The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

The Villainess's Guide to (Not) Falling in Love

What's It About? 

From a mundane existence to an extraordinary adventure! Luciana, once an ordinary woman, now finds herself reincarnated as the stunning villainess of an otome game. Well aware of impending plot twists, she's ready to rewrite her destiny and avoid catastrophe. She hatches a brilliant plan to live a peaceful life and avoid troublesome suitors. What could go wrong?

The Villainess's Guide to (Not) Falling in Love is a manga by Ren Sakuma adapted from the light novel series by Touya (story) and Yoimachi (illustrations), with English translation by Meredith Singer. This volume was retouched and lettered by Nicole Roderick and Kaitlyn Wiley. Published by Square Enix Manga (March 12, 2024).

---

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

There is at this point a comfortable familiarity with villainess manga of this type. Lady Luciana Dianthus was an average, reclusive Japanese woman in her thirties who died unexpectedly (we don't know if it was our old pal Truck-kun or the increasingly popular overwork trope) and awoke to find herself the villainess of an otome game she played. Like Yumiella Dolkness of Villainess Level 99, Luciana immediately decides that her best chance of survival lies in anonymity, but we know the minute she decides that it's not going to work, not because she's super powerful – if anything, she's the opposite – but simply because that's not how the genre works. Like Katarina, Luciana is destined to make all her love interests fall for her even before the game's heroine shows up.

The fun of this book isn't in how it sets itself apart from its genre brethren (because it doesn't) but in its execution and beautiful art. Luciana quickly figures out major differences between the game and real life. However, she's not entirely certain that they are because of reality rather than having been paid content in a game she only played the free version of. Still, she's smart enough to realize that she's in a position to save one of the love interests a lot of grief, and since this isn't a game anymore, she's determined to do so. That's what sets Luciana apart: she quickly begins treating her new life like a life rather than a game she's inexplicably living in, and that means that she's ready to fix the problems in the original script. Luciana isn't above using her old villainess persona when she has to. Still, her goal is to ensure things turn out better for, specifically, Lakas and his sister Seria, whom the original game had doom in store for. She knows staying away from Lakas would be in her best interests, but she rates saving him higher than following a predetermined script.

The volume still hits on a lot of the basics. Luciana's older brother is a bit unbrotherly, the love interests are all preternaturally beautiful and high-ranking nobility, and the art insists on anachronistic school uniforms in a world where outside of school dresses all go down to the floor and have wide skirts. (Yes, this drives me batty every damn time.) Everyone's last names come from a flower; there's a weirdly complicated magic system and a pseudo-European setting. But Luciana herself is a bit of fresh air, and the art is frankly beautiful, with graceful lines and many lovely details in the drawings. The included short prose story adds to the book rather than feeling like a pointless bonus. Stories like this help keep the villainess genre interesting, and if you're still a genre fan, give this a chance.

---

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

I'm beginning to think that otome visual novels are a public hazard. If we take for our evidence the numerous light novels, manga, and anime that chronicle the misadventures of unsuspecting gamers who suddenly die before resurrection as "villainess" characters with doomed destinies, then I can confidently say you're taking your life into your hands if you play these games. I'll stick to the existential despair-causing Steins;Gate or the gleefully vindictive Danganronpa games. At least with those, there's little chance I'll wake up the next morning sporting a frilly dress, waist-length blonde ringlets, and a haughty smirk.

With my over-familiarity with this genre beginning to breed contempt, I was almost ready to dismiss this manga adaptation of the light novel seriesThe Villainess's Guide to (Not) Falling in Love as yet another derivative iteration of this formula dumped onto the creaking, overburdened bandwagon. My cynicism was unjustified – despite its extremely generic beginnings, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this first volume, to the point I'd like to read more.

The setting is so preposterously close to other almost identical stories like Reincarnated as a Villainess – All Routes Lead to Doom that there's little point discussing the setting in detail. A high-class school full of nobles? Check! A fantasy world where magic is integral to daily life? Check! The main character, who was previously spoiled and selfish, suddenly undergoes a complete personality 180 and becomes a decent person. Check? There's nothing new about this setting or premise. At all.

What sets The Villainess's Guide to (Not) Falling in Love apart is its gorgeous artwork. Readers looking to swoon over achingly beautiful pretty boys with soulful stares, stick-like figures, and floppy hair will be in their element here. Luciana herself is attractive, though also chaotic and prone to swooning over characters she's not meant to (including a – hopefully – platonic fixation on her playboy older brother).

Every step Luciana attempts to prevent tragedy for herself and the other characters around her only draws attention and makes her non-love interests fall for her. It's played mostly for comedy, but there's also some more serious underlying matters of death and psychological trauma that she's desperate to circumvent. Towards the end of this volume, we see great flashy displays of magic, and Luciana steps up into a heroic role, suggesting that perhaps this version of history will greatly diverge from what she knows. The odd tonal disconnect between awkward romance and all-out magical warfare reminds me very much of My Happy Marriage – and that's a big compliment.

Despite its highly derivative roots, The Villainess's Guide to (Not) Falling in Love is very entertaining, with a delightful main character and a fun peripheral cast. If you can stand yet another villainess isekai, you could do worse than check this out.