 Hey there! Don't turn away. Today we're going to talk about Yakuza Reincarnation Volume 1, as well as A Galaxy Next Door Volume 1. So let's start with this one first, Yakuza Reincarnation, which was the first I read. And I have to admit, when I first learned of this book via solicits, I was immediately hooked on the premise. I don't mind reading Isekai manga or watching Isekai anime. I don't really mind it. Yes, there are a lot of duds out there, but you get quite a few that are really good and fun. And the concept of this is just really fun. You basically follow Ryu, a retired older former Yakuza as he is sort of in a down low in life. And unfortunately, he gets betrayed by fellow Yakuza and newly instated gangsters in that area. A fight happens and without boring you with the details, he dies fighting the Yakuza members and he gets transported to this new fantasy-based world where he has been reincarnated in the body of this princess. Now when he arrives, obviously he has no clue what's happening and everybody just assumes that the princess was kidnapped. Somehow she was able to escape and now she's behaving a little bit differently. Her attitude is a little spunkier. You know, she's talking back to everybody and she has two people that are taking care of her. One of them happens to share my name, so I always think that's really cool when you're able to find, at least on a name basis, a doppelganger in a work of fiction. The characters, even though some of them can be stereotypical, for the most part, they don't feel tired out and they inject some livelihood into their tropings, I guess, and the way that they move around in this world. And you have a character like Ryu who has this knowledge of being a gangster and that code of conduct and life and all that stuff, that lifestyle, I should say, and now being reincarnated as a princess, I do like the tonal shift in her attitude. If you look at her from an outsider's perspective, before she was quite wholesome and nice, but now she's got a bit of an attitude, bit of an edge, and kind of a badass, you get that immediately. And I thought it was played to humorous effect whenever something happens and Ryu doesn't really know how to take it and thinks, oh, this, like defeating an orc, he thinks this is some really nice visual effects and or makeup that they're using, not realizing what's happening. It isn't until he sees his reflection and the two people that are taking care of him that he realizes that, oh boy, this ain't Kansas anymore, right? So the story, at least the first volume, moves at a fairly quick pace. As soon as that happens, which takes place over the course of two chapters, I guess, you get introduced to the world, you get introduced to the poverty in this fantasy realm, and they really drive that point home. There's a town that was founded by our princess, and it has fallen to decay. The people that she left there, you know, were sort of abandoned and the violence drugs and gangs took over. And it's a really grimy, bad looking place. And now that she's there, obviously, people don't know that it's a different person in there. But now that the princess is back, she sees what's happening and quickly understands from, you know, her previous life, quickly understands that things need to change. You got to start there before you can make a substantial change throughout the kingdom, because it is suspected that princess's family may be at fault for what happened to her being kidnapped and all that stuff. So she sets about to change that town. I'm not going to really ruin what happens here, but I do like that the subject matter of orphanage and drug usage gets touched on. And there's something really odd yet hilarious that one of the items that they're talking about is essentially based on real world drugs. And the way they implement it is eerily similar. It just happens to have a different side effect, but you can make the case for it to be the same thing, which I thought was pretty hilarious. Also, one of the best aspects of this manga, which I should have mentioned at the beginning, this is drawn by Hiroki Miyashita at the stories done by Takashi Natsuhara. It is heavily stylized in a very awesome way. The characters are immediately recognizable. It has a lot of flair. When there's action, you take notice and it's very good looking action where you can follow what's happening. Everybody looks great, even if it's just a scene in a bar where a fight happens. It still looks good. It's a very visually dynamic series. And especially being fantasy based, you get to flex the artistic muscle, and the artist, Hiroki Miyashita, certainly does that with some really crazy visuals, some really cool paneling and the way the characters are moving, especially Ryu as the princess now, with the whole Yakuza mentality. And she now has the tattoo that he once had when he was on our earth, which may connect the two worlds. Could be a possibility. I don't know yet. I'm still fresh on this series. I've only read this volume. I loved the action. I love the characters, and I love that there is aspects of world building here, but it's slowly taking its time to set everything up. I really appreciate that. That's one of my favorite things when I'm reading a fantasy based series. I don't want to be rushed in to this world and all the terminology and all that stuff. It's better to take it, you know, chapter by chapter, little by little, will travel far. You would think an old man reincarnating into the body of a young princess, you would think, oh, this is probably going to play into the whole fan service and creepy factor. Not really. I mean, there are obvious jokes because of the nature of the premise and how silly it is. Yes, I would have been shocked if there weren't any jokes, but it's all fairly tame and it's more about this new lease on life now that this character has a new opportunity being, I think he was, what, 70 years old on our earth? And now he feels much younger, which I thought was a really neat scene where he realizes like the aches and muscle pain is gone and what's happening. I feel lighter and faster and younger. I thought that was a neat scene. But overall, just a really quirky fun start to a fantasy isekai that I do recommend if you are interested in checking something like that out. Next up we got a galaxy next door from the author of sweetness and lightning, Guido Amagakure. It's a kodansha, they put out great work regardless and I love the larger trim size, that's always appreciated. The art on this is super sweet, nice, simple, yet effective. All the characters look fantastic, but you're probably wondering, what the hell is this series about? Well, you follow the character of Ichiro Kuga that he is now struggling after the passing of his father to support his younger siblings and nothing but a small salary making manga. He is a former Shonen artist, but now he found success in the shoujo realm. So he's a shoujo artist and starting to get popular with the different series that he's written. Unfortunately, if you know the life of mangaka, you know that they are always busy stressing out close to deadlines and just feeling the impact of being overworked to make that kota of weekly chapters in the case of like shonen jump or whatever. So our boy here, he is at the end of his rope. Everything seems pretty bleak until an opportune chance happens. He was looking for a manga assistant, so that that person could help him out. And just at the end of it, Shiyori Goshiki appears and she is an enigma. Super mysterious. At the beginning, she claims to have been part of the star people from another island. And you think, maybe there's something there. There's something ethereal. There's something odd about a character like her. You know that she's nice and wholesome and sweet, but there's this air of beautiful mystery to it. It's not an enigma like you're scared. It's more of this fascination that you want to learn more about this person. Everything about her is a mystery at first. And I think we've all had moments like that where we find someone like that or we dream up stories of scenarios where we don't really know about that person. We imagine the most wildest things and that sort of nostalgia creeped in and made me want to pick up this book. And I was a little bit disappointed at first because I thought we weren't going to get all those secrets thrown at us so quickly. Now I know this is just Volume 1. There are more volumes coming out. The series is still being published. But I thought we were going to play the mystery card a little bit longer, but you do get answers to her origin. Like I mentioned with the star people in this mysterious island where it seems like they came from another universe. And I'm not spoiling anything because you do get that at the start of this manga. So as the story continues, she does apply and you understand that she's quite the eccentric character from the way she interacts with our main character. You know that she doesn't really have all the social skills, but she's still competent enough and wants to learn and consume about manga in particular because she happened to read it when she was growing up in this mysterious island. And she happened to be a fan of our main protagonist. So as she becomes the assistant, we find out that she is terrifyingly efficient in her job. And that leads to comedic hijinks as well as romantic situations that occur between the two characters of a, you know, a potential love interest there that starts to slowly simmer and boil into something beautiful. Like I mentioned, the art is beautiful on this and just this cover alone is intriguing and makes you want to go ahead and pick this up. It's a nice wholesome sweet romantic story with great beautiful artwork. And I'm very much looking forward to continuing this journey and see where the story takes us. I do like the whole manga making process. That's always fun to see outside of reality, to see it being implemented in a manga is always great. So to see that from a shoujo perspective is even greater. The characters are really fun and brimming with personality that you're rooting for them, even though you've just gotten to know them. So I am looking forward to seeing where the story heads off from this volume. So yeah, that'll do it for now. A quick first impressions on these two books, volume one of Yakuza Reincarnation as well as a Galaxy Next Door volume one. What about you guys? What have you been reading? And if you've read these two books, let me know in the comments section down below. It's been a minute. I took a month off from YouTube, which is ill-advised. I totally understand. But I kind of wanted a break and I wanted to dedicate some time to form my sister channel, the official sister channel, I guess, called Geekdom Gaming. If you're into video games, which I know all of you are, you can head on over there. I'm making some cool content over there as well. I'm really passionate about that channel and about video games. So if you can subscribe and follow me there for some gaming hijinks, I'll really appreciate it. Also, don't forget to keep tuning in to this channel, where I'm going to be posting some really cool anime and manga content. If you're new to the channel, we can geek them. Welcome. I hope you stick around, subscribe, hit the like button, the little notification bell, all that stuff that everybody tells you to do. It works. That's what we keep saying it. So thank you everybody. I truly do appreciate it. God bless. Stay safe out there. Catch you guys on the next video.