After losing her father, the king of Hillvalley, Princess Stella is thrown into the middle of a succession crisis. Her stepsister Illusia wastes no time in trying to assassinate Stella and seize the throne, but all her attempts mysteriously go awry. Little does anyone know that the young princess has a hidden protector…in the most unlikely of places!

Stella Must Die has a story by Yasunori Mitsunaga and art by Ine Ohtaka. English translation is done by Mei Amaki and lettering by Madeleine Jose. Published by Kodansha USA (May 5, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

You've seen guys reborn as swords. You've seen them as vending machines. Maybe you've even seen them reincarnated as a virus. But are you ready for a Japanese man reincarnated as…a tapeworm in a princess' large intestine?

No, I was not. Not at all.

Stella Must Die's back copy tries to be cute about the premise of this book – it takes about “Parasyte meets Cinderella” and “hidden protectors.” A cynical part of me wonders if this is because the good folks at Kodansha knew that putting “a guy reincarnated as a fantasy tapeworm uses his parasitic abilities to control the body of a young girl by sticking his eyeball out of her ass” wouldn't attract a large audience. I certainly wouldn't have picked it up, and I'm being paid to.

All of that said, this doesn't have the absolute worst story. Young Princess Stella is the only legitimate heir to the throne after her father dies (mysteriously, of course), and her stepsiblings are determined to get rid of her and all of her supporters so that they can take power. They kill her faithful servant and knight, and with them out of the way, make a move on Stella herself. Except…she doesn't die. Poisoned food doesn't kill her, monsters don't kill her, basically nothing her stepsiblings throw at her works. And that, it turns out, is because of her isekai'd passenger. As someone who knows how parasitic infections work, he determines that it's in his best interest to keep Stella alive to ensure his own survival, so he eats her poisoned food mid-esophagus, strengthens her body with his filaments (fantasy, remember), and even takes her body for nighttime Exorcist walks, as you can see in the panel up there. It takes men controlling women to a whole new level.

Honestly, if he wasn't a tapeworm and the creators didn't feel the need to remind us that he can either stick his head out of her mouth or her ass, this might be more fun. Or maybe not – honestly, I'm just really grossed out by this story, and all the very nice artwork in the world can't make up for that. I think it's meant to be funny, but it doesn't work for me. This is for a very specific audience that I am not a part of. If you are, I think you'll have a better time.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

The premise of Stella Must Die, Volume 1, is creepy and unpleasant, and I loved it right from the start! As I read, the story just got weirder and weirder, and still I was fascinated. Of all the “look how clever I am” isekai I have read this season, I think this might just be the most bizarre and unique thing I have read.

We've encountered people reincarnated as objects and creatures before, but never have we seen an isekai rebirth into a gut parasite. This particular helminth, who disparagingly refers to him(yes, him)self as “shit worm,” will protect and guide this young girl in the den of iniquity that is her family. He's going to be clever and brutal about it, too.

I can state with absolute certainty that I have never wanted to know anything about gut parasites, and having read this, I know more than I ever expected to, given that this is actually a thriller about how family members have targeted a young royal Princess, Stella, so they can take the throne for themselves.

Volume 1 has a blend of real-world science factoids about the functioning of our intelligent gut parasite and a series of interesting tactical choices, given that the protagonist is, well, a gut parasite.

The “intrigue” of the story ends up being rather funny, as unbeknownst to herself, Stella is now all but invincible. Unconscious most of the time, our protagonist is using her body to kill those who would hurt her. Until the end of the volume, Stella is an increasingly inconceivable mystery to her murderous step-siblings. It's quite amusing, and horrible as death and dismemberment are common and bloody in this volume.

This is a weird-ass story. I liked it a lot.