The first obvious anime suggestion has got to be last year’s Kenja no Mago as it is another isekai series about a young salaryman who gets reincarnated as a child in a fantasy world and has strong magical powers. Kenja no Mago follows Shin Walford, an orphan who gets adopted by a famous wizard Merlin Walford who teaches him magic from his secluded woodland home. When Shin comes of age, he is sent to the Kingdom of Earlshide’s Magic Academy in the capital where he meets new friends, hones his skills, and fights off evil while basically going through magic high school, quite similarly to Wendelin’s journey to the Adventurer’s Academy in 8th Son. There’s also a bit of romance which has also started in 8th Son.

One of the biggest recent isekai series, Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken is a story about yet another Japanese office worker, this time frustrated 37-year old Mikami Satoru who gets reincarnated as a slime in a fantasy world after getting stabbed to death by a passing robber while protecting his co-worker. Now a slime, he goes around eating rare herbs until he encounters, and later befriends, the powerful storm dragon Veldora, who has been sealed in a cave for 300 years by a hero. In exchange for his promise to destroy the seal, Veldora gives him the name Rimuru Tempest and helps him awaken his unique powers as a slime and his story and adventures continue on in the fantasy world.

Without giving too much away, Slime Datta Ken is similar to 8th Son in that it has a quite overpowered protagonist that ends up building up a harem and other fairly standard isekai tropes. Its largest unique point is that the main character is a slime, which is pretty wacky, but since he can transform, it isn’t too weird most of the time. In any case, it’s a fun twist that makes it worth checking out for 8th Son fans.

18-year-old genius student Misato Kurihara was never really able to fit in or make friends anywhere and instead focused herself completely on her studies and otaku interests. However, after being hit by a truck after pushing a small girl out of its way, she finds herself meeting with God who offers to reincarnate her into another world with her memories intact for her good deed. Wishing to not stand out this time, she agrees only if she will have average abilities for that world. This doesn’t exactly end up happening, though, as God ends up interpreting this as making her half as strong as the strongest monster. Unfortunately for her, she's now 6,800 times stronger than a normal human. Now known as Adele "Mile" von Ascham, she does her best to hide her power level at her new school in a fantasy kingdom.

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! basically asks the question, “what if cute girls doing cute things, but also, isekai fantasy school?”. While that might seem pretty different outside of the isekai part, it does share some things in common with Hachi-nan tte, Sore wa Nai deshou! including having an overpowered main character who is born into a noble family with some drama because of that. This time the harem is swapped out with her 4-girl friend group and it’s more comedy focused, but definitely worth checking out, especially for isekai fans who also enjoy cute slice-of-life comedies.

This time, the isekai method of choice is a stray bolt of lightning that god hits teenager Touya Mochizuki with on accident. To apologize, he offers him the chance to live again in a fantasy world and will grant him a wish. As the title gives away, Touya wants to travel to another world with his smartphone intact and functional and also gets incredibly overpowered for good measure. Thus begins his travels across the new world where he mostly encounters cute girls that are into him and other fantasy RPG-like adventuring fare.

The title alone should give you an idea as to what In Another World With My Smartphone is about; it’s an extremely on-the-nose isekai that leans heavily into its genre tropes and ridiculous excess that pervades the subgenre. It’s not so much of a critique however as it’s more of a reveling in it to the point of absurdity, especially when it comes to the main character’s harem. Basically if you like the overpowered lead of 8th Son but wish he was a little more over-the-top and the story was more harem-focused, check out this series.

Swinging back to the other side of the isekai spectrum we have Ascendance of a Bookworm, a story following Urano Motosu, a soon-to-be librarian who is absolutely obsessed with books but, unfortunately, literally ends up getting crushed by them in an earthquake. Her last wish is to read more books in her next life, which is somewhat challenging as she is reborn as Myne, the frail young daughter of a town guard living in a medieval world where books are rare and reserved for the nobility. In spite of this, she puts her knowledge to work to create books of her own and achieve her dream of being a librarian.

Like Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!, this show falls more on the slice-of-life side than some of the other action-focused series here and compared to 8th Son is a much slower show overall with a much less overpowered main character. That being said, there are some strong similarities to 8th Son with the main character starting out in low social standing as a child in a fantasy world as well as their specific goals towards looking for knowledge in books, albeit more so in Ascendance of Bookworm. Overall, we’d recommend this series to folks who were interested in a slower-paced and more realistic take on something similar to the very beginning of 8th Son. It’s also just an interesting and unusual take on isekai on its own merit.

Finally, we have Isekai Cheat Magician, which follows childhood friend high schoolers Taichi Nishimura and Rin Azuma who actually do not die for once and are instead magically transported to a fantasy world by a mysterious light. There, they are immediately in danger because of a rampaging monster but are saved by a group of adventurers who encourage them to visit the Guild to become adventurers themselves. Surprisingly, while enrolling, the aptitude test reveals that their power levels are off the charts and the two become known as ‘cheat magicians’ for their overpowered skills but begin to question who brought them to this other world and why during their adventures.

Just to get it out of the way, Isekai Cheat Magician is a pretty divisive show that many felt didn’t exactly live up to its hype. However, it might still be worth a try if you’re interested in Hachi-nan tte, Sore wa Nai deshou! primarily because of its overpowered magician protagonist or are just looking for another generic fantasy isekai to plow through. To be honest, probably the best thing it has going for it is powerhouse voice actress Rie Takahashi and a pretty decent MYTH & ROID OP.