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I’m in Love With the Villainess / 私の推しは悪役令嬢

I can hardly count any more the number of stories I've recently seen in which some modern Japanese teenage girl or occasionally boy ends up reincarnated in an otome (dating) game. To just name some of the light novels that spring to mind, there's “Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons”, “The Emperor's Lady-in-Waiting Is Wanted as a Bride”, “Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I'm Going to Tell Her How I Feel!” (the outlier where the villain is a boy), “Deathbound Duke's Daughter”, “I Refuse to Be Your Enemy!”, “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!”, “I Was Reincarnated athe Villainess in an Otome Game but the Boys Love Me Anyway!”...

The trope usually plays out that the girl is then cast either in the role of the villainess or as somebody close to her. Since she has retained — or in some cases regained — her knowledge of the original game, she recognises quickly on that she's out of luck. She is heading for defeat, exile, execution... and is rather understandably not looking forward to her fate. She then uses her experience to push the developments into a more palatable direction.

Now, Inori's “I’m in Love With the Villainess” fully inscribes itself into the trope, and yet it doesn't. For a start, Japanese businesswoman Rei Oohashi is reincarnated as Rae Taylor, the 16-year-old heroine of her favourite otome game Revolution. Rae is a commoner woman arriving at the Bauer kingdom's elite magical academy. In the game, she is supposed to overcome all obstacles and win the heart of one of the kingdom's three princes, all of whom are students at the academy. Just that Rae is not at all interested in them. She has eyes only for Claire François, only daughter to the Bauer kingdom's minister of finance, Duke Dole François. Claire is the very embodiment of high nobility: intelligent, elegant, but also arrogant, haughty, and cold. She is intended by the game designers to be Rae's main torturer and antagonist, not to mention competitor for the princes' hearts.

However, Rae knows how Revolution will end — in the best path, Claire is heading for exile, more likely execution. So, Rae sets her mind to save her beloved at any cost.

“I’m in Love with the Villainess” claims to be set in a society modelled on medieval Europe. Given what we then learn about the remarkably well fleshed out world, which has newspapers, printed books and many other amenities, the society much more closely that of France at the end of the Ancien régime heading for 1789. Royalty and nobility still hold the reins of power in the kingdom and control the top echelons of the church. A new factor, magic, which is open to both nobility and commoners, upsets the established power structure (you don't have to read much between the lines to see this as a metaphor for the rise of capitalism). The commoners no longer accept many of the restrictions that are imposed on them and are increasingly pushing for equal rights. The king tries to navigate to find a middle ground by allowing also the most gifted children of commoners into the academy, while keeping most of the privileges of nobility in place.

This already gives a first glimpse how Inori's work differs from much other otome-oriented light novels: it is a deeply political work. The otome game is called revolution for a reason — much of the story's dynamics comes from the political upheaval that is clearly in the air, with a bloody revolution as the likely outcome. The book studies these power dynamics and a changing society.

In another big twist, the hero is Rae — she, the commoner, was in the race for society's top price, one of the princes. Instead, she opts to use her knowledge to save the woman she loves, Claire.

The third difference is perhaps the most obvious one even already from the book covers — this is a story of an openly lesbian woman pursuing her love. Rae is not coy about her sexual orientation, and she challenges the prejudices, misogyny, and homophobia of her society (and by implication of much of our societies). She is not even put off from her quest of love by Claire's initial refusal, not to mention her constant bullying. In a memorable scene, Claire, Rae's friend Misha, and Rae address many of these topics heads on. While this conversation may be somewhat anachronistic for the story's setting, its message is clear and important.

On the other hand Rae tries to stay out of politics as much as she can — which ultimately threatens to be her undoing. Her wavering on many levels imperils her love, but also the lives of all those around her. Paradoxically it is Claire who starts to understand how unjust the system is under which they live — but no more spoilers beyond this.

This review concentrates on the first two volumes of the series. The third volume opens a new arc, looking at topics of family, diplomacy and much more. I'll review it as soon as the arc is concluded.

English homepage of I’m in Love with the Villainess (Light Novel)

Review: I'm in Love with the Villainess volume 1

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