It’s almost impossible to believe that I have never actually read the Japanese Volume 1 of this series, but it is true. I had read some of it as a webnovel, when it was licensed by Seven Seas, before I had a chance to pick up the GL Bunko digital edition. I read and reviewed Volume 1 in English a year and a half ago, in fact, and then ran ahead to read the rest in Japanese, because it was that good. Until now, it was only available in digital form in Japanese.

Well, now Ichijinsha has licensed the series for a print release and, finally, I have had a chance to read the first novel in Japanese. Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. -Revolution-, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。-Revolution-) was just as excellent as I remembered. Company drone Oohashi Rei wakes up as the protagonist of her favorite otome game, and decides to romance the villainess, the high-minded daughter of nobility, Claire François. Rae Taylor’s actions are ham-handed, but her experience with the game gives her powers and knowledge that offers many advantages.

Having had a year to experience the entire story from Rae’s point of view (and some of the story from Claire’s point of view) I can now see many things that were seeded to be resolved later…and some hints of the Truth (TM) about the world. It’s nice to see those things being seeded way back in the beginning. I know many more will also appear in the next two volumes. The overtly queer content still makes this series stand out from a lot of Yuri work. I’ll never get tired of that. ^_^

Ichijinsha did a great job on the book, with color dust cover, color character page up front (with hanagata’s original art for the GL Bunko cover as  fold out. The cover for this edition is a new work by hanagata. All of the original illustrations are included and two extra stories. The first story is from Lene’s point of view, the final bit from Misha’s. I think I’d love to have this whole story once more from Misha’s point of view, for reasons that are a spoiler. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7 Portraits of the people, mostly, rather than the scenes
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Yuri – 7 one-sided in this volume, but…
LGBTQ –10
Service – 2 Dressing and undressing, Rae acting like a perv….

Overall – 9

This print edition doesn’t add anything new to the story, but it gives us a definitive volume for lovers of this series. If you’re still a holdout and where waiting for a print edition in Japanese, now is the time to grab a copy. Although, I won’t lie, having the Kindle translate feature makes reading the GL Bunko volumes a breeze.

It will be such a pleasure to be able to give this series more space on my shelf. ^_^

When we left our heroines in Volume 3, they were in the Nur Empire, and we have had any number of massive plot points set up. So, of course, the first half of the book deals with literally anything else.

I love the first half of the book so much. ^_^

In the first half of I’m in Love with the Villainess, Volume 4, Rae and Claire will be dealing with important things like a cooking contest, getting dresses for a grand ball, solving two murder mysteries, and opening a forbidden box. There will be discussion of rights and lives for for sexual and gender minorities. And they will, presumably, also be going to school.

And, then, in the second half of the book, our Heroines of the Revolution, will jump willy-nilly into another fraught political situation and shepherd the world to a shape we could not have predicted. But, because I am in Rae’s position (in a meta sense – she knows what will happen in the narrative up to the end of this novel and I know what will happen afterwards,) I also know that none of it may matter. But that is for Volume 5. I cannot *wait* for you to read Volume 5.

Chapters here are short and move quickly, whether they are serious of silly, which means that both serious and silly items have an equivalent weight in the overall narrative. And, indeed, some of the stuff that is silly, will come to be serious in time.

One of the major concerns I had after reading Volume 3 in Japanese was the twins. They are savants, clearly, but in different ways. Volume 4 goes a long way to sorting their paths. I hope, after inori-sensei finishes her current work, which I hope you will all be able to read in published format soon, she takes a look at the twins when they are taking after their mothers in high school, causing societal upheaval.

hangata’s art has visibly improved since the first novel, but this book still favors character over scene, so we have a lot of straight-up character portraits with little scenery.

It will come as no surprise that I love Dorothea with all my love. Competent, impatient, not prepared to suffer fools, the only thing wrong with her is her disinterest in food. That’s a fatal flaw.  Aonoshimo-sensei, the artist for the manga recently shared their version of Dorothea and I just completely lost my mind – just perfect. ^_^

So, you’re all set up now with the world as we know it. You’ve met all the players, you’ve learned about Dana, Melica and Kiko. And you are ready for them all the return home. Volume 5 does not have a release date yet, but my gut says it will be late summer, based on the release dates of the rest.

I read this on Bookwalker because I did not want to wait – the paperback will be released in late February.  Overall, it is a good adaptation but, I have one teeny weeny quibble.  Sorry. I know translators have hard jobs and I’m not angry or anything and probably no one but me cares. I just …could not cope so I made a meme. ^_^ I will keep this meme, and probably use it endlessly for the rest of my life, because “translating” itadakimasu into another not-English language is my personal path into madness. My head screams “Why!?!?” every time I see it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – 4? Suggestive commentary, dress-up and Rae slavering over Claire.
Yuri – 10
Queer – 10

Overall – 10

Overall, this was everything was as fun and memorable as I hoped and I am now waiting for Volume 5!