“The Weakest Manga Villainess Wants Her Freedom!” by Kazuki KarasawaI’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing the lighit novel “The Weakest Manga Villainesss Wants Her Freedom!” by Kazuki Karasawa! Here’s a quick book review so you know what it’s about:
“Oh, crud, I just realized that I’ve been reincarnated into my favorite manga as the first boss defeated by the heroine at the start of the story! Worst yet, it turns out my fiancé is the strongest of the Four Grand Magi and the very villain who slanders my character as a disgrace on her deathbed! I’m outta here!
This is the story of the weakest manga villainess who seeks out the slow life instead of the villain life.”
Plot Development: 4 out of 5 stars
Considering that this is a standalone book, there was a lot of worldbuilding, romance, plot points, and characters that they had to flesh out well enough to make sense. The good news is this book mostly succeeded with all of those elements, making it fairly enjoyable to read overall.
Most of the story took place in Elle’s point of view, though there were a few short interlude chapters where other characters such as Julius get a brief spotlight. These interludes often foreshadowed new plot points to come or at least gave those characters a bit more development than they otherwise would have.
My main nitpick with the plot development is that the pacing got a tad too fast in the closing chapters. Considering that this book is standalone, it’s likely that the story can come to a good conclusion without drawing it out too much like they could in a longer series. With all the plot material they had in this light novel alone, however, I can easily see this getting an anime adaptation lasting at least about 10-12 episodes, depending on whether it also incorporated the little interlude chapters in-between.
Worldbuilding Development: 4.5 out of 5 stars
I enjoyed the overall worldbuilding in this book. I thought it made sense, and that it added to the overall main story. Considering that this is a standalone book where the setting, characters, and any magical concepts had to be established quickly, this book did a really good job of solidifying details without having any glaring plotholes.
Character Development: 3.5 out of 5 stars
I thought that Elle being reincarnated as one of the minor villains of the manga she read was pretty fun to read. I also like how she struggled with how she retained parts of her personality as the villainess (including her catchphrases) while also balancing it with her own self pre-reincarnation. Usually a lot of isekai protagonists go through a major personality change upon finding out their past lives, especially if they were reborn as the designated villains, so I liked that Elle balanced both aspects of her pre-reincarnation self and her now-reincarnated self throughout the story.
I also enjoyed reading Julius. He came off as pretty spontaneous in the beginning (including him immediately just tagging along with Elle to abandon their posts together), but I loved how he developed throughout the story. Unfortunately, the other characters featured in this book, though entertaining, suffered from lacking some development.
Overall, I’m rating this book 4 out of 5 stars!
This light novel was a solid, entertaining isekai fantasy story, and I definitely reccomend it for those that enjoy reading isekai stories and want to read something similar to stories such as “My Next Life As A Villainess.”
Also: Friendly reminder that this will be the last book review I post until September 6th, as I’m taking the rest of August as a break from posting reviews (though fanfic updates will be posted on Saturdays in the meantime)! Thanks for your understanding, and enjoy the last of this summer!
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