Two girls in red jacket and blue skirt uniforms embrace as if to dance. The girl with medium-length brown hair smiles slightly, the girl with blonde hair looks put out.

If you’ve been reading Okazu for a while, you may know that I love(d) Drama CDs. The Drama C D category here on Okazu has nearly 100 Yuri Drama CD reviews. But the age of the Drama CD passed when the 2020s began. Instead, the genre shifted to digital…which makes a lot of sense, honestly. And, possibly more importantly, a lot of the Yuri manga that might previously have gone to Drama CD is now being made into anime, so skipping that voice-only medium altogether. I’m not complaining. But I do miss those days of popping a CD in on my way to drive to work or a con. ^_^

As a third driving factor in the shift from Dramas CDs, audiobooks – full readings of novel by a narrator – has become way more popular than it was some years ago. In the 1990s I did a LOT of driving and my wife and I constantly listened to Recorded Books on Tape, a company that kept me sane on many a long drive. But then I stopped driving and didn’t have nearly as much time to listen to things and audiobooks went from something hardly anyone did, to something Amazon could make money on. And now we’re sort of full circle as audiobooks have hit Light Novels. We may not have Drama CDs, but instead we have I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 1 from Seven Seas Siren.

Narrator Courtney Shaw does a fantastic job. She captures each character well, to the point that by the end of the book, I knew who was speaking in most places, even if they weren’t immediately named. It was a pleasure to have her read the story to me, which gave me yet another perspective on words I have now experienced 4 or 5 times now.

I know you’ll care, so yes, the entire “Are you gay” conversation – including Rae talking about being impacted by Japanese media representation of gay people – is included. This is a reading of the whole novel, save for inori.-sensei’s author’s notes. Nothing was left out.

My only “complaint” (and it is not a complaint, just something that was impossible to not notice) is that a few of the pronunciations are at odds with both the written Japanese and the anime dub. The one that impacts us the most here is Lene, which is pronounced “lean.” We had a lively conversation on the Okazu discord about the various ways the Japanese レーネ could be adapted to English. My assumption was, since the Bauer kingdom is Frenchish (e.g., Claire François) was that it was meant to be Renée. The Japanese predilection for choosing ‘l’ over ‘r’ in transliteration gives us Lenée, which is pretty much how the anime dub handles it.  This and another choice makes me think that no one on the recording studio staff had thought to ask someone who could read Japanese. It was a very minor thing and didn’t really effect the overall presentation, it was just impossible to ignore – especially as we have the anime at the same time.

But do not let this very minor thing deter you from getting this audiobook. In every way, it’s an absolute delight.  While Shaw’s Rae is less over the top (or, as I like to think of it it, less “Pinky Pie”) than Hannah Alyea’s anime version, it works better for the more fully featured light novel narrative, in which we are given more of Rae’s motivation and backstory.

The first novel ends where the anime will be in a week or two, which means you can safely listen to this and not be spoiled for much.

Ratings (for the adaptation only)

Overall – 9

You should definitely get this audiobook to experience (or re-experience) the fun of the whole first novel. Then, once the anime is over (and after you have written Ichijinsha to let them know you want a second season, run out and pre-order Volume 2, so you get into the meat of the story!