A Light Novel Recommendation: "I'll Live My Second Life!"

Synopsis

In the rural nation of Déman, there are two princesses, Fii and Fiiru. One day the two ends up wedded to King Roy; an icy king with both beauty and ability, whose management ability was perfect, and who would be perfect save for his coldness towards women. However, while both are wedded to the king, the treatment of each princess is vastly different from the other.

With the second born princess Fiiru, she is recognized for her beauty, fame, and great personality. In addition, she also held a mysterious power and became known a soothing miko had gotten into a marriage of love with the said king. Fii on the other hand, while kind and pretty in her own way, ended up as a tag-along piece to the marriage and is considered as a stain to the fairy tale marriage.

Though she has been all but abandoned in a barely maintained villa, she pushes through. As she faces guards who pay her no attention and barely any servants or even food, she seeks a way to escape this life. When she stumbles upon a recruitment flyer for knights, she’s decided she’s found the door to her second life.

Thoughts on the Story and Characters

The first thing to note with the series is that it has a highly strong introduction. You truly empathize with the main character and what she goes through. The plot has a smooth flow in moving Fii from being an abandoned princess to an aspiring knight and does well in presenting realistic aspects in her journey to do so. From her portrayal of being weak but fast in a fight to understanding what it means to find her own strength and not push beyond her limits, there’s just good and realistic character development to be enjoyed in this series.

While the beginning of the series had the potential of being a story where the spurned female grows strong and the male lead realizes his mistake and falls for her, this is not that kind of story. The way that is going now, rather than a romance story, it’s a shounen series. Whether it be the way it details fight scenes to the way it does comedy around Fii hiding her genre, there are plenty of points that have the story come off more like an action work with well-developed characters. Other than this, it’s nice that the series also explores the different perspectives of different characters. It helps to provide different insights into the plot.

Where exactly is the problem? It’s in how the series banks in on whacky elements for its humor and how the characters are rather typical figures once the story type is made clear. There’s just a little too much silliness at times though it does help in balancing out the rest of the stories’ genres.

Should you Read it?

For those who are into female protagonists standing up and making a life for herself with a realistic development, this is it. While Fii may seem rather airheaded and a glutton for the rest of the story, you can tell this is just a part of her characterization. And though there are wacky moments made for the comedy, it helps bring dynamic to the flow of the series. It’s not the most explosive of series with a female protagonist, but it is a great one to read if you’re looking for something different.

Score: C