Jul 2, 2025
Suddenly you wake up in a new body, leaving your loved ones and friends behind, you find yourself in a different world... and as a subordinate of a prince who is known for killing his subjects.
This is exactly what happens to Rose and, to be honest, this description doesn't seem particularly creative - you'll find plenty of “reborn as X of the tyrant” if you look for it. But ‘I Became the Tyrant's Chambermaid’ is special.
There are a lot of little things that make this one special. The art style, for example, is less ‘schmaltzy’ than you would expect from this type of story and
...
is reminiscent of comedy stories, often incorporating rather funny, non-serious drawings. The protagonist Rose is also not someone who was treated badly in her old life, hated her job or anything else, rather the opposite: she loved her friends and family, she thought her old job was much better anyway and so she desperately wants to go back. The manhwa thus dips slightly into the darker side of isekai stories, which also see the light of day time and again: What happens to the old world, the loved ones back home? I don't usually like manga like this - I'm generally not a fan of over-negative stories - but while it does deliver some dark scenes here, it's mainly limited to one character trait, a backstory of Rose, which just adds depth to her character and also makes the world more and more realistic.
I was also impressed by the “everything has a deeper meaning” aspect of ‘I Became the Tyrant's Chambermaid’. I usually hate it when a story suddenly feels like it's introducing that some deity is planning everything, that there was some ancient civilisation that did something or whatnot... I just hate it when a story is suddenly and artificially deepened by establishing some completely stupid big story, of which our little, cute, funny and romantic story is only a small part! Even if there is such a thing here, it's just damn well established. At the beginning there are always little hints, which get bigger and more noticeable over time, until they threaten to swallow up the actual story I wanted to read. Because it's introduced in a meaningful way and doesn't take away from the actual story - at least not so far - I sometimes had fun with this “everything has a deeper meaning” aspect, even if it's limited... honestly, I would have liked it better if it had been left out.
8 out of 10 potato points because I still don't like this “everything has a deeper meaning” and because the manhwa honestly hasn't shown me enough yet. The story feels like it's still puddling around somewhere at the beginning, just before it really gets to the main part. Often enough I've seen stories just not make that leap from 'we introduce the characters and world' to 'THIS is what it's really about' (really bad is e.g. "I Want To Become The Emperor, So I Need A Divorce") - in this case I'm talking about the fight for the throne, which plays only a very small role so far, but feels like THE theme of the manhwa.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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