The Role of the Femme Fatale - Ch. 4

[silverpetricof]

Thank you for the translation.

 

[Kuraiaku]

Finding myself quiet confused by the story so far and I'm wondering if it's not partially to do with the translation. Not that I think the translation team is at fault or anything, just that maybe I'm associating the word "villainess" with certain things that don't apply to how it's been used in this series.

When I think of a villainess I think of the way otome isekai stories tend to use the term. The character who heavily bullies the heroine (or at least is meant to in the "original" plot before the MC isekais). And that certainly doesn't seem to describe the MC of this or anything she's done.

Further the title says femme fetale, and I'd consider a femme fatale and a villainess different type of characters. Which again makes me wonder if I'm misinterpreting what the usage of the term villainess is meant to mean here. Not that femme fatale fits the character either.

And the characters responses to the MC are just bizarre. Like this chapter. Or previous when the whole class called her a villainess and acted shocked just because she asked to be someone's friend. And why would the school decide to give her the villainess role if what she wanted was to make friends? Heck, the school only taking in orphan girls and then making their lives miserable by forcing them to live out a specific role or else get expelled is just weird in the first place.

I guess it's supposed to be an over the top premise to fit a comedy series, but so far I don't feel like the story is being comedy enough to fit it. It feels like it's taking itself rather seriously and it's honestly making it a bit frustrating to read. I feel bad for the MC. She's just an orphan girl who wants to make friends but she suddenly finds herself in wonderland. It sort of reminds me of that Adam Sandler movie Anger Management, where a regular person who's not in on the joke has to deal with a bunch of people acting inexplicably crazy then treating him like he's the crazy one for having normal reactions to things.

I'll still stick with it though since I liked False Marigold. And hopefully this one doesn't get cancelled like the author's other works.

魔性 (mashou), is a term to describe someone weird but charming. This word has a deep connotation in Chinese/Japanese internet lingo and has a bit of the meaning of "charming", but it's more than that. It means someone who is weird but interesting and looks strange but inexplicably attractive. They are hard to accept due to their eccentricity at first, but after a while, you will be used to them and it becomes a contagious brainwashing mode (similar to RPG game's charmed status effect) to the victims.

This is the supposed meaning of the term, not "villainess" as the translator used. Villainess is 悪役令嬢 (akuyaku reijo) which the term author didn't use in this series at all. I think the translator mistranslated the terms and caused confusion, the term mashou itself is probably not widely known by non-Japanese/Chinese natives.

I think the term "charmer"/"seductress" is better used in this case.