Summary
Reincarnation anime with English-translated light novels remain popular despite the saturation thanks to their unique premises. Every title has something new to offer around the tropes this genre is built on, regardless of whether they’re isekai or not.
Detailed combat and magic systems, non-encyclopedic world-building, explorations of character and plot concepts only teased in other works, and similar approaches crop up in titles that get noticed by the community.
Oftentimes, the light novel versions of these anime offer better insight into character motivations, world rules, and events. Characters and the timeline may even be completely different. Anime may use shorthand to communicate what roles characters occupy or change the timeline for better visual storytelling.
転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命
Light Novel Volumes in English: 6
Anime Episodes: 12
Anisphia is the princess of the Kingdom of Palettia, where nobles are known to use magic. Unfortunately, she was born without the capacity to use magic. On the flip side, she remembers her former magic-loving life on mundane Earth early on in her new life.
Her memories, dogged determination to use magic, and some old-world science help her start magicology in the new world. It also gives Euphyllia a chance to regain her honor after Anisphia’s younger brother breaks off their engagement.Together, they researchthe arcane, while something sinister brews under the surface.
賢者の弟子を名乗る賢者
Light Novel Volumes in English: 10
Sakimori Kagami is a total VRMMO junkie. In Arch Earth Online, he’s known as one of the nine great sages, Dunblf Gandagore. The total Gandalf and Dumbledore-expy is his pride and joy, but on a whim, he decides to change his appearance to his dream girl.
Unfortunately for him, he wakes up as said dream girl inside Arch Earth Online. With no other recourse, Kagami sets out to find his fellow sages, all while pretending to be Dunbelf’s prodigy, Mira. Whatfollows is a voyagewhere a VRMMO superfan gets to live in the fantasy world he’s always adored.
神達に拾われた男
Light Novel Volumes in English: 12
Anime Episodes: 24
After thirty-nine years of a boring life as a salaryman, Ryoma Takebayashi dies in his sleep. He wakes up to the gods Lulutia, Kufo, and Gain welcoming him into the afterlife. As a reward for his actions on earth, and to save their world, Ryoma is reborn into the world of Seilfall with unique powers.
These unique powers allow him to tame slimes in the forest where he’s reincarnated as an eight-year-old. Ryoma spends time training with his slimes until, years later, he meets Reinhart and then his daughter Eliaria. In Seilfall,Ryoma finds peaceand discovers why his life on Earth was the way it was.
ナイツ＆マジック
Light Novel Volumes in English: 11
Anime Episodes: 13
A lot of reincarnation isekai posits the protagonist as a fantasy junkie. But what if the reincarnate is a fan of Gundam and other mecha?
Tsubasa Kurata is one such otaku. After a car accident lands him another chance at life as Ernesti Echavalier, he discovers his new world has real mecha called Silhouette Knights. Naturally, Ernesti sets out to become a Knight Runner to pilot the mecha. A school trip gone wrong lets him achieve his dream, albeit briefly. But the incident is enough for the Knights of Fremmevilla Kingdom to take notice, and for Ernesti to start his journey in earnest.
聖者無双
On earth, a salaryman is meant to die comfortably at a ripe old age. However, a capricious god who picked him and nine other hapless souls for a bet plucked him out of earth after he was unceremoniously shot.
Thrown into the lands of Galdardia as Luciel, the salaryman decides tobecome a healerto have a cushy life. He quickly finds out that being a healer isn’t that easy, and that the cutthroat life he aspires to isn’t exactly what he wants after all.
5The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess To Savior
悲劇の元凶となる最強外道ラスボス女王は民の為に尽くします。
Higeki no Genkyō to naru Saikyō Gedō Last Boss Joō wa Min no tame ni Tsukushimasu
Ominously named Pride Royal Ivy, the princess of the Freesia Kingdom is the villainess of an otome game. She was destined to be as cruel as a demon, and the last boss who dies at the end. But the current Pride is a reincarnation of an office lady thrown into another world with zero intention of becoming the villain.
Fans ofMy Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!mayfind the title interesting. Pride and Katarina Claes unwittingly create a harem as they attempt to reverse their characters’ original fate.
精霊幻想記
Light Novel Volumes in English: 23
Rio lived an impoverished yet peaceful life with his mother Ayame until she was killed in front of him. He swore to avenge his mother but is enslaved by a gang instead. Years later, two things alter the trajectory of his life forever.
Memories of his old life as college student Haruto Amakawa came flooding back. At the same time, hesaves Princess Flora Beltrumfrom a kidnapping that he is accused of. Eventually, he is proven innocent which leads him to a new track towards revenge.
スライム倒して300年、知らないうちにレベルMAXになってました
Light Novel Volumes in English: 14
Azusa Aizawa is driven to an early grave thanks to overworking. That’s why, when she is reincarnated as the eternally youthful Witch of The Highlands, she vows to kick it back, forever. To maintain her stress-free lifestyle, she picks up slime-killing as a job at Flatta and nothing else.
Her surefire plan backfires when, 300 years later, a routine check at the adventurer’s guild reveals that Azusa is now level 99. Thanks to an eavesdropper, news of her overwhelming power spreads, and she finds her idyllic lifestyle threatened by blowhard adventurers.
蜘蛛ですが、なにか？
Light Novel Volumes in English: 16
The protagonist has never been a people person. Her parents were never at home and the only human interactions she has are through an MMORPG and conversations about it. So when shewakes up as a spiderin a dungeon, she adjusts to it rather quickly.
Elsewhere, Shun wakes up as a prince. Not only that, he realizes that he and his classmates were all reincarnated in the new world after they were killed in a freak accident. Soon after, he discovers more of his classmates in his midst, and even his old homeroom teacher.
So I’m A Spider, So Whatfollows the initially nameless protagonist and Shin’s journeys, with the former unknowingly becoming a potentially huge villain while Shun learns how to be a hero.
最果てのパラディン
Light Novel Volumes in English: 4
Anime Episode: 12
Reborn nameless into a fantasy world, the protagonist is found and raised by three powerful undead. Named William G. Maryblood after his three foster parents, he vows to make good on his new life to make up for his shut-in life on earth.
His mettle is tested when, upon turning fifteen, the God of the Undead Stagnate tries to reap his parents. William rebuffs Stagnate through a pact made with Gracefeel, the goddess of the cycle of rebirth. The encounter sets him ona journey beyondthe city of the undead, where wars governed by gods lie.
