Title: The Revenge of My Youth, Re Life with an Angelic Girl Vol. 2
Author: Boiru Iseebi (Manga), Yuzi Keino (Original Story), Tantan (Characters)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Sci-Fi, Slice-of-Life, Romance
Publication Date: June 10, 2025
The Story
It’s school culture festival time, but first, the meeting to decide what to do is breaking down and not going anywhere. Knowing that there won’t be any resolution, Niihama jumps in and takes control of the meeting. He narrows down their choices based on the remaining time frame and decides to go with a Japanese Takoyaki Café. Some of his classmates disagree with his suggestion, but he uses his problem-solving skills from his past life and overcomes their objections. Even if some still objected, he used the widely used sacred corporate tactic of just ignoring them.
When it comes time for the festival, his idea is a success; however, they have a bit of a surprise for him. He is set up on a little festival date with Shijoin! They go around to the different classes and enjoy the activities under the guise of promoting their café! While things are going great there, the café runs into a bit of a snag when it’s time for the third shift to take over. Apparently, some of the shift members ate some raw Takoyaki and are indisposed in the bathroom. Niihama divides the tasks among the three others, while he will handle cooking all of the Takoyaki himself. It’s back-breaking labor, but he manages to pull through.
After all is said and done, they throw an after-party, and the entire class thanks Niihama for everything that he did. Unfortunately, he is too burned out to enjoy any of it and ends up falling asleep… or so we think. Instead, he falls over onto the floor. Shijoin offers her lap as a pillow; however, it seems it’s more dire than we suspected because Niihama has traveled back to the present and is being harassed by his boss once again! What does this mean for Niihama, and how does this newest situation make him arrive at a revelation?
Characters
For as much as what happened in this volume, I can’t say that there was much in the way of character development outside of Niihama coming to a revelation about whether or not he truly admired Shijoin as a person, or if he liked her in a completely different way. The time that they spent together built up to that revelation; however, is it too late for him to do anything about it? When he did travel back to the present, he also learned the courage to stand up to his boss. Whatever the consequences of that may be, he still grew the backbone that he needed. In a way, this makes him a stronger character, but then again, that backbone was there ever since he traveled into the past and changed his persona. That new characteristic was carried with him back to the present.
As for Shijoin, I don’t think there was much in the way of her development. She continues to drop strong hints that she likes Niihama, but she keeps it close to herself and comes across as someone who is just happy to be within his company. While some of the things that she says could lend one to believe that she has feelings for him, I’ve seen this situation before where the girl is just happy with being friends and keeping things at that level. With Niihama’s revelation, I hope that isn’t the case. Then again, we are halfway through the series, even though this is the second volume, so they will likely be shipped together.
Kamazihara is our little secret weapon in this volume. She’s the one who set up Niihama and Shijoin on their little culture festival date. It was nice to see her open up because she came across as a bit stern at first; however, even Niihama mentioned that he was surprised to know that she had a softer side to her. It was nice to see that little transition for her character!
Final Thoughts
After a very solid first volume, I felt as if it pumped the brakes here a bit. A culture festival has been done to death; however, with Niihama coming to the rescue and shouldering the majority of the work and delegation himself, it tied into his previous life, applying his abusive work ethic to solve the problems they faced along the way (is that truly a healthy thing to do!?) The problem that I had was merely a personal qualm with the fact that we were given such a unique premise that was very impactful in the first volume, and then it degenerated into one of the most overused tropes in the second volume. When you’ve read and reviewed as much manga as I have, seeing yet another culture festival arc becomes painful and boring to read.
Even with the twists this series tried to apply to it, it was still a culture festival arc. I know. I get it. They’re big and popular in Japan and a staple of every Japanese high schooler’s life. Since this is a Japanese work in a high school setting, it’s a go-to story plot for nearly every series set in the same genre, so to a Westerner like me, it will seem repetitive and boring; however, I’m sure there are a ton of readers in Japan who look forward to these types of arcs. It still doesn’t change my perspective that I’m tired of them, though, but I’m also not naïve enough to think that I can simply ask an entire country to stop promoting their culture in their native works, either. So, it is what it is, but whether you think it’s fair or not, I’m still going to deduct points for overusing a trope.
The last couple of chapters brought us back to that impact the first volume had, though. So, after getting through the festival, we were rewarded with more content, which made this series unique and stand out. While the plot isn’t anything that hasn’t been done before (I’m looking at you, Boku Dake ga Inai Machi), it did put an interesting twist on things. I will say that it does get resolved in the very next chapter, which is a shame, because I thought Chapter 13 would have been THE PERFECT cliffhanger to end the volume on, but again, it is what it is. I just wish it could have been extended a bit further for dramatic effect, but since we are only on chapter 14 of a 28-chapter series, I guess not enough time was afforded to let things breathe, play out, or slowly burn as I tend to like.
Overall, still a pretty good read, my issues with overage of tropes aside. With the next volume being second-to-last, I expect the pacing to pick up a bit. We’ll see if things between Niihama and Shijoin will work out! (I’m guessing they will).
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