If you read the official synopsis for Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie volume 2, you might have the distinct impression the titular character’s younger adopted brother, Gilbert, is or has become the main character. While he and his feelings are a major part of the story here, Cecilia is still the protagonist as she tries to head off death flags. But she almost doesn’t need to worry about losing her life when she’s too busy losing brain cells.
I wasn’t too impressed with this series initially between Cecilia’s ill-thought-out plans, her incredible denseness, and somehow hiding that chest of hers. And that continues to be the series’ main problems — no, I don’t mean that Cecilia has big boobs, but that Cross-Dressing Villainess has too many obvious holes in its logic. There’s always going to be a suspension of disbelief in these stories, but things make so little sense that this series might as well go full Looney Tunes in its world.
To its credit, Cross-Dressing Villainess is still rather comedic. Cecilia has no idea how Gilbert or Oscar feels about her, fans of “Cecil” swoon and worry about their idol, and plans go awry. This is all accompanied by a lot of silly expressions and actions, like a depressed, hallowed-out shell of Cecilia laying on the school bench after fighting with Gilbert.
Gilbert’s pent-up emotions add the first of the more serious elements in the story, as he is understandably irritated by Oscar and Cecilia’s sudden closeness — so close now to the point where she felt like she could crawl into bed with him. We see from a flashback just why Gilbert is so attached to her, and I like the idea of how those dark feelings start taking a dangerous shape.
This isn’t the only dramatic moment in the story, which stems from another one of Cecilia’s dumb decisions: she never bothered to tell Gilbert one of the other possible love interests is an assassin, one where it’s far to easy for Lean — and Cecilia by extension — to end up deceased.
Her excuse for not telling Gilbert? Oh, you don’t learn that unless you play Dante’s route, and wouldn’t it’d be terrible if Dante was arrested since right now he’s Oscar’s friend?
*facepalm*
Like, if Lean wasn’t the way she was — which is one of the main sources of laughs and surprises here in volume 2 — she could have started Dante’s route. And Cecilia made no provisions??
Based on how things unfold, her previous lack of consideration about Dante and now sudden threat is played for laughs and to show how Cecilia is morphing into Lean’s role.
But to me, the whole plot isn’t working because it’s too busy trying to emulate so many other otome game isekai stories at once in a high-energy package. I mentioned this in my volume 1 review, and now I really think Cross-Dressing Villainess is going to stay on that path. The BL elements, people becoming corrupted, Cecilia’s denseness, gender bending antics, the love interests’ dark pasts — trying to accommodate all of these and throw in some admittedly good visual gags (moss-Cecil with offerings from his fanbase) means all the elements suffer.
Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie‘s manga isn’t unreadable, and I’m sure plenty of people will enjoy Cecilia’s plotting and Lean’s meddling. For me, there are too many tonal shifts, and the effort to stuff in some extra laughs make little sense with Cecilia’s goal of preventing her death.