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chamomilehoneytea · 7 years

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Kimi ni Todoke Chapter 123 Translation: “Final” Chapter

Hello Kimi ni Todoke fandom!

Here we are at the final chapter! But don’t cry too much – we’re getting a bit more of the story in April 2018! :D Over the next few months, Bessatsu Margaret will be releasing some “Kimi ni Todoke”-related goodies with issues of their magazine. The following were announced in this month’s issue:

1. January 2018 Issue (December 13): “Kimi ni Todoke” Special Tribute Book (will feature Kimi ni Todoke-inspired art by other shoujo manga artists)

2. February 2018 Issue (January 12): “Long” Interview with Karuho Shiina

3. May 2018 Issue (April 13): “Extra Volume”: I’m not sure what this will be exactly…the announcement says something along the lines of: “Maybe you’ll be able to see Sawako and her friends’ ‘afterwards’…?” This is either a really mean tease, or we’re going to get a glimpse of the characters’ university / post-university lives after all! This bonus story might be one long chapter, or a few chapters covering different characters / stories. Shiina will have a few months to work on it, so the length may approach that of a regular volume (hopefully); still, we probably won’t know more until April.

I’ll definitely translate the bonus story, and I may try to translate the interview with Shiina.

Soon I’ll also write a post about how I buy Bessatsu Margaret, in case any of you would like to collect these bonus items.

Volume 30 is currently scheduled for release in March 2018.

Lots to look forward to in the coming months!! :)

Now for my usual disclaimer. I’m not fluent in Japanese, nor am I an experienced translator; I study Japanese in my spare time, and I read a lot of untranslated manga. I do make mistakes, and sometimes I just can’t figure things out, but I always translate to the best of my ability. Hopefully my translation communicates the gist of what’s happening, even if it’s not 100% accurate. Thank you for your patience!

Before we dive into the final chapter, I just want to thank all of you so much for your support! I’m not the most confident translator (if I can even call myself that haha), but I’ve really enjoyed sharing my interpretations with all of you. You’re all lovely, creative, and intelligent people, and it’s always a huge pleasure to interact with you and to hear your thoughts on the characters and the series as a whole. I hope that, even though “Kimi ni Todoke” is technically finished, we can continue to celebrate this incredible story together. :)

Okay guys, go grab the tissues I know you’ve been hoarding for this chapter…we’re about to leave the nest! :’)

(SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT)

Thank you so much to @chanty015 for sharing these scans with me. Please follow along with these images; in the translation you’ll see a few places marked as Pages 0 - 1 (where two pages are meant to work as one), but in these scans the pages are all separate. I apologize if this is confusing, but hopefully it’ll be easy to follow.

As always, “This is a line of dialogue” and [This is a thought.] I’ve included a few (Stage Directions) and (Notes) as well.

Here we go! Enjoy!! :)

COLOR PAGE:

Narration: [Someday, will I reach you?]

PAGE 1:

Kazehaya’s Father: “…Hey, Martinez.”

PAGE 2:

Kazehaya’s Father: “Nice weather we have today, huh?

Sawako: “All right!”

PAGE 3:

Sawako’s Father: “Are you sure?! You really don’t want us to go with you?!”

Sawako: “Yes. I’ll be fine! Thank you!!”

Sawako’s Father: “Even though we’re saying we’ll only see you to the station? At least!!”

Sawako: “Well…”

Sawako: “…I think I’d like to be seen off from this house…”

Sawako: “Thank you for looking after me these 18 years.”

PAGE 4:

Sawako: “…I say that, but I’ll still be in your care after this, too…”

Sawako’s Father: “Sawako!”

Sawako’s Father: “Tell us whenever you’re in trouble! Rely on us!!”

Sawako’s Mother: “Sawako ~ we’ll go visit you! We’re going to the university entrance ceremony too.”

Sawako’s Father / Mother: “Take good care of yourself.”

Sawako’s Father / Mother: “Do your best!!”

Sawako: “…I will!”

PAGE 5:

Sawako: “I’ll treasure the first gift I received from you, and continue living!”

Sawako’s Mother: “The first gift? I wonder what that could have been~?”

Sawako’s Father: “Sawakoooooooooo!”

Sawako’s Father: “18 years really does pass in the blink of an eye…!!

Sawako’s Mother: “Really? 18 years is exactly 18 years!”

Sawako’s Father: “You’re so unemotional, dear…!!”

Neighbor: “Ah!”

PAGE 6:

Neighbor: “Sawako-chan! Are you leaving home today?”

Sawako: “I am! Good morning!!”

Neighbor: “I can’t believe what I’m seeing! You’re still at it!! Carrying garbage around on a sunny day!! Hand that to me and I’ll throw it away for you!!”

Sawako: “Oh – you don’t have to – !”

Neighbor: “It’s fine, you don’t have to be so modest!! I know that you were always picking up trash for us!!”

Sawako: “Huh? Thank you!”

Neighbor: “I should be the one thanking you!!”

Neighbor: “Call home once in a while! Be careful on your way!”

Sawako: “I will!”

Sawako: “Thank you!”

Sawako: “I’m off…!”

PAGE 7:

Neighbor: “She’s become a completely refreshing young lady…”

(Sawako arrives at the train station.)

PAGE 8:

Chizu: “…Sawa.”

Chizu: “I’m finally seeing off the last one! Haha.”

Sawako: “Chizu-chan…”

Sawako: “…Thank you…”

PAGE 9:

Chizu: “Sawako, I’m glad we could be friends.”

Flashback Sawako: “…I want to be friends with you…”

PAGE 10:

Chizu: “Thanks to you and Yano-chin…my high school life was fun!!”

Chizu: “Thanks!!”

Sawako: “…Chizu-cha…”

Chizu: “Ah!! Stop, stop!!”

Chizu: “Wait – I said today for sure I would send you off with a smile…”

PAGE 11:

Chizu: “…Whenever we see each other, we’ll be able to go back…!!”

Chizu: “We’ll be able to do it, right? Because we’re friends!!

Chizu: “…Do your best!!”

PAGE 12:

Sawako: “…Yes. I think so too. I’ve come to believe that!”

Sawako: [We talked a lot, didn’t we? About many different things…]

PAGE 13:

Sawako: “Thank you, Chizu-chan!”

Sawako: “Let’s stay good friends!!”

Chizu: “Of course!! Ahaha!”

Chizu: “Ah – you did it! Now I’m laughing!! Ahahaha!”

PAGE 14:

Chizu: “Okay then, I’ll see you off from the platform!! Wait, where’s Kazehaya?! What’s that guy doing?!”

Sawako: “He moved!”

Chizu: “Moved?! When’s he seeing you off?”

Sawako: “Oh, today.”

Chizu: “Well, never mind!! I’ll more than make up for it!! Let’s get going!!” *

Kazehaya: “Kuronuma!”

* She’s actually saying that she’ll “see Sawako off a lot” (I think?), which I feel implies that she’ll make up for Kazehaya’s absence. This was my best guess lol! Basically I think she’s trying to cheer Sawako up since Kazehaya isn’t there (yet).

PAGE 15:

Kazehaya: “Sorry I’m late!”

Sawako: [He always comes running for me.]

PAGE 16:

Chizu: “You’re late, Kazehaya!!!”

Kazehaya: “I said I was sorry. I had a small delivery.”

Chizu: “What did you have delivered?”

Kazehaya: “Hm? It’s a secret.”

Sawako: “Oh, uh…even though you were far away you came all this way…thank you!!”

Kazehaya: “What are you saying? I’ll come! Let me come!!”

Sawako: “…Ah!...”

PAGE 17:

(Chizu kicks Kazehaya.)

Kazehaya: “Ow!!”

PAGE 18:

Kazehaya: “What are you doing?!”

Chizu: “I wonder!! I don’t really get it, but just now I had a feeling that I had to kick you or something!!!”

Chizu: “All right!! Let’s go to the platform!!”

Ayane / Chizu’s Intuition: “…Chizu?”

Chizu: “But you’re finally going too, huh Sawako? I’ll be lonely being the only one left!!! How’s your new place, Kazehaya?”

Kazehaya: “Pretty good!”

Ayane / Chizu’s Intuition: “Chizu?”

PAGE 19:

Chizu: “O-OH!!!”

Kazehaya: “What is it?”

Chizu: “I-I-I…”

Chizu: “That’s right, I had things to take care of!!! Things!! Very important things! Gotta hurry!! No big deal, don’t mind me!!!”

Chizu: “Well then, I’ll leave the rest to you lovebirds!!! Go ahead!”

Sawako: “N-No big deal?! Chizu-chaaaan!!”

Kazehaya: “She…took the hint! Kinda suddenly and not subtle at all…Thanks, Yoshida…”

PAGE 20:

Kazehaya: “She did it for us!”

Kazehaya: “…Right?”

PAGE 21:

(Kazehaya kisses Sawako.)

PAGE 22:

Sawako: “…Ka-Kazehaya-kun, people are…!!”

Kazehaya: “I don’t care!! This is an important situation!!”

PAGE 23:

(Sawako and Kazehaya hold hands as her train approaches.)

PAGE 24:

Kazehaya: “…I wrote you a letter!”

Kazehaya: “…Read it later!”

PAGE 25:

Sawako: “…Okay!”

PAGE 26:

Kazehaya: “…Oh! And this too!! It’s late but…”

Kazehaya: “…keep it, Kuronuma!”

PAGE 27:

Announcement: “…The train door…”

PAGE 28:

Announcement: “…will close shortly. Please be careful.”

(Sawako kisses Kazehaya.)

PAGE 29:

(Sawako’s eyes fill with tears as she boards the train.)

PAGES 30 – 31:

Kazehaya: “Sawako!!”

PAGE 32:

Kazehaya: “…I love you! No matter what happens!!”

PAGE 33:

Sawako: “…Shouta-ku…”

Sawako: “Shouta!”

PAGES 34 – 35:

(Sawako gives him a bright smile through her tears.)

Sawako: “Me too.”

PAGES 36 – 37:

The Letter:

“…To Kuronuma,

This letter is a reply to the one you wrote me for my birthday last year.

When I met you, my world changed…”

PAGE 38:

Letter (continued):

“I’m impatient, and I always end up running for some reason or another. When I was with you, Kuronuma, I also learned the joy of walking slowly.

“The four years we spend at university will be longer than the time we’ve been together up until now, and there might be times when we feel anxious or lonely, but…”

PAGE 39:

Letter (continued):

“At those times, I’ll contact you! I’ll email you, and I’ll also call you! I’ll tell you about the fun things too! I’ll go see you! I’ll go meet you…”

PAGES 40 – 41:

Letter (continued):

“Surely the next time I see your face, distance and time will be blown away! I’ll be able to enjoy the uncertain things too, if I’m with you, Kuronuma.”

“I love you.”

(Kazehaya gave her a key to his apartment.)

Sawako: [We’ll change.]

PAGES 42 – 43:

Sawako: [Even so, we have feelings that won’t end.]

(Sign Reads: “Entrance Ceremony Assembly Hall”)

Sawako’s Mother: “Hehe, Sawako, are you nervous??”

Sawako: “Y-Yes!!”

Sawako’s Father: “It sure is a sunny day, isn’t it?”

(A female student sits next to Sawako. Sawako takes a deep breath.)

Sawako: “…It’s nice to meet you…!”

Sawako: [I love you.]

Sawako: [You destroyed my world, and showed me a new landscape.]

Coach / Head of Baseball Club: “All right, introduce yourselves!”

Kazehaya: “My name is Shouta Kazehaya. I played as an infielder in middle school!”

Kazehaya: “I look forward to playing with you!!”

PAGE 44:

Sawako: [Wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, whether you have a connection with me or not…]

Ayane’s Classmate 1: “Ayane-chan, you’re so nice!”

Ayane’s Classmate 2: “Yeah! We thought you were a scary person!! Ahahahaha!”

Ayane: “Aha! Yay!”

Pin: “Ack!! You first-years are so…young!! Aren’t you just a bunch of stupid kids?”

Students: “What’s with this teacher?” “He’s terrible!”

PAGE 45:

Sawako: [As long as you’re alive and as healthy as possible, that’s enough for me.]

Chizu: “What?! Toru’s wife is having another baby?! Seriously?!”

Ryu’s Father: “She is!”

(Chizu’s text to Ryu says: “Congratulations, uncle!”)

Sawako: [But…]

PAGE 46:

Sawako: [The next time we meet, you’ll surely smile again for me, won’t you?]

PAGE 47:

Sawako: [With that unchanging smile, you’ll effortlessly unravel my heart, won’t you?]

PAGES 48 – 49:

Sawako: [I want to reach you.]

Sawako: [Always, no matter what…]

Sawako: “…I’m home!”

Sawako: [I’ll reach you.]

~ The End ~

#kimi ni todoke #kimi ni todoke spoilers #knt spoilers #sawako x kazehaya #translation #thank you so much everyone!!#and sorry for the long wait on this #I can't wait to see what happens in the bonus story #I'll post my thoughts on this chapter soon

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dlamp-dictator · 4 years

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Who’s the Bad Guy Now?

While I haven’t finished the last episode yet, My Next life as a Villianess has been quite the fun ride. It’s funny, thoughtful, and probably has one of the best protagonist of a harem anime since The Fruit of Grisaia’s Yuuji Kazami. This is definitely definitely an anime I can recommend to anyone, which is a refreshing thing to say since the majority of anime I like tends to be either absolute fanservice garbage like Cross Ange, extremely genres like MagiPro and Granbelm, or something offensively generic and uninspired like Assassin’s Pride.

Along with that, I can say that this anime is a refreshing take on both harem and otome tropes. Making our protagonist's obliviousness to her harem’s affection more comedic than frustrating while still giving her the charisma needed to actually get that affection in the first place. I could honestly do a whole Rambling on how well this all works together.

But I’m not going to do that.

See, the whole ‘Villainess’ trend has been going on in Japanese manga, Korean Manhwa, and Chinese Webcomics for some time now, at least a year from my memory. I’ve been meaning to talk about some of these manga and this genre as a whole for a while now, but I’ve never really found the drive until now. So I wanted to take a bit of time to discuss a few of these stories and series in a way similar to my old Anime Updates, a general summary of the story and my overall views of each while hitting a point or two in a few paragraphs.

However, before I talk about the other manga and manhua...

Disclaimer

All of series I’m going to be talking about are, to my knowledge, not released or translated in the west officially. Most of these are fan translations by folks wanting to spread the respective series. However, with that said these are still technically pirated media. A lot of the translation groups have even asked to not post pictures of their translations on social media sites, specifically Instagram, as they could possibly face some form of legal action from the author. As such, I won’t be post too many pictures of what’s available save for official, untranslated art if I can.

With that said...

Let’s start with the big one. This is the main thing I wanted to talk about. What it Takes to be a Villainess or The Justice of Villainous Woman is a pretty interesting take on both Villain and Isekai tropes. The story focuses on Yu(?) Hwayoeng, a typical 23-year-old Korean woman who enjoys soap operas, racy novels, and being with her boyfriend. Well, at least until her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend and she accidentally slipped into a river and died, only to be reborn in the body of a Satiana(?) Altizer Cailon(?), a noblewoman with the reputation of a bratty villainess. Through several events, she learns she’s a Regina, a canidate for the next empress of the empire. However, Satiana’s awful reputation as a villainess competing with the saintly reputation of her opponent Irene, who is already the lover of the current prince and next emperor. With enemies at every corner and a prince she knows nothing about save for his cold demeanor toward her, Satiana, or commonly called Satie, must find away to become Empress despite her foul reputation and hostile political environment.

Now, despite Satie being a ‘villainess’, the story sets it so that she’s already condemned and somewhat hated among noble society. This isn’t a tale of how a villainess avoids a bad end, but how someone goes from an underdog brat to a proper member of high society and cares for the people she rules under. Despite the premise, this isn’t much of a romance of Satie winning over the cold prince, but Satie working both with and against the system to make policies and arrangement work in her favor with the little tools she has. Her first obstacle isn’t softening the cold prince, it’s figuring out how to get maids and secretaries to help her run affairs despite her superiors hindering her from the most basic of rights as a noblewoman. She has to use both the memories borrowed from the original Satie and her memories from her past life to help her get through the tangled web of political intrigue.

Speaking of which.

Satie Never Forgets

Like I said, the main interest for me in this is the twist on several Villain and Isekai tropes. One of which is that Satie never forgets her time as Yu or her certain circumstance. She never forgets that she died after soon being the victim of an affair, or that she, as Yu, was a controversial figure in her university as someone that spoke out against injustice and problems despite decorum saying otherwise. The former keeps her from pursuing the prince despite his advances, the latter keeps her from letting people’s wrongdoings go unannounced, much to her own detriment at times. She never forgets that she more or less stole the body she’s in, so tries her best as Regina to do her new family right. And after about 30-ish chapters she breaks from her Villainess reputation and persona and can start handling things properly. It becomes less of an Isekai or romance story and more of a political drama with Isekai and Romance elements in it. The best parts of this series is when Satie is planning her next move through all the political wrangling, or when she uses knowledge from her previous life to improve the lives of others. Not just that she’s from a modern era, but that she was also a former babysitter for her family, or had a natural knack for flirting and acting to begin with. She smart and can think on her feet.

However... that said, I have one glaring issue with this series.

Romance and Morality

As of me writing this we’re at about chapter 92. Within the more recent chapters they’ve finally explained things from the Prince’s prospective as to why he’s so cold and why he chose Irene as a lover. And while I find that side interesting and the story takes advantage of us seeing his side of things for future plot events, I feel like the story wants us to question who is in the right.

This... bugs me a little.

While I don’t mind moral ambiguity in my media this series has been trying very hard to get us to root for Satie for over 90 chapters, successfully might I add. She’s used her villainess reputation when she needed to, she’s punished wrongdoers, treated well those who have deserved it, and while the prince has slowly softened his stance on her she’s still hesitant to approach him, as he already has a lover. Through the Prince’s chapters we learn his and Irene’s relationship is more political than romantic and that Irene isn’t the kind saint she makes herself out to be. However, I feel like this moral fracturing is more annoying than interesting. Granted, this is to set up some bigger drama in later chapters and the chance to see other perspectives is nice, but... eh, your mileage may very. For what it’s worth, it’s building up to some interesting twists in the next arc or two, but the mystery of who is in the right by what means feels annoying when Satie’s been walking that tightrope for the last fifty-ish chapters.

Other Critiques

Just my general critique all of the series you’ll see here, but translations have slowed down as of me typing this essay. The last one was about 2-ish months ago, at least on the site I use for this specific story. The translations can’t really get a good read on how to properly spell Satie’s name either, if the (?) didn’t clue you in. Nothing deal breaking, but an annoy tick nonetheless.

Anyway, only the next story!

The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass takes a different, if still common turn for these Villainess stories. Aria Roscente is the daughter of a prostitute that soon became a noble due to her mother marrying into nobility. She lived a lavish life and was quite arrogant as she grew up, but was slowly manipulated in her ignorance by several parties, the most egregious being her sister Mielle who pushed Aria into the role of villainess while making herself seem like a saint. And due to those machinations she was executed. With her last dying wish being for a second chance she’s granted that chance by traveling back in time to around her childhood through a magical hourglass, giving her the perfect change to lay the seeds of her revenge against all those who conned her.

Now, time travel in these Villainess stories isn’t new, but I like this one’s take on it. Aria has a semi-manipulate time in the more recent chapters as of my writing this, and she uses them to her advantage in other to get revenge on those who wronged her. With her knowledge of future events she can make relationships of lower class individuals who will have higher stature in years to come. She can have almost prophetic knowledge of future disasters to come so she can be seen as a hero for preventing or preparing for them. And she can curb an future opponent’s advancements into high society. However... she’s stunted by thae fact that her child self won’t be taken too seriously and that Aria herself only has a passing idea of events to come, as her past arrogance made her rather flippant toward important court events.

But there’s one more issue I have with this story...

Aria is an Asshole

This might be a frequent criticism I have for a lot of future stories and series I want to cover, but to focus this on Aria for this, she is an almost cartoonishly evil character at times no real reason. Unlike like Satie who uses her bad reputation and evil persona strategically to sway opinions and weave the political landscape of the empire, Aria is an outright bastard out to tear down those that stand in her way as she manipulates things to her advantage and slowly ruins the lives of those who wronged her in the past. While we’re told this revenge is for deeds done in her past life, the people she targets are currently blameless in the new timeline. And the one that supposed ruined her life, her sister, may in fact be manipulated by other parties to see Aria’s undoing. However, Aria doesn’t care about this and proceeds to emotionally torture her younger sister throughout the story, relishing in her agony. Again, we’re told Mielle has done evil and manipulated Aria in her past life, but since we don’t see those moments it just feels like someone picking on the weak, like we’re just watching a bastard be a bastard and suppose to enjoy it. And unlike Light Yagami or Lelouch vi Britannia, her schemes and mannerisms don’t have much flamboyance or flair to them. This is just a scheming bastard ruining peoples lives, and I can’t really root for her. I’m currently at chapter 18 and so far there are translations going up to chapter 20 as of me typing this, but I’m loosing my taste for this series fast if Aria is going to just keep being an asshole without having an real opponent out to get her for it. There’s been moments of some actual opposition, but nothing concrete to say she has an opponent yet, not a tangible one at least.

I also hear the original novel version of this story is a lot better, likely due to it taking time to explain a lot of her targets past deeds and making Aria’s evil acts seem a little more justified. It’s a lot easier to explain that in a book rather than a comic.

It’s a little early for recommendations, but a Chinese comic The Bloody Merchant Empress and the Cold Husband's Forceful Doting is a much better version of this premise. When the wronged Empress is returned to the past as the daughter of a wealthy merchant she uses her knowledge of the future and family’s resources to better the country while also humiliating her cold, manipulative, and obsessive former husband. I’m only about 60-ish chapters in that one out the currently 90-ish that are translated as of me typing this, but it’s pretty entertaining so far and has a protagonist I can root for.

Aria... just isn’t an appealing protagonist to me, at least not yet, but I’m willing to at least get though another 5 chapters before calling judgement on it.

The last thing I wanted to cover was I'm Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness Doesn't Mean I'm a Bad Person! This manga is about a girl named Sakura that was reincarnated as the dark magic user Claudia Letsya, the villainess of a popular novel she read. Realizing the plot and her death at the hands of the series protagonist, she works from her childhood onward to prevent her death by sowing seeds of kindness and generosity. It isn’t as simple as that however, as the world of Lacia is deeply prejudice toward those using dark magic, as well as Claudia’s own appearance since dark skin and hair are foreign to the country. Along with that, her powers are prophesied to bring ruin to the country as well. So with the cards stacked against her, Claudia must fight back every prejudice against her to prove she’s not the villain the world claims her to be, and to not die in battle as an enemy.

One it’s own this manga is pretty interesting. Claudia is already hated due to prejudice and prophecy, so she has to somehow fight against the system that already condemned her. And unlike Satie, who already had years of experience as an adult living in the adult modern world, Sakura died as a child and only has a child’s prospective on things. She’s a rather smart child, but she still doesn’t have the intelligence or status to have pull over the world. She can only do so much with the cards against in her current body and status. She has to make friends and allies fast. She eventually does this and gains a slightly better reputation than the original novel gave her, however...

The Big Twist

Spoils for chapter 6 onward, but later we large that the protagonist of this world, Amelia Logan, is also reincarnated like Claudia and knows the story and world she’s in as well. However, unlike Claudia who’s trying to prevent her death, the owner of Amelia’s body is a haughty, arrogant, and snobby person who is ignorant of our villainess’s plight and is currently trying to set Claudia’s path to follow the ‘script’ so she can kill her.

This part I find interesting, as it give a lot more depth and a more interesting dynamic. While Claudia is trying to change her fate she has to deal with this awful, arrogant heroine that’s honestly doing more to ruin her own reputation than Claudia’s by being so pushy. And while the side cast can’t stand this arrogant light user, the society of Lacia wants Claudia as dead as Amelia does, so conspires against her. This adds another challenge onto Claudia, as the usually kind and trusting heroine is now her biggest adversary. And while that’s funny in a way, it also makes for a small problem I have with the series. That being...

Amelia is an Asshole

I didn’t think I’d use this criticism twice in the same Rambling, but okay. Like with Aria, Amelia is cartoonishly malicious toward Claudia. And while she’s always called out on it, she comes across more as annoying than comedic or imposing. This is probably intentional and updates are only up to chapter 9, but sometimes makes me wonder how Amelia can be so awful as a person and still keep her standing as a heroine. She tends backpedals the plot a little by being so inept of her status and assumes the fact that she’s ‘destined’ to kill Claudia means she’s free from criticism despite constantly being called out by the main cast. It’s less funny at times and more irritating that she can’t understand the story is moving in a much different direction than originally written and should act accordingly.

This is a personal gripe however. Like I said, there’s only 9 chapters of this manga currently translated so there’s plenty of time for things to get better. This might not even be a line crossed with most readers, but it’s crossed it for me so I’m going to mention it. That’s not a deal breaker, but it is annoying to read through.

Sadly, this manga only has 9 chapters out as of me typing this, and translations has moved to a crawl. The original novel seems have slowed as well in terms of translation speed, so this might just be a pointless inclusion on the list. Nonetheless, it’s definitely an interesting short read, if only for that

Fuck it, I’ll make a thumbnail myself.

I’ve been meaning to find an excuse to talk about Villainess Ventures for a while, months really, and with this giant review/impressions/overview of villainess stories now’s as good a time as any.

So, if you’ve been following me for awhile you might occasionally hear me mention the youtube channel SugarPunch Design Works, a channel ran by Majikura and A Bad Idea (ABI for short). These two do a mix of parody recall episodes, animation critiques and discussions, podcasts, and anime harem reviews. The latter was something ran by Majikura with some animated bits by ABI. However, due to difficult copyright and fair use issues, Majikura has gone on record saying the harem reviews are more or less in hiatus until mentioned otherwise. In the meantime, he’s made a Webcomic on Tapas called Villainess Ventures, a comedic webcomic that treats villainy as a business and deconstructs/parodies common villain tropes. The premise is simple, protagonist Veronica Nightingale is a consultant for villains, advising them on schemes, giving them new business avenues, and so on. Like I said, there are a lot of tropes being played with here. That’s the basic synopsis, I’ve nothing more to say aside from that I’ve enjoyed reading it and I recommend you all give a look.

...

Look, I know I kind of railed on the last three series there for at least a paragraph each, but... well, this is a bit different. I don’t exactly feel comfortable critiquing a webcomic in the same vain I do other series, as this is a free comic that is available on a website at no cost. Technically the last three are in that same vein of being free to read, but that’s through piracy and are technically official works for purchase, just not on English sites/stores. I view webcomics in the same way I do things on fanfiction.net and fictionpress.net, I only review and critique things on request and on my own time (and yes, people on both these sites have requested reviews/critiques from me at points). At the moment I’d say the only strike I have against this series is that the artist/writer could announce their hiatuses more accurately, but that’s it. Overall this webcomic is updated weekly, one page per week, with a month or two of hiatus after every two-ish arcs. If you wanted my personal recommendations Professional Henchman and Join my Team are my favorites at the moment. The character designs are pretty good, you’ll find your favorite among the cast rather quickly, and it’s starting to get updated again as of me typing.

Like I said, this is a webcomic that’s free to read on a site that’s, as far as I’m aware, free to use and sign up to comment and subscribe to your favorite comics on the site. And feel free to subscribe to this comic and tell ‘em Allen X sent you.

And that is it for this Rambling. I still have to wrap up the Arknights essays... so there’s that. I’ll see you all a bit later.

#your dictator is speaking

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