18 Isekai Anime & Manga Protagonists Who Are Reincarnated As Background Characters

Key Takeaways

• These are all isekai stories with the unique twist of the protagonist being reincarnated as some side character in a story/game they know of.
• Because of how oversaturated the isekai genre is, new stories have to differentiate themselves is incredibly minute ways.
• What makes these stories qualify as the ‘best’ is their character writing, MC’s usage of the game/story itself, and the action.

The concept of being ‘transported’ into the world of a storybook, video game, or novel that the protagonist is reading has, shockingly enough, been done quite a bit across multiple mediums. Typically, the protagonist of the anime or manga is transported into the body of the main character to live out the story themselves, twisting the known events however they can for their own benefit.

But, sometimes, there are series that come out using this concept but with a bit of a twist, and the protagonist is instead dropped into their story or game of choice as some other background character. Sometimes it’s a villain, other times it’s a completely new character, and it can even be some inconsequential mob character. So, let’s take a look at some of the best stories in which this exact thing happens.

Updated December 2nd, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter: The isekai genre of anime, manga, webcomics, webtoons, manhwa, and more is so incredibly oversaturated at this point it’s ridiculous. There are so many stories out there of some person getting reincarnated in a new world with overpowered abilities that it’s exhausting. But, for both better or for worse, new isekai stories have long since started to experiment to differentiate themselves from their peers in incredibly niche ways. One such sub-genre of isekai are stories where the protagonist is reborn or reincarnated as a side character in some story or game. These specific isekai are a ton of fun to experience as the protagonist usually starts at a disadvantage rather than an advantage, and often has to completely turn their reputation around due to the actions of the character they were reborn as. In our experience with this sub-genre, here are the best recommendations we could think of.

19 I Killed An Academy Player

Written by Greenkirin & Illustrated by SaveMe

First up is a manhwa by the name of I Killed the Main Player, and the title should sort of give readers a general overview of the plot. Essentially, two people become trapped in a game by the name of ‘The Heroic Legend of Arhan’ with one getting reincarnated as a side/mob character (named Corin Lach), and the other being the main character of the game. They work together for years and eventually reach the final boss, only for Corin to find out that the main character has been killing all the important NPCs in the background and is obsessed with Corin.

The MC traps Corin and goes to fight the final boss on his own, only to lose, causing Corin to regress three years prior. Now, Corin has to take on the role of beating this impossible game on his own, take out the MC before he gains any real power, and figure out some way to reach the end of this game. This is one of the better ‘reincarnated as a side character’ stories because Corin truly does exist as a side character. He doesn’t have access to a stat window, he doesn’t have overpowered starting abilities, and he has to work incredibly hard to get to where he is.

Written by Greenkirin & Illustrated by Korita

The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide is another one where the main character is reincarnated as a trash noble side character who was originally barely a part of the game at all. This time around, it’s a noble by the name of Ed Rothstaylor who was primarily known in the story for bullying the MC before being completely excommunicated from the academy. However, our MC now reincarnates as Ed right as he’s expelled from the academy and must somehow survive without a home, a family name, or any real talent to his name.

There are actually a lot of similarities between this story and I Killed the Main Player, which makes sense since Greenkirin is behind both manhwa. Both MCs are side characters who have to work absurdly hard to get ahead, both have sweetheart love interests who are absolutely obsessed with them, and both end up utilizing the main characters from the actual story itself to solve a lot of their problems for them. However, where Ed separates himself is from his self-sufficiency. This guy 100 percent builds his own home in the woods and creates a self-sustaining lifestyle for himself, which is also incredibly interesting to read about.

17 Genius Corpse-Collecting Warrior

Written by Coramel & Illustrated by Choi Jinkyu

Next up is a series that barely qualifies for this list, but the concept of Genius Corpse-Collecting Warrior is too interesting to not include it. Essentially, this is a manhwa where the main character is, of course, transferred into the game he was recently obsessed with. However, the game he was playing was known for being impossibly hard, and one of the main ways to grow in this game was by utilizing a very unique mechanic.

Essentially, as the protagonist kept dying over and over with new main characters, he could go back to where these characters died and use a skill to ‘collect the corpse’, allowing him to regain some stat bonuses and skills from his past body. This basically means that this protagonist has the potential for infinite growth, but he needs to go to the specific location of all his previous attempts in order to grow, and a lot of these bodies are lying in very dangerous places. So, while the main character of this series is technically not a side character once he’s inside the game, the setup of the game itself is that every protagonist who dies becomes nothing more than a pile of loot for the next playable character.

16 As A Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill To Rise In The World

Written By Miraijin A & Illustrated by Jimmy

Starting things off with a recently adapted isekai series, it’s one with an incredibly long title. As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World is an isekai where the main character is reborn in a new world as the heir to a noble family. While he’s not a direct ‘side character’ from a story or something like that, MC Ars Louvent is just one of many nobles of the Summerforth Empire, and he’s not very strong on his own.

Thankfully, Ars does have a cheat-like ability, and this is the ability to see the skills and maximum potential in these skills of anyone he looks at. Using this skill, Ars steadily recruits all sorts of completely overpowered people into his service, all of which do their utmost to propel Ars to greater heights. It’s incredibly refreshing to see a protagonist who is weak on their own make the best of their situation, as most isekai these days feature MCs with absurdly overpowered abilities.

15 Dungeon Defense

Written by Arrone & Illustrated by Manga Shokunin Studio

Hopping right from a manga series to a manhwa series, next up is Dungeon Defense. Dungeon Defense is a story where a guy who was just about to live the good life using the money his scumbag father left for him is suddenly pulled into some random game he was playing. In this new world, the MC is in the body of Dantalian, the absolute weakest of all the Demon Lords in this setting. From here, Dantalian needs to put in a whole ton of work to prevent himself from being killed by humans, betrayed by his fellow Demon Lords, or even just falling prey to random monster attacks.

And, refreshingly, Dantalian doesn’t use some cheat ability or absurd strength to do this. Rather, he uses cold and meticulously calculated plans to bring others to his side and then use them for his own benefit or betray them when they least expect it. Overall, while not a ton of chapters are out of the manhwa, the light novel has a lot more content to go into, and fans of the series can safely say that Dantalian is a pretty unique MC.

14 Villains Are Destined to Die

Written By Gyeoeul Gwon & Illustrated By Suol

Similar to a lot of other entries readers will see below, Villains are Destined to Die is a series in which the main heroine is reincarnated in the game/media she was obsessed with, in this case, a game called Daughter of the Duke, Love Project.

However, while this game was pretty easy to beat when playing as the heroine, the protagonist was instead reincarnated as Penelope Eckhart, the most hated and villainous character in the game. Just about every ending for Penelope in the game ends horribly, so this version of Penelope needs to do everything she can to charm all of the five male leads (or just one of them, realistically) before the heroine of the story makes her first appearance. Think of it like My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom but with a bit of a darker twist and a lot more actual work for the protagonist to do in order to turn her reputation around completely.

13 Reincarnated As A Sword

Written By Yuu Tanaka, Illustrated By Tomoo Maruyama, & Animated By C2C

While the isekai genre isn’t ‘bad’ by any standard, it’s a genre of storytelling that feels very oversaturated for the past 5 years or so. That said, I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated still feels very fresh compared to other series in the genre.

Reincarnated as a Sword has a very unique focus, as the ‘main character’ of the story is actually a supporting character for someone else. Fran is the ‘hero’ of this series and the secondary protagonist while ‘Teacher’ is the main character that serves to help Fran improve and reach her dreams in any way possible. And, the reason it’s even on this list in the first place is that, once Teacher actually reincarnated as a Sword and got used to his new body, he ended up stuck in the ground with no escape. If Fran had never happened to find him, Teacher would’ve likely remained there for who knows how long. So, technically he’s a background character in Fran’s story (though it would’ve been a very short story) that she just happened to stumble upon.

12 Terminally-Ill Genius Dark Knight

Written By Seonyul Jeong & Illustrated By Nagi

This is another relatively newer series and also another Manhua and/or Webtoon. This one is more literal in the way that the protagonist is reincarnated as a background character, as the main character is reincarnated as Nox Von Reinhafer, one of the primary ‘villains’ of his favorite game called Inner Lunatic.

And, what makes this series different from the rest is that, both in his previous life and his new one as Nox, the protagonist has only a certain amount of time left to live. Not only did he have a terminal illness in ‘real life’ but Nox as a character also has a terminal illness. So, using his extensive knowledge from clearing Inner Lunatic so many times, the ‘new’ Nox uses every single resource available to him to gain more time and work to eventually cure his illness. The story itself isn’t incredibly unique or anything, but the writing and pacing of the story feels fresh enough to warrant including it.

11 Pick Me Up: Infinite Gacha

Written By Hermode & Illustrated By Wasakbasak (Redice Studio)

Pick Me Up: Infinite Gacha is another inclusion here that people probably didn’t expect. However, being reincarnated into a ‘mobile game’ as a basic one-star hero is about as background as background characters can get. But, for Islet Han (AKA Han Seojin), being one-star isn’t a death sentence like it would usually be, considering he was the top player (his in-game name being ‘Loki’) in existence in the game that was Pick Me Up. Now he’s on the other side of the screen, however, and there’s a lot more going on in this mobile game than it seems. So, Han is going to have to cobble together a pseudo-family in the form of his party and fight desperately to survive every day in the hopes of clearing the tower and somehow making it home.

The sheer quality of this series both in its writing and in its art would’ve easily earned it a spot on here. But, taking all the worldbuilding, action, diverse cast of characters, and designs into account, Pick Me Up: Infinite Gacha may just be the best series of this entire list. Truly, some aspects of this storytelling feel almost horror-esque in the way they’re portrayed, with the perfect example being the events involving a Party Leader, a Ballista, and a draconic monster (left vague so as not to spoil anything for newcomers).

Written By Toy Car & Illustrated By Meguri Tetsubi

Moving on to a bit of a twist on this niche sub-genre of stories with one called Never Die Extra. Now typically in these sorts of stories about someone reincarnating as a villain in some story or being transported to a video game world as some side character, they’re doing their best to avoid one specific path that leads to their doom (or a few at most). However, in Never Die Extra, the protagonist, Evan D. Sherden, is trying to avoid hundreds of different ‘bad ends’ all the time.

In his first life, Yeo Ban-min was obsessed with a game series called ‘Yo-Ma Great War’. But, he wasn’t just obsessed with the game, he was fervently dedicated to finding a way to keep Evan alive. Now that he’s actually living as Evan, Yeo has to sort of make these plans up on the fly to avoid all these death flags using his encyclopedic memory of information from when this was just a game. Overall, it’s a pretty cute story, though the stakes themselves are never quite as tense as the setup would make it seem.

9 The Greatest Estate Developer

Written By Back-Kyung Moon & Illustrated By Hyunsoo Kim

The Greatest Estate Developer might just be one of the funniest comedy series out there, it has one of the more iconic art styles, and it escalates things to absurd levels more than almost anything else. Readers are constantly wondering how the author (who goes by BK_Moon) could possibly make things more ridiculous. As most of these stories do, the tale starts with a down-on-his-luck protagonist who falls asleep one day and suddenly wakes up as one of the characters in the piece of media they were reading/playing.

Suho Kim was an engineering student in his first life, and this time around he’s been put into the body of Lloyd Frontera, a drunken, awful, and all-around lazy noble who dies at the hands of the protagonist not long after. From here, Kim Suho (AKA Lloyd) has to do everything in his power to turn his life around and pull his family’s territory and debt up from the deepest depths. While that all may sound pretty typical and even a bit mundane, readers need to understand that Kim Suho is a bit of a lunatic, and will do anything if it at all gets him a bit closer to his ideal life of being rich and lazing around.

Just to name a few things he does in just the first big chunk of The Greatest Estate Developer to give readers a taste of the absurdity of this series, Lloyd Frontera builds heated floors for his entire territory, beats the guard captain within an inch of his life with a shovel, tricks the protagonist of the story into being dependant on Lloyd in order to even sleep, and summons a mouse-like creature that can eat sunflower seeds to grow to the size of a large building. And to top it all off, the facial expressions these characters make (Lloyd in particular) are so hilariously over-the-top yet it doesn’t take away from the story overall.

8 The S-Classes That I Raised

Written By Geunseo & Illustrated By Biwan

Next up is a bit of a loophole inclusion, as it doesn’t really involve someone being ‘transported’ into the body of the side character in some story, but rather it takes a character who feels like he’s a side character in his own life and sends him back to the past of his world to fix his past mistakes. Han Yoojin was a leech to society, he was an F-Class Hunter while his brother was an S-Class one, he constantly caused trouble by pushing himself into dungeons far above his abilities, and his own real power was being able to use double the abilities (for a short duration) of someone who he cared about that recently died.

So, when his brother saves him from an S-Rank Dragon in a D-Rank Dungeon but dies in the process, Han Yoojin uses double his brother’s abilities to slay the dragon and use the Wish Stone rewarded to him to turn back time. This time around, he’ll use his new abilities to nurture those around him, improve his relationship with his brother, and generally improve the lives of everyone he meets.

7 My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom

Written By Nami Hidaka, Illustrated By Satoru Yamaguchi, & Animated By Silver Link

Moving on to by far the most popular version of this concept, especially for newcomers to the medium, it’s My Next Life as a Villainess. This part isekai, part comedy, and part romance story wild ride is a great example of someone being transported to their game of choice, but not as the lead. However, in this case, the MC isn’t some unremarkable side character, she’s the main villain.

Katarina Claes is the ‘royal’ villainess of Fortune Lover, an otome game based all around a magical high school and the drama within. Now, as the main female lead, it’s not like Katarina starts off with any real advantage, she’s at a magic academy yet she’s awful at magic, which fans of things like Jobless Reincarnation might be surprised by. But her biggest hurdle is the fact that her character dies at the end of the game, it’s up to the `new` Katarina to stumble her way out of all these bad endings.

6 I’m The Villainess, So I’m Taming The Final Boss

Written By Sarasa Nagase, Illustrated By Anko Yuzu, & Animated By Maho Film

Moving on to a rare case of two anime having almost the exact same story setup, here’s I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming The Final Boss. This concept is so incredibly similar to My Next Life As The Villainess in terms of structure that they might as well be from the same author. Suddenly the main female villain of an otome game regains her memories of being a girl in Japan who was isekai’d into this game (which is now just her reality) and has to do everything in her power to avoid dying at the game’s ending.

That said, outside of this nearly identical foundational concept, the two anime are pretty different in every other category. For one, the story is centered on the tumultuous relationship between Demonkind and Humanity. Two, Aileen is a much more competent protagonist compared to Katarina (for better or worse). And three, there’s only one route to Aileen’s doom at the hands of Jeanne Claude Elmir as opposed to Katarina’s numerous death flags, so her goals are much more simplified.

5 Trapped In A Dating Sim: The World Of Otome Games Is Tough For Mobs

Written By Yomu Mishima, Illustrated By Jun Shiosato, & Animated By Studio Engi

Yet another `trapped in a romance game` story here, yet this one is pretty different in terms of its setup. Instead of a female lead being trapped in a game with all the male romance-path characters, it’s the exact opposite.

Not only that, but in the setting of this shockingly well-realized otome game, women are the absolute ruling class and men are treated similarly to trophies or objects. The concept itself is interesting enough if not a bit of an on-the-nose role reversal. But, it’s the protagonist’s absolutely masterful use of his game knowledge and overall intelligence that keeps the audience interested. It’s not a show that’s worthy of being up there with some of the all-time isekai greats, but it’s still very entertaining.

4 The Crow’s Prince

Written By Silvestar & Illustrated By Glee

The Crow’s Prince is next up, and it’s a decent example of an isekai where the main character is reincarnated as something non-human (which is becoming quite the popular concept) and also a good example of one where they’re brought into a game as a completely ‘new’ character. A young Korean zookeeper who adores animals is excitedly cleaning the cage of a panther one day when she’s attacked and killed. Suddenly, she’s awake again, but this time in the body of a crow in some fantasy story.

After some misadventures, the crow stumbles upon an injured prince named Karmeut who names her Reinelle. Not long after this, Reinelle remembers that this prince is a character in a romance mobile game she used to play, and he’s one of the romantic options for the main heroine. From here, Reinelle slowly but surely carves out a life for herself at Karmeut’s side after eating a magic stone that allows her to switch between her crow form and a human form, all the while worrying about what will happen to her when the main heroine does inevitably appear. It’s a great story with a lot of twists from the standard setup, and it has a lot of enjoyable romance aspects as well.

3 My Death Flags Show No Sign Of Ending

Written By Izumi (@Orefura on Twitter) & Illustrated By Otosu Mitsuya

Here’s another story where the protagonist suddenly wakes up in the body of one of the villains, but this time the game of choice is an RPG rather than a romance game or a fantasy novel. Suddenly the MC finds himself in the body of Harold Stokes right during one of the most tragic early-game events where Harold orders the execution of one of his maids (over a small mistake). Very quickly, this `reincarnated` Harold has to figure out what’s going on and how to save this maid from an undeserved death without that decision feeling too ‘out of left field’ for his character.

The only problem with this plan is that everything he wants to say gets auto-translated into the way Harold, the villain that he was designed to be, would phrase it before it even leaves his mouth. More often than not is, this means that he calls people names and insults their intelligence when all he wanted to do was say something completely normal. My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending is quite a unique example of this type of story for many reasons, but this whole `filter through Harold’s verbiage` aspect of it is especially innovative, at least for a while.

Written By Jee Gab Song & Illustrated By Carrot Studio

The Novel’s Extra is another Korean webtoon example, and it’s probably the most faithful example of a story where the protagonist becomes a background character. Instead of becoming the main villain or even a random side character, the MC of this story is transported into his own novel as someone even less than a side character.

Kim Hajin wasn’t an actual character in the author’s novel, The Returned Hero, but is a whole new character created by this mysterious `second author` so that the transported protagonist can impact the events of this superhuman world full of heroes, monsters, and villains. Now, the author has to progress through his own story while it’s being modified in all types of ways by some outside force in the hopes of making it to the end of the story and getting himself back home. Along the way, he’ll need to involve himself in the events of the story, as the more of an impact he makes on the main cast of his story, the more resources he has to level himself up.

1 The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated In Another World As An Aristocrat

Written By Rui Tsukiyo, Illustrated By Reia, & Animated By Silver Link

There have been a lot of webtoon or manga examples on here, but luckily this next one has both a great manga and fantastic anime they can enjoy as well. The World’s Finest Assassin Reincarnated In Another World is yet another reincarnation isekai story, but one with quite a unique setup where the protagonist actually ‘chooses’ to become some background character in a very Eminence in Shadow sort of way. Just a fair warning ahead of time, this one is pretty dark, and it’s got a lot of fanservice.

Basically, the world’s best assassin on Earth is finally killed when he retires, betrayed by his own organization. And, instead of going to some boring afterlife, this assassin is asked by the Goddess of another world to help save the world she governs over. As it turns out, the Hero who fights the Demon King in her world then ends up destroying the world not long after. So, the Goddess has brought the assassin here to offer him a deal, get reincarnated in a new world, and live all over again, with the only requirement being that he’ll have to assassinate the Hero once he turns 18. And the assassin, reveling in his second chance to do what he loves and experience a better life, takes her up on this offer in an instant.