A Villainess's Struggles

Villainess stories are like my go-to order at the shop. Fun times to get a request to review one. General Impression: Not a great read but light and enjoyable enough. Very heavily "Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu" inspired. Lots of references to stuff like "My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!" It's something that goes down easy most chapters. Very suitable for mobile reading in between busy moments. Can't say I like it anywhere near as much as those titles but hey that's an unfair comparison. Love songs to the villainess stories! There's not much to ponder or think about here but again, sweet easy read even if some parts are admittedly very boring, even for an age progression or Slice of Life. (which this isn't tagged so I won't assume). On to the breakdown review! Writing Quality: Amateur. No shame in that! Don't get me wrong. It's just very obviously ******* writing. The author is going off and having fun jotting down stuff but there's little to no style or technique. Reads kind of like how some middle-grade students write an essay they don't want to do. Things are told, stiffly recited, and more than often reads like a grocery list or rambling stage directions. Reads more like the directions to a pilot of a series than a story. Again very stiff. Someone else says it read like a tedious diary and I have to disagree as diaries would have more personality of the writer and emotional reactions going on. This is part log (like a school essay), part Kenyo fanfiction, and honestly needs a lot of editing. Stability of Updates: Free pass. I almost never judge on this. Take your time to do you author! Story Development: Leading up is not just slow- don't blame that. To be personal, I love slow. I adore the Slice of Life. I can never get enough of it. That's not the case here. As of ch 61 it's obviously clear how many times the author went in circles because they had little idea on how to progress the story. The author warns that the elementary and middle school arc is slow and the story will get much more interesting when we get to that HS volume when all the characters reach the "main" story- that our MC remembers from the comic series she was reborn into. Aka - when they're old enough o get some romance going on. Fine. sure. But I don't think that's an excuse, as there's plenty of interesting stories featuring children and age progression MCs. This one drags and leads to a lot of dead ends. Don't take this story too seriously and we'll have a good time, look for a 'story' and well uh....it's supposed to be coming I guess? But you can have stories before your 'teenaged' years. Lots of the MC being reactive or indifferent to this 'new' world. Very plain. My personal opinion is that the author just didn't plan much of the early and middle story development out. They took some fun tropes and events from other stories that inspired this one (again nothing wrong with that) and plopped them in some scenes. But then they don't do anything with them, didn't know how to tie them together, or had them impact the characters. Character Design: Not so bad and getting better over time. Natalie is our main character, a weak willed college age girl reborn into a 'villainess' with a natural resting bit.ch face. Her personality seems to be held back and is honestly very confusing to me. I'm glad she's gaining some spirit and will to fight back over time but I'm very confused by her motivations and actual personality. Supposedly mentally older but gets easily bullied by kids, "dumb", occasionally 'villainess' but not really. Again this is my theory that she's a mash up of other main characters translated stories, like Frankenstein's bride, and it's not all working smoothly yet. As kids, the 'love interests' are being set up. I do have to say they're direct inspirations of previously mentioned translated stories- no theories there. ex.Henry is Kaburagi/The Emporer from Kenkyo Blake is Enjou/The Prince (who I am biased towards as a Kenkyo fan) The author's focus is going to the boys for the long term (how exciting!) and the 'mystery' of who is the possible real love interest to our young MC. Which leaves the other side characters honestly rather empty. I enjoyed the character developments of the MC's cousin Angelica (before she moves away boo hoo) and the newly emergy Frenemy May. But everyone else is honeslty very very empty. Characters to take up space and fill a role. I get that it's hard to share the spotlight on a cast of characters but it's just so odd and forced. Also, for the most part these characters don't really act like their young ages. The kids don't speak, act or react like kids in ANY age group they go through. They're much more like teenagers, especially those antagonist girls. It's picking up though? World Background: My....lowest ranking. I'm sorry. It's just the worst category. Ignore the world setting, world-building- just don't think about and we'll have a great time here. It's modern- the Pivione, rich school with rich kids supposedly. But it doesn't hold, loops and contradictions keep being made, it's like a crayon drawn background. The wealthy mothers are only there to look pretty or try to set up engagement for their kids. The MC's own mother doesn't know even a hint about her besides worrying about her occasionally. Fathers?- meh they're all too busy being CEOs to exist. The school administration needs to be put into jail for child labor, endangerment and abuse. The 'rich' kids....really don't seem all that rich despite the MC insisiting it's normal, they're rich. Sometimes the kids act like far too aged up wealthy adults, sometimes they act like puppet characters with our MC being the only light of common sense. The MC is reborn....but she does -100 with it. She has the 'art' skills of a 20 year old and advanced 'math' when she was a kid. I don't know what to do with that. Did they just ignore her, all the kids? Seems like it. It's just a very unrealistic world background, and not in the good opulent rich kind of way. Everyone's reactions are almost always baseless so far, maybe tied back with the empty personalities. The world make up and progression doesn't make sense despite how simple it is. And that's a wrap folks, one full detailed review. I still love this genre and have hopes for the characters. But I think I may be loving the stories/tropes I'm seeing behind this story rather than it itself. But everyone is growing. The main cast of characters is still only in middle school. I would just reccomend that when the author really doesn't know what to do, they hint towards that future "main story" or give us further personalities between the characters. If a new idea comes up, ties that in and keep tying so as not to spin us into dead plot ends. Good luck (because writing is haaaard as ffff$@R$) Happy readings and writings!