The Revenge of My Youth: Re Life with an Angelic Girl Volume 1 Review

A popular trend in light novels currently involves characters reliving their high school years, realising they took that carefree time for granted now that they look back as adults. Today I’m here to check out a manga adaptation of one such title – The Revenge of My Youth: Re Life with an Angelic Girl. Will this first volume impress? Let’s find out!

The story follows Shin’ichiro Niihama, a salaryman in his thirties who realises his life has no meaning or value. Working for a company with no morals and for a boss with hates him, day after day is hell for Shin’ichiro. It’s only when reflecting on his high school days that he can remember his life having colour, back when his mother was still alive and he had a crush on fellow student Haruka Shijoin.

It’s while reminiscing on his past that Shin’ichiro suddenly feels a pain in his chest and collapses at work, only to wake up as his high school self! Having gone back in time, our protagonist sees this as the perfect opportunity to fix his life, starting with getting closer to Haruka.

His reasoning for getting closer to Haruka isn’t just because he had feelings for her back then, he also wants to avert her tragic future where after harassment and bullying at work, she commits suicide. Shin’ichiro wants to prepare her for the hardships of adult life and become someone she can talk to if she has any problems now during high school.

Now armed with his adult knowledge, Shin’ichiro is determined to make the best of his time at school and quickly leaves a strong impression on those around him. Not only is he becoming friendly with Haruka who is one of the most popular girls, but he’s also stood up to his bullies and started involving himself more with class activities. His little sister Kanako can’t believe how dependable Shin’ichiro has suddenly become overnight, but when she hears about his friendship with Haruka, she chalks it up to self-improvement due to love.

There are some comments made here and there about Shin’ichiro’s newfound maturity, but given he never had any friends before, there’s no real risk of anyone discovering he’s travelled back in time – nor would they believe him if he told them! And in some ways that’s for the best as it means the story can instead focus on what’s more important here like saving Haruka.

Volume 1 of The Revenge of My Youth spends a lot of time setting up, which means this first release is a slow burn. That said, it is based on a light novel so when you account for that, it’s easy to understand why it’s paced the way it is. I don’t think it’s an issue either since I’d much rather Shin’ichiro be a character with this kind of depth as opposed to a lifeless self-insert for the reader. That said, this does mean that it feels like we don’t reach any real turning points for Shin’ichiro’s second chance until the very end of the volume when he arrives at a major event.

The original light novel by author Yuzi Keino is unlicensed at the time of writing, but ongoing in Japan with seven volumes. In terms of the story, it’s not the most original thing if you’re familiar with this trope and even in English there are titles like Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ which follow a very similar storyline and structure. Perhaps what sets The Revenge of My Youth apart is that Shin’ichiro uses the knowledge he’s gained from being an adult better than other protagonists who almost revert back to being high schoolers mentally as well as physically.

As far as this manga goes, it’s handled by mangaka Boiru Iseebi and appears to be their first series. I’m not a huge fan of how the characters are drawn compared to Tantan’s original designs for the light novel, mostly because all of the male characters are quite bland. Maybe Iseebi simply finds it easier to draw women as Haruka and the other female characters are more expressive and easy on the eyes in comparison.

That said, in general, the art is fine. There’s plenty of detail on each page and you get a good sense of the characters’ emotions from their expressions and how they act. Certainly, I think it has captured the charm of the story and despite being based on a light novel, avoids the usual trappings of pages being overwhelmed with text, at least most of the time. Considering how often Shin’ichiro monologues, that’s no small thing to balance!

The Revenge of My Youth: Re Life with an Angelic Girl Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to One Peace Books and has been translated by Jameson Taber. The release reads well with no issues to note. The lettering (uncredited) makes good use of different fonts and manages to stay within the given text bubbles rather than floating outside.

This manga adaptation is ongoing in Japan with three volumes currently available. Here in English, One Peace has Volume 2 scheduled for release in early June, so we’re in for quite a wait there which is understandable when we’re not far behind.

Overall, The Revenge of My Youth: Re Life with an Angelic Girl Volume 1 is a slow but promising start. I do worry it’s re-treading old ground with its premise, but I’m hoping the execution over time will put those fears to bed. Certainly, one to keep an eye on even if you don’t pick it up right now!

Our review copy from One Peace Books was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).