Modern Villainess: Its Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash (Li ght Novel) Vol. 2

Modern Villainess: It's Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash Light Novel #2

by Tofuro Futsukaichi, KEI (Illustrator)

A woman is reincarnated as the villainess in a retro otome game...where she has to navigate the incoming Great Recession of 2008!

When an exhausted career woman is reincarnated as Keikain Runa, the villainess of an otome game born in the 1990s, she's determined to win at any cost. She may lose the love interest's heart, but she refuses to be ruined. Armed with the foreknowledge of the economic crash looming on Japan's horizon, Runa must revitalize her father's company and secure her freedom for herself and her new family.

Genres: Light Novel

292 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2021

Reviews

[Aria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Context, I am specifically the type of person who this light novel would have been targeting - I work in finance and love villainess isekai LNs (supporting document, my review for volume 1). But I cannot in good conscience recommend this LN series anymore, and volume 2 just makes that very clear for me.

** spoiler alert **
For this volume our main girl Runa starts dabbling into politics which is...well the logical conclusion, she's a finance girlie whose actions can affect a lot of economies. And from reading this I do understand that she thinks focusing on saving businesses would equate to saving peoples' livelihoods eventually, so she's in the think, don't feel camp of people, preferring to think of ordinary people as pawns instead of people as a very badass usually rational entrepreneur - we get that.

But I also get that as an very privileged multiracial girl, some of her international projects are very racist. There I said it. I'm SEAsian and the light bits of casual racism near the end were just too close to home to me. This is a reality where an elementary school kid can play with holding companies - it's sad to see that even with that much intelligence, she would not think well of people like me. Or does that add to her realism? You decide.

The one-star is still there because when sensei writes all their finance topics they're still rather relatively sound and grounded in reality. But yeah I can no longer continue reading this series, it was nice while it lasted though!

[Lissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting & compelling read.

A snapshot of history, but a little bit off…

I don’t love the whole “gated communities” and “race problem” that was brought up… and Runa very much being right wing? It’s an interesting experience of myself being very left wing & all for deregulation of monopolies, & such, & such, but also seeing where she’s coming from regarding the economic point of view, & knowing what she does about the financial crash… I’m super compelled.

I am incredibly interested in seeing where this goes…

[Ayanami Faerudo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm putting this as a placeholder for the volume 2 of the manga.

The story is full of a little in-depth-for-casual-reading explanations of finance, economy, and history. I admit that I skip most of these explanations as I have no patience with them right now. BUT I will go back (probably after volume 3) to read and actually absorb the little lessons because it's all so fascinating. I might not have much interest in the world of mergers, loans, buyouts, stocks, other than knowing how to invest and manage them, but it's still a view on this capitalist world (despite how I dislike it at times).

Now, I am intrigued what this being part Romanov will play in Runa's story and plans.

[Shady Lubbad]

I love this story...

[huntërre thomässön · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series possess extreme levels of jargon. Sometimes I’ll read a page and not understand a thing that was said. Nonetheless, it’s a great villainess story with an intriguing plot concept.