The Winter 2026 Anime Preview Guide

The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom

The protagonist is reincarnated as Tiararose, the villainess of the protagonist's favorite otome romance game aimed at female gamers. The protagonist is resigned to accepting the in-game judgment event and the fate that awaits her. However, just as her fiancé breaks off their engagement, the game throws up a marriage proposal event that wasn't in the game's original scenario — from Aquasteed, the crown prince of the neighboring country.

The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom is based on Punichan 's The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom (Akuyaku Reijō wa Ringoku no Ōtaishi ni Dekiai Sareru) light novel series. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

The Ring of Lapis Lazuli was the game that Main Character-chan loved the most before dying to…whatever circumstances brought her to be reincarnated in the game world. The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom doesn't seem too concerned with the details, so I guess we shouldn't be either. You know the drill. Our heroine was the dictionary definition of a regular girl who liked regular things in a regular way when she was alive, so imagine her reality being flip-turned-upside-down when she suddenly finds that she's been given a second chance in the world of The Ring of Lapis Lazuli…but as the game's snotty, hateable villainess!

This trope has become as overdone as any other variation of the “reincarnated into a video-game shtick,” but I tend to give the subgenre a teensy bit more leniency because these otome games are technically more interesting settings for the protagonists to navigate than the generic fantasy sloplands their male counterparts get stuck with. Again, I'm not saying that The Ring of Lapis Lazuli is deserving of a spot outside of the local used-game shop's 500-yen bargain bin, but it at least has a plot, and characters, and the usual dialogue checks and event flags that girls like Tiararose have to use their reincarnation-given knowledge to outwit in search of their happy ending. Even in shows as stock standard as The Villainess is Adored, that structure provides the kind of bare-minimum narrative hook that so many other isekai anime don't even bother pretending to give a damn about.

This one is pretty stock standard, though, which is what any viewer needs to know before diving into Tiararose's tragic (but not too tragic) journey of being rejected by the game's beautiful, blonde love interest before immediately hitting the rebound with the beautiful, raven-haired love interest that lives right next door, geopolitically speaking. It honestly makes me wonder what the point of the otome game angle is, since the story is clearly not at all interested in wallowing in such terrible, improper emotions as “grief,” “heartache,” or “mild frustration over relatable challenges and conflicts.” My biggest issue with The Villainess is Adored… comes right from the tone being set by that word, “adored.” Tiararose has, for all intents and purposes, an obscenely cozy existence. Sure, Blondie from the game's cover shut her down, but she still has two loving parents, an army of devoted servants, and more money than any regular peasant in this world would ever know what to do with.

Did I mention that, after going through the motions of the “rejected in the ballroom” scene, the universe bequeaths Tiararose a brand new and fanatically devoted boyfriend who wasn't even in the original Lapis Lazuli game that she played back on Earth? I'm sorry, there's wish fulfillment, and then there's the romance-anime equivalent of those contracts the Fast & Furious actors allegedly signed, ensuring they would never lose any fights or take enough hits in the action scenes to shatter the illusion of their immortality. Sure, the show looks pretty good, and it's hitting all of the genre checkmarks that fans would want, but what's the point of the next eleven-or-so episodes? Homegirl just won the Sexy Cartoon Man Sweepstakes without even knowing she had been entered. The story is done! Congratulations, Tiararose. Your show has not given any reason to believe it should bother to exist beyond this initial parade of sycophantic wish-fulfillment, but I hope you and Prince Aquasteed have a great life together.

Wait, I'm sorry…his name is actually “Aquasteed?” Okay, I'm knocking a half-star off the score just for that. You have to be harsh with these sorts of blunders, or the romance anime will never learn to do better. “Aquasteed.” Come on, now.

With the oversaturation of the villainess isekai subgenre, I suppose it's something of a novelty that The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom is just playing it straight. There's no clever twist, no goofy antics, just a straightforward villainess story that plays by the rules. The most remarkable thing about it is its flair for godawful names – Tiararose, Hartknights, and Aquasteed. I desperately want to think these are meant to be ridiculous, but having now played the visual novel, read the manga, and watched the anime, I don't think they are. This is a story unfolding in complete earnestness.

I suppose we can count it as a positive that Tiararose is fully aware of what's happening. From the minute she sees Akari cozying up to her fiancé, she realizes that the “condemnation scene” isn't far off, and she bravely decides to go through with it anyway. She even has the mild chutzpah to refute Hartknights' claims, although that doesn't feel particularly rewarding given how utterly stupid they make him sound. “You told Akari she had to kneel to me!” Sir, you are the crown prince. Everyone has to kneel to you. And not dancing with the same person at a ball more than twice is such basic 19th-century etiquette that you'd know it even if you'd only ever read a single book set in the period. This is so far from rocket science that I actually worry about his intelligence.

Akari's foolishness is a bit more excusable, since even without a confirmation, we can make the educated guess that she's also been reincarnated. The mere fact that Tiararose thinks of her as “the heroine” indicates this, because there's no way that game developers who thought “Aquasteed” was a normal thing to name someone would have followed that up with “Akari.” Plus, Tiararose remembers everyone else's names, so why wouldn't “Akari” ring a bell? Add that many otome games let you rename the player character, and it all adds up to Akari being another Japanese person reborn. Plus, you know, that's how these series typically work, and this one isn't trying to break any molds.

I'm being very harsh here, and it may be unwarranted. After all the twists on the villainess subgenre, playing it straight almost does feel like something unusual to do with the formula. But this episode's besetting sin is that it just isn't interesting. The plot points are all telegraphed, the characters are firmly stuck in their molds, and while the art is pretty, it's not enough to save the story. If you want something sugary, this might do, but I can't really recommend it.

I do not fault Punichan for how stale The Villainess is Adored by the Prince of the Neighboring Kingdom comes across in this modern age. The webnovel started in 2016, when the villainess genre was still relatively young. Although it comes across as a checklist of genre tropes with no attempt at subversion today, I'm sure it felt fresh at the time. In this case, the villains are the people who decided to release an anime adaptation nine years and ten months after the first chapter was posted.

And Studio DEEN has turned it into something that is truly beautiful to behold. While I've long since grown weary of the majority of villainess series, the costume design tends to be a highlight. Tiararose and Akari's gowns are especially stunning, even with the bounds of the genre. Bereft of other sources of stimulation, I oohed and aahed over the draping on Akari's skirt, and the ruffles on the front of Tiararose's strapless bodice, the shade of blue complementing the coral of her hair. Even her lackeys have been beautifully outfitted in orange and purple. The men's outfits are less interesting, just the kind of ornamented tailcoats you'd find in a certain type of joseimuke gacha game, but the visual design of the show is sumptuous.

None of that could change that I was bored stupid the entire time. It adhered perfectly to expectations, without offering anything in the way of a unique twist or take on the subject. Tiararose is engaged to Prince Hartknights. Prince Hartknights is in love with Akari. Tiararose realizes she's been reincarnated into her favorite otome game, but she's playing the part of the antagonistic hated rival. She worries about the inevitable confrontation, in which she'll be accused of bullying the protagonist. The confrontation happens. Everything she's accused of is justifiable from her end. Finally, Prince Aquasteed shows up to whisk her away. I wanted to kick my legs and scream like a child throwing a tantrum; I was so understimulated.

Tropes in storytelling can be salvaged by likable characters, but Tiararose has nothing but a void where her personality was supposed to be. She passively accepts her fate without ever trying to figure out a way to circumvent it; she just sits there sadly in her carriage on her way to the ball. Part of the fun of villainess stories is getting to know a character who has the kind of personality traits that would get her cast as conniving or self-centered, even if that's no longer true. Tiararose is so polite and pleasant to everyone she meets that it's hard to accept that even the other people at the party would believe she's capable of malicious bullying, but then again, nothing is based on characters acting in ways consistent with their personality. Even her sole interest, baking and eating sweets, is plucked from the top of a list of Acceptably Feminine Hobbies.

Is it fortunate or unfortunate that this came out the same season as The Holy Grail of Eris, which uses the tropes in much more interesting ways? It's certainly fortunate for us, but unfortunate for the people working on The Villainess is Adored, etc., etc. Screw it. I get bored just typing that title.

I have an odd relationship with this story. Back in the long, long ago, in the before times—that is to say, before any villainess anime had yet to be made—I was already diving headlong into the new (at the time) sub-genre through manga, manhwa, and even web novels. Coming off of the original big villainess hit, Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter (which has bafflingly never made the jump into anime), I was starved for anything similar. That's when I came across the web novel for The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom—so it's fair to say I have a healthy bit of nostalgia affecting how I view this anime.

If this first episode had been made when the story was originally written, it would likely have had much more impact. But now, a decade out of time, where we get a villainess anime or two a season, this episode feels old hat. It's basically just going through the usual motions.

Villainess gets her past-life memories of playing the game back?
Check.
Tries to avoid her bad end by treating the heroine better? Check.
Accepts her condemnation with noble poise?
Check.

Even its “big twist” on the sub-genre, being proposed to soon after the breaking of her engagement, is something we've already seen animated in another villainess show at this point (7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!). And it should be obvious to anyone familiar with the subgenre that, based on her words and actions, Akari is likewise a reincarnator familiar with the game world that the fantasy world is based on.

When it comes down to it, this episode is all setup and shows us nothing of what The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom will eventually become. However, as someone who knows where the story is going, if you like villainess shows in general—especially low-key ones heavy on the romance—then you might want to give this show a second chance with episode two. If not, you're safe to bounce off of this one.