is a sub-genre of fiction. It includes

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

webtoon Webtoons () are a type of episodic digital comics that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allo ...

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

, and

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

that revolve around a person or people who are transported to and have to survive in another world such as a

fantasy world A fantasy world or fictional world is a world created for fictional media, such as literature, film or games. Typical fantasy worlds feature magical abilities. Some worlds may be a parallel world connected to Earth via magical portals or items ...

, game world, or parallel universe with or without the possibility of returning to their original world. Isekai is one of the most popular genres of anime, and isekai stories share many common tropes – for example, a powerful protagonist who is able to beat most people in the other world by fighting. This

plot device A plot device or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief ...

emphasizes worldbuilding and non-protagonist characters, and typically allows the audience to learn about the new world at the same pace as the protagonist over the course of their

quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. It serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of every nat ...

or lifetime. If the main characters are transported to a game-like world, the genre can overlap with LitRPG. In March 2024, the word "isekai" was added to the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

as an official word in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. The concept of isekai started in Japanese folktales, such as

Urashima Tarō is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (''otogi banashi''), who, in a typical modern version, is a fishermen, fisherman rewarded for rescuing a sea turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There, ...

. However, the first modern isekai works were Haruka Takachiho's novel ''Warrior from Another World'' and

Yoshiyuki Tomino is a Japanese anime director, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist best known for creating the ''Gundam'' anime franchise. Early life and family Tomino was born on November 5, 1941, in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, to an old family of regio ...

's television series '' Aura Battler Dunbine''.

History

Early media

The concept of isekai has antecedents in ancient

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japa ...

, particularly the story of a fisherman

, who saves a turtle and is brought to a wondrous undersea kingdom. After spending what he believed to be four to five days there, Urashima returns to his home village only to find himself 300 years in the future. Other precursors to isekai include

portal fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or magical elements, often including imaginary places and creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, which later became fantasy literature and drama. From the ...

stories from

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

, notably the novels ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'' (1865), '' A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' (1889), '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900), ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...

'' (1904), and ''

The Chronicles of Narnia ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven portal fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, the series is set in the fictional realm of Narnia (wor ...

'' (1950).

Modern media

The earliest modern Japanese isekai stories include Haruka Takachiho's novel ''Warrior from Another World'' (1979),

Tatsunoko Production and often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. The studio's name has a double meaning in Japanese: "Tatsu's child" (Tatsu is a nickname for Tatsuo) and " sea dragon", the inspiration for its seahorse logo. Tatsunoko Production was e ...

CBN CBN, or cbn, may refer to: Broadcasting organizations * Radio stations in St. John's, Newfoundland: ** CBN (AM), CBC Radio One ** CBN-FM, CBC Music * Chronicle Broadcasting Network, the predecessor of ABS-CBN * CBN (Australian TV station), a TV ...

collaborative

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

anime ''

Superbook Superbook may refer to: * Superbook (1981 TV series), a Japanese Christian anime television series initially produced at Tatsunoko Production and TV Tokyo in Japan. * Superbook (2011 TV series), an American Christian animated television serie ...

'' (1981), the anime film adaptation of '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1982) and

's anime '' Aura Battler Dunbine'' (1983). The earliest isekai anime to involve the protagonist being trapped in the

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore th ...

of a video game was the film '' Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!'' (1986), based on the hit video game '' Super Mario Bros.'' (1985); the anime film adaptation involves

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

playing a video game that comes to life, making it an ancestor of the "trapped in a video game" subgenre of isekai. Other early anime and manga titles that could be classified as isekai include '' Mashin Hero Wataru'' (1988 debut), '' NG Knight Ramune & 40'' (1990 debut), ''

Fushigi Yûgi , also known as ''Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play'' or ''Curious Play'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuu Watase. It tells the story of two teenaged girls, Miaka and Yui, who are pulled into ''The Universe of t ...

'' (1992 debut), '' El-Hazard'' (1995 debut), and '' The Vision of Escaflowne'' (1996 debut), in which the protagonists stayed similar to their original appearance upon entering a different world. Other 1990s titles identified as isekai include the novel and anime series '' The Twelve Kingdoms'' (1992 debut), the manga/anime/game franchise '' Magic Knight Rayearth'' (1993 debut), the

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

'' YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World'' (1996), the manga and anime series '' Inuyasha'' (1996 debut), and the anime series '' Now and Then, Here and There'' and '' Digimon Adventure'' (both 1999 debut). ''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese Anime film, animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by Toho. The

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...

adventure game '' Moon: Remix RPG Adventure'' (1997), and the '' Digimon Adventure'' (1999 debut) and '' .hack'' (2002 debut) franchises, were some of the first works to present the concept of isekai as a virtual world, with ''

Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the 2020s and focuses on protagonists Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki as they play through various virtual re ...

'' (2002 web novel debut) following in their footsteps, though this categorization has been disputed, including by the series' creator. A popular isekai light novel and anime series in the 2000s was '' The Familiar of Zero'' (2004 debut), where the male lead Saito is from modern Japan and is summoned to a fantasy world by the female lead Louise. ''The Familiar of Zero'' popularized the isekai genre in web novel and

media, along with the website Shōsetsuka ni Narō ("Let's Become Novelists"), known as Narō for short. ''The Familiar of Zero''

fan fiction Fan fiction or fanfiction, also known as fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF, is fiction typically written in an amateur capacity by fans as a form of fan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted ...

became popular on Narō during the late 2000s, eventually spawning a genre of isekai novels on the site (especially after fanfiction was banned on Narō in 2012) which became known as Narō novels. ''The Familiar of Zero'' fan fiction writers eventually began writing original isekai novels, such as Tappei Nagatsuki who went on to create '' Re:Zero'' (2012 debut). The 2012 anime adaptation of ''Sword Art Online'' popularized the isekai genre in anime, which led to more isekai web novels being published on Narō and a number of Narō novels being adapted into anime. It was around this time that the term "isekai" was coined. In May 2021, Kadokawa announced they would open an "Isekai Museum" in July of the same year. In March 2024, the word ''isekai'' was added to the

as a word in the

Characteristics

In many examples, the main character is an ordinary person who thrives in their new environment thanks to modern things in the real world being seen as "extraordinary" in the other world. This can be physical characteristics, such as hair or eye color, or normal everyday skills they learned in their previous life such as cooking, engineering, basic education, or medicine, which are far more advanced in the modern, real world than in the world they are sent to. In ''

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen is a Japanese light novel series written by Yoshinobu Akita. It was adapted into manga, two anime television series and a Orphen: Scion of Sorcery, video game. As of December 2019, the novels had over 14 million copies in ...

'', an entire population of humans appear in the magically created world, transported from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, and are partially mixed with local dragonlike Heavenly Beings. In many works, isekai overlaps with the

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

and LitRPG genres, where the protagonist gains the affection of several potential love interests, who may or may not be human. One example of this is '' Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World''.

Transition versus Reincarnation

The genre can be divided into two types: and . In "transition into another world" stories, the protagonist gets transported to another world (e.g. by traveling into it, or being magically summoned into it). In "reincarnation into another world" stories, the protagonist is sent into another world after dying in the real world. A common method of death is being run over by a truck and dying, spawning the meme of " Truck-kun", a truck which appears in many isekai series that kills the protagonist and the protagonist reincarnates into a different world.

The Chosen One

While the protagonist of a classic isekai work is usually a "chosen hero", there have been a number of alternative takes on the concept. One trend is the protagonist reincarnating into the body of an unimportant side character, or even a villain.

Villainess Chosen One

The protagonist is reincarnated as a villainess in a world based on an game, where they are given special skills. They will either try to avoid a bad outcome that will happen to them in the future or help other important characters rather than trying to antagonize them, though other characters will take over their roles as villains instead, such as in '' My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!'', '' The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen'', and '' Villainess Level 99''. Although the protagonist is usually a girl, a few works like '' From Bureaucrat to Villainess'' have a guy being reborn as the villainess instead.

Transition Chosen One

The protagonist is not killed, but is instead brought to another world by magic or by an unearthly being (either a god or an alien) to help defeat a rising conflict, such as in '' How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom'', '' Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers'', and '' Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear''. Some are given special cheat powers to help them. In '' I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too'', '' Battle Girls: Time Paradox'', and '' Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement'', although the chosen hero is brought to a new world, they can still travel back to their own world either at a will (either by a gateway or magical powers) or when they have completed their mission. Some works have more than one transition, such as in '' The Fruit of Evolution''.

Child Chosen One

The protagonist is an adult reincarnated in a new world as a child with special powers after being killed, such as in '' Chronicles of an Aristocrat Reborn in Another World'', '' I Shall Survive Using Potions!'', '' As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World'', '' The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat'', and '' Fluffy Paradise''. In some works, such as in '' I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic'', the protagonist is reborn as a child under mysterious circumstances; whether they died in the real world or were transported to another world and turned into a child is never revealed. Some protagonists are given their powers from gods or otherworldly beings such as an alien, a magical creature, or an entity.

Standard Reincarnated Chosen One

The protagonist is reborn in a new world, but their appearances and personalities are not altered in any way; however, they are still given special powers as well as a magical object that aids them on their journey. Examples of this are '' In Another World with My Smartphone'', ''

Farming Life in Another World is a Japanese light novel series written by Kinosuke Naito and illustrated by Yasumo. It has been published online via the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō since December 2016. It was later acquired by Enterbrain ...

'', and '' Zenshu''. Only rarely in anime does the protagonist return to their previous world at the end.

Non-human Chosen One

There are instances of protagonists that become inhuman creatures with special abilities, such as in '' That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime'', where the protagonist reincarnates as a slime monster; '' I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level'', where the protagonist reincarnates as an immortal witch; and '' So I'm a Spider, So What?'', where the protagonist reincarnates as a spider monster. Some works have the protagonist being reborn as a sentient object, such as a sword or a vending machine, and are accompanied by another character, usually a girl.

Variants

Villainess

'Villainess isekai' is an emerging subgenre within the isekai landscape featuring dynamics between transmigrated villainess that take place in game settings, which leaves these characters with no other choice but to take on the role enforced on them. These stories follow the main character's journey of avoiding the grim, predestined "Bad End" fate of an villainess. Regular isekai anime gives protagonists free will and the opportunity to achieve heroic greatness in their new lives. Isekai villainess anime feature the contrary, pinning characters in a doom-ridden role and denying them any sort of free will within the game. With most characters working against the "Villainess", the protagonist granted more agency and moral grayness than a normal "Heroine", being is thrown in a race against time to avoid the game's predestined fate. and are noted for popularizing the subgenre in the web novel community in 2013. '' My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!'' aired in 2020 during

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

is credited for initiating the popularity of "Villainess" anime, being quickly followed by dozens of series with similar themes and tropes in the following years afterwards.

Reverse

'Reverse isekai' is subgenre of isekai that follow beings from a fantasy universe who have been transported to or reincarnated into modern-day Earth, including the anime '' Re:Creators''. Additionally, there is also 'double reverse isekai' or 'back-to-back isekai,' where a character who has died in a fantasy world is reincarnated in the modern world (bringing modern knowledge), only to die again and be reincarnated back into the aforementioned fantasy world, often in the past, to introduce that knowledge into their original world, as seen in '' Doctor Elise''.

Peaceful

'Peaceful isekai' genre includes the "slow life" approach, where the protagonist was overworked in their previous life, so decides to take it easy in the next. Another offshoot is where the protagonist uses the new world to explore an interest, hobby, or goal they had in the previous world but were unable to achieve, such as studying or opening a business, like in '' Restaurant to Another World''.

Backlash

The isekai genre became so popular during the early- and mid-2010s that it started to generate backlash, both in Japan and overseas, from those who felt that it was overcrowding the greater manga and anime market. In 2016, a Japanese short story contest organized by Bungaku Free Market and Shōsetsuka ni Narō placed a blanket ban on any entries involving isekai. The publisher Kadokawa banned isekai stories as well in their own anime/manga-style novel contest in 2017.

References

External links

The History of Isekai Fantasy Novels
�� Book Off Online {{Film genres Anime and manga about parallel universes Anime and manga genres Anime and manga terminology Fantasy genres Fiction about parallel universes Science fiction genres