Are Astronauts Isekai Protagonists?

[RepresentingWrath]

Well, i guess if it comes to tagging the story, you are probably right. I mean, i would maybe add that the isekaied person doesn't necessarily need to be from earth, but otherwise, i guess as long as one gets unexplainably transported to another reality, it counts.

Yes. The main problem is tagging and expectations from the story. There is more or less a consensus on what isekai is. If you try to be smart, or simply want to "broaden the horizon", and tag something that isn't really an isekai with an isekai tag, you will suffer backlash. If you don't care about it, go ahead and do it.

(Does anyone know about a story, where a character isekais himself and gets transported to another world, not by accident but by choice?")

Elaborate on what do you mean with "not by accident but by choice?" For example, MC opens a portal on his or her own, and jumps into it? This kind of not by accident, or something different?

 

[Sergeandgreen]

Yes. The main problem is tagging and expectations from the story. There is more or less a consensus on what isekai is. If you try to be smart, or simply want to "broaden the horizon", and tag something that isn't really an isekai with an isekai tag, you will suffer backlash. If you don't care about it, go ahead and do it.

Elaborate on what do you mean with "not by accident but by choice?" For example, MC opens a portal on his or her own, and jumps into it? This kind of not by accident, or something different?

Yeah, someone who opens a portal by himself, or maybe studies isekai cases in the country and calculates the exact angle and speed a truck needs to have to transport someone (if its a globally known phenomenon) or something in that line. Maybe an isekai fan that is obsessed with it and studies his whole life to somehow get isekaied because he thinks he will have a better life in another world.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Yeah, someone who opens a portal by himself, or maybe studies isekai cases in the country and calculates the exact angle and speed a truck needs to have to transport someone (if its a globally known phenomenon) or something in that line. Maybe an isekai fan that is obsessed with it and studies his whole life to somehow get isekaied because he thinks he will have a better life in another world.

There were works like that. If I recall any, I will post the titles on your profile.

 

[Gray_Mann]

If they don't land on another world, than no they aren't an isekai protagonist.

HOWEVER, if for example, they land on the Moon.....that would be a weird loophole in the definition of isekai and I'm not sure how to address it.

 

[Sergeandgreen]

If they don't land on another world, than no they aren't an isekai protagonist.

HOWEVER, if for example, they land on the Moon.....that would be a weird loophole in the definition of isekai and I'm not sure how to address it.

Finally someone that understands my struggle with the definition.

 

[Gray_Mann]

Finally someone that understands my struggle with the definition.

Yep. I've mentioned the moon example before regarding the isekai definition, and people just wave it off as if I'm joking. But seriously, does it still count or does there need to be a fully functioning civilization ongoing for it to count?

 

[Sergeandgreen]

Yep. I've mentioned the moon example before regarding the isekai definition, and people just wave it off as if I'm joking. But seriously, does it still count or does their need to be like a fully functioning civilization ongoing for it to count?

I mean, what convinced me that it doesn't count as an isekai was the differentiation between planet and world. In this case, not even a planet. But even then it is a thing open for interpretation.

 

[AYM]

Ideas to consider:

• Was the displacement of the character forced, sudden, or unintended?
• Does the method of transportation involve mystical or unexplained elements?
• Is the destination a realm the character is familiar with or previously known about?
• Has the character been to this destination before?
• Is the character sent to a different or alternate timespace?
• Is the character subject to different Heavenly Laws at the destination?
• How similar is this story when it's compared to other isekai stories?
• Is everyone in the new world a jade beauty?
• Is the character just an average 日本人 highschooler who has no discernable characteristics besides the quality of "a severe deficiency of the intimate interaction or relation with any aquaintances of the female sex" and a hobby of reading webnovels or an overworked 日本人 salaryworker who has no discernable characteristics besides a mentally devastating job at a black company and a hobby of routinely playing visual novel dating sims containing appealing designs of characters of perceived high socioeconomic status aimed at marketing towards young women or repeat copium addicts?

 

[Sergeandgreen]

Ideas to consider:

• Was the displacement of the character forced, sudden, or unintended?
• Does the method of transportation involve mystical or unexplained elements?
• Is the destination a realm the character is familiar with or previously known about?
• Has the character been to this destination before?
• Is the character sent to a different or alternate timespace?
• Is the character subject to different Heavenly Laws at the destination?
• How similar is this story when it's compared to other isekai stories?
• Is everyone in the new world a jade beauty?
• Is the character just an average 日本人 highschooler who has no discernable characteristics besides the quality of "a severe deficiency of the intimate interaction or relation with any aquaintances of the female sex" and a hobby of reading webnovels or an overworked 日本人 salaryworker who has no discernable characteristics besides a mentally devastating job at a black company and a hobby of routinely playing visual novel dating sims containing appealing designs of characters of perceived high socioeconomic status aimed at marketing towards young women or repeat copium addicts?

How many checks do i need for it to be classified as isekai?
And does Truck-kun count as an explaination?

 

[AYM]

How many checks do i need for it to be classified as isekai?
And does Truck-kun count as an explaination?

Truck-kun is isekai

 

[Gray_Mann]

• Is the character just an average 日本人 highschooler who has no discernable characteristics besides the quality of "a severe deficiency of the intimate interaction or relation with any aquaintances of the female sex" and a hobby of reading webnovels or an overworked 日本人 salaryworker who has no discernable characteristics besides a mentally devastating job at a black company and a hobby of routinely playing visual novel dating sims containing appealing designs of characters of perceived high socioeconomic status aimed at marketing towards young women or repeat copium addicts?

Pretty sure thousands of Japanese authors are sharpening their metaphorical katana to hunt you down for this one

 

[Sergeandgreen]

Truck-kun is isekai

Yeah? and what if i write from the perspective of truck-kun? He never leaves the world and is only in search for the next japanese high schooler.

 

[AYM]

Yeah? and what if i write from the perspective of truck-kun? He never leaves the world and is only in search for the next japanese high schooler.

Slice of Life

 

[Nolff]

That Time I Flew To The Philippines.

The second title should be "When the trees speak Philippines".

Well, i guess if it comes to tagging the story, you are probably right. I mean, i would maybe add that the isekaied person doesn't necessarily need to be from earth, but otherwise, i guess as long as one gets unexplainably transported to another reality, it counts.
(Does anyone know about a story, where a character isekais himself and gets transported to another world, not by accident but by choice?")

I've seen one. Wanna check it out?

https://mangadex.org/title/dbbca2b5-bdd1-4f2b-8b2e-d72bf7fd89a0/i-m-really-not-the-evil-god-s-lackey

Finally someone that understands my struggle with the definition.

Isn't that Sci-Fi? I mean, most movies and novels bout landing on the moon, visiting another planet/civilization, etc, are Sci-Fi.

 

[DarkDuck09]

Yeah? and what if i write from the perspective of truck-kun? He never leaves the world and is only in search for the next japanese high schooler.

Truck-kun exists between dimensions though, sending Japanese high schoolers from all dimensions to new worlds. There for Truck-kun is isekai.

 

[Sergeandgreen]

Truck-kun exists between dimensions though, sending Japanese high schoolers from all dimensions to new worlds. There for Truck-kun is isekai.

And the gods that grant cheats to the isekaied people are his annoying overly liberal coworkers.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Key words are "transported" and other "world". So,

Moon in out. That thing is a satellite.

Mars is out. Transported in Isekai is do to outside interference. The astronauts transport themselves. Also, world implies that there is at the absolute very least, shit flinging sub-humans in a pack. That have above average intelligence than other species.

Philippines is possible. Get kidnapped or something to have an involuntary transport. Falls under "regions or group of countries". i.e. https://www.scribblehub.com/series/455842/that-time-i-reincarnated-as-a-filipino/

 

[CharlesEBrown]

You want some real "fun" with this - look to E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensmen" stories - the Lensmen themselves are just elite, well, superheroes in space (they were partial inspiration for the Green Lantern Corps - not the original character, but the Silver Age version - in DC Comics), but the two warring races behind the stories, one evil that I can never remember the name of and one good race, the Arisians, are both from other dimensions, unable to affect each other directly so they contact and empower the natives of this universe; they are, essentially, "reverse Isekai" as they are weaker here and unable to get back home (the bad guys because they destroyed their home, the Arisians because they had to bind themselves to this universe to be able to empower champions to stop the enemy),

There were works like that. If I recall any, I will post the titles on your profile.

I know I have sort of seen two - one where the person tried but wound up on the wrong world, and one where it did work.

Oh, possibly the earliest "true Isekai" stories (but I'm pretty sure they predate the use of the term) would be things like the Harold Shea (started by L. Sprague DeKamp but continued by a few others) novels (also sort of proto GameLit, and definite inspiration for some modern games) and a 1949 novel titled "Silverlock" that has the hero transported after an accident (I think a car crash but it has been 30 years since I read it) to The Commonwealth, a land consisting of several fictional or quasi-historical countries.
I THINK some of the Harold Shea stories are examples of characters "voluntarily Isekai-ing themselves" as they feature people who follow Shea into the fantasy world(s?) he visits trying to find him.