The Villainess Is a Marionette Volume 1 Review

The Villainess Is a Marionette is the latest ‘shojo-isekai’ manhwa series released by Ize Press where a person from ‘our’ world dies and wakes up as the villainess in a story she read… can she survive all obstacles and free herself from the shackles of this new (or old) life? But most importantly, is it bringing something new to this trope? Let’s find out!

An unnamed woman from what readers can assume is modern-day Korea is killed only to wake up as Kayena Hill, the only princess of an empire. How bad could it be to be a princess? Well, Kayena is also a villainess who gets killed by her half-brother, the emperor, in the novel The Lady of the Black Rose. The Korean woman sympathises with Kayena as both have been treated as marionettes by people close to them, but as soon as she wakes up in her new body, she realises that she has lived multiple times, and this Kayena is her third chance at life.

Kayena won’t let the same events repeat themselves, but most of all she won’t let anyone treat her as a marionette ever again. She dreams of freedom, and she knows it won’t be easy to get as she’s a princess, so she needs to scheme a way out of that. Her younger half-brother is supposed to become the emperor, but he acts as a tyrant and he’s violent and brutish when things don’t go his way. It’s up to Kayena to smooth things over and make him see the bigger picture. However, as she’s always been considered frivolous and easy to manipulate, she cannot take action straight away or by herself—it’s her turn now to manipulate people to get things done her way!

First order of business is to get rid of all servants near her that were sent by her father—the current emperor— and by her younger brother. She also needs the help of Duke Raffaello Kidrey, whom the previous Kayena was obsessed with, as a stepping stone to guarantee her freedom, but as Raffaello deeply detests Kayena, she needs to first gain his trust and show that her previous behaviour toward him (aka stalking) won’t happen ever EVER again!

More and more titles are being published with the theme of a modern-day woman who wakes up in another world as a fictional character, usually as a villainess. The events are pretty much the same from series to series, and unfortunately The Villainess is a Marionette doesn’t bring anything else in addition to the villainess trope of wishing to survive. Readers who are familiar with this trope can easily guess what’s going to happen as her actions are predictable, and we can already start guessing who her love interest will be.

However, if the readers are new to this trope, this series could be a good starting point. Everything that happens is described so that the readers know what’s going on. There is no revenge involved so far, just a lot of scheming, which starts changing the balance of power within the castle without being obvious. Kayena puts her plans into motion, but this is only the beginning of her journey as she’s not even close to the freedom she  desires.

Something that I’m still debating if I agree WITH or not is her wish to still put her half-brother on the throne and help him change from his current tyrant ways. She doesn’t feel hate nor wish for revenge against him for killing her in her first life as Kayena. Actually, she wishes to help him change for the better as she realises he never had anyone to guide him properly growing up. I personally cannot really excuse his past actions as I felt he used and then discarded Kayena when he didn’t need her anymore and he spent a lot of time gaslighting her. If he’s worthy of redemption, it’s still to be confirmed.

The art is striking with detailed illustrations and characters that seem to be from fairy tales thanks to the colour palette and background settings. The attention to detail can clearly be seen in the characters’ clothes and jewellery, through shading and designs. The colour palette uses bright and light colours that are easily associate with the shojo genre, such as hues of pink, red and light blue. Colours switch to darker tones only when something bad like an accident is about to happen.

The Villainess Is a Marionette is written by hanirim and illustrated by manggle. It was published on Tapas as a webcomic with chapter by chapter releases before being published by Ize Press in volume format in the English language. Volumes 2 and 3 are already available.

Read the free preview on the publisher’s website here.

Our review copy was supplied by Ize Press.