, often translated as I Favor the Villainess, is a Japanese light novel series written by Inori and illustrated by Hanagata. It was serialized online between January 2018 and February 2021 on the Japanese novel self-publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. It was acquired by Ainaka Publishing, who published the first light novel volume digitally in February 2019 under their GL Bunko imprint.
A manga adaptation with art by Aonoshimo has been serialized in Ichijinsha's manga magazine Comic Yuri Hime since June 18, 2020. As of April 2026, the manga comprises twelve volumes. The light novel and manga are licensed in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. An anime television series adaptation produced by Platinum Vision aired from October to December 2023.
Plot Rei Ohashi, an ordinary office worker, is overworked to death and suddenly finds herself reincarnated as Rae Taylor, the heroine of her favorite game, Revolution. Although the game's three original romance routes pit her with the Bauer Kingdom's princes, Rae (a lesbian) has no interest in doing so. Instead, she sets her heart on Claire François, the game's main antagonist. Using her knowledge of the game's events that are yet to come, Rae tries to give Claire a happy ending before the coming revolution destroys any chance of it happening.
Characters /
An office worker who died of overwork and reincarnated as the player character of her favorite game, Revolution. Being a lesbian, she has no interest in the game's designated male capture targets and has instead developed feelings for the game's villainess, Claire. Rae aims to use her knowledge of the original game's plot to give her a happy ending. Underneath her happy-go-lucky demeanor, however, lies a woman beset by trauma from poor romantic experiences in her previous life.
The villainess of the original game and the current target of Rae's affection. She is a noble who believes in the current aristocratic system within the kingdom and often has a low view of commoners, especially Rae, though this only serves to make her flustered and confused by Rae's interest in her. Over time, however, she begins appreciating Rei's attempts to bond with her, often resulting in slapstick punishment, which Rae does not mind.
The eldest heir within the Bauer Kingdom's royal family and the most popular of the romance options in the original game. He is often followed by a legion of devoted female admirers for his looks and skill. He is an energetic young man who becomes deeply interested in Rae due to her unrivaled abilities stemming from her knowledge of the original game, much to the latter's dismay.
The second heir within the Bauer Kingdom's royal family and one of the romance options in the original game. He is often stoic due to suffering from an inferiority complex as he feels that his abilities are inferior to his brothers, causing him to be considered the least popular capture target. Claire has had a long-standing and obvious crush on him, especially apparent in his route.
The third heir within the Bauer Kingdom's royal family and one of the romance options in the original game. While putting on the guise of a charismatic prince, it is later revealed that she is afflicted with the Crosswire Curse, which inverts genders; actually being a girl but having been cursed by her mother to gain eligibility for the throne. Originally, only Misha (her childhood friend) knew of her secret; with even Rae having been unaware of it. However, after Rae learns of her affliction and offers her a cure, she decides to break her curse and live by her true gender.
Rae's roommate and best friend. Her family was once a noble house, but they fell from grace and were demoted to commoners. Having known the real Rae before Rei reincarnated as her, she becomes increasingly suspicious of her and eventually learns of the reincarnation. She also mutually loves Yu, being the only one aware of his gender-swapping curse, and continues doing so even after said curse is broken; showing she is pansexual.
Claire's maid who has worked for her as long as she can remember, sharing a bond that is closer to sisterly. She is a commoner and the eldest daughter of a wealthy merchant family. She is also in an incestuous romance with her brother, which disgusts even Rae. It is later revealed that her family is part of a revolutionary movement seeking to overthrow the nobility and she and her brother are exiled after the plot fails, Claire and Rae having bargained to spare them the death penalty.
A childhood friend of Claire's, later revealed to have a crush on her. She is from the House Kugret, a family well known for their history of military service. She has a boyish face with freckles.
A childhood friend of Claire's, who later develops a crush on Loretta. She is the daughter of the House Barlier, a family with deep-seated connections in Bauer's business world. She has pink hair.
A princess of a foreign country who has known Claire since childhood. She is a tomboyish and open lesbian who transfers to the Royal Academy after being exiled from her kingdom following a scandal where she was revealed to be in a relationship with her maid. After transferring, she develops a crush on Rae and gets close to Claire to make her jealous. In the end, she transfers out again after her status is restored, having left a profound impact on Rae and Claire's relationship by getting them to seriously pursue each other.
Production
Light novels
Conception Inori, the author of the light novels, had wanted to be a writer since she was a student. She decided to apply for a light novel contest hosted by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko, and her first submitted work ended up getting third place. Following that, she became more interested in pursuing writing as a career. However, she fell ill shortly afterward, and did not begin writing I'm in Love with the Villainess until after she graduated from university.
Inori stated that her work naturally tended to focus on relationships; though she wrote stories with heterosexual relationships, she felt that it "didn't quite fit". She named Shinobu Saeki, a light novel writer, as someone who had a "huge impact" on her.
Inori based Rae Taylor, the story's protagonist, on her partner, Aki, though with exaggerated traits. Inori described Aki as a "very humorous person", and felt that a story featuring a character like her would be fun to write. In addition, many of the conflicts that Rae faces in the story were inspired by Inori's life experiences. As for Claire, Inori modeled her off a "villainess" character archetype popular on the novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō, but stated that had "no special attachment" to the archetype's genre itself.
Development Inori first serialized the work from January 2018 to February 2021 on Shōsetsuka ni Narō. She often wrote irregularly, with the time taken for a single chapter ranging from one week to three months. One time, she wrote about 40,000 characters of text in a single day.
Inori felt it was important to address societal issues, especially since she identified as part of a minority group. While doing this, she sometimes struggled to balance between the work's value as entertainment and its value in addressing serious themes. Despite this, she remarked that she was pleased with the series overall, and did not wish to rewrite it.
Inori noted that yuri stories often tended to emphasize subtle emotions, whereas her writing focused more on stronger and vivid feelings. Furthermore, rather than focusing on an individual relationship, Inori sought to connect her writing's yuri aspects to a greater narrative.
Publication After hearing that GL Bunko was looking for yuri stories, Inori submitted I'm in Love with the Villainess. After six months and forgetting about the manuscript entirely, she received a publication offer. Her story was then officially published in Japan as an ebook.
Although sales were initially poor, Korean and English fan translations led to the work becoming popular overseas. Eventually, publishers in South Korea and North America officially released the series in print form, following which a manga adaptation began being serialized in the magazine Comic Yuri Hime. In late 2021, the series was published in print form in Japan for the first time.
Media Light novels I'm in Love with the Villainess was originally serialized online from January 14, 2018, to February 21, 2021, on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Five volumes of the official light novel were published digitally as Amazon Kindle exclusives by Ainaka Publishing under their GL Bunko imprint from February 26, 2019, to August 26, 2021. The light novels featured cover art and additional illustrations by Hanagata.
In April 2020, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they had licensed the light novel in North America. On March 19, 2021, Seven Seas issued a statement that they would be releasing a new version of the first volume due to the localization decisions in the original omitting several paragraphs.
I'm in Love with the Villainess: Revolution In 2021, Ichijinsha announced that it would begin publishing the light novels in paperback as expanded "Revolution" editions, exclusive to Japan, with the first volume released on December 18, 2021, under their Ichijinsha Novels imprint. In order to incentivize purchases by fans who may have already owned the original e-books, these editions feature refinements both to the editing and to existing illustrations, as well as additional bonus stories, additional illustrations, and other extra content. Several bonus stories which were originally published with the third light novel were also moved forward in order to better fit chronologically with the mainline story, with the result being that the existing second light novel's content is covered in two books instead of one. As of November 2023, only three novels (corresponding in mainline content to the original two novels) have been released in Revolution editions.
Spin-offs is a retelling of the original series from Claire's perspective. It began serialization online on May 25, 2021, on Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Ainaka Publishing published the first light novel volume digitally under their GL Bunko imprint on February 28, 2022, with Hanagata returning for cover design and additional illustrations. At Anime Expo 2022, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they licensed the spin-off for English publication. In February 2026, it was announced that Seven Seas Entertainment has required the license to I'm in Love with the Villainess: Come on and Notice Me Already, a spinoff light novel series which focuses on the daughters of the two protagonists, Aleah and May, and features other characters, with volume one set to be released in January 2027.
Manga A manga adaptation is written by Inori and illustrated by Aonoshimo. It began serialization in Ichijinsha's yuri manga magazine Comic Yuri Hime on June 18, 2020. In February 2021, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they had also licensed the manga adaptation.
Spin-off A 4-chapter cooking spin-off manga illustrated by tsuke, titled , was serialized in Comic Yuri Hime from June 16 to September 15, 2023.
Webtoon A manhwa adaptation written by Kim Migyo and illustrated by TSTeam, titled , began serialization on Ridi Books' webtoon platform on January 13, 2023.
Anime