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[series:4664#628] | ||||||
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(Seven episodes watched): Another 'I am trapped in a scenario in which I will soon die if I don't change something' premise. Except this one seems to be taking things completely seriously rather than being at least partially a comedy, like Tsunlise. Having read the book, Raeli knows that her fiance Francis Brooks only wants to seize control of her father's lucrative oil company. Though her father has been made a Baron, the McMillans are scorned by the traditional aristocracy as Nouveau Riche. In an interesting twist, Brooks is not working alone and his life has been threatened if he fails. As a result he ignores every effort Raeli makes to repell him. Raeli resorts to sort-of blackmailing Duke Noah Voltaire Wynright, the brother of the King of Chamus and second in line to the throne. She can do this because she knows from the book of a crime he has committed. She also knows he is really a total scumbag. So, a fairly complex plot has been assembled and we have gotten to know Raeli well enough to care what becomes of her. I am curious where things are headed and intend to watch episode two. Judging from the illustration, this may wind up a reverse harem anime. Raeli persuades Noah to pretend to have become engaged to her, but he definitely expects to get something out of this deal and she (and we) wonder if he is any more trustworthy than Brooks was. It's kind of neat that we aren't told just why he insists she move immediately into his palace. Solving one problem may have created another. Noah assigns her a knight, Adam, to act as a bodyguard for her and an informant for him. Adam is almost totally emotionless at first, but may have some after all. I would say that this show is holding my interest fairly well. In episode three Raeli moves in at Noah's sumptuous mansion. I was a bit frustrated that we still get little idea of what Noah hopes to gain from their engagement facade. Could it be that he actually finds Raeli attractive and wouldn't mind if they really became married? At a fancy ball she meets a number of new characters, some of whom do not not particularly like her. Won't Beatrice, the heroine of the novel, show up at some point? Or has the 'plot' of this retelling been altered to such a degree that she will be ommitted? Episode four (the ball) left me feeling that the plot had slowed down somewhat. Nothing really intriguing happened, except maybe what happens to Raeli at the end, and I have a feeling that even that won't be anywhere near mind-blowing. Since the beginning, there have been hints (including the illustration above) that Raeli and Noah, the man she claims to hate more than anyone else, may wind up as lovers in the end. In episode five he helps rescue her after the affair at the ball. Though she hates him, he hasn't really done anything that is out-and-out cruel to anyone who didn't deserve it so far, which suggests that he can easily be rehabilitated and they will indeed fall in love. It turns out that Raeli doesn't really need his help anymore, but he will not let go of her. I was getting impatient for something really intriguing to happen; the attempted kidnapping hadn't thrilled me and the possibility of love between Raeli and Noah doesn't really do so either. Maybe the problem is that Noah remains a mysterious person--all we know about him is that in the book he's despicable--and even Raeli hasn't developed much since episode one. She has accomplished her primary goal of avoiding being murdered, but she never wonders how a parallel world based on a novel could possibly exist or anything like that. She has sort of worn out her welcome. The thought occured to me that maybe I should drop this show to help myself catch up to all the others, since the tenth episode of the various shows was coming out while I was still on number six. I watched episode seven nevertheless. Noah goes on a monster hunt and gets into trouble while Raeli squabbles with another powerful woman who wanted to be Noah's fiancee. Raeli's wishy-washy attitude towards Noah--one minute she hates him, another she has feelings for him--were not very convincing. In the end, I guess my problem with Kanojo- was basically that I wanted a show about how a Japanese girl dodges getting killed in another world, but what I got was mainly about how a Japanese girl falls in love in another world. But neither she nor her lover were developed enough for me to really care how their romance went. In fact, I kind of get the feeling that Raeli's development came to an end when the threat to her disappeared and she had only romance to deal with. Maybe I could sympathize with her while she was in danger but felt she didn't deserve it anymore when that danger went away. I'd have loved an explanation of some sort of how and why she was transported from Japan to this alternate reality, but who are we kidding? That almost never happens in Isekai anime. At any rate, I decided to quit watching for now but save the remaining episodes in case the urge to watch the rest ever strikes me. Last updated Wednesday, June 28 2023. Created Sunday, April 30 2023. | ||||||||
