History Main / MediaTransmigration

** Anti-fan Shen Yuan dies from food poisoning after intensely ranting about the terrible end of the web novel he loved and hate-read. He then wakes as a character in said "Proud Immortal Demon Way"....as its StarterVillain Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu who dies as [[CruelAndUnusualDeath a human]] [[AndIMustScream stick]] at the hands of WishFulfillment VillainProtagonist Luo Binghe. The plot revolves around Shen Yuan's attempts to avoid this fate by endearing himself to [[ChildrenAreInnocent young]] [[UsedToBeASweetKid and innocent]] Luo Binghe and [[ForWantOfANail the resulting consequences.]]

The protagonist is a person who is reading, watching, or playing a [[ShowWithinAShow novel, televison show or game.]] They love or hate the characters and have an understanding of the story whether they finished or [[ConvenientlyInterruptedDocument not.]] Then they die, [[WakingUpElsewhere fall asleep]], [[DimensionalTraveler travel dimensions]], [[TrappedInAnotherWorld sucked into a portal]] or [[TrappedInTVLand pulled into a TV]], [[{{Handwave}} whatever]] to end up [[BodySnatcher waking up as a character in that series.]]

* ''LightNovel/FallingInLoveWithTheVillainess'': In a DarkerAndEdgier tale, Rion, from Japan, dies and finds himself in the body of a child in the slums, whose life is miserable until he encounters the Villainess Ariel Windhill and her brother, being hired as their valet (BattleButler). Unaware that he's in a world based on a game, Rion is teased by her and forms a LadyAndKnight relationship, using subterfuge to protect the siblings and their reputations, and encountering the world's DesignatedHero Maria. [[FemmeFatale Maria]], from earth but [[PeggySue having played the game]], and seeing the actually innocent Ariel as her greatest enemy, spreads rumors and conspires to bring the two siblings down, earning Rion's wrath, only for Rion to find that she has InUniverse PlotArmor, and YouCantFightFate.

* After being stabbed to death, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheDeathboundDukesDaughterAndTheSevenNobles'' wakes up as the villainess of an Otome game she was playing. Unfortunately, while she knows she’ll die in seven routes, she only finished the first two routes, so she doesn’t know the whole story.

* This is the main plot of ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'', where an unnamed tomboyish otaku reincarnates into the role of a SpoiledBrat rival from an otome game she was playing before she died. Since the character dies or ends up exiled in every route she plays a role in, she takes precautions to try and avoid her fate. Of course, she's also an idiot, so none of her plans ever go anywhere and she instead ends up stealing the heroine role, along with winning the affection of all four of the love interests, [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer the other two rivals, and the heroine herself]] by complete accident. [[spoiler:Her best friend Atsuko also reincarnated into the game as one of the other rivals, but they both remain unaware of this.]]

* In ''LightNovel/HowNotToSummonADemonLord'', Takuma Sakamoto is a [[{{Hikikomori}} shut in]] GodlikeGamer who dominates the MMORPG called Cross Reverie as a character known as Diablo the Demon Lord. But then one day he gets sucked into a world resembling Cross Reverie, where he becomes his own overpowered player avatar Diablo. Turns out two girls, Shera (an elf) and Rem (a cat girl) summoned him due to wanting a familiar, but [[AchievementInIgnorance failed to realize]] just how powerful their summon was who ended up reflecting their enslavement magic upon them and became his slaves instead.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Overlord|2012}}'', Satoru is a GodlikeGamer who played the once-popular virtual reality MMORPG, YGGDRASIL, until one day he remains logged in when the game servers were supposedly getting shut down for good. But instead of being logged out automatically, he finds himself stuck in the body of his video game avatar, a max-level skeletal lich. Also, the powerful {{NPC}}s his PVP guild designed (to defend their base from rival guilds) come to life, developing human-level intelligence and personalities, and worshiping Satoru as a god. Satoru enlists their help to safely learn everything they can about the world they're trapped in, but an offhand comment he makes leads his [=NPCs=] to believe their true goal is to TakeOverTheWorld.
* ''LightNovel/DeathMarchToTheParallelWorldRhapsody'': Video game developer Ichiro Suzuki falls asleep in his cubicle after working major overtime, and wakes up inside the MMO he had been working on. He immediately comes under attack by {{Draconic Humanoid}}s and activates the cheat code he had just programmed in a blind panic, wiping out the entire civilization and maxing out his character level immediately ([[JustifiedTrope explaining]] the GameBreaker abilities that {{isekai}} protagonists typically get). He later encounters Arisa Tachibana, another case of this who reincarnated in the parallel world [[spoiler:from an AlternateUniverse version of Japan]].

* After being stabbed to death, the protagonist of ''LightNovel/TheDeathboundDukesDaughterAndTheSevenNobles'' wakes up as the villainess of an Otome game she was playing. Unfortunately, while she knows she’ll die in seven routes, she only finished the first two routes, so she doesn’t know the whole story.

* ''LightNovel/AnObservationLogOfMyFianceeWhoCallsHerselfAVillainess:'' a young woman who gets reincarnated into Bertia Ibil Noches, the villainess role in her favorite otome game as seen from the perspective of her fiance, Prince Cecil. Bertia purposesly tries to become the villainess despite her very presence changing things...and that ''this'' Bertia is ''[[AllLovingHero really, really bad]]'' at being evil.

A Subtrope of BodySnatcher, as the person takes over the body and life of a pre-existing character from the ShowWithinAShow. When it is a major named character the person found themselves as, it is the NextLifeAsAFictionalCharacter subtrope. When it's the writer inserting an AuthorAvatar to act as the protagonist within a fanwork, it's a SelfInsertFic as the Self as Existing Character subtype.

* ''LightNovel/AccomplishmentsOfTheDukesDaughter'': Iris Lana Armelia regains memories of her past life as a Japanese accountant who played otome games to escape her empty life. She was the villainous rival in said game and awaken during the game's denouncement.

* ''Literature/VillainsAreDestinedToDie'' has Cha Siyeon who was an illegitimate child who escaped her abusive fraternal family by going to university. Through her classmates she heard of the viral Otome phone game "The Lady's Love Project" and got hooked. After beating all the routes in normal mode, she had the option to buy the very expensive true ending or to earn it through playing hard mode. A thifty young woman, she decides to play hard mode where instead of playing as the protagonist Yvonne, she has to play as the villainess Penolope Eckhart. Whom she wakes up as she is being belittled and mocked by her abusive family.

* ''Literature/WhyRaelianaEndedUpAtTheDukesMansion'' has the protagonist pushed off a bridge and reincarnated into the world of a murder mystery she read as Raeliana, the dead centerpiece of said mystery.

* Our unnamed transmigrator in ''Literature/VillainsAreDestinedToDie'' was an illegitimate child who escaped her abusive family by going to university. Through her classmates she heard of the viral Otome phone game "The Lady's Love Project" and got hooked. After beating all the routes in normal mode, she had the option to buy the very expensive true ending or to earn it through playing hard mode. A thifty young woman, she decides to play hard mode where instead of playing as the protagonist Yvonne, she has to play as the villainess Penolope Eckhart. Whom she wakes up as she is being belittled and mocked by her abusive family.

The protagonist is a person is who reading, watching or playing a [[ShowWithinAShow novel, televison show or game.]] They love or hate the characters and have an understanding of the story whether they finished or [[ConvenientlyInterruptedDocument not.]] Then they die, [[WakingUpElsewhere fall asleep]], [[DimensionalTraveler travel dimensions]], [[TrappedInAnotherWorld sucked into a portal]] or [[TrappedInTVLand pulled into a TV]], [[{{Handwave}} whatever]] to end up [[BodySnatcher waking up as a character in that series.]]

* In ''LightNovel/AWildLastBossAppeared'' a Japanese teenager finds himself sent into his in game avatar, Ruphas Mafahl, the supreme ruler who once conquered the whole game world before being defeated and presumed dead 200 years prior. [[spoiler: Eventually it is revealed that the fantasy world was real all along. The Japanese teenager held a part of Ruphas' soul and the whole game was created to familiarize it with the world before returning the soul to the original body.]]

* ''FanFic/OriginStory'': In the aftermath of the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Halloween", Xander Harris finds himself trapped not only in the body of ComicBook/PowerGirl, but in the Marvel Universe as well during a time in which being an unregistered metahuman is a bad, bad thing.
* ''FanFic/SVWishes'': Shen Yuan falls asleep before he could finish the harem drama he was reading and wakes up in the body of the villainous rival, Shen Qingqiu of the protagonist, Liu Qingge. As Liu Qingge marries their shared husband.
* ''FanFic/SeanBeanSavesWesteros'': Right after wrapping up filming on the first season of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Creator/SeanBean wakes up in White Harbor the day Ned Stark, the character he played, is killed. Note however that the Westeros he finds himself in is that of the books, not the show, so some characters are different from how he remembers them.

* ''LightNovel/TrappedInADatingSimTheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs'': The protagonist is a salaryman who dies of exhaustion after being blackmailed into a 48-hour straight gaming session to clear an otome game for his selfish younger sister. He is then reincarnated into the game's world as a background extra or "mob character." Recovering his memory of his past life after some ten odd years, he goes about trying to eke out a peaceful life for himself in a matriarchal society where men are mostly only seen as good for either being trophy husbands or fodder to die in wars. [[spoiler:Later on he runs into Marie, who happens to be the reincarnation of his younger sister, but doesn't discover that until after she attempts to manipulate the events of the game in her favor.]]

* ''Literature/TheReasonWhyRaelianaEndedUpAtTheDukesMansion'' has the protagonist pushed off a bridge and reincarnated into the world of a murder mystery she read as Raeliana, the dead centerpiece of said mystery.

* ''LightNovel/RebornAsASpaceMercenaryIWokeUpPilotingTheStrongestStarship'': Japanese corporate IT guy Takahiro Satou goes to bed after playing his favorite MMORPG, an ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' [[FictionalCounterpart clone]] called ''Stella Online'', and wakes up as his PlayerCharacter on the bridge of his ship in the game.

* In ''Literature/TrashOfTheCountsFamily'' Kim Rok Soo has just started reading ''The Birth of a Hero'', a fantasy series about a [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Korean teenager]] named Choi Han who gets [[TrappedInAnotherWorld transported to a fantasy world]] and gets five volumes in the series before falling asleep. He then awakes up in the body of a minor antagonist from the first novel, Cale, [[TitleDrop who is known as the trash of the count's family]] because of his tendency to get drunk and hurl bottles at anyone nearby, as well as treating those of lower status like they aren't people. And he's just days away from when this character is beaten to a bloody pulp by Choi Han. This meeting starts Choi Han's journey to heroism, but Kim Rok Soo-as-Cale understandably doesn't want to get hurt.
* ''Literature/TheScumVillainsSelfSavingSystemRenZhaFanpaiZijiuXitong'':
** Anti-fan Shen Yuan dies from food poisoning after intensely ranting about the terrible end of the web novel he loved and hate-read. He then wakes as a character in said "Proud Immortal Demon Way"....as its StarterVillain Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu who dies as [[CruelAndUnusualDeath a human]] [[AndIMustScream stick]] at the hands of WishFulfillment VillainProtagonist Luo Binghe. The plot revolves around Shen Yuan's attempts to avoid this fate by endearing himself to [[ChildrenAreInnocent young]] [[UsedToBeASweetKid and innocent]] Luo Binghe and [[ForWantOfANail the resulting consequences.]]
** Later it's revealed that the author of "Proud Immortal Demon Way" also reincarnated into the same world as minor character Shang Qinghua after accidentally electrocuting himself.
* ''LightNovel/TrappedInADatingSimTheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs'': The protagonist is a salaryman who dies of exhaustion after being blackmailed into a 48-hour straight gaming session to clear an otome game for his selfish younger sister. He is then reincarnated into the game's world as a background extra or "mob character." Recovering his memory of his past life after some ten odd years, he goes about trying to eke out a peaceful life for himself in a matriarchal society where men are mostly only seen as good for either being trophy husbands or fodder to die in wars. [[spoiler:Later on he runs into Marie, who happens to be the reincarnation of his younger sister, but doesn't discover that until after she attempts to manipulate the events of the game in her favor.]]
* ''LightNovel/AnObservationLogOfMyFianceeWhoCallsHerselfAVillainess:'' a young woman who gets reincarnated into Bertia Ibil Noches, the villainess role in her favorite otome game as seen from the perspective of her fiance, Prince Cecil. Bertia purposesly tries to become the villainess despite her very presence changing things...and that ''this'' Bertia is ''[[AllLovingHero really, really bad]]'' at being evil.

* ''Literature/TheSaintessAndTheVillainess:'' An office worker is hit by a truck and ends up becoming the Saintess, the main character of a novel she was reading just before her death. Her goal is to change the plot of the original story to save the life of her favorite character, Lady Corvina, who was originally the villainess of the novel.

[[folder:Manhua and Manhwa]]
* ''Manhwa/TheReasonWhyRaelianaEndedUpAtTheDukesMansion'' has the protagonist pushed off a bridge and reincarnated into the world of a murder mystery she read as Raeliana, the dead centerpiece of said mystery.
* ''Literature/ReleaseThatWitch'': After three straight days working non-stop to meet a work deadline, Cheng Yan, a [[TheEngineer mechanical engineer]] and long-time {{Bookworm}}, has finally collapsed. However, when he awakes, Cheng Yan finds he's no longer himself, but stuck in the body of Roland Wimbledon, the 4th prince of a Kingdom called Graycastle.
* ''Literature/TheDistinguishedCuteMaster'' has protagonist Yuan Chu on her third life after she dies at the hands of the male lead. Originally a normal girl before she transmigrated into a xianxia novel, she sought to be DistaffCounterpart of the male lead only to be killed as a boss character. Now on her third try, she seeks to kill or exploit the male lead to reach the protagonist-only upgrades.
[[/folder]]

* Our unnamed transmigrator in ''Literature/VillainsAreDestinedToDie'' was an illegitimate child who escaped her abusive family by going to university. Through her classmates she heard of the viral Otome phone game "The Lady's Love Project" and got hooked. After beating all the routes in normal mode, she had the option to buy the very expensive true ending or to earn it through playing hard mode. A thifty young woman, she decides to play hard mode where instead of playing as the protagonist Yvonne, she has to play as the villainess Penolope Eckhart. Whom she wakes up as she is being belittled and mocked by her abusive family.

Contrast with TrappedInAnotherWorld, which doesn't involve death, allows the character to keep their original body and retains the possibility that the character in question could return home (though most anime fans use the Japanese term ''isekai'' for both.)

A Subtrope of BodySnatcher, as the person takes over the body and life of a pre-existing character from the ShowWithinAShow. When it's the writer inserting an AuthorAvatar to act as the protagonist within a fanwork, it's a SelfInsertFic as the Self as Existing Character subtype.

* ''Series/LostInAusten'': Modern Jane Austen fan Amanda Price trades places with Elizabeth Bennet from Literature/PrideAndPrejudice, with the cover story that Amanda is a good friend of Elizabeth's. While she tries to keep the story on track, Charles Bingley becoming attracted to Amanda instead of Jane Bennet throws a wrench in that plan. it only gets more chaotic from there.

* ''LightNovel/AnObservationLogOfMyFianceeWhoCallsHerselfAVillainess:'' a young woman who gets reincarnated into Bertia Ilbi Nochesse, the villainess role in her favorite otome game as seen from the perspective of her fiance, Prince Cecil. Bertia purposesly tries to become the villainess despite her very presence changing things.

* ''LightNovel/JishouAkuyakuReijouNaKonyakushaNoKansatsuKiroku:'' a young woman who gets reincarnated into Bertia Ilbi Nochesse, the villainess role in her favorite otome game as seen from the perspective of her fiance, Prince Cecil. Bertia purposesly tries to become the villainess despite her very presence changing things.