Reincarnated in a world where women dominate the battlefield and men are sheltered, Faust is an anomaly--a rare male knight and celebrated war hero. His unmatched military achievements have earned him fame, but his past-life values make life challenging in this female-led society.

Constantly overwhelmed by the bold advances of powerful women, Faust struggles to maintain his composure. From a barely dressed queen to a voluptuous duchess, the attention is relentless. When tasked with advising the spirited second-eldest princess Valiele on her first campaign, he anticipates an easy mission. But what begins as a simple bandit hunt soon spirals into an unexpected tragedy!

Virgin Knight: I Became the Frontier Lord in a World Ruled by Women has story by Mitizou and art by Kotatsu Yanase. English translation is done by Zihan Gao, with lettering by Rai Enril. Published by Seven Seas (September 16, 2025). Rated 17+.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

If you are not yourself an adolescent male and wanted to be thrown into a story in which you understand the constant noise from one's penis, so that it becomes almost impossible to sincerely listen to the important information being spoken around you, Virgin Knight: I Became the Frontier Lord in a World Ruled by Women Is exactly the experience you are looking for.

Because, despite the very loud constant running dialogue about and visual stimuli of women's breasts, asses, and crotches, and their effect on Faust, there is an actual story happening here. Only to pay attention to it, you have to not stop to look at secondary sexual characteristics that are thrown at you like jabs in a boxing ring. Tits! Ass! Crotch-crotch!

There is a plot, there is intrigue, there is a war going on, and some duplicitousness, and Faust and the second princess have to fend off both external and internal enemies, as well as creepy ass-grabbing women in this world where women are the rulers, but somehow still all they think of is men. And virginity. Which is how you know that this world may be run by women, but was created by and for men.

There's no real reason why Faust is holding on to his virginity. I mean, okay, there probably is a story reason why, but it doesn't really matter. This series is clearly catering to a sexual denial fetish. So, while the scantily (and uncomfortably) clad Queen is planning how best to defeat bandits and a coup is brewing, Faust is spending almost all of his time on page trying not to be sexually aroused.

Ironically, the cover art for this volume has one of the most fully covered “woman wearing armor” pinups I have seen in manga.

I don't think this is a terrible manga. Like watching a pink movie, you know what you're in for from the first moments, so it's not being coy and pretending to be high literature or anything. This manga is exactly what it says it is. If you like that, you'll like this.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

Where to even begin with this? Perhaps with the first chapter, attractively titled “A Pain in the Dick”. From such a not-exactly highbrow beginning, Virgin Knight certainly sets the tone with which it intends to continue. Look, I'm not really sure what I expected when I chose to review this book, perhaps at the very least a laugh? But it isn't funny. Hearkening back to my childhood and evening reruns of “The Two Ronnies” on BBC TV and their decidedly non-PC comedy serial “The Worm that Turned”, perhaps I pined for a societal gender-swap fantasy parody that might both poke fun at while simultaneously inverting gender norms?

Nope. What we get here is a depressingly grim isekai story set in a society where women outnumber men for no obvious reason, and most males are kept essentially as slaves and breeding stock. The “ideal” male seems to be pathetically weak and stereotypically feminized/androgynous, so of course our beefcake protagonist (a sub-Guts from Berserk type) feels insecure about his appearance. There's a whole lot of super-boring political waffle about rival princesses and factions and yadda yadda yadda. It takes forever for whatever plot there is to get started.

There's definitely fertile ground for interesting speculative fiction in this kind of genre – look at Ōoku, or Y The Last Man for good examples. Sadly, Virgin Knight seems intent on focusing on depicting most of its female characters from butt or barely-covered genital-first angles, while the main character complains (repeatedly) that his bespoke metal chastity belt/codpiece is hurting his erect member. Sigh.