Every living person invariably lives by moving forward in time while looking back at the past. Every person faces uncertainty and regrets, plagued by the constant question, “What if I had done this or that differently?” Moreover, every person has a youthful first love, often an unrequited crush that never develops into a reciprocal romance. The 2022 romantic slice-of-life manga series The Revenge of My Youth: Re Life with an Angelic Girl turns those universal truths on their head by answering those persistent questions. “What if I could re-live my life? Would making better choices change my future?” English speaking readers will be able to see the outcome of that drama when One Peace Books releases the first official English translation of The Revenge of My Youth manga on January 23rd.
The Revenge of My Youth story centers on Niihama, a 30-year-old salaryman overworked as a dead-end corporate slave and filled with regrets over the unambitious choices of his youth that led him to a lifetime of mediocrity and despair. Niihama literally works himself to an untimely death, but in this case “untimely” is an especially apt description because instead of traveling to the afterlife, Niihama resurrects 14 years earlier in his own life. Suddenly reborn as his 16-year-old self with 30 years of knowledge and life experience, Niihama decides to not waste his precious opportunity. By being more assertive, more diligent, and more outgoing he may be able to improve the future prospects of his life and, more importantly, save not just his relationship with his first love but also literally save her life.
Based on Yuuji Keino’s 2020 web novel series Inkya na Jinsei wo Koukaishinagara Shinda Black Kigyou Kinmu no Ore (30) ga Koukou Jidai kara Yarinaoshi! Shachiku Chikara de Seishun Revenge shite Tenshi Sugiru Ano Ko ni Kondo koso Suki dato Tsugeru!, illustrator Ise Ebi Boil’s manga adaptation is immediately striking as a good-looking comic. Characters are drawn in distinctive manga style with an anime influence. Backgrounds and scenario props are thorough and detailed. Line-work is sharp and crisp. And the manga amply uses screentones to add depth and texture. The graphic art alone does a great job of visually expressing action and emotion the way effective comic art should. Original Japanese visual sound effects are left intact and translated innocuously in-text. Yuuji Keino’s original script, however, lacks nuance and any degree of subtlety. The story is rather heavy-handed exposition, often repeating the same ideas multiple times to express plot developments and motivations with sledgehammer finesse. Fully half of the first manga covers slightly more than one day in-story, so readers don’t get much opportunity to feel variety in the characters’ personalities. Readers see the characters’ actions, and the story dictates to readers how characters should be interpreted, but the first half of the manga leaves little opportunity for readers to make up their own minds, and minimal opportunity for readers to naturally empathize with the characters.
The manga story includes scenes of school bullying and references to suicide. While these themes are handled tastefully and are necessary for the story development, sensitive readers may wish to at least know in advance that the book contains such content. As a juvenile slice-of-life story, the first manga does not contain any offensive language, nudity or sex, or any significant depictions of violence.
The official English language translation from One Peace Books is functional but occasionally feels slightly stiff. A word balloon on page two seems to be missing the preposition “of,” which creates the sensation of the translation being a bit turgid right from the outset. Moreover, frequently the translation seems to struggle to fit within the pre-existing panels and word balloons, sometimes forcing single words to be split into two or even three lines. The English translation deliberately uses different fonts to distinguish different speakers, internal dialogue, spoken dialogue, and the protagonist’s running narration, changes in emotional intensity, and dialogue from the past versus the present. The alternating font choice is intentional but not well-executed. The very first font used within the book is jarringly stiff, and at first the changes in font seem practically arbitrary. Even within the same conversation, a single character’s speech can use two different fonts. Visually the rapid alternation in fonts makes the translation look like an experimental fan translation rather than an elegant professional production.
Tonally and conceptually The Revenge of My Youth falls in-between authors Ichigo Takano & Yui Tokiumi’s Orange and Kei Sanbe’s “Erased” (Boku dake ga Inai Machi) although The Revenge of My Youth is, at least initially, blunter and more straightforward than its predecessors. The scenario within the first manga volume is highly accessible because it deals with universal sentiments and a universal idealization of first love. Niihama, the story’s protagonist, is a good person who was dealt a bad hand in life. Karma has given him an exclusive redo, so kind-hearted Niihama dives into the opportunity to turn around not only his own future but the lives of his mother, younger sister, and the angelic first girl he fell for in high school. Readers who are curious about The Revenge of My Youth: Re Life with an Angelic Girl should have no reason to hesitate approaching the title. Readers who are new to Japanese romantic and dramatic manga may find that The Revenge of My Youth is an excellent primer for the genres, a good introduction to the differences between typical American comics and young adult fiction to the tropes and themes of typical Japanese manga storytelling. Experienced manga readers seeking a multi-layered, nuanced story may find that the first volume of The Revenge of My Youth doesn’t quite provide the depth and breadth of characterization that they’re longing for.
