One day, a second set of memories struck Elle very suddenly. It confuses her, but she realises one thing: She can’t let herself die first out of the Four Grand Mages of Analia — or else the strongest Grand Magi (and the man the Demon Lord chose for her engagement), Julius, will mock her! But with her past memories comes not only the knowledge of her pathetic death but also the values she once upon a time had grown up with. With these in mind, she sets off to escape death and find true freedom.

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Huh? What just happened? Why do I feel like I’m floating? Is that a truck in front of me? Was that the sound of me being hit by a truck? Oh. Crap.

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Thoughts

I asked Cross Infinite World on Twitter which book they’d recommend if I could only buy one (and whoever replied was really pleasant, so I’m giving them my stamp of approval). I’m pretty much an all-around reader, so I was open to more or less anything. The Weakest Manga Villainess Wants Her Freedom was one of the suggestions, and I picked it up.

Before I say anything else, I’m going to admit right away that I probably should have chosen something else because I had just finished Scum-Villain’s Self-Saving System when I started reading it and I ended up drawing multiple parallels between the romance between Elle and Julius and the romance between Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe. That is not to say that I didn’t like the romance plot in this one, but I’m heavily biased because I was rather tired of Shen Qingqiu’s cluelessness and it felt like I already had enough of this type of plot right now.

With that out of the way, this novel by Karazawa Kazuki was originally a webnovel. Karazawa polished the novel for its English publication and Charis Messier then translated it. The translation’s easy to read and actually quite pleasing. Major thumbs up. I didn’t actually find any truly awkward passages, though perhaps it’s the exceptional story distracting me from any potential issues I could have encountered.

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“I’m not just some damsel in distress waiting around for you to save me! Being protected by you and doing whatever you say…makes the same person I was when I foolishly entrusted everything to the Demon Lord. I’m not who I was in Analia. I am not a puppet who rejoices when someone else pulls my strings!”

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That said this book is a ride! (In a good way.)

While the story is fast-paced, it’s also well-paced. Initially, I thought it wouldn’t have enough space in just one volume, but I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong! It had just enough to give, without getting stuck and slowing down too much at any point.

Early on, we get a rundown of the plot of the manga Elle has entered, which gives us the premise of the story, and its setting is a pretty typical shoujo fantasy manga with a chosen girl to be the heroine and a harem of love interests from which the true love interest is chosen.

Elle doesn’t know how this manga ends though—she only knows up to the second last volume because her past self got hit by Truck-kun. So she never had a chance to find out, but she certainly knows that she has to flee the Demon Lord, which is a fantastic idea! And somehow she ends up bringing Julius with her (for what reason she doesn’t understand), while also purposely bringing her servants she had swept out of misery by kidnapping them.

Main point is: she just wants to live in peace with freedom.

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“Lady Elle held a knife to her own heart and went with them on the condition they don’t harm this village… She took her own heart hostage to save us because we are too weak to save ourselves…”

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It doesn’t have a lot of art, but what it has is really nice. What you expect, I guess. It’s not something outrageously amazing stuff, but it all is pleasant to look at. The narrative and dialogue also comment on the kinda stereotypical appearances of some characters, and I love that.

Emotions have a big role in this story, though. It actually has some tough questions, even. What is love? What is friendship? What is strength? How do you accept loss and how do you go on? Can you go against your values, and if not, how do you stand against all you ever thought was right?

How do you handle the truth that all that you knew was a complete lie?

That said, though, it was really a lot of fun to read! The epilogue in particular had me laughing so loudly I’m afraid I may have disturbed my neighbours, and I slapped my thigh at every sentence for a good part of it. Sometimes even three or four times, because I was laughing so much I got lost and had to re-read the sentence to finish it.

Yes, I slap my thigh while laughing. A lot. If I IRL LOL, then I’m slapping my thigh. Ouch, my thigh hurts… But worth it. So worth it.

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Overall, a great read. Light and breezy, while packed with action, comedy, magic and a plot twist that together was great! Amazing! I could barely put this book away, to be honest. I haven’t had a read like that for a while. The last one was probably Heaven Official’s Blessing or The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, which were my top two obsessions of 2020.

I think anyone into fantasy manga/anime with a shoujo demographic could definitely like this one. Think Yona of the Dawn kind of stuff, except more comedy. Give it a read.

Be warned, though. Elle is supposed to look like a young girl (I RELATE, ELLE.), while Julius is a bit older, so some may find the age gap concerning. I personally don’t mind, because I honestly don’t see the problem, as there’s nothing harmful in the story.

I do know I have to take the time to read Karazawa’s other work on Syosetsuka ni Narou! someday if they don’t hit the (digital) shelf at a bookshop before then.

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Edit: As of September 19, 2024, this post has gone through substantial editing to make it more organised, but the content itself is the same. I’ve tried to keep the thoughts as intact as possible to convey what I felt in the words I chose at the time.

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