Misora, 30 years old, worked as a producer of the new romance visual game "The Seven-colored Moon." She couldn't wait to have a meeting with Polaris 7...a boys singing group who sings the theme song of the game since L Myourenji, member of the group, is her fave!

However, on the way to the meeting, the car Polaris 7 took was crushed in a huge accident. Misora was shocked...she fell off the stairs, hit her head and...

The next moment, she was in the world of the very game she'd been working for long time. She is now Sophia, the villainess of "The Seven-colored Moon"! When she meets Eraldo, her fiance, she can't believe her eyes...he looks just like L Myourenji!

And she finds out that L had reincarnated too, as Eraldo, the villain prince!!

Flirting with a Faux Tyrant in the Entertainment Biz has story and art by Takarano Island. English translation is done by Avery Hutley, with lettering by Jezael Manahan. Published by Kadokawa (October 18, 2025). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Every time I think that maybe I'm thoroughly sick of isekai, no matter what demographic it's aimed at, a new series comes along and makes me remember that some genres are perennial for a reason. Flirting With a Faux Tyrant isn't hugely innovative, using the same basic schtick of being reborn in a game world that's been around since at least Vivian Vande Veld's User Unfriendly (my personal first encounter with it), but it has a few tweaks that make it fun, and it backs those up with an entertaining romance.

The isekai victims in this case are Misora and Eru, AKA “Lord L.” Back in Japan, Misora was producing an otome game and had just managed to get her favorite boy band to agree to sing the opening theme when she saw on the news that the group had been in a car accident on their way to her office. Panicking, she fell down the stairs, and when she opened her eyes, she was in the body of Sophia, her game's heroine…on the bad end route. But no sooner does she arrive at the enemy nation she's being married off to than she recognizes the prince as her bias – L, the band member with a caustic, domineering character. Needless to say, he's not like that in real life, and part of the thrust of the story is how Misora has to learn to see him as Eru, not L, even as they both adjust to their new circumstances.

It's impressively well thought out. While Misora feels that she's too old for her new position as Prince Eraldo's fiancée, her new sixteen-year-old body notwithstanding, especially since Eru/Eraldo is still eighteen, and a brief flashback shows that she wasn't even sure she should be stanning him with that gap between their ages. Eru, on the other hand, genuinely likes Misora, not just because she knows who he is and makes him feel safe, but because of who she is as a person – she's kind, helpful, and funny, and he sees no reason why their engagement shouldn't stand. She also helps him grapple with the memories he's inherited as Eraldo, namely that Eraldo was, before he awakened as Eru, a vicious jerk. Gentle Eru may play L, but that's not who he really is, and having to accept that the hands that are now his have blood on them isn't easy.

Insider knowledge of the game will only get Misora so far, and she knows it. Between her past and present lives, she's got a lot to cope with, as does Eru, and the story doesn't shy away from that even as it heaps on comedic moments. Smarter than a lot of other similar isekai, this is easy to read and hard to put down.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

Real-life Otome game writers should probably take note of the proliferation of “reincarnated into the world of a visual novel” anime, manga, and light novels. I'd hate to be the writer of a particularly tragic visual novel who died and ended up living through every single one of their own vicious plot twists. That's kind of what happens to 30-year-old protagonist Misora Mikuna, who, on hearing news that her favorite male idol band has been in a bus crash, trips and falls on the stairs, sustaining a fatal head injury. Suddenly shifting worlds, she finds herself inhabiting the body of Sophie Scarlet Roselia, a 16-year-old noble girl and heroine of the visual novel Misora produced. Oh, and she's already irrevocably on the “bad ending” route. Summarily shipped off to a neighbouring country to be married off to a random prince she's never met, Misora/Sophie immediately recognises him as “Lord L Moyourenji”, her idol “bias”, i.e., the idol band member she stans the most. Turns out Lord L died in the bus crash and was also reincarnated as Sophie's husband-to-be, the dastardly, capricious, murderously cruel Prince Eraldo.

Now that they're both aware of their true identities, Sophie and Prince Eraldo must navigate high society together without arousing suspicion of their true identities, while also avoiding fatal traps set by Eraldo's political enemies. I'll admit, it's an insanely convoluted setup for what's essentially an isekai comedy-drama. Although they're engaged to each other, Sophie can't get over the fact that inside, she's a thirty-year-old woman (in a 16-year-old's body), while Eraldo is an 18-year-old idol, in a body to match. Eraldo's clearly quite taken with her decisiveness and knowledge of the game world, and certainly doesn't complain about their betrothal, while Sophie is completely freaked out. She tries to rationalize that her attraction to Lord L in her previous world wasn't romantic, but… in this world, they're clearly made for each other. Complicating things a little is Lord L's stage persona – an aloof, domineering type, and Misora really got off on this vibe, something transferred to her Sophie persona, causing some amusing mishaps.

What follows is a light and frothy, amusingly daft romcom filled with the usual shenanigans: they must share a bedroom, they're caught in an accidentally compromising position by a maid, etc. None of these are things we haven't seen many times before, but the energetic and fun characters and brisk pace help keep the reader's interest. Add in some background intrigue and potential for later drama, and it's a thoroughly enjoyable series I enjoyed far more than I expected to. It also helps that Sophie and Eraldo are both cute, attractive characters with a wide range of comedic facial expressions. I'd like to read more of this.

Bolts
Rating:

We rarely get shows about two people being isekai'd to the same world at roughly the same time. It's hard to sell that setup because it needs to be so contrived to work, and unfortunately, this book is no exception. Thankfully, though, this romantic comedy comes off as a bit more self-aware compared to most. What happens if the idol that you stan ends up becoming the prince that you now have to marry in another world? There's a lot of fun, funny humor here about stan and idol culture. Considering that the main character is a woman in her late twenties and the idol is a freshly insecure eighteen-year-old boy, this can lead to some funny moments as the two have different perceptions.

I'm not sure how to feel about the romantic tension that's being generated. On the one hand, seeing the two trip over each other for entirely different reasons is humorous. Our idol prince is forced to confront his insecurities, while his fan sees him as more of a person. I like how the two are adjusting to their new lives, and there is still commentary here on what it means to be a male idol. The trade-off is that the story doesn't really seem to have an overall direction, just a setup. The setting is loosely based on a game the protagonist was developing, but the story starts at the end of that game, so the narrative flounders a bit in establishing a strong sense of direction. Check the story out if you're at all familiar with idol culture and want to see some idol-related humor take place in a fantasy setting. Otherwise, despite some charming parts, I don't really see this series taking off in any significant way.