Otome Isekai Basics

Hello, and welcome to the otome isekai wiki! This page is meant to serve as a guide for if you're new to the community/looking for a refresher. Happy reading!

### What is Otome Isekai?

Good question! To figure that out, let's look into the meanings of both words:

* **Otome** (乙女) means 'maiden' in Japanese. An otome game (乙女ゲーム) is a type of life simulation game where the player makes choices to follow different 'story routes', typically in order to develop a romantic relationship with one of the different capture targets
* **Isekai** (いせかい) means 'other world' in Japanese. In this genre, the protagonist goes to another world (for example they may be transported to a world inside a video game or novel).

If you put them together, otome isekai is a sub-genre of isekai, and the world the protagonist ends up in has some resemblance to an otome game. This might sound a bit confusing right now, but you'll soon get the hang of it!

### Manga/Manhua/Manhwa/Webtoons - What's the difference?

At first glance, it might look like these names are interchangeable, but there are some differences. Let's take a look!

* **Manga** - A term for Japanese comics. Manga are published in black and white, and they are read from right to left and top to bottom. They have many panels on one page, and are often designed to be read in print format. They are published weekly/biweekly in printed magazines like Shonen Jump.
* **Manhua** - A term for comics from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. They are usually published in color and are read from right to left and top to bottom. They can be found on publishing platforms such as QQ Comic and Vcomic.
* **Manhwa** - An umbrella term for Korean comics. Manhwa can refer to a comic that is printed or digital. They are illustrated in full color, and they are read from left to right and top to bottom. They usually have panels stacked on top of one another as they are meant to be read vertically in long segments (you scroll down to read).
* **Webtoons** - A term that is almost synonymous to manhwa, but specifically refers to digitally published content. There are several popular webtoon platforms that helped spread the popularity of this name (WEBTOON, Tapas, Lezhin Comics, etc.) Webtoons are published on a weekly basis through these digital platforms.

Everyone has their own preference for what style of comic they like. If you are looking for recommendations, each of these types of comics have their own subreddit where you can ask fellow fans or browse past threads.

### Terminology

In online discussion forums, you may come across some terms that you are unfamiliar with. Here is a (semi) organized list of different terms/abbreviations you might come across.

* **OI** - otome isekai
* **MC** - an abbreviation of 'main character'
* **FL** - an abbreviation for 'female lead', one of the main romantic partners in the story
* **ML** - an abbreviation for 'male lead', one of the main romantic partners in the story
* **Second lead syndrome** (often 'second male lead syndrome') - in stories with more than one candidate for ML, this is when you find yourself rooting for the character that ultimately does not end up with the MC
* **CP** - an abbreviation of 'crown prince'
* **Harem** - when a group of females share the same male romantic/sexual partner
* **Reverse-harem** - the opposite of harem, when a group of males share the same female romantic/sexual partner
* **Shoujo** - A category of comics aimed at girls roughly between the ages of 10-18
* **Josei** - A category of comics aimed at older teen girls/adult women. They typically portray life/love more realistically than shoujo.
* **Scanlations** - A conjunction of 'scan translations', when fans use scans of comics to create their own translations for release. Typically this happens when there is no official release on publishing platforms in a particular language, so fans do it themselves
* **Raws** - The raw image files of a comic, before they are translated from their original language
* **Castle-nim** - A castle that has appeared in so many comics that it is now referred to as 'castle-nim' ('nim' is a Korean honorific to show respect). Basically, it's a digital asset that many production companies have purchased to use in their comics, and it has now become a meme.
* **Boob window** - Another meme in the community, referring to a style of men's fashion that creates a 'boob window'. It's kind of hard to explain, so just check out this picture.