489th G-View: I’m in Love With The Villainess

We start to wrap up the 2023 G-Views starting with one for one of the most anticipated anime adaptations of the year not only in Yuridom but even among Yuri mangaka and artists alike. This one was a long time coming for many. Question is whether it was worth the wait. Let us find out as we take a look at I’m in Love With The Villainess.

Alternate Title: Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou (Japanese)

Genres: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Isekai, Romance, Yuri.

Themes: Magic, Social Class

Number of Episodes: 12

G-Rating: 8/10

Plot summary: An overworked woman found comfort from her stressful life playing an otome game, specifically in the main villainess, Claire Francois, whom she was infatuated with. One day as if in the blink of an eye she woke up and found herself in front of the girl of her dreams who called her by the name Rae Taylor, the same name she gave the female avatar protagonist from her favorite game. After accepting the situation she was in and not overthinking it she immediately took the opportunity to confess to the love of her life to an unsurprising result. Thus began the always eventful life of the reborn fangirl and her one true love. Would their relationship become more than that of a rich girl and the annoying pest who refused to go away?

Rae and Claire’s relationship summed up in one screen grab.

My quick description of this show would be “a great start”. Besides our heroines’ relationship, which I will get to later, the show lays the foundation for the setting, introduces its key players and important side-characters, throws some history every now and then and treats viewers to some pretty cool magic battles once in a while. Throw in some classic threats found in similar fantasy settings and we have a familiar yet still enjoyable setup. However, the show made clear early on that the setting and its issues were a side-dish compared to the character interactions, which was perfectly fine for me as I am usually more interested in how the characters react to or are affected by events rather than the worldbuilding. Basically solid setting but the cast of characters are where it is at.

Favorite side-character, Misha.

Continuing with the characters they range from doing a good job at playing their given role to wonderful such as Misha and Lene. Misha is Rae’s best friend and despite not being the “Harumin” of the show like I hoped she is still an excellent ally, counselor and has several great moments.

My second favorite side-character was Lene, Claire’s fateful maid and sort of older sister figure. She has the sass to manage Claire’s attitude and is dependable most of the time. She also has one of the more interesting backstories of the show. Ohhhh yes indeed.

Before I move on to the next part let us briefly address the elephants in the room. The Brothers Prince, or Dookie, Mayo and Frosty Balls as I like to call them. I had a feeling going into the show they would not be a serious threat to our heroines and was relieved to find out I was right. Actually as the show progressed they were amusing lads to an extent. Sure them having the bare minimum of their stories related to viewers was one of a few “Go read the source to learn more” baits but since I mainly came here for the ladies was left with a bad taste in my mouth from a certain other otome isekai anime with Yuri in it I am in no hurry to find out more about Dookie Prince’s shenanigans. That or their time to shine would come in later volumes.

Also to fans of theirs, specifically source readers, calm yourselves. I have nothing against them. Their silly nicknames was just me having some fun.

On a more serious note major props to the show for one scene in particular. I will not mention which one but those who have seen or read it, know what I am referring to. I am certain other anime had scenes similar to this about other topics at some point but to my memory I do not recall many anime tackling “this” as openly as this show did. Brief but powerful. Very cool. I am certain several manga and Light Novels did this but it left a strong impression on me because not only was this moment adapted with little to no changes, but the English dub stayed true to its importance, not changing any of the important lines.

Speaking of the English dub, it is excellent. No surprise the Japanese dub is top notch but the Western cast did a praiseworthy job as well. Major brownie points go to Rae and Claire’s voice actors, Hannah Alyea and Lindsay Sheppard respectively.

Might as well briefly talk about the presentation. Pretty good stuff. As always I am not the best judge of animation quality but it all looked very nice to me. The soundtrack fit the mood in every scene but not is not much to write home about. The OP and ED are quite fun to listen to though.

And finally it is time to talk about our main girls and the reason most were excited for this show, Rae Taylor and Claire Francois. On the surface their relationship has the classic genki x tsundere dynamic but like any engaging love story between girls there is much more to it than their character stereotypes. Interactions and past relationships with other characters, how they personally feel about themselves and each other as they spend more time together, their sexuality and preferences and as an exclusive to Rae her knowledge of the game world from her past life. All these things come to play to create an entertaining and engaging relationship in both comedy and romance. Would love to see more.

As mentioned near the start the I’m in Love With The Villainess anime is a pretty good start to what promises to be a potential Yuri classic. The main heroines obviously carry the show but the side-characters do a good enough job to not fall behind. The presentation is very nice along with a special mention to the excellent English voice cast. There are parts not delved into too deeply as an obvious “source lure” but most of the stuff people came to see was present and accounted for delivering a jolly good time. Highly recommended to most Yuri aficionados.

I will now add this to the ever growing pile of “Yuri anime that deserve a 2nd season but most likely will not get one no matter how much support is behind it”. I would love to be proven wrong and have this be the one to break the losing streak.