Holiday Review #8: I GOT REINCARNATED IN A (BL) WORLD OF BIG (MAN) BOOBS

From the moment I saw the announcement for this one, I knew I had to talk about it.  I haven't been this compelled by a BL title since the days of Dick Fight Island.

I GOT REINCARNATED IN A (BL) WORLD OF BIG (MAN) BOOBS (Kyonyuu Suki nanoi BL Kai ni Tensei shimashita), by Tsukiji Nao.  First published in 2021 and first published in North America in 2024.

PLOT:

Nagare Otokawa was just another otaku, full of dreams of big boobs and the desire to touch them before he got mowed down by a truck.  Things seem to be picking up when he is reincarnated as a handsome young man in a world that operates on visual novel rules.  Unfortunately it works like a BL VN, so every time he tries to make a move on the pretty, well-stacked Haruko he ends up (literally) running into the cushiony pecs of Ryuji Onizuka, a delinquent whose tough demeanor hides a heart as soft as his chest.  Can Nagare fight back against his fate and the other delinquents at school, or is he doomed to forever drown in man-titty while Haruko watches?

STORY:

Well I'll be damned, this is now the second BL isekai series I've read and loved!  Admittedly, this one is far more meta and far more silly than its predecessor, poking fun at BL, ecchi, and dating sim-style reincarnation stories.

Like a lot of protagonists in these sorts of stories, Nagare is very genre-aware (thanks to his fujoshi sister in his previous life) of things like routes, relationship flags, and a lot of the character types and plot cliches of BL.  At times it gets downright meta as he'll comment on an event happening in a previous chapter or a how character is mixing up their dialogue and inner monologue.  This level of genre awareness in a character usually gets very tedious very fast, but here it works because Nagare's primary function in this story is to be the buttmonkey of this world.  It turns out genre awareness doesn't matter when there is a literal title god urging Nagare towards gay sex at every turn.

I can't recall the last time a manga made me laugh out loud as much as this one.  Those familiar with BL will recognize the sort of character types and scenarios parodied here, and maybe even recognize the premise as a pisstake on recent fujo-friendly delinquent stories like Tokyo Revengers.  Yet there are also some amazing visual gags, like the title god physically inserting panels into Nagare's inner monologue or the background signs in a restaurant rearranging themselves into ridiculous double entendres. Everyone gets a chance to be ridiculous here, and all of it is enhanced by Jacqueline Fung's wonderfully hilarious translation.

For all the silliness present, there's a surprising sincere streak to this series.  Nagare may be enjoying the benefits of being a hot twink in this new life, but he's still a decent guy underneath who hasn't forgotten his days as a friendless otaku.  He may not want to have sex with any of the guys this world throws his way, but as he comes to know most of them he does learn to appreciate them as people.  When he does end up offending Onizuka (usually due to comic misunderstandings) to the point of tears, Nagare legitimately feels bad about it and makes amends.  I'm used to these sorts of protagonists being either total nobodies or self-aggrandizing assholes who seldom give a thought to their previous life, so it's kind of refreshing to find one who feels a little human.  Sure, he's a human who basically goes into boobie berserker mode if Onizuka's manly mammaries are threatened, but human nonetheless.

ART:

I think a big part of what makes the comedy work is that Tsujiki Nao's art is comparatively serious.  Her character designs are legitimately handsome and well-detailed, and they remind me a bit of Takeshi Obata's work.  That makes it all the more amusing when they react to events with wonderfully goofy faces.  I particularly love Haruka in turbo fujo mode, doing the most ridiculous celebratory poses and making the creepiest faces anytime she witnesses her favorite Onizuka doing anything remotely homoerotic with Nagare.  The contrast between those moments and her otherwise sweet looks and persona are a little rote as far as token fujoshi characters in media go, but it works.

As noted before, Nao stuffs this manga with visual gags, and many of the best ones revolve around fanservice.  I've complained in the past that too many mangaka confuse ecchi moments for punchlines, but it works here because applying these moments and movements to pecs just underlines how ridiculous and unnatural it all is.  They behave like ooblek, shifting from solid to squish at a moment's notice depending on the mood of a scene.  They bounce in all directions, they virtually swallow any body part that falls within their gravity, and no matter how much damage his clothes take his nipples never show.  Just about every character flashes their pecs or abs at some point in this volume and I'd be lying if I said that Nao didn't draw them well.  Meanwhile the only character in the cast with actual breasts never so much as flashes a hint of cleavage, even while wearing a sexy bunny suit.

RATING:

I Got Reincarnated In a (BL) World of Big (Man) Boobs is just as ridiculous as its title would suggest in all the best ways possible.  It's a genuinely successful parody that looks good and is laugh-out-loud funny.  If anything I've described of it sound amusing to you, you owe it to yourself to pick it up.

This manga is published by Kodansha Comics. This series is complete in Japan with 5 volumes available.  2 2-in-1 omnibuses have been published and are currently in print.

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