What is an Isekai?
Isekai, or "different world," is a Japanese genre of light novels, manga, anime, and video games that revolve around a person transported to and has to survive in another world, such as a fantasy world, virtual world, planet, or parallel universe. This plot device allows the audience to learn about the new world at the same pace as the protagonist.
The genre can be divided into "transition into another world" and "reincarnation into another world."
In "transition into another world" stories, the protagonist gets transported to another world (e.g., traveling into it or being summoned).
In many examples, the Main Character is an ordinary person who thrives in their new environment thanks to being expected in the real world to being seen as extraordinary in the "other" world. These can be physical characteristics, such as hair or eye color, or average, everyday skills they learned in their previous life, such as cooking, engineering, primary education, or medicine. Which are far more advanced in the real modern world than in the world they are sent to. An offshoot of the isekai genre is the "second chance" or "reincarnation" genre, where a protagonist who, upon dying, finds themselves transported, not to a different world and new body, but into their own younger self. With their new knowledge and older intellect, they can relive their life, avoiding their previous pitfalls.
Usually, the protagonist manages to deal with why they've been transported, summoned, reincarnated, etc. They are allowed to be returned home. The big question is, what happens afterward when the reason you are brought to this world has come to a close?
Story idea
Your Character was just an average person...
Who lived an average life but was transported to this strange world over a year ago.
They cried a lot at first, wanting to escape from it all, though after learning that there was a chance you'd be able to return home.
The idea of going back to your life had hardened your resolve, and you adapted to this world.
On the battlefield, where many people who killed and were killed... Your Character tried their best to uphold the values of justice and equality that their teammates often spoke so strongly about. The time spent learning the true meaning of courage and camaraderie.
Things that they hadn't understood before arriving in this world. For an average person, it would be too for them to understand, but they'd grown strong, so much so that more people were relying on them than your Character counted on them.
They'd lost a lot but gained a lot, too. Times where they would have stumbled at a few obstacles but were able to overcome more.
Finally... a year-long journey came to a close.
Three weeks after saving one world, your Character returns to earth only to find that they have lost everything. It seems that while they were away, things hadn't stopped. Parents worried and tried to find their child only to have one face an unfortunate accident. The other, overwhelmed by grief, took their own life. They asked that their passing publicize that the media outlets publish your characters' missing person report even to the end.
Your Character's family wasn't wealthy enough to have money left behind. Money wasn't the only thing they lacked.
No Family.
No Higher education.
No Social Status
In this place, the 'You' no longer exist.
Your Character saved the world. Saved countless people's lives, and as people searched for them, our Character risked their lives to come back here... so why have they been abandoned?
Reason for writing all this—
This comes from a webcomic called 'Yongsaga dorawatda' or, for the majority of us who have no idea what that says, 'The Warrior Returns.' It resonated with me because, for once, it took the stale concept of other worlds and being transported. The ramifications of what happens when a character is gone for so long, or they die. The world moves on, and people are hurt. There isn't a happy ending for people sometimes.
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