The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess Volume 6 Review
Volume 5 of The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess introduced us to a new character, as well as spending time developing some of the side characters. Now in Volume 6, the drama is set to pick up as protagonist Iana and the gang are off to the Land of Ninjas!
While the group are looking forward to a hot springs trip, Iana finds herself in a panic when she’s greeted by a member of the ninja clan who tells her they’re ready to carry out her requested assassination of her sister Konoha! Naturally, Iana had forgotten all about this request since it was part of the story she wrote before being reincarnated.
With Yomi by her side, Iana puts a plan in motion to stop the ninja before any harm can befall her sister but things go from bad to worse when she learns someone has attacked the ninja, killing all but one who tells Iana that their list of clients has been stolen and her name was on it. She may no longer have to worry about Konoha being assassinated, but now the problem is who has the list and what do they intend to do with it? If one of her companions happened to discover her list was among the ninjas’ clients, then she’s almost certainly hurtling toward a bad end.
Meanwhile, Sol is starting to suspect Iana is up to no good and when he’s reunited with assassin Ognis, he quickly learns all about the assassination plot. While he still doesn’t want to believe Iana could bring harm to Konoha, it’s hard to deny the evidence in front of him and he soon gets embroiled in a fight with Iana and Yomi when he confronts her.
I will confess that when I first heard mangaka Akiharu Touka was bringing ninjas into the story I lowered my expectations quite a bit. While I enjoy The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, the author does tend to throw anything and everything into the series to see what works. Sometimes that results in a pretty entertaining story and often it’s a bit too nonsensical, which is a shame given the core premise of the series is good.
This time around, Touka managed to sidestep most of her usual issues due to wiping out the ninja almost as quickly as they were introduced so they can’t overwhelm the rest of the story. Instead of a gimmick, this volume focuses on Sol and his feelings toward Iana, something that was beginning to come to a head in Volume 5.
You could say his confrontation with Iana has been brewing since as early as Volume 1 and this storyline allows him to finally get everything off his chest. I appreciate that Iana doesn’t try to deceive or lie to Sol either, she meets him head-on in combat, without letting Yomi stand in to protect her (something he is prone to doing). If nothing else, this shows that Touka is thinking about the future of her series and I don’t mind some of the eccentric developments as much if I can trust the characters’ storylines are not going to sit by the wayside forever.
Volume 6 of The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and continues to be translated by Lisa Coffman with lettering by Rachel J. Pierce. As usual, the translation for the book reads well with no problems. Volume 7 of the series is currently scheduled for an English release at the end of May.
Overall, The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess continues to develop into a likeable take on the villainess genre. It’s still not without problems, but creator Akiharu Touka is beginning to dial back the eccentricity from book to book, to put character development at the forefront. If it continues like this, I will certainly be happy to stick with it for the long run and not just out of a curiosity about what crazy new development will be introduced, which is what has gotten me this far.
