a round of darts or a bowling match, while the bartender Decim judges their souls, rated 8.0. Wars between worlds fill the rest of the shelf: Gate, of 2015, by A-1 Pictures, opens a gate in the Ginza district of Tokyo, and the Japan Self-Defense Forces cross it into a world of knights and dragons; Drifters, of 2016, carries the samurai Shimazu Toyohisa from the battle of Sekigahara of 1600 into a world where the great warriors of history fight each other, and Blood Blockade Battlefront, of 2015, by Bones, turns New York into Hellsalem's Lot, a city fused with the world beyond.

The heroes of the other dark worlds suffer in other ways. Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, of 2016, wakes a group of young people in a strange world with their memories erased, and makes them fight goblins to buy their bread; Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low-Level Spells, of 2024, is the story of a boy summoned with his class and thrown into a deadly ruin by the goddess who finds him useless; The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, of 2024, rated 7.7, the best rated of the three series of 2024 on the shelf, follows an adventurer devoured by a dragon who comes back as a skeleton; a series of 2019 adapted from a visual novel of 1996 sends its hero through parallel worlds with a device that saves his steps, and Kokkoku: Moment by Moment, of 2018, traps a family in a world where time has stopped. Suicide Squad Isekai, of 2024, made in Japan for Warner Bros., throws Harley Quinn and the villains of DC Comics through a portal, and Alice in Borderland, of 2014, a short series of three episodes from the manga of Haro Aso, is the first animated version of the story that later became a live-action series.

Visitors to our world

The shelf Visitors to our world holds thirteen series from 2003 to 2025 that turn the door around: here the dragons, demons, elves and gods come to Japan, and must learn to take a train, cook rice or work a till. Its most voted and best rated series is Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, of 2017, made by Kyoto Animation, in which Kobayashi, a programmer of Tokyo, wakes one morning to find a dragon called Tohru at her door, in the form of a maid, rated 8.3 with about 890 votes. The demon lord of The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, of 2013, flees his own world and ends up flipping burgers in a fast-food restaurant of Tokyo, and the angeloid Ikaros of Heaven's Lost Property, of 2009, falls from the sky into the life of an ordinary boy, the angel of the guide, rated 7.5.

The doors of the shelf open both ways. I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too, of 2023, rated 8.2, gives a bullied boy a door to another world in the house of his late grandfather, from which he returns strong and handsome to his own school; Sasaki and Peeps, of 2024, gives a tired office worker a sparrow that is a sage from another world, and the two of them travel between the worlds to trade; Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!, of 2025, brings an elf from the dreams of a young man into his flat. Sonic X, of 2003, made by TMS Entertainment, carries Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends from their own planet to Earth, where a boy called Chris takes them in, over 78 episodes, the longest series of the shelf.

The rest of the shelf mixes action, comedy and the strange. Re:Creators, of 2017, brings the heroes and villains of anime, novels and games into the Tokyo of their creators, with the music of Hiroyuki Sawano; Dead Mount Death Play, of 2023, wakes a feared necromancer of another world in the body of a boy of Shinjuku; Cop Craft, of 2019, pairs a detective of a city built beside a gate to another world with a knight from beyond it; A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics, of 2024, lodges a princess and her knight with a struggling detective; and two comedies of 2024 and 2025, Plus-Sized Elf, an elf with a big appetite who visits a massage therapist, and Yandere Dark Elf: She Chased Me All the Way from Another World!, a dark elf who follows a hero home, complete it.

Born again

The second family, Born again, gathers 52 series in which the hero dies, or seems to die, and opens his or her eyes in a new life, with the memories of the old one intact. It carries about 8,900 votes, with an average of 7.49, the best of the three families, and its four shelves follow the four kinds of new life that the genre likes best: the warrior or mage reborn with a second chance, the hero reborn as a creature or an object, the young woman reborn as the villainess of a romance game, and the lord reborn to rule. The guide Born again sums up the family.

Reborn heroes

The shelf Reborn heroes holds thirteen series from 2019 to 2025, and it is the best rated shelf of the guide, with an average of 7.73 and seven series rated 8 or more. Its most voted series is Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, of 2021, made by Studio Bind from the web novel that many fans call the grandfather of the modern isekai: a man of 34 who has wasted his life is killed by a truck while saving a stranger, and is reborn as Rudeus Greyrat, a baby with the mind of an adult who decides to live his second life to the full, over three seasons and 61 episodes, rated 8.4 with about 1,790 votes, a series still returning.

Two great demon lords are reborn on this shelf. The Misfit of Demon King Academy, of 2020, rated 8.4, wakes Anos Voldigoad two thousand years after his death, in a school of demons that judges him a failure, and a second series of 2022 gives another demon lord the life of an ordinary student. The masters of other trades are reborn too: The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, of 2021, rated 8.1, gives a killer of our world a new life as the heir of a noble family of assassins; The Eminence in Shadow, of 2022, rated 8.1, follows Cid Kagenou, who dreamed of being the hidden mastermind of a story and builds a secret army to play the part, only to find that the enemies he invents are real; and Wise Man's Grandchild, of 2019, rated 8.0, follows Shin, raised in the forest by the greatest of all mages.

The third best rated series of the shelf is Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, of 2021, rated 8.2, in which the orphan Rio remembers his past life as a Japanese student. Ascendance of a Bookworm, of 2019, rated 8.1, is the gentlest series of the shelf: a young woman who loved books more than anything is reborn as Myne, a sickly girl in a world where books are a luxury for priests and nobles, and decides to make them herself. I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability, of 2024, gives a great sorcerer the body of a seventh son of a king; The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?, of 2020, gives an office worker the life of the eighth son of a poor noble; The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, of 2022, reborn on purpose to escape the limits of his mark; The Faraway Paladin, of 2021, raised by a skeleton, a mummy and a ghost in a city of the dead, and The Beginning After the End, of 2025, from a web novel first published in English, close it.

Reborn as something else

The shelf Reborn as something else holds thirteen series from 2018 to 2026, and on it the hero is reborn as anything but a human: a slime, a spider, a sword, a goblin, a dragon, a pig and even a vending machine. Its most voted and best rated series is That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, of 2018, made by the studio 8bit: Satoru Mikami, an office worker of 37, is stabbed by a robber in the street and reborn as a slime in a cave, where he befriends a sealed dragon, takes the name Rimuru Tempest and slowly builds a nation of monsters, over four seasons and 96 episodes, rated 8.4 with about 1,000 votes, a series still returning. Its spin-off The Slime Diaries, of 2021, rated 7.9, shows the quiet days of the same town.

The second most voted series of the shelf is a very different story. To Your Eternity, of 2021, made by Brain's Base for NHK from the manga of Yoshitoki Ōima, follows an immortal orb sent to the Earth, which takes the form of a stone, then a wolf, then a boy, and learns what it means to live through the people it meets and loses, rated 8.2. So I'm a Spider, So What?, of 2021, rated 7.8, makes a high-school girl a small spider at the bottom of a great labyrinth, where she must eat monsters to grow; Re:Monster, of 2024, rated 8.0, makes a young man a goblin who grows stronger with every creature he eats, and Reincarnated as a Sword, of 2022, makes a man a talking sword, picked up by a young cat-girl, Fran, who becomes his partner.

The strangest rebirths close the shelf. Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon, of 2023, makes its hero a machine that sells drinks and food to the adventurers of a dungeon, and Butareba -The Story of a Man Turned Into a Pig-, of 2023, makes him a pig, the lowest rated series of the guide, at 5.0; My Ribdiculous Reincarnation, of 2026, sends its hero through a chain of absurd forms, from a hermit crab to a vegetable. Good Bye, Dragon Life, of 2024, rated 7.5, turns the old idea around, with a dragon reborn as a human; Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling, of 2026, hatches its hero from a dragon's egg, and two series change the sex of their hero, Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout, of 2022, and Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire, of 2023, in which an old hero-king is reborn as the daughter of two knights.

Villainesses and otome games

The shelf Villainesses and otome games holds thirteen series from 2020 to 2025, and it belongs to one of the great inventions of the web novels of the 2010s: the young woman who wakes up as the villainess of an otome game, a romance game for girls, and knows that every route of the story ends with her exile or her death. The shelf is young, all its series began in the 2020s, and its average of 7.46 is exactly the average of the guide. Its most voted series opened the fashion on television: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, of 2020, made by Silver Link, in which Katarina Claes hits her head at the age of eight, remembers her past life and sets out to escape her fate by befriending everyone the game made her enemy, rated 7.5 with about 110 votes.

The best rated series of the shelf is The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior, of 2023, rated 8.0, in which the girl reborn as the cruellest queen of a game decides to protect the people she was meant to torment. Some heroines of the shelf use their knowledge of the game to change it, as in I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History, of 2024, rated 7.6, whose heroine wants to be the most perfect villainess of all; others fall in love with the very villainess they were meant to defeat, as the office worker reborn as the heroine of I'm in Love with the Villainess, of 2023, or the princess of The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, of 2023, who takes in the noblewoman cast aside by her brother. Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games Is Tough for Mobs, of 2022, gives the same world to a young man, a mere background character who decides to fight the system.

Two series of the shelf come from Korean web novels, a sign of how far the genre has travelled: Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion, of 2023, rated 7.6, a woman reborn in a novel as a girl doomed to be murdered, who proposes a false engagement to a duke to save herself, and Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp, of 2024, a surgeon reborn as an empress who lived a cruel life and was executed, and who now chooses to heal. I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss, of 2022; Tearmoon Empire, of 2023, a princess executed by guillotine who returns to her childhood with her diary; Sweet Reincarnation, of 2023, a pastry chef reborn as the son of a poor noble family; From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!, of 2025, a Japanese civil servant and father reborn as the villainess of the game his daughter loved, and The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, of 2025, whose heroine is reborn inside the fantasy she wrote in her diary as a teenager, complete it. The guide The villainess boom follows the fashion.

Lords and kingdoms

The shelf Lords and kingdoms holds thirteen series from 2017 to 2026 in which the hero, summoned or reborn, ends up ruling a land, leading an army or keeping the accounts of a kingdom. Its most voted and best rated series is Saga of Tanya the Evil, of 2017, made by the studio NUT: a ruthless salaryman of Tokyo, killed by an angry employee he fired, defies the being who calls himself god and is reborn as Tanya Degurechaff, a little girl in an empire at war in a world like the Europe of the First World War, where she becomes the most feared mage of the army, rated 8.2 with about 470 votes, a series still returning.

The rulers of the shelf rebuild their lands with reason rather than swords. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, of 2021, made by J.C.Staff, follows Kazuya Souma, a student summoned as a hero who presents the king with a plan of economic reform, and is given the throne to carry it out, over 26 episodes; The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt, of 2022, rated 7.8, follows a prince who wants to sell his poor country and retire, and who wins every war by accident; Isekai Office Worker: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, of 2026, rated 7.9, follows an accountant summoned by mistake with a saint, who puts the finances of the palace in order. Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord, of 2026, rated 7.7, gives a boy sent to rule a poor village a magic of building that turns it into a fortress.

The other lords of the shelf come from every corner of the genre. Knight's & Magic, of 2017, follows a programmer and lover of robots reborn as Ernesti, a boy who designs giant armoured knights; As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World, of 2024, gives a noble boy the gift of seeing the talents of others and gathering them; The Aristocrat's Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far, of 2023, a boy blessed so many times by the gods that his powers are a danger; Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra: World Conquest Starts with the Civilization of Ruin, of 2025, a player reborn as the king of the dark nation of his favourite strategy game; I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!, of 2025, a man reborn as the young lord of a planet who wants to be a tyrant and keeps doing good by mistake. Noble Reincarnation: Born Blessed, So I'll Obtain Ultimate Power, of 2026; I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic, of 2025, and Everything for Demon King Evelogia, of 2021, a short series of nine episodes, close it.

Play and rest

The third family, Play and rest, gathers 52 series of other worlds made for fun: the worlds of games and screens, the comedies that laugh at the rules of the genre and the slow life of those who would rather cook and farm than fight. It carries about 11,600 votes, with an average of 7.47, and it holds the most voted series of the guide. The guide Play and rest sums up the family.

Trapped in the game

The shelf Trapped in the game holds thirteen series from 2012 to 2026 in which the other world is a game, or a world that works like one, with levels, skills and menus. Its most voted series is the most voted of the guide: Sword Art Online, of 2012, made by A-1 Pictures from the light novels of Reki Kawahara, in which ten thousand players are locked inside a new virtual reality game, where a death in the game is a death in life, and the young swordsman Kirito fights his way up the hundred floors of the castle of Aincrad, over four seasons and 96 episodes, rated 8.1 with about 2,200 votes. Kawahara also wrote Accel World, of 2012, made by Sunrise, in which a bullied boy discovers a program that speeds up thought itself.

Among the series of the shelf with more than a hundred votes, the best rated is Overlord, of 2015, made by Madhouse, rated 8.4 with about 1,140 votes: on the last night of a game called Yggdrasil, its most loyal player stays logged in as his character, the skeleton sorcerer Momonga, and wakes to find that the game has become a real world, where he rules a tomb of loyal monsters under the name Ainz Ooal Gown. Log Horizon, of 2013, made by Satelight for the educational channel of NHK, traps thirty thousand Japanese players inside the game Elder Tale and follows the strategist Shiroe as he builds a government for them, and Shangri-La Frontier, of 2023, made by C2C, follows a player who loves broken and badly made games as he takes on a great one, rated 8.1, a series still returning.

The rest of the shelf follows the players who wake inside the avatars they built. In Demon Lord, Retry!, of 2019, the manager of a game becomes its demon lord; in Skeleton Knight in Another World, of 2022, a player wakes in the armour of his skeleton knight; In the Land of Leadale, of 2022, gives a girl who died in a hospital a new life in the game she played from her bed, two hundred years after her last log-in, and THE NEW GATE, of 2024, wakes the player who freed everyone from a deadly game five hundred years later. She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man, of 2022, turns a player whose avatar was an old sage into a young girl; HELL MODE: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing, of 2026, gives a gamer the hardest setting of a new world, and The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System, of 2026, rated 8.5 with 35 votes, is the newest series of the guide, and My Isekai Life, of 2022, in which a player gains a second class and an army of slimes, closes the shelf.

Digital and dream worlds

The shelf Digital and dream worlds holds thirteen series from 1999 to 2020, and seven of them belong to Digimon, the digital monsters of Toei Animation, which made the computer network a world children could fall into. Digimon: Digital Monsters, of 1999, the most voted series of the shelf, sends seven children from a summer camp to the Digital World, where each meets a monster partner who evolves in battle, over two seasons and 104 episodes with its sequel, rated 8.1 with about 950 votes; Digimon Adventure:, of 2020, retells their story for a new generation. Digimon Tamers, of 2001, written by Chiaki J. Konaka, is the darkest of the series and the best rated of the guide, tied with InuYasha, at 8.6: its monsters cross into the real Tokyo, and a boy meets the dinosaur he drew in his notebook.

The other Digimon follow, each with its own idea: Digimon Frontier, of 2002, rated 8.0, in which the children become the monsters themselves; Digimon Data Squad, of 2006, a team of young agents who guard the border between the worlds; Digimon Fusion, of 2010, rated 8.2, in which a boy fuses his monsters into greater forms over 79 episodes, and Digimon Universe: App Monsters, of 2016, whose monsters live in the apps of a phone, rated 8.3 by only sixteen voters. The other digital worlds of the shelf are made for games and virtual reality: .hack, of 2002, made by Bee Train, whose silent hero wakes inside a game called The World and finds he is unable to log out, and Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, of 2017, the longest series of the shelf, with 120 episodes, whose card duels take place in a virtual city.

The dream worlds close the shelf. Black Rock Shooter, of 2012, a short series of eight episodes from the song and illustrations of the artist huke, mirrors the lives of two schoolgirls with the battles of their other selves in a strange empty world; Dream Eater Merry, of 2011, follows a dream demon lost in the waking world; 11eyes, of 2009, traps a group of students in a red night where monsters walk, and Dramatical Murder, of 2014, from a visual novel, follows a young man drawn into a virtual battle game of a city island. The guide The digital worlds follows the Digimon and the games.

Isekai comedy

The shelf Isekai comedy holds thirteen series from 2013 to 2025 that laugh at the rules of the genre, its goddesses, its cheat skills and its heroes who are far too strong. Its most voted and best rated series is KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world!, of 2016, made by Studio Deen, from the light novels of Natsume Akatsuki: Kazuma Satou dies of shock in the most embarrassing way and, offered any gift for his new life, chooses to take the goddess who mocked him, Aqua, who turns out to be useless, and the two of them form a party with Megumin, a mage who knows a single spell, and Darkness, a knight who loves to be hit, rated 8.5 with about 1,490 votes, a series still returning. Its prequel, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, of 2023, tells the school days of Megumin, and Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, of 2021, by the same author, sends an agent of an evil corporation to conquer a planet.

The second most voted series of the shelf is Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, of 2019, made for the educational channel of NHK, in which a kind boy sold to a demon by his parents is adopted by the demon as his grandson and sent to a school of demons, where he must hide that he is human, over four seasons and 89 episodes, rated 8.3. Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious, of 2019, rated 8.1, pairs a goddess with a hero who buys three sets of armour for every fight and burns every defeated enemy to ash, just in case, and I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, of 2021, rated 7.8, gives an office worker who died of overwork an immortal life as a witch of the forest, where three centuries of killing the weakest monsters make her the strongest being in the world.

The rest of the shelf laughs in many ways. Uncle from Another World, of 2022, rated 7.5, follows a man who wakes in Tokyo after seventeen years in a coma, spent in a fantasy world, and becomes a video star with his magic while he shows his nephew his memories of the girls he failed to understand; Isekai Quartet, of 2019, puts the heroes of KonoSuba, Overlord, Re:ZERO and Saga of Tanya the Evil in the same school as small round dolls; ZENSHU, of 2025, made by MAPPA, rated 7.7, pulls a young animator into the world of the film that made her love anime; KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World, of 2023, makes the son of a priest found a religion in a godless land, and Outbreak Company, of 2013, the oldest series of the shelf, hires a young otaku to bring anime and manga to a fantasy empire. Am I Actually the Strongest?, of 2023, and Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers, of 2024, close it.

Slow life and food

The shelf Slow life and food holds thirteen series from 2017 to 2025 for those who would rather cook, farm, run a shop or raise children than save the world, a branch of the genre that its fans call slow life. Its most voted and best rated series is Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, of 2023, made by MAPPA: Mukoda, a salaryman summoned by accident with a group of heroes, has a single skill, a shop on the internet that delivers the food of Japan, and his cooking wins him the friendship of a legendary wolf, Fel, and a small dragon, rated 8.3 with about 310 votes. The voice of Fel, Satoshi Hino, is also the voice of Momonga in Overlord.

Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-, of 2018, rated 8.3 too, takes Aoi to the spirit world to pay the debts of her grandfather with a marriage to an ogre, and she opens a small restaurant in his inn instead, a series still returning. Restaurant to Another World, of 2017, made by Silver Link and OLM, follows a western-style restaurant of Tokyo whose door opens every Saturday onto another world, where elves, dragons and knights come to eat fried shrimp, curry and omelette rice. Farming Life in Another World, of 2023, rated 7.7, gives a man who died of illness a magic farming tool and a field in the deep forest, and By the Grace of the Gods, of 2020, rated 8.0, gives a boy reborn in another world a passion for slimes, which he uses to open a laundry.

The shops of the shelf are many. Parallel World Pharmacy, of 2022, follows a researcher of medicines reborn as the son of a court physician, who opens a pharmacy to fight the plague; Drug Store in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, of 2021, gives a man a skill of potions and a small shop in a village; Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools, of 2024, follows a young maker of magic tools after her engagement is broken; Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement, of 2023, the lowest rated series of the shelf, at 6.1, gives a girl the power to travel between the worlds and trade. A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring, of 2024, follows a young man who finds twin children in the forest and raises them; Loner Life in Another World, of 2024; The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World, of 2025, and Fluffy Paradise, of 2024, a girl reborn with the love of every animal, close it. The guide Food of other worlds sets the table.

The voices of other worlds

The same voices return again and again across the other worlds. Rie Takahashi is the voice heard most often in the guide, in eleven series: Megumin in the two KonoSuba series, Emilia in Re:ZERO, both of them again in Isekai Quartet, and heroines of Death March, Knight's & Magic, The Genius Prince's Guide and Sasaki and Peeps. Rie Kugimiya and Takehito Koyasu follow with nine each, she from Louise of The Familiar of Zero to the wolf of a cheat hero, he from the uncle of Uncle from Another World to the emperor Hotohori of Fushigi Yugi. Aoi Yuuki, the voice of Tanya Degurechaff, of the spider of So I'm a Spider and of the immortal witch of the slimes, and Satoshi Hino, the voice of Momonga, of Saito of The Familiar of Zero and of the wolf Fel, appear in eight each. The guide The voices lists the actors heard most often.

Studios and channels

The series of the guide come from many studios. Silver Link, with ten series, is the studio that made the most, from My Next Life as a Villainess and Restaurant to Another World to the Assassin and Tearmoon Empire; Toei Animation made the seven Digimon, J.C.Staff seven series, from The Familiar of Zero to How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, and Studio Deen and Maho Film seven each. Behind them stands the publisher Kadokawa, a producer of 26 series of the guide and the house of many of the light novels behind them. The channels tell the story of how these series reach the screen: most began late at night on Tokyo MX, with 46 series, or on the pay channel AT-X, with 44, while the series for children, from Digimon to Iruma-kun, began on Fuji TV, TV Tokyo or the educational channel of NHK. The guide Studios and channels lists them.

The other worlds through the decades

By decade, the guide holds two series of the 1980s, six of the 1990s, twelve of the 2000s, 42 of the 2010s and 94 of the 2020s, and the busiest years are 2023, with 21 series, and 2024, with nineteen, the years when every season of Japanese television carried a new wave of other worlds. The collection Before 2010 gathers the twenty series that began before 2010, oldest first, from Mashin Hero Wataru, of 1988, to Heaven's Lost Property and 11eyes, of 2009, and the collection Still returning gathers the 22 series that TMDB lists as returning for new seasons, from Mushoku Tensei and The Rising of the Shield Hero to KonoSuba and the Slime. The guide The isekai boom follows the rise of the genre year by year.

Tenshi.moe in figures

The 156 series of the guide carry about 33,900 votes on TMDB, with an average rating of 7.46; 39 of them reach 8, and the collection Rated 8 or more gathers the 38 of them with at least twenty votes, best first, led by InuYasha and Digimon Tamers, at 8.6, and by KonoSuba, The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System and The Rising of the Shield Hero, at 8.5. Together the series hold 4,358 episodes, and 82 of them have thirteen episodes or fewer, the length of a single season of Japanese television; the longest is InuYasha, with 193 episodes, followed by Mashin Hero Wataru, with 142, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, with 120, and Kyo Kara Maoh!, with 117. The most voted series are Sword Art Online, with about 2,200 votes, InuYasha, Mushoku Tensei and The Rising of the Shield Hero, and the lowest rated is the pig of Butareba, at 5.0. The guide The figures gathers every number.

Where to begin

For a first crossing, start with one series from each family: InuYasha for the classic door, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation for the rebirth and Sword Art Online for the game. Then follow your taste. For laughter, KonoSuba and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid; for darkness, Re:ZERO and Death Parade; for strategy, Overlord, Saga of Tanya the Evil and Log Horizon; for a gentle evening, Ascendance of a Bookworm, Restaurant to Another World and Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill. Anyone who wants the roots of the genre can go back to The Vision of Escaflowne and The Twelve Kingdoms, and anyone who grew up with the digital monsters can return to Digimon Tamers. The guide Start with Tenshi.moe picks one series from each shelf, and the guide The overpowered hero follows the strongest heroes of the genre.

How to use Tenshi.moe

The home page opens with an introduction on a slate panel and the board Other worlds 異世界, with the twelve shelves in three columns, one per family, each column topped by its colour: blue violet for Through the door, pink for Born again and green for Play and rest. Each tile shows the family, the shelf and its number of series, and leads to its row. Each row has its title in the middle, with a More button that opens the full shelf, and a line of posters below. The menu in the header leads to the three families, and the search box finds any series by its English title; the guide Search tips explains how.

Each poster shows the year in a dark pill, the TMDB rating in a pink pill and the tag of its shelf on a dark band at the bottom, for example Classic or Slow life; under the poster come the title, the first genre and the number of episodes. The page of each series has the English synopsis, the seasons and their episodes, the voice cast and the genres. The Watch now button opens the series on JustWatch, which shows the services that offer it in your country, and the list button keeps it in My list, stored in your browser. The guide How to use Tenshi.moe explains each part, and the guide The Watch now button explains how JustWatch works.

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