That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slasher Flick Floozy

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TSF Showcase 2024-41
Final Girl by You Kokikuji

It’s spooky season and I’m still in my busy season at work, so this time I’m finally covering a months-old recommendation from Natalie.TF reader Sajah with 2019’s Final Girl. A tribute and pastiche to classic (1980s) slasher movies of yore and their formulaic inner-workings, where the protagonist is magically transported into the body of a promiscuous female character. The archetypical slut of the group who is the first, or one of the first, to die. In this scenario, he must avoid common ‘death flags’ while using his ‘isekai protagonist wit’ to outsmart the simplistic world he finds himself in.

It’s something that’s a bit out of my wheelhouse, as I’m just not a horror fan (I respect it, but I do not get engrossed in it or allow myself to get scared by it.) But I do find the work to be an interesting example nonetheless, so let’s begin the breakdown.

Things begin with an unnamed young man working overtime at an office, reading a clickbait listicle during his break about ’10 ways to avoid getting killed in a horror movie,’ as a bit of obvious foreshadowing. He is then told to head out of the office to procure some snacks for his co-workers, which must be a Japanese thing. Most American offices order snacks or have someone pick things up before work and have kitchenette break rooms with their own cabinets full of snacks and fridges full of soda.

While on his way back, he happens across a theater showing the first installment of the 18th Day Sacrifice, a clear Friday the 13th pastiche. Just by looking at the giant billboard-sized poster, his senses fade away and he wakes up in an isolated lodge in the body of one of the main characters. The busty blonde floozy, Summer. Thanks to a video gamey status window that appears before him, he is quickly able to piece together what happened. That he is in the horror movie, is already carrying a death flag, and needs to keep his guard up if he wants to defy fate and survive to see tomorrow. 

Before he can form an action plan though, the jock of the group, Ricky, then barges in and starts taking off his pants, to which the protagonist nopes out, crawling on the floor in panic. Ricky tries to pin him down and treat this as roleplaying, but the two then see a masked figure with a machete under the bed. One who emerges from the bed only to flee and jump through the window, rather than carve up some fresh teen meat. 

After this encounter, the protagonist and Ricky reconvene with the other teens. Wayne the tightass smartass, P.J. the prankster stoner, and Lucy the safe and seiso Japanese girl who the isekai status window describes as the ‘Final Girl. The protagonist immediately makes a beeline for her, viewing her as the only key to getting out of this mess alive. …While everybody else tries to prevent this arrangement. 

P.J. wants to try pulling a prank with an imitation mask, only for the protagonist to instill the fear of Satan in him and break the imitation mask on his knee. Wayne tries to send the protagonist to the basement alone, because he’s the sort of dude who feels pleasure when he sees a dead whore. While Ricky is dismissive of the protagonist’s whims, thinking he, as Summer, are simply ornery after the slasher interrupted their sex sesh. However, Lucy sees the protagonist is scared and joins them as they go into the basement. A death trap with deadly wall hooks and knife traps that tear up the protagonist’s jorts and tank top, making them even more revealing. Death flag +1!

Realizing that buddying up with Lucy is not enough, the protagonist decides he’ll need a weapon to defend himself and begins making one. Rustling, sawing, and wrapping bicycle parts together to make a… shoving ram. A bicycle seat on a metal pole with two handlebars as grips, a rear-view bike mirror near the center, and a layer of bandages/gauze to hold everything together. 

It is a very… smartass-on-a-forum type of tool, something designed for an almost idealized scenario that assumes things will play out in a specific way. It is meant to keep people away and at a distance. But Summer’s body lacks the strength to push someone away. The object is not a single piece of metal, nor is it welded together, so it lacks structural integrity and could probably be torn apart, bent, or grabbed by the hulking slasher. And by being a ram with a narrow range, it is also easy to avoid. It’s the sort of tool that would be better for fending off an animal rather than a human.

Regardless, this doohickey impresses Lucy, praising the protagonist for their ingenuity and drive, before suggesting he clean himself off in the shower. The protagonist knows a death flag when he sees one, so he asks Lucy to shower with him and brings his doohickey along with him. Which, from what I absorbed via cultural osmosis, should actually raise two death flags. One for acting gay in an 80s horror movie, as the 80s were the decade of the AIDS crisis and Raegan social policies, and another for being a wiseass trying to subvert a Psycho (1960) shower scene.

Instead, the death flag raised here is Lucy talking about how she dreams of becoming a singer and asks the protagonist if he will listen to her sing. This, predictably, summons Jason Myers from the ether to chase them out of the shower. …But there is a slight problem here as the characters were naked and you cannot have characters just run from a slasher naked. That’s a bit much even for an R-rated film. So the protagonist wisely grabs half of the torn shower curtain to cover himself up in a hasty, yet elegant, display. While Lucy… just got back into her clothes. This is brushed aside as a joke, as she is the final girl, so she naturally would never show off too much skin. 

However… she somehow had the time to grab her top and pants, get dressed, and find a crowbar. Skimming over these cumbersome and fairly minor details makes sense from a pacing perspective, and it is clearly not meant to be taken seriously. But it is still a bit of a stretch to just call this a joke. I know a continuity error when I see one, and I’d guess that You Kokikuji knew this was a reach… but was willing to let it pass by. This is just a one-shot after all.

Finally running outside, the protagonist and Lucy encounter all manner of hazards. The van is on fire, the storm of the summer is raging outside, it’s cold as heck, there are cats fishing for screen time, and the men aren’t any help. With no place to run to, the two hide away in a nearby barn— because I guess this is a lake with a rentable lodge and also a farm? As the two board up the farm, the protagonist sees a clock lying on the floor saying it is 7:00, and he theorizes that the sun will not rise in this world until they defeat the slasher. It’s a comment that I understand, introducing the idea that escape is impossible and conflict is inevitable, but the introduction of this clock just raises further questions. How much time has passed? How long were they scrounging around in the basement? When did the protagonist leap into Summer’s body? Were Summer and Ricky getting ret-2-fuck at 4 AM or something? It’s a needless bit of detail that distracts more than anything.

It’s also kind of pointless, as the machete wielding maniac has traded in his weapon for an axe and begins making his own door into the barn, despite it having open windows. Recognizing this as the end, the protagonist instills Lucy with words of support and confidence before the two plan their last stand. The slasher then barges in and the protagonist is now wielding the crowbar that Lucy has been carrying for the past few pages, with the bike mirror attached. He stands his ground, blocking the axe with the crowbar, before calling on Lucy to use the bike seat ram to push them back into a conveniently placed bone piercing spear poking out from the wall. The bike mirror lets the protagonist narrowly avoid the spear while the killer falls onto it, stabbing him through the heart. 

…All of which means that the tool the protagonist made was never used in its intended manner. Hell, Lucy could have just tackled the slasher, tripping him into the wall spear. …Whatever.

The protagonist sinks to the ground, shaking from this near-death experience. As he looks out of the hole made by the slasher, he sees the light of dawn piercing over the mountains, meaning he survived and was one of the only survivors, one of the final girls. …Well, technically, nobody died as part of this story, but the guys are never seen again, so maybe Wayne snapped and decided to make some people burgers. He seems like the type. 

With no wallet, ID, or shoes, the protagonist and Lucy hitchhike on a secluded country road and are picked up by an 80s businessman in a fancy car. Neither look this gift horse in the mouth as they slink into the backseat, tired after their slasher encounter, and eager to get on with their lives. The protagonist then looks out the window to see reference-riddled credits flying through the sky, and just as he says goodbye to this world… he finds that he’s still stuck here. Still in Summer’s body.

The businessman driving them then perks up, revealing himself to be a bigshot in showbiz and hands them his card, offering to make them both stars. At this revelation, the voice of a peppy narrator springs up, voicing the synopsis of the next adventure of Lucy and ‘Summer’. One where two country girls are funneled straight to New York and the go-go world of showbiz, where the spark of their womanly passion fly and their lifelong friendship gives way to a fiery rivalry!

While this is far from what the protagonist wanted… he just survived a slasher movie. Showbiz may be a circle of Hell, but at least he doesn’t need to fear for his life… right?

Viewing Final Girl more broadly, it hits the necessary marks to tell a pointed yet loving tribute and parody of the slasher genre. Its comedic timing, knowing indulgences, and exaggerated reactions make for a funny and breezy read heightened by fluid pace and carefully composed scenes. It does not feel too limited by its nature as a one-shot, keeps things moving at a steady pace, and ends things on a note that I still find damn inspiring. Good enough that I think it’s a shame this never became a full series, with each chapter being a spin on another genre.

However, it’s also a story where the more I tried to pry and analyze it, the more cracks I found in its construction. Particularly the ‘prop management’ of the story and the way the male characters are introduced for a scene only to be largely discarded halfway through. Though I think the oddest choice is probably the decision to not make the main character a movie buff or horror fan, but some nameless dude who was browsing clickbait on his phone. …Clickbait that goes on to save his life. It’s not that the core ideas have not been refined— the author clearly knew what they wanted to do with this story and did it. This is more akin to a lack of planning or an unwillingness or inability to connect scenes without disrupting the flow and comedy of the work. 

However, the reason why I brought this story here today is because it is, by my definition, a TSF story. It features a male protagonist finding himself in a female body, and the ensuing story is about him dealing with what comes with that. …For the most part. He knows he is in a slasher movie and is too focused on survival to think about enjoying it. He doesn’t even get to enjoy his first shower in a female body and… I don’t even blame him. It’s hard to get in the mood when burdened by constant stress, and any physical exploration would just be another death flag. So it makes sense he caps his fooling around with an ‘initial fondling’ of Summer’s body.

It is true that the story could work about as well with a female office worker instead of a male one. One would only need to replace/revise the first two pages and edit a few lines of dialogue. However, pouring over it… you definitely can see flickers of this being a TSF scenario with how the protagonist reacts to things.

Despite being in a form close to Lucy, he does not do anything more than grab her shoulders, and does not even look at her when they shower together. He is openly aggressive around P.J. in a way that could be seen as odd for a female character, yet makes more sense as a dude telling another dude to cut the shit. He is eager to use the ‘I’m just a girl’ excuse when planning out their search in a way that feels like a guy making the most of a TSF scenario. Everything about the way he gets clothing torn off by traps and assembles a weapon feels very ‘male coded’ to me. The way he looks discomforted by the tears in his clothes, the proud way he displays his weapon while sticking out his ass. I’ll admit that these are crumbs compared to what I usually deal with, but it’s something.

Clearly, there was some effort to lean into this angle, even if I doubt Kokikuji was consciously trying to tell a TSF story. And the end result… leaves me wondering what the threshold is for something to be considered a TSF story. How much of the story needs to feature, center around, or stem from the protagonist undergoing a fantastical transformation of their physical sex? It’s a complex question without a good answer that relies more on gut feelings than quantitative measurements. Here, I feel it just barely does enough. …And even when tossing aside the TSF elements, I think it’s still a good manga in general.