Girardian Isekai Part 2: Isekai is Two Worlds Mythology

Isekai, or “Other World’ in Japanese, is a genre of fantasy in which the protagonist is transported, often reincarnated, into a new world. The guiding purpose of these stories is to contrast a key feature of the present with a historical or fantastical world. This contrast can range from economic and technological discoveries to fundamental moral differences. 

Isekai is a prime narrative technology to recover the Christian heritage. At present, the Christian revelation is accepted in true and false forms. It has become the water we swim in. The inversion of hierarchy is mundane. The sacrifice of the strong in the name of the weak is no longer shocking. It is both ordinary and mandatory. Hierarchy is disintegrated until all have become one. The war of one against all has reverted to the war of all against all. 

The art of discrimination between the true Christian heritage and false idols becomes difficult to practice. To Girard, the caricature of Christianity is far more dangerous to modernity than its direct opposition. Isekai is a new two worlds mythology. The original Christian miracles used a two worlds mythology to imagine a new interpretation of the world: one in which the victim was innocent. Today’s Isekai reanimates the possibility of a pagan world, to create a plausible arena where the truth of different Christian interpretations can be tested. 

This is my Girardian reading of The Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint. ORV is a serialized Korean novel and a prime example of the isekai genre. The world of ORV starts like our own in the present day, but supernatural beings turn it overnight into a pagan colosseum match for god-like ‘Constellations’. After this transformation, survival instinct reverts mankind to pagan morality: the rule of the strong over the weak.

Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint

There’s a twist.