Once again, one of the best queer romance manga I read this year was also an isekai, although this one is not quite as purposeful as the last one.
LIFE WITH AN ORDINARY GUY WHO REINCARNATED INTO A TOTAL FANTASY KNOCKOUT (Fantaji Bishojo Juniku Oji-san to), written by Yu Tsurusaki with art by Shin Ikezawa. First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2023.
PLOT:
Tachibana and Jingji have been friends forever, but Tachibana has always felt insecure about himself when compared to Jingji's good looks and general competency. Meanwhile, Jingji could care less about all the women throwing themselves at him; he just wants to take care of Tachibana and make sure he finds a partner worthy of him. It all comes to a head one drunken night, when Tachibana wishes he could be a beautiful blonde girl that no one could resist and a wandering goddess listens to him. In a blink, the two of them are transported to another world, where Tachibana has been transformed as per his wish and Jingji has been granted super-strength. Now the two are compelled to defeat the requisite demon king, but are the growing romantic feelings between them part of the goddess's curse or simply long hidden feelings coming to the surface?
STORY:
Well, you can throw Total Fantasy Knockout onto the incredibly small pile of isekai manga approved by The Manga Test Drive. It helps that the actual isekai parts are basically an afterthought.
That's not to say that a lot of the usual cliches aren't there. There's a dotty, fickle goddess. There's a generic fantasy realm, complete with demon king. There are RPG-style menus of personal stats. There are haughty blonde elves. It's just that Yu Tsuruzaki recognizes how ridiculous this all is. If anything, he's poking gentle fun at the whole genre and the jokes are shockingly good. That's the biggest tell that this is a manga-original story instead of a light-novel adaptation. If it were the latter, it would be taking everything more seriously, spend way too much time on tedious details, and confuse fanservice for humor.
That being said, Tsuruzaki is not unaware of what the real focus of this series is. He states as much at the end of the first chapter. Hell, it was the pitch he used to sell the series in the first place.
"This manga tells the tale of a romantic comedy between a middle-aged man and a former middle-aged man."
That's right, this series is in truth a queer rom-com. Sure, it's not 100% clear if Tachibana was unknowingly trans the whole time, but he's clearly taking to his new body and the confidence and attention it grants him like a champ (to say nothing of the fact that his looks can induce a Charmed status effect). Meanwhile, Jingji's mindfulness and protectiveness towards his friend takes on an increasingly chivalrous bent, even as the two of them try to act like nothing's changed between them. As much as these two try to pretend that their growing attraction to one another is purely due to divine interference, it's clear that some of this was always there, going back to their days in high school. It just took a bit of interdimensional travel and a gender flip to shake up the status quo and force them to rethink their relationship. Tsuruzaki gets a lot of good humor out of their denial, particularly when they engage in the flirtation equivalent of chicken. It's possible that this could get dragged out to the point where the joke runs thin, but so far it's good stuff.
ART:
Shin Ikezawa art has something that's frequently missing from isekai manga: character. For the most part this is a two-person showcase, so it's good that he came up with good designs for our leads that complement one another in just how much they contrast. I like how they spice up Tachibana's petite, delicate new looks with a shark-like grin - it gives him a touch of gremlin energy, hinting at an rougher attitude. Meanwhile, Jingji resembles nothing so much as a salaryman version of Roger Smith, right down to the little hair antenna in the front. It works as a visual shorthand for his compentency, feeling just as out of place in Ye Olde Isekai World as Tachibana does.
Ikezawa covers all their bases quite adeptly. They absolutely nail the humorous moments, using expression (or lack thereof) to contrast with our lead's increasingly panicked inner monologues. They're also good at using the manga equivalent of a hard cut for a punchline (even if "and then everything was on fire" gets a liiiiittle overused). They handle the occasional bit of action well, and while the setting is purposefully vague in its combination of magic and medieval times they do well by it with the backgrounds.
RATING:
This series is published by Seven Seas. This series is ongoing in Japan with 9 volumes available. 2 volumes have been released and are currently in print.
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