The dark blade Gruhorn, constant companion to heroes throughout the ages. Knights, rebels, and slayers—all became legend wielding this sentient blade. But, centuries after being claimed by the first hero, Gruhorn winds up in the clutches of his descendant: a greedy, greasy, bratty lout of a first prince. Even worse: when the prince falls onto the blade, Gruhorn becomes him! But is this new body a prison, or a chance for the legendary blade to become a hero himself?

Become the Lout First Prince has a story by mengson and art by Gusha, Chyaa (MSTORYHUB), based on original story by Glump. English localization is done by TAPAS ENTERTAINMENT. Published by TAPAS ENTERTAINMENT (June 4, 2026). Rated YA.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

Gruhorn, sword of legends, awakens as he is being swung dangerously by a vain, arrogant, and miserable little shit, Prince Idrian. When the Prince manages to stab himself, Gruhorn awakens a second time…in Idrian's body. The sword of legends will reshape this lout into a Prince worthy of his father's throne.

Idrian is fairly awful as a person. Pervy, demanding, lazy, bratty, etc., so Gruhorn has a lot of redemption to work on. But first, he has to develop mana…which turns out to be his first mistake. In the years Gruhorn has slumbered, his greatest skills have become nothing more than training techniques, and his style of mana growth is old-fashioned and not worthy of nobles. Gruhorn finds himself in the position of being the old man that he is.

Choices having been made, Idrian/Gruhorn set out to reshape the Prince, physically, mentally, and magically. He's no less arrogant, but is much less petty, and slowly, people begin to see that he's changing as well. His next step is to build a team of knights to be his partners, and he's confident that now he's worthy.

I don't yet care about Idrian, but I'm definitely willing to see what vision Gruhorn has for the kingdom, so I'm going to keep reading. And I'm rooting for Idrian's first knight – a woman who found herself unable to truly gain the respect of her male peers no matter how strong she is.

The art is very big—slashes of swords, monsters, duels—are all rendered in large, colorful motions. It is also slightly realistic, as overweight Idrian loses some weight as he trains, but he doesn't go from fat to ripped in three months, which I found refreshing.

Overall, Become the Lout First Prince is a pretty fun story with good art. It'll be interesting to see where it goes.