”I will be the beautiful, righteous flower of evil!”
An Observation Log of My Fiancee Who Calls Herself a Villainess (Jishou Akuyaku Reijou na Konyakusha no Kansatsu Kirokunote ) is a period / romantic comedy / Isekai light novel/manga series about a young woman who gets reincarnated into Bertia Ilbi Noches, the villainess in her favorite otome game written from the perspective of her fiancé, Crown Prince Cecil.
Unlike other main characters of the same genre, however, Bertia purposely drives her life to doom. Leading an otherwise boring life himself, Cecil finds amusement in his fiancée's antics, but in time he goes looking for clues as to what's leading her to become a "villainess", the bad influences some unscrupulous people exert on her, and dutifully correcting or eliminating those who would bring harm to his precious fiancée. It's up to Cecil to determine whether he'll allow Bertia to become the "villainess" she wants to be, as she's the main aspect that brings color into his life.
Originally published as a 2-volume light novel by writer Shiki and serialized by publisher Syosetu in 2017 with illustrations by artist Hachipisu Wan, it was adapted into a manga by author Shiki and artist Hasumi Natsume serialized in Alphapolis Web Manga from 2018 to 2021. In 2021 the manga was licensed in English by Alpha Manga.
In 2021, Shiki began a sequel web novel, An Observation Log of My Wife Who Calls Herself a Villainess (Jishou Akuyaku Reijou na Tsuma no Kansatsu Kirokunote ), serialized in Alphapolis Novels, which picks up six months after the main story of the previous series. In 2022, Shiki and Hasumi Natsume began a manga adaptation, again serialized in Alphapolis Web Manga, and in 2023 the manga was licensed in English by Alpha Manga.
Tropes:
- All-Loving Hero: Bertia's attempts at becoming a villainess fail because she's a kind person who wishes for her friends' happiness, and doesn't want to actually hurt anyone. Cecil notes that the absolutely worst thing she's guilty of when trying to be a villainess is being a little haughty, hardly a crime, and it generally has the reverse effect anyway even if she never notices.
- Arranged Marriage: Most of the characters are nobility, so they're all quite limited in terms of who they're allowed to marry. Prior to the story, Cecil and Joana were initially engaged but they broke it off, later becoming engaged respectively to Bertia and Shaun. During the story, Anne is engaged to Charles' playboy brother; she and Charles were both miserable because of it. That changed once he convinced her to break it off and become engaged with him.
- Babies Ever After: Chapter 33 of the manga employs timeskips to introduce Cecil and Bertia's children, Anzat and Anikis. Kuro is also shown to be pregnant with her and Zeno's child.
- Big Brother Instinct: Anzat, Cecil and Bertia's firstborn child, isn't very keen on the idea of having a younger sibling at first when Bertia is pregnant with their second, since that could take away the precious attention of his mother. However, after Anikis is born, he's very quick to become attached to his baby sister, and even goes as far as to declare her his 'fated maiden' to their parents. Even after a timeskip, it's heavily implied this never ceased to be the case. Since Anikis is complaining about him chasing off another of her potential suitors.
- Blood Oath: The process of contracting with a familiar has two parts: letting it consume some of your blood and giving it a name. Bertia managed to accidentally fulfill these conditions and form a contract with a darkness spirit shapeshifted as a fox when she gave it a nickname (Kuro) after it licked her wounds from tripping and falling during a walk home from the woods.
- Bookcase Passage: There's a small room hidden behind a bookshelf with a combination lock in the castle library. This is where Cecil finds books written by his ancestors about subjects and topics too advanced for the country's modern society to comprehend, figuring out that his exceptional abilities are hereditary.
- Bouquet Toss: This is one of the items on Bertia's wishlist for her wedding with Cecil. It's caught by Kuro who is implied to be interested in Zeno.
- Character Development: Bertia and Cecil slowly have their own character developments.
- Although she never stops pushing Cecil towards Heronia, Bertia realizes that he is his own person with his own feelings. This ultimately makes her contrast Heronia, who believes Cecil can only be happy with her. She also gradually grows from being Spoiled Sweet to a competent future queen.
- Cecil initially considers Bertia merely an interesting diversion to his boring life (and corrects himself if he thinks she's cute), but eventually begins to truly cherish her and becomes upset if she is hurt or negligent of his feelings and wants. He also learns to become considerate of others' feelings due to Bertia's efforts to make everyone happy, eventually considering all of the student council his friends.
- Chew-Out Fake-Out: At his graduation ceremony, the scheduled time for Bertia's "downfall", Cecil calls her to the stage and accuses her of the grave crime of being born two years later than him and making him wait to marry her.
- Childhood Friend Romance: The love story of Nert and Silica. They started off as ordinary Childhood Friend, but from time to time feelings grow and after an incident, Nert properly falls in love with her.
- Classy Cravat: Most of the male characters wear this, befitting the setting.
- Crossover: One between two fictional media. In the sequel, Bertia discovers she and Cecil have walked into the events of a novel she read in her previous life, which is apparently completely unrelated to the otome game story she reincarnated into– that is, the two stories are unrelated as fictional stories on Earth; but in this world, they take place in two different countries in the same world.
- Dark Is Not Evil: When Bertia is informed that she has contracted with a dark spirit, she initially remarks that it sounds quite befitting for a villainess. However, Cecil explains that dark spirits aren't evil, but rather specialize in defensive magic, which dampens her enthusiasm. Kuro and Zeno (to some extent) are two such dark spirits.
- Dark Secret: Cecil's status as a Broken Ace was not a fluke, but a genetic curse. The kingdom's founder, Tolgin, was actually The Caligula due to his status as a Broken Ace, seeking war as a means to quell his boredom, and only stopping and creating a peaceful kingdom thanks to "the fated maiden" aka Queen Alnay. Every few decades, his bloodline would give birth to people like him; perfect, yet emotionless and uninterested in anything unless they did find something, and would become focused on that no matter what. If they couldn't, they became Death Seekers and even kill themselves or just disappear, hence how he would become so different in the other routes if he didn't have Heronia. Cecil notes that by how his father put it, very few of those individuals turned out well. He opts not to tell Bertia of this, because he knows she would feel compelled to always stay with him out of pity, but he'd prefer her to choose to be with him because of her own feelings.
- Ermine Cape Effect: Try to find a page with a lady or gentleman, but without the Requisite Royal Regalia. We dare you.
- Everyone Has Standards: Heronia's attempts to attract other women's fiancés is seen as deplorable; the only reason she hasn't been socially ostracized is because of the Light Spirit that charms those around her, and none of Bertia's friends bothered to put her in her place because it would be cruel to gang up on her, though they have their limits too. After one too many incidents, they decide setting a trap for her during the graduation party would be justifiable self-defense.
- Cecil is more tolerant of people's flaws and wrongdoings (mostly because it shakes things up a bit), but even he couldn't handle Heronia pulling out documents from under her dress during the graduation party. Zeno has to take it from her.
- Evil Chancellor: Bertia's father, the prime minister, turned evil in the game as a result of losing his wife to an epidemic. Averted within the story proper as a result of Prince Cecil using Bertia's knowledge of the game to prevent the epidemic which caused said death. Nevertheless, Bertia keeps trying to invoke it as one of her steps towards steering the plot where she remembers it going. Cecil uses this to have her father act as a spy for several more unsavory characters.
- Fee Fi Faux Pas: Heronia does this often. From directly addressing her social superiors without introducing herself first to spending time alone with unrelated and often engaged men. The worst is hiding documents under her skirt and pulling them out in front of a ballroom full of nobles. This is so incredibly vulgar that every other lady in attendance recoils in disgust and the pragmatic, coldblooded Prince Cecil is grossed out enough to be reluctant to inspect said documents.
- Foreshadowing:
- At the start of the story, Bertia notes how calm Cecil is for a kid, with Zeno seemingly and silently noting that it is odd, because no one at age 10 should act that way, with Cecil noting that "[his] true thoughts are leaking out". Not only does it foreshadow Cecil's genetic curse, but Zeno's status as a spirit due to him and Cecil being telepathic.
- While discussing making fireworks for the cultural festival, Cecil takes an interest in the fireworks, which suddenly causes Bertia to try and dissuade him from taking an interest in gunpowder, to his confusion. Bertia was actually scared of him following his fate in Neil's route, which he became obsessed with gunpowder research and locked himself away.
- Generation Xerox: Bertia and Cecil's son Anzat is a near perfect copy of Cecil, save his hair. Right down to Cecil's abilities and proclivity to become obsessively attached to a single woman who can capture his interest. In his case, said woman ending up being his younger sister Anikis.
- Hidden Depths: Bertia. She is initially presented to Cecil as a possibly insane girl who seems to want to march head first to her doom and push Cecil to fall in love with someone he's never met. But later chapters hint at there being a reason for this and eventually it is revealed that Cecil ending up with Heronia was the only route in the game that allowed Cecil to be happy and prevented a war with the neighboring kingdom. As Bertia wasn't aware of the effects of her own influence on the story's events, she seemed to be trying to push for the option she knew had the safest outcome for everyone else, no matter how much she would have to suffer to make it happen, or how useless the effort was thanks to all the changes that occurred.
- High-Class Gloves: The fancy gloves show up a lot, befitting the noble setting.
- Holding Back the Phlebotinum:
- Magic exists in Cecil's world, but it's used exclusively by the high nobility. It's such a hidden secret that not even the otome game that world's based on gives its players that knowledge, as neither Bertia nor Heronia, players themselves on their previous lives, are aware of it (in the absence of other evidence Bertia assumes the heroine's "charm magic" that makes the reverse harem ending possible is a mere figure of speech).
- In the course of his work on developing medicine to stop the epidemic, Cecil also develops a universal antidote. Since the process can also create deadly poison, however, he keeps this a secret and only creates a small amount to give to Bertia. The secret library is full of the results of such advanced research from Cecil's similarly-inclined ancestors.
- Hourglass Plot: In the original otome game, Bertia was the villainess and Heronia the heroine. However the alternate Bertia is a kind-hearted individual who makes friends, plays matchmaker, and tries to prevent a Bad Future. Despite claiming otherwise, she is the real heroine. In contrast, alternate Heronia effectively brainwashes people, spreads rumors and gossip, and expects the world to revolve around her. By the end, it's clear Heronia is the villainess this time around. Heronia ends up being convicted of insulting the Noches family in what was supposed to be Bertia's condemnation event, and is sent to a convent as a result, a punishment usually meant for a villainess.
- Hypocritical Humor: After Douglas gives his daughter a Dope Slap for her rudeness to Prince Cecil, he warns her that Cecil is cold and emotionless, right in front of him.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Sir Charles has a crush on his older brother's fiancée, but held off on confessing his feelings because he felt that she would be better off with his brother's prestige and higher standing. This trope also seems to be the reason Bertia is so adamant about pairing her fiancé Prince Cecil off with Heronia.
- Instant Fan Club: Bertia has one (the Bertia Admiriers Association), and in order to play up her attempted "villainess" persona, she tries to introduce them as rivals and her followers. But she obviously views them as actual friends and Cecil quickly realizes the group acts as guardians protecting Bertia from any problems that could stem from her own odd behavior. She was also unaware that they actually billed themselves as her fan club until her friends say as much, shocking Bertia with how popular she's become.
- It Amused Me: Prince Cecil initially goes along with Bertia's stories about being isekai'd simply because it's one of the few things he's ever found interesting due to her resulting behavior being impossible to predict. It's part of the "curse" set upon his bloodline; individuals in Cecil's family are born with high intelligence but no emotions to anything except things that interest them.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On their first meeting, Kulgan explains to Cecil that the lord he works for is actually deeply concerned for the well-being of his subordinates, but he mainly expresses it by yelling harshly at them, leading to his widespread unpopularity.
- Light Is Not Good: Heronia's light spirit, taking the form of a small bird, can invoke feelings of euphoria in its targets. Removal from its effect can cause addiction, something which Cecil likens to brainwashing. Averted as the spirit is doing this trying to make Heronia happy. But unfortunately, Heronia's inability to acknowledge and accept the world is far different from the original game leads the spirit to believe she can only be happy if Cecil falls in love with her.
- Like Father, Like Son: Cecil and Anzat, his and Bertia's first child. Anzat is also a Crazy Jealous Guy who has trouble expressing his emotions and loves Bertia to the point of wanting to monopolise her (This is later changed to Anzat becoming an Overprotective Brother to his sister when she is born in the future). He also exhibits the same Broken Ace traits. More positively, like Cecil he also respects his father and will back down when shown authority.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Downplayed. Cecil, a perpetually bored and scrupulously proper prodigy, can be interested in and eventually attracted by the unpolished, quirky behavior of people like the original Heronia (a Country Mouse who dozes off in public) and the current Bertia (who cheerfully announces she's a villainess). But as he explains to the current Heronia, he also requires someone who is willing to learn the conventions expected of a future queen.
- Media Transmigration: A young woman gets reincarnated into Bertia Ilbi Noches, the villainess role in her favorite otome game. In a twist, the story is told from the perspective of her fiance, Prince Cecil. Bertia purposely tries to become the villainess despite her very presence changing things. Heronia Inderon, the heroine of the otome game, is also a reincarnation of a player of the game from the real world.
- Mood Whiplash:
- During Bertia's first matchmaking effort to pair up the rival love interests with the non-Cecil capture targets, she loudly tells Anne not to go through with her engagement to Charles's brother because Charles has feelings for her. Charles then runs to Cecil and begs him to do something, while tearfully confessing that Bertia was telling the truth. It's an emotional moment, immediately spoiled by Cecil thinking to himself that Charles was talking so much that he couldn't get a word in to warn him that Bertia and Anne followed him and are standing right behind him, overhearing the whole confession. It then pivots back to sweet and emotional when Charles pledges to work hard as Cecil's aide so that he can be worthy of Anne's hand, and she accepts him.
- In chapter 23, Cecil escapes the dreamworld created by Heronia's light spirit and gives it a stern speech about how its irresponsible behavior made things worse for Heronia instead of better. The spirit knows it sacrificed too much energy to maintain its form any longer and asks Cecil to pass one final message to Heronia, then fades away. Cecil wakes up (after being slapped and almost splashed by water) by being told that Bertia is about to shave her own head.
- Morality Pet: In the backstory, Queen Alnay for the Blood Knight King Tolgin, as she prompted his turn to a peaceful nation-builder by threatening to hate him if he harmed any more people in his conquests.
- Not So Similar: Despite both being reincarnated players of the game, Bertia and Heronia are increasingly shown to contrast each other with regards to how they see the world around them.
- Bertia already dearly loves her family and treats everyone with respect (when she isn't just being a Cloudcuckoolander), immediately turning to Cecil for help beating a plague that would have originally killed her mother (and affected a future capture target rival for the heroine). She gets along with people because she is a naturally friendly, albeit klutzy, young girl who sees wrongs and tries to right them because it's the right thing to do. She also presses Cecil to accept Heronia not just because she thinks Because Destiny Says So but also for the kingdom's sake, even at her own expense.
- Heronia thinks the world exists solely for her and everyone should behave for her benefit. Her light spirit manipulates people to flock to her, leaving her with no supporters when things go awry. She insists that the events she knew before will definitely transpire in the exact same way, never learning that this world is not static and that other people have their own free will. She is so settled in her ways that she refuses to take blame for anything she does and doesn't treat anyone with respect or kindness, only seeing them as either obstacles or pawns for her own use.
- Cecil himself points this out. Not only between Heronia and Bertia, but also between Heronia and herself from the game. The Heronia from the game started out as someone who didn't know anything about nobility or the society she was entering into but had learned and matured over time. The current Heronia was completely reliant on her memories of the game from her past life and didn't do anything to improve herself. This was shown at multiple points in the story where she would be noted to act inappropriately or commit faux pas without any regard for whom she was interacting with or the impression she was leaving. Even when she was called out for being incapable of performing basic tasks, her response was to dismiss the need for them in the first place. In this regard, the Heronia from the game was someone who put in an effort whereas the transmigrated Heronia is someone who expected things to be handed to her because of who she was in the context of a story that, by this point, nobody else was following.
- Papa Wolf: Bertia's father gets plenty annoyed at her inappropriate behavior and (in his own words) incurable stupidity but he loves her all the same. He goes spare when he learns that some much older nobles intend on taking advantage of her (although he doesn't know she sought them out as part of her "villainess" plan). During the original timeline, as a result of the pandemic killing the Noches matriarch, Douglas tells his daughter to become queen so that she will be the first person protected if something similar happens again.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The combination for the hidden room in the castle library is the queen's birthdate. Cecil is surprised at how obvious it is, but decides not to tell his father since it would give away the fact that he was in there in the first place.
- Patchwork Kids: Bertia and Cecil's children, Anzat and Anikis, both end up with traits similar to the opposite sex parent, even though they most closely resemble the same sex. Anzat looks like Cecil, but with strawberry blond hair influenced by his mother. And Anikis looks like Bertia with a lighter shade of red hair, as well as heterochromia which gives her an eye color from each of her parents.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Since the story is about royalty and nobility, elaborate dresses are a must. The care the artist spent for each frill, ribbon and fold should be praised.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Cecil gives a lengthy one to Heronia's light spirit, telling them that their actions of granting her whim and not teaching her the error of her ways will cause her to be alone because everyone will leave her.
- He later gives one to Heronia, chiding her for believing that the people around her would act exactly as she wanted or expected. He emphasizes that he and they are living, real people. He also scolds her for not learning anything about the world around her and being so entitled about her believed fate that she made no attempt to improve herself, especially compared to Bertia and even her original "game" self. He adds that she let her light spirit die without displaying remorse or self-reflection (although this part does get Heronia to display remorse because she hadn't actually realized that Pi was dead until now).
- "Reborn as Villainess" Story: Prince Cecil is bewildered when his fiancee Bertia proudly proclaims that she has been reincarnated from another world into the world of an otome game, and that she, as the villainess will meet her ruin so the prince can be happy with the heroine. While doubting her at first, the prince slowly believes her as Bertia knows things she should have no way of knowing, like a plague ravaging the kingdom in the near future. Intrigued, he decides to observe her, while slowly falling for her for real. Also helping is the fact that Bertia is really bad at being mean.
- Reverse Harem: One of the endings in Bertia's visual novel has the princes and all of his advisors falling for the heroine. Cecil points out what a political mess that would be in reality, and Bertia herself states she dislikes that ending.
- Running Gag: The Noches family, aside from Bertia and her mother, disrespecting Cecil in his presence.
- School Festival: Halm Academy ends up having a cultural festival on Bertia's suggestion. There's even a fireworks display and a contest to vote on the school's best couple. Bertia and Cecil end up winning, which comes as a surprise to nobody except Bertia.
- Screaming Birth: Played for Laughs when Bertia is giving birth to her and Cecil's first child, Anzat where she manages to keep up her Genki Girl tendencies while screaming, with listeners remarking its a good thing she had so much energy while giving birth.
- The Silent Bob: After taking on a human form, Kuro communicates through gestures, facial expressions, and occasional hissing.
- Spell My Name With An S: Due to the translation from Japanese to English, there’re plenty of way to call a character’s name. For example, Prince Cecil’s last name “Alphasta” could be spelled as “Alfoster”.
- The Stations of the Canon: Bertia certainly tries to invoke this trope and have her and Cecil's lives follow the plot of the game. However, her warning Cecil about the more disastrous events, him falling in love with her as they grow up, and Bertia being too kind and good-natured to even be convincingly mean (much less the cruel villainess she aspires to be), results in all the events either not happening at all (an epidemic that would have killed or debilitated several side characters) or having completely different outcomes (Cecil just completely ignores the heroine during the events).
- That Came Out Wrong: Bertia once visited Cecil at school before she was due to enroll herself, simply shouting the word "pregnant" and rambling about said pregnancy. Worse yet, it was the boys' dorm so everyone immediately got the wrong idea. Cecil sternly asks her to clarify, to which she confusedly responds that it's obviously her mother with her father's child, only realizing why the clarification was needed after seeing everyone else's faces.
- This Is Reality:
- Bertia tries to maintain the same plot as the game she played and fails utterly because no matter how much she tries, she is not the same as the Bertia in the video game, therefore affecting the world and characters differently. In fact, she first fails to realize this when she helps save her mother's life from an impending epidemic; she is later stunned by the news that her mother has become pregnant with a baby whom didn't exist in the game, and has to be reminded by Cecil how that came to pass.
- Nobility has its own rules of etiquette. As such ignoring it is a faux pas that can cause you to lose your reputation and be ostracized by your peers. Cecil also points out to Heronia that a queen with no concept of etiquette or social proprieties will make the kingdom and its king look like uncultured swine who can't be respected by outsiders. The only reason Heronia gets away with her attitude is because Bertia doesn't wish to hurt her, and especially because Bertia has the same end goal, if not the same methods or attitude.
- Tsundere: Princess Lisolna in the sequel series. The longer she spends in Bertia's company, the softer she becomes, only becoming tsun when flustered. For example, in chapter 10 Bertia shuts down her rant in front of her and June in the opening pages by correctly stating that it was Anger Born of Worry more than anything else. Even Cecil is surprised.
- Victory Is Boring: Cecil begins the story feeling that life is too dull because he's a genius who can easily accomplish anything he attempts. Bertia coming forth with future knowledge of an upcoming epidemic and how to cure it gives him his first real challenge in a long time, and he does it mainly out of boredom since he hasn't yet accepted that Bertia's crazy claims have any weight to them.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Quite literally invoked, as much as Bertia will claim she's the villainess of the plot she finds herself caring for both her peers and family alike.
