Despite being a new series in a popular genre with a typical trope, The Villainess Who Can Read Minds Is Playing With Her Puppy-Like Prince Today Too proves early on that it didn’t need to be a villainess isekai to succeed or appeal to readers. Villainess isekai series attract so many because the basic blueprint is naturally compelling. Normally, a heroine gets isekai’d into an otome game or romance novel where they are the villainess, who usually faces an unfortunate fate including death and by extension, themselves. The villainess is often misunderstood, which is important in series like I’m In Love With The Villainess when the protagonist gets isekai’d as the heroine and tries to connect with the villainess, knowing the true her.
Created by Kanon, this new series begins after the protagonist has already been isekai’d and becomes the eponymous villainess, Lady Eleanor. However, the fact that she is the villainess doesn’t matter, since she has yet to have a relationship with the heroine, nor does her “evil” status impact the manga in any way.
It’s also unimportant that she was isekai’d, since her former knowledge of the game is not only very limited, but only serves to provide a brief background on certain characters, which a narrator could accomplish easily. It’s used later on, but only to compare the differences between the game and this new reality. These differences don’t even matter, since she isn’t overly reliant on her knowledge of the game anyway, so there isn’t a need for her to compensate accordingly. Although there’s a twist later on that explains the Isekai connection, nothing else in the story rides on this fact.
How Lady Eleanor’s Telepathy Replaces Isekai
Created by Kanon
What is relevant can ironically be traced to a section from the series’ overly long title – Lady Eleanor can read minds. This supernatural ability drives all the major events of the manga, especially in later chapters, and would still be effective even if Lady Eleanor wasn’t a villainess, and didn’t get isekai’d. Before the events of the manga, her telepathy was more of a curse than a gift, as most of the thoughts she could read were negatively directed at her. It clearly takes an emotional toll on Lady Eleanor that also drains her physically. However, once the titular prince emerges, this former knowledge of Lady Eleanor’s negative telepathic experiences enhances their relationship, since his thoughts present him as the perfect man who thinks the right things.
Of course, things get more complicated when the thoughts of random people inform her of an upcoming tragedy that would put her relationship with the prince into jeopardy, so she naturally attempts to leverage what she can hear to prevent what is ostensibly in the works. Ironically, the telepathy in this case serves as a replacement for the prior knowledge most isekai’d protagonists have. Lady Eleanor’s power is making her privy to information that shouldn’t be known to her, since telepathy isn’t a normal ability in this world. This functions just like how an isekai protagonist uses their experiences from playing the game they got isekai’d into for their own benefit. It’s therefore appropriate that Lady Eleanor has little to no knowledge about the game she got isekai’d into. Similarly, there are instances when Lady Eleanor manipulates those around her by saying things out loud that conflict with what her targets are thinking, rather than relying on her prior knowledge of the game.
Even though there’s a villainess who gets transported into an otome game and there’s an isekai-related twist much later on, these aren’t the reasons why this series is so compelling. Unlike every other series of its kind, The Villainess Who Can Read Minds Is Playing With Her Puppy-Like Prince Today doesn’t need the boost of being associated as a villainess isekai since it’s so good already.
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