Otome Isekai (My personal definition):

Any manga (Japanese)/manhwa (Korean)/manhua (Chinese) whose plot revolves around a protagonist (typically a woman) receiving a second chance at life. Typically, they have fantasy settings, have worlds based off of concepts lifted from interpretations of historical Western European Nobility, and usually revolve around heterosexual romance.

The genre’s roots come from two existing genres: “Otome” comes from “otome games” made in Japan and targeted at (cis, hetero) women. Otome games regularly serve as the setting for OI stories. Second, “isekai” describes a fantasy subgenre where a person from the real world is transported/reincarnated into a fantasy universe they recognize as fictional.

Traditionally, Otome Isekais (esp those from Japan) follow this formula:

Young woman from Earth is reincarnated (after death, usually hit by a car) or transported (after falling asleep) into a fantasy world from a book/game in which they inhabit the villainess character. The villainess archetype is especially popular and typical plots you can expect involve the protagonist struggling against the “bad end” in the game/novel world. That said, Otome Isekais are by no means limited to this formula, and I give a lot of examples of series that take the genre in novel, interesting directions.

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