In Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 7 ( 私の推しは悪役令嬢。) a new characters is introduced that will (arguably, has) changed the course of the narrative. Cardinal Lily Lilium, daughter of Prime Minister Sala Lilium enters the story proper and chaos ensues.

Claire has been brought face to face with the plight of poverty and Rae has incited her to learn more and find solutions to the issue of poverty in Bauer. At Prince Yu’s suggestion, Claire and Rae head to the Spiritual Church, a Catholic-ish organization that runs the hospitals and orphanages, feeds the poor, and tends to the spiritual needs of the populace.

Right away, Lily is a strange character. Stuttering and shy, she blurts out rude comments from time to time. Her own nuns do not respect her and although she seems sincere, there’s something off about her.  She takes a liking to Rae, when Rae defends homosexuality and becomes a cast regular almost immediately. Claire and Lily push Rae into a story about her first love, from her previous life. This segment is both frustrating and poignant as a character who we later learn was struggling take their misery out on other people. I cannot accept that, even if we are told that everyone made up later. 

Then Lily drives us full-tilt into the next arc which will refer back to Rae’s story…

…but first! A game of dodgeball.

As one does.

This becomes a bridge to the next major arc, which will again, throw things into chaos. In a huge way. In fact, as I look over my reviews for the novels, “chaos” seems to be the defining characteristic. Reading reviews of the anime, again chaos seems to be the main takeaway, as most of the things seeded by the time the anime ends, won’t become apparent until a second anime season. In the meantime, we have the manga with Aonoshimo’s amazing drawings to fill in those gaps.

I’ve said it before but, really, the manga in many ways improves upon the Light Novels, as Aonoshimo’s art is so very good and doesn’t have the LN habit of being mere portraiture. And the anime, while being absolutely excellent in terms of characterization, did have pretty basic animation. For folks looking for a satisfying visual version of this story, the manga is highly recommended. Volume 5 is out now, in English, which takes you to the same point the anime ended.

Ironically, I was listening to Volume 2 of the Audiobook this week and ended up on the same exact place that Volume 7 ends. So now I’m primed to move forward into the last major arc before the chaos becomes a revolution.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8, although I find Rae’s backstory tough going
Characters  – 8 Lily is not my favorite character, but she is crucial from here on
Service – Not much, maybe a panel here or there
Yuri – 8
LGBTQ+ – 9

Overall – 9

I had purchased this volume at Kinokuniya here in the US, but it came with no extras, so while in Tokyo, I bought a second copy to get the extra “Claire in Wonderland” comic from Gamers. It’s a cute little “weird dream” comic that includes series characters dressing up as western and eastern iconic fictitious characters exactly as one might expect. Very cute!