What is the point of 'reincarnation' stories?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Not bashing, just asking. It just struck me that, although it's a huge fad, I have no idea why. What sets a reincarnation fantasy apart from...well, just fantasy?

I've never actually seen/read one before, but my guess would be that the plot concerns a routine examination of the life the MC lived before they died, and personal growth through comparing it to the things that are possible for them now.

But I dunno, considering how similar the MC's I've heard about start out (It's always a NEET, hikkikomori, etc.) I feel like that would get tiring and repetitive after a while.

Plus, some of them are children, which makes things weirder: are they supposed to remember their past lives even then? And if so (a) what the f*ck does a 9-year old living in basically medieval Europe care about being a 30-year old NEET in their past life, and (b) are they really even children, if they have all that extra context and info in their heads and are drawing on it on a regular basis...?

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the premise, but I thought I'd ask. ^^;

[Prometheus]

That's a really good question. One that I'm curious to hear, too. Because I'm writing a reincarnation story, except the plot isn't solely based on the reincarnation itself. I'm gonna track your topic to see what others say. (I haven't ever read one, either. I've seen a lot of ads for them on my social medias, though.)

[joannekwan]

I think the appeal comes from easy escapism. I can't say for sure, since I'm not really into this subgenre.

People like putting themselves in the shoes of the protagonist. And what's easier than putting oneself into the shoes of a gamer/nerd/regular plain jane just like yourself? Compare that to following the adventures of a knight's squire who's already ingrained into the setting with their own backstory and has a presence in that particular world.
For isekais, there are fewer steps a reader has to make to relate to the protagonist.

[claiborneart]

Speaking as someone who both reads a lot of trashy power fantasy reincarntion comics, and is writing my own reincarnation comic, is at least partially about easy escapism, but is often more about getting to repeat the past and fix mistakes (or percieved mistakes).

The usual MC is usually a bum, person in a dead end job, low-power fantasy hero, or some other 'insert relatable person who feels like they've made some poor life choices and/or never got lucky enough'. Again, very questionable as to the vast majority of tropes in your average isekai reincarnation, but the core is a genuine and often complex human emotion.

[panic-edited like 8 times because I pressed enter by accident]

[HippieGhost]

This is pretty much the answer. The popularity of Isekai is pretty heavily influenced by people wanted to be isekai'd themselves. Given all that's going on in the world I'm not entirely surprised, but I can't say I blame them. I don't follow isekai stories if only because I spent so much of my own time when I was younger daydreaming about essentially the same concept. If you think about it though, isekai's been around for a lot longer than the fad - just think about shows like Inuyasha and Digimon. It was only a matter of time before it picked up traction.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Aren't we are all suicidal.

[Inspector_Spinda]

it is definitely escapism and a bit of power fantasy. but in the real good cases like Ascendance of a Bookworm it's a way for a reader to experience a world with the main character because everything is new to both of them. also because it is a common fantasy of young people to live in a magical world it can be done sort of satirically like Re:Zero where the main character thinks living in such a world would be blissful, but actually it's just as difficult if not worse than the regular world and he has to grow up and deal.

[claiborneart]

Plus, some of them are children, which makes things weirder: are they supposed to remember their past lives even then?

A disturbingly high percentage of the MCs have memories from birth and it's suuuper weird.
Yeah, I would say a pretty good chunk of reincarnation stories have the MC be either a child or a teen, and quite a few involve the MC going through school again - which I think supports my 'it's not just about the easy self-insert' theory.

How many people have regrets from their childhood? About how they did in school? About the choices they made during and after? How many people have at least one thing that they would go back and change if they got the chance to? Or, even better, get a new start in a fresh new fantasy world, where none of your past matters?

Isekai/reincarnation stories are a power fantasy of getting to redo/fix all of that shame and guilt, and perhaps in a world with such high expectations being placed on people at lower and lower ages, it's no wonder how popular the genre's gotten in the last few years.

I do think the rise in popularity, along with a lot of the.....incredibly terrible and disturbingly widespread tropes, should be examined though. Why do so many of the reincarnation stories involve people who reincarnate into children, with full adult memories and mentalities? Why do so many of the initial protagonists feel like their life is 'ruined' when they're only in their 30's, 20's, or even late teens?

[thedude3445]

It's an easy story conduit that's been around for hundreds of years, the idea of a normal person being magically transported to another world, whether that's by a portal, a space ship, a reincarnation, or any of that. Even Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz are in this whole isekai fantasy genre, although they don't do the whole reincarnation process obviously/

If you've never read any before, you probably should, because there's a few that are really quite good. Most are lazy and terrible (and the NEET stereotype formed because of that laziness), but that's just how art works. Some of them address the very questions you have.

[DiegoPalacios]

If their past lives are irrelevant, then the reincarnation doesn't make sense.....

Some early stories used the "neet, hikkikomori, gamer, otaku, etc" to justify the character's genre-savyness that leads to them being incredibly powerful in this new world.

As some people posted before, this could also be a form of escapism, which has increased in popularity in the latest years......

[a.g.meade]

@DokiDokiTsuna - I think the same "what's the point?" question could be asked about any genre. It was a question often asked at university, where fantasy and sci-fi were undervalued and seen as inferior, as though these genres are any less valid than 'standard literature'. The purpose of reincarnation stories, like every other genre here on Tapas, is to entertain and to help people find some escapism.

Like everything else, there are a lot of ways for 'reincarnation stories' to be told. I would argue that this very specific 'person remains the same but is reborn into a new world' framework is a derivative of the Portal fantasies that @thedude3445 mentioned. Such 'second chance' stories are very compelling to many people, and the plain Jane protagonists that @joannekwan mentioned are easy for such readers to get lost in.

But reincarnation stories aren't limited to this popular 'high concept' framework. For example, Books like Reincarnation Blues, Doctor Who, and The Art of Racing in the Rain all have unique takes on past lives that definitely do not fit the aforementioned mold.

As for the 'remembering past lives' element, I always viewed this as a take on frame narrations. Through the character's own awareness, we can see them for who they fundamentally are regardless of what they look like. The question becomes, then, BECAUSE of who they are, will they get [insert goal here] right this time?

I personally find the 'not remembering' aspect to be fascinating, with a lot of potential as a literary tool. But that has more to do with worldbuilding and would be getting into the weeds here.

[babywolf121]

To me, it adds another interesting element to the story. A second chance at life to fix ones mistakes or explore a new world they would never get to experience otherwise. A way to make the chosen one trope more interesting. A way to get revenge on others for what they did to the MC in a past life. And the list goes on and on. It's just another little thing you can use to spice up your story.

[bakasama25]

I take it, you're not a Buddhist or have some knowledge of a religion that reincarnation as a major part of it's dogma. Let's just say it's a form of old school from of time travel that predates H. G. Wells' Time Machine.

[Berserker]

I think the idea is to have a protagonist who isn't aware of the rules of the world. That way as they learn how everything works, so can the audience.

[foxnflames]

“What’s the point” is very loaded and if you want to ask in a way of gaining understanding then do...just that. Kinda weird to have such an expansive opinion on them when you’re never read one.

You can do so many things with reincarnation stories that don’t involve some kid or someone with a tragic past life. And they don’t always follow the same anime style isekai tropes. A lot involve transmigrated souls where the MCs journey through learning about the world around them or breaking cycles. My novel involves reincarnation and one of my good friends does as well and they are night and day, and don’t include anything you mentioned in your “question.”

[memologue]

I read a particular subgenre, the reincarnated villainess, where the MC becomes the villainess who is destined to meet their doom in whatever book/ game they reincarnated into. For me the appeal is seeing how the MC acts "out of character" from what the villainess is known for and how they try to escape from their fated doom I really enjoy the types of plans they come up with :'DD

[RandomKelsey]

I have to mirror a lot of what has been said. There's the big thing of imagining yourself in place of the protagonist suddenly getting swept into this magical, fantastical, e.t.c. world where you get to live out this epic/ideal life. It's basically a decorated version of all the early fanfiction.net self-inserts that used to be widespread (might still be there, FF has not been a frequent ground of mine for well over a decade). You and others also hit it right on the head for there being the chance for this deep self-reflection or personal growth story with the satisfaction of seeing others get to undo mistakes or pick the better choices like so many of us wish we could do thinking back on our lives. The fact that the protagonist has previous memories almost always gives them additional insight and control of what goes on around them, another desired wish of most people.

People are getting isekai'd out, which is understandable. There're a lot of copycats barely changing anything and leaning into conventional clichés just to earn easy views. Like mentioned though, so much of famous previous fiction can fall into the isekai/reincarnation genre. There's a whole lot to be explore and a lot of variety to be found. If one searches, there's probably a story out there they'll enjoy even if they think they won't because of the disinclination for the common, mainstream tropes.

I really haven't had much of a problem with the protagonist starting over as a child, but that's likely because I usually only read the more shojou-based isekai with the main character being born into some sort of noble/royal lineage where she'll either grow up fast to get right to the romance and political intrigue or else give the readers a chance to fawn over the hot dad who goes from cold to caring thanks to her adorable influence Basically a chance for the reader to imagine getting to grow up wearing cute clothes and eating endless macarons without gaining weight Nothing that's really problematic or icky, unlike shows like Mushoku Tensei where they have the mid-thirties MC in the body of a young child leerily watch a 14-year-old girl perform near-hentai levels of fanservice . That was, like, 5 minutes into the second episode, and with the next scene being a minute straight of him then staring at her underwear while she was giving him his lessons, I noped out of there hard.

In regards to your (b) question about isekai'd children, that was actually a large lure when forming my own isekai story here on Tapas where, unlike most, it's going to go year by year through the reincarnated girl's life starting from birth. So much of the exploration of the story is actually how uncomfortable and awkward it is to be reincarnated with previous memories. Evianna, the MC, wishes her memories had been at least suppressed until she was a bit older, she has to deal with limitations every other isekai ignores (like babies basically being blind at birth), and unlike other stories that made some kind of joke about breastfeeding, like TBatE hosted here, she forever hates it and only does it because she faces literal starvation otherwise. I naturally don't want to say much because of spoilers, but it will ultimately lead to a question of how much of her is her and the crippling fear of her new family ever finding out the daughter and sister they think she is is nothing more than a mask she's created to fit the situation.

[zvein]

My story also revolves around reincarnation in a sense. Dunno if my type of reincarnation is what you meant, or if this is also an isekai but—it is about a cyclical life, and the collages of memories of past life in a perspective from a non human-like(?) being but more of string of consciousness since it is a sentient being who takes a lot of shape(can also takes human shape) throughout its recycled life(s). This is a very rare phenomenon in the world i created, where there are many human-like beings, from different races. Some called these aether-like being a myth, some hunt them for variety of reasons, some called them gods but really they don’t have moral obligation or anything, or a sense of right or wrong, they just exist. They are essentially just physical embodiment of a quintessence/fifth element/aether whatever you call it. It is not a story solely focused on them, it is a high fantasy that revolves around multiple people from all races and cultures. But they are an important element of the story—- about how each these people can experience and view the world in completely different way than another, how they cope with the weight of their memories and maybe the length of life itself. And finally about how whether in a time of crisis they need to understand each other better. So no, it is not a self insert-type of story.

[darthmongoose]

This is a really interesting thread with some great insights!

I think another element is that it ties into a feeling a lot of people have that they have underachieved in life, but it was because they were born into a society where the things they're actually good at aren't valued.

I think this is maybe why isekai with these kinds of protagonist has its roots in Japan to the point we use a Japanese name for the genre. The Japanese education system is extremely restrictive, and it's also really front-loaded. You have to, as a teenager, focus incredibly hard on memorising dry facts and being really good at regurgitating them in an exam to get into a good high school and then a good university. Once you're into uni, it's actually comparatively easy to get a degree and graduate! It's also considered "good" to be in some kind of club, like music or sports. But suppose a person's skills are in things like creative problem solving, or say perhaps they were a late bloomer or they hadn't found their passion yet? That's a lot of potential wasted.
I suspect there's a lot less of this "reincarnation" style isekai created in places like Europe because there's much more of a culture of "oh, you discovered your passion and the field you're best at at 30? No problem, you can get your qualifications and go back to uni!" That's not unusual in the UK; my classes were fairly often about 25% people over 25 who'd gone back to uni, sometimes after having kids. But in Japan, that's really unusual; if you didn't do well in school at 17, you're probably stuck with whatever boring job you ended up with. You might even BE 17 and see that you're not going to win this school game and already wish you could get a do-over because you can see that future ahead of you. I could imagine the genre finding popularity in the US too because education is prohibitively expensive there, but I feel like there's less of a sense of "missed potential" and more a sense of "I could do it at any age if I got a shot", so I'd expect American-made isekai stories to less commonly involve reincarnation and more often be that the person gets zapped as they are into another world.

The funny thing is the parallel between the Japanese love of reincarnation isekai and the American love of post-apocalyptic and Zombie stories, because they're basically about the same concept: "People think the things I'm good at are useless, but if I was in THIS scenario, they'd all be amazed by how capable I am and what incredible skills I have that would mean I'd thrive in a tough world that would kill those boring people who do well in school!"
I hate zombie stuff because it always depicts the army as unrealistically incompetent compared to average Joe American shop clerk whose dad taught him to shoot and who has a handgun. I love Sean of the Dead though, which is a deconstruction of exactly this. It's a guy who thinks he will thrive in that world based on that trope, but what he actually needs to learn is to develop the skills he needed to thrive in the regular world.

[surenlicious]

When I read your title topic I was screaming internally because I was hoping you'd grab the Zelda franchise for this as example haha. Or the controversial Angel Sanctuary manga where its all about wacky reincarnation. In the former I find stuff too perfect, in the latter its about torment and punishment.

Uh yay for latent divine powers I suppose?