Akuyaku Reijou no Naka no Hito

So I LOVE the isekai villainess genre. The story of this one is fairly generic, with the small twist. But since I love all the villainess tropes, thats all good to me! Haha. What really makes this one stand out is the ART. THE ART is soooooooo beautiful. Stunning. Immaculate. I just CANT. 10/10, read if only for the art.

This one is quite good, it yet another classic isekai+revenge trope, but with a twist since the transmigrated person fails and in the moment of her mental breakdown the original villainess returns to pick the reins with all the knowledge of her other self.
There are 23ch out so far, the story is kinda weird for the first half of those, in which the MC goes on a world saving quest, the way this part plays out is sort of disconnected, the second is more centered on the revenge. Here the MC's "twisted" personality seeps through every now and then, and its done in a way that it's mostly funny, I like the FL. As for the ML, he's rather unremarkable and more of a secondary char given how much he appears.
The main gripe would be how dumb and cartoonish the antagonist is.
Regardless, it's a fun read, it's not the best in the genre but better than most similar stories. It reminds me quite a bit to Koushaku Reijou no Tashinami, but less serious and a more sadistic (with those who wronged her) FL.

To give you an idea of how generic this is by the end of the first chapter our reincarnated japanese person isekai protagonist has : Cheat "limitless magical potential skill" no one else has; Discovers OP training method; Hunts hordes of monsters as a child to power up even more; MCs soul is described as beautiful and "naturally good"; Inspires and unknowingly seduces cousin who now admires MC; Inspires and unknowingly seduces tough bad-boy son of knight family who now admires MC; Inspires and unknowingly seduces child of palace mage sensitive guy musician mage; Inspires and obviously also unknowingly seduces the crown prince as well cause why not; Everyone constantly talks about how strong she is and how her heart is purer than everybody; Cures an epidemic; Invents stoves; Invents modern cosmetic products; In typical harem fashion doesn't know everyone secretly loves and admires and looks up to her because she's just the best at everything ALL DURING CHAPTER 1. If it sounds like you've heard all of this 100 times already it's because it's the same thing as every shounen isekai reincarnation harem story and about half of every shoujo or seinen isekai reincarnation.

Of course, being generic doesn't mean it's bad. Plenty of those series are actually good because instead of focusing on the just the protagonist they focus on comedy or relationships or plot or just anything other than the protagonist because overexposure to a character like that makes things boring if taken too seriously.

Here instead of doing any of that they pivot into the generic revenge power fantasy. And they don't even execute that properly ... most of the characters the MC is taking "revenge" against are literal mind-control drug victims instead of people who are actually evil and deserve it ...

The side characters are many, boring and their stories make little sense within the context of the world. That said the primary antagonist starts off with some really comedic scenes that really make you hate her (in a really good way, like you should hate the antagonist of a revenge fantasy).

The protagonist is generally enjoyable as a character for a while but her big picture plan is dumber and dumber the more you read and it kept making me ask "If you knew this already then why on earth did you do X before this chapter instead of Y". And while she is enjoyable as a character she is always the character everything is focused on and because she takes up all the focus everyone else ends up looking like background decoration.

The art has some amazing pages and some really lazy pages but all the panels that really matter look great. (So long as you can ignore some super lazy digital copy and pasting of backgrounds, which I don't mind)

If you're here for "romance": skip this manga. There's just a few pages of romance, and the romantic interests are just the generic characters you'd find in any harem.

If you're here for "fantasy": skip this manga. The fantasy elements are dumb and contrived.

If you're here cause you love "revenge fantasies" and have already read the few good ones then this one is definitely above average so might be a great choice for you if you don't mind a lot of the revenge targets being mind control victims.

If you're here because you just want a good story and good characters avoid this manga because almost every story arc makes the previous story arc not make sense and the characters outside of the main protagonist and antagonist are not really explored that much and when they are explored it's just generic "revenge fantasy filler character #537"

Personally I was here cause I was in the mood for some good "Villainess" stuff and this didn't work for me at all. I might give it another go when I'm in the mood for a revenge fantasy but the revenge targets being mind control victims is putting me off from it.

OTHER THAN THE ART THAT IS JUST SOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL… THE PLOT?!??! i’ve read a ton of japanese villainess-turned-female lead but i’ve never read something like this. the plot kept me so intrigued and invested… really want there to be a license!! in love with the og remilia and emi🥹🫶🏻

It has this pat in the back vibes. Not really "villainess" "villainess" like most of the villainess series, it's mostly just a comfy read like Chicken Soup for the Soul. Like all these epic poems where Oh, Hero (the "villainess" here) will Vanquish the Villain. There's not a lot of plot twists, it's just easy to read but might lack "interesting" for some people and become a boredom read if you don't simp nor empathize with the protagonist. It's not for everyone. If you can't vibe for you, it might become a snooze fest because of the wordiness (I recommended it to a dudebro and bro was crying about why the intro is so long why there's no action 😅)

This series is quite good at dressing scenes as if it's coming from a fairytale. When it works for you, it really entrances you. It's just vibing very well like these 3D princess movies (and somehow got Shrek vibes too...)

I LITERALLY MADE AN ACOCUNT JUAT TO SAY HOW AMAZING THIS MANGA IS

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. DELICIOUS. THE ART THE STORY. THE LOVE. ALL OF IT. EVERYTHING. READ IT. ITS DELICIOUS

Don’t read anything. This isn’t like anything you’ve read before in this genre. Don’t doubt me, I will not hesitate to break your elbows.

Go.

Not only is this one of the few isekai stories with an actually genuinely unique premise, but it even executes on that premise magnificently. Both Emi and Remilia are delightful characters, Remilia's motivation is enjoyably single-minded, the antagonist is perfectly detestable, etc.

The story is not free of weaknesses, like a clear difference in art quality between the main cast and side characters, and Remilia being too powerful (and the antagonist too weak) to ever be really challenged. But (at least as of chapter 8) those weaknesses don't detract one bit from the enjoyment of this wonderful story.