The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine

What's It About? 

From cooking to alchemy to even brewing tea, Ailette Rodeline is a certifiable child prodigy—but she's got a secret weapon on her side: she's a transmigrator! Having purchased an insurance package at the moment of her untimely death, Ailette has the perks of a top-tier support system and item shop to fall back on…and she's going to need all the help she can get! Will Ailette be able to survive in the world of a notoriously brutal time-loop novel or will she rise to the challenge and prove herself to be an S-class heroine?

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine has a story by Irinbi and art by Grrr. English translation by Kakao Entertainment. Shirley Chen lettered this volume. To be published by Ize Press (May 21, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

I can declare that I'm tired of the “reborn in a video game” trope all day long, but The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine proves that there is always an exception. This is a competent fantasy with its unique spin on the regular worldbuilding elements of its genre, plus plenty of moxie and heart. Thanks to her determined attitude and refreshing sense of humor, I was hooked on Ailette's story from the moment she was reborn.

Minutes before Truck-kun seals her fate, this manhwa's protagonist receives a mysterious text message offering something called “transmigration insurance.” With nothing to lose, she purchases the deluxe package. It turned out to be the right call; unlike other reborn transmigrators, she is transported to an S-class-difficulty second life, complete with S-class perks and rewards. Ailette uses video game screens to navigate her new life, but this well-tread trope never gets tired, perhaps because of the story's quick pace and comedic timing. Knowing that she's coming from a brutal past life in Korea, her every win as Ailette is immensely gratifying. Since Ailette is truly S-class, there's never any danger that she's doomed, even in an S-class-difficulty time-loop world. Instead, it's interesting to see how she solves her problems.

Spanning more than 300 pages, this is one of the longer volumes in the manga guide, but it certainly doesn't feel that way. I wolfed this down in one sitting. The story beats ought to be familiar to any isekai genre reader: Ailette begins as a child, “levels up” her skills in various departments, navigates intrigue and noble politics, and even handcrafts soaps: that old otome isekai standby. This story isn't new, but its energy and enthusiasm make it feel fresh. Ailette isn't afraid to think outside of the box, to push her luck as far as it will take her, and to make the best of every tool at her disposal to squeeze out of sticky situations. The volume concludes right after Ailette conquers her most formidable problem yet in what has become a now true-to-character lighthearted fashion. I'm sure my opinion will only improve with Volume 2.

In all the many cases of someone being isekai'd (or transmigrated, as Korean media is more likely to put it), you'd think the world would take notice. If that's a logical loophole that's been bugging you, look no further than the world of The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, where a transmigrator crisis is sweeping South Korea and our heroine manages to opt in to special isekai life insurance with her dying breaths. That insurance means that not only is she able to be assessed for the best parallel book-based world to go to (the gods have gotten into web fiction, you see), but she'll also get special skills to help her navigate her new life. Sadly, she's not going to get the “child raising romantasy” she wants (think The Emperor's Daughter), but instead lands a life as a minor character in a time loop tale, so it's a darn good thing she bought that insurance because she is going to need all the help she can get.

The greatest joy of this book is the way it cheerfully acknowledges and lampoons the various versions of the isekai genre. You've got villains, villainesses, Cinderella stories, randomly appearing dungeons, time loops: if you can name it, it's probably in there. Reborn as Ailette, the heroine is horrified to discover that her character dies early on in the series while also being in an unpleasantly similar situation to the one she was in as a child on Earth, and she is not going to take any of this isekai crap sitting down. Using all of the skills at her disposal, which include a library of every (legally purchased) book she read in her past life, an insurance payout, and an in-app store, Ailette begins to shape her new life into one she wants. Along the way, she accidentally finds a new religion, defeats a dungeon boss, and gets a villainess mother and daughter fired. It's trite and delightful at the same time.

It also manages to get a lot of funny little details just right. Take, for example, when she becomes the playmate to Bianca, the daughter of the house. Bianca wants to play dolls, but the scenario she comes up with involves a cheating duke, his vengeful wife, and a mistress, and most of the little girls she's tried to play with aren't having any. But Ailette, full of web novels and K-drama knowledge, ably rises to the occasion…and to be perfectly honest, this is the kind of unhinged game that I played with my sisters and dolls when we were little. Little kids aren't nearly as innocent as we'd like them to be, and this story gets that.

Full of unbridled parodic elements and some very pretty artwork, this is just a good time. It knows its audience and inspiration well, and even if you never knew you needed a winged corgi as one of the gods of the afterlife or a warm family unit mixed into your isekai parody, The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine is a series you ought to check out.