Archive for the inori Category


First Look at I’m In Love With The Villainess Anime

October 2nd, 2023

Today was the day we’ve been waiting for! I’m In Love With The Villainess anime has premiered on Crunchyroll. With an English dub, as well as the Japanese audio track.

As I said in a comment on the first episode, this is the Yuriest anime that has ever been made, since it is literally centered around the romantic relationship of two women right from the first moments. As those of us  who have read the novels know, it also becomes progressively queerer as it unfolds. We should find out next episode how much of that is retained. For these things alone, I would love this anime.

The narrative  – especially in these early scenes – are wholly character-driven, so it’s a pleasure to know that the voice cast really made it all work. I actually laughed out loud twice watching this first episode, even though I anticipated the gags. inori-sensei commented on her Pixiv Fanbox that at the live premier event in Japan, she was worried that people might not react to the jokes, but there was plenty of laughter. The funny bits were, genuinely, funny. I’m going to rewatch the episode later this week as a dub and see how the jokes land.

Serizawa Yuu as Rae and Nanami Karen as Claire have really dug deep on these characters and made them come to life. Of course the supporting cast is also terrific and it felt very comfortable to hear the three Princes, Pipi, Loretta and Misha all sound, well, like they sounded in my head, honestly.  Kenn’s Rod Bauer was so full of bonhomie, I kinda sympathized with Rae’s dislike of him. ^_^

The one real weak spot of this anime is the animation. I have a number of thoughts about that. First, let’s just acknowledge that there’s a good chance that it simply was given a limited budget. That happens and I would not hold it against them any more than usual. I’d rather the animators get more time and money every time, but no one asks me. That said, we can do some justification …and projection…without too many mental calisthenics.

To begin with, this story begins in the world of an otome game, so the animation might be reflective of that. Otome games are, like other sims, usually pretty flatly animated in a puppet show kind of way. The backgrounds here are often ignored for sound effects and other gimmicks, which are, yes, money savers, but also give this early phase a gag manga feel. It would be kind of cool if, as the story developed, so did the animation. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I’d love to see it.

We can see a little bit of the initial arc of the story from the opening credits. At the very least we can see that the Commoner Movement arc will be included and, with the addition of Mizuki Nana to the cast as Manaria, it’s a good bet that it will go through the Scales of Love arc. That means we’re definitely getting into more serious territory before the season ends. And here, I am going to digress, but I will be back to conjecture further.

Today on Twitter, the official wataoshi account announced that Blu-Ray Box pre-orders are available at various Japanese anime outlets. (That link will take you direct to King Records to pre-order.) Different stores have different extras, as usual, and folks who pre-order will get a special copy of “Rae’s doujinshi” story that she wrote for Revolution, of course, written by inori.-sensei herself. The BD box is slated for a February 2024 release, so that’s an extremely early pre-order period. inori.-sensei commented on Twitter that expectations for success were very high so the BD Box was arranged even though the anime had not yet aired.

So, back to conjecture. I think that pre-orders for the box set may well be used to determine if a second season will bring it to the end of the Revolution arc. Sales for that could determine whether we ever see a Nur or DQ arc – highly unlikely, but not wholly impossible. Sure, the anime also may exist in part to bump up sales of the ongoing manga and the print volumes of the novel and I hope they do! There’s nothing wrong with that. Ichijinsha’s done a decent job extending the life of several series that way.

Definitely give the series a watch. It’s fun and goofy and deep and serious and very queer and we’ve never seen an anime like this before, really. As we discussed on the Okazu Discord as I typed, if you want to get someone into Yuri, this would be a good place to start! Like isekai? We have series for you! How about high fantasy?  We got you covered. Looking for LGBTQ+ anime – it’s here. Oh…you like Sci-fi….well, sit down and let me tell you….  Looking for something with social consciousness? This is what you’re looking for !

So grab your friends and get them aboard the Yuri train with I’m in Love With the Villainess, streaming now on Crunchyroll.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 9
Characters – 100
Yuri – 8
Service  – This is a complicated question… Let’s take a look at it again later

Overall – 9

A fun start to what I hope will be a story that takes audiences to very gay places they have never been before. ^_^

Next up for us, would be to pressure Crunchyroll to provide us with premium BD box sets so we can get that doujinshi, too!  I mean, I can see myself pre-ordering the JP set just for that….please don’t make me do that, Crunchyroll.





I’m In Love With The Villainess Manga, Volume 4

February 16th, 2023

On a background of yellow lilies, A girl with long, blonde hair with a big red bow, looks up and away from the center, a girl in a maid's outfit, clutched a plate looking down and away in the opposite direction. Black letters read "art by Aonishimo, story by Inori., character design by Hanagata." "Manga 4" is set inside a solid pink compass-rose shaped sigil. It’s already been 5 months since I read the fourth manga volume of Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. This volume is as I said in that review, “highly emotional and action-packed.” And now we are able to read I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 4  of the manga in English and the volume packs the same gut punches over again.

In this volume, the Commoner Movement arc comes to an end with a betrayal. And a redemption. And seeds of more betrayal and further redemption. At the risk of lazy writing, I want to quote myself from my review of the Japanese volume:

This is the volume where everything, all of the goofy light-hearted comedic moment fall away and what remains is social justice withheld, love perverted into betrayal and a new, unpredictable, danger. We finally meet Salas, the King’s right-hand man, a key player in the oncoming storm. I mention him because it is often stated how attractive he is in the novels – in fact, without him being attractive, his character fails to make sense…so I was really interested in seeing how he was portrayed. Not at all coincidentally, we also meet Lily, the nun, who also become a major player in the narrative, for the first time. I believe now all the primary pieces are on the board. The game begins with a huge loss. If you’ve read the novels, you know how huge a blow it will be for Claire, and as the end of the volume comes with a letter from Susse, what that means to Rae having to battle for her.

In this volume we learn how much Claire has lost, and how often her loss has come back to haunt her. For one brief flash, Claire will rely on Rae. Again, it sets seeds for the next arc, which will irrevocably change their relationship

Again and again, I am blown away by Aonoshimo-sensei’s art for this series. A turn of the eyebrow makes all the difference here. When we get Rae and Claire dressed up to speak to the King, phew! Those clothing choices slay. I appreciate an artist who can draw great clothing. Joshua Hardy’s translation has given us a solid “voice” for our characters, a voice I know we’re all looking forward to seeing be reproduced in animated form. Courtney Willams gives us solid lettering that really conveys the tone and depth of these emotional scenes.  Another fine volume from the team at Seven Seas.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6, since it’s not the focus. But it soon will be.
Service – Rae in that outfit at the end is definitely service. Hope we get a standee of those looks.

Overall – 9

As I move back and forth between the Japanese manga, the print volumes of the novels, the spin-off series and the English editions, I have to tell you that this series doesn’t not lose it’s power with re-reading. It might even be more impactful every time, as I have the chance to catch one more thing than I did the last.





I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner, Volume 1

February 3rd, 2023

Two girls in fantasy school uniforms, with red jackets and frilly white blouses are surrounded by pink flowers and flower petals. From below a girl with dark brown hair looks up at and holds a hand out to a haughty blonde with long hair in huge banana curls and a red bow who stands with her arms crossed and a dissatisfied expression. The title "I'm In Love With The Villainess: She's So Cheeky For A Commoner" is set off by a heart shape border on the left side and rendered in gold and silver letters. Black letters on the right hand corner read "Written by inori" "Illustrated By hanagata" and Novel 1. In 2020, I first read and reviewed what we now think of as I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 1 of the Light Novel series. In that review I speak of things like world-building and character voice because those two qualities are critical for me to enjoy a series. One of the most enjoyable things about the initial light novel series is Rae’s voice, which is at odds with her apparent goofy personality. As we have learned, there are several very good reasons for that.

Naturally, my top priority for I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner, Volume 1 (out now as a digital edition and in print at the end of the month) is that Claire’s voice is likewise preserved from the original, which I reviewed last spring. In that review I discussed the character aspect of this novel. Having fully developed the main characters in the five novels of the original series, inori-sensei here gives time to supporting cast including developing Pepi and Loretta, Claire’s henchicks. Both of them – and Claire’s heretofore-unseen roommate – are fleshed out and made whole in ways that I guarantee will be even more remarkable as the series continues.

We’ve all read “opposite perspective” stories. My first was probably Grendel by John Gardener (which sent me down a deep rabbit hole of villain perspectives when I was very young. ^_^) Here, since “the villainess” is our protagonist, everything is already topsy-turvy, and the novel just runs with that, throwing us off constantly from our previous expectations.

I have one small complaint about the entirety of the book which, again, has to do with voice. There is a line I love from Dorothy L. Sayer’s Murder Must Advertise, in which Miss Meteyard says, “Some people can be funny without being vulgar, and some can be both funny and vulgar. I should recommend you to be either the one or the other.” I use this line quite often and also believe it is true for being rude. Some people can be rude without being vulgar. It is my opinion that Claire François, daughter of the Minister of Finance of the Kingdom, would not be vulgar when she is being rude. So, when she used the phrase, “bat for the other team” I object. This is a vulgar phrase even now. Where might Claire have heard it? How would she have understood it? Do they even have a bat and ball game in Bauer? It has been pointed out to me that the phase is a holdover from that first volume translation, with which we had several issues. There were so many ways to indicate that she was being rude without her being vulgar that this was just an unfortunate choice.

As an aside, I am kindly begging all manga translators and their editors to never use or allow this phrase to be used unless the person speaking is an uncouth lout who is expected by the people around them to be gross.

After that little hiccup, I found that Claire’s voice was otherwise well handled. She was haughty, a tad naive, good-hearted and, ultimately, cute. It was much easier for me to understand why Rae fell so hard for Claire after meeting Claire directly. For all of this, I credit translator Kevin Ishikawa. The Claire we meet here is lovable. As are her henchchicks, the aforementioned Pepi and Loretta, even if their enthusiasm is misplaced, and her roommate, Catherine Achard. Believe me when I tell you, that Catherine is going to be someone you care deeply about.

Ratings:

Art – 7 hanagata’s art is  much more confident now
Story – 10 Outstanding writing
Characters – 10 Extraordinary character work
Service – 3? 4? A bit, sometimes
Yuri/LGBTQ+ – Super complicated question! Rae’s feeling are not returned, but the queer content is still totally there.

Overall – 10

Every single moment with this novel added to what we know, why and how it would affect the larger story. There will be more of that as the series continues. This is no mere “opposite perspective” but a whole new view of what is a complex and interesting story right to the very end. 

The digital edition of Heimin no Kuse ni Namaikina! Volume 2 (平民のくせに生意気な！) is available on Amazon Kindle in Japanese and JP Kindle. Volume 2 of She’s So Cheeky For A Commoner does not yet have a release date. I’ll be sure to let you know when it does.  In the meantime, I know you’re side-eyeing this spin-off. Just go read it, it’s worth it. ^_^





I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 5

November 14th, 2022

I have already read, enjoyed and reviewed this volume twice previously. The first time in Japanese and the second time in digital format, because I did not want to wait for the print edition. Now, at last, I have the print edition in English, from Seven Seas of I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 5.

Why did I read it again? Because as much as I love digital books for their convenience and accessibility, I find that I actually do read print differently. My eyes tire at a faster rate when I read text on paper than words on a screen, so a print book is a chance for me to slow down, take time with the words, the emotions, the feel of the story, rather than rushing through it for the content of the story.

In this final volume of the Demon Queen arc, we learn the Truth of The World. So many of the fragments we have been told suddenly make sense.  What was at first a grand, epic, high-fantasy tale, has become something far more complex…and far more interesting because of it.

When I read this book this first time, I reviewed it thusly, “What if you had the chance to remake the entire world in order to save the person you love…and learned that the world was never what it seemed?”

And when I read this series the second time, I said, “Stories in which communities come together to build a better tomorrow. The fact that the leaders of this particular community are queer women is delicious icing on this sweet and satisfying narrative cake.”

In between these two things is a fascinatingly complex series of connections that use everything we have learned in the first 4 volumes, but almost without exception, use them in ways we could not have expected. Things that seemed like they might have become a whole side quest on their own are resolved almost offhandedly, but only to allow space for something far more interesting and relevant. In the end, this is a series about how people form relationships and how complicated it is to make space in the world for those relationships to thrive.

Ratings:

Art – 9 hanagata presents characters as cute and moe, but the art is visibly improved from the first volume
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – Very little, for perfectly good reasons
Yuri – 10
Queer – 10

Overall – 10

The worst thing about this series is that it ends. It had nerve making us care so much about fictitious characters and situations. Luckily for the ILTV fandom our enthusiasm has made the series more popular now than ever. If you’d like to lend a hand, drop into the voting for the “Next Light Novel Award” which will begin at 13:00 JT on November 16th and give your vote to inori-sensei’s work – the LNs could use a little love in Japan.

Thanks to the Seven Seas team, and especially to translator Keven Ishizaka for making this book very readable.

 





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Manga, Volume 4 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

September 15th, 2022

Grab a hankie, it’s time to read, Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 4 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) In this pivotal issue, the Commoner Movement arc develops quickly and comes to a climax, one that specifically affects Claire. Not only is she a noble, and thus stands in opposition to the commoners, but the collateral damage of this arc will damage her, personally. And, while the commoner’s movement is quelled, we are given to understand that it was also covering up a larger plot, one that will engulf everyone in the cast.

This is the volume where everything, all of the goofy light-hearted comedic moments, fall away and what remains is social justice withheld, love perverted into betrayal and a new, unpredictable, danger. We finally meet Salas, the King’s right-hand man, a key player in the oncoming storm. I mention him because it is often stated how attractive he is in the novels – in fact, without him being attractive, his character fails to make sense…so I was really interested in seeing how he was portrayed. Not at all coincidentally, we also meet Lily, the nun, who also become a major player in the narrative, for the first time.  I believe now all the primary pieces are on the board. The game begins with a huge loss. If you’ve read the novels, you know how huge a blow it will be for Claire, and as the end of the volume comes with a letter from Susse, what that means to Rei having to battle for her.

That’s about all I can say without spoiling anything in this highly emotional and action-packed volume. Aonoshimo-sensei’s art is really just fantastic. Everything, from Salas’ cold beauty to Relaire’s adorable jiggles, is just so good. inori-sensei’s characters come alive in these manga volumes. I hope this series can continue through to the final LN volume, because so many reasons! Nur, the dance, the *wedding*, Dorothea, the Demon Queen, that ending. Let’s all keep telling Ichijinsha how much we love this manga series!

Now that we’re past this volume, I can set aside the handkerchief and get ready for the coming of butchy Manaria-sama, and Rei’s greatest trial for Clarie’s love – until the next one. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6, since it’s not the focus. But it soon will be.
Service – Rei in that outfit at the end is definitely service. Hope we get a standee of those looks.

Overall – 9

I am reading the exact same same scene in this month’s Comic Yuri Hime and in Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou -Revolution-, Volume 2 , so that’s kind of fun, getting the scene described, then seeing it drawn.

Volume 3 of I’m in Love With the Villainess manga, in English will be hitting shelves this month!