Sekaikan

Sekaikan, written as 世界観 and commonly romanized as sekai-kan or sekaikan, is a Japanese term meaning “worldview” or “perceptual framework.” It refers to the total set of assumptions, values, and ways of seeing that shape how a person or a fictional universe understands reality. In everyday use it describes an individual’s point of view, while in creative contexts it denotes the distinctive world described or implied by a work.

In literature, film, anime, and games, sekai-kan describes the world of the story—the social structures, physics or magic systems, technology, norms, and ideologies that guide characters and events. Critics contrast sekai-kan with the act of world-building; the former is the audience-facing worldview a work presents, while the latter is the creative process used to construct that world. A coherent sekaikan enhances immersion and internal consistency, whereas inconsistencies can disrupt believability or invite meta-commentary.

Etymology and usage: 世界 means “world,” and 観 means “view” or “perception,” together forming a term read as sekai-kan. The spelling sekaikan is another acceptable romanization. The concept is widely discussed in narrative theory, media studies, and translation, and it parallels the English idea of “worldview” as well as related discussions of world-building and internal logic in fictional universes.