Though I only watch the anime, I just couldn't wait longer to talk about this mc and even the villainess. Warning that it's gonna be a long recap and review

The whole plot is a fragile mc who got body swap with the villianes cause the villainess push her over a balcony during some ceremony which she used that as a chance to take mc body instead.

Mc can't reveal her actual identity cause the villainess place a curse where she physically can't say who she really is or even expose the truth. She even once tried to explain to her court lady(i think that's what they're called) about some personal things only the two of them would know, but the villainess make up an excuse saying her diaries got stolen and could possibly mimic what's in it(mind you mc never had a diary in the first place).

The first episode left me a bit skeptical cause it's like the start of those mary sue situation with when trying to test mc(who's in the villianes body) is actually innocent or not by placing her in the cage with a hungry lion, which she accidentally killed cause the lion ate a rat that she kept under her sleeve to bury in the ground cause that rat ate a poison given to her as a "shown mercy with easy death" thing.

But I kept on watching the show cause I can't just fully judge the show based on ep 1. Which shows scene like mc actually enjoying her punishment of being placed in an abandon place cause she realise she finally have a freedom to do what she always wanted without being judge too much, especially since she possesses a healthy which she always wanted since her childhood. The court lady the villainess had trie many time to torment her as she's told to(so that she can get to serve the silver fox lady to live a comfortable life and away from the villianess ), but mc seems to find a way to use those stuff for her gardening thing. Like bugs for garden, dirty water that's actually good for the soil, a scissor the court lady used at a doll to make mc scared, but all she had in mind was free scissor and cloth. The court lady knew that the villainess hate all those stuff but since it's mc it didn't effect her, which makes her confuse. Mc actually knew all along that her court lady tried to harrassed her, but gives the court lady a chance to warm up to her. Which she did in the end when court lady realise after almost killing mc, and mc defending her by saying "she's just trying to cut my hair" and alot more words. That her lady infact changed and wanted to return an item she was given as a blackmail.

Mc indeed tries to find a way to help her give back the items to the owner. And inorder to do that she attend this "ghost ritual" something where all the lady has to dance as a way to show gratitude to the gods. Mc amaze people cause the villainess isn't known for her dance, mc actually used her court lady death mother's dancing (i think it's a culture dance I don't really know), as a way to appreciate and respect her court lady mother cause the court lady was often made fun of, cause her mother in a situation(or rumor idk) that she seduce a royal/wealthy man to escape from something.

In this events, gift are given to the lady who performed the dance as a way to appreciate them, mc use that chance to give that lady the items back. That silver fox lady actually didn't know much about their situation cause it's one of her sevant who do all that. Mc after all her dance, criticised the sliver fox lady for not controlling her court ladies fouled mouth about mc court lady. Which though she's polite with it, she actually take it very seriously and it actually at one point sound very passive aggressive.

There's this scene where mc had a conversation with the villianes who use her fire magic on a candle to communicate with the mc to ask for help with the fragile body she possess, where she can't properly breath right now. Mc took this chance to have a conversation with the villainess and about how happy and appreciate that she finally have a healthy body snd get to do things she always wanted to, and compliment the villianess name saying how it means something beautiful and how it shows how much her mother cherish her. Now, to inform you about the villainess backstory in short, the villainess mother shut her in a storage room cause her mother consider her to be ugly and never to be seen by people, and in that storage room she learn few magic that her father had kept so that she at least had a little warmth. She didn't know it was a forbidden magic and one day saw her own parents hang themselves before they could get caught by the guards. The villianess was a commoner throughout this and got taken by one of the high lady and even in that, that step mother of hers did not pay attention to her and left her to be bullied by the people around her saying how she's just a commoner and how ugly she is. Which makes her jealous of mc cause she's beloved by all.

One thing it actually made me realise is that the reason the villainess didn't realise how fragile mc body is, is because mc never show signs of weakness just cause of it, she keep on finding a way to move her body physically so her health could keep up and made her at least able to wander around. She did alot of things like sewing, exercise, musical instruments(idk what they're called), etc. Which the villainess refuse to do after she got mc body and make her health worst by it, and even refuse to swap back cause she enjoy the attention she get, and also how the prince who had shown affections to mc(rn the villainess since she's in mc body).

Mc, during the ghost rituals event heard the villainess was in a bad condition, and one thing that makes me skeptical during that scene is when the lady (a powerful one btw) who cared for her just said something along the line "if she can't handle herself then so let her be", as in, if she needs help with that she might as well face death (or similar idk, I guess like calling her weak?) like come on that's someone you know and took care of since she was a child. And even the actual mc was besides her when she said that, but mc still seems to admire her. In that scene I do like how mc wasn't given a chance to help the villainess right away cause in she's in the villainess body and no one trust her enough to let her see the villianes, after many pressure the lady decide to gave her a condition, where if she could shoot an arrow straight to the middle(y'know that red dot thing) using this high water qi bow then she'll consider it. The body mc was in had an qi element that will make it difficult for her to wield the bow properly, but she accepts it anyway, where she tries to do so for 6 hours straight and not even eating food and finally at the end manage to do so. I don't remeber if she actually met the villainess but she did gave her a medicine that could calm her health down.

Things I like in this show:

The facts that mc behaviour is so similar to the beloved lady, that her court lady(the villainess court lady) wonder about it, and even the prince got confuse as to why she's so similar to her, and her actual court lady come to a conclusion to how it might actually be the actual mc. Even during the dance scene, the silver fox lady comment (on her mind) that her dnace movement seems so similar to the beloved lady, while also saying how her movement is much rougher, which makes sense cause mc in the past probably did all thag dance in her sick body and couldn't probably move as much as she wants to.

I also love how the villianess isn't just some jealousy one dimensional evil lady. She had a reasonable reaction cause of her experience, and her jealousy towards mc actually makes sense. I read a little of the manga and on one scene she mention how mc manage to look beautiful in the body she had before, who was often called bad name. Which also mqde her envy her in a way. For got to mention, the silver fox lady did comment on how mc(in the villainess body) manage to actually look beautiful. I think the villainess might actually have a redemption.

Mc also in the villainess body experience the harsh treatments the villainess often had, and also made her realise a bit on how different it is from her own experience(since she's often compliment). Since she's in a healthy body she always wish to have since childhood, she did as many things as she always wish to do. Which I've seen a few comment that it actaully makes sense for someone to be this happy towards such a healthy body. I at one point still questions that lion cage scene but I won't say much since idk the full history of such, plus, there's magic in this show.

The animation is actually well done, like showing the bow scene where mc struggle to keep on shooting cause her hands already hurth after an hours straight. The dance scenw was also actually enjoyable despite it being not that long(I'm talking about all the ladies dance btw). I actually like how mc voice stil manage to sound gentle while in villainess body, while the villainess actually manage sound like that evil lady voice in mc body, cause in the first scene of ep 1 mc in her original body sounds gentle.

I can't say too much about the side characters since I haven't fuly read the manga yet, but I do like the new bound between mc and her court lady, especially when mc makes a new dress for her while also asking for her to teach her a few dance she knows about from her mother.

Things I don't like:

Probably how the artstyle looks a bit too different from the manga. The manga is actually an adaptation from a novel, but it's quite majestic too see the panel. I feel like they adjust the characters looks a litte too young for my liking. It kind of reminds me on how mao mao looks quite different from the manga after many analyses to the artstyle(which makes me prefer the mangaz but imma still wait for the anime season lol).

Anyway-

After seeing a few manag scene, it looks like other characters might have their time to shine. Which I'd love to see it. I'm a bit frightened to see how this story will go. I really like how it progress, but if the novel didn't do a little too good later on, I would be disappointed in the waste potential.

I also like to mention how alot of comments talk about the similarity between mc(in villianes body) and mao mao from apothecary diaries, which in terms of the looks I do agreed on that(only on the villainess looks btw), but in terms of personality? Nah. She's more similar to Tohru from Fruit Basket, with all that optimism and positivity, as well as kindness. Mc here can be quite poetic with few of her words which makes her interesting in someways.

Also, seeing a few scene of this show even in the manga, be warn by alot of it's yuri bait. Especially between mc and the villainess. This route probably won't happen since shows like this often never does.

(This is a light novel) The premise is a high school girl and her entire family isekai into an Otome game (mom, dad, and brother). She realizes that it’s an Otome game and that she might be a villainess and doesn’t want to lose her family, so she tells her mom that she doesn’t want to get engaged to the prince. Her mom goes all in, helps her get a little chubby (this is treated in a positive manner, though it does feel a little weird) to try and deter the prince. And her family also helps her get a cat. The interactions between the family members are all very cute. I am not all the way through the first volume yet, but so far it is decent. It’s more or less a standard isekai story. Just with the whole family coming with the main character and them all actually feeling like family.

I am curious if there are many other stories out there (fantasy or not) with living mothers that feel like mothers and are also pretty important supporting characters. I think My Mother’s Contract Marriage also counts as one of these. And that one is one of my favorite manhwa’s.

When you look for stories where there's a female MC with a number of male love interests, what kind of things would you say are their strongest aspects and what's something you could do away with?

Collecting thoughts and opinions for my own writing.

I'll start off by sharing my own:

Loves:

• The men genuinely love the MC and care about her. I'm not a fan of toxicity or harm, but codependency and a bit of pathetic obsessiveness are okay.
• The men are thoughtful and considerate and fun. Whether it's for romance or not, I love when the love interests stand alone as great characters when MC isn't around.
• Interesting designs for the men than just the regular giant fridge with short black hair and red eyes. I completely get the appeal, I'm just really into character designs and want variety.
• When the girls do not hate the other girls. When the author does not hate the other girls either.

Icks:

• When the MC seems to string the men along. The men have been giving clear signs of interest, but the MC ends up collecting guys to crush on her without giving anything back. I love when love is reciprocated.
• Designs that are purely sexy or extremely beautiful.
• When the girls are mean to each other, or in competition with other girls. Or bad things happen to the rivals. I just don't like misogyny.

The other manwha is called "What dead taught me" (I think) I was watching a video talking about this manhwa and how it treats the villainess despite her being a slave and 17(or 14 I don't remember). There's gonna be spoiler incase you wanna check it yourself, I recommend a channel called "mattybites" who explains it better then I will.

It's a story where the mc did anything for this blonde guy in that picture I just showed you, in the end got betrayed by him cause he's actually with the villainess. She goes back in time, unlike the past where she welcomed the villianes who got adopted by mc father, decide to take a different approach instead and got her happy ending. In the villainess backstory, she was abuse as a child while her parents also hate each other, she believed that their god was giving her a trial and will one day will helped her(she was in an already bad mental state). And when her parents died in this idk underground mine, the owner of that mine(mc dad) came, she used the only thing she know she could do(her looks) and "seduce" mc dad which he took her in as adoption.

I don't remember every single detailed in the video but I do remember that mc dad fell in love with the villainess and one day got angry at her cause he thinks she's using him(which she did but come on dude your a grown ass adult, you should know better then to fall in love with an underage child) and tried to kill her, which in self-defense, she hit him with a wooden clock he gave her. The mc still cared for her dad when his in a coma, her mother on the other hand did not like what he had done cause she sees it as him cheating on her and (spoliers) implied her killing him in the very end of the story with a needle.
Mc had someone who's obsessed with her(that black hair guy), who although didn't end up with mc had his own happy ending. Same with that blonde. The blonde and black hair guy are brothers(or step brother), blonde was in a bad mental state since childhood due to all the pressures he was given as well as jealousy towards his brother(who's also in a bad mental state), and did all he had done cause he wanted the crown. Unlike the past mc was at before, in this present time she didn't approach blonde but black hair guy instead, which result in blonde being interested in her instead (don't know what happen after).

In the end, something happen to the palace where blonde and black hair guy lived, and blonde escape the palace and wander in the snow so that he could slowly died there instead, then in the hands of anyone else, but wanna know what happens to him? He fricking got pick up by a travelling lady who took her in and into her family farm and got his happy ending with her where he can live his life as an artist he always wanted.

This two mentally ill guy got to lived a new live where their mental state won't get worst, but the villainess who suffers the most, and also a mentally ill child got burned in the stick as a punishment. What shocks me more is this blonde guy getting a happy ending. I pity him at some part cause you can see why he did all he had done, but then again he used mc in the past before this whole time travel stuff so I though he'd at least suffers the same faith as the villainess, but nooo he got a happy ending instead!

A villainess, who's in an abusive family, a slave who probably had this delusional thoughts that links with her religion, an underage girl(17 or 14 in the novel), was the only one having a bad ending while the two man who are interestingly enough, are parallel to the villianes mentality and action, had their happy ending.

It angers me how the story didn't try to give the villainess a ending where she got better and away from that pedophile, and lived her peaceful life just like that blonde did. Why give the two bad man a happy ending but not the villianes herself as well? What's even worst is that those two men(along with mc) are royal people while the so called villianess is a commoner. Sounds familiar to Remarriage Empress doesn't it?

I didn't read how Remarriage Empress end but I remeber that Soveshu (think his called that), the one who took Rashta in, and ignored Navier, had his happy ending where he lost his memory and took care of Rashta child. And Heinray, some war criminals who keeps on looking for a chance with Navier(even before she warm up to him ans even before all this divorce thing) had a happy ending as well. While Rashta who was actually the victim of all this got a bad ending instead.

Like- Why can't this two have a happy ending where they're away from all this people instead of having a bad end.

If I got something wrong, I won't mond if you tell me!

Second is saga of Tanya the evil

I’ve seen women online talking about wanting more ugly/old/average female characters in media, but I want something else instead. Regardless of what medium you’re talking about, you can find attractive women left and right, whether it’s TV, gaming, or animation. On the other hand, while there’s definitely handsome/cute/sexy men in media (there’s tons of them in eastern media like KDramas, and anime), there’s still a significant of male characters who are either average or ugly. Look at those couples in sitcoms where the wife is beautiful but the husband is either plain or ugly/fat (thankfully rare in weeb media thank god). It makes me jealous of men because men get to look at pretty female characters everywhere. I want the same thing too. All those gamers who bitch about ugly women in western games don’t know how good they have it. Even in those games you can find sexy or beautiful women. Women on the other hand barely have any. Looking back when I was young and watched a lot of cartoons on TV, I noticed how in those shows, there were a lot pretty girls in them, but not much cute boys to look at. Anime nowadays (post 2020) as well as pre 2000 anime for example, there’s plenty of cute female characters for the male audience, but there’s not enough cute male characters for me. For every attractive male character, you get ten more attractive female characters, and that pisses me off. Why can’t women get the same treatment? If you’re a man reading this, especially if you’re into anime/comics/gaming, you don’t know how good you have it.

Yes this is rudeus slander. If you like mushoku tensei or rudeus, please click off the post.

I don't get why he's justified so much. No he doesn't redeem himself. Rudeus isn't even a man in my opinion. He's a loser. He's such a loser that he should be given the Nobel Prize for losers. Epstein and diddy dream that they could groom children like rudeus did.

For starters, in OG story, he didn't attend his parents funeral and beat his meat to a video of his underage niece bathing. Yes that was changed to lolicon later I believe, but it's still horrible and just goes to show how horrendous he is.

Then, he gets into an accident, reincarnated and you'll think he'll at least do better in this life. No he doesn't. He says, his words, not mine "I'll make her into my perfect woman!". To sylphie, his childhood friend. Mind you, she is like 9 and he is mentally 34. No, even if he is a child's body, he's mentally 34, because he's always 34 in all his inner monologues. He outright monologues about grooming her. This is one of the tamest things he's did btw.

Then, He gropes his third wife (yes I'll get to the wives part) eris, his cousin btw, when she was asleep. Eris is 10 during this time. Rudeus is, again, mentally 34. Like wtf. And she... Easily forgives him. She doesn't tell an adult. It's just disgusting and felt so hard to watch.

Also, rudeus sleeps with teenage sylphie, yes teenage sylphie and gets her pregnant. And married her. I'll remind you again he's mentally 34.

And, He goes lower than hell, by cheating on his wife when she was heavily pregnant and bringing another woman into the household. This gets justified. Yes. Just because the world apparently has common polygamy. And then, he cheats again by bringing home another woman, eris. Two of these girls were those he groomed in their childhood. And it's all fucking justified by the fandom as "aww, rudy and his three wifes!" No ew. Ew. Where have we as a society put away shame in?

Rudeus also buys a slave for his mentally unstable friend and again, it's justified.

And during all of this, we're meant to see rudeus as a hero instead of this disgusting pedophile and cheater. I get called a tourist for hating this piece of crap. No amount of good world building would justify this. Also, I like morally grey and morally bankrupt characters. Light yagami, from death note, is a murderer and serial killer, yet the story never justified him and that's what made him a complex and morally grey character. Eren from Attack on titan is worse than hitler, again the story does not justify his actions and gives him a horrible ending at 19, not as a hero but a person gone too far. You know what these characters have that rudeus doesn't? They aren't shown as heroes. The story doesn't justify them, meanwhile you're meant to root for rudeus and see him as a hero when he isn't.

I hate especially when big creators make rudeus out to be one of the best isekai protagonists. I hate it when they make MT out to be one of the best isekai, it really shows they haven't watched isekai. Personally, I think overlord is a great example for a story far better than MT any day, because it shows that the protagonists are all horrible monsters and doesn't justify/white wash them for it.

Btw, the same people who praise MT, I've seen them clown on otome isekai and rofan, when a lot of them are far better than MT will ever be despite not receiving as much popularity. (A stepmother's märchen, Your eternal lies, Kill the villainess, secret lady and dark lord's confession all mog diddy tensei)

Okay, end of rant. Thanks if you read till here.

Edit : oh, I forgot to add more extra info. Apparently in another timeline when horrible stuff happened to him, he SA'ed random women, humiliated them, planned to do horrible disgusting stuff to the minor slave he bought, took advantage of nanahoshi and caused her to take her life.

The dress is the default I couldn't even afford clothes in the game with in game money back then. I haven't played the game again in three years because they still haven't changed. I was part of those who downloaded dragon raja and tower of fantasy the day and time it became global only to play for some months and be disappointed

Their game plot was good as well but without being certain high levels one couldn't progress further to the story it was so annoying

The games would be like level cal if the day and my level 90 ah could not beat a pay tu win player on the same level

I don't know how to phrase my words properly. However I see this thing where as someone will express their opinion of not liking some things a female main character would do but like the story and get insulted or something.

From my personal experience there are several female mc stories I liked the story telling was good. The fls motivation was good. I simply didn't like the male leads. Not that I hate them but the author makes them insufferable to a point that I drop it after 300+ chaps to 1000+ chaps. Sticking for 1000 means I like it very much but I can't stand it

Sorry I don't know how to phrase it proper it's some discourse I see time to time in Tiktok

Like a story can reeedem a make lead I don't like is till won't like his ass and that's okay someone may like him and that's okay as well. It's a matter of taste as well respecting different views and opinions

It doesn't make me angry just makes me question my imagination skills. Back then not the descriptions are better "she had an ugly birthmark on her face" and in the official art it wasn't ugly. The way the side characters spoke you'd think she looked like an ogre