An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess

I've read a lot of villainess otome game mangas and novels, and this one has the best execution so far. Usually the fact that the world is a game and the routes stop mattering not even mid-way through, but this manga actually thoroughly explores all the possible routes, even though they don't come to be, making the reader feel that they're actually playing a game at times. What struck me as particularly unique was the insistence of the villainess to get the male lead and main protagonist, prince Cecil, with the heroine. Both the heroine and the villainess treated him like an NPC, and at certainpoints it made me feel uncomfortable because both of them were convinced that Cecil couldn't escape a bad ending unless he ended up with the heroine. Since the villainess and female lead, Bertia, loves the character so much, she was especially obsessed with getting them together, which meant that prince Cecil had to scheme and strike down a lot of flags from the shadows to change the "plot" of the "game" to make Bertia finally accept him and start treating the characters as human beings. Overall, it's an enjoyable and interesting read. 8/10 in general and 9.5/10 as far as otome game manga/novels go.

This manga has ruined yandere male leads for me, because they always compare so poorly to Cecil. He’s affectionate in a fun way, and I love how literally everyone isn’t afraid to call out how he’s a pretty big weirdo. He’s really unique in that while he is super intelligent and “powerful”, he does seek to improve himself and chooses to do a lot of stuff that doesn’t exactly come naturally to him. All the characters are a ton of fun, and I like how it distinctly avoided the harem route typical to these types of stories, and made all the actual pairings really cuteand fitting. While they’re relatively minor I would genuinely want to read a story (or at least oneshot) based on any of the given couples. The villain isn’t great but she’s acceptable, and is probably the only actually poor start of the story. The manga probably would’ve been about to same if she was or wasn’t there. Probably best read if you’re familiar with the otome isekai genre of stories, since a lot of the appeal is a subversion of really common tropes. But ultimately even if you haven’t read any it’s just really cute.

This is a very easy series to review. The plot is a generic otome-isekai story, but we get to see it unravel from the perspective of the yandere ML. Good: 1. short runtime: With less than 40 chapters, it is easy to binge. 2. heavy usage of tropes: This allows the series to skip a lot of routine filler and let the readers fill the gaps with their imagination. readers must familiarize themselves with the OI genre before picking up this series. 3. lots of fluff: As we read the story from ML's point of view, we get to see our fluffy FL doing cute things allthe time. Our FL claims to be a villainess, but is more or less a clumsy tsundere. 4. Good art: One complaint would be that most female character designs looked the same as each other. 5. yandere ML: I really appreciated his PoV and loved watching his frozen heart slowly melt due to FL's warm affection. I also loved how smart and balanced he was throughout the entire series. 6. wholesome families: Almost every character had a loving family and while all of them were great parents/siblings, I want to specially call out FL's dad for being the best father (even with all her flaws and quirks). Bad 1. TSTL FL: Too stupid to live FL can be very annoying, as everyone around her rallies into fan clubs to love her or protect her. Even after completely changing the OG plot, she keeps trying to get the ML and OGFL to fall in love, while refusing to explain *why* she is so desperate to get them together. 2. incoherent OGFL: She seems to be isekai-ed, but is dumber than FL, which is an impossible feat. It was very weird, because she hallucinates things that never happened and just simply seems to lack a coherent and functioning brain. I am genuinely concerned that she hit her head and is mentally challenged. 3. lack of any tension: There's barely 2 antagonists (OGFL and one side character). Both of them are stupid, so when our "genius" ML takes them down with boring plans, all I felt was emptiness. It just feels like a tiger acting mighty, while stomping an ant. 4. generic plot: While the yandere ML's PoV is a good hook, the core story is still generic with no creativity from the author. Overall The series is easy to recommend due to its short length, but please remember that this is targeted at experienced readers who are already families with OI genre's tropes. If you don't like the main "hook" (yandere ML PoV), there's not much else to find here. I personally loved the fluff, even if I felt sorry for the brain-damaged OGFL. The first chapter is a good intro and should be enough to know whether you will like this series.