In the aftermath of the Commoner’s Movement and her loss of someone important to her, Claire has been listless and resistant to any attempt by Rae to lighten her mood. When her childhood friend – and first love – arrives at the Academy, Claire perks right up. But now Rae has a serious problem…now she has a rival.

Manaria Sousse, the Crown Princess of the Sousse kingdom, is a shockingly complex character. Her looks are the the boyish blond butch we are familiar with, flirtatious and charming. But underneath that is an apparently cruel person. And underneath that(!) is something like the truth. Manaria jokes easily about her complicated position in the family, and her desire to win Claire back. She pushes Rae very hard and despite knowing exactly where it will lead, Rae allows herself to be provoked.

I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 5 covers the “Scales of Love” arc which is one of the major turning points in this series.

There are two things happening simultaneously in this series. One is a shift from a goofy isekai series to serious criticism of income equality and unequal governmental representation. The Commoner Movement was the first major tone change in that theme, and more is to come.

The second shift in the story I have begun to describe this way: The story starts off gay and becomes queer. We’ve gotten a little of this as the narrative has made room for Rae to discuss her feelings and concerns about her previous  life as a lesbian. Now the story is doing something extraordinary – using it’s own tropes to make the story just a little bit queerer.  Both these two shifts will continue through the entire series and neither of them will back off. Narratively, it’s one of the best things about the whole series.

Visually speaking, this arc is the bomb. And, as it’s likely to be where the anime ends, we’ll get both the climactic battle and that extraordinary resolution to Rae and Manaria’s conflict. I commented in my review of this volume in Japanese that the art here is outstanding, and I thought that again as I re-read it. There is a panel where the princes and Misha are tensely watching events which has them leaning forward, concern etched into their faces, the rush of what is going on indicated by motion lines…it is absolutely perfect. Aonoshimo-sensei just kills it in this volume. I truly think Aonoshimo-sensei’s art elevates the heck out of the story, making this manga absolutely worth reading, even if you’ve have already read the light novels.

A fine job on translation by Joshua Hardy, and excellent work by letterer Courtney Williams. I hope Seven Seas gives her the time and money to go complete retouch, because on panels where it is full retouch, it just looks so good! Cover by Nicky Lim and George Panella is fantastic….every time I get a English-language manga with a great adaption of the JP manga cover I am made happy. I remember the olden days when getting cover art from JP rights holders was the equivalent of a publishing tough mudder. ^_^ Thank you all to the folks at Seven Seas for taking good care of this series.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 7
Service – Manaria is a whole tropeload of service, on her own. ^_^

Overall – 9

Things are about to get serious again…then silly…then very serious, but from this point on, the series will always be queer. And I really appreciate that. Thank you inori.-sensei!