Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life, Shoujo, Isekai, Villainess

(This review will contain spoilers for the second volume)

The Villainess Versus the Second Game

Aileen, the fate fighting villainess returns with a fun and fresh cross-dressing sequel. Managing to stop the tragedies of the first game and getting engaged to the Crown Prince and Demon King, Prince Claude, all seems to be going in her favour for a doom-lite life. However, things are never quite that simple as a demon attack on the Duchy of Mirchetta triggers her memories of the second game and the terrible fate that’ll befall it’s antagonist. Thus, even though Claude asked her to say in the country to look after her business whilst he went off to sort out the demon attack, she decides to take action and cross-dress her way into Misha Academy to stop the game events from taking place.

Once arriving at the academy as male student Ailey, she discovers that the games events have already started to come into effect with all the members of the game in their positions at the student council. The author does something I really enjoy at the introduction of the academy arc, giving a truly good reason as for why Aileen needs to cross-dress. This reasoning doesn’t merely stem from the need of a disguise from Claude but due to the circumstances of the country itself. The Duchy of Mirchetta is a highly misogynistic society built on the principals of its founding saint where women essential placate to the needs of men regardless of the power they wield. Thus, Aileen’s dressing up as a man will aid her in getting easier access and allow her to remain under the radar without raising suspicions.

The academy introduces the reader to several new main cast members all of whom have an important role to play, not only in the original game but also as a part of this volume. First, we’re introduced to Auguste, the main love interest in the game and candidate for holy knight. It’s easy to see why they made him the main love interest in the game due to his mild and easy going temperament and a desire to change the misogynistic nature of the country. Next is James, the main antagonist of the second game. He has a troubled past, being a cambion, a half human, half demon, he is in constant danger from assassinations from the church and from his half-brother, the newly appointed duke. Alieen sees great potential in James and suspects that he would be a great benefit to Claude and his fight to become king. There’s also Walt and Kyle, both are nameless knights in the employ of the church and play an instrumental role in figuring out the true source of the demon snuff and the church’s future aspirations. Finally, there’s the main heroine of the second game, Serena and the villainess Rachel. Both of these’s characters personalities are somewhat different to their original in game. Rachel in the novel is seen as someone who’ll do anything to help a friend and doesn’t have a malicious bone in her body, meanwhile, Serena is more two-faced. She outwardly seems like she’s nice and willing to help her fellow students, however, she uses this as a way to humiliate others and stay under the radar during the demon snuff investigation.

The Demon Snuff Investigation

Demon Snuff is the main reason for the upcoming tragedies that’ll befall Misha Academy. During the course of the novel, there are several investigations that take place into the true source of the substance which resembles Opium. This begins whilst investigating a vampire attack on campus, which has had several ramifications in noble society. In a sting-style operation, they manage to capture the offender, a teacher high on the snuff, as he attempts to bribe Rachel with a letter her friend wrote about Auguste. This is only the beginning of the demon snuff troubles as its after this event where we discover Walt and Kyle’s secret about working for the church and their plans for the upcoming festival. With their investigation crew assembled alongside Issac, Luc and Quartz, they formulate a plan of action to stop the church from triggering James’ and/or Claude’s transformation during the tournament aspect of the festival.

Hampering the churches plan proves to be more difficult than they originally thought due to the inclusion of Claude to the proceedings. Aileen’s quick thinking on the matter comes up with a really rather comical solution and perhaps one of my favourite aspects of the volume, the inclusion of the duck suits. It’s a really nice contrast to watch the members of the student council run around comedically trying to fix things in a situation that could lead to an extreme tragedy with a lot of loss of life. These disguises do bring up one of the major problems that I have with the series so far and that’s the clear lack of communication that the couple have. It’s utterly frustrating to read as the two clearly don’t have the confidence in each other to discuss the potential problems that are arising and some of the larger secrets that they’re keeping. Throughout the volume it’s clearly obvious that they both really love each other and yet they still can’t open up to each other. To add to this, Aileen doesn’t even make much effort to hide her identity and it’s as if she wants to get caught by Claude and be punished for her actions.

The student council manage to successfully foil the churches plan, disillusioning both Walt and Kyle to the churches ways. Unfortunately, this isn’t the end of the demon snuff matter as Serena and the church have a plan to bring the demons towards the academy in one final battle. With the demons losing their senses, Aileen and Claude are finally brought back together to fix the problem and return the academy to its normal peaceful self. As it turns out, Claude had also been investigating the demon snuff issue at the academy and had already taken the necessary precautions meaning that she didn’t have to worry about how the storyline would affect him, although she was going to worry about him anyway. Claude is not best pleased to see his beloved at the place he specifically told her not to go to leading to a promise of a harsh punishment. However harsh the punishment may be, it’s just nice to see the two main characters back together. This volume hasn’t seen much of the two character interacting with each other or developing their relationship, which I do feel to be a missed opportunity for them to become stronger together given the inevitable difficulties that’ll arise in the next volume.

The Villainess Gets All Her Ducks in a Row

Defeating the influence of the demon snuff, Aileen makes a journey to seek the person who started this whole mess, the original heroine of the first game Lilia. She, just like Aileen, has gotten her memories back from her life in Japan and has become determined to seek her happiness through following the routes in the game and test Aileen. Lilia had orchestrated the events in Misha academy by influencing Serena about upcoming events and what she’d need to do in order to escape her situation. This still ends in Aileen’s victory by forcing Serena to become her untrustworthy lady-in-waiting. Moreover, Aileen and Claude have finally managed to put a team together to battle for the throne. Honestly, the first and second volume feel like prologues to the actual story that’s about to come. Now that both the heroine and the villainess have gotten their teams together the upcoming volumes are sure to be even more exciting with the both of them actively going against each other for the sake of the throne.

Taming the Last Boss Volume 2 continues to build on its fun and fast paced adventure ascetic by taking the world building outwards to new lands and adding some great characters with nice depth of character. However, what I would have liked to have seen more of overall was some more development in the relationship between Aileen and Claude. Their relationship has barely moved forward since the first volume so hopefully in the next couple of volumes we can have more of a focus on this aspect of the story.