The premise of this work is simple: an “ordinary office worker,” (Oohashi Rei) wakes up as the protagonist of her favorite otome game (what Westerners might call a “visual novel”). From there, she seeks to romance her favorite character in the story, Claire Francois. There are a few problems, however: Claire is not a romance option in the game, and doesn’t seem to have feelings for women. Surely there’s no way that could go wrong, right?
Pros:
- The premise is interesting at first blush. The more I think about it, however, the more it falls apart. If the protagonist basically has precognition from her knowledge of the game she’s in, it’s more-or-less impossible to build tension.
- The included artwork, while infrequent, is of good quality.
- It’s nice to see more LGBTQ characters in fiction … is what I might say if Rei didn’t come off as a tamer version of the “sex pest” trope. This representation might also explain the story’s enduring popularity and adaptation into a manga. In other words, perhaps readers are so starved for LGBTQ representation / yuri content that, “no publicity is bad publicity (even if it includes dubious consent).” That’s my best guess, anyway.
Cons:
- My biggest complaint is about about Rei (the protagonist). Claire (the eponymous Villainess) repeatedly rejects the main character’s advances, but this never changes Rei’s behavior. “I Gaslighted and Manipulated the Villainess Into Falling In Love With Me,” is a more accurate title, even if it doesn’t roll off the tongue.
- My second biggest complaint is that the main character is a blank slate with only the slightest hints of a personality. Her only defining character trait his her “love” for the eponymous villainess. This makes it hard for me to invest in her as a character. On page 148 (of 217) we finally get some backstory for the isekai’d protagonist. What is it? A paragraph (5 sentences) about how her job was “corrupt” and worked her very hard. To cope, she played games (namely the dating sim she was isekai’d into). It doesn’t go beyond that.
- The regular omission of dialogue tags make conversations hard to follow at times
- Virtually no setting information is given, making it hard to imagine where the story is taking place beyond “generic video game fantasy realm.”
- A lot of the action takes place in summary (e.g. the “etiquette test”), and the work has a tendency to tell instead of show. It is particularly frustrating when the author hints at larger, more interesting conflicts in the world. Consider the following excerpt from page 39: “And that was how I landed the job of Claire’s maid. Just don’t expect me to tell you what I said to Dole [Claire’s father] – that stays secret.” Oof.
- The story involves an … unusual … relationship reveal in the last 20% of its run time. In short, the story includes a brother and sister who are romantic partners. Gotta collect all the kinks, I guess? It’s rough because I don’t remember the reveal being sign-posted at all, and it didn’t become relevant until the last 10% of the story. This left me wondering whether it was just an attempt to jam more kinks in to the work or if it was included for shock value. Who knows. Regardless, it was not to my taste.
- I have some thoughts about the “bonus chapter.” In it, the reader learns more about the villainess’ childhood. In short, a lot of what Claire says and does seems completely implausible for a girl explicitly stated to be four years old. It also feels shoe-horned in that she seems to have a crush on a “prince,” who is actually a princess / tomboy. Is this supposed to lay the groundwork for justifying her relationship with Rei? Oof. I would’ve rather seen their relationship develop organically over the course of the story rather than having it dumped in my lap in the tail end of the last “bonus” chapter of the work.
Conclusion:
I wanted to like this work, I really did. As someone who enjoys the occasional visual novel, it seemed right up my alley. The bare-bones world-building, the less-than-stellar writing, and the unlikable protagonist, however, meant I only finished out of morbid curiosity. I do not recommend this work.
Check it out here (but I don’t recommend it).
Here are some books you may enjoy, instead of this stinker:
- “Lunatic Fringe” by Allison Moon (be warned that the series is on indefinite hiatus, though!)
- “Love Devours” by Sarah Diemer
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