Sister and Giant: A Young Lady Is Reborn in Another World Volumes 1-2 Manga Review – Review

You all know the story: a Japanese schoolgirl is killed by some form of transportation and ends up getting to live out the rest of her life in a fantasy world, often with magical RPG-inspired power. Along the way, she finds love and friendship, and even though she’s dead in one world, it’s in this new one that she really begins to live. It’s been done and done and done, and while there’s still real appeal to the genre, sometimes you just want to watch the isekai burn.

That’s where Sister and Giant: A Young Lady Is Reborn in Another World comes in. Hinako is, indeed, a Japanese high school student who dies after being hit by a train. But when the time comes for her to claim her otherworldly reward, she literally walks right through the moment. Hinako has no time for magic like that, and for one particular reason: she’s a murderer and doesn’t believe she deserves such kindness. As far as she’s concerned, the only place she ought to be going is hell. This is undoubtedly informed by the fact that she attended Catholic school and appears to be a practicing member of that religion, but there’s also a sense that she’s determined to continue what she started with her own two hands – or one remaining hand, as the case may be; one arm has been amputated above the elbow, which has done nothing to cool her determination.

This setup may not be particularly innovative; some of what comes out in these two volumes bears distinct similarities to The Executioner and Her Way of Life. But the books are utterly committed to their own darkness and grimness, which is both a positive and a negative where the story is concerned. In the afterword of the first volume, series creator Be-com mentions that they’re just using all of their favorite literary bits and pieces, which shines through. (In the second volume’s afterword, they mention that they got the idea for the series after watching the 2012 yakuza film Beyond Outrage.) In these two books, we can see Class S yuri, isekai, and dark fantasy all sharing space, with the first being the most interesting aspect.

Hinako calls herself a murderer, and that’s a true statement. Prior to the start of the story, she pushed her “sister” (in the Class S sense) in front of a train, following behind her. Obviously, both she and Junko died, but the reason behind Hinako’s actions is the corruption of the sister system. Junko asked Hinako to become her sister in a blood-sharing ritual that she maintained was normal at their school. She then attempted to turn their relationship sexual despite Hinako’s discomfort and eventually broke up with the other girl. Hinako, who appears to have been coerced into the sexual piece of their relationship, is understandably upset, and Junko’s cruel words and actions are what push her to the brink. It’s a harsher view of Class S yuri and how women aren’t any “purer” than men, with Hinako’s naivete presented as part of the problem.

In the story’s present, Hinako knows that Junko is very likely in this new world with her, and she’s determined to find her. But she’s also continuing the “sister” system in her own image – shortly after arriving, Hinako befriends Ellis, a giant pushed out of her clan. Hinako and Ellis make the same blood pact that she previously made with Junko, but this time, it really does run more like a Class S tale: there’s an innocence based solely on Hinako and Ellis’ desire to protect each other. When Carla enters the group at the end of volume one, Ellis doesn’t want to allow her to join their family, but Hinako explains the tiered sister system of a girls’ school, casting herself as a third-year, Ellis as a second-year, and Carla as a first year. Her burning desire to find and punish Junko is the outrage of someone whose world has been destroyed, and her use of the sister system is perhaps her way of showing Junko what it’s supposed to be – and what she has lost by perverting it.

All of this is playing out against a violent world. Early on, Hinako is almost raped by a paladin of the church and sold into slavery; Ellis manages to put a stop to that (and Hinako later refers to her rapist’s genitals as a “weak weapon”), but that’s not the only time those two issues raise their heads. The other two rescue Carla from slavers – although whether or not she actually needed their help remains to be seen – and towards the end of volume two, we see two women preying on an isekai’d boy for decidedly nefarious reasons. The truth about “otherworlders” and their cheat powers – which some characters refer to as cheat codes, which makes sense given Hinako’s experience with the god in volume two – is the dark side of isekai. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but Be-com uses it with an earnestness that almost makes it work. Clearly, the creator is invested in their work, and I’d be lying if I said that doesn’t help.

The art really enjoys its gore and is generally decent, although the chapter where Hinako and Ellis are naked shows that anatomy can be an issue. Hinako’s empty sleeve never quite looks like it’s hanging right, either, but at least it moves with her movements. Some readers may take umbrage at how the giants’ outfits are modeled after First Nations’, with a bit of a jumble of regions and peoples; at one point, it looks like an elder is sitting in front of a piece of art with Egyptian hieroglyphs on it. There’s also something weird about how Ellis’ short-shorts fit, but it can probably be chalked up to fanservice.

Sister and Giant has moments of being better than it ought to be, but on the whole, it is a bit schlocky. It’s clearly enjoying itself, though, and the creator’s enthusiasm for their material helps to make these books a decent read. They’re most interesting for the Class S elements, but if you’re looking for a darker take on isekai with some bonus yuri implied, this may fit the bill.

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. Yen Press, BookWalker Global, and J-Novel Club are subsidiaries of KWE.