Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Drama, Romance, Josei, Isekai, Villainess

(This review will contain spoilers for plot points featured in the first volume)

A Tale of the Villainess’ Quest to Avoid Becoming a Tyrant!

Seven Seas’ latest venture into the villainess genre sees a suspenseful and character driven series as the protagonist Pride, does everything in her power to avoid becoming like the tyrannical queen from her beloved otome game.

From Villainess to Saviour tells the story of famed otome villainess Pride Royal Ivy just as she regains her memories of a past life in Japan. Realising the wicked and tyrannical path that the original Pride takes leads to nothing but despair and suffering not only to herself but to those around her, she decides to take a new path, one worthy of a future queen and one that’ll ensure everyone’s happiness. As part of the first volume of the series, this new path will see her use her premonition skill (past life memories of the game) to change the lives of the first two main love interests alleviating the trauma they’d suffer due to her actions.

The biggest positive about this series is the way it deals with the two key plot events featured in the novel and the amount of detail the author goes into to flesh each of them out. Specifically, I love the way the author has used multiple points of view to give the major event in question different perspectives allowing for proper contrast between past and present Pride. Furthermore, it gives focus to how Pride’s action deeply affect the characters around her, whether in a positive or negative way. Nowhere is this more poignant than in the first interactions with her new adoptive brother/steward Stale. Stale is to be Pride’s senschal as per the countries traditions, a commoner by birth he was taken away from his mother due to the special teleportation skill that he possesses. He is therefore in an extremely vulnerable emotional state. Originally, Pride’s villainous version used this as an opportunity to make Stale sign a fealty contract under the guise of allowing him to see his mother, only for it to be a way of making sure Stale could never disobey her orders. This leads to some extremely dark moments where Stale is forced to kill his own mother for Prides’ entertainment. The multiple perspectives from past and present Pride provides a great chance to show the contrast between them, the present version of Pride is more empathetic, emotionally connecting with Stale and ensuring that he can at least contact his mother from time to time. These actions have a profound effect on the young Stale and the author makes sure to capture this through his own plot line of POV’s. Stale’s POV is especially important given that he outwardly shows little emotion, these passages gives the reader a clear understanding of why Stale chooses to follow Pride and swear to protect her as she becomes queen.

The second big event of the first volume, whilst not as poignant as the first, still plays an important role for the future plot of the series and in building up her allies for the threats to come. Arthur Beresford is the focal point of the second main plot line of the novel, during Pride’s early teens, a disaster would occur killing a well beloved commander and Arthur’s father alongside a brigade of knights. The knights had embarked on a training expedition only to be ambushed by enemy forces, whilst fighting back, the cliff they were on would collapse killing them all. During the original game, Pride had had a premonition of the disaster and had chosen to let the knights die due to the disgrace they caused her getting caught by the enemy. Presently, Pride’s new self uses this as an opportunity to save her people and showcase her bravery. This also showcases the extent of Pride’s power and how they work in the world for the reader, it seems that she’s had her prodigy level fighting skills since birth. Pride’s actions during the disaster gained her the admiration of the royal army including the commander and his son who saw this event as an opportunity to return to chasing his dream of becoming a knight. This in turn has gained her allies for the fight ahead to become queen.

All of the main characters throughout the volume are really well characterised and are generally likeable. Pride is the true standout of the volume using her wit and intelligence alongside her new found empathy and understanding to seek out scenario’s that would best suite a happy ending for everyone – this is something she plans on doing even to the cost of her own life if necessary. By the end of the volume we see the contrast between the two Prides jump leaps and bounds as the final chapter shows Pride’s capacity for mercy, allowing a traitor to the nation live albeit under certain conditions. Both Stale and Arthur grow dramatically throughout the course of the volume with Pride’s influence empirical to their newly found strong drive and determination. This in turn forges a bond of friendship between the two, something that never occurred during the game world.

Whilst this happens to be a very strong addition to the villainess genre, this series still isn’t without its flaws. One of the main antagonists of the series is revealed rather early on in the volume, Prime Minister Gilbert, however he does very little during the course of the novel except spread malicious rumours. My problem here stems from the fact that these rumours are never able to reach their full potential. Whilst some end up being sceptical of Pride’s new saviour persona, very few act upon this and challenge her on this fact. Moreover, Pride’s new Japanese personality can at times hold back development and make her look dense even when she’s meant to be emotionally intelligent. This is most often seen at her constant convincing herself that her actions will still lead to her downfall even though this clearly isn’t the case.

Overall, From Villainess to Saviour is a greatly welcomed addition to the villainess genre. Its darker take on the original villainess alongside some great suspenseful and character driven moments make the series feel fresh capturing the readers attention leaving them wanting more. Hopefully as the series progresses we’ll see further development into the antagonist element as well as his motives behind wanting Tiara as the next Queen.