Like Bloom Into You is cute, but the anime literally just up and ends halfway through the story with no conclusion or even climax to the story (yes, I went and read the manga afterwards and the complete story was good, particularly in how it reached a point where the characters all realized how silly the central driving internal conflicts of the first half were), and when I look at relevant MAL stacks it's like "these aren't bait - well ok this one is, and that was is, but uh..." or "alright so it's an incestuous loli story but..." and all I can think is kind-vladimir-ilyich so this is basically the only place I trust to ask.

Side question, is there anywhere I can actually find translated light novels that's better than nyaa.si? Because as consistent as that's been there's still occasionally things like the Bloom Into You spinoff that's either not there or not complete.

  • buckykat [none/use name]
    ·
    4 months ago

    Pretty sure I'm In Love With The Villainess isn't bait but I don't think it's done yet.

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
      ·
      4 months ago

      I've read the novels that covered the initial Rae/Claire story and it's 100% not bait, and I think the story itself is good even though its protagonist is sort of a piece of shit.

      I'm in Love with the Villainess light novel spoilers

      Rae and Claire end up not exactly married but effectively so, raising adopted daughters in the aftermath of the revolution. The story itself is run through with explicit discussions of queer issues through both Rae's self-reflection (which acknowledges that she's kind of a piece of shit whose actions are selfish and bad, regardless of how she tries to rationalize them) and plot points like the story arc where one of the characters is a trans allegory that's actually ok as such allegories go. One thing I did like about it was the explicit acknowledgement that unrequited love is a poison that eats you alive even if one thinks one can handle it, and that it's unfair both to oneself and to the target of it, even if it then turned around and basically went "but that's ok, because this an escapist fantasy story, so the protagonist actually gets to win the affection of her unrequited crush thanks to accumulating enough official Good Girl points through doing good deeds to redeem her as a prize."

      I started reading the first novel of the second major arc, but didn't get too far before getting distracted with something else, and it's on my old computer so I haven't picked it up again.