The Spring 2025 K-Comics Guide

A Fairy Tale Written by a Villain

What's It About? 

One fine day, Seha dies during a bungee jump, only to be reborn in "The Little Mermaid" as Princess Isabelle, a villain fated to be killed by the resentful Little Mermaid. To rewrite her fate, Isabelle seeks a different beau than the prince. This leads her to Grand Duke Waschke, who's the perfect husband material... if not for his curse, which claims the life of his bride on their wedding night. Will Isabelle find a way to break the curse and secure her happy ending? Or will she die a villain?

A Fairy Tale Written by a Villain has a story by Jepure and art by Amera. English translation and lettering by Kiwivine. Published by Tapas Entertainment (March 22, 2025). Rated T+.

---

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Once upon a time there was a mermaid who fell in love with a human prince. No, wait, that's not right. Once upon a time there was a wizard who fell in love with a beautiful pair of red shoes. No, no, that's not it either. Once upon a time, there was a grand duke who was cursed to turn into a beast and kill his brides on their wedding night…there was a handsome prince named Snow White…an ordinary woman died bungee jumping in Korea…once upon a time…

The beauty of fairy tales is that they're so malleable, and that's something that A Fairy Tale Written by a Villain absolutely delights in. Taking cues from isekai tropes – heroine Isabelle started out as Jung Seha who died in a bungee jumping mishap – fractured fairy tales, and games like the Taisho x Alice series, Jepure and Amera's manhwa throws familiar tales into a blender and gleefully smashes all the buttons at once. Seha quickly realizes that she's been cast as the human princess who marries the Little Mermaid's beloved in Hans Christian Andersen's literary fairy tale, and she also learns that just because Andersen ended the story with the mermaid becoming a spirit of the air, that doesn't mean that Isabelle and the Prince are going to get to live happily ever after. After several disastrous lives in the fairy tale, Isabelle decides to seek out a different story entirely, which is how she ends up meeting Karl, a combination of the Beast from “Beauty and the Beast” and Bluebeard with his parade of dead wives. We know from the in medias res opening that Isabelle will manage to break Karl's curse, but how she gets there – and what happens afterwards – is where the fun of this story lies.

As a bonus, it's clear that the author knows their folklore. There are multiple references to Andersen's original tale rather than the sanitized version more people know today, and the fact that mage Cheymon is instantly fascinated by Isabelle's red shoes is another nod to the Danish storyteller. A scene where Karl puts a shoe on Isabelle's foot conjures up “Cinderella,” and the idea that perhaps true love is required to break Karl's spell is an old standby, albeit one that's more prevalent in cleaned up modern retellings than the darker, older ones. There's also a nice symmetry in Karl being both Beast and Bluebeard, since those two tale types can be read as different sides of the same coin, thematically speaking. (And if the theme is “marriage to strange looking men.”) It's a fun start to a series that enjoys its own concept.

---

Dee
Rating:

As fond as I am of fairy tale variants, A Fairy Tale Written by the Villain had an uphill climb to win me over because of its early narrative choices. First of all: wowza, this premise is just hats on top of hats. It's a villainess isekai, a fairy tale retelling, and also a time loop series?! It's like the author was trying to outwit the algorithm by cramming in all the popular subgenres at once.

The piled-on tropes create a lot of narrative layers that the author struggles to explore evenly, especially when it comes to the isekai elements. Jung Seha's past life has little bearing on the story. Despite having no access to Isabelle's memories, she can access facts about the world whenever it's narratively convenient. Maybe Isabelle's murky past will receive more focus later, but right now it feels like we could have skipped the isekai premise and just cut to the time loop chase.

And speaking of cutting to the chase, by far the biggest narrative issue is that Chapter 1 opens with Isabelle and Karl on their wedding night. After Isabelle survives Karl's curse, we jump back in time to retrace her steps to this evening. But because I already know she survives—and that the two clearly fall in love—it kills the tension of her betrothal period. I found myself infinitely more interested in the subplots (such as the little mermaid lurking in the waters) than the central romance, eager to return to the wedding night so I could find out what happens next. Ending Chapter 1 on a “Will she survive?” cliffhanger would have done this story a world of good.

If you can push past those stumbling blocks, this is a pretty fun entry in the “young woman tries to escape her fate” villainess/time loop subgenre. Seha-turned-Isabelle is a practical and straightforward protagonist who tries to see the world with clear eyes and meet people head-on, whether that's confronting someone for mistreating her or seeing past her fiancé's “cursed” form to the lonely doggo beneath. Karl is… fine, taciturn but understandably so, and without any red flags beyond the whole “keeps agreeing to marry people his curse will probably kill.”

The art is bright and expressive, and the story is filled with juicy plot threads, from the aforementioned lurking mermaid to an obsessive “trash” prince. And I'm sure we'll eventually get back to that wedding night and find out what happens after Isabelle survives the curse. Some day. Eventually.

I wouldn't say I'm biting at the bit to return to A Fairy Tale Written by the Villain, but I didn't have a bad time with it, either. While I'm not sure it'll draw in anyone who isn't already a fan of villainess tales, its target audience will likely have a good time with this one.