I'm not sure what to think about this. On one hand, the story, drama and romance felt fresh, I was very invested, at least until close to ending. On the other hand some of these characters are so incredibly ridiculus and annoying. Every single one of them (maybe except Solace) shown some serious thinking problem. But it was managable. It was obviously neccesary for the plot. The ending tho, I just don't like it. It is a clear attempt at trying to please everyone only to create something so dissapointing.

I finished the whole story. At 125 chapters, it's pretty short and sweet; once the action comes in it never really lets up till the conclusion.

The introduction arc familiarizes us with our protagonist, a regressor who kept his memories and is also a powerful ability-user, and a girl he meets early on he recognizes as Luna, who had become a villain as well in his past life due to a difficult childhood. In his previous life he was Dice, the top-ranked villain, who gradually grew into a more caring and... more>> empathetic person instead of a stereotypical villain from his repeated fighting with Solace, his arch-nemesis and top-ranked hero, a woman he admired and saw as an ideal, all-loving, heroine. Left on the doorstep of death by a group of other powerful heroes, found during his last moments by Solace who weeps for him, he expires; finding himself back in the past before he had started his villainy, he resolves to now act for good, and make the world a better place for Solace.

Having decided to now devote himself to helping others, our MC becomes essentially a messiah/father figure for the poor girl named Song Soo-yeon who, in another life, would have been Luna (picture abusive parents and classmates who lust after her (men) or bully her (women) for, surprise surprise, being incredibly pretty) giving her food, shelter, protection and emotional warmth, and whose affection for him grows deeper in return at every chapter. Despite the in-story physical age-gap being only 3 years, you'll find the MC being quite the paragon of patience, kindness and understanding, and the girl being quite slow to admit her feelings, and plagued by many behavioural issues caused by her rough upbringing. Then comes in Solace, the hero (female) who redeemed him in his past life, and now quickly grows closer to him in admiration of his kindness; hence start the trappings of a romantic triangle with two girls, neither of them perfect in character, and both quite fiercely competitive.

It's not an action story at heart. Expect the story to be all romantic drama and internal anguishing over love; there'll be moments of sweetness, but much of the story is the above, as Song Soo-yeon falls deeply in love with him and whose emotional turmoil, in despair of seeing the MC grow closer romantically to Solace, drives the story forward. Combat scenes are short and without tension.

Some parts, especially towards the last third, might tug quite strongly at your heartstrings. I personally loved it, because I adore drama, especially when a man is loved so strongly by his romantic interests, but your mileage may vary.

The ending is quite abrupt, so might be rather unsatisfying, though it's not anything ruinous (I believe the author confessed himself to be a coward and didn't want his readers to hate him; the ending is too pleasant and smooth a denouement to the whole mess it reeks of unnaturalness, but whatever, still enjoyable).

Have fun reading, it was quite the ride. <<less

The romance aspect is too indulgent. All developments are extremely forced.

Drama is good.

But this isn't a real novel. Both the premise and the whole main character himself are just a clickbait. This is just a diary of a teenage girl.

I actually like good shoujo, but here for the longest time not a single side character is present, only MC and fMC in a cold, empty vacuum. Then, in the most forced way possible, the "harem" aspect for the MC gets introduced.

This is a mess.

Plot wise it's mostly fine... the ending should have been fleshed up a bit though, the poligamy was too sudden, it felt a bit out of nowhere (i have no problem with non-monogany relationships, mind you, I just think these things should have some buildup shown, not just fall from the sky).

Characters though...

I dislike the MC quiiiiite a bit. Look, crybabies are bearable up to some point but... he's kind of an as*hole to Luna after Min Bom starts being around, on top of the crybaby aspect, so that's a... more>> sickening mix. I can comprehend that he's smitten by his illusion of Min Bom, but the fact that he just accepted things without much issue after knowing the truth irks me.

Luna, on the other hand, how much did she suffer by his attitude? I mean, she wasn't really asking for too much, then things spiralled out of control, but frankly, it could have been avoided if he put some effort on reassuring her a bit. We're talking about someone that is traumatized here, and dependent, one can't just leave them be abruptly. This goes beyond love and such.

He talks a lot about loneliness but can't even understand these things at least a bit? Even i, that I'm on the spectrum I have more tact *facepalm*

Min Bom, I find hard to see what's attractive there. Her personality is shit, two faced people are disgusting. Also, sure, I can see that jealousy makes people be rude, but she said and did so much she shouldn't have. Plus, she never really apologized for anything. I can see the author wants to show her letting go of her mask and sh*t but... meh, it's not great for me, it's like she's the only one that the MC didn't treat like sh*t at some point. Besides, even her persona seemed iffy, unless one is blind to it like the MC.

As for the other girl, what can I say? I can understand basically everything, because it was explained properly and overall she wasn't really a shitty person. So I'm on board about her being pardoned *shrugs*

I gave it a 4/5, because I'm aware that most of the minus I wrote is my view on people, so for others it may be whatever.

The plot thing however... it's a fact, it should have been expanded on some parts for a smoother experience. <<less

I'm enjoying this a lot, so why 3 stars?

This novel is titled after the ML but the FL is the real main character. It's a soap opera about her emotional difficulties with a villains/hero urban backdrop.

It does a lot of things right I really enjoy all the drama and while I often disagree with the FL Song Soo Yeon I understand her choices I also like the character of the secondary female lead. The plot is also engaging. But while the author explores the psyche of the Female Leads very... more>> well he is wholly uninterested in telling us anything about our alleged MC aside from "he's a super kind guy" even when he's the POV character, the setting is also barely explored.

Ok so not the greatest world building, it can be forgiven for that, but there's a lot of narrative threads that have been established and there is 0 chance we satisfactorily close them in the 48 chapters we have left at the word count we have going.

Good drama and intriguing setting but it's held back by the chapter number basically, if it was still ongoing I would give it 4 stars.

The translation by raei is very good

Edit: that's my original review back when I read only 77 chapters. Here's an update.

Update: turns out I was mostly right in my predictions actually. The author revealed that he charted the course of the novel on a concept of the moon, sun and stars, and while it's interesting I believe it wasn't very well executed.

I praised the character work on the female characters but unfortunately it was kinda thrown out the window by the end with a rushed ending, I still believe it's worth it just bear in mind that it's quite flawed too <<less

I like the idea, but the implementation is naive. I won't rate it since I feel like this is more of a slice of life than an action series. I'm fine with slow, in fact I prefer slow, but I just don't care for the direction this was taken.

So the protagonist is a former villain who regressed and now wants to save people. He does this by opening a restaurant that people don't have to pay the bill at.

This is naive because real restaurants have something like a 90% failure... more>> rate. They're one of the worst places in the world to start a business. Yet this guy wants to make them even more unstable.

The protagonist bumps into another former villain and becomes obsessed with saving her. He continuously bumps into her trying and failing to help her.

Overall, the this was more of a slice of life redemption story. Regression, fantasy, and action seem to hold a back seat. Although I admit I didn't read for long. <<less

I'm rating this novel at 4 stars but I'm giving it 5 stars to offset the low rating. The people rating the novel low when the novel doesn't even have 10 chapters translated yet + not leaving a review on top of that are the reason why nobody trusts the reviews on this site.

It's a nice refresher compared to some other novels such as The Main Heroines Are Trying to Kill Me that have an unrealistic story and makes the heroines s*upid for no reason.

I Became a Villain's Hero is... more>> short and sweet, spanning only 125 chapters.

The problem is it's short and sweet. More character interactions would have been nice. The ending could have left off on a better note as well.

Overall, it was a fun read. Give it a shot. <<less

Frankly, I feel that despite the background setting and themes being bout heroes, this novel is actually a drama. It touches briefly on heroes as an asset, or merchandise, or their focus on being glamorous, but like I said, its really brief and mainly serves as a way to make the characters more dramatic, more "oh-woe-is-me-sobsob" if that makes sense. Put simply, if you're looking for some action ala Da-in from "Hero is obsessed" or even MyAcademia, this is not it. There's zero action in the 35 chapters translated so... more>> far. The entire story itself is actually about a former villain trying to show simple kindness to others like him and give them a chance when no one else would, and it would have been a great story based on that, but it finds itself being dragged down by typical Korean drama about misunderstandings and misinterpretation.

I'm not joking. What should have been a great and heartwarming novel turns into a messy soggy mess from the sheer number of chapters everyone spends just trying to get one s*upid message across.

The fact that the former number villain is somehow a complete pushover and crybaby that can barely talk in a full sentence before people (primarily all the yandere girls around him) misunderstand him and immediately flip their top just doesn't help either. <<less

Self-Pity: The Novel.

I think that explains enough about this story. Characters are inconsistent and unlikeable. The plot seems to have been written by a child who watched too many Korean dramas. It's confusing what the main character's goal is. Originally, he wanted to do good. Then, he wanted some feelings reciprocated toward himself. He was a number one villain in his previous life. After the regression, he turned into a doormat who cries at every chance he get. And the FML.... let's not talk about her. Just thinking about her... more>> gives me constipation. Chapter after chapter of her wallowing in her self-pity....

I can't, I really cannot do this anymore. I can't read this without imagining myself jumping from the tallest building. It's really that bad. <<less

Decent story focused on characters and their emotions, things start to drag and get very repetitive after a certain point (around ch20ish). The setting is very obviously to lure readers in, it has 0 effect on the story or anything in it, including the main character. If you enjoy character focused dramas this is likely for you.

A phenomenal and truly emotive chapter 1... followed by what I can only describe as a bag of mixed emotions.

On the one hand, the author does a great job describing feelings, and the characters are complex enough to make you interested in them.

On the other hand though... This story is not what I expected. There are zero action sequences. We don’t even know what the male MC’s power is, as it’s not relevant to the plot. We barely see any superpower being used at all anyways.

The world-building is really simple.... more>> The story just follows the 2 main characters: Jung-gyeom and Soo-yeon, and later the heroine Solace.

This is not a problem per se, if Soo-yeon was not a manipulative b*tch. Not my words; it’s a direct quote from a comment.

I can understand how she acts. She had a rough life, which almost made her jump from a building. She has a rough time expressing her feelings ‘cause she has never received love other than Jung-gyeom’s. She maintains her rough personality because she is afraid to show her weakness to the only person that has been a hero to her.

That was actually kinda endearing while reading the novel from her POV...

Spoiler

But the charm faded when she kept acting like that during her graduation.

I felt so bad for Jung-gyeom.

And then she feels envious of Solace, who appears to save the situation.

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I can understand her feelings. I can’t bear reading about someone like her, though, that’s why I’m dropping this novel.

The author was cooking, but I’m left with a too bitter aftertaste.

2/5. <<less

This novel is an enjoyable and heartwarming read so far. It uses the "second life" formula, so if you're into those kind of stories you'll likely enjoy this. There's no reinvention of the wheel, but the writing and characterization is solid enough to attract me in.

I strongly believe this kind of story is carried by its characters, and so far this author is doing a great job of making me attached to them. It's only been 12 chapters, but I already have emotional investments into the MC and the heroine.... more>> The writing (and great translation) does a fantastic job of depicting the characters' motivations and personalities.

I hope this gets translated for a long time, as I'm fervently looking forwards to more chapters. <<less

This author's specialty is romantic drama with yandere love interests who aren't able to be honest with the protagonist and tend to shoot themselves in the foot by refusing to confess their feelings. Expect a lot of misunderstandings. Of this author's stories, I feel this is one of his weaker ones. The ending is quite abrupt and the epilogue skips all of the explanations of how the love triangle/quadrangle gets resolved. The epilogue is only a single chapter and so we get very little fluff after all that drama. Of... more>> this author's stories, I feel that Incompatible Interspecies Wives is the best, which is fitting since it is his most recent novel. There the misunderstandings are more reasonable as being due to significant cultural differences between the fantasy races, as well as due to the marriages originally starting off as being purely political with even their families only marrying the girls off as an act of desperation for the sake of survival. Why Are You Becoming A Villain Again also has a more reasonable justification with the love interests' feelings being taboo and also doing a better job of explaining how the harem reconciles their differences, albeit with the downside of the love interests' betrayals of the protagonists going too far and being difficult to forgive.

In this story, while Luna's reasons for being dishonest and making poor life decisions make some sense considering her background, they are still a little too severe of a betrayal while also lacking in justification for why she can't just suck up her pride and confess her feelings. Combine that with the drama's resolution occurring offscreen, and it's just a significantly weaker story overall. <<less

If you're expecting action, there's none here. If you're expecting sugar, there's none here either.

If it's all in the next chapter, the story development is very slow.

At first I kept reading and hoped for action from MC, but it turns out this isn't an action novel, it's just an such drama. I saw the tag "early romance" there. But, tsundere is tsundere.... Authors who include tsundere in their stories will milking their stories To being annoying. Now I know how every KanoKuri reader feels.

Fantastic read in my opinion. It is very rare I see something with self-sacrifice and genuinely good intentions written well and captivating, and I love girls who have a somewhat hard time being straightforward (being a bit mean when they talk). I read up to c23 (current translation) in one sitting. Would recommend.

Edit: to 4 stars

I finished the novel with a decent translation but maybe a bit subpar. The problem is that later in the story it drags misunderstanding and indecisiveness, and hard to understand motives, out wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too long,... more>> and then when they are finally happy it ends really quickly. Not a satisfying read imo. After maybe chapter 35 or something.
I liked the characters though, and they carry the story. But yeah. <<less

This novel is a good misunderstanding novel

The depth of the emotions made me feel like I was riding a rollercoaster of drama

It's perfect for mfs who like yanderes who aren't able to express themselves to their love interest

Overall:this novel is a w in my book

One of the best LN I read so far.

The number 1 supervillain regresses and wants to be good for his crush, number 1 superhero. However, he runs into the number 2 supervillain before she turns bad. He decides to help her change her future too.

It's a novel that likes to change genres. Act 1 - Slice of Life, Act 2 - Drama, Act 3 - Action.

The relationship between MC and FL is amazing and developing through the novel.

Good read, romance was enjoyable. There was many scenes that I wanted to shout at characters because of misunderstanding but its understandable from their point of view. Author did good impression about how this kind of person that experienced this kind of event would do in this situation. And finally ending was good,

Wanted to like it, but there's an element that feels forced. I think its the dullness near the 20's in the chapters. Our protag is one of the best villians from his timeline, so I feel like he'd be sharper on the uptake, even if he's a muscle brain.

It's kind of dangled like a carrot that he might do something interesting with his OP power, but ultimately I feel like that's a valve for any sort of interesting conflict to deflate before it even begins.

The one interesting moment we get... more>> is sort of gone too quickly, and then the humdrum later lingers too long before anything happens. It's my sense of it at least. <<less

It is a good story, the story does not concentrate on powers and battles, but on the day to day and the progress of the relationship of the main characters, later the story becomes more tragic and murky but the suspense of not knowing what will happen with the FMC it is a great experience, I think it was a good romance (leaving aside the shady things)

I gave it 2/5 because of the ending. And yes, because it's a harem ending. (It's in the genre, duh.) But this novel has no right to be a harem, and definitely not the ending it got. Otherwise it's 4/5.

The read itself is decent, but it feels as if I got a fish bone stuck in my throat as we got closer to the end.

To me, this novel feels like an exaggeration of reality instead of fantasy. Characters reaction were over the top and often didn't make sense. The reasoning... more>> behind some actions was lacking, or felt forced by the author with the use of misunderstandings. Oh and don't get me started on misunderstandings, they are among the most outrageous of all the novels I've read, the reason for that bellow.

This novel manages to make you truly care for its characters, that's why the drama feels so touching and that's fricking why the points above are so annoying.

Oh, and the translation is good. Noticed some mistakes here and there, but nothing resembling MTL.

Now, a little treat for those who can't handle tragedy well (why are you even here?). Here is a minimal spoiler for the ending.

Spoiler

It's good. I hate the ending because it's a reaaaaly poorly done harem, and mainly because of the actions that lead to the ending.

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