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


I’m in Love With the Villainess Manga, Volume 1

March 31st, 2021

If you’re reading this, you’re probably aware that this particular isekai series has been given a lot of space in Yuri fandom’s head these days. With the successful light novels (Volume 1 and Volume 2 of which are available in English, Volume 3 on the way in July and Volume 1 through Volume 4 out in Japanese), a 5th place win in the recent survey asking what series fans want most to see as an anime, as announced at AnimeJapan, I think we can just agree to call this series an iconic series for Yuri in the early 2020s. ^_^ This point is key to today’s review, because this series, written by inori, with character designs by hanagata, has almost instantly become important to us. This emphasis will become relevant shortly, as we take a look at Volume 1 of the I’m in Love With the Villainess manga which was released this week digitally on Global Bookwalker.

Like the LNs on which the manga is based, we begin with Ohashi Rei, a worker at a company who finds herself reborn in to the world of her favorite otome game where she, as the protagonist, is finally free to romance the villainess, Claire François. There are a lot of things to like about this series. Much of fandom is thrilled to have an openly (and as it goes on, increasingly) queer Yuri work. I’m delighted to have an isekai work that addresses social and income inequities, government accountability, as well as surfacing gender and sexuality minority issues. Additionally, I really like that the protagonist is an adult, so their thoughts about these issues aren’t too simplistic. All of these things are part and parcel of why this particular series has made such a huge splash in Yuri fandom.  The fact that fandom has embraced this series with such passion is, in part, why the editing issues that lead to a excision of a passage in the first Light Novel (which has been restored already in digital editions) caused such a major uproar.  As I discussed in my recent article about Queer Representation, when we get more and better representation in media, we become more demanding, not less.

I really enjoy the manga iteration of this story overall. The art seems more lively/less moe than the original LN art, and there’s enough inconsistency in that art to highlight the comedy aspects. The nudity is entirely egregious, but it is also relevant to the story…not because the nudity itself is important, but what it says about the character. This is the core of the passage which had been deleted, in fact; the motivation of why Rae is the way she is. Those of us who have read past Volume 2 of the LNs will understand that this feels so long ago and almost irrelevant, but it had an impact on readers who were just beginning to love the story. To be perfectly honest, I assumed the story was originally a “comedy” that just morphed into a drama, and never felt Rae’s behavior needed explaining. But that’s just me.

Which is why it pains me to say this: The translation for the manga is not, in my opinion, very good. (Ironic, as I was just accused of being an apologist for Seven Seas last week. ) Jenn Yamazaki does such lovely work on the Light Novel translation.  Rae and Clarie’s voices are clear and appropriately translated.  As I read this manga volume, I became increasingly uncomfortable with the translation here. Given how absolutely critical Claire’s awareness of herself as a daughter of the nobility is to this story, some of the things that she says are crude, things said about her are uncouth and, ultimately in one of the final pages, she is seen to say, “bloody commoner.” 

I hate to be that person, but I am about to be that person. Not only is that not what she says in Japanese, which was 「本当にこの平民は・・・」 and not what is implied,  which I understood more as, “Really, this commoner is [just so]…”, it is wholly, unpleasantly vulgar. I  do not know if this was a failure of translation or editing, but it left me feeling absolutely bereft.

I’m with Rae. Claire high-handed arrogance is incandescent and her descent from that arrogance is a magnificent story which does not deserve greasy fingerprints of vulgarity. It left me thinking that neither translator nor editor care about this story and that is something I have not felt about a Seven Seas book in a very long time.  As I said at the beginning, this series has become important to us. It needs to be important to Seven Seas as well. I was so distraught at Claire saying “Bloody commoner” I woke up this morning and immediately composed an email to Seven Seas, letting them know what I would be saying here, so they were not blindsided. This translation did not feel as if it was done with love.

Surely one might assume that someone there would have thought to go over this before releasing it this week, after the problem last week?  A deleted passage is a problem that is fixable. An entire volume translated by someone who missed the point entirely may be fixable, but could have been prevented, if someone had been paying attention.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 8 It will improve over time. ^_^
Service – 5 Nudity and bathing
Yuri – 10

Overall – 8, with 1 off for the translation, which makes it a 7

If you don’t care about “voice” the way I do, it might not rub you the wrong way.  And, translation aside, this is still a fun manga, with great expressions and fun art and, of course, a terrific story. I’m still very eager to see the school festival cafe drawn by Aonoshimo-sensei. It was a scene that we all deserve to see realized. ^_^





“I’m in Love With the Villainess” Translation Controversy – What Does it Mean For Readers?

March 19th, 2021

UPDATE: Seven Seas has responded to this issue:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Those portions of the text were removed during the editorial process at the time, but we have since changed how we edit these books to make sure important lines are not lost. We’ll be revising the ebook within the next few weeks to add the cut portions back into the book, and the revision will also be reflected in all future printings of the paperback.

Thanks to everyone who wrote them politely.

SECOND UPDATE: Someone on ANN Forums asked a couple of questions about this post. I have clarified those comments on that forum, if you are interested.

THIRD UPDATE: Setting aside editorial choice for the moment – typographic errors are not a personal attack. There are a lot of moving parts in publishing. There’s no rational basis for assuming either that a company cannot be trusted because a typo occurred OR than there was intent. I read three books this week. I found three typos. I wrote one company and privately told them about the typo, in case it can be fixed. One was in a Japanese book – they have typos, too, and the third was not important enough to care about. I have found errors in books for which I know absolutely more than5 pairs of eyes went over the copy. Typos happen. Being angry about them is just not healthy for either you, or fandom.

****

What a day! I woke up this morning ready to face an AMA on reddit as part of a Women’s Month celebration with my publisher (the thread is ongoing, feel free to drop in). I had a review lined up. 

I almost instantly found myself facing links to a thread on the J-Novel Club Forum, about a potential problem with Seven Seas’ I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 1. I’m not quoting the thread here, because after some conversation, the OP calmed down a lot, so I don’t want to make it seem like they are still spitting angry. You can click the link if you want specifics.  The thread title is a fanwank, Seven Seas is not in trouble. I am aware there was a recent issue with a translation that they did and human nature being aligned to pattern-recognition, caused some readers to recognize a pattern. (I’m of the belief that you need three things to form a pattern, but that’s me.) So instead of a review, we’re going to talk about this.

To summarize, there is a passage in Volume 1, where Rae speaks about internalized homophobia from LGBTQ representation in Japanese media, and, as a result, overplayed her love for Claire as hyperbolic comedy.  It was a good passage, and the OP was incensed that it had been deleted. Of course, whenever a fan shouts “censorship!” there’s always a mob of people ready to pull out pitchforks and torches.

I’ve written to Seven Seas to see if they would like to have an official, on the record, response to this, but in the meantime I have a few thoughts I want to share. These are in reverse order to their appearance in my responses on that same forum thread, with some thoughts from Twitter interspersed. Before we talk about appropriate responses to this issue, let us understand the issue itself. Since I never read Volumes 1 or 2 in Japanese, I am coming to this the same as you are.

The OP was comparing the Japanese Volume 1 with the English Volume 1. I pointed out that we, the readers cannot truly know where the disconnect was. It may have been Seven Seas who deleted the scene – which frankly makes no sense to me. GL Bunko may also have sent Seven Seas a bowdlerized copy with that scene deleted, as there has been a serious crackdown on Japanese media freedoms and, while it is hard to imagine that the Abe government would care about a US published edition of a web novel-based light novel, maybe someone at GL Bunko thought it sensible to remove the line.

Secondly, we do not know what decisions were made at Sevens Seas or why. The passage seemed to me to clearly be discussing “representation” like Hard Gay, which was hyperbolic and extreme. If one wasn’t familiar with that sort of “comedy” the passage could be misunderstood. It might have been removed to avoid confusion – if indeed it was removed by Seven Seas.

To be clear – I hope this was a fixable mistake. I thought the missing passage made sense and clarified some of Rae’s early choices…and I genuinely enjoy every glimpse we get of Ohashi Rei in the story. But we may never know what happened, because we may never be able to know. Being fans of a series does not grant us access to the contracts. Unless we are involved in making this particular sausage, we might never know what goes into it. 

We may not know why this happened, but there are something that are 100% under our control. We can always control our response to the controversy. Here I am going to quote from my own comment on the thread:

…ascribing any changes to malicious intent is not all right. Of course you are welcome to not read anything they sell, but what good does that do? Then you don’t get to enjoy the rest of these wonderful books. Tantrums are not the way adults handle problems. Hateful rhetoric leads to hateful behavior…we do not want someone taking their frustration to a KyoAni level. We cannot allow that.

Take moment and write Seven Seas a polite, firmly worded email expressing the problem. Ask them to restore deleted passages. If they get enough feedback, they might (probably will) change their position. There’s no guarantee, but there’s a much better chance than if you rant on a forum. When Viz made some decisions that in aggregate seemed very trans- and homophobic, I and a lot of folks wrote them and asked for the decisions to be fixed…and they were. They even fixed an issue that had hurt someone for decades, when their deadname had not been removed from a credit. THAT is how we make change, not harmful rhetoric. We know where that leads.

There is no place in Yuri fandom for hate of any kind.

So I’m asking you all, as another fan of ILV, don’t speak of this as an attack on you or on fandom. It’s a very unhealthy way to think of anything. We don’t need to be angry. We can be disappointed and let Seven Seas know.

Yuri fandom must remain a friendly, welcoming and intelligent place. If I have to physically wrangle individuals back from a ledge, I will. ^_^

Additionally, some well-meaning person tagged the creator on Twitter and dragged them into this mess. Please don’t tag creators when you’re posting about unpleasant stuff. It’s so hard being a creator, it’s a terrible feeling to have someone dump some problem you can’t do anything about in your lap. I hate getting a notification that says, “Hey @OkazuYuri, what do you think about this?” What do I think? I think the person who tagged me is a jerk, frankly. Is it my problem to have an opinion on? Can I do anything about it? Do you do this in real life? Why? Are you 12? “Hey, Jim, what do you think about the argument two other people are having in the bar?” Don’t do this.

Lastly, please consider this:

We can and should approach media critically, not with an angry, entitled attitude.

So, what does this deletion mean for us, fans and readers of I’m in Love With the Villainess? It means, we have the opportunity to show ourselves as the best, most thoughtful, kind and loving fandom. We can write Seven Seas, politely, thank them for their LGBTQ content and express disappointment and concern that some content was left out of Volume 1 and if at all possible, ask if it can be restored in the Kindle version and future printings.

That is what we can – if you feel strongly about it, should – do, whenever you feel that there is an issue.

 





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

March 15th, 2021

Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 4 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) is a wild ride of a novel that has more twists and turns than the newest roller coaster at your local amusement park. It was awesome.

At the end of Volume 3, we left Rae and Claire in the Nur Kindgom, having made a heck of an impression on the despotic rule of Nur, Queen Dorothea, in a battle against the Demon Rulers. They also made an impression on the Demons.  Both of these are understood to be ambiguous in nature and will surely come to a head. But first, we have some much more important stuff to deal with….

…including an Iron Chef-like cooking contest between the greatest chefs of Nur, and Rae and Claire’s 6-year old daughter Aleah. And a formal ball. Also a act of incredible magical skill handled by their other 6-year old daughter, Mei. Rae and Claire help foment rebellion, change the diet of the entire army, solve a murder mystery and three other mysteries, only one of which was in the least predictable. Then a kidnapping. And then, about 2/3 of the way through this book, the story slams down on us with a vengeance.

Inori carefully weaves their way through the various plotlines and pulls out exactly the right ending for the book. It could not have been handled better without making concessions to what we knew of everyone.

This felt like a long book, and we had a number of new characters, several of which are undoubtedly going to be key in Volume 5. It was no surprise that I like Hilde, the hyper-competent bureaucrat with a monocle, but almost despite myself, I also like Frida, the Princess’s “Merikan” friend.  This story still remains wholly queer and deeply rooted in social and political activism. This volume takes some time to get there, but when it does, it does.

Every single one of my questions from Volume 3 were answered, save one, and that clearly is going to be a plot in Volume 5. There are a lot of loose ends yet to be tied up. I’m constantly fighting with myself whether to read the chapters on inori’s Pixiv Fanbox or not but I have chosen to not do so, and hope you will respect that by not spoiling anything for me, as I have tried to not overly spoil this for others. Thank you. ^_^ I still have hope that two of the things left undone will be done by the end of the series and one other new thing also gets followed through with, but I admit that this last is simply because I really like Dorothea and want to see more of her.

The art was the best so far of the series. I’ll never adore moe-fication of characters like Dorothea, but I felt that everything in this book was way more finished and solid than in previous books and a few of these were extra lovely. (I did mention the formal ball, yes?) ^_^

Volume 3 is slated for a July release in English, which feels so far away, and Volume 5 is not yet listed in Japan, but I remind you that Volume 3 and Volume 4 are available in Japanese on US Kindle. They are so worth it.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – Yes. Still perfectly okay.
Yuri – 10
Queer – 10

Overall – 10

Oh, the boot I kept waiting to drop in V3? It dropped in V4. And it wasn’t a main plot point, just one more crazy arc that lead somewhere else entirely and was even worse and better than I imagined.

If you’d like spoilers or have read it and want to shout with me about it, please join me on the Okazu Discord. ^_^





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Volume 3 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

January 25th, 2021

I don’t really know how to review this book. ^_^;  There’s so much to tell you and so little I can say!

In Volume 1, we met former office worker Oohashi Rei, who wakes up one day in the world of her favorite otome game, “Revolution,” as the protagonist Rae Taylor. As Rae, she opts out of the usual romance routes and instead focuses all of her acumen and knowledge of the game on her actual interest, the villainess Claire François. Then the revolution comes crashing down over the two of them.

In Volume 2, Claire and Rae, now a couple, work together to create a better world for themselves, their friends, their country, and…

spoiler warning/ Because both these books are available from Seven Seas in English, I am going to assume you have read them. If you have not read them, this review will contain inevitable spoilers, starting with the cover, because it is right here next to these words and I can’t hide that. If you haven’t read the first two volumes, this review may be largely incoherent and there are even MORE spoilers ahead. Don’t keep reading if you want to avoid spoilers. Do go read Volume 2, then come back. ^_^ /spoiler warning
So, going back to my previous statement.

Claire and Rae work together to create a better world for themselves, their friends, their country, and…their children.

Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Volume 3 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。), which I read on US Kindle in Japanese*, begins a year after the revolution. Claire, Rae, and their children Aleah and Mei**, the orphans they adopted in the tear-jearker epilogue to volume 2, are a happy family who are dealing with some major issues that are clearly foreshadowing future plots. Rae and Claire are teachers at the Academy they formerly attended as students, when they are approached by the government with a life-changing request: Diplomatic relationships with the Bauer Kingdom’s former (possibly current?) enemy, the Nur Empire is being established. A team of exchange students are being shared between the two countries. Several students from the Academy are going…and so are Claire and Rae, who decide to take Aleah and Mei with them.

We’ve already established that all norms are off the table in this series, so the plot here is a little bit of everything – school drama, romance, socio-political drama, and some other things and then the demons arrive. From this point on the book is spinning plates and juggling balls and then an axe or two on a high-wire.  And it all works, except I have about 300 questions. ^_^  I’ll just hope that some of that is clarified in future chapters and, eventually, volume 4.  I was worried through the entire first half of the book about two things that were never the problems I thought they’d be. But…what? Why? How? I’m not unsatisfied, I just want more!

I’m going to be really impatient until all of you have read it, too, so I can scream all my questions at you! ^_^

The second half of this volume are a series of deeply schmaltzy and satisfyingly goopy extra chapters that cover a number of celebratory events in Rae and Claire’s life, like birthdays and Christmas and their wedding. Rae and Claire get more and more touchy as the story goes on. Apparently Inori-sensei has offered up the bed scenes as an extra on her Pixiv Fanbox (which I think is a terrific idea and admit, I’m tempted. For the record, her Fanbox is being translated into English and Korean, so don’t be afraid to support her.) Rae and Claire’s wedding is a very pointed commentary on modern Japanese life and laws and an incredibly sweet scene. For a second time, the final scene of the book had me reaching for the tissues. How far Claire and Rae have come in a year is laid bare for all for us to see. (happy tears)

But, Erica! I hope you are flailing your hands at me in an attempt to get my attention. Did you say Rae and Claire’s wedding?!? Yes. And that is not the only wonderfully gay bit – nor is it arguably, the most important gay thing in this book. There are at least three other incredibly important conversations that I hope like heck have made a difference for someone, somewhere. And Rae and Claire are VERY clear about what they are to one another to the people around them in so many words.  They are physically affectionate with each other and with the twins, as well. I honestly loved that affectionate kisses and hugs and touching were just normalized in this story.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – Kind of? You’ll have to trust me that its fine, really.
Yuri – 10
Queer – 10

Overall – 10

Absolutely fantastic, but I have so many questions.

What about <spoiler>? What did they do?
What is the deal with <spoiler and spoiler>?
Were the <spoiler> there for shits and giggles?
What is going to happen with <spoiler>????
Why on earth is <spoiler>?????????

*The one thing I do honestly like about using Kindle for Japanese-language books is the translation function. It’s not perfect, but it helps not having to do more than highlight a term once the JP dictionary has been downloaded.

** In case it is not obvious, Aleah rhymes with Claire in Japanese and Mei rhymes with Rae.





I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 2

January 8th, 2021

Remember how amazed we were in Volume 1, when the characters of Claire, Misha and Rae had a frank discussion of sexuality? Well, I’m In Love With The Villainesss, Volume 2 has looked at Volume 1 and said, “Hold my mead”….

Rae Taylor is an extraordinary young woman, because in fact, she is not a young woman. She is a corporate drone from our world who has found herself in the world of her favorite otome game as the player character. Instead of romancing the princes, however, Rae has opted for a new route; one in which she is romancing the villainess, the aristocratic and strong-willed Claire François. Here in Volume 2, the holodeck controls are off and Rae and Claire run full speed towards a resolution that even Rae with her knowledge of the game can not predict.

As a reader and as a writer, I ascribe to what we called at the Fanfic Revolution called the “one-handwave” theory. This theory allows every world is allowed one massive, ridiculous, inexplicable thing that must be accepted at face value and cannot be questioned. This volume of I’m in Love With the Villainess, *immediately* blew that theory to hell in the most hilarious way I have ever seen. And then it did it again. And again. The rules? They are for some other story. This story could not have cared less what rules say. Massively important plot points were handled with literal magical handwaves, while actual time and attention were given to discussions of same-sex attraction, gender dysphoria, and, of course, the social impact of income inequality and political upheaval. It was compelling to say the least. It was a little too on the nose for this week, in particular.

This volume is significantly larger than volume 1. Given the resolution there’s only one thing the author left undealt with so Volume 3, when we get it, ought to address that.

In the meantime, this was an amazing read. Whatever benchmark might have been set by Volume 1, was shattered with sound-of speed waves as this volume goes blasting by it. It got exponentially queerer as the story went on. Final tally – 6 queer characters among the main cast, and a happy ending for our principles. And an epilogue that made me ugly cry at 2AM.

I give it my strongest recommendation. If you have not read this series, I hope you will. I know isekai isn’t everyone’s thing, but this is a shining example of exactly what I was talking about in my essay about queer representation Author Inori doesn’t consider that the limits of the worlds that previously existed are the limits of what the worlds could be. They’ve taken an already played-out plot driver and used it to explore very real-world situations in fantasy cosplay and come up with a different resolution. Rather than just assuming what was is what has to be, this series models a new ideal.  I feel even more confident that this was the right choice for my Top Yuri of the year for 2020, and it is going to be very, very hard to beat for 2021. But you know….I really hope something does beat it, because that would be something. ^_^

 

Ratings:

Art – 7 Okay. I’m still angry we didn’t get a picture of Claire in the tux in V1.
Story – 10 Perfection
Characters – 10
Service – 3 Yes, but…somehow this time didn’t bother me at all.
Yuri – 10
Queer – 10

Overall – 10

“Miss Claire, watch over me now.” I am slayed.