History Main / ReincarnatedAsANonHumanoid

This trope is for when things get...weirder. Maybe our plucky protagonist has awoken in a HighFantasy or StandardJapaneseFantasySetting world as [[TheGoomba a low-level monster]], or perhaps they've returned to life in their own world as [[BrainUploading an AI]], an animal, or something similar.

* ''Anime/TheBoyAndTheBeast'': In final battle, Kumatetsu reincarnates as a sword before merging with Kyūta to help him fight against Ichirōhiko.

* ''Literature/TheDiscardedHalfEatenAppleCoreNewLife'': A guy dies during an invasion of aliens which want to consume all life dies. His soul ends up attached to a discarded apple core, when a planetary defence system kicks in it locates him and is baffled by his species, and goes looking up "apple" and "core" in dictionaries until it finds meanings it can work with, so he ends up as a [[ADungeonIsYou Dungeon Core (Apple Electronics)]].

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

* Music/LemonDemon's "Cabinet Man" is about a guy who, after dying of an unknown cause, comes back to life as a deadly arcade machine.

* In ''Literature/{{Christine}}'', there is speculation that this is how the titularly named car got her [[{{Yandere}} murderously possessive girlfriend-like personality]]. Several people connected to the car had died violently over the years and it was possible it was possessed by their vengeful spirits, but Christine's true nature is never explicitly confirmed.

Compare and contrast {{Metamorphosis}}, a one-way transformation that doesn't involve death; and HauntedFetter and HauntedTechnology, where a spirit inhabits a creature or object without being reborn into it (although there is some overlap so spirits which used to be humans and still have their memories when they do this count for this trope too).

* ''Fanfic/MyLittleWesker'': A 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' / ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' crossover about criminal mastermind and long term ''RE'' antagonist Albert Wesker waking up as a Pony in Equestria much to his own horror.

Reincarnation stories are popular, either as a way to end a story or [[FirstEpisodeResurrection start it]] it can be an interesting avenue for an author to turn to for plot hooks. Generally though, when a human character reincarnates -- even if they [[ReincarnatedAsTheOppositeSex change sex]], or get magic powers, [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld or end up in a fantasy or sci-fi world instead of mundane one]] generally they stay human... or at least [[HumanAlien close]] [[RubberForeheadAliens enough]] to [[StandardFantasyRaces humans]].

* ''Literature/RebornAsAVendingMachineNowIWanderTheDungeon'': A man who really loves vending machines is crushed to death diving trying to protect one from being smashed. He wakes up in a fantasy world as a vending machine himself and can only communicate using stock phrases like "Please insert coins" and "You might win an extra item!" in his recorded settings. He is discovered by a super-strong adventuring teenage girl who decides to take him on her adventures, strapped to her back.

Reincarnation stories are popular, either as a way to end a story or [[FirstEpisodeResurrection start it]] it can be an interesting avenue for an author to turn to for plot hooks. Generally though, when a human character reincarnates -- even if they [[ReincarnatedAsTheOppositeSex they change sex]], or get magic powers, [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld or end up in a fantasy or sci-fi world instead of mundane one]] generally they stay human... or at least [[HumanAlien close]] [[RubberForeheadAliens enough]] to [[StandardFantasyRaces humans]].

This trope is for when things get...weirder. Maybe our plucky protagonist has awoken in a HighFantasy or StandardJapaneseFantasySetting world [[TheGoomba a low-level monster]], or perhaps they've returned to life in their own world as [[BrainUploading an AI]], an animal, or something similar.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* In ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' both Yamask and Phantump, ghost types, are said to be former humans. Phantump is specifically said to be the ghosts of children lost in the woods who have possessed treestumps. Some of the Yamask Poké entries are depressing.

[[quoteright:350: [[Literature/RebornAsAVendingMachineNowIWanderTheDungeon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rbaavmniwtdws.jpg]]]]

* ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'': The protagonist is a high school girl who is reincarnated as a spider {{Mook}} in the lowest stratum of a deadly labyrinth filled with snakes, toads, monkeys, and dragons, and must fight and level up to survive and get stronger. Her entire class was killed and has reincarnated, another classmate of hers comes back as a cute dragon creature - and was stuck as an egg for several ''years'' till she hatched, too.
* ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'' is about a nerdy salaryman named Satoru Mikami dying in a knife attack protecting a colleague. He reincarnates in a new world as a CuteSlimeMook and slowly starts to get more powerful and become a respected leader known as Rimiru Tempest. Fairly early on he gets the ability to take on a humanoid form, but his true form is still that of basically an adorable puddle of goo.

[[caption-width-right:350:I think, therefore, I vend cans]]

[[caption-width-right:350:I think therefore I vend cans]]

Compare and contrast {{Metamorphosis}}, a one-way transformation that doesn't involve death; and HauntedFetter and HauntedTechnology, where a spirit inhabits a creature or object without being reborn into it.

** ''Literature/EqualRites'': {{Discussed|Trope}} when an ImmortalitySeeker dies. His ghost asks about reincarnation, so [[TheGrimReaper Death]] warns him that he'd have to start small and work his way up -- "A[-ND WITH YOUR KARMA AN ANT IS TOO MUCH TO EXPECT-]."

As anything from a pussycat to a man eating alligator\\

But believe it or not my mother dear decided she'd come back\\

Reincarnation stories are popular, either as way to end a story or [[FirstEpisodeResurrection start it]] it can be an interesting avenue for an author to turn to for plot hooks. Generally though, when a human character reincarnates -- even if they [[ReincarnatedAsTheOppositeSex they change sex]], or get magic powers, [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld or end up in a fantasy or sci-fi world instead of mundane one]] generally they stay human... or at least [[HumanAlien close]] [[RubberForeheadAliens enough]] to [[StandardFantasyRaces humans]].

This trope is for when things get... weirder. Maybe our plucky protagonist has awoken in a HighFantasy or StandardJapaneseFantasySetting world [[TheGoomba a low level monster]], or perhaps they've returned to life in their own world in as [[BrainUploading an AI]], an animal, or something similar.

* ''Fanfic/LivingTheDreamKickass222urmom'': On [[MayanDoomsday December 21st, 2012]], God enacts the [[CaughtUpInTheRapture Rapture]] and destroys the Earth. However, a young man by the name Lance Greenfield is given a second chance to live in [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld any world]] he desires. He chooses Equestria and lives his new life as a zebra-pegasus named Girokon.

* ''Fanfic/BlackVictory'': Human is resurrected by Arceus in world without humans as a Victini, a darker take on the ''Pokémon: Mystery Dungeon'' concept.
* ''Fanfic/RottenLuck'': A human guy from the Pokémon universe named Jonathan is late for his first ever date and goes into an old antique shop and buys a strange statuette as a gift for his date. However before he can even get to the date he is run over whilst pushing a child and their Zigzagoon out of the way of a speeding car. He wakes up as a freshly hatched Ralts that somehow still has the strange statuette.

* ''Film/{{Fluke}}'': After dying from a horrible car crash, a man named Tom is reincarnated as a dog in attempt to reconnect with his widowed wife and son.

* ''Literature/IsekaiOnsenNiTensaiShitaOreNoKounouGaTondemosugiru'': A young man dies on the way to visit a onsen (hot spring hotel) in rural Japan. He wakes up reincarnated in fantasy world as an onsen himself.
* ''Literature/TheLongEarth'': Lobsang the ArtificialIntelligence claims quite sincerely to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman who died the moment he was activated, and has been accepted by the United Nations as such. In his opinion, the gel that houses most of his computing power is sufficiently brain-like to have attracted a human soul.

* ''Literature/ReincarnatedAsASword'': is a about a man who reincarnated in a magical fantasy land as a sapient sword. He becomes wielded by / the teacher of a young slave CatGirl who he tries to help escape poverty.

* ''Literature/ReincarnatedAsAVirus'' is, as the title implies, about a man who is reincarnated as a virus. He meets other viruses who have their own minds, wills, wants and needs, too.
* ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'': The protagonist is a high school girl who is reincarnated as a spider {{Mook}} in the lowest stratum of a deadly labyrinth filled with snakes, toads, monkeys and dragons, and must fight and level up to survive and get stronger. Her entire class was killed and has reincarnated, another classmate of hers comes back as a cute dragon creature - and was stuck as an egg for several ''years'' till she hatched, too.

* ''Literature/TreeOfAeons'': A bus full of teenagers and one indie game dev crashes; the teens are reincarnated in a magical world as heroes. The indie game dev protagonist, Matt, however isn't eligible for this and his reincarnation is randomly selected to be a sapient tree.

* ''Series/MyMotherTheCar'' is a short lived series from the 1960s about an attorney whose mother died, but still wanted to protect him, so she reincarnates / has her soul placed into a car - specifically a 1928 Porter.

* The ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games generally start with the protagonist waking up and realising they are now a Pokémon in a world without humans, you don't see the world the come from but they had been human.

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'': One sketch features a man named Doug who gets killed in an archery accident. He gets sent to Purgatory, where he has to spin the [[WheelOfDecisions Wheel of Re-incarnation]] to find out what he will be reincarnated as. Doug spins the wheel, and hopes he will land on Keira Knightley's Underwear, which he finds out is a popular choice. Much to his dismay, he ends up getting reincarnated as a [[BlandNameProduct Huggytime]] [[Franchise/CareBears Bear]] named Doug-A-Lot Bear. [[spoiler:At the end of the sketch, it is revealed that Doug merely had a NearDeathExperience.]]

---> '''Principal Skinner''': (''while school burns down in the background'') I didn't burn down the school, it was the butterfly. THE BUTTERFLY!
---> '''Chief Wiggum''': Man's crazy. Boys, get the tasers. (''Camera pans up to butterfly with Bart's head holding gasoline container and laughing maniacally.'')

** In the second segment of ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E4TreehouseOfHorrorXVI TreehouseOfHorrorXVI]]'', "[[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame Survival of the Fattest]]", Mr. Burns spots Apu hiding in the bushes and shoots him. Before he dies, Apu states he will be reincarnated due to being Hindu, and comes back as a rabbit that pops out of his human corpse, [[YankTheDogsChain only to walk into a bear trap.]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has had a long tradition of allowing dead characters to be resurrected as [[RandomTransformation random species]], though the specifics have varied from edition to edition. Prior to [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition 3.5 Edition]], the results were about as likely to be animals as humanoids, with a chance for even more exotic results.

-->''One morning, they searched his adobe''
-->''He disappeared without even a word''
-->''But that night as the moon crossed the mountain''
-->''One more coyote was heard...''

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has had a long tradition of allowing dead characters to be resurrected as different species, though the specifics have varied from edition to edition. Prior to [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition 3.5 Edition]], the results were about as likely to be animals as humanoids, with a chance for even more exotic results.

->"''Everybody knows in a second life, we all come back sooner or later''
->''As anything from a pussycat to a man eating alligator''
->''Well you all may think my story, is more fiction than it's fact''
->''But believe it or not my mother dear decided she'd come back''
->''As a car..."''

Reincarnation stories are popular, either as way to end a story or [[FirstEpisodeResurrection start it]] it can be an interesting avenue for an author to turn to for plot hooks. Generally though, when a human character reincarnates - even if they [[ReincarnatedAsTheOppositeSex they change sex]], or get magic powers, [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld or end up in a fantasy or sci-fi world instead of mundane one]] generally they stay human... or at least [[HumanAlien close]] [[RubberForeheadAliens enough]] to [[StandardFantasyRaces humans]].

** ''Literature/EqualRites'': {{Discussed|Trope}} when an ImmortalitySeeker dies. His ghost asks about reincarnation, so [[TheGrimReaper Death]] warns him that he'd have to start small and work his way up - "A[-ND WITH YOUR KARMA AN ANT IS TOO MUCH TO EXPECT-]."