Female MC and "Villainess" Isekai Manga discussion

[flyingkoifish]

Recently I've seen a lot of isekai manga with female mc suddenly popping out from the nowhere and every 2~3 weeks there probably a new isekai manga with female protag scanlated.

Most of them usually reincarnated as a villainess in an otome game and the manga usually started either when they are young or after the protag's fiance annul their engagement. The manga genre is obviously will be shojou.

Most of them have a 8~9 rating which is pretty weird because most of them usually have almost the same settings. I have probably have seen at least 3 isekai where the protag create a cafe after they broke with their fiance. I think it is because not as saturated as male MC isekai but only time will tell.

So do guys think some of it will be good or it will end up being hot garbage like the majority of isekai manga? I think some of the great one is probably the duke's daughter and Omotenashi Gohan.

 

[Xzayer]

Depends on how they handle the situation as a whole.

Spoiler

The fighter princess was hilarious and subverted the whole accepting defeat trope.

We will see if the writers make interesting or more generic FMC’s.

 

[Thoraxe41]

It'll be like regular Isekei. Hot and cool at the start, and then become oversaturated with extremely strange and stupid ones. Still get some gems here and there but still oversaturated.

 

[LowSanity]

For now i love them as they bring new life and twist into Isekai for me. I will most likely hate them in the future.

 

[Sem]

Some of them are good some are bad, most won't be interesting past the first couple of chapters when the initial twist wears off.
Bakarina manages to remain pretty funny and I'm still interested in Chitra, but these two are hard for me to consider their main category as "isekai". Bakarina is a harem story with a so dense she's transcendent female lead, and I'd consider Chitra a gacha comic, similar to the FGO fan comics.

And honestly a lot of them are just straight up classic shoujo manga with a slightly different wrapping. I dont even remember which one it was, but I picked one of them up and thought, "Is this just Candy Candy/Lady??" There's a lot of old ass tropes that they're trying to pass off as new and sometimes the "heroine" and "villainess" are so swapped in personality that their roles are meaningless, like that one about the red head named Bertia.

If you just want a frilly story about girls in love who keep getting bullied, you'd be better off reading the old soap operas. At least those ones legitimately challenge their characters instead of pretending they do and then wiping away the danger by saying she's already encountered this event in a game format.

 

[crazybars]

A lot of the newer ones are trend followers.

We're probably gonna get a HUGE flood of them because it's essentially Isekai.

The problem of course being that changing the MCs gender only is not innovation. . . . . . that's stagnation.
We've seen that before recently in Hollywood, things do not go well when this happens. We need new stories and material, not old ideas rebooted and recycled.

 

[Letheliah]

I prefer female protag isekai tbh, if only because they usually get relegated to romance, and that romance by it's nature needs good storybuilding and character growth to hold up—things i'm rather fond of reading, personally. There is some Tired stories among the lot, but I think they're generally all unique in their own niche way (which can scratch cravings for certain types of plots or premises within a familiar framework). Would you like a list of recommendations? Do you have a particular genre that draws you? Political/psychological isekai with a smattering of romance are my bread and butter.

 

[theilikepie]

I do like them. But it think of them as typical shojis with a bit more self awareness. As Sem said, there the typical bitchy rivaless, good mc novels/manga but with different names which is ironic because the genre was made to defy those tropes yet falls into it themselves with these later ones

 

[Adasura]

Imma be honest with you I avoid them like the plague as romance is usually a theme and I find it difficult to follow the perspective of the females in these stories. Is it because I'm a guy possibly. I also have a great distaste for shoujo in general. It might also be because I cant be bothered because i have so much other stuff to read. I think the only one I'm reading so far is Saving up 80000 gold or whatever it's called and its avoided the contrived romance so far so im digging it. I tend to avoid female protagonists stories because they usually turn into shitty romance and writing romance in manga is usually super hard(I can think of a few exceptions but this is just my observation after many years).

 

[FireFish5000]

I follow them, and you may have seen me spam some recommendations on a few threads. I will try updating my user profile/recommendation wall more latter.
Also a male, and currently my favorite follow is villainess otome book one which, unfortunately, does not even have a page on MD (First item in my WIP profile recs) .

Honestly, I am doubtful they are really new (assuming just new to me/you due to changing taste. Before I read the first one, I wouldn't have clicked on anything with a shojou cover)... but I haven't really asked the female otome veterans how long the trend has been going on.

 

[Ranzo]

I'm really surprised at how many of those I enjoy reading
Quite a few of them are just really well done
Both Bakarina and Koushaku Reijou no Tashinami are just legitimately great

I think a big reason why a lot of them seem to be taking off is that they tend to have some really good protags which is not something that typical Isekai shit neither wants or needs

 

[Siquall]

I actually like this new genre of otome isekai or something close.
And it's weird, but Bakarina is probably one of the few i don't like. It's good in the child arc, but i find it boring after.

 

[Kamikoto]

Saying this as a guy: I like the average isekai with female mcs. In male mc isekais, the plot often just ends up being an excuse for male power fantasies (being the strongest, collecting girls...). On the other hand, isekais with female mcs focus a lot more on their story and characters. Since female mcs usually don't get handed some cheat power to them, they have to overcome obstacles without raw power, which is way more interesting than reading about some dude being #1 thanks to his hacks.

 

[Tromend]

I honestly feel conflicted about this one, since I look for Yuri everywhere and anywhere, I actually fell down the rabbit hole of this kind of stories lately... I am no ashamed to say I am reading at least 3 mangas of this type and a bare minimum of 9 WNs... which would be 10 if one hadn't ended already and was being published as a LN (Watashi no oshi wa akuyaku reijou)

The stories are much more centered on character development with this ones, it feels SO MUCH different than your "OH hey, ANOTHER ISEKAI" but its not like there aren't some of those around either. The thing is, they are actually quite refreshing since, even if the plot in essence ends up being the same (OP MC gets whisked away to another world and hijinks ensue because of those OP powers into creating a harem) when the protag is a female it, for some reason I can't understand, feels less forced, less... IDK Stupid I guess? Point is, it feels more organic.

 

[gum_rummy]

I like them a lot but I find myself getting more tired of them as time goes on. They're so similar and they update so infrequently that it's kind of difficult to keep track of which is which. Doesn't help that the titles and art styles are all pretty similar. I'm glad they exist though. Still waiting on/searching for a yuri otome isekai.

 

[mrf]

I don't particularly mind just some aren't really that good not bad either but definitely not good. Pretty much the same other normal isekai there's a good one and a bad one.

Hey, that in mind i like the slow start so the end of it will at least feel like something. But first impressions are important just don't start with a boring one. You judge what the boring one is.

The thing is just don't read too much of one genre you'll get tired of it. Heck anything will get boring if you taste it every time or too much.

I like doctor Elise and chitra, others too that I couldn't remember.

 

[May_Lily]

@flyingkoifish
My guess would be the latter since it seems that's where genres/plots that become trendy tend to go. We get a saturation of stories that use the same or similar ideas with a few gems buried underneath it.

I have not pay attention to the kinds of stories you mention as I do not follow Isekai heavily, but I am learn of a few or maybe was it one, that seemed promising. I cannot remember the title of it though. With that said while the idea behind those stories seem interesting from the start (from what I remember), I feel more like I want to read or watch an Isekai story starring a female protagonist that goes on an adventure in another another world instead of one that gets transported into an Otome game they have been playing and being stuck in the role of antagonist of that particular Otome game.

@Adasura
I am also a male yet I do not mind the romance genre as like the concept behind the genre, and I can follow the perspectives of characters regardless of what sex they are. How good romance stories or romantic sub plots become is dependent on how well these stories are executed (like with with story telling in general) and some of the worse or average romances I have comes across are the ones in which were poorly executed (such as the contrived ones you mention). Also low quality romance stories or romantic sub plots are not limited to ones that star female characters as I have seen stories staring male leads that have poorly written or contrived romances.

 

[MadeOfMagicAndWires]

These series have, for the most part, been around for a while already but are only now getting attention after scanlators and licencees have covered all other isekai series available.

On the hot garbage scale these series are still the most basic of wish fulfillment without any real substance, just a different flavour.
That said, I'll take one of these over "male" isekai every day of the week as the specific romance angle actually requires the characters to be somewhat likeable.
You'll find little revenge exploitation or "they're a good person, cause they treat their slaves 'well'; while still keeping slaves" within this subgenre. The bar has never been higher...