The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess Volumes 8 and 9 Review

When I last reviewed The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, we’d just entered into a brand new arc that saw Iana and Konoha venture out to Lalala Temple. Here the head priest nominates Konoha as a candidate to become a saint, which Konoha knows full well will lead to a terrible ending for all of them! With two more volumes in hand, let’s find out how the story goes from here…

To prevent Konoha from becoming the saint, Iana has decided to support the other candidate: Isaac. He’s a mysterious character that Iana doesn’t remember writing for the book this world is based on and that inherently means there’s a big risk in supporting him. Does Iana not remember him or is it another instance of this world trying to right itself and return to the intended timeline where Konoha dies?

To decide who will be granted the title of saint, Konoha and Isaac are tasked with completing a series of challenges. The first involves gaining the blessing of a sacred beast, who apparently has a special love for those who are still pure maidens. The group set out to a mountain said to be home to the mystical creature and there Konoha encounters a unicorn-like sacred beast while Iana and Isaac run into a chimera, which Iana instantly recognises as being a part of her dark history from writing the story in middle school. Once again her young past self is causing nothing but problems for her current life!

Naturally, Iana’s troubles don’t end with trying to gain the sacred beast’s blessing. In the trials that follow, they must reform a young girl thought to be a criminal (her clan is well-known for being made up of thieves and murderers). And then as we enter in Volume 9, Isaac is tricked into opening a forbidden book that captures his soul and leads him to fall into a coma. Desperate to save him, Iana opens the book too and risks everything as she follows him into a dreamlike world that is made to offer whoever opened the book everything they could ever desire.

Throughout these trials, Isaac and Iana have grown closer as they spend so much time together, in fact, there may even be love in the air between them. Because Isaac wasn’t one of the main characters Iana wrote about, she feels she can talk to him in a way she can’t with anyone else for fear of tripping death flags and heading straight for a bad end. As someone who has been following the series for so long, I was happy to see Iana finally be able to fully trust someone in this world who could help her shoulder the burden.

When I reviewed Volume 7 which kickstarted the saint trials arc, I was pleased that mangaka Akiharu Touka was returning to the original premise of the series instead of writing yet another outlandish storyline. With another two volumes under its belt, I can safely say I still feel that way. This has been easily one of the best arcs in the series, even if it still features some unbelievable twists and turns at points.

I also became quite fond of the concept that the timeline is trying so desperately to write itself, forcing Iana back on track against all odds, no matter what she manages to change and accomplish. We’ve seen glimpses of this previously, but the saint arc makes the threat of everything being overwritten very real. This results in quite the climax for Volume 9, which changes the course of the story significantly. This is a manga I’ve always struggled to take seriously as it felt Touka would throw in anything and everything to see what works, but this is certainly an example of the series at its best. I’m certainly left eager to see where it will go from here!

These two volumes of The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess come to the West thanks to Yen Press and continue to be translated by Kei Coffman with lettering by Rachel J. Pierce. As always these releases read well with no problems to note. While there aren’t any extras to speak of for Volume 9, Volume 8 does include the colour pages and extras from the limited edition released in Japan just like Volume 7 did.

Volume 10 of the series has already been released in English with #11 set to follow in December. Yen Press has also recently released The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess Short Story Collection, which is labelled as Volume 9.5 on the spine so it’s probably worth reading that before #10. And if you can’t get enough of this series, you’ll be pleased to hear that an anime adaptation is in the works! No details on when that’s airing currently, but hopefully we’ll hear more soon.

Overall, these two volumes of The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess continue an arc that’s proving to be a major turning point for the story. If you’ve followed the series for this long, you’ll certainly enjoy what’s shaping up to be some of the best content so far.

Our review copies from Yen Press were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.