なぜ現代人は異世界転生に心惹かれるのか【進化心理学】
考えすぎる葦
72,072 views
Why are the settings for isekai (otherworld reincarnation) stories invariably medieval Europe-style, with swords and magic? Not a galaxy filled with spaceships, nor a futuristic world of towering skyscrapers, but always cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages, and lantern-lit taverns. There are no painkillers, and when the sun sets, the world is plunged into darkness. Logically, it's a very inconvenient world, yet we're somehow captivated by it.
Hundreds of thousands of isekai stories have piled up on "Shosetsuka ni Narou" (a Japanese online novel platform), and over 200 have been adapted into anime. This enthusiasm is the same across the ocean in America, where the percentage of anime viewers has roughly doubled in the last five years.
Why do so many people deliberately leave this convenient modern world to yearn for the dreaded illusion of the inconvenient Middle Ages?
The answer lies not in dragons, magic, or the gleam of a hero's sword. In that world, simply defeating a single monster directly translates accumulated effort into tangible results. There's always at least one role that only you can fulfill. If you bake bread, the customer in front of you smiles and says it's delicious. If you look closely, what we truly envy isn't swords or magic, but rather some of the "taken-for-granted" things that once existed in this reality, but somehow slipped through society's fingers.
Imagine a flock of birds, swept away by a storm to a remote island, where one bird happens to have a strangely shaped beak. That oddly shaped beak, useless on its home continent, becomes the only weapon capable of cracking hard fruit on this island. No special power was born. The value of the same trait simply skyrocketed due to a slight change in environment. The protagonist of this alternate world didn't suddenly become amazing. Perhaps it's simply that the vast modern society that kept us confined to "ordinary individuals" has completely disappeared.
But is that "perfect world where effort is always rewarded," so longed for, truly a gentle place? A world where all success is proof of ability is also a place where all failures are met with the unspoken message, "It's entirely your own fault." That's why other worlds are best left as something beyond the realm of fiction. You can always return to them by closing the book.
This time, I've explored the question of "Why do modern people seek 'reincarnation into another world'?" from the perspectives of evolutionary psychology and labor sociology.
----------------------------
▼Timestamps
00:00 - Prologue: Nostalgia for Cobblestone Streets
02:07 - Chapter 1: The Escaped Convict of the Starting Town
05:49 - Chapter 2: The Magic of Karma
09:06 - Chapter 3: The Deformed Beak that Bloomed on the Isolated Island
14:47 - Chapter 4: The Fossil of the Hole in the Heart
17:55 - Epilogue: Welcome to a Fuzzy World
----------------------------
▼References and Data Sources
[1] Number of works published and adapted into anime on "Shosetsuka ni Narou" (Hundreds of thousands of submitted works set in other worlds have accumulated, and there are over 200 works that have been adapted into anime. Overview based on the site and various summaries)
[2] Trends in the proportion of anime viewers in the United States (The percentage of people who watch anime is projected to roughly double, from approximately 10% in 2020 to approximately 22% in 2025. Based on various global viewing surveys. *This is the "percentage of people who watch anime," not "viewership rating.")
[3] Price, P. (2021). "A Survey of the Story Elements of Isekai Manga." Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, 2. (Analysis of 746 Isekai manga series. Approximately 80% of the works feature protagonists whose bodies are physically transformed through reincarnation or transmigration, and approximately 41% of the protagonists are adult males.)
[4] Ryan, R. M., Rigby, C. S., & Przybylski, A. (2006). "The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach." Motivation and Emotion, 30, 344–360. (Analysis of online game players n=730 = Study 4. The greatest contributor to enjoyment is "autonomy" (β=0.49), approximately twice as important as "competence" (β=0.24). Relationships (β=0.12). (Self-determination theory)
[5] Siegrist, J. (1996). "Adverse Health Effects of High-Effort/Low-Reward Conditions." Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1(1), 27–41. (Effort-reward imbalance model. If the rewards, recognition, and status received do not match the effort invested, mental and physical health will be impaired.)
[6] Marx, K. Alienated labor in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (the concept of "alienation" where workers are separated from the results of their labor, the process of labor, others, and themselves)
[7] Graeber, D. (2018). Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. Simon & Schuster. / Soffia, M., Wood, A. J., & Burchell, B. (2022). "Alienation Is Not 'Bullshit': An Empirical Critique of Graeber's Theory of BS Jobs."...
20 Comments
不満のある環境から、突然現れた第三者の善人（魔法使い→神）に救い出してもらい、
努力することなく元々持っている能力（美貌→前世の経験）だけで異常にモテた結果、
人生全体（金、異性、人望、権力）が充実していく
という他力本願な物語。
人類の欲求を満たすフォーマットとしてそれこそ何百年と前から存在しているので、良い悪いを論じる段階にないんだけど、
砂糖だけを固めた駄菓子のようではあると感じます。
摂取する量には気をつけないといけないかもしれません。
RPGと言われてイメージするのがドラクエだったり最初の頃のFFだったり
そもそもそれらの大元ウィザードリィや世界初のRPGになるダンジョンズ＆ドラゴンズだったりの『剣と魔法の世界』だからこうなってるのであって
万が一7以降のFFのような機械が普通にある世界や鬼武者みたいな和風の世界が『RPGの当たり前』だったら
異世界転生も中世風じゃなくてそういう世界だったんじゃないだろうか
所属と愛の欲求を異世界転生のような創作や界隈そして推し活が受け止めてくれて、
現代人はモラトリアムを延長する苦痛を感じずに済んでいる。
そのうち生活の面倒も国が見てくれたらマズローの欲求のピラミッドの(自己実現欲求を除く)全てを外注できて、努力しなくても満足ではないがそれなりに楽しい一生を送れるようになる。
ただし自己実現欲求だけは下層欲求を自分で満たし積み上げた者にしか満たせない。
十二国記、無職転生、本好きの下剋上みたいに、その世界がどう作られていて、現代社会とどう違うのかを書き込まれている作品を書くのは大変。代わりに、ナーロッパというオタクならどこかで聞いたことがあるような世界観を拝借することで、読者に世界観の想像を肩代わりしてもらってるんだよ。
なぜ現代人は異世界転生に心惹かれるのか【進化心理学】
考えすぎる葦
72,072 views
Why are the settings for isekai (otherworld reincarnation) stories invariably medieval Europe-style, with swords and magic? Not a galaxy filled with spaceships, nor a futuristic world of towering skyscrapers, but always cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages, and lantern-lit taverns. There are no painkillers, and when the sun sets, the world is plunged into darkness. Logically, it's a very inconvenient world, yet we're somehow captivated by it.
Hundreds of thousands of isekai stories have piled up on "Shosetsuka ni Narou" (a Japanese online novel platform), and over 200 have been adapted into anime. This enthusiasm is the same across the ocean in America, where the percentage of anime viewers has roughly doubled in the last five years.
Why do so many people deliberately leave this convenient modern world to yearn for the dreaded illusion of the inconvenient Middle Ages?
The answer lies not in dragons, magic, or the gleam of a hero's sword. In that world, simply defeating a single monster directly translates accumulated effort into tangible results. There's always at least one role that only you can fulfill. If you bake bread, the customer in front of you smiles and says it's delicious. If you look closely, what we truly envy isn't swords or magic, but rather some of the "taken-for-granted" things that once existed in this reality, but somehow slipped through society's fingers.
Imagine a flock of birds, swept away by a storm to a remote island, where one bird happens to have a strangely shaped beak. That oddly shaped beak, useless on its home continent, becomes the only weapon capable of cracking hard fruit on this island. No special power was born. The value of the same trait simply skyrocketed due to a slight change in environment. The protagonist of this alternate world didn't suddenly become amazing. Perhaps it's simply that the vast modern society that kept us confined to "ordinary individuals" has completely disappeared.
But is that "perfect world where effort is always rewarded," so longed for, truly a gentle place? A world where all success is proof of ability is also a place where all failures are met with the unspoken message, "It's entirely your own fault." That's why other worlds are best left as something beyond the realm of fiction. You can always return to them by closing the book.
This time, I've explored the question of "Why do modern people seek 'reincarnation into another world'?" from the perspectives of evolutionary psychology and labor sociology.
----------------------------
▼Timestamps
00:00 - Prologue: Nostalgia for Cobblestone Streets
02:07 - Chapter 1: The Escaped Convict of the Starting Town
05:49 - Chapter 2: The Magic of Karma
09:06 - Chapter 3: The Deformed Beak that Bloomed on the Isolated Island
14:47 - Chapter 4: The Fossil of the Hole in the Heart
17:55 - Epilogue: Welcome to a Fuzzy World
----------------------------
▼References and Data Sources
[1] Number of works published and adapted into anime on "Shosetsuka ni Narou" (Hundreds of thousands of submitted works set in other worlds have accumulated, and there are over 200 works that have been adapted into anime. Overview based on the site and various summaries)
[2] Trends in the proportion of anime viewers in the United States (The percentage of people who watch anime is projected to roughly double, from approximately 10% in 2020 to approximately 22% in 2025. Based on various global viewing surveys. *This is the "percentage of people who watch anime," not "viewership rating.")
[3] Price, P. (2021). "A Survey of the Story Elements of Isekai Manga." Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, 2. (Analysis of 746 Isekai manga series. Approximately 80% of the works feature protagonists whose bodies are physically transformed through reincarnation or transmigration, and approximately 41% of the protagonists are adult males.)
[4] Ryan, R. M., Rigby, C. S., & Przybylski, A. (2006). "The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach." Motivation and Emotion, 30, 344–360. (Analysis of online game players n=730 = Study 4. The greatest contributor to enjoyment is "autonomy" (β=0.49), approximately twice as important as "competence" (β=0.24). Relationships (β=0.12). (Self-determination theory)
[5] Siegrist, J. (1996). "Adverse Health Effects of High-Effort/Low-Reward Conditions." Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1(1), 27–41. (Effort-reward imbalance model. If the rewards, recognition, and status received do not match the effort invested, mental and physical health will be impaired.)
[6] Marx, K. Alienated labor in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (the concept of "alienation" where workers are separated from the results of their labor, the process of labor, others, and themselves)
[7] Graeber, D. (2018). Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. Simon & Schuster. / Soffia, M., Wood, A. J., & Burchell, B. (2022). "Alienation Is Not 'Bullshit': An Empirical Critique of Graeber's Theory of BS Jobs."...