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The Evil Queen’s Beautiful Principles Vol. 1 Review

Tags: Fantasy, Romance, Drama, Tragedy, Villainess, Isekai

Sub-Tags: Revenge, Politics, Conspiracies, Ruthless Protagonist

Synopsis:

A woman reborn, Crown Princess Luxeria is derided as a doll, beautiful and docile. But that’s merely the mask she wears. Powerful magic courses through her veins—magic that can corrupt hearts, erase memories, and pluck one’s innermost thoughts from the air. After years of being confined to a tower, she is finally set free…only to become embroiled in a grand conspiracy that kicks off with her parents’ murder. Thrust onto a tragic stage of love and betrayal, she will play her part to perfection. (Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

The Doll Princess’ Revenge!

From the same author that brought us The Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter comes the newest light novel series from Seven Seas Entertainment featuring revenge, tragic romance and kingdom-building.

Personal Vengeance

Revenge can be a difficult theme to manage. A balance of catharsis and believable motivations, it’s a theme that, on the whole, The Evil Queen’s Beautiful Principles navigates adeptly.

Key to this successful navigation is the volume’s central revenge act – Luxeria, the protagonist’s revenge against those who murdered her parents. Acting as a puppet ruler over the novel’s first half, it allows the revenge plot to build bit by bit. Throughout, her façade allows her to plan secretly gathering allies, leading to the perfect moment of catharsis as Luxeria reveals her true intentions in a bloody wedding sequence. It’s well-focused and staged, helping to feed into Luxeria’s prized narrative as the cold-hearted queen.

Unfortunately, the rest of the volume’s subplots aren’t so well-focused.

Romance and a Revenge for the People

In the case of the volume’s climax, the focus is taken away simply due to the novel already having peaked. Going one step beyond a personal vendetta, she takes her plans to stop the kingdom’s bureaucratic decay and create a system that helps both commoners and the nobility equally. A fine concept in practice, unfortunately, it falls foul of the fact that not one member of the nation’s ministry holds a candle to her power and, therefore, barely feels like a threat.

As for the series’ romantic subplot, the problem stems from an overall lack of connection between the series’ two romantic leads. Beyond a small flashback, Luxeria and Wilhelm barely speak more than two words to each other throughout the entire volume. As a result, I find it difficult to connect with their love story, and what’s more, I barely find it believable that she would use her abilities on him in a way that could endanger her entire motivation as ruler.

Fortunately, the theme of friendship is one subplot that offers some light at the end of the tunnel. The relationship between Luxeria and Alicia is the only link that the protagonist doesn’t sever from their childhood years. Offering a very different side to Luxeria from the ruthless ruler, their fun-loving moments together come as a welcome tension-breaker. Although, even this subplot suffers from a few holes. Explaining a plot point as being happenstance isn’t exactly a favourite of mine.

To conclude, whilst the story’s central revenge plot is well-focused and delivers the perfect amount of catharsis, this positivity doesn’t extend towards the rest of the story. A less-than-stellar climax and an underdeveloped romantic subplot mean that I won’t be picking up the sequel in the series.

The Evil Queen Vol. 1

My Rating: 6/10

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You can read the first volume of this series physically and digitally through the distributors listed on the Seven Seas website.

The Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival Vol. 1 Review

Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Drama, Tragedy, Isekai

Sub-Tags: Strong Lead, Ruthless Protagonist, Game Elements, Dark Fantasy

Synopsis:

Orphaned by a monster attack on her village, young Alicia spends three horrid years in an orphanage before finally running away. When she flees, however, Alicia has a violent encounter with an older woman hell-bent on killing her. During their tussle, she comes into contact with a strange crystal that bestows upon her a wealth of knowledge, transforming her from an innocent child into a cool and calculated planner. Now aware that she was meant to be the protagonist of an otome game and disgusted with her supposed fate, Alicia decides to take matters into her own hands and become strong—by any means necessary. Using her newfound knowledge, and with some help from a stranger she meets in the woods, she learns to survive by herself in a world far too harsh and unforgiving for a girl her age. Ready or not, she’s determined to carve her own path. (Source: J-Novel Club)

A Heroine’s Ruthless Emancipation!

Mixing dark fantasy and Otome elements, Harunohi Biyori’s Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival is one of the latest titles to finish its pre-pub on the J-Novel Club website.

Upon discovering that she’s a heroine from an Otome Game, the series follows the story of Alicia as she attempts to shirk off her game character credentials and forge her own path in a world filled with violence and treachery.

A Heroine’s Awakening

Not for the faint-hearted, Otome Survival wastes no time in setting the tone of the series as a dark fantasy. With a deadly attack on the protagonist instigating the story, it finds Alicia wrestling with the idea that she’s a heroine from a game and the ways with which she can emancipate herself from this fate.

Whilst emancipation is the major theme, it isn’t the driver of the volume’s first half; it’s survival. As an orphaned child in a violent world, learning to act on instinct and fight is the only way to avoid death. This ideology shapes Alicia, resulting in a ruthless character willing to kill to survive.

Ruthless though she may be, that doesn’t mean that Alicia is unlikeable. Logical and determined, she never kills without reason and keeps to a set of principles that develop throughout the volume.

Two adventurers from the early parts of the novel are likely what stopped her from becoming a mindless killer and showcased that there’s good in the unforgiving world. Known as Feld and Viro, they help in Alicia’s survival quest by teaching her useful abilities and skills in both combat and sorcery. Detailed and intricate, the mechanics of growth within this fantasy world come alive as Alicia learns alongside the adventurers. Unfortunately, the author doesn’t quite keep the level of excitement when Alicia learns on her own. Often, the novel grinds to a halt as Alicia attempts to enunciate incantations.

A Battle Maid’s Impetus to Change

Having learnt the basics of survival, the second half of the volume re-introduces the theme of emancipation. Accompanying Viro on a job, she ends up apprenticing as a battle maid. Serving under the royal family, they act as bodyguards, and it’s here that Alicia discovers her impetus for change – Princess Elena.

Alicia and Elena are birds of a feather. They see the world in the same way and are trying to carve out their own path in the world. For Alicia especially, this meeting between them is important as it gives some directionality to her abilities and opens plenty of doors for the future.

As an aside, the battle maid arc also provides an element of coolness to the volume. Through her time with the organisation, Alicia develops her fighting style with strings. Constantly catching her enemies off guard, it adds a layer of swagger to the numerous battles she has as the volume progresses.

Overall, Otome Survival’s opening instalment makes for an entertaining read. The series achieves this by creating detailed foundations and managing to balance the dark aspects of the series without coming across as edgy. Alicia is the highlight of the volume. Ruthless yet likeable, you can’t help but route for her as she attempts to break away from the rules of the game.

The Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival Vol. 1

My Rating: 8.5/10

If you like what you read and what I do, why not consider supporting me through Ko-Fi. Any donation helps keep this site up and keep me writing.

You can read the first volume of this series digitally on the J-Novel Club website.

Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World Vol. 2 Review

Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Harem, Isekai

Sub-Tags: Ruthless Protagonist, Reincarnation

Synopsis:

Three years have passed since Tenma Otori lost his parents in the devastating attack on Kukuri Village. He’s now trying to make a name for himself as an adventurer in Gunjo City, and things are going great. He’s joined the local guild and teamed up with a trio of identical catgirl triplets. In fact, his incredible skill and his knack for magic continue to draw attention—but not always the good kind. A group of jealous adventurers has their eye on him, and Tenma soon finds himself at the centre of a battle involving knights, nobles, and even more monsters! Can he shake all this trouble and get back to adventuring? (Source: J-Novel Club)

Tenma Becomes an Adventurer!

Straight off from another review comes yet another second volume finished pre-pub, Isekai Tensei.

Catching back up with Tenma three years after the destruction of his village, the series finds him settled in Gunjo City as an adventurer. Alongside catgirl triplets, Tenma’s adventuring quests will find him in all sorts of new danger, from battling bandits and guards to duelling a noble. Tenma’s new life will be anything but easy!

Changing up the vibe of the previous volume, Tenma’s adventuring plot seems quite a departure from the feel of the first. With all remnants of volume one all but gone, the series introduces a whole host of new characters and problems for Tenma to face. Volume two follows a more generic harem-style fantasy series complete with several villainous characters portrayed with varying degrees of success.

Tenma falls into the category of a “ruthless protagonist”, which is solidified by his actions throughout the second volume. Some of the better villainous encounters do their best to portray this with the guard interactions doing well to call back to his bad memories of their actions in the village, leaving them with nothing as a Zombie Dragon struck.

Otherwise, most of the other battles within this volume felt a little one-note and sometimes a little unnecessary. It often comes over as Tenma looking for a fight and being a lot crueller than necessary.

Perhaps a little unfairly, most of the characters introduced in this volume get a bad run-around development-wise, especially compared to how characters were handled in the first volume. Most only fit within their isekai archetype and it seems only Primera escapes this. It probably isn’t helped by the fact that none of these characters will appear in the next volume.

Primera seems a lot more open-minded than most in this universe. Willing to listen to both sides makes her popular with both Tenma and the people. She is likely the main reason that Tenma got such a good run at things even after he angered another noble.

To conclude, Isekai Tensei’s departure from its original volume causes it to take quite a step down, and it’s a shame considering how the first volume showed so much potential. Given how the characters and villainous acts were written, I’m at an impasse with this series, unsure as to continue it or not. Hopefully, the third volume sees a return to form.

Isekai Tensei Vol. 2

My Rating: 6/10

I hope you enjoyed my review and would love to see what you thought of the volume in the comments!

You can read the second volume of this series in pre-pub format on the J-Novel Club website.

One more pre-pub review to go. I was going to also review Making Magic but I didn’t have anything particularly interesting to say about the series. Not that it’s bad, it just didn’t resonate with me. I’ll leave my rating for it here since I did finish it – 7/10.