A visual novel takes place in the afterlife, be it based on an existing mythological concept (such as heaven and hell in Abrahamic religions or Purgatory in Catholicism) or not.

The afterlife is the concept of a realm, or the realm itself (whether physical or transcendental), in which an essential part of an individual's identity or consciousness continues to exist after the death of the body in the individual's lifetime. In some popular views, this continued existence often takes place in a spiritual realm, and in other popular views, the individual may be reborn into this world and begin the life cycle over again, likely with no memory of what they have done in the past.