A soul from a world of magic is reborn as a recently murdered Tokyo teenager, only to discover that a hoped-for peaceful life begins with an assassin returning to finish the job.
Polka Shinoyama’s new surroundings replace an openly fantastic conflict with Shinjuku’s criminal networks, brokers and investigators. Knowing how to survive one world does not automatically explain the person whose body he now occupies. Attempts to settle into a quiet existence keep exposing connections between that borrowed identity, the people around him and the place he came from.
The armoured warrior belongs to a visual language very different from the close view of Polka’s face. The transition between those images captures the premise’s change of setting without making the new city safe. Rebirth gives its traveller another body and name, but it also places him inside relationships already in progress. His wish for peace has to contend with the history attached to that identity.