Watashi no Oshi ha Akujyaku Reijou., Volume 2 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) gets into the first of my two favorite arcs in the first WataOshi novel – Rae and Claire are recruited to the Academy Knights.  One-on-one magic battles! Whee! I absolutely love this arc and the school festival (for obvious reasons when we get there.)

The tryouts for the Academy Knights are pretty much a forgone conclusion – at least two of the three Princes are a shoo-in, Claire, Misha and Rae are competing for the other positions with, sorry to be cold, but clearly its Thane.

But first Rae finds herself examining her own sexuality for real, out loud, at lunch with Claire, Misha and Lene. And when I say “for the first time,” I mean for the first time in both lives. By her own admission, Rae had fallen in love with women, but also mostly unobtainable women, women who did not return her feelings. Rae can see that her interest in Claire is true to her usual pattern, then. Of course we know that that will change, but at the moment, Rae has no idea.

When the students help with taking out magical monsters, Thane and Claire team up to beat a massive slime, but it doesn’t boost Thane’s confidence. It does bring Relaire into our household, so we have a brand new adorable slime monster of our very own.

Then, at last, we get the beginning of the Academy Knights battles! And…the volume comes to a close. Argh! So much good stuff, but we’re still a few chapters off from Rae and Claire facing off. /pouty face/

The art in this volume has settled in nicely and Aonoshita-sesnei’s art is super on point. We already know we love the story…and this volume has the eye-opening discussion about being a sexual minority that sets a tone for the rest of the series. Rae is openly lesbian, and she will stand at the top of a veritable army of queer characters by the time this story is done.

On a different topic, I bought this book from Melonbooks online, for the single reason that if I did, I got a color insert and a bonus comic. Here’s the insert I chose, tell me if you can guess why I picked it. ^_^

Overall, a very strong volume of a series that I fully expect to have nothing but very strong volumes for the forseeable future.

I believe I did not review the Japanese edition of Volume 1 as (due to the delay of material in the Suez Canal,) my volume arrived almost simultaneously with Volume 1 in English.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Service –  1Very little for this series
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

I cannot wait to see the battle between Rae and Claire – and their cafe at the festival. ^_^