The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

The Villainess Stans the Heroes

What's It About? 

After she dies in a merch-related incident, an average Japanese woman finds herself reborn as the antagonist of the mobile RPG she was obsessed with. She's okay with that, though, because all she wants to do is watch her favs in real-time, and she sets about ensuring that the story can unfold exactly as it should. But the thing about characters in the real world is that they become people, which may have some unforeseen consequences for the woman who is now Eldea Euclair!

The Villainess Stans the Heroes is based on the original story by Yamori Mitikusa. Tsubasa Takamatsu drew the manga adaptation with original character designs by Kaoru Harugano. The manga was translated into English by Leighann Harvey and lettered by Rochelle Gancio. Yen Press will release its first volume both digitally and physically on March 21.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

If you aren't (still) a fan of a story where someone gets reborn in the world of their favorite game as the lady antagonist, The Villainess Stans the Heroes isn't likely to change your mind. It is at its heart the same thing we've seen before: our protagonist, a Japanese woman in her twenties in her past life, dies, and discovers that she's been reborn into the body (or at least awakened in the body at age seven) of the villainess of her favorite game. It's a mobile RPG rather than an otome game, and she died when her shelves of game merchandise collapsed on her, but it really is very similar to what we've seen before. Where things differ is in Eldea's boundless enthusiasm for making sure that things play out exactly as they did when her new world was just a game, because Eldea didn't buy all that stuff because she was a half-hearted fan. As far as she's concerned, this is her chance to experience everything up close and personal, and she's totally fine with doing that from the evil seat.

It helps that the original Eldea was only the inciting element of the main story, essentially a prologue character charged with getting the heroes on their way. This means that she's not at risk of gruesome death, and therefore she only has to disappear as she did in the original at the right time. She's totally fine with it and spends most of her off-screen moments ensuring that everything can follow the game's route precisely. This is where the story makes its successful tweaks to the formula: Eldea is essentially modernizing the pseudo-Medieval world of the original RPG. She creates and strengthens the publishing industry, and she creates and popularizes modern bathing suits…if it existed in a secret or special bit of extra content for the game, she's damn well going to make sure it can do so in her new reality. Needless to say, this makes for some of the best moments of the book, because she can't help using these inventions for her own purposes. Getting the hero hooked on yuri dojinshi is not something she saw coming.

Fluff is not bad. Neither is this introductory volume. But something about the devotion to remaining surface-level is annoying, and that mars the book to a degree. Mostly there's just a sense that this could have been, and should be, better.

Jean-Karlo Lemus

Rating:

The title is such a wordy eyesore, but the manga is a delight. We've seen a number of these “reincarnated as the villainess” stories where the protagonist tries to avoid the villainess's many death flags, but the twist here is novel. Because our protagonist is such a hopeless fangirl, she's thirsty for the entire damn cast, using her encyclopedic knowledge of the game's lore to ensure they all get their golden routes (while squealing like a teenager at the sight of them all). Like many “villainess” protagonists, Eldea is cunning and intelligent. It's not just her knowledge of Emotion Fantasy that gets her through, it's her use of wit and foresight to help put everything in place. Sadly, we don't get to see much of that. Eldea's craftiness is handled off-panel, so the most we get is Albert helping her get the better of some corrupt casino employees.

Truly, the fun here is seeing Eldea's fangasm over all of her “faves”. It's always a vicarious delight to see fans fanning out, and it lends a nice romantic twist since Albert knows he's Eldea's favorite. I'm honestly surprised they're not already a couple. But these stories all have to end in a big polycule, so maybe he's just biding his time.

The Villainess Stans the Heroes is a big, fat sugar rush. But it's a fun one. Seeing Eldea wander her world and continue to encounter all her faves looks to be a fun ride, and her unbridled joy might just be enough to carry this series— it would really be nice, however, to actually see Eldea's machinations at work and not just be told about them after the fact. Recommended, with some reservations.