By Kazuki Karasawa and Akane Rica. Released in Japan as “Saikyou Joshi, Isekai e Iku!” by the author on the Shosetsuka ni Naro website. Released in North America digitally by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Marissa Skeels.
How much you enjoy this one-shot may depend on how in tune with the standard comedy tropes of anime and manga you as a reader are. It stars a young woman who is not only oblivious as to her own ridiculous strength, but also oblivious to the fact that she has multiple suitors. Part of that obliviousness may be that she tends to imagine her romantic rivals are in love with each other (she’s a classic “I see everyone I know as a BL pairing” type) but most of it is that she’s so dedicated to the idea of being a “dainty young maiden” (which is to say a gender stereotype-conforming girl) that the idea that people might be in awe of her strength… or worse, afraid of it… makes her skin crawl. But it’s OK! She has a childhood friend. Who is clearly in love with her, which he has tried to communicate by hanging out with her all the time and hoping that she’ll realize his feelings by osmosis. It’s this kind of humor.
Sakurako has been having a rough year. After the death of her parents, she’s trying hard to run the family dojo with the help of her childhood friend (who also lost HIS parents in the same accident). Unfortunately, she keeps getting attacked by savage dogs. And wolves. And telephone poles falling on her. And trucks trying to crash into her. Weird. Good thing she’s ludicrously strong, so she escapes all these accidents. After she finally is killed off, the god who’s been doing it reveals that she was also supposed to die in the same accident as her parents, so they’ve been trying to correct fate. Now she’s dead… but so is Kazuya, her childhood friend, who wasn’t supposed to die. The god decides to solve this by tossing them in a world of magic and monsters. Now Sakurako can remake her life as a dainty young maiden!… who can atomize B-rank monsters with just one punch.
In the afterword, the author says this was written before their other CIW series, The Weakest Manga Villainess Wants Her Freedom!, and for the most part it shows. This is a weaker work, mostly as Sakurako is far too aggravating to have as a long-term protagonist. Likewise, once you realize that Kazuya could solve all his problems by actually confessing rather than expecting her to get it like every other dumb teen out there, you lose a lot of sympathy for him. That said, the fact that this is complete in one volume definitely helps, as it means that they both have to catch a clue about this before the book ends. I was also amused at some of the humor, such as the demon lord briefly assuming that all of humanity is just like Sakurako and turning into a whiny baby, and the effects of Sakurako’s magic food forcing the stoic of their party to start espousing its virtues at the top of his lungs. There’s fun to be had here.
That said, if you want to try out this author’s work, I’d definitely start with The Weakest Manga Villainess Wants Her Freedom! first.
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