Beware the Villainess Manhwa Heroine Fights Against Her Fate

So many of the recent isekai manga and manhwa series directed at shojo fans deal with someone reincarnating as a villainess, and Beware the Villainess is no exception. The difference here is that the newly reincarnated heroine is okay with being the bad guy and ending up alone, but the whole first volume features her dealing with both the consequences of her actions and other characters who seem to want her to follow the status quo. 

Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for the Beware the Villainess manhwa first volume below.

Like many of its contemporaries, Beware the Villainess begins with a woman who died in our world, then found herself reincarnated into a story with multiple endings. The lead, a young woman named Yuri, could end up with four possible love interests. However, the villainess Melissa, daughter of a duke, was there to try and tear her down. However, since Melissa knew she wouldn’t experience any consequences beyond being alone at the end and would still get to be rich, she’s fine with things proceeding and not getting caught up in things. (Honestly, it reminded me a little of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom.) 

What ends up making this series feel interesting is, at least in the first volume, everyone seems unwilling to understand and respect Melissa going off-script. She’s engaged to Prince Ian. Her character really was deeply in love with him in the story. However, he’d constantly cheat on her and, in one story, left her for Yuri. In the earliest moments of Beware the Villainess, we happen upon Melissa as she’s writing one of many letters to break off the engagement. She then walks in on him as he’s cheating on her, again, and tells him it is over. But… it’s not accepted. He behaves in an unexpected way.

It’s then that we see her interaction with one of the other love interests in the original story. Melissa’s brother Jake is a sniper and assassin working for the royal family and prince. In the original tale, he despised his sister. We see clear traces of his annoyance towards her and his respect and willingness to do Ian’s bidding here. Which, in turn, results in some rather great hijinks as Melissa reiterates to Jake her newfound hate for Ian and desire to break up. Of course, he doesn’t accept it either.

Basically, we’re seeing her occasionally embrace outbursts and rude behavior. She’s intentionally playing up her role when needed to people who deserve it. She’s respectful to those who don’t generally. However, due to her innate nature and face, that also results in misunderstandings.

While Melissa is okay with being a villain and alone, much like the My Next Life as a Villainess manga, the Beware the Villainess manhwa shows that her general kindness and fondness for characters will shine through. She is as considerate of Yuri as Catarina is of Maria. So we already have that sort of established sweetness coming through. Likewise, this volume ends with the lead potentially assisting someone in such a way that, while she is doing so for a selfish reason, she’ll also potentially be improving their life.

I suppose my hope is that the story in Beware the Villainess eventually features more sly behavior on Melissa’s part and drama to make this manhwa feel more different than similar sorts of manga like My Next Life as the Villainess. There’s already some potential here, with her early interactions with her fiance Ian and brother Jake leaving them not smitten with her change in demeanor due to going off-script. It’d be interesting to see it continue to set itself apart from similar series.

Volume 1 of Beware the Villainess is available now, and Yen Press will release volume 2 of the manhwa on January 21, 2025.