Tags: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Slice of Life, School Life, Villainess, Shoujo

Sub-Tags: Spirits, Cute, Personal Growth, Weak to Strong

A Romance of Ice and Fire!

Opposites Attract

From romcoms to fantasy romance series, the next light novel on my roster asks whether a misunderstood villainess and villain can fall in love.

Heading back to the roots of the villainess genre, Met and Fell in Love starts with the protagonist, Brigitte, facing down a classic broken engagement scene. Accused and cast out by the usual suspects, Brigitte’s fancy-free new life leads her into the arms of Yuri. Cold and distant, he’s the only man in the academy more hated than this series’ titular villainess.

The romantic aspect of this novel gets off to a rocky start. As expected, given Yuri’s default nature, there’s very little love loss between them as his overly harsh, straight-talking nature constantly rubs Brigitte the wrong way. As their relationship begins to blossom, however, a sweet coupling between them starts to take place. Their cutest moments come through their competitions against each other and the awkward stumbling as seen through the perspectives of their attendants. 

Spirits of a Fickle Nature

For the plot’s main meat and bones, the story takes a highly intriguing look at the magic system within the world, spirits. The summoning of strong spirits is highly valued in this world, especially for nobles, and it’s another reason why Brigitte is isolated at the start of the novel.

Despite having contracted with a seemingly weak spirit, one of Brigitte’s few passions in the series is her love for spirits and their study. Throughout her investigations, we’re given an in-depth look at how these beings operate as part of this fantasy world. They are given a great amount of agency and, in many ways, aren’t too dissimilar to humans. Strong spirits are all said to be able to talk, love and feel.

This agency makes up the backbone of the story’s mystery. As it turns out, Brigitte’s spirit contract may not be as weak as first thought. After revealing itself to save Brigitte and her classmates, it is implied that there’s more to a bond between humans and spirits. Physically and emotionally linked, perhaps one of the main reasons Brigitte’s Spirit is considered “lazy” comes from her fear of fire. A trauma that she goes someway into combating by the end of this volume. 

Met and Fell in Love’s first volume is a tale of two halves. Whilst its romantic aspects are predictable yet solidly written, the series’ in-depth look at magical world-building is something to write home about.

The prospect of further investigation into the world of spirits and the hidden potential of Brigitte’s spirit are all reasons why I’ll be continuing this series into its sequel.