James Nicoll Reviews

2018’s Mr. Villain’s Day Off, Volume One is the first tankōbon of Yuu Morikawa’s slice-of-life comedy science fiction manga. The English translation was published in 2023.

The evil extra-terrestrial General commands an army intent on subverting and conquering the Earth. Although Earth’s covert defenders, the Rangers, oppose the General, there can be no doubt that one day the General will be victorious. Earth will be his! Humanity will be exterminated¹!

However, today is the General’s day off.

A villainous army cannot hope to prevail if its members are stressed and overworked. Therefore, it is each villain’s duty to treat leisure time as seriously as they do the never-ending task of crushing the puny humans. As the secret empire’s chief officer on Earth, it falls to the General to set an example for the rank and file.

Inspired by his duty to the cause, the General relentlessly embraces his days off. No personal time activity escapes him. Whether it’s spending hours watching the pandas at the zoo, assisting his direction-challenged bitter foe Akatsuki Red to find the public aquarium, watching the pandas at the zoo, savouring ice cream, or even watching the pandas at the zoo, the General methodically explores all the possibilities Earth offers to hardworking employees trying to fill their off-hours.

Evil demands dedication and the General is nothing if not dedicated!

~oOo~

This was going to be a review of the same author’s Luciole Has a Dream. It turns out there is a limit to the number of manga about people wandering a desolated, empty Earth that I am willing to read (at least for now) and that number is one less than the number that would have had me reading Luciole Has a Dream.

Mr. Villain is comedy, taking much of the humour from the contrast between who Mr. Villain claims to be, what his supposed intent is, and what we actually see him doing. Mr. Villain is pure evil! As one can tell from the way he purchases ice cream for lost children, solicitously provides his foe with an umbrella, and bonds with a young boy over their shared interest in pandas.

In fact, nothing much happens in any of the vignettes, because Mr. Villain is diligent about embracing his day off. In fact, he is so diligent, he will sometimes find excuses to claim his holiday was a working holiday, which obviously requires him to take more time off.

Mr. Villain is inspirational: not only is his dedication to evil unquestioned, but he’s a rare example of a protagonist with a healthy work-life balance. In fact, there are worse things than reading a manga about nothing much at all. I don’t know that I’d ever review another volume (or how, given the lack of event) but I will definitely keep reading it.

Mr. Villain’s Day Off, Volume One is available here (Square Enix), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: USA delenda est.