|
|
||||||||||
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
|
[series:4842#628] | ||||||
|
(Three episodes watched): I was delighted to learn that there would be another villainess anime this season, since the concept in general is amusing and there have been enough that new ones tend to stretch the envelope somewhat. But this show didn't seem to be making clear just what its unique twist would be. The basic problem that the protagonists in villainess anime must deal with is that they find themselves playing the part of a character who is destined (by the programming of the original game) to meet a fate which ranges from bad to worse. I could only guess that Alicia's solution was that for the most part she would just ignore what she's supposed to do, like torment the heroine and court 'Prince Duke', and instead would attempt to become a powerful person who makes things happen all over the world. The first step, she figures, is learning how to handle a sword. Her rigorous exercise regimen has such an effect that one could almost call it magical. People notice that she changes overnight from the indolent, annoying girl she used to be into something different. There weren't any signs in this initial episode of any inexorable forces steering her towards the outcomes of the game, which is what one would expect. The King himself takes notice of her, and she offers a thoroughly adult opinion even though she's taken the place of a girl who was only seven. She has a diabolical plan to take advantage on another nation which she spells out. It was hard to believe that anyone could move so quickly towards influence and fame. A seven year old girl offers a complex and radical idea, which no adult has thought of, and nobody asks her where she got it from? In general, I was disappointed. This show fails the old test of leaving me with questions I want answers to. I felt we hadn't really gotten to know Alicia well enough to sympathize with her or be very interested in what she is plotting. Most villainess anime would have made an intriguing twist clear by now, but the only one I sensed here was that Alicia wants power and fame, and sees nothing wrong with acquiring it in a diabolical manner. But we all know that, being the protagonist, she won't really do anything particularly evil. And if comedy is the main leg this show will stand on, then that was news to me. As villainess anime go, this one seemed rather weak. In episode two Alicia checks out the impoverished village nearby which is enclosed within a magical barrier as a sort of crude prison. She makes a friend, the blind but wise man 'Will'. She is appalled at the misery there, and makes her feelings clear to the King himself. Will she be a villainess or a crusader for reform? The signs are that she will fall in love with the Prince even though (I assumed) she had intended to ignore him and he is fated to love the heroine (who hasn't shown up yet) rather than her. She expands her studies into the field of magic, and makes rapid progress there. Definitely not brilliant, but I remained curious where this would all go. But all of a sudden, episode three made me realize something that I had previously missed: Alicia isn't making any effort at all to avoid the bad outcomes that usually await a videogame villainess. No, on the contrary, she's barrelling straight ahead into trouble, because she literally wants to be a stereotypical villainess and do all the bad things they do. She just figures she will somehow do them better. This show has basically discarded the essential premise of villainess anime, which is, again, that the protagonist finds herself in a situation which she knows will end badly for her unless she changes something. So she does. But the only change Alicia is making is to try even harder to provoke misfortune for herself. Her thinking seems to be that what has failed time after time after time will this time succeed if she just tries a little harder. Once this became clear my interest in this show rapidly melted away and I struggled just to reach the end of the episode. This show wasn't anywhere near as deep and original as I had hoped, and I no longer saw any point to watching it. Last updated Thursday, November 14 2024. Created Saturday, October 12 2024. | ||||||||
