Eri's boy band Vinks has just debuted! People assume success comes naturally to him since he's an alpha, but actually, as the youngest member, he has to work twice as hard. His exceptional dancing lands him a solo session with Sooyoung Lee, a top idol from an all-alpha group called α-code. The piece they're dancing to is a nostalgic hit that started a “destined mate” craze. The lyrics—“You spark my heart, I need you right now”—always felt like a faraway dream to Eri. So why does Sooyoung smell so sweet? Can it be that this celebrity isn't so “all-alpha” after all?!

Comeback After Fate has a story and art by Anji Seina. English translation is done by Adrienne Beck and lettering by Jamil Stewart. Published by Kodansha USA (August 18, 2026). Rated OT.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I've said before that omegaverse stories have the potential to really dig into some interesting topics about gender and discrimination. Comeback After Fate comes close to doing this. Set in the highly competitive and curated world of K-pop, the omega of the pair, Sooyoung, is masquerading as an alpha as part of an all-alpha group. Sooyoung isn't allowed to come out because it will damage the band's brand, but the reason he's stuck in this position in the first place is that his father demanded it of him. Aghast that his son is an omega like his mother, Mr. Lee does everything he can to hide that fact, both out of his own prejudice and because he's got trauma from his relationship with Sooyoung's mother. Meanwhile, Eri, the alpha of our lead couple, is an alpha born to beta parents who didn't teach him any of the nonsense about alphas being superior, with the result that Eri acts like (gasp) a normal person. He hates it when people assume he's in show biz because of his secondary gender or put alphas on a pedestal.

All of this is excellent setup that never quite manages to blossom into a strong story. I'd say that it's due to the fact that this is a single-volume work, but that's not a great excuse, both because this does feel like a story that could have been told in one book and also because the biggest issue is the story flow. The plot hops around, not necessarily through time (although there's a bit of that), but in terms of how much it gives us at any given moment. It feels uneven, going from Eri and Sooyoung practicing their dancing to them sleeping together to their respective agencies having a fit over their relationship, mostly because Sooyoung is afraid his real secondary gender will come out. Things keep happening, but without much time to let us acclimate to them or to process the various plot points. It ends up feeling like a race to the end where important details or even just nice character moments have been ruthlessly excised in service of finishing the story.

It's a shame in more ways than one, but part of the disappointment comes from the fact that the art is really beautiful and deserves a better story. It's also interesting to read a Japanese book about the Korean idol industry, and the translation is very readable. But this just doesn't quite work, and while I wouldn't say it's drag to read, it also really doesn't live up to its potential.

Bolts
Rating:

I do have to give this story credit for taking the typical trappings of an omegaverse story and actually turning it into something analogous to real life. This is a story of Eri and Sooyoung Lee, with the former being an up-and-coming performer who finally gets to work with the latter, a more established mainstream personality. At first, I thought the story was just going to be about Eri discovering that Sooyoung is actually an omega and therefore they need to hide that while dealing with intense sexual tension. But in actuality, it's about two celebrities that arguably make a mistake together very early on in the book, and now they have to deal with the repercussions of that mistake. In a lot of ways, the story is analogous to celebrities that get caught in sex scandals and need to both hide and fully commit to leading a normal life. I like the layers this story goes into while also delivering on a surprisingly wholesome romance, despite the intense sexual passion that usually comes with these types of setups. I want these two to figure things out; I want them to be able to come to some common ground, and I don't want their careers to be ruined. The story sold me their romance, and that's because of how it sells the K-Pop world's importance to them.

I do wish the art design was a little bit stronger because while I do appreciate the little chibi moments that can lead to some nice levity, the character designs feel a little bit too similar, especially when different forms of lighting are used in order to sometimes change the hair color of characters. I will say there were some points where I couldn't tell who was talking to who in a scene, and it was a little bit distracting. But outside of that, this was probably one of the stronger omegaverse stories that I read for this guide. If you are a fan of this genre, definitely give this a shot because while it is still using a lot of tropes of the genre, it does just enough to leave an impact.