Discussion Manga Club - Collective Reading- #08 -End

[digitaldude]

We start reading now?

 

[Juviii]

We start reading now?

Yes we are on reading and comment phase.

 

[Copy Panda]

Reading Phase
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Thanks guys End of the voting phase !
the winner is The Perks of Being a Villainess with 4 votes.
Now we will be entering the reading/sharing phase. So now you have till September 5th ( I adjusted the phase due to the 2nd poll tie) to read at your own pace and share thoughts. Spoiler tags are required until the end of the phase. Normally, when joining, you commit into reading at least 1 volume, so please don't disappear because your selected ones haven't won.
Remember the whole point is to get to discover new manga, and enjoy and discuss with others about how you feel about them.

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The Perks of Being a Villaines by Mang, Gokim (Story), Yoteh (Art) Link

Mere moments before her death, Korean architecture student Yoon Dohee has an epiphany: those around her regard her as nothing more than a pushover and someone utterly undeserving of respect. A chance to turn her life around comes in the most unexpected form when she is reborn as Deborah Seymour, a brazen and scornful villainess from a dark reverse harem novel. When one of the male leads acquired a rare pink diamond for the heroine, Mia Binoche, Deborah's envy sparked an abusive campaign that eventually landed her in an isolated monastery.

For this incarnation of Deborah, being a villainess from such a prominent and wealthy family is living the dream. People expect nothing from her, and she gets to relax and be pampered to her heart's content. She is personally disinterested in the diamond, so she simply has to avoid crossing paths with Mia and her love interests. But if Deborah, as a noble lady, refuses to marry, she will meet the same pitiful ending regardless. To secure her independence, Deborah needs money and help—and a mysterious hooded information broker may prove to be her lifeline.


by Mal

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is this the one we're gonna read?

 

[Erinyes]

is this the one we're gonna read?

yes !

 

[Sanity Check]

This did an outstanding job quantifying the mentality of today's youth.

Spoiler

Priorities of today's youth:

-Networking with powerful and important people
-Being a clever & successful business owner / entrepreneur

Priorities of korean youth:

-Hardworking
-Engineering degree to participate in korea's thriving manufacturing sector
-Respect for elders & loyalty to family

I feel like the story was built around these fundamental trends.

Which is nice.

Although when I saw the word villainess, I expected something more like...

Spoiler

...

...

...

 

[shinobi]

So let's see ....

Spoiler

Ok, so unlike most all other female leads who stress over changing their terrible reputation, Deborah completely embraces her image as the villainess and wants to protect it all all cost. And instead of being reborn with some strange powers she's actually the only one in her overpowered family who has no magic powers whatsoever. And her simple dram is to not get married, and live a good life

The male lead Isidor is a breath of fresh air compared to the standard cold, black-haired, red-eyed dukes that you see in almost every manhwa of this genre. he shines like a pop star and even went to the ball dressed in pink, winning the "Flower of the year" title over all the ladies lmao. While he's sly, strong, and resourceful, he is a massive green flag, or rather, the whole green forest! And he loves cats so that's a huge bonus, cookie is kawaii, meow He's hiding his identity as the master tho. And he openly declares he relies on his face to charm Deborah when he approaches her a t first. He got the biggest shock in his life when she just up and left him standing there lmao.

Zero frustrating tropes. No revenge plot, no contract marriage, and no cringe misunderstandings!

No toxic family drama either. She doesn't have an awful, abusive family that constantly mistreats their daughter. And I love how much the father cherished his wife's rose garden and her letters. Her father is so cool. And say what you want about her brother Veleque (or Belreck) , I like him.

Deborah and Isidor are schemers who perfectly suit each other. Their first encounter was funny as well. Their excellent communication is highly appreciated. A couple that can actually communicate without a lot of drama! I have come tot he conclusion that most manga/mahwa couples were incapable of sorting out simple situations by having basic conversations! And it's funny how she asked the master to investigate Isidor, and the report he made about himself, that was edited like a 100 times, he shamelessly gave himself a perfect score


The original female lead Mia looks every bit that good from the outside but rotten inside kind of girl, no surprise there I guess. The refreshing part is that the male lead Isidor couldn't care less about her, both in the original story and in the current timeline. And Pilap is the kind of idiot that started obsessing over Deborah when she walked away from him, what a guy!

Ok enough for now, I can blabber a lot more but my fingers are tired of typing lol later ~

 

[Jammin]

Hmm so after reading up to date on it my thoughts go like this..

Spoiler

I guess I'll separate my thoughts into the good, the ok, and the not so good.

The Good
Deborah herself and the expressive art style are great. Those are the two strongest points for me. Deborah has a vivid personality, which I love in a protag. Which is always welcome. And while she does have a bit of the isekai protag-itus where everything seems just a bit easier than it should be for her. It consistently keeps well clear of that mary sue danger zone.

I'm a fan of the family dynamic stuff too, With her brothers and father. Whether it be her sort of doting on the troubled younger brother, dealing with psycho middle brother, and bonding with her emotionally stunted father. It does a good job of building up bonds there, which I liked.

The Ok
Isidor is alright. He works and he's not quite as tropey as a lot of characters of his type and I appreciate that the author picked a single character to sort of invest in to make a more interesting version of what he is. All that being said, I can't say he moved the needle much for me. As our lead love interest he's... fine. I'd rate him like a B+ on the scale of villainess love interests. I'm neither annoyed nor impressed, I guess I'd say.

The business management stuff is also ok. I've seen the isekai'd character capitalizing on otherworldly knowledge thing play out a lot of times in a lot of ways and this is kind of in the middle of the pack in that department. It works as well as it does mostly because of how successfully they sell Deborah as as clever as she is but if your looking for plot holes there you will still find them. It's good enough to work though.

The Not-So-Good
Supporting cast is undercooked for my taste. From the original heroine Mia, to her classmates, to Mia's suitors, it's all pretty underdeveloped. There just isn't much there and what is seems pretty thin. I'm assuming stuff with Mia will be coming later but it feels off to me that so little has been done with that character after this many chapters which feeds into another issue.

There isn't really much of a plot so far. It's just isekai business management and light romance with a dash of scheming but in a way that's very chill and never feels urgent or threatening. The selling point feels like it's just Deborah herself, and the Deborah x Isidor ship. But if you want to like touch base with the original plotline or characters from that, you won't get much. Or her buying her way into nobility, a concept which has been either abandoned or rarely mentioned, despite it being the core motivation for all the earning money she's been doing.

 

[arrowofsky]

The drawing is interesting, different than what I used to from webtoon especially. Btw, I also finished Myst, Might, Mayhem while thru it and that was so awesome.

Will leave more comments when I read more on villainess.

 

[Vali x lucifer]

Finished the first season at Ch.45

Spoiler

So far it remains a solid read for me, Deborah always has some interesting ideas to get closer to her objective and lives her villainess life striking a nice balance between enjoying hersef and pragmatically trying to steer the fate of the story in her favour. The skills and lessons learned during her "normal" life feel meaningful and often lead to satisfying payoffs in her new life here.

The male lead Isidor so far seems like the only plausible love interest, curious to see if some other character will show up later on to shake things up or if it will be a pretty straightforward ship (i like drama/harem tropes so i kinda hope we will get more spice there).
As for things i didn't particularly like i would say that sometimes the relationships and sub plots Deborah develops with the characters around her in a specific arc can feel a little too "insulated" from the rest of the story, like Deborah bringing the letters to her father and exploring the relationship he had with her mother, once he got Deborah the Pink diamond the story kinda pivoted to another arc quite suddenly while i was still curious to see their dynamic develop some more and hoped to discover more stuff about her mother.

About other things i like, i would say the OG Female lead of the story Mia intrigues me a lot, i am not sure yet if she will become a proper antagonist/villain later on but i think she has a lot of potential for some interesting develpments.

 

[digitaldude]

Its a vertical comic, you should have told me you have warned me. Only chapter 5 right now, we have to read all 100?

 

[Jammin]

Ch 45 would be the end of Volume 1.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 2, 2026, Original Post Date: Sep 2, 2026 ---

Or season 1 i guess which would be the webtoon equivalent to a printed volume.

 

[Erinyes]

Its a vertical comic, you should have told me you have warned me. Only chapter 5 right now, we have to read all 100?

Nope my bad 1 volume is like for manga, which is between 5/10 chapters . Im not familiar with this format I had no clue about that otherwise Id have adjusted. you dont need read 45 chapters, that's a lot. if you could between 5/10 , i your read more then its awesome, but somewhere between 5/10 is enough to fulfil requirements, its all about discovering something new. I will adjust that next time. Sorry again.

basically
- 1 volume for manga (aka beween 5/10 chapters)
- 3 episodes for animes
- 5/10 chapters for any longer format.

 

[Vali x lucifer]

Ok, I got up to date ch. 103

Spoiler

So after reading another 50+ chapters i would more or less confirm my impressions from the 1st season, i enjoyed the read, i like Deborah and i will likely keep following the series to see how it develops. In S2 I had quite a bit of fun especially during the Henrique parts and with the Gambling mini arc with Thierry Orgo.

I am not really a fan of the love story so far tho, although i like both Deborah and somewhat even Isidor as characters, i find the love story itself a bit too safe for my tastes, every time another male character approaches Deborah the author makes it abundantly clear that nothing serious will come of it. Since that's the case i would rather see the author explore more the Deborah/Isidor relationship as an established couple or at least have them be more casual and honest with each other because right now about 30% of their interactions boils down to an "M'Lady let me open the door for you"-> "I love him !.... actually i can't let him know or i am finished" can't say it's moving me.

Mia went MIA for most of these chapters so i am still curious to see what will happen with her later on, although i fear she might not get as much spotlight as i initially anticipated.

 

[arrowofsky]

I finished 9 chapters and it is going very well even though I have a busy day in general.

Spoiler

I had a bed feeling with "yet another isekai" prejudice of mine, but it is more like she just know a single path to the future and abstain from her, while the life is of course much more complicated than just that. Interpersonal relations feel real, chubbi drawings are funny, the father figure is a bit softer than I would have expected but still nice. If I had been left to myself I would have never checked this out but it is a diamond spoon on one's mouth Thanks for recommending and voting this up.

 

[Jammin]

I think it's going to be an interesting comic to discuss. Not just on it's own merits but those villainess series in general.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 3, 2026, Original Post Date: Sep 3, 2026 ---

Specifically, I'm curious to hear various people's impressions of a lot of elements that are... not shoujo exactly but... clearly was not done with a male readership in mind. And how that lands with various people. What in this genre works and doesn't for a male reader that is really just not the intended audience, you know?

 

[Vali x lucifer]

I think it's going to be an interesting comic to discuss. Not just on it's own merits but those villainess series in general.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 3, 2026, Original Post Date: Sep 3, 2026 ---

Specifically, I'm curious to hear various people's impressions of a lot of elements that are... not shoujo exactly but... clearly was not done with a male readership in mind. And how that lands with various people. What in this genre works and doesn't for a male reader that is really just not the intended audience, you know?

I can say that the genre itself definitely has potential to attract my interest, the fact that the target audience is (for the most part) female readers doesn't really detract from my overall personal enjoyment, in theory at least.
After all most of the story elements like: Fantasy, Isekai, romance, magic system, political intrigue etc. are all aspects I am quite familiar with.

Of course, i noticed the focus on things mostly associated with femininity like dresses, flowers, jewelry or the focus on the little chivalrous acts that usually isn't there in your average male centered adventure series, but i would say it just makes the story feel different or unique, not really any better or worse per se.

That said I do think that being outside of the target audience gives you a bit more of a "third person view" feel for the story, rather than the intended first person, more immersive experience, but the result can certainly be enjoyable either way imo.
Personally I also like the exercise of trying to understand what the author was going for when reading things that I feel like have a different target audience, a bit of meta reading if you will.

 

[Jammin]

I'm going to wait until the 5th to go into detail but there are definitely some things that don't work for me. And their not necessarily feminine things but things that are very much root in the patterns of these sorts of Otome game/comic based series. Yet there are other things I like a great deal. The why's of all that seems really interesting to me.

Like for example a question that I was left with after finishing what's available was...

Spoiler

Focusing exclusively on Deborah x Isidor is something I like as a concept. But if I'm being honest, I'm not really emotionally invested in that relationship. Is that a writing problem? Is that 43 year old male reader problem? Or is that an Isidor problem? That's a rabbit hole I'm interested to explore a bit.

 

[Sanity Check]

Like for example a question that I was left with after finishing what's available was...

Spoiler

Focusing exclusively on Deborah x Isidor is something I like as a concept. But if I'm being honest, I'm not really emotionally invested in that relationship. Is that a writing problem? Is that 43 year old male reader problem? Or is that an Isidor problem? That's a rabbit hole I'm interesting to explore a bit.

Spoiler

Yes, agreed.

Their pairing has no real obstacles to overcome.

Maybe later if the demonic cult mobilizes but atm there are no legit relationship problemz.

 

[Vali x lucifer]

If i think about the male centered equivalent of the Villainess genre, i believe i would describe it as a sort of isekai shonen power fantasy with a strong focus on romance. Even in those series it's not really common for me to find ships that get me super invested, so i wouldn't say that the problem is the villainess genre having a different target audience, i would be more of the opinion that putting a strong focus on romance in general requires a lot of work on the author's side to make it work (there are plenty of male centered shonens where i disliked the main ship, and were "saved" by the fact that the romance aspect of the story held a fairly minor role) even more so if the reader is outside of the intended target audience, since in that case even the typical fan service is less effective in keeping the reader engaged, but I am positive that a truly exceptional story teller can make it work regardless.

 

[Sanity Check]

I think this title could be more tsundere than villainess.

Villainess is more defined by a slippery slope and seductive fall to evil. This one is more sunshine, rainbows and unicorn vomit. Maybe the author wanted to make a point about vulnerable and kind people being good candidates to lead powerful enterprise. As they may be less likely to fall victim to corruptive aspects of power, and wield their influence for the good of the people. In theory, cultural and societal progress may be made this way. Its the modern myth of autistic teens, who are social door mats, being unassuming benevolent leaders of global crime syndicates.

This manwha has a strong "power couple" vibe. I hope they can do something interesting and cool with that.

When I read the word villainess I instantly thought omg this will be like disney's rendition of Cruella. Which some might call me nuts for liking but I did enjoy that with its "nature versus nurture" theme.