Turtles, Department Stores, and Revenge: "The Young Master's Revenge" Volume 1 Review

There comes a time in every young person's life where they suffer some form of extreme embarrassment. While most of us might move on from these events, Leo Tachibana, from Meca Tanaka's "The Young Master's Revenge", comes up with a crazy plan to extract revenge on the girl who was the cause of his trauma by forcing her to fall in love with him. Now can this premise actually carry an entire manga series? Let's find out!

The girl at the center of Leo's plot is Tenma Tsuwabuki, an heiress from a very wealthy family. In their youth Leo's family forced the friendship in the hopes of boosting their presence in the department store scene, a scene where the Tsuwabuki family dominated. This friendship took an embarrassing turn when, through a series of mishaps, Tenma's actions caused Leo to be bitten by several turtles after falling into a pond. These bites of course would have to be in a sensitive location (his butt) which was also revealed for all the onlookers to see. This incident left scars both physical and mental on young Leo and he has spent the intervening years grooming himself into a charming young man in the hopes of getting Tenma to fall in love with him, at which point he will reject her and see his revenge through. Before we move on with the plot let's stop here for a second. While the turtle pond incident is the driving force of the manga I couldn't help but feel that this was its weakest part. When Leo talked about wanting revenge for an embarrassing past in the first chapter I actually assumed that we would see more incidents as the story went on. I was shocked to realize that all his resentment was indeed centered around only the turtle biting incident. Even though this is a work of fiction I can't help but feel that this wouldn't be enough of a catalyst to cause one to devote one's life to seeking revenge. It doesn't even play out well as there are several apologies given by Tenma and, even though it's mentioned that there are some that remember it still, surely an incident from childhood would be pretty much long forgotten in the public eye. I know that the central plot of this manga will eventually morph to the point where Leo will end up falling for Tenma, contrary to his plans, but that doesn't change the fact that this story's central premise is extremely thin in this first volume.

​Anyhow, moving on in the plot a bit, time has not been nice to the Tsuwabuki family and they have lost not only their vast department store empire, but also their fortunes. This leads to Tenma being left in the care of a family member who seeks to marry her in the hopes of obtaining the dowry. Leo, who had been studying abroad and whose family has basically switched places financially with the Tsuwabuki family, steps in just in time to save Tenma from this marriage and takes her in to live with him. Since this is a manga she decides to live with him as his maid (complete with outfit) and since she's lived such a sheltered life there is a comedy of errors as she learns to do everyday tasks like cook and clean. With the imminent threat of marriage out of the way, the two enter the prestigious Genbu University High School and more antics follow as several side characters and rivals are introduced. I won't talk too much more about the plot here in fear of spoiling things for those interested in checking this series out for themselves, but I will say that, besides the weak central premise, things really do pick up and move fast once things settle in. Several character quirks and side plots are introduced and the payouts are often rewarding. My only other gripe with the plot is the completely unreal final chapter that involves the seperation of Tenma and Leo as it seems to borderline on outright criminal actions that everyone seems to take in stride. I would call that bit a spoiler, but we all know that separation of the main love interests in the first volume is a long-running trope that I would actually be shocked to see not included here.

I'll talk briefly about the two central characters since you'll be seeing them the most in this volume. Leo Tachibana actually sort of serves as the story's narrator as we see inside his head and are often shown his thoughts directly. Despite this fact I found him to be probably the most two-dimensional of all the characters with very little to make one want to root for him even though he is the story's main voice. We learn that the turtle pond incident has left him with a phobia of turtles so this means that there are several of turtle puns throughout, both in English and some left unexplained in English. (Such as the school name) Even though he is seeking a rather harsh form of revenge, the reader never really hates him for it as it's fairly clear early on that this revenge is going to come back to bite him much like those turtles did. While the slow character change is very predictable, and the Leo as a character himself isn't all that unique, it is interesting to watch, and it never comes off as boring even if it is formulaic. Tenma Tsuwabuki is a bit more complex. She's your typical quirky tomboy that everyone suddenly realizes they're in love with when she's taken off the Tsuwabuki empire pedestal. Being a girl in a shojo manga she of course is oblivious to all of this attention be it from would-be suitors or girls who are trying to bully her. Seeing her NOT fall for Leo's tricks to get her to fall in love with him is amusing as well as seeing her try to win the affection of Leo's dog, Virgo. While her ignorant innocence can get a bit annoying at times I found her to be a very likeable character and it was her characterization, more than Leo's weak plot of revenge, that kept me invested.

Let's move on a bit to the art. Meca Tanaka is a prolific manga artist who is probably best known for her work on Meteor Prince and Pearl Pink, among others. Keeping in mind past works, and the fact that this is released under VIZ Media's Shojo Beat imprint, to say that the art here is basically standard shojo fare done well is a fair assessment. Characters like Tenma and Dalia, and most of the female characters actually, look great and have pretty unique designs, but that trend doesn't translate to the male characters. Leo looks about as boring as one could imagine and his design seems to borrow more from the "everyman" stereotype often seen in harem manga than a bishonen-style shojo manga protagonist. This isn't exactly a negative point but it is worth mentioning and something I found interesting. Also due to the aforementioned problems with Leo's character design, it's my opinion that the cover is rather bland and doesn't really properly show you what the series is about. Also, there are no color pages in the volume itself, including certain first chapter pages which were clearly printed in color in other versions. This is a common issue I have with English adaptations of manga and isn't unique to this series. Other artwork and backgrounds look great, but nothing stands out too much or is worth noting.

While the premise itself is very thin, and I can't help but wonder how far they can actually take it, I was still drawn into this series by way of the characterization of Tenma and the relationship dynamics between her and Leo. If you're a fan of romantic comedies that are a bit by the numbers, or shojo manga in general, than this might be for you. If you want something that's deep and original though you might want to look elsewhere as you won't find anything too groundbreaking here. With that said, I for one can't wait for VIZ to release the second volume!

-Manuel (alavic_222)

For more information on "The Young Master's Revenge", and for a free preview, check out the link below!
https://www.viz.com/the-young-master-s-revenge

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OVERALL RATING: A-

Pros:
+Tenma as a character was well-developed and likeable.
+Pacing is fast, nothing even felt like filler.
+Humor is usually spot-on and well executed.

+-Art was good, but not totally unique.

Cons:
-Weak central premise.
-Leo as a main character is a bit too one-dimensional.
-Full of several shojo manga tropes.

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Note: This item was provided to us by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This fact does not affect the outcome of the review in any way.