Book Review – Disney Twisted-Wonderland: Rose-Red Tyrant

by Kara Dennison
August 27, 2024

Disney Twisted-Wonderland takes the villains of legendary Disney films and turns them into cute boys! Under the hand of Black Butler creator Yana Toboso, this mobile game has enchanted fans all over the world. If you’re not a mobile game enjoyer, you can learn all about Night Raven College in the manga adaptation. Or, starting today, you can read the light novel!

Rose-Red Tyrant, a novel adaptation of the game’s first story arc, goes on sale today. And we’ve read it! Is it worth your while? Read on and find out!

The Story

Even if you’ve never played Disney Twisted-Wonderland, you won’t miss out on much story. This book adapts both the introductory scenario and the first full arc, for which the book is named. If you have played the game, you’ll notice one major difference right off the bat: you, the player character, are now Yu, a named and active character. As in the game, Yu is isekai’d into this strange magical boarding school, populated by students who aspire to be like seven famous Disney villains. Of course, the students don’t see them as villains, but rather as shrewd and benevolent leaders.

As Yu and Grim, a rowdy cat-like monster who aspires to be a great mage, adapt to their new home, they get to know the boys of Heartslabyul. This dorm models itself after the rigorous rules of the Queen of Hearts. But while this might lead to academic excellence, it also leads to dissatisfaction. Housewarden Riddle Rosehearts is heavy-handed and unyielding, to the point of punishing new students Ace and Deuce for bringing the wrong kind of tart to an unbirthday party. But standing up to this young tyrant leads to terrifying consequences.

The Art

Unfortunately, we can’t really show Toboso’s interior art for the first Disney Twisted-Wonderland book, as it’s watermarked. However, the black-and-white artwork is all as lovely as you’d expect it to be from this artist. If you enjoy the character designs for the original game, you’ll love these.

What’s a bit odd is that the placement of the images feels arbitrary. You’ll go for a long time with nothing, then have a few in quick succession. Most surprising of all is that there wasn’t an illustration for Riddle’s Overblot design or its accompanying monster. Considering how difficult to depict in prose alone, and how awesome Overblot designs tend to be, this felt like an odd choice. That said, the art we do get—regardless of how or why scenes were chosen—is extremely nice.

And the Rest

First off, major props to Jocylene Allen, who did an excellent job translating and localizing Jun Hioki’s work. Capturing both the tone of the Disney Twisted-Wonderland game itself and each character’s speech patterns is no small task. It’s always a pleasure to read a well-translated light novel.

As for Jun Hioki’s adaptation, it does a good job of translating the game into a readable format. Some elements are changed or cut—such as many of the scenes initially played out as rhythm games and a few other character introductions. Also, as with the manga, we have a new version of the protagonist. Yuya Kuroki (Yu for short) is friendless and largely faceless, and even finds himself wishing not to be seen. One of his main traits that comes to the fore is his dislike of conflict—making life in a school full of villain aspirants especially difficult. That said, it means we get a bit of character development for an otherwise faceless audience association character. Whether this Yuya will follow us into the next volume, or whether he’ll switch out with other Yu’s as in the manga, remains to be seen.

Final Thoughts: The story of Disney Twisted-Wonderland evolves a bit with every retelling. Even if there are certain aspects that resonate better in game or manga form, this is an entertaining read that does a great job getting to the heart of the boys of Heartslabyul.

Pick up your copy of Disney Twisted-Wonderland: Rose-Red Tyrant!