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EP. REVIEW: I'm in Love with the Villainess

Am I the only one that feels this way? You can't just play the harassment for a joke and then suddenly ask the audience to take Rae seriously only when it benefits her character's portrayal. You have to properly address what's wrong with what she's doing as well. Either everything has consequences befitting the intended tone of the scene or nothing does.

I don't see why censorship of the American version would affect an anime produced in Japan. Seven Seas edited quite a lot of of their manga and light novels at that time.. and still do, apparently. I'm not sure I've ever seen it leaked back into Japan and made them censor the original Japanese broadcast outside of Pokemon.

Fluwm wrote:

I wasn't aware that'd happened... it's a helluva thing to cut because, as simplistic as it is, the very explicit and direct and uncompromising queerness of the series is, as you said, pretty fundamental to the story, elevating what would otherwise be just-another-disposable-Isekai into something genuinely worthwhile.

They cut a portion of it at least. Enough that it ruined any recontextualization of Rei's behavior. As a result some readers wrote her off as another Kuroko and never made it past the first volume. I remember being baffled at the time; knowing that while Rei is a polarizing character the hate seemed disproportionate compared to how she was received in the WN community.

Once translation inconsistencies were discovered in several Seven Seas novels, the backlash got so bad the author was being pestered about it directly on social media.

Anyway, it fortunately looks like this adaptation isn't going that route. I was worried since this series gets a little too real one too many times compared to say, MagiRevo, which doesn't bluntly mention real world social issues. Then there was what happened with "Witch from Mercury" after it aired. I can't take anything for granted when it comes to anime. LNs and manga are generally less risk-averse in comparison.

Sexually and romantically, she's exclusively attracted to women, and neither the characters nor the narrative are allowed to skirt around that issue with aphorisms or the like

For folks who might have been put off by Rae's occasionally invasive and often unwelcome advances, it cuts down the possibility of Rae winning her lady's love through attrition, making it clear that any potential romance between these two will only be possible if both of them can let down their walls. It's a turn for the serious that enhances the surface-level antics and has me deeply hooked to see where we go from here.

You're not alone. It's been a not-uncommon criticism that Rae's actions early in the story are basically harassment and don't paint her in a good light. I take less issue to the stuff Rae does when Claire is actively trying to bully her (just because Rae actually liked it doesn't make it okay), but that stopped pretty early. The conversation in episode 3 provides a good lesson, but it is undercut by Claire arguably being justified in her initial reaction, due to the reasons you mentioned.

Florete wrote:

You're not alone. It's been a not-uncommon criticism that Rae's actions early in the story are basically harassment and don't paint her in a good light. I take less issue to the stuff Rae does when Claire is actively trying to bully her (just because Rae actually liked it doesn't make it okay), but that stopped pretty early. The conversation in episode 3 provides a good lesson, but it is undercut by Claire arguably being justified in her initial reaction, due to the reasons you mentioned.

I think it's also worth remembering that Rae is also an adult women at the end of the day. Even if she does behave better later on there's still the issue of a woman in her 20sish romantically getting involved with a 15 year old. I can see why that would put people off regardless if her behavior improves.

There is no issue, she is not 20sih in this life. Its like you'll don't want people who've had a second chance at life, to NOT be able to enjoy this life as their physical age. Somehow, us back seat drivers, expect reincarnators to penalize themselves, because they have been reborn with their memories intact or returned.

@Velorien
The reasons are irrelevant. Penalize is quite fitting. You are asking people who have been reborn/reincarnated, to not live a full life. That they must distance themselves from their physical age group peers. Those same peers, will not understand that distance and think bad things about the reincarnater.

And that not even discussing the effects of a youthful body will have on their mind, and the natural physicals effects of youth on that body.

And if we are being honest, I think everyone would use their knowledge of this world to their own benefit. Really, if we bought the cool-aid, we would have to call Katarinia (My Next Life as a Villainess) evil, because she literally changed everyone around her using her knowledge of the game. She established relations and made friends with her physical age group, using her evil knowledge to change them from what they were to be.

These issues aren't viewer preferences. They're inherent to the setup of the story, and the author has to choose whether to address them as part of the narrative or sweep them under the carpet in the name of wish fulfilment. Mostly, we're seeing the latter.