Villainess stories, whether in novel, manga, or anime format, all share a few basic truths, and one of them is that if the “villainess” turns out to be good, it must follow that the “heroine” is actually bad. Bakufu Narayama‘s The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time does use that genre tenet, but it does so with a little bit of a twist: in her first go-round, Claudia wasn’t a good person. But she was a spoiled snob who was manipulated by the so-called heroine and ended up being excessively punished for actions she never would have taken on her own. Fermina, her supposedly sweet half-sister, was always rotten and manipulative, and along with correcting her own learned faults, Claudia needs to use her second life to ensure that Fermina can’t cause any harm ever again. She was never truly bad, whereas Fermina always was.

Claudia starts to figure this out fairly early on. Shortly after the requisite denunciation scene, where she’s spurned by her fiancé Prince Sylvester in favor of Fermina, Claudia is disowned by her father and sent to a convent. On the way there, her carriage is attacked and she’s captured and sold into sex work, and when she stops to think about it, she realizes that it was very likely not an accident: it was set up by Fermina. Claudia doesn’t do badly at the brothel, and Narayama paints her time there as middle of the road – she would never have chosen that life, but she does learn from it, largely with the help of her friend Helen. Helen is the daughter of a ruined earl who had to sell herself to the brothel, and she quickly befriends Claudia. Ultimately, however, she dies of a sexually transmitted disease, devastating her friend. On Helen’s grave, Claudia prays for a chance to save her friend’s life, and after dying of an unspecified illness, she discovers that the gods have given her that chance.

This is Claudia’s defining feature across both books – she knows when things are going to go wrong, and she makes it her mission to change them. In the second novel, this means using her knowledge of Prince Raul from a neighboring kingdom to prevent an international incident. Raul used to visit her during her sex worker days, and rather than sleeping with her, he used her as a safe space, a woman who, if he paid her, wouldn’t tell anyone about his persistent fear of women and would listen to his troubles. The implication is that Claudia’s days as a sex worker taught her empathy – she learned the hard way that there’s a world outside of herself, and she tries to pay back the kindness she was shown by the other women at the brothel. She never paints that life in rosy hues, but she does use it to inform her interactions with others in her second life, and while her attempts to save herself from Fermina’s predatory actions in the first book showcase one aspect of her newly gained insight, her kindness towards Raul in the second novel highlight the softer emotions she’s learned. Claudia’s kindness isn’t an act, because she’s learned to be a more perceptive person.

Claudia is a heroine more like Rishe from 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life than the more typical Katarina Claes model. She’s nobody’s fool now, having learned from her previous life, and she’s fully aware that she didn’t deserve this second chance on her own. Claudia is utterly determined that she’ll stop Fermina’s machinations, which she surmises couldn’t have turned out well for anyone but Fermina, but her first order of business in the opening novel is to find and save Helen. She never forgets that it was Helen who gave her the wherewithal to make changes, and the pain of her loss still stings. Yes, Claudia also wants to save her own life, but it’s Helen who has truly made her want to be a better person, and she owes it to her friend to make it happen.

The main action of the first book comes from Claudia working to thwart Fermina’s plans. We know very early on that Fermina’s not Little Miss Sweetness and Light, and Narayama doesn’t hesitate to show us that the truly selfish and vile sister isn’t (and never was) Claudia. Since Claudia isn’t content to rest on her noble laurels this time and puts her intelligence to good use, she can spot most of Fermina’s schemes before they’re launched. She also decides to use some of what she learned about men during her sex work days to keep Prince Sylvester from turning to Fermina, although we can see that her wiles aren’t necessarily what’s got him interested. Yes, he’s a teenage boy in a light novel, so he’s fascinated by her judicious application of breasts, but it’s her personality and intelligence that is more interesting to him. Likewise, her older brother Virgil is thrilled by Claudia’s new lease on life, and the two of them realize that since their mother was strict and uncaring before her death and their father more invested in his mistress and Fermina, they have no one to rely on but each other. Claudia’s growth as a person drives her relationships and helps to highlight Fermina’s shallow, cruel nature.

This also comes into play in the second novel, which takes a much more political turn. Here, Claudia works to resolve issues with Prince Raul’s delegation so that the political unrest in his country doesn’t spread to hers. One member of his entourage, Lady Lestea, tests Claudia’s intelligence frequently, and her attempts to manipulate various aspects of Raul’s situation are interesting to compare with Fermina’s. Fermina is ultimately selfish, but Lestea is convinced that she’s working for Raul’s good and she demonstrates the same sort of willfulness that Claudia misused in her first life. As Claudia notes, it doesn’t matter how “good” Lestea’s intentions are; there’s a bigger picture that needs to be taken into account, and this is something she’s learned to do and is willing to put into practice, whether that involves saving a younger girl from a sleazy party guest or taking more blatant action in the political sphere.

The narration in the books does involve multiple points of view, but unlike many, if not most, other light novels in the same genre, the novels are in third person. This eliminates the need to create distinct voices for each character, which is usually where issues with multiple points of view arise. As a result, the writing comes across as much more polished than many of its genre brethren while still giving us a clear sense of who everyone is and how they see Claudia, Lestea, and Fermina. This is helped by a translation that doesn’t rely on trying to sound too old-fashioned or too slangy, and the book reads easily and smoothly. Illustrations ably enhance the text as well, and the included color images are beautiful. Bonus points are deserved for understanding how a cage crinoline (hoop skirt) works.

The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time is one of the better villainess light novel series to make it over. Claudia shows real growth as a heroine, sex work isn’t villainized, and Fermina is truly despicable while still being a recognizable riff on a trope while Lestea is a more subtle antagonist. Villainess fans starting to grow weary of the genre can pick this one up with ease: it’s familiar and new in all the right ways.