来世は他人がいい (Hepburn: Yakuza Fiance: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii, English: An Outsider is Better in the Afterlife) is an awardwinning psychological romance seinen manga by Konishi Asuka. It first appeared as a light novel and was then serialized as a manga in Kodansha Afternoon monthly, starting in 2017.
Yoshino Somei is a 17 year old girl who grew up as the yakuza princess of the Osaka Somei crime family in the Kansai region of Japan. She's plain spoken, taller than her peers, and has trouble making friends due to her appearance and her ties to the yakuza through her paternal grandfather. Renji Somei is the leader of the Somei, a 4th generation subgroup under Kirigaya, the largest Yakuza group in the Kansai region.
Renji has shared a sake and sworn ties with the Tokyo-based Miyama Group 5th generation leader Gaku Miyama to end the 60 long years of feud between two factions. Renji and Gaku have signed a truce, part of which involves Yoshino getting engaged to Gaku's grandnephew, Kirishima. Yoshino moves to Tokyo to live at the Miyama family compound and get to know Kirishima ahead of their Arranged Marriage.
At first, Kirishima seems amiable and polite. He's a very good student and a member of his high school's Safety Committee. But in reality he's a masochist with several girls on the side and a penchant for BDSM.
The side story Futari wa Teihen explores Yoshino's relationship with her foster brother Shouma, who Renji took in after the kid attacked him on the street in a drunken haze. After Shouma detoxed with the help of Somei group members, Renji took him in and supported him through high school and ultimately enrolled him in college. Shouma is loyal to Yoshino to the point where he takes on an Aloof Big Brother role when it comes to her relationship with Kirishima.
The manga won first place at the Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Taishou 2018 awards, and was nominated for Best General Manga Series in the 46th Annual Kodansha Manga Awards. There are currently 7 volumes available in multiple languages. English volumes from Seven Seas Entertainment were made available in November 2022.
Raise wa Tanin ga Ii provides examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: Kirishima doesn't learn. Well he does eventually but it takes him time to get there.
- Altar Diplomacy: Renji and Gaku have struck a deal to unite their yakuza groups and the terms include an engagement between Yoshino and Kirishima. In hopes of moving things along faster, the Miyama group is taking Yoshino into their care for a year. Renji is in line for a top spot with the Kirigaya and lost his son to a possible targetted hit, and both Kirishima and Yoshino need a friend, so sending her to Tokyo and making Kirishima her bodyguard kills two birds with one stone, as it were.
- Battle Couple: Yoshino takes the initiative and backs up Kirishima a few times to unintentionally comic results.
- In the Akaza Shiori kidnapping mini-arc Kirishima and Yoshino go to a club to find the runaway daughter of a yakuza and Kirishima ends up beating the crap out of 5 guys after one of them shoves Yoshino to the floor. She hops up and beats them with her hairdryer and whacks Kirishima in the head to get his attention and stop nearly killing one of the guys.
- In the Osaka arc they're unable to agree on a plan but but manage to work in tandem to eliminate all their attackers, end up finding the leader and reading him the riot act. It's adorable and oddly heartwarming, but also deeply upsetting when you realize they're 18 and 17 respectively.
- Beat Panel: Konishi is very very good at these.
- The first time we see this, Kirishima catches up to the guys who are trying to muscle Yoshino into a club on a Tokyo street and beats the crap out of them. He essentially makes it clear that Yoshino is his and that he will cheerfully slaughter the guys and their families if they try anything with 'his woman' again. When the same guys show up with Ozu Kento in Osaka, they are gunning for Kirishima in revenge. Or are they?
- In the Akaza Shiori mini-arc Kirishima is beating the hell out of a group of thugs— one of whom threw Yoshino to the floor as he entered. Yoshino picks herself up and whacks Kirishima in the head to get his attention and stop him form nearly killing one of the guys. Kirishima is so focused on his what he's doing that he doesn't even realize one of the guys have stabbed him in the leg with a knife.
- Shouma has also gotten really protective of Yoshino to the point where he thrashes guys for just mentioning her name out of turn.
- Bishie Sparkle:
- At school Kirishima is approached several times by girls who want a photo, something his (faceless) male classmates guys seem to notice.
- Also during the Osaka arc when the local obachaan's catch sight of him at Yoshino and Shouma's favorite takoyaki stand.
- With Shouma when he shows up at Kirishima and Yoshino's school unannounced and with Yoshino's yummy mummy in tow.
- Any time Tsubaki is thinking of, remembering, or spending time with Renji, who she finds attractive.
- Brainless Beauty: Kirishima is a bit of an airhead sometimes. This is either an act or a coping mechanism in response to the parental neglect and trauma of being bullied as a kid. Could also be Obfuscating Stupidity.
- Can't Hold His Liquor:
- In an extra, Kirishima has such a low tolerance that he instantly forgets where Yoshino is even if she's standing right behind him.
- In canon, Gaku Miyama got so drunk in his youth that he once slept through a fire alarm at a bar where he and Renji were hanging out. Renji had to carry him out of the place.
- Also in canon, all three old men in their late 50s don't drink except at Kirigaya group dinners. The Miyama group members don't drink because Gaku doesn't, and instead they eat a lot of sweets.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Inverted with Kirishima who follows Yoshino everywhere and seems pretty intent on keeping her all to himself. However, there may be reasons for this that might explain his behavior including an as yet undefined deal with her grandfather to keep her safe which involves him basically stalking her at all times.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Kirishima stabs a guy with a fork. In the eye.
- Control Freak: Kirishima does not eat or sleep around people he doesn't know because he's literally afraid he's going to be killed in revenge for something he's done in the course of his job as yakuza muscle. Kid is a mess.
- Eye Take:
- Yoshino has a lot of these— her eyes tend to go oval and her pupils get very small. Usually when Kirishima is touching her in a way that is a little too intimate for her comfort.
- Kirishima but more of a Reaction Shot. His eyes get very wide and cute in a Disneyesque way.
- Entitled to Have You: Yes and no.
- Kirishima refers to Yoshino as 'his woman', and cheerfully admits to being aroused by the fact that he can't touch her before they get married— and that he'd be disciplined for trying. But he also states over and over that no one else could be a good match for her and that he won't let anyone else have her.
- He does little things that clearly show he wants a level of intimacy with her that she's not comfortable with, to the point where when they do ultimately become a couple as part of a deal he makes with her, she writes out little contracts on post-its and has him sign them, showing her he understands that he can't touch her without consent.
- Finger-Suck Healing: Kirishima does this to Yoshino after they start dating officially. She is not amused, aroused, or the slightest bit appreciative and it ends up being added to the relationship contract (aka the signed post-its on her fridge) as something he's not allowed to do without her express consent.
- Flaw Exploitation:
- Kirishima's modus operandi as a 'fixer'.
- Also in his personal life when he approaches Tsubaki about Yoshino's donated kidney. It turns out Kirishima knows Tsubaki took something else instead and leverages that information to form an uneasy peace.
- Tsubaki recognizes Kirishima's awkwardness and stalkery behavior hides something else and threatens him with never seeing Yoshino again if he hurts her.
- Kirishima and Nao to each other. She uses him for his yakuza connections and violent past, and he uses her to thwart Ozu Kenta's attempts to blackmail them both and hurt Yoshino.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Over-sexualized behavior of adolescents.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Kirishima takes out some pictures of his great uncle and Gaku when they were in their late teens and Yoshino remarks at length on how Kirishima resembles Gaku— going so far as to push his hair out of his face to emulate Gaku's slicked back hair and ask him if there's 'something wrong with his genes'. After the massive Art Evolution over several volumes you can still see the resemblance so it's obvious and intentional.
- Tachibana comments on how there are only ten pictures of Gaku and they're all with Renji, then says it's probably because they have a special bond. Something that is not shown outright but implied on many many occasions.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Yoshino is constantly running full steam into situations where she shouldn't be and more than once gets a bit beaten up due to her own clumsiness and lack of strength. This does not diminish Shouma or Kirishima's affection and admiration of her, though, which is a nice touch.
- Loony Fan: Kirishima to Yoshino but it's heavily implied this is not just about stalking as the story progresses.
- At 11 or 12 Kirishima scrapes up the cash to buy a train ticket to attend a funeral so he can see Yoshino, who he's only heard about. He is instantly smitten. In an extra piece of art the mangaka created to promote the sale of the manga in Japanese stores, it's revealed that Kirishima got someone kicked out of his high school to make space for Yoshino. Which indicates that either the move to Tokyo was planned down to the letter, or he really is just a little psycho.
- Manchild: All the male leads.
- Renji basically telling Yoshino to get Kirishima to fall in love with her and then dump him as revenge for something we don't know about yet.
- Shouma's interactions with Tsubaki. (See also: Belligerent Sexual Tension.)
- Kirishima in general although part of his behavior might be due to an earlier trauma.
- Missing Mom: All three main characters. Until later in the series when Yoshino's mother Hitomi pops up and reveals why she's been missing. Something to do with being fragile in general, but also possibly traumatized at the sudden, brutal loss of her husband when they were very young and she was pregnant with Yoshino.
- Moment Killer: During the Osaka arc while visiting the aquarium when Yoshino is challenging Kirishima to tell her about himself. Kirishima grabs her hand, pulls her close, and seems to be on the verge of confiding in her when his phone rings. He picks it up, it turns out to be his ex Nao Shiota, who he's trying to get information from. He sends Yoshino home in a cab.
- Mood Whiplash: So many examples, but a few notable ones.
- Yoshino's first day of school when she's approached by some female classmates she thinks might be possible friends but who only want to know if Kirishima is her boyfriend and are probably the same students who fill her locker and shoes with mud.
- Kirishima does a Face–Heel Turn after saving her from some random guys harassing her on a Tokyo street, and suggests she go home to Osaka in the most unpleasant way possible. Basically he tells her to make him some money or go back and tell her grandfather what Kirishima said, because he thinks that disrespecting her would lead to a gang war and the Somei's coming after him— which seems to excite him.
- Parental Neglect:
- Shouma's mother isn't in the picture and his dad is a sack of stuff who basically sold his troubled son to Renji— the man who Shouma attacked in a drug-fueled haze. According to the dossier Kirishima has in his basement study, Shouma was passed around a few more times among relatives before his father took him back.
- Kirishima's parents. Nothing is really known about them other than they got divorced around the time his paternal grandfather was ill and left him with his great aunt.
- Yoshino's mother was not a well woman when she dropped Yoshino off with her father in law, Renji. Yoshino was mostly raised by Renji's second, Hotei, and spent a few years with Tsubaki's family when Renji decided she needed to be around other women and girls.
- Gaku really did a number on Kirishima.
- Psychopathic Man Child: Kirishima. Kid has incredible strength but very grey morals, which leads to some crazy fights.
- Seen in Kirishima's gleeful assumption that his curfew exists solely to give his minders an excuse to beat him, so he violates his constantly. When Yoshino suggests that he maybe try a little harder he shrugs.
- Relationship Upgrade:
- At the end of the Osaka arc Kirishima makes a deal with Yoshino that if he defeats Ozu Kento and his thugs in a fight, before midnight, that she will become his girlfriend. Yoshino counters with a challenge— he has to beat her in Jan-Ken-Pon note , which she is particularly confident in winning. He beats her several times and she has to honor their agreement. She later finds out from Renji that Gaku never loses at Jan-Ken, which is another way Kirishima apparently takes after his great uncle.
- On their return from Osaka Yoshino is angry at Kirishima for fighting with Shouma and gives him the silent treatment. When she relents after three days, she insists that he meet certain conditions of their new relationship but also asks him what he wants to do. He wants to hold her hand and she allows him to— and lets him put hand cream on her hands. Only to headbutt him when he licks the hand cream off her hand in a gesture of either intimacy or sheer airheadedness that throws her for a loop.
- And again after Kirishima takes Yoshino to meet his great aunt Sumire, who tells her about how Kirishima and a female classmate were bullied to the point where Kirishima snapped and beat up his tormentors. Yoshino gains a greater understanding of Kirishima's personality and it's apparently things are changing a bit when he reaches for her hand she doesn't flinch away.
- Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: In an extra, but also several instances in canon, it's shown that the male leads are all about protecting women but do not consider women equal to them. Yoshino has figured out how to make the men in her life pay for this kind of behavior— she gives them the silent treatment. Both Shouma and Kirishima really hate this. Kirishima in particular freaks out after three days of being ignored, but the result is the start of a more open and communicative relationship between him and Yoshino that sets the stage for possible romance later on.
- Stalker with a Crush: Kirishima for Yoshino. Possibly also reversed in the Osaka arc.
- Kirishima for Yoshino is easy enough. Because of his undisclosed deal with Renji, Kirishima keeps tight tabs on Yoshino to the point where he prepared her uniform and school supplies before her arrival in Tokyo which included planting a GPS in her eDictionary so that he could keep tabs on her at all times. He cheerfully admits this to her not long after she realizes what is happening.
- Turnabout is fair play. On arrival at the Somei home, Yoshino gives Kirishima an item he admired— a soft toy on a keyring she made by hand in middle school. In a footnote, this is not something that Kirishima has ever received before and he takes it as a token of love. Yoshino later gives him a brand new one she's put a GPS into it, because she realizes he has ulterior motives for visiting Osaka with her. This ultimately proves to be a smart move when Ozu Kenta's gang tracks them down and they need to find each other.
- Theme Naming: Most if not all of the characters are named after flowers, the most obvious being Akashigata Tsubaki ("Tsubaki" literally meaning "camellia" in Japanese).
- Unstoppable Rage: Kirishima. Yoshino literally whacks him in the head and tells him to stop at least once. Too bad she wasn't there when he beat the hell out of 20 kids his age or older when he was a preteen.
- Unbroken Vigil: Kirishima takes care of Yoshino when she gets sick, bringing her sports drinks, soft foods, and medicine, checking up on her by phone, and later taking her to the hospital, which she protests vehemently.
- Yoshino recovers but is so embarrassed for putting him through the trouble of taking care of her that she invites him to stay, offers to draw him a bath and make him a meal, and even goes so far as to offer to watch over him as he sleeps. A nice gesture considering Kirishima stayed up all night watching her out of a mixture of concern for her wellbeing and fear that someone might break in and kill her in front of him.
- Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization:
- Shouma wears flashy clothing that telegraphs he's yakuza. The most famous being his banana shirt.
- Outside of school, Yoshino prefers a t-shirt and jeans. She wears fancy stuff when she's out with Kirishima because Renji's associates give her nice clothes and she doesn't have the heart to turn them down.
- If Kirishima is wearing a suit it's because he's going to work. Wears a baseball undershirt (long sleeved black tee) means he's been beaten for one reason or another and is trying to cover up any bruises.
- The suit thing is lampshaded in an extra in which Kirishima is dressed to go out in a hoodie and jeans but Yoshino is dressed nicely because she expected him to wear a suit. He thinks it's cute that she dresses to match him, she wants to change because she thinks she looks like 'a clingy girlfriend in a one-sided relationship'. This might actually be a canon moment since in their first outing together in Tokyo he's wearing a hoodie and jeans and she's wearing a lace cocktail dress.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes??: Yoshino hates hospitals. To the point where she's practically dying of a fever but is shown protesting. She also states that the only reason she entered one previously to donate a kidney was because she was fueled by her hate for Kirishima.
- Wild Card: Pretty much all of the men, but mostly Kirishima. Which is one of the reasons Yoshino has difficulty connecting with him— she has no idea how he's going to act moment to moment and he has no idea how to be a regular guy.
- At the end of the Osaka arc Kirishima, when Yoshino asks him to speak frankly, takes her by the neck and muses about how from one moment to the next he can't decide if he wants to spoil and cherish her, or have rough sex with her. Which is understandably quite jarring for a virgin like Yoshino to hear.
Yoshino: I'd actually rather you spoil me.Kirishima: [lets go of her neck and blinks]Kirishima: Oh. I guess that makes sense.- He starts to chill out a little and trust Yoshino a bit as the story progresses, and vice versa, but it takes a few volumes.
- Younger Than They Look:
- Yoshino is taller than her peers, and considered very attractive to the point where her looks earned her the nicknames "The hostess of Umeda" and "Mrs. Divorced with kids" from middle school until high school in Osaka. In high school in Tokyo she's mistaken for a teacher at the school's culture festival more than once. Lampshaded when Ozu Kenta is surprised to learn that Yoshino is underage. She is annoyed and even pulls out her license to prove it.
- Kirishima is a few months younger than Yoshino, but he also is extremely tall, and has shoulders and abs a professional athlete would envy. Yoshino often alludes to his good looks early on but it's during the Art Evolution that Kirishima goes from being a stocky coatrack to a shoujo pretty boy.
