Villainess manhwa: what it is, and where to start

What a villainess story is

In a classic romance novel, the villainess is the jealous noble lady who bullies the sweet heroine, tries to steal the male lead, and is punished at the end: exiled, executed or killed. Villainess stories start from that ending. Someone who knows the plot ends up in her place, and the question is whether she can escape the fate everyone around her thinks she deserves.

In Korean the villainess is the angnyeo (악녀, "wicked woman"), and these stories are a major branch of romance fantasy, called rofan (로판): stories set in an imagined European-style empire of dukes, princesses, knights and grand balls, drawn in full colour for webtoon apps.

Where the genre comes from

Reincarnating as the villainess started as a Japanese web novel trend: the "otome game villainess" (akuyaku reijou, 悪役令嬢) became a genre of its own there in the 2010s. Korean web novel writers picked up the idea and reshaped it, and many of the best-known Korean villainess webtoons began between about 2018 and 2021. It is one branch of isekai, stories where someone from our world ends up in another one; our guide to what isekai means covers the wider genre.

Common setups and tropes

Villainess stories mix and match a fairly small set of ideas. Once you know them, the first chapter tells you a lot:

• Possessed as the villainess: a modern woman, often someone who read the novel or played the game, wakes up in the villainess's body before the bad ending.
• The real villainess goes back in time: she was executed, wakes up years earlier, and this time chooses revenge, redemption or both.
• Death flags: events that, in the original story, lead to her death. The plot is a race to avoid each one.
• The heroine is not what she seems: the sweet original heroine turns out to be manipulative, or the villainess was framed from the start.
• Contract marriage or divorce plans: she marries a cold duke for protection, or tries to divorce the husband who kills her in the original.
• The wrong male lead: she avoids the original male lead and grows close to the second lead, the villain, or the duke nobody trusts.
• A family that hates her: a cold father, adoptive brothers or a stepmother, and slowly earning or rejecting their love.
• Game windows: in the game version, affection meters or choice boxes appear over people's heads.

Korean villainess vs Japanese "otome game villainess"

Both start from the same idea, and both have plenty of exceptions, but they tend to feel different. An otome game is a dating game aimed at women, where the player picks which handsome man to pursue.

One of the best-known Japanese examples in English is My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, a comedy about a girl who remembers her past life and tries to dodge every bad ending. If you liked its light touch, Beware the Villainess! below is a Korean pick in a similar comic mood.

Possessed, reborn or back in time?

Villainess stories use three different ways in, and fans name them differently. Transmigration, or possession, means a woman from our world wakes up in the villainess's existing body. Reincarnation means she is born as the villainess, often as a baby. Regression means the villainess herself dies and goes back to an earlier point in her own life. The story is the same genre either way, but regression stories are usually darker, because the heroine remembers what was done to her. Our guide to reincarnation manhwa explains the three in more depth.

Where to start

These are our picks for the best places to start, in no particular order: well-known villainess manhwa with different tones, from comedy to cold revenge. Each title links to its AniList page, where you can check the details and see official places to read it. Nothing below goes past the setup of the first chapters.

• Villains Are Destined to Die (also called Death Is the Only Ending for the Villainess). A player wakes up inside a dating game on hard mode, as Penelope Eckart, the adopted daughter everyone in her house hates. Every route ends with her death, and she can see each male lead's affection for her as a number. Tense and funny at the same time, and the clearest example of the game version of the genre.
• Beware the Villainess!. A college student wakes up as Melissa, the duke's daughter cast as the villainess of a sweet romance. Instead of panicking, she decides to live exactly as she likes. A comedy more than a survival story, and it is finished.
• The Villainess Turns the Hourglass (also called The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass). Aria was executed for bullying her stepsister, then learned the stepsister had set her up all along. Sent back in time with a magic hourglass, she decides to be the villainess properly this time. The revenge kind, and it is finished.
• The Villainess Lives Again (also called The Villainess Lives Twice). Artezia spent her life scheming to put her brother on the throne, and he threw her away once he had it. Back in the past, she turns against her own family and sides with Grand Duke Cedric. Political and patient, for readers who like a heroine who plans ten moves ahead. It is finished.
• The Villainess Is a Marionette. She wakes up as Kayena, the empire's most beautiful princess and the villainess of a novel, a part she has already lived and died in. This time she means to pull the strings instead of being pulled. A good pick if you like scheming leads.
• How to Get My Husband on My Side (also called How to Win My Husband Over). Lighter than most of this list. The heroine knows the story she is in ends badly for her, so she turns a political marriage into a long, often funny exercise in damage control. A good fit if you like slow-burn romance with scheming in the background.
• Your Throne. A villainess story with nobody from our world in it. It is a palace power struggle told from the side of the scheming noblewoman you would normally root against, so it suits readers who like sharp, morally grey heroines and court intrigue more than sweet romance.

Several of these picks are finished, so you can binge them from start to end. For more finished series across genres, see our guide to completed manhwa.

Can't remember the name of one?

With so many duke's daughters and so many hourglasses, villainess titles are hard to keep apart. If you have a screenshot or a panel, the manhwa finder crops it and sends it to SauceNAO, Google Lens and other reverse image search engines in one go.

If you only remember the plot, open Find by description with villainess manhwa already picked and add a tag you remember, such as Reincarnation, Revenge or Time Manipulation. Our guide to finding a manga you forgot the name of covers more ways to search, including how to ask other readers.

Many of these have official English releases, and the Read on links in the live list above show where each one is published. Our guide to reading manga and manhwa legally lists the apps and what they cost.