It isn’t uncommon to see a manga or manhwa where the villainess is the lead, but Yen Press’ The Villainess Turns the Hourglass involves a rather methodical tale where the heroine Aria is working to become an even stronger villainess and get revenge. However, since it’s starting in her youth after a rewind that gives her a second chance, it means the story takes its time.
Things begin in the “present.” Aria is about to be sentenced to death by her “brother” Cain for attempting to poison her “sister” Mielle. Mielle seems to be this benevolent innocent who wants to forgive her sibling. However, when she comes up and it’s just the two of them, she reveals she orchestrated and framed everything and killed Aria’s mother, all because of Aria and her mother being usurpers unfit to hold the Roscent name. When Aria dies, though, she’s instead taken back to her youth and finds a shattered hourglass in her bed. With her second chance, she vows revenge on Mielle and everyone who betrayed her, and lives her life differently to destroy them.
We get some small victories for Aria to help set the stage while bigger plans are laid throughout the volume. She bests Mielle when it comes to a certain sort of poetry. She manages to come up with a better possible business investment. She becomes better at embroidery, impressing her father and making friends. She makes herself look considerate with a gift and by showing affection. But much of the volume uses these as a means to give a brief satisfaction as the first pieces of larger plots are laid. We clearly see Aria’s thought things through, and it means a momentary win while we get to watch others gradually develop in the first volume.
Tensions and plots continues to build up throughout the volume, and because we don’t see the resolution for many of them yet, it makes it all more intriguing. One of the best examples of this Aria’s plot to steal Mielle’s potential fiance Oscar. We see her sow seeds by first making a handkerchief with his crest. Then, we see her look demure as she innocently appears at a meal with him, Cain, and Mielle. From there, we watch as she makes sure not to read a letter from him with a return gift for the handkerchief publicly, so people don’t see it was less than it was, and her plotting to begin a continued conversation with him.
But then, we also have another example in the form of encounters with a hooded man. Aria let slip that there’s time travel afoot and something awry around him when she was at a shop having her hourglass repaired. When she did, she caught his eye and it almost seemed like fate outside the family changed from the timeline she knew. These chance encounters with him too are slowly building up to something more, lurking in the background of the first volume of The Villainess Turns the Hourglass manhwa.
The Villainess Turns the Hourglass feels like a manhwa that really could take time to grow into its own. It’s interesting at the start, to be sure. Especially since the villain Aria is only just starting to grow into a “true” mastermind and we’re just starting to see her develop a mask and begin plans. The fact that there are still threads being woven means that it might not be until the third or that things really start panning out and major drama could occur.
Volume 1 of The Villainess Turns the Hourglass is available now, and Yen Press’ Ize Press label will release volume 2 of the manhwa on February 20, 2024.
