The Fall 2022 Manga Guide

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke

What's It About? 

Claire Martino was supposed to have it all – as the daughter of a duke, she was destined to be blessed with great magic powers, a prince for a fiancé, and a loving family. But all of that comes crashing down when her half-sister Charlotte betrays her and sets her up for a fall. Now deprived of everything she should have had and framed for cruelties she did not commit, Claire has left her home and country…but things may not be quite as hopeless as they seem once she starts having some strange dreams.

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke is based on the light novel series by writer Ichibu Saki, illustrator Nemusuke, and character designer Ushio Shirotori. The manga is drawn by Ushio Shirotori, with English translation by Katie Kimura, and Tokyopop will release its first volume both digitally and physically for $7.99 and $12.99 respectively

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

If there's one thing I love, it's when a manga or work of literature makes a reference to another work of literature. In this case, it's Penelope Farmer's 1969 children's book Charlotte Sometimes. Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke may not involve time travel like Farmer's novel, but it does have a character who may or may not be dreaming her life as someone named Clare, which is the name of the time traveler in Farmer's story. Clare switches places with a girl named Charlotte when she sleeps in a bed at her boarding school, and Claire dreams of a young woman named Minami who lives in modern Japan and appears to be playing a game about her life. If it's a coincidence, it's one that really works, and it also creates a nice sense of confusion as to whether Minami's actually been reborn as Claire or if she's simply dreaming another life. It may not be a huge difference in isekai fiction, but I'll take it.

That's really what sets this manga adaptation of a novel apart, and it is pretty typical of the genre otherwise, right down to Claire's half-sister taking over her life and framing her as a villainess. Claire, however, isn't just going to sit back and let it happen, and she plans her escape even before she starts to dream of Minami. That does a lot for her as a character, and the slow discovery of her sister's perfidy also helps the story to feel more like something we want to invest our time in than just another rehash of the villainess isekai subgenre. (And did I mention that the sister's name is Charlotte? Yes, I am going to milk the similarities between this and Charlotte Sometimes for all I'm worth.) And Charlotte really is ruthless, determined to push Claire from her pedestal no matter what. We don't know why, and given the way the story is going we may never know, but she's still a very good villain, to the point where it wouldn't matter if Claire didn't have Minami.

There is some predictability to this, of course – it's no surprise who the guy Claire meets is or what her heritage turns out to be. The art is mostly lovely barring one anachronistic skirt suit that is jarring even if you aren't a costume snob, and the translation reads very well. The source light novel is also being released in English (look for it in the light novel portion of the Guide!), but thus far this looks like a winner for fans of villainess isekai and fantasy. And Charlotte Sometimes, of course. I told you I wouldn't let that go.

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Christopher Farris

Rating:

I don't know what (if anything) I was expecting from Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke, but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise regardless. It can take a while to get there though, as the series frontloads so much of its expositional history and world-building working up to its premise. It's actually presented interestingly enough, but has the odd effect of making it seem like we're getting a significantly more complex fantasy-society story, laying down plenty of foundational intrigue that wouldn't be out of place in some fancy period-piece drama before suddenly, surprise! It was an otome-game villainess isekai series all along! That actually mitigates some seemingly-shiftier elements of the setup, like how instead of Claire's betrayal at the hands of her half-sister being borne out of an undercurrent of Those Untrustworthy Commoners, it turns out it was simply at the behest of an uncaring Player Character forging ahead with the route she wanted!

It's an example of the story being self-aware without being glib, serving to postulate that perhaps the 'Villainess' of a given otome game might be less a selfish schemer and more just an unfortunate obstacle in the main character's path. And rather than struggle against or even kindly mitigate that conflict, Fallen Daughter simply hypothesizes what would happen if that designated villainess chose to buzz off and go on her own wholly separate adventure. It becomes a keen spin on the well-established structure of the subgenre, that once free from the cutthroat webs of that otome game plotting, most of the people Claire interacts with turn out to be surprisingly nice and helpful. Contrasting with all that dense scheming from the beginning makes this sort of wish-fulfillment-isekai easy-street situation feel…well, not so much 'earned', but at least refreshing.

It's enhanced by the chemistry of these well-drawn characters. Of course Claire seems instantly compatible with the helpful Prince Vik, but I can't be the only one noticing how well she also gets on with boyish knight-lady Lui. Like I'm not crazy, there's definitely a connection there, right? Seeing those personable connections play out provides plenty of interest to follow in lieu of any major conflicts or stakes, but there's still some level of tension lent by Claire's uncertainty as to the whole isekai situation. Her memories of her other life are structured in a distinct "Butterfly dreaming he is a man" framing, even making it questionable as to which 'direction' the alternate-world/reincarnation angle is actually going. It all makes for a fascinating broad setup, which works despite being the sort of new-life fantasy where our lead gets granted super-powered magic and scores of hot boys and girls surrounding her. That's a feat, and one enhanced by the overall detailed art and smart structure of this manga adaptation. Give this one a shot, and with time, it might just surprise you.