Stories revolving around someone dying and being reborn or otherwise ending up in another (usually medieval fantasy-based) world seem to be pretty big in manga these days. A lot of of them seem to focus on finding a way to make a good living with either mundane skills, or whatever technology they happened to bring with them. Which probably says something about the economic pressures either the creators or audience are living under, that they flow towards books where they get a fresh start somewhere new and avoid crippling debt or job insecurity.
That's not so much my bag. I would rather read about people doing things I don't, like fighting or exploring. I already work, thank you, that's what I'm reading comics to escape. To that end, the first volume of Miroki Miyashita and Takeshi Natsuhara's Yakuza Reincarnation, which is what the title suggests. An old-school Yakuza named Ryumatsu Nagamasa is betrayed by an old friend of his. As he's drowning, he sees the "heavenly maiden" who he has tattooed on his back. She jams a finger through his chest, and he wakes up in the body of a little princess out in the woods, about to be killed by goblins.
The first volume is basically two things. One, getting Ryu (or Princess Riyu, now) and us up to speed on the world he's in and the overall situation. The princess seems to have two people on her side, a middle-aged, highly excitable knight named Giovanni, and a dark elf spell caster named Nyui, who seems to really dislike even being in proximity to men, for reasons that are not immediately explained. They seem to be in a hurry to leave their kingdom, and try passing through the princess' town, which turns out to be a drug and crime-ridden shithole.
Miyashita goes with a medieval Europe aesthetic for the covered wagons, the windmills, Giovanni's suit of armor and sword choice. Although the orcs being large pig-men is a little different. Instead of horses, the wagons are drawn by "hogfowl", but their heads really look more like walruses. There's also some stuff about "skill trees" being marked on a person's arm, that looks like something out of Final Fantasy. None of the JRPGs I've ever played had that set-up, so it pretty much rolls off my forehead.
The second thing is everyone else reacting to the dainty princess behaving strangely. Giovanni and Nyui mostly roll with the fact their princess doesn't remember any of this stuff, or them. Her lack of concern at people tearing down her statue, as well as her tendency to punch people who actually try to harm her, that confuses them. Sometimes the disconnect is used for comedy purposes, such as when the princess is confronted by a guy who uses "witchin" by snorting it, and she refers to him as using, 'crank to solve him problems.'
Other times, like with the statue, are Natsuhara's effort to show Ryu was an honorable yakuza, who didn't resort to things like extortion or drugs, and believed it was his job to make sure things on his turf were peaceful. From Ryu's perspective, if things are bad in this town, it's the princess' fault for not stepping in to make things right. So if he's the princess now, he'll do it.
When Miyashita wants the princess to look intimidating, he draws Riyu with her head tilted so that her hair looks cropped close, and her face is heavily shaded. The other approach is to draw one eye wide, with the pupil very large as well, and then frame it with her hair so that's it almost like the eye is peering out from behind a mask. Natsuhara also keeps Ryu's dialogue limited in those panels, to demonstrate the time for talking is almost done.
The first volume ends with the Riyu dealing with the guy running the drug trade, and finding the source of the problem, which only hints at a much larger problem.
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