Tōko Amekawa is no stranger to writing strong heroines who set out to get what they want. You may recognize her as the author of 7th Time Loop, a story about a young woman named Rishe determined to use her memories of her previous six lives to make her seventh one end the cycle of death and rebirth, or as the creator of Claudia, the reincarnated heroine of The Legendary Witch Is Reborn as an Oppressed Princess, another young lady ready to find her happy ending. Now with Reincarnated in a Mafia Dating Sim, Amekawa brings us another determined young woman in the form of Francesca, and like Rishe and Claudia, she's also been reborn, but this time in an otome game she was playing before her death. Clearly, Amekawa enjoys reincarnation stories as much as strong heroines.

But since each series takes a distinctly different approach to the genre, it's hard to find too much fault with Amekawa's preoccupation. This series belongs to the subgenre of otome game isekai, where the heroine enters the world of a game she's played before, often before she's had a chance to finish it. Francesca was two chapters away from the end when she threw herself in front of a bullet meant for her yakuza boss grandfather, but that almost doesn't matter here, because she's completely determined not to follow the game at all. After all, what's the point of a new life if she just ends up in the same awkward social position of all of her classmates being afraid of her?

Francesca is also unique in one very specific way: unlike many heroines who have trouble figuring out that this is no longer a game, but a real world populated by people with their own free will, Francesca knows that. While she can see plot elements of the game unfolding despite her hopes and efforts, she also recognizes that her different interactions with the former characters play out differently because they're real people. She still doesn't want to have anything to do with them, but she knows better than to think of them as being “out of character.”

This is particularly important because of the way her life is going. Francesca is engaged to the seventeen-year-old head of a different mafia family, Leonardo Aldini, the villain of the game. Her first goal in her new life is to break off that engagement while also avoiding getting entangled with the other love interests, and at first, her plans seem to be going well: she avoids the all-important meet-cute (if you can call being saved from being kidnapped a meet-cute) by instead saving herself. But unfortunately for her, that throws her into Leonardo's sights, fascinating him to the point where he has zero interest in ending their betrothal. Essentially, Francesca has unlocked a secret route, although to her credit, she doesn't think of it that way.

Francesca herself is the major draw of this story. Over the course of these two books, she proves herself to be a determined, intelligent person who still acts like the seventeen-year-old she is. She's unwilling to overlook someone in trouble, even if that could foul up her own plans, and it's not hard to see why Leonardo is so interested in her. While their relationship is still at the point where you wish she'd just run away as fast as she can, it's also apparent that Leonardo is rethinking his life and his plans the more time he spends with her. He can't quite fathom the way she acts, and that's not particularly comfortable for him…but it's also appealing. Francesca is also a little baffled by Leonardo, because he does show (for him) actual concern for her that she doesn't expect. Their relationship feels tentative in a good way.

While I wouldn't call this a villainess story, Francesca does seem to view it as such by the end of the second volume. She notes that she's essentially abandoned the world by refusing to play the role of heroine, which therefore must make her the villain. But I don't think it's as black-and-white as that, because she is changing Leonardo, even if only incrementally. This suggests that there are no concrete hero/villain roles now that the world is no longer a game, which is a refreshingly different approach for the genre to take.

Reincarnated in a Mafia Dating Sim isn't yet as good as 7th Time Loop, although I do like it more than The Legendary Witch Is Reborn as an Oppressed Princess. The story is just different enough from other otome game reincarnation tales to make it stand out, and Francesca is a very strong protagonist. The art has the usual issue of anachronistically modern school uniforms, but otherwise is very attractive, and I am curious to see where the series goes from here. If you enjoyed Amekawa's other works, it's worth giving this a chance, too.