A Study on ‘Villainess’ Japanese Web Novels Using Textmining Method

Abstract

To this point, research on web novels has centered on male-oriented works, with the result that the analysis of a small number of works has been applied to all such novels. With this in mind, this study examines the sub-genre of Japanese female-oriented web novels and the role of the ‘Villainess’ by employing text mining, a digital analysis technique. The Villainess is a character who opposes a female protagonist in an ‘Otome game’ or a ‘Shojo Manga’. A Villainess plot involves a narrative that makes the Villainess, who is originally a supporting character in the story, the main character. The villainous girl protagonist originally lives in modern Japan, enters the world of games or cartoons through the same process involved in her previous life, and is reborn as a high-status villain character. This new world is one that the main character has already experienced through game play or reading in the previous world. Originally, the villainous young lady is a character who torments the heroine, so she is inevitably given a tragic fate according to the logic of evil and punishment. The main character, who is reborn as a villain, changes her fate based on the world of the original game or manga she knows, in order to escape from this unfortunate fate. By transforming the narratives of games and cartoons in this way, the villainous heroine affirms women who live their lives faithfully and independently without attaching importance to dating, and foregrounds the narratives of such women. In this dimension of transformation, we can read the desire of modern Japanese female readers who are often seen as afficianadoes of villainous characters.