Archive for the I’m in Love With the Villainess Category


I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 2

January 12th, 2024

A girl with collar-length brown hair wearing a fanciful red school uniform grips the shoulders of a blonde girl in the same uniform as she kisses her. Pink flower petals fly around them.Rae and Claire are about to face their reckoning, once again, in I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 2.  The revolution is upon them, the various forces are arrayed against them and their allies are dispersed. Will Rae Taylor, reborn into this world, be able to save her Villainess love?

This second volume is even better than the first in terms of story. Everything between Rae and Claire moves more quickly, as the forces pushing the revolution increase the pressure. The wave of change catches the two of them up and some significant things are done and said. Narrrator Courtney Shaw is absolutely brilliant, especially as Claire at the climax of the narrative. Equally, she’s delivers devastating pathos in the final chapters of the book. Those of you who have read it know why. Those who have not, may wish to have a tissue or hanky at the ready. The only complaint I have is the continued (and in this volume, expanded) odd choices for pronunciation of a few names, but it’s not worth getting upset over. It’s just a small minor objection to what is otherwise a fantastic narration.

If you reading the light novel did not appeal to you, or you’d just like to know what happens after the anime ended, this audiobook version is highly recommended. If you are already a fan of the series, I’d say this a really terrific way to experience the feels all over again. Shaw does a very good job giving Claire and Rae personality and charm. She makes Rod slightly unpalatable, Yuu fragile, and Thane impenetrable…until we understand him better.

And for those of you already enjoying this audiobook series, Volume 3 was released this week and is up on the Yuricon Store, with a number of purchase or streaming options. Book 4 is coming in February, you can pre-order it now on B&N and Bookwalker Global. It is clear that Seven Seas Siren is getting these out with alacrity, while the series is popular. I have a fannish hope we’ll hear some news about a second anime season before these are completed in March. ^_^

Ratings (for the adaptation only):

Overall – 9





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. (- 私の推しは悪役令嬢。) レイジョアハンズ!!～Raise Y/Our Hands!!/O.C.～Optimum Combination～

December 24th, 2023

A woman with brown hair pulled into a short ponytail in a white and blue tuxedo, dips a woman with golden curls, in an orange evening dress, as they dance at a formal dance.While in Japan, I had a very short list of things that I wanted to pick up. Usually I come with a long list, but this time, I had already decided that I wouldn’t be buying much media, only things I didn’t know – and goods. Media is the easiest thing to get shipped. That said, there was one manga series I was looking for, that sadly I did not find and one CD, which I did!

Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.  私の推しは悪役令嬢。) レイジョアハンズ!!～Raise Y/Our Hands!!/O.C.～Optimum Combination～ is the CD of the opening and closing themes of the I’m in Love With The Villainess anime. It was apparent to me from the credits that some interesting manipulation of the lyrics was going on, so I really wanted the whole CD to get the lyrics.

Well…I’m blown away. Absolutely gobsmacked at the effort put in by everyone involved. From the awesome cover image, you know you’re not getting something generic. I’m not saying I’m burned by the G-Witch drama or anything, because that was merely annoying and somewhat silly, but it still feels real and important to have something like this image being a genuine reflection of the contents of the music.

The music is suitably sticky and I will now sing the choruses to Raise Y/Our Hands!!  and O.C. ~ Optimum Combination~ over and over for the next week undoubtedly. But as I sat with the lyrics and listened to the music, I was quite overcome with the sense that the writers really understood the story. I wondered if inori.-sensei had been the writer, but to my surprise lyric, composition and arrangement were credited to TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND. I’m going to give those guys serious praise for the music, but even more for the lyrics.

Most of the OP/ED CDs I bought back in the day had 4 tracks. One each of the OP/ED sung and one each of a karaoke track. This CD has five tracks. The OP, of course and 4 different iterations of the end theme, as we saw on the anime. Both Rae and Claire have their own individual tracks. But as the text bubbles of the ED animation make clear, this is meant to be a dialogue. The first track is O.C. ~ Optimum Combination~ -Side by Side- which remixes Rae and Claire’s verses to respond to one another. The final track O.C. ~ Optimum Combination~ -Side by Side-/reverse (which surely has to be the most punctuation ever used in a title) which remixes the verses *again* for another take on that conversation.

The more I listened to these…the more I liked them.

Serizawa Yuu acquits herself very well, while singing in Rae’s silly voice, with occasional flashes of her real voice, but Nanami Karen is the star here, bringing a lot of varying emotion into very quickly sung lyrics.

So for a series that put lesbians in the top ten rankings for weeks, is still out there giving us a ton of queer rep (I just finished Volume 2 of the audiobook yesterday), even the animation opening and closing themes are worth your time and money!

Ratings:

Music – 9
Lyrics – 10
Art – 10

Overall  – 10





I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 1

November 24th, 2023

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!





Watashi No Oshi Ha Akuyaku Reijou. Maid Kitchen, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。 メイドキッチン)

November 23rd, 2023

Two girls in maid uniform hold out treats, while a girl with long blonde hair sips tea, surrounded by cookie designs.Lady Claire François, daughter of the Minister of Finance, has a problem. She turns to her maids, Lene Arrouseau and Rae Taylor to solve that problem…with food.

In Watashi No Oshi Ha Akuyaku Reijou. Maid Kitchen, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。 メイドキッチン), food is the answer, whether the problem is bored taste buds, or social status or a fever, or even the unpleasant temperature outside. There is nothing that can’t be solved by the application of just the right culinary item. Lene and Rae even conspire to cure Claire of her dislike for carrots.

The primary relationship here is between Claire and her maids – how they understand her, want her to be happy and healthy and through that, between themselves. Lene is given a little room to be seen as an individual and Rae gets to flex her knowledge of cuisine.

tsuke-sensei’s art is quite good – especially considering that readers are now used to Aonoshimo-sensei’s art. I find the use of goofy faces – including “horror face” suits the bwah-bwah-bwah tone of what is, at least in part, a gag manga with characters we already know and like.

We’re not given recipes here, but we are given enough information that, should we too wish to make a cake salé, it would not be hard to find a useful recipe. And, since it is Thanksgiving in the USA, today seems like a good day to bring something different to any shared meal you might be attending. The older I get, the more I realize how much of French cuisine is really just “what do we have in the house and how do we use it for dinner?” ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Claire has a problem, food solves the problem
Character – 7
Service – Rae is Rae
Yuri – Rae is Rae

Overall – 7.5

This is very much a manga for fans of the I’m In Love With The Villainess series. It won’t add anything to the story proper, but it will allow you to spend more time in the company of Claire, Lene and Rae. And food.

 





I’m In Love With The Villainess Manga, Volume 5

November 20th, 2023

Two girls in red jackets and blue skirt uniforms. One with short, pale hair looks smug, the other with medium-length brown hair looks angry. 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!