isekai without the boring power fantasy

[ruico]

 
I remember finding this manga at a time where I was having trouble with even keeping up with one-chapter updates on a weekly basis, where I was avoiding pretty much anything that needed my attention for more than a few minutes at a time. The chapters were short and easy, and only had around 15 at the time. 

The story is called I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags (or, oas n bookdepository, the official translation is titled My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! - a little bit shorter!), and as you can guess from the length of the title, that pretty much explains it. A young girl from modern Japan dies and is reincarnated into a character in the otome game she was playing before she died, but the character she played happens to be the villain. She is first reincarnated as an 8 year old kid, so it starts out really cute, but honestly, even when they grow older (they start magic school at 15), the mood of the manga is really sweet and adorable.

The main character (who isn't the main character of the otome game) goes through a lot to make sure she doesn't end up in any of the bad endings where she risks being exiled or even killed, and through this manages to actually make meaningful relationships with some of the characters of the game, rather than becoming the evil person she is in the game.

I think one of the main charms of the story for me is the way that this main character genuinely changes a lot of the characters for the better, simply by being there for them and supporting them, offering them friendship. Like classic otome game characters, a lot of them are kind of shitty people at first, supposedly only to be swayed by the main character's charm, only rude or cruel because of the lackings in their life, but our villainess manages to let them know from a young age that they are valuable individuals with their own strengths and charms, and simply by having someone there who believes in them, they become so much better people.

The story keeps it very light and pretty silly, which I quite enjoy, and it's more of a cute read for days where you might need some happy distraction than for an amazing story. But I wanna say that I did cry while reading it. It's exactly my kind of cute, lighthearted story.

Also there's girls being gay in it, which always makes me weak.

Since the manga is not yet finished, I also read the (fantranslated) light novels and I enjoyed those as well, but I definitely prefer the manga. Also, there's an anime coming up, and I can't wait! I hope you'll give it a try if it sounds like something you'd enjoy.
I want to recommend a few other things that have helped me when I was really down and needed something to distract me or just cheer me up, so I added the tag 'comfort soup' for this!

Comments

[blueshiftofdeath]

Omg, my friend got me to watch this when it was coming out (she had already read the manga), and it was sooo good! A lot of isekai can be really grating, but this one was just perfect! The author really knows what the people want and need. I was honestly shocked at how much I love it... it's at maximal feel-good levels. (I still haven't watched season 2 yet since I'm so busy though.)

I don't know if you've seen, but they released a Yuri anthology of the series!! It's pretty low-key but still super sweet-- I really liked it!