It has been announced that the TV anime series "Though I Am an Inept Villainess," based on the popular light novel by Nakamura Souki, will begin airing in April 2026. A "keyboard visual" featuring the original artwork has also been released. It depicts Huang Linglin and Zhu Huiyue before the body swap, accompanied by the tagline, "On a night when comets shine, the two people's fates are swapped."
The story is a harem "body swap" reversal drama in which two girls who are complete opposites - Huang Linglin, who is intelligent, beautiful, and loved by everyone, and is known as "His Highness's Butterfly," and Zhu Huiyue, who has a strong inferiority complex and is called a villain because of her despicable words and actions, are hated by everyone - switch bodies.
The original light novel is published by Ichijinsha Novels (Ichijinsha), and the comic adaptation is currently being serialized in Monthly Comic ZERO-SUM (same publisher). It has gained popularity, winning the light novel category award at the 2023 Seymour Digital Comic Awards and being ranked number one in the women's light novel rankings at the BookLive Annual Rankings 2023. The series has sold over 4 million copies in total. The anime will be directed by Yamazaki Mitsue and produced by Doga Kobo. Manaka Iwami will play Huang Linglin and Kawaida Natsumi will play Zhu Huiyue.
◇Staff (titles omitted)
Director: Mitsue Yamazaki ▽ Series composition: Yoshiko Nakamura ▽ Character design: Ai Kikuchi ▽ Animation production: Doga Kobo
◇Cast (titles omitted)
Huang Linglin: Manaka Iwami ▽ Zhu Huiyue: Kawaida Natsumi
