Summary
“I’m in Love with the Villainess” explores directional stereotypes and provides context for the main character’s actions. The series humanizes the characters, shows meaningful emotions, and reveals the difficulties of “forbidden” love. The anime utilizes otome isekai metaphors to emphasize kindness and navigating the rules of the genre, making it a better Yuuri series.
Warning: Spoilers for I’m In Love With The Villainess #8 A new episode is on the way Yuri cartoon called I’m in love with the villain that unfortunately portrays the lesbian protagonist in the least flattering light and fortunately gives her more depth later in the first season. The Crunchyroll series is also one of many isekai anime about a character included in a game or romance novel, either as a heroine or villain.
I’m In Love With The Villainess is an adaptation of the light novel series written by Inori and illustrated by Hanagata.
While there are many serious Yuuri series, a few follow an unfortunate pattern in which the “token” lesbian obsesses over her crush to the point of discomfort, often making the object of her desire of fear and/or discomfort while appearing to be an uncontrollable and inappropriate lecher. .
The isekai hero, Rae Taylor, certainly fits this trait in the way she treats the eponymous villain, Claire François.
I Love Villains Explores directional stereotypes and true emotions
Of course, Rae Taylor’s advances are funny and sometimes even charming. Furthermore, Claire herself is actually a pretty unattractive character type, which somewhat justifies Rae’s antics. Claire is a spoiled aristocrat who enjoys taunting commoners, and since Rae is a commoner, her enjoyment of constant abuse lessens Claire’s malice. And yet, there are moments throughout the current eight episodes that help humanize Rae while also adding some much-needed context to her actions.
One of the most important early moments comes at the end of episode #3 when Rae is asked important questions about her feelings and gender identity. In addition to opening up a conversation about straight and lesbian stereotypes, this allows Rae to provide insights into her interests, which go beyond lust. Furthermore, the conversation turns to a very practical topic as Rae explains the difficulties associated with “forbidden” love. Viewers learn about how circumstances forced her to adopt an unfortunate mindset that forced her to prioritize the feelings of others. So even though Rae harasses Claire after episode #3, there’s an underlying sense of loss that makes them more meaningful.
I love villains that manipulate Otome Isekai tropes to emphasize goodness
Claire is also personified when Rae shows affection because Claire cannot help but respond with kindness. Of course, one hopes that Claire’s actions are motivated by romantic desires rather than friendship. Ironically, the best example of this features one of the many tropes borrowed from the series in episode #7. Since I’m In Love With The Villainess is a series whose formula is taken from the otome/isekai romance novel genre, Rae follows many of the plot lines of the genre.
Rae was originally an enthusiast of otome games which she fell in love with and used her knowledge to manipulate others to get what she wanted. However, her infatuation with Claire creates problems because the goal of the game is to make one of the male princes fall in love with her. Since she is doing everything in her power to make them ignore her, she finds herself in difficult situations that will only benefit her if one of the princes likes her. In a case where one of the princes was supposed to save her, Claire instead came to her rescue because of Rae’s love for her.
So while I’m in love with the villain without diminishing the legitimate feelings of its lesbian protagonist while indulging in isekai clichés, it is the series’ expert navigation of the genre’s strict rule book that makes This anime just got much better Yuri series.
Watch I Love Villains on Crunchyroll
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