After her father's remarriage, Avril, a servant in her own home, finds life difficult. She's afraid it's only going to get worse when her half-sister Corinna's licentious behavior gets her in trouble, and it turns out that she's been out partying while using Avril's name, but it turns out that an arranged marriage is just what she needs to escape from the family home. Now Avril just has to convince her new husband that she's just as wicked as the rumors say.

The Woebegone Wonder Girl Wants to be Wicked has a story by Saki Ichibu and art by Sora Gōto. English translation is done by Alethea Nibley and Athena Nibley, and lettering by Skylar Rutan. Published by Kadokawa (June, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

You know those series that really shouldn't be as good as they are? This is one of them. The Woebegone Wonder Girl Wants to Be Wicked is a fairly basic Cinderella story. Avril is the unloved daughter of her father's first wife, and after her mother dies, he moves in with his former mistress and their illegitimate daughter, Corinna. She's forced into a servant's role, etc., etc., you know the drill. But things change when Corinna, who is, shall we say, freer with her sexual favors than is acceptable in the story's pseudo-Victorian world, gets into trouble by seducing a betrothed man; she gives Avril's name. And so suddenly Avril has an escape: she's forced to marry a purportedly ancient, horny duke.

Even if that had turned out to be the case, Avril's all for it, because it's a way out. But according to the laws of romance fiction, her husband is actually young and handsome, and he sees Avril as a way out of his problems, too. So now she's stuck pretending to be her wicked sister in order to fool her definitely-not-an-idiot husband. In these first five chapters, it goes about as well as you'd guess. But rather than being a mean story, it turns out to be a lot of fun. The duke is confused by the entire situation, but Avril's having the time of her life. For the first time in a decade, she gets to eat warm food, sleep in a real bed, and interact with people who aren't outwardly horrible to her. It's also super fun to try and be like Corinna, something, it must be said, that she's incredibly bad at. But she's having such a good time trying that it's infectious. It's hard not to like her and enjoy her situation because she's just so delightful.

It's the overwhelming goodness of the story and the characters (barring Avril's awful family) that make this work. Avril isn't a fool, and she does staunchly refuse to send her bridal gift (read: money) home, which definitely helps. There's a sense that this is her first time truly living, just letting go and enjoying herself, and that's charming. She's also finally in a position to possibly reclaim the heirlooms her father sold off, particularly those related to her mother and maternal grandmother, so there's also an element of catharsis as she right wrongs done to her. The art is detailed enough not to feel generic and has a lovely sense of time and place that I appreciate. Equally good is the English translation by the Nibley sisters; it's not anachronistic and reads very smoothly. I truly didn't expect to enjoy this so much, but now I find myself eagerly awaiting future chapters.

Erica Friedman
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Avril is entirely sympathetic, as she desperately attempts to play the role of a wicked woman without actually understanding the concept of wickedness in any meaningful way. In The Woebegone Wonder Girl Wants to be Wicked, we are entertained by a very kind and book-smart girl flailing a bit at how to be incompetent and wicked…and basically fooling no one but herself.

The setup is a shorthand designed purely to, well, set up the idea that Avril will be do-gooding her way through a situation designed to rob her evil stepsister of joy. One finds oneself hoping that every single person in the story figures out what is happening except Avril and her awful family. Avril, so she can be overjoyed by the positive things she gets to experience, and her family, so they suffer in every possible way. One hopes this, because in these opening chapters, there is little else to hold one's attention.

It's not that this is a bad manga; it's just that Avril's family treating her like crap has been done, and Avril, for all her “wonder girl” attributes, lacks common sense or the ability to infer things, leaving us waiting a bit for her to catch on and catch up. Thankfully, that process starts when Avril meets her step-sister's enemy at a party and gains her first powerful ally.

Goto's art is sweet, as befits Avril, and the people around her look generically noble-ish in the style of fantasy manga. This series won't break new ground, but who doesn't want to root for another Cinderella every once in a while?

Bolts
Rating:

This is a surprisingly simple story, despite its tongue-twister of a title. OK, there's one complicated aspect of the story that feels very weird, but I think it's mostly there to maintain the air of mystery. Avril is a young woman who, despite being very capable and having a photographic memory, is somehow seen as the lesser of two sisters. This is funny since the sister she is compared to is known for being a homewrecker with a terrible personality. At least in other stories where there's favoritism, there's at least some kind of narrative excuse for it, like maybe one sister is more beautiful than the other or they were able to snag a powerful husband. This doesn't make any sense outside of just some familial spite, and even when it's very forced. The story also can't use the excuse that one sister looks more beautiful than the other, considering that both sisters look the same even though they are not twins and are, in fact, sisters born of different mothers. Yes, a lot of this story is pretty forced in order to get Avril to a very specific setting. But is the story worth it if you can overcome all of those narrative contrivances? Not really, because so far the story is really just OK.

It tried to hook me by doing that classic narrative trope where it starts the story in the middle of a really interesting confrontation, but then has the actual story take place throughout the course of a year leading up to that moment. The tricky subversion here is that Avril needs to pose as her despicable sister to get money from a noble because the parents don't want to send their actual favorite daughter to do it. However, the noble Avril ends up marrying, and she is given a contract stating that they will only be married in name, and she will receive a large sum of money after they divorce in three years. So it's really an ideal situation where Avril just needs to sit around and do nothing. The only real source of drama here is that Avril needs to role-play as her despicable sister, and she's just not good at being a bad person…that's the conflict. It certainly leads to some funny and cute moments, but overall, it's not really an interesting story.

I can understand the narrative intentions, but even when it plays everything straight, it ultimately feels very lackluster. The premise is extremely forced; there isn't really any comedy outside of Avril struggling to keep up the facade, and the presentation is just bland. This is one of those stories that strives to just be OK, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. I just feel like there are other stories I have read that have tried a lot harder with this exact setup that I think are worth your time