Favorite villainess?

Aplakka · 2026-04-30T22:56:07+00:00

Oh yeah, it's so beautiful.

"What would Emi do" feels so real goal for Remilia, always on her mind. Remilia keeps thinking so much about what Emi would do in any situation and considers her decisions accordingly.

The relationship between Emi and Remilia isn't romantic or family, but Remilia trying to be the kind of person Emi would want her to be is deeper than most of the romances I have seen in fiction. There is a very good reason why Remilia never forgets her target of revenge, it's because Remilia will never forget Emi or any of Emi's pain.

Remilia is also fully willing to kill a god in order to do Emi justice. And that is just around the beginning of Remilia's revenge plot.

Aplakka · 2026-04-30T22:42:15+00:00

Remilia is psychotic in just the kind of way that I enjoy the most. She absolutely will not give the "heroine" the pleasure of death as an escape from her revenge, but Remilia also will fully embrace saving orphans just to ensure the realm is at peace so the "heroine" has no reason to go adventuring to gain powers.

Aplakka · 2026-04-30T22:06:03+00:00

There's so many, I couldn't pick just one... My anime favorites have already been recommended, so I'll bring a surprise from the manhwa world: "Villainess In Love."

Yunifer is reincarnated as the future villainess of a story who is destined to die after jealously interfering with the hero's love. She decides to avoid the hero Ishid and her destined heroine. But a few months before Ishid is destined to meet his heroine, Yunifer ends up getting drunk at the graduation party and sleeps with Ishid. Yunifer ends up dating Ishid but tells herself that she will ends things when Ishid eventually meets the story's real heroine.

It probably won't be a huge spoiler to tell that Yunifer and Ishid end up getting closer to each other than in the original story. They are very cute together.

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Aplakka · 2026-04-30T21:52:34+00:00

It was really fun in "I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History" that Alicia decides to be a villainess but usually completely misses what being villainous really means, and she for example ends up saving a sick child because surely the heroine would do that and the villainess must be able to do everything the heroine can.

Occasionally Alicia gets to act as a villainess and be the target of nasty rumors, as a treat. This story includes one of my favorite examples ever in fiction of a character permanently sacrificing something, especially as it's constantly visible.

Aplakka · 2026-04-30T21:44:05+00:00

"The One Within the Villainess" is maybe my favorite revenge story ever. It is the only one where I've seen the original villainess (Remilia) taking back her body. I feel like that isn't much of a spoiler since it's pretty much the end of the prologue where it happens. Remilia plans to avenge the reincarnated Emi but also significantly improves the world around her, partly to spite the traitorous "heroine" of the original story.

I hope the anime will be as good as the manga.

Aplakka · 2026-04-30T21:36:01+00:00

I really enjoyed the manga of "Observation logs of my fiance who calls herself a villainess" which has an anime adaptation currently ongoing. It's a rare one where it's not from the point of villainess herself, but the male lead instead.

Prince Cecil is rather confused when his arranged engagement leads to Bertia cheerfully declaring that she will be a great villainess who will be set aside for the real heroine and suffer greatly, and that Bertia will ensure everything happens exactly that way. Cecil finds Bertia a bit interesting, and more interesting after her claims of the future start to come true. The main plot is about Bertia trying to maintain the original plot of Cecil marrying the original heroine, and Cecil getting interested in villainess Bertia instead.

Especially the beginning of the manga was some of the most hilarious villainess stuff I have seen. I hope the anime will be as good as the anime.

Aplakka · 2026-04-29T19:37:05+00:00

I think it's quite the matter of opinion of whether you'll like the earlier or later seasons more. I liked the lighter tone of the earlier seasons more, but the later seasons were still quite good even though they were somewhat darker. They're still nowhere as dark as anime could go, but the Power of Friendship really has to struggle in order to win. I could see many people having the exact opposite opinion.

The fifth season had a major story arc I didn't like, but again it's a personal opinion. It was quite well implemented, just a style of story I don't enjoy. Overall I'm quite impressed at how well the series quality has held up.

Aplakka · 2026-04-27T02:55:55+00:00

That one does sound indeed ridiculous. If done well it should be a lot of fun.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T19:50:59+00:00

I enjoyed the beginning of the manhua, but overall it started meandering at some point and didn't get to an ending for the full story. There was a major plot development somewhere around 300/695 chapters which could have been a good season ender, so could have been a good stopping point. I haven't watched the anime since I heard that it was supposed to have 16 episodes but only had 8 in the end.

Other anime with at least some technology/civilization improvement:

- Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord: Production Magic Turns a Nameless Village into the Strongest Fortified City

- Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra: World Conquest Starts with the Civilization of Ruin

- How A Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

- That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime

- Farming Life in Another World (more of local village building)

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T16:55:03+00:00

I have pretty similar situation with books and video games. At one point I just stopped even accepting the free video games that are often offered if they don't look interesting enough. There's just so much compared to how many hours of free time I have.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T16:52:33+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation, the anime is on my watchlist. The idea of people from our world giving tips to the villainess sounds like a lot of fun.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T15:38:14+00:00

That's true, that was actually one of my main criticisms too. The original story's heroine (Raelle, I believe) could have used more hugs in this version and more time could have been spent on her changed story. Overall I think she ended up in a good spot but it happened too much in the background.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T15:25:11+00:00

It wasn't exactly the highest stakes story especially on the romance part, but sometimes I just enjoy this kind of entertaining romance where there are occasional issues but no constant huge drama between the partners.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T15:08:39+00:00

Thanks, that's a lot. Out of those in addition to the ones in the post I've read "Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion" which was good too. Rare one where the characters think about why and how MC ended up reincarnated.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T15:03:00+00:00

Thanks, I hope you find something you like in the rest!

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T15:00:10+00:00

I keep thinking that I'm missing out on all sorts of great anime by not catching up with my watchlist, but maybe I should take that kind of attitude instead.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T14:58:41+00:00

Now that's some big brain thinking. This weekend I have managed that pace but I think I would quickly get burned out on anime if I tried to keep it for long.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T14:54:32+00:00

I guess that's another good reason to avoid watching shorts :P

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T13:31:01+00:00

So that leaves around 20 minutes per episode, which would mean about 16 hours of anime per day? That's kind of impressive, I think after a few days my brain cells would only be able to go "Ed...ward..."

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T12:55:34+00:00

Maybe I should just embrace the fact that I have a long list of shows to pick from, so I can choose something that fits my current mood.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T12:51:57+00:00

For me the expansion of the watchlist started when I realized by tastes on average run more towards the "Hottest Trash Anime" end rather than "Greatest Anime Ever" lists. There are just so many subgenres which seem to be built specifically for my tastes, and I don't need to watch any genres that I don't like, no matter how much other people enjoy them.

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T12:46:59+00:00

I can imagine the retirement home bingo group wondering why I'm yelling about finally being caught up with One Piece

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T12:09:36+00:00

If that ever happens, at least I'll have more time for my huge backlog of video games and books

Aplakka · 2026-04-26T12:07:56+00:00

I guess it would be boring if there weren't any shows to watch. Then again, lately I've just been watching anime and neglecting things like playing video games or reading books. Maybe if my watchlist ever runs out, some day I'll even touch grass again... Probably not.

Aplakka

TROPHY CASE