By Shiki and Wan Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Jishō Akuyaku Reijō na Tsuma no Kansatsu Kiroku” by Regina Books. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Ethan Holms.

Villainess stories generally tend to either be narrated entirely from the perspective of the villainess herself, or they do that thing where we get her POV for a while, then we get the POV of all her love interests going over the same ground from their perspective (see Bakarina as an example). This series, on the other hand, is entirely from the POV of Prince Cecil, which works very well, not only as he’s easily the most interesting character in the series, essentially an evil villain who has never had the “this is when I became a villain” moment, but because he does not have the memories of otome games and shoujo novels and all the other things that Bertia has that makes her act… well, “more” eccentric would be an accurate phrase. But this also means that, because he’s merely dealing with a particularly stupid foreign prince, he doesn’t realize why he’s so stupid till the final scenes of the book.

Cecil and Bertia are still in Seahealby, having spent the last book trying to heal the awkward, poor relationships between the crown prince and his fiancee and the second prince and his fiancee. Unfortunately, that leaves the first prince, and he proves to be a real piece of work. Things are not helped by Bertia, drunk off the sake that she gifted the crown prince and his wife at their wedding, accidentally giving some to a snake spirit who turns out to be the country’s god. Now the god is obsessed with Bertia, and so is the first prince, who seems to assume that Cecil and Bertia are merely tolerating each other, so essentially says to him “let me marry your wife and take her off your hands”. Cecil then destroys the entire country and kills everyone in it… well, no, but he does get very angry indeed.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Cecil is essentially a sociopath with minimal empathy whose sole chain linking him to being a good person is his wife, whom he adores. Every time that he gets angry because something is happening to Bertia, everyone around him recoils in horror, as his face is that of someone about to commit murders. He’s even warned not to go to Bertia right away as he’ll terrify her. That said, their relationship is mutual – thanks to the first prince’s manipulations, Bertia has a meltdown when she believes Cecil might abandon her, and he has to reassure her. There’s also a nifty twist at the end, not just because of why the first prince is the way that he is, but the fact that the shoujo novel Bertia was thinking of happens two years LATER than their current year. Once again, Bertia makes everything better by accident.

The next volume should be out after the anime premieres, and we’ll see if the anime helps or hurts it. I’m enjoying it a great deal, at any rate.

By Shiki and Wan Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Jishō Akuyaku Reijō na Konyakusha no Kansatsu Kiroku” by Regina Books. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Ethan Holms.

I realize that, given that most of the Bakarina fans I follow are mostly interested in the lesbian side of the polycule, this may not sound like that much of a recommendation, but it is: if you read My Next Life As a Villainess and wondered what the series would have been like if it were ENTIRELY narrated by Jeord, then this is the series for you. Bertia is the villainess, and her actions are sort of what drives the first book, but by the second book she’s become a supporting character in her own series. Cecil, on the other hand, remains fascinating, continuing to try to grope his way towards figuring out why it bothers him so much that Bertia keeps shoving him towards the heroine and insisting on her own doom, and also what in the world this “otome game” is in the first place. His growth, and emotional opening up, is the main selling point of these novels.

Cecil is in his final year of school, and Bertia in her first year. Unfortunately, Heronia is there as well, and is still being the worst heroine ever, trying her hardest to prove that Bertia is evil despite Bertia… well, ALSO trying to prove that she is evil, except she remains sweet as pie, so that’s not working. Bertia’s biggest danger is gaining weight, as everyone likes her so much they keep giving her sweets. Meanwhile, Cecil is still trying to figure out what his feelings for Bertia are, even as he really, REALLY knows what his feelings for Heronia are: he wants nothing to do with her. Things come to a head at the graduation party for Cecil, where Heronia presents her “proof” of Bertia’s evils, and when this fails, decides to simply go for death from above.

The second half of the book really digs into the otome game aspect of this world, and I appreciated that, while Cecil was initially baffled as to why Bertia would be doing any of this, when it’s all laid out for him he totally understands. In a world in which Bertia was normal and not, y’know, the girl who wants to be knocked down and go “gah!”, Cecil would never find anything that would fill the dull void in his life. The routes are laid out so that, when the heroine tries for anyone OTHER than Cecil, it’s a happy ending of sorts, but there’s war and death. When the heroine ends up with Cecil, there’s peace. THIS, more than anything else, is why Bertia has been doing all this: she wants a safe and happy world. And this Cecil, who readily admits the only thing keeping him from being a possible nightmare is her, agrees with her.

The series ends with this volume, though there is a three volume sequel that we may see someday showing Bertia as a wife and mother. That said, Bertia is not the reason to read this. I really liked Cecil as a tin man trying to locate his heart, and am happy I read this.