A philosophy nerd's review of I'm In Love With The Villainess
Hey, I just read I'm In Love With The Villainess for the first time, and it's pretty good. I've only read volume 1 of the manga so far, but even with that much, it changed something in me. It gave me a healthier view of love than the view I'm used to seeing in media.
So it's about this girl that gets magically transported into her favourite otome game (basically a dating sim), and she immediately goes after the one person you can't date in the normal game, your rival that's after the same 3 rich boys as you.
Already there's an interesting setup, because she has *omniscience* of what's supposed to happen. She knows exactly how the story of the game plays out, and uses it for her own game. An average story would be about using that power for gaining riches, or power, or political influence; but our protagonist, who assumes the identity of the game's main character Rae Taylor, laser-focuses on getting her rival, Miss Claire François, to fall in love with her.
Maybe this is a lack of experience on my part, but I was intrigued by this precisely because of how this type of thing usually goes, and what the books I read tend to say about those that gain special powers. For example, In Book 2 of Plato's Republic, he puts forth the Ring of Gyges thought experiment, basically asking: What would happen to you if you had a ring that could turn you perfectly invisible? The point in context is to ponder whether the average rational person would continue to act with a sense of Justice with such a power, or if they would stoop to using it to get away with committing crimes. The eventual conclusion within the dialogue is that someone enslaved by their appetites would use the ring for evil, while someone committed to rationality and happiness would refrain from using it at all.
Let's think about this from a yuri perspective then: How could a very committed lesbian use the Ring of Gyges to get a specific girl to fall in love with her? You could certainly go the crimes angle again, with her stealing to meet her needs in a society that doesn't have their needs met already; but how about using it for performance art? Say the lesbian with the Ring used it to become a magician, and practiced a magic routine dead-set on dazzling her crush, featuring tricks and hijinks tailored to her and what she thinks she'd like. This would also include finding some way to go on a date with her to learn this information, which is no small feat, requiring charisma, wit, and a variety of verbal skills. That'd be a perfectly just use case for the Ring, no contest.
What I'm getting at is that the concept of love as presented in I'm In Love With The Villainess calls upon the protagonist's incredibly thorough understanding of Miss Claire to tailor her actions towards expressing her affection in a way that'll make the love reciprocal. I'm sure there's a better way to word that but you know what I mean. In the example with the Ring, that understanding isn't assumed, but the actions are, because the circumstances of the otherworldly powers granted are different. Both, however, are showing a level of devotion and investment in the girl of interest that leads to love blossoming.
With it spelled out how the book utilizes otherworldly powers to explore a more fulfilling view of love, I'd like to take a bit to cover an artistic thing with how the book handles nudity, as well as how it handles a prevalent trope of Japanese visual media, "fan service". Typically, both of those have the "male gaze" in mind, or in other words, focusing on what men tend to enjoy, or are on some level told to enjoy through conditioning by society. In terms of fan service, that manifests itself in low angle shots of women's skirts and asses, high angle shots of their breasts, or very high angle shots of their face; and in terms of nudity, that manifests itself in emphasis on the nipples, genitals, or other areas of erotic interest like the mouth, feet, and armpits. It depends on the author's whims.
How does I'm In Love With The Villainess handle these, then? Well, when appealing to what I suppose is the female gaze, the artist for the manga adaptation places emphasis on the distance between Rae and Miss Claire. There are often back-to-back close-up shots of their faces, noting either a sameness or stark contrast in their expressions, and not long after a shot of them gazing at eachother, typically much farther apart than the prior shots would make one assume. This, to me, conveys a mental closeness, in spite of the lack of a physical one. There's a strain there, a strain between how close they might want to be, and what their lots in life allow. As the book progresses, those two sides reconcile, but I shan't spoil it here.
And in terms of the book's use of nudity, I was floored. The women weren't objectified and broken down into their constituent erogenous zones, the entire figure was on display, with the genitals and nipples gone undrawn. While you certainly could argue that that's a censorship thing, I think excluding those made what I was seeing more appealing. I saw the woman there, rather than the potential for sex and horniness, and that was arguably hotter. There's also, again, emphasis on Rae and Miss Claire's dynamic. Rae's true colours show when instead of being outwardly erotically excited, or doing something "uncouth" to cross a line Miss Claire didn't want crossed, she washed Claire's hair as instructed, gently and calmly, and took a peaceful enjoyment out of it. Again, that's hotter than if she just crassly started groping her or started masturbating or something. Restraint to match the level those two are on is important.
Overall, WOAH. I loved this book so much, and I'm excited to keep reading. I hope what I wrote was insightful, rather than not. As is custom, here's a song to leave you off with: (YouTube link) It's "Lovers Rock" by TV Girl. I think it's obvious why this song's on my mind right now if you give it a listen. Have a great day everyone! ^w^