Saneda Jefferson / Summer

Author: Namiato

Illustrator: Saneda

Label: HJ Novels

Release Date: 22 July 2020

My Score: 5/5

Story & Characters:

Genre: Comedy, Body Switching, Otome Game Setting, Isekai, Villainess Isekai

Story Premise: Konomi is a university student who enjoys playing games. One day, she is approached by a friend who lends her an otome game. As she starts up the game, she blacks out and wakes up in the body of the game’s villainess, Irene. Furthermore, Irene’s original soul has ended up in the body of the game’s protagonist, Charlotte. Now, Konomi needs to act as Irene, avoid any bad endings for both her and Irene/Charlotte, and find a way home.

The pun game is strong in this one. There’s one part where Konomi tries to convince Irene to get someone to fall for her and Irene is confident she’ll be able to do it instantly and picks a target. ...At the end of the day, it’s announced that the guy dropped out of school because Irene misinterpreted what Konomi was saying. It’s a pun that I’m not sure works in English but I spit out my drink when I read it. In general, this volume was hilarious and I laughed a lot while reading it.

Konomi is a flat protagonist who reacts stonily to most things but she gets carried away with games. She’s a great protagonist and it was amusing to read her thoughts on the other characters, especially the romantic interests, as she often thinks of them as annoying and has trouble remembering their names. She’s into all kinds of games, including RPGs, card games, DanceRevo, etc. so she’s actually pretty fit and being in Irene’s weak body is a bit annoying for her. Irene is basically a dramatic ojou-sama character, complete with the ojou-sama laugh. She’s arrogant but she has a soft side, even if she rarely shows it. She also loves dogs. One of the things I liked about her in comparison to other villainess characters is that she certainly did do awful things and she has no good reason for doing them. I liked that she was a bit of an asshole, albeit an adorable one. Their relationship is very sweet and interesting and it was fun reading them get to know each other. In this volume, their relationship is purely platonic and I doubt the series will go the yuri route but it has yet to have any het romance either and their relationship works so well that it doesn’t matter whether it’s romantic or platonic.

As for the other characters, they’re all pretty fun but it’s clear that the focus is on the leads here. Some of them do seem interested in Konomi but she does not reciprocate those interests. In particular, the ore-sama character Dominic develops a crush on Konomi after she beats him at backgammon and continues to try to flirt with her only for her to forget his existence and reject him multiple times.

Overall, I loved this volume and I didn’t have any problems with it. It was hilarious, the story and characters were interesting, and it had a twist towards the end that I really did not see coming. This is definitely my favourite series debut this year.

Recommended for:

People who like the Otome Game Villainess Isekai genre and want to read a comedic take on it that doesn’t focus on romance.