The Young Master's Revenge - Volume One (Review)

By: EyeSpyeAlexNow that it’s hip to be into anime and manga, I can fully embrace how much I love shojo works. Thanks to our friends at Viz Media, I was able to check out their latest shojo romance, The Young Master’s Revenge.The Young Master’s Revenge tells the story of Leo Tachibana, who has one goal in life: to destroy his childhood enemy, Tenma Tsuwabuki. Tenma - known by their classmates as Princess Tsuwabuki - is the daughter of the once wealthy Tsuwabuki family. While Leo was away from Japan his father’s clothing company Taurus flourished into a fashion giant and the Tsuwabuki’s Department store went bankrupt. Given that Leo used to be Tenma’s lackey due to his family’s lower social status, he is all too thrilled at this role reversal and plans to use it to his advantage.Why does Leo hate Tenma so much? Ten years ago when he was acting as Tenma’s lackey, Leo was injured while assisting Tenma catch turtles. The turtles took a big chunk out of Leo’s pride...and out of his butt. Humiliated while acting under Tenma’s orders, Leo has vowed to humiliate Tenma in return. His plan is to have Tenma fall in love with him only to break her heart.His plan gets quickly gets set into motion when he saves Tenma from an arranged marriage and invites her to live with him as his maid. While Tenma doesn’t understand much about domestic living, she puts her heart into everything she does! Things get tricky when they start attending Genbu University High School. Leo is in good standing with his classmates, but with Tenma’s family’s social standing, she is quickly ostracized.Things only get trickier when Tenma’s ex-fiance, Gou Gamada, begins following them around. Just as it seems the solve the Gou problem, Student Council President Barazono appears as a thorn in Leo’s side. He decides to take Tenma in as his charge, much to the chagrin of both Tenma and Leo. This leads Leo on a reconnaissance mission to save Tenma, in which he is captured and forced to bare his turtle scars for everyone to see. A sudden trigger of the sprinkler system allows the two to escape. Once they are free from Barazono’s clutches, Tenma cries and apologizes for getting Leo so hurt all those years ago. Thrown off by this, Leo admits to Tenma that he hates her and having got that off his chest will leave her alone from now on. Tenma quickly tells him that she wants to remain by his side, even if it means he torments her a little bit.The Young Master’s Revenge is one of the cutest mangas I’ve read in a long time. The story is like a more wholesome version of Mean Girls and I just love it. The only problem is I’m not sure if Leo can succeed in his revenge if Tenma is aware of it. I think I can handle the only downside to this series being a misnomer.On top of boasting a cute story, The Young Master’s Revenge has all the trimmings of a classic shojo manga. The characters are all blessed with large eyes and slim figures. The characters all have the classic chin that can chisel marble as well. Despite having a near cookie cutter look to other shojo, Meca Tanaka makes the characters stand out with their expressive emotions. Any time the characters are happy or sad or embarrassed their whole body gets into the emotion. It’s a really adds to the depth of the scene.The Young Master’s Revenge Volume One is currently available for purchase in stores and available here on Viz’s website. The Young Master’s Revenge Volume Two will be available in stores on June 5, 2018.