Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival makes a couple of unexpected choices in its event trajectory. Rather than have the protagonist be isekai’d into the game world, she’s instead naturally one of the game’s characters who awakens to self-awareness after killing someone who was isekai’d into the story. Then later on it looks like it’s going to go the independent murderhobo route only to swerve into noble-backed battle maid training instead.
Definitely a number of interesting elements floating around so far and I’m curious to see how things develop. That said, the first quarter or so is a bit of a chore to get through due to being absolutely drenched in background exposition and overflowing with various training-related monologues. Would’ve been nice had that part been condensed to like a chapter or two max.
The lengthily, and slightly misleadingly, titled Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu o Mankitsu suru series (English subtitle: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!) starts out as a fairly enjoyable slow-burn romance with hints toward a larger background plot. The protagonist is a nice mix of competent and awkward, the love interest is a pretty standard kuudere, and events play out in an entertaining manner… for the first two novels at least.
The third novel, however, is atrocious. The focus there mainly falls on two children, each annoying in a different manner, while the protagonist falls back on behaving like a servant from one of her previous loops (despite now being an empress-to-be) and the prince basically becomes an afterthought. With the event development and secondary characters not being any good either, I’m likely not going to bother following the series any further.