Adventures in Light Novels

Author: Suzu Enoshima (Author of Tsundere Akuyaku Reijou Liselotte)

Illustrator: Yukaco Fujimura

Label: Kadokawa Beans Bunko

Release Date: 1 March 2022

My Score: 3/5

Story & Characters:

Genre: Age gap (10 years) Romance, MxF Romance, Comedy, Isekai, Reincarnated as the villainess of an otome game

Premise: Emanuel was a normal girl in Japan but she was reincarnated into an unfamiliar world. She recognises the classical tropes of an otome game and figures out that she’s likely the villainess though she is unfamiliar with this particular otome game. In this world, people are classed based on the colours of their hair and eyes. The closer the colour is to black, the more beautiful they are considered where as lighter colours are considered unsightly. On the day of her trial as a villainess, Emanuel is sentenced to marry Louis, who is considered to be the ugliest person in the country due to his white hair. Emanuel sees this as a reward as she’s loved Louis for a few years. And, after exchanging love letters, it seems as though the feeling is mutual. However, Emanuel soon finds out that due to a lifetime of trauma and discrimination based on his hair colour, he cannot bring himself to believe her about her feelings and believes that she is just trying to get his help to get revenge on the kingdom that punished her. Emanuel will not give up until she convinces him that their feelings are mutual.

I’ve been keeping tabs on Enoshima since I loved Tsundere Akuyaku Reijou Liselotte and I’m so glad that they were able to publish another book. Sadly, this one didn’t quite live up to the hype for me though I did enjoy parts of it.

My first complaint is that the isekai element is unnecessary. At first, I thought it only there to explain why Emanuel doesn’t go along with the rules of this world but I still think that there would be people in this world who didn’t care about hair colour and later a character is introduced who wasn’t isekai’d and who also doesn’t care about hair colour so it really feels like it’s just there because isekai is a popular genre. Emanuel’s past life is so briefly mentioned that I wouldn’t be able to tell you what age she was when she died or how she died. It’s especially a shame because Tsundere Akuyaku Reijou Liselotte had such an interesting twist on the genre that made it memorable. My other problem is that there isn’t much of a plot to this one and most of the scenes end up feeling meandering and aimless as a result, especially in the second half.

That being said, I did find the characters charming and the romance is cute. It’s briefly mentioned that Louis is 10 years older than Emanuel but he doesn’t act like it and it’s not relevant to the plot so it’s easy to ignore. They have enough chemistry that their romance doesn’t feel rushed despite the fact that they basically fell in love with each other at first sight. I also like that Emanuel does have a couple of female friends and has a life outside of the central romance. She’s friends with the heroine character and her maid is one of the main characters of the book. It is a bit of a shame that all three female characters end up in a romance by the end but it was nice to see that regardless. 

Now, I’m going to go into spoilers because this volume truly jumps the shark in the last chapter and I need to talk about it.

So, early on in the book, the heroine character (I think her name is Dyrna?) gives a blessing to Emanuel. She’s the child of the goddess of love so this blessing makes it so that Emanuel won’t die if she’s killed. She’ll just be like sleeping beauty and sleep while she heals until her true love kisses her. So in the last chapter Emanuel dies out of nowhere and the thing kind of becomes a closed room murder mystery where only a set amount of people could have gained access to room. The murderer is quickly revealed to be Louis’s estranged mother and the reveal lacks any tension or surprise because she never shows up before this. She’s briefly mentioned once as a major source of Louis’s trauma and that’s it. So it comes out of nowhere as an attempt to create some sort of interesting conflict and it really doesn’t work. I think this plot should have either been cut out completely or the killer should have been more surprising and/or comedic. Like it might have been interesting if one of the many nameless maids or butlers did it. Or she could have died comedically by accident. It would have been out of character but at least it would have been more entertaining. The only good things about the last chapter is the love confession Louis gives Emanuel when she’s asleep but he thinks she can’t hear him but she actually can and the inclusion of one of my favourite isekai tropes: the person who was isekai’d telling someone that they were isekai’d. Granted, we never see Louis’s reaction to the confession and it lacks any of drama and conflict that I usually like from the trope but I appreciated it’s inclusion nonetheless.

Recommneded for: 

Romance fans who aren’t put off by the age gap.

While I didn’t like anywhere near Enoshima’s debut series, I did still appreciate it as a solid romcom with a cute couple. I’ll be looking to see if the author releases anything else in the future.