The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

That Time I Got Reincarnated in a BL Manga

What's It About? 

After getting stabbed on the bus, the manga artist Tetsuo Tanaka finds that he has been reincarnated... into the BL manga he created?! Although he quickly runs into the sexually adventurous love interest Takumi, Tetsuo has unfortunately been reincarnated as Atsushi, the promiscuous rival to the canon seme.

Although Tetsuo/Atsushi is initially able to successfully make a move on the alluring Takumi, fate/the plot seems determined to return things to the status quo. Will he be able to rewrite the plot and find a happy ending with the man of his dreams? Even if he can't, there's sure to be plenty of "fun" along the way!

That Time I Got Reincarnated in a BL Manga has a story and art by Maria. Nomnom Namako translated the manga into English. This volume is lettered and retouched by Anjum Choudhury. Published by Animate International Co., Ltd. (March 26, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

It probably says something about how prevalent reincarnation stories have become that creator Maria says that she's never really read one but somehow managed to write one perfectly. That Time I Got Reincarnated in a BL Manga is a themed take on the genre, throwing struggling manga creator Tetsuo Tanaka into his own work after he's accidentally stabbed and killed on a bus. (The killer was just hijacking; he and his knife fell into Tetsuo when the bus started moving. Yes, this says a lot about the feel of the story.) At first, this seems fine, but then he realizes that his character is the no-chance rival that his editor made him add, so if Tetsuo, now Atsushi Taira, wants to get protagonist Takumi, he's going to have to work around his plotlines.

If you look at it in a certain light, it's nothing we haven't seen before; substitute "villainess" for "romantic rival," and there you have it. But Atsushi is such a hopeless, romantic cheeseball that it makes up for any genre fatigue that the plot might cause. He's been writing BL because it's the only safe way for him to express his sexuality, so in some ways, this is a total dream come true for him. Still, he's also got precisely zero experience with love or sex, so that just adds to his anxiety that the utterly pure and perfect character he's trying to outmaneuver will still win Takumi in the end. And why shouldn't he? If Sota is perfect, the decidedly imperfect Atsushi wrote him that way. (As Tetsuo. It gets a little confusing.) The real draw here is watching Atsushi contort himself to find ways to make things work out while slowly realizing that just because it was a book before doesn't mean it still has to function as one now. And maybe he's always been good enough for Takumi if he can trust in that possibility.

The story is an engaging mix of raunchy, silly, and romantic. There are plenty of absolutely insane scenes of Atsushi trying to make things work while drastically overthinking everything, and those make Sota, the purportedly perfect character, look much too bland for real life – and since he's only supposed to be perfect on paper, that's a well-done element of the story. Atsushi's seeming contradictions make him attractive to Takumi, and that's not something that he ever thought about back when he was writing it as a manga. It's a surprisingly sweet romance, especially because there are a lot of explicit sex scenes for the page count, and those two things don't always go hand-in-hand.

Long story short, this is a fun book. It could have been longer, but it works as it stands and blends its story elements nicely. If you're looking for a mild parody with explicit sex and some moments of sweetness, this is your book.

Finally, a good isekai. Jokes aside, it's entertaining in its own way to see this genre so rightly associated with wish fulfillment indulged in a way that doesn't involve overpowered magic or fantasy settings. I mean, the setting is still a fantasy, as manga author Tetsuo falls dick-first into his own personally produced world of gay romance. It helps readers get to know Tetsuo a bit before his untimely demise and reincarnation as Atsushi, though in practice, it's not like there's a ton of ground to cover. He's an awkward gay virgin who wears his desire for romance on his sleeve and is now deeply unprepared for the sorts of interpersonal situations he finds himself thrust into. To say nothing of the other things he finds himself thrusting into.

Utterly unashamed of itself as it is as a vehicle for self-indulgence, That Time I Got Reincarnated in a BL Manga is as much about delivering on Tetsuo/Atsushi's long pent-up fantasies as it is exploring the ramifications of his death and reincarnation. The manga makes a concerted effort at having it both ways between its lead's adorably awkward lack of experience and the passionate pick-up power of the player character he's inhabiting. That is, Atsushi still gets to act like a flustered virgin, but when it's finally time to get down, he's putting on a show worthy of the steamy panels he was drawing in his past life.

That creates an enjoyably likable chemistry between Atsushi and his designated uke Takumi, tempered by hardcore sexytimes and contrasting goofiness. It's good that the couple works well together naturally since all the sex and Atsushi's waffling regarding it leaves precious little time for a proper story in this one-off volume. There's a lot of gesturing at ideas like Atsushi asserting agency in his creations or the value of fictional fantasies in allowing oneself to be happy. But there's so little space for the story's writing that even the "rival" love interest (the original main character) barely shows up a couple of times as an afterthought. I appreciate him pointedly having the basic-bitch generic manga main character design, though; that's smart. That Time I Got Reincarnated in a BL Manga does pretty much precisely what its title tells you it will, and works well enough as some stupid sexy fun. Whether that's enough depends on what you generally want from your other, perhaps less high-concept, BL manga.

Naughty and hilarious, That Time I Got Reincarnated in a BL Manga is a self-insert fantasy (pun very much intended) for anyone who has dreamed of romancing their original character. Our protagonist is a yaoi manga artist who meets an untimely end (it wasn't Truck-kun but it might as well have been), and ends up not in a parallel fantasy world, but his own just-finished BL manga. Eager to ditch his virginal past life, the artist sets his sights on his favorite OC, a brazen, slutty uke named Takumi. The one problem? He hasn't been reborn as Takumi's canon love interest but as Atsushi, the story's villainous playboy rival!

This reincarnation story with a horndog twist differentiates itself from many isekai stories due to the protagonist's extremely uncool nature. Atsushi, as we'll call the protagonist moving forward, is embarrassingly cringe given the slightest opportunity. His only motivation is getting together with Takumi, and armed with a creator's intimate knowledge of his creation, he comes across as a bit of a stalker. Takumi, for his part, acts like the wanton, forward uke he was created to be. In a genre full of cool, aloof seme characters and flustered, self-insert uke characters, this manga turns the tables on the usual BL dynamic—and not only because Takumi is a power bottom. Even the manga's cover, peppered with tropes like "Gary Stu" and "FWB," promises what the story delivers: a self-aware and self-conscious riff on the usual.

While this manga contains many explicit scenes, they're more comedic than erotic. Atsushi is a minute-man, and at one point, he climaxes when Takumi says something nice to him. Much of the humor comes from the contrast between Atsushi's promiscuous reputation and his inexperienced interior narrative that carries over from his past life. Fortunately, it turns out that Atsushi's awkwardness is the key to unlocking Takumi's heart. Takumi is accustomed to partners who are happy to hit it and quit it, confirming Takumi's own low opinion of himself. But Atsushi is simply radiating with puppyish affection, putting Takumi completely off his game. The result is a high-chemistry romance that's as rewarding as it is funny to watch unfold. Detailed art and shameless dialogue make this comedy a shocking, sexy romp.