Kora
“If you’re gonna step on me, step harder! I could tell you were holding back with that stomp! What reason does someone like you have to hold back?!”
If you’re wondering why this show made my shortlist for shows to review this season (and FYI “shortlist” is a misnomer in this instance), then I’ll point to the title. If you’re still confused, then you need to watch My Next Life as a Villainess. The small blurb I read for this show didn’t give too much away, but as the title implies, it treads along a similar path to one of my favorite comedies, but takes the idea in new directions. If I crossed all my fingers and was particularly lucky, maybe this would scratch that same romantic comedy itch. So, am I lucky? That’s a little hard to pin down, but as far as this show is concerned, I’m at least mildly lucky. I’m in Love with the Villainess isn’t going to be the surprise hit that My Next Life as a Villainess was, as its story and production are significantly weaker, but it does make up for it with some impressive comedic chops. The show had me laughing multiple times throughout this first episode, and while the humor diminished through the second half, it remained enjoyable. I’m in Love with the Villainess isn’t going to be one of the strongest shows of the season, but as a comedic palate cleanser, it does its job admirably.
The show follows a Japanese business woman who appears to die from exhaustion (I think? The episode is a little vague on the details), only to wake up as the protagonist of one of her otome games. To call the setup for this episode “fast” would be an understatement. It is a breakneck pace. The time span between the title card for the episode and our main character awakening in the game as its lead, Rae Taylor, is less than half a minute. When you combine this with some exceedingly blunt “Oh, it looks like I’ve been isekai-ed,” writing, things start to look dire. Fortunately, that all changes as soon as our antagonist/love interest, Claire, joins the stage. Claire is the top noble student in a prestigious magical academy, and Rae is the top commoner student who is the target of her bullying. Now, generally I’m not one for bullying or humiliation fetishes in my media. My review of Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro proved that. However, this series finds a way to make it agreeable by making Rae’s consent abundantly clear. Claire was Rae’s favorite character from the game, and it wasn’t just her design or backstory that appealed to her. No, Rae is here to be stepped on, and she makes it known. This results in a hilarious dynamic between a cartoonish bully who finds themselves faced with a cartoonish masochist and has no idea how to cope. As I said at the beginning, though, not everything with this show works. The underlying plot can be quite contrived, such as when they have an exam week, right at the beginning of the term. This could be capitalized upon comedically by writing it off as plot shortcomings inherited from the game, but the show doesn’t take advantage of those opportunities.
Platinum Vision is helming the production for this series, which, after looking at the show, isn’t surprising. Between their work on Servamp and my encounter with Kono Oto Tomare!, I don’t associate the studio with high end production values. Beyond the voice acting and comedic timing, little about this production impressed me. The animation is stiff and flat, the designs are generic and forgettable, and the OP is at best skippable, if not outright cloying. The last time I saw this particular dynamic of a mediocre show with some great comedy was in Last Dungeon Boonies from a couple years ago. Fortunately, as much as I’m ragging on Love with the Villainess’s design standards, or lack thereof, when stacked up against Last Dungeon Boonies, I might as well be watching a Studio Bones production. While I’m not keen on plenty of elements within this first episode, they never impaired the show to the extent it wasn’t enjoyable, and the central chemistry between its leads is such that I’ll definitely be giving this a chance.
Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:
- I am thankful the show found its own sense of humor to work with, because many of its story beats can be directly traced to My Next Life as a Villainess. Both follow an isekai-ed female protagonist in a magical school setting, where they interact with several princes who are intended to be romantic options, but their primary focus is to prevent the villainess from getting a bad end. There’s an ocean of parallels. I am pleased that, even if this is an RC Cola knock-off of a show, it can add a bit of its own flavor to the formula.
- While we get introduced to the trio of romantic options from the game, they don’t get much screen time, and thus don’t leave much of an impression. However, I like the chemistry between Rae and her exasperated friend/roommate Misha, who is privy to all her off-kilter ramblings about Claire.
- This light novel has spawned a decent collection of adaptations and spin offs. It started as an online novel, then became a light novel, then spawned a manga, then it had another novel series that turned into another light novel series, then it had a spin off manga series, and finally we have this anime. This story isn’t even six years old! How does it have its own expanded universe?
Comedies are always one of the most subjective forms of art, and I’m in Love with the Villainess lives or dies based on how you feel about its humor. It gets a firm recommendation from me, but I’ll acknowledge that if you get to the midway point of the episode and it hasn’t clicked with you, then it probably isn’t going to happen.
Score: 3.5/5
Pretty Good
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