Writing Does This Count as Isekai?

[Erys]

It's the same story as my previous thread in this subforum. The MC is the Demon Lord's daughter who was summoned by a Duchess and possessed her body.
Does this count as Isekai? The MC comes from a different world but not our world. Must the MC come from the real world to make it an Isekai?

 

[Sebas_Guzman]

For marketing purposes, it's an isekai. There's actually a manga I follow (cant recall the name) where the protagonist jumps from one fantasy world to another. That's an isekai and its marketed as such. Mind you, you might get purists saying no, but the counter is to say that it's a new generation of isekai or an isekai with a twist.
I guess it goes into transmigrator too though.

 

[Oreo]

Make the MC the daughter of Satan from Hell.

 

[Blackout]

Is the Duchess from a different world than the MC? If the answer is yes, then it's an isekai.

 

[Ymadthepirate]

Yes

 

[BenJepheneT]

Isekai, at this point, is a novelty with no specific distinctions.

If you have one guy going from one dimension to another, it's isekai.

For your benefit, just slide the tag in. It actually helps a whole lot for the algorithm to pick up your story.

 

[greyblob]

yes

 

[LostLibrarian]

It's 異世界.
異 - different, strange, wonderful...
世界 - the world.

Isekai just means "another world". So anything where your character switches up worlds is isekai. The reason it's mostly our world to a fantasy one is simply for self-insert reasons. For the genre itself, the important thing is the transfer into another world. Isekai as a settings-genre is just as massive as "sci-fi" or "fantasy". In fact, it is so broad, that even works of people "travelling back in time to a 'different state of our modern world'" are often listed as isekai, because the 'new' world is completely different. Which is also the reason multiple sub-genres were created over time.

異世界転生 would be "another world reincarnation" which is the usual MC dies and gets reborn with all his memories intact.
異世界転移 would be "another world transfer/summon" which is the transfer of the human itself. More or less the western "portal fantasy".
異世界憑依 would be "another world possession". Examples for this more niche one would be those where the MC becomes an armor or a hotspring.


So in short, isekai really is just about the move between worlds. There is no need to have our world in it. Going by the usual rules for tag, the main requirement would be that the main/title character is the one switching worlds. So if your MC summons a girl into his own world, that wouldn't be an isekai. But if the MC is the girl summoned, then it would become isekai.

For the western audiences, isekai is a bit less well defined because a lot of people just throw their own labels on translated works and call it a day... oh... and also: Yes.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

You know... I want a writing contest where everyone who had written at least one story of at least 50k in length can join. Then when we have all the participants, the head of the contest takes everyone's name, arranges them in a circle, and gives each person's story to the guy left of the author. The guy on the left writes an Isekai based on that story.

I'd prefer that the isekai involved the MC from your story getting shunted into the story you have to write him into, so basically everyone's MC gets bumped one story to the right in a giant round robin.

 

[K5Rakitan]

You forgot about truck-kun

 

[TheDerpieGod]

It's 異世界.
異 - different, strange, wonderful...
世界 - the world.

Isekai just means "another world". So anything where your character switches up worlds is isekai. The reason it's mostly our world to a fantasy one is simply for self-insert reasons. For the genre itself, the important thing is the transfer into another world. Isekai as a settings-genre is just as massive as "sci-fi" or "fantasy". In fact, it is so broad, that even works of people "travelling back in time to a 'different state of our modern world'" are often listed as isekai, because the 'new' world is completely different. Which is also the reason multiple sub-genres were created over time.

異世界転生 would be "another world reincarnation" which is the usual MC dies and gets reborn with all his memories intact.
異世界転移 would be "another world transfer/summon" which is the transfer of the human itself. More or less the western "portal fantasy".
異世界憑依 would be "another world possession". Examples for this more niche one would be those where the MC becomes an armor or a hotspring.


So in short, isekai really is just about the move between worlds. There is no need to have our world in it. Going by the usual rules for tag, the main requirement would be that the main/title character is the one switching worlds. So if your MC summons a girl into his own world, that wouldn't be an isekai. But if the MC is the girl summoned, then it would become isekai.

For the western audiences, isekai is a bit less well defined because a lot of people just throw their own labels on translated works and call it a day... oh... and also: Yes.

jesus

 

[Macha]

You forgot about truck-kun

Si Optimum Pride?