The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor

What's It About? 

Although Jill's engagement to the Crown Prince should have guaranteed her a happy life, she is instead sentenced to death by her very fiancé! However, moments before her death, she is sent back in time to the party that determined her fate. In a desperate bid to avoid her doom, she proposes to the man behind her, but that man turns out to be none other than an enemy from a neighboring country, the Dragon Emperor, Hades!

The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor has a story by Sarasa Nagase, with art by Anko Yuzu and original character design by Mitsuya Fuji. The English translation is by John Neal with lettering by Adnazeer Macalangcom. Published by Yen Press (September 19, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

I read the original light novel for this series for the last Guide, and I admit to being bothered by the romantic plotline. Our heroine, Jill, dies at age sixteen after discovering her fiancé's horrible secret: he's not just in love with his sister; he's sleeping with her. As she's dying, she wishes she could go back and avoid ever getting engaged to the prince in the first place, and lo and behold, her wish is granted. But to avoid the incestuous prince, she gets engaged (by accident) to the dragon emperor…and he is way too excited to be engaged to a ten-year-old.

That right there is the biggest barrier to entry for this series, and it's a shame that it's there because Jill is a kickass heroine. That's not surprising given her pedigree; Sarasa Nagase is the author behind Aileen in I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss, and her writing has drastically improved since that series. And Hadis, the emperor, isn't a bad character either – who could hate a guy who bakes homemade croissants for your breakfast? But he keeps reiterating how happy he, a nineteen-year-old, is that he's gotten a ten-year-old wife, even going so far as to say how glad he is that she's under fourteen. I can tell you from the novel that there is a reason for this, but even knowing that, it's very creepy to read about his glee.

The plot is typical loop story material, with Jill looking to avoid her mistake from her first go-round and stop a major war before it happens for good measure. In her first life, she was an accomplished soldier, mage, and tactician, and she's retained all of her memories from that time, so there's a good chance that she can accomplish what she's setting out to do. Jill is smart, strong, talented, and unlikely to take any garbage from anyone, and that comes across here, both in the art and the writing. While the art isn't fantastic, it still does an excellent job with body language and showing the details of the world. The only real issue I have is that Rave, the dragon, looks far more cartoony than anyone or anything else, making him stand out awkwardly. Jill herself is creeped out by Hadis' devotion to her and makes repeated comments to that effect, so it's clear that the story is aware of its own greatest problem, and if Jill grows up a bit with each subsequent story arc, this could turn out to be an outstanding series. But the barrier to entry is high if this sort of age gap isn't a favorite because, “but I'm sixteen on the inside!” only gets you so far.