Reincarnation, the idea of someone dying and being reborn in a new, different body, is a very old concept. It is one that has always fascinated me, even if I personally don’t believe in it.
I’m not an expert on either reincarnation as a religious concept, or isekai as a genre on the whole, but as a writer of Reincarnation Isekai, I am both aware of and fascinated by trends that have developed regarding both and I wanted to talk about them here.
When it comes to many of stories that use reincarnation as the narrative means to transform the protagonist into a new form, there tends to be three basic core philosophies behind the Why they were reincarnated and the What/Who they reincarnated into.
Reincarnation as Cosmic Reward
The first philosophy is probably also the most recent trend and that is the protagonist is being rewarded through their reincarnation. Either it’s an award for good deeds done/living a virtuous life, or a consolation prize for having to suffer through an awful existence prior to their usually untimely and likely unjust death.
In their new existence, the protagonist gets to be someone cool and awesome! Or maybe someone powerful and heroic. Or perhaps someone beautiful and popular. They get everything they were denied in their last go-round and perhaps even more.
This type of reincarnation story tends to lean very heavily into power-fantasy and/or wish-fulfillment. There usually isn’t much character growth in these stories because the story usually isn’t about a character growing into someone awesome, but rather about showing off how awesome they now are just by being reincarnated.
Reincarnation as a Second Chance
The second philosophy is probably the closest to the core religious beliefs regarding Reincarnation. A person dies and they’re either not ready, or not worthy enough to move on to the next phase of their existence. Thus they’re reborn into a new body (not necessarily a better or worse one, just different) and given another turn on the cosmic rollercoaster to see if they can do what’s necessarily to move onto a greater reward.
Reincarnation is presented as an opportunity to improve oneself. A chanced to correct past mistakes, move past old regrets, and, in general, be better. Perhaps this new body has benefits that the protagonist can take advantage of, like special powers or a high status, but who they used to be is equally important and thus it is often the protagonist using memories or skills from their previous existence that will play a vital role in the story resolution.
"We all change, when you think about it, we're all different people; all through our lives, and that's okay, that's good, you've gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be." - The Eleventh Doctor (Doctor Who)
Reincarnation as Karmic Punishment
The final philosophy I wanted to discuss is thankfully one that has seen a greatly reduced usage in recent years, but ironically the one I have the most to say about. That is the concept of reincarnation being a form of punishment being inflicted upon the reincarnated person for past misdeeds or attitudes.
The punishment isn’t that they have to go through another life, but rather that the body in which they must live in and experience this new life is one the reincarnated finds intolerable. A chauvinistic man finds himself reborn as a woman. A bigot is now forced to live as someone they were prejudiced against. A beautiful, but vain person becomes someone they consider ugly. Someone who enjoys killing animals for cruel reasons becomes the prey they once hunted. It’s the classic “Walking a mile in another person’s shoes” type story.
These kind of stories tend to unfold in two ways. The first is that we establish the protagonist as an awful person toward some specific other group. They then die (usually in a sudden or ironic way) and are – Surprise! – reborn as a member of that very group. They then must endure living as a member of that new group, experiencing all the hostility, bigotry, or hostility from others that they once happily inflicted in their previous existence.
Eventually, they learn a valuable lesson™ about treating others as they would wish to be treated (y’know, basic goddamn empathy) and they are given second chance, in which I mean that either the divine powers who saw fit to “punish” them with this reincarnation return them to their old body, erasing their death, or there’s some other narrative reset like “turns out it was ALL a dream.” The protagonist moves forward in their old body, perhaps a little wiser for having gone through their “ordeal.”
The darker and much worse way these stories unfold is that we spend the bulk of the story following the protagonist being awful to some group and then, at the very end, they die and the protagonist awakens to – GASP! – find themselves now a member of the group! The story ends as the protagonist realizes, with the slowly dawning horror, everything they’ve done to others will now be visited upon them in kind, perhaps even worse. No redemption is offered. “Karmic Justice” is served.
Not gonna lie, I hate this usage of reincarnation and, frankly, I’m glad it has all but faded from popular media.
I do understand the appeal that such stories had. The visceral need to see someone awful getting karmic justice, their “just desserts,” if you will. You will often hear people say about/to people who are awful to specific groups, “I hope that in your next life you come back as X, so you know how it feels!”
But is that really “Karmic Justice” or even any form of justice at all?
Here’s my two problems with those sentiments. The first is implying that anyone’s mere existence in akin to a punishment. “Oh, you’re X? Man, you must’ve done something in your last life to piss off someone” is a pretty shitty thing to say to anyone. No one should have to feel like their existence is something undesirable. That isn’t to say that there aren’t challenges to any life and some have more than others and some are much more difficult to overcome, but that’s an external societal issue, not one inherent to someone’s existence itself.
The second is that such sentiments inherently imply support for the current, shitty, status quo. It’s akin to saying, “[Shitty Person] is being shitty to X Group who are regularly treated badly. If [Shitty Person] somehow, one day, reincarnates into a member of that group, I hope X group is still being treated badly so [Shitty Person] gets a taste of their own medicine!”
Seriously, think about that for more than a few seconds. Why would you want people who are being mistreated now and whom you claim to support to continue be mistreated in the future? Just on the off chance some asshole might have to suffer like they have? That’s not justice. That’s sociopathy.
So, how would I improve these kind of stories? Honestly, I don’t know is it’s possible to really salvage the idea of Reincarnation as punishment. I feel like the whole concept is toxic and should be buried in some sort of story landfill. And then paved over with concrete.
First, I don’t really want horrible, irredeemable people getting reincarnated in the first place. Some people truly only deserve one turn and when it finally, mercifully, ends, we can all happily move on, never to think about them again.
But if you put a gun to my head and forced me to write a story where a shitty person is reincarnated into the body of someone who belongs to a group that they used to target for abuse, then I wouldn’t force them to endure mistreatment akin to what they once happily doled out to others.
No, I want them to find out that in their new life, the group they now belong to is treated with all the dignity, respect, and justice that they were denied during the reincarnated’s previous life. That they aren’t seen as acceptable targets for maltreatment or scapegoats for society’s problems, and the hate-mongering grifters who try to treat them as such are rightfully mocked, scorned, and shunned by society.
But I want them to remember who they used to be. I want them to look around and see a better world for the people they used target and know, in their heart of hearts, that the world only got better after assholes like them finally snuffed it, and more so, that they absolutely are not missed. I want them to live in this better world that they did nothing to help create and actively delayed its creation, receiving kindness and dignity they denied others. Most of all, I hope it helps them be a better person this time around and the shitty person they used to be is buried and gone forever.
Would anyone want to read that story? I dunno. It probably wouldn’t sell many copies.
But I wouldn’t mind living in that world.
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