The villainess trope, my favorite trope. Stories in which the main character becomes self-aware of their status as the villainess of a prior narrative, often by being isekai'd1 into a dating sim game, romance novel, etc., or else by dying and being time looped to an earlier point in their life. They usually have to avoid or recover from the "condemnation event" in which their "crimes" are revealed and their fiance breaks off their engagement.
These stories have been blowing up in light novel and manga space for a while a now, and had one major successful anime adaptation in My Next Life as a Villainess, which is very funny and charming and silly, although it is still pretty meta which may make it less accessible to non-weebs. Anyway, now we're really starting to see more adaptations percolate through to anime series, and I could not be happier about that.2
Here are the villainess and villainess-adjacent shows that I am aware of so far:
| Title | When? | Premise/Vibe | How fucked up is it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! | Two seasons out already on Crunchyroll, movie coming | Lead remembers her past life and tries to avoid death flags by healing all the other characters' trauma, inadvertently building a powerful bisexual harem. Also she's a huge dumbass who loves to grow vegetables. | Not very, by anime standards. One of the love interests is a stepsibling. |
| Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs | One season out on Crunchyroll | Set in an otome game, but it's actually just a generic harem isekai which sucks, alas. | Normal harem anime levels, but also it's a "what if the patriarchy were a matriarchy huh makes you think" setting? Gets old fast. |
| I'm the Villainess So I'm Taming the Final Boss | Currently airing on Crunchyroll | Lead remembers her past life and romances the tragic demon lord villain of the story. Cute demon supporting cast. | CW for threat of sexual violence in one bit. Also it's a "zero sum" villainess story where the "heroine" is bad? And it's kind of mean about it |
| Bibliophile Princess | Currently airing on Hidive | Not a villainess story per se but the setup is a riff on the villainess trope where it seems like the protagonist is going to get her engagement broken off. So, honorable mention here. It's a fantasy girl who is OP because she reads books. | Not fucked up that I can recall (oh wait there's some Romani stereotype stuff in the manga I think?) |
| Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte | January 2023 | Two kids living in the modern world accidentally intervene in a fantasy world while doing color commentary on a playthrough of a dating sim game when their voices are heard by the characters of the game as the voice of god. They help the characters realize that the villainess is actually just a nice tsundere. | Why is the protagonist named L. Riefenstahl????? Oh, anime. |
| Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World | January 2023 | Actually a shonen exiled-from-my-adventurer-party story, but one of the characters has a villainess trope backstory, so another honorable mention | Regular shonen fare, but also there's a priest falsely accused of sexual misconduct? Fake rape accusation is not a great trope. |
| The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior | July 2023 | The villainess in this one (prior to the lead getting isekai'd as her) is waaay more fucker up than other villainess stories. More plot/action driven than other upcoming examples also. | Some super dark shit happens in the "original" game of the settings. Also magical slavery is a major part of the worldbuilding. |
| Tearmoon Empire | 2023 | A Marie Antoinette-esque hapless royal gets time looped after her execution by revolutionary forces, then sets out to mend her ways purely for the sake of self-preservation. Good guillotine memes. | Not fucked up that I can recall |
| The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady | 2023 | This is the yuri one! (f/f) One of the leads suffers a condemnation event but is rescued by the other lead, who kidnaps her while testing an experimental flying broom IIRC. It's cute! | Not fucked up that I can recall |
It's worth noting that some villainess trope stories skew right politically particularly because the protagonists are often of higher aristocratic status than the "heroine" characters who are (sometimes) now the antagonist, due to inversion of rags-to-riches otome game tropes in which the wide-eyed heroine enters high society and is bullied by the "villainess." Themes of noblesse oblige and the romanticization of autocratic power are common.
Why do I love these stories so much? I have no fucking clue, friendos. But I think part of it has to do with them being Like This:
-
Dying and reincarnating in a fantasy world
-
Because I suffer from anhedonia due to depression
