I enjoy reading very specific and long titles, but I’ve never wanted to read beyond the name until I saw A Timid Lady was Turned into an Ugly Cat, but on the Verge of Fainting is Picked up by the Most Fearsome Military Duke by otori, Ema Okadachi, and Kou Kusaka.
The title is very accurate.
Marie is the oldest daughter of some viscount and doesn’t have much going for her. The story tells us she’s fat and plain – meaning she looked exactly like the thin and pretty characters, except with glasses and an atrocious haircut. I have no idea if this is a joke about how “fat and plain” characters are depicted or if it’s so fatphobic and sexist that it’s funny. I’m not sure the story knows either.
Despite her appearance, she got engaged to some low ranking prince, set up to inherit his future father-in-law’s viscount title.
Jealously, her sister steals Marie’s prince and engagement. But a titled man’s daughter’s still gotta get married, so her father sets her up with a duke.
Duke’s wife outranks viscount’s wife, so her sister jealously turns Marie into a cat.
Marie runs away and lives as a stray for about 5 minutes before her new fiancee takes her home, not knowing she’s his supposedly runaway bride. He calls her Chiffon, like the cake.
This duke has a bad reputation. He’s known as a warmonger, sadist, and womanizer. Unsurprisingly, he’s actually a nice guy. All he wants is to hang out with his cat and marry someone with good handwriting. Marie predictably falls in love. She even has great penmanship, which meets all his criteria for a wife. But she can’t do anything about it because she’s a cat now.
This story is stupid. I think one of the characters is Little Lord Fauntleroy. I’m not sure how to say how much I loved it because every positive thing I can think of is an insult. I guess that’s what the star system is for.
