- Mangaka : Inori (Story) and Hanagata (Art)
- Publisher : Seven Seas Entertainment
- Genre : Comedy, Fantasy, School, Shoujo Ai, Isekai
- Published : November 2020 - Ongoing
An Ordinary office worker Oohasi Rei wakes up in the body of the heroine of her favorite otome game, Revolution. The first person to greet her is none other than her favorite character, Claire Francois—the main antagonist of the story. Thinking of this development as an opportunity, Rei is determined to romance Clair instead of the game’s male leads. Will Claire reciprocate Rei’s love?
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
So you woke up and found yourself as the main character of your favorite otome game. Well, that means you got yourself isekai without the help of Truck-kun. Score one for overworking yourself to death. Hah hah… Please don’t overwork yourself. The villainess of the game greets you. Seems fascinating. Why? Because you prefer the villainess more than the other three available routes which are the princes.
As a bonus for being the main character in the game while being yourself as the original player, you don’t have to follow the game’s intended story! Meaning, you get to see the unexplored side of the game that no other players have gone through! Talk about hacks. However, that doesn’t apply to an isekai, so the original company can’t give us the ban hammer.
1. Boundaries
During the start of the story, Rae Taylor immediately confesses her love to Claire Francois during the first day of the Academy as a student in their class where most of their classmates were presented, including the princes. Props to Rae for being brave or dumb or both. The relationship between Rae and Claire is interesting. Claire acted like a bully, as expected for an antagonist, where Rae used those acts to get herself closer to Claire. That is one way to make your bullies feel weird out.
As the story progresses, Claire danced on Rae’s palm all this time, which makes much sense since Rae is a veteran of Revolution and knows every story of it, including character backgrounds. Rae even knows the fact that Claire has a crush on Thane, one of the three princes, so not only she loves Claire, she knows when to give some space or assistance to Claire in pursuit of her romance with Thane. Pretty odd, right? Sometimes, the interactions between Rae and Claire brings comedy to the story, and they reminded us of Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san (Teasing Master Takagi-san).
2. Immersive
The writing style of this series immediately puts into the characters’ shoes almost immediately. It is simple yet complicated at the same time. Thanks to that, we get to experience what Rae has gone through as a student of the Academy to learn magic, culture, and etiquette. The magic of this world involves fire, water, wind, and earth. No, we’re not talking about Avatar the Last Airbender series. Good show by the way. Rae possessed both water and earth elemental magic and Rae is hot hot hot.
You will also become one of the Academy Knights. Translation, being part of student councils and you will understand how they operate for specific areas of the academy. Their responsibility can be hefty sometimes, and it is incredible how they are still able to balance their work as a student and Academy Knights.
Overall, you get to read and experience the aristocrats’ educations, magic, culinary and cultural festival. To start with, it can be not very pleasant when it comes to serving customers who were born high and mighty. Please be considerate to others and don’t be a jerk. It isn’t that hard.
3. The Dark Side
Let’s not forget to talk about the dark side of society. In this story, we are living in a hierarchal system where there are nobles and commoners. Fortunately, there is a new policy placed under the king himself for everyone to live in harmony and respect each other equally. That is fine and all, but there will be some who disagree with it and may lead to civil war. That is where the kingdom’s neighboring nation comes into play to cause problems for political purposes and invasion, so be safe in your journey and be wary of others.
4. Full Control
In reality, when it comes to dating sim or otome games, we tend to reach the ending we wanted if we made the right choices as designed by game developers. But this novel shows the heroine took upon a different route that is outside of the game design, which is romancing Claire instead of the three princes. This route will be a new and unexplored territory to a hardcore fan of Revolution. This leads to her excitement to find out what kind of development and situations she is going to encounter and have to think on the spot to solve them without affecting her relationship with Claire.
Final Thoughts
Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou (I’m in Love With the Villainess) is a beautiful light novel to read. It is an isekai no doubt, but in Rae’s personal favorite otome game Revolution, fantasy at that, and able to explore unknown territories and stories that couldn’t be found in the original game itself. Not only that, you get to choose whom to romance with other than the three princes. Not only that, you have to deal with the political issues within the academy and kingdom while being a student. If you want to read an isekai light novel series that focuses on an otome game and you get to decide your future, we would like to recommend this title to you!
Author: Nobodies17
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