I put this on in the background while transcribing old military discharge documents weird time to be splitscreening and watching anime I know. To be honest I expected to like it a lot less than I did. There are so many isekai villainess animanga that Id probably go insane before I managed to consume all of them but its still a niche I appreciate. Within this genre theres a smaller subset of villainess who are dedicated to the role of being villainesses Id say half want to not be executed a fourth want to go down in history and the last fourth want to enjoy their lives as a sidekick. This anime is basically dead dove. Shes a villainess and she wants to be remembered as the best one. The worldbuilding is basic and uses the same old setting all the other isekai villainess stories do. Theres canon classism that just goes unaddressed. The characters are all tropes and arent inherently charming. The protagonist Alicia refuses to be remembered in tandem to someone which is why she refuses to entertain the future princes courtship in the earlier episodes and yet shes placing her entire future on antagonizing the Saintess of the story. Hypocritical but fine its a heterosexual story we get it. She has a peasant boy aid who worships the ground she walks on for her villainess charm and willingness to save his home village a magically isolated town of outcasted criminals and their offspring. The future king AKA the original happy end from the game ends up falling in love with her because shes brash smart and talented. The Saintess Liz is actually a good person but shes naive and cant do anything useful even though shes blessed blah blah blah. On all of those fronts its as generic as generic gets. Theres not one single unique thing from the character designs to the voice acting. That said somehow this story is quite charming. Lizs unnatural ability to charm the people around her is acknowledged by not just Alicia but also the people around herthe king himself appoints Alicia as Lizs watcher to make sure shes growing and becoming more mature as a person and refuting her points since nobody else can. Liz seems to appreciate this later in the story even though it takes her a while to get over herself. Because Im pretentious while watching I think it was episode nine a Dostoevsky quote appeared in my mind. Alicias entire role is to destroy her desires and eradicate her ideals tearing her away from her goodfeelings echo chamber by force and causing her to embrace a more active role in aiding society as a whole instead of bumbling towards a happy end with no real plan or drive. Despite the fact that Alicia constantly antagonizes Liz Liz seems aware that Alicia is the only person whos willing to do this and almost appreciates it. Green Hair and Yellow Hair original capture targets who are always together if I cared about this series more Id probably ship them are both immune to Lizs unconscious magical charms as well as the future king and his little spy. Indirectly Alicias presence counteracts the passive brainwash effect Liz has on everyone. Theyre perfect foils except that parts not interesting because once again none of the characters themselves are unique enough to warrant further analysis. Theres enough yuri bait between Liz and Alicias weird thing and MelMelsthe future princes spysintense crush on her so that even the future prince tries to keep them separated for me to care about the characters relationships shallow reason but hey I take what I can get. Whats interesting is the progression of the story. The characters are led down a relatively unique plot. It takes characters disabilities like the fake Saintess who only has one leg and the blind man and injuries seriously unlike most of its brethren even if it never acknowledged how Alicia can swordfight with only one eye and no depth perception when I say seriously mostly I mean that it doesnt magically heal them. I dont even know if I can explain why its so much more captivating than it should be... Apart from the fact the anatomy in the last episode got all weird like it was outsourced to another animation studio the end provided a delightful emotional catharsis to the buildup of the other 11 episodes episode 12 I consider as the climax and part of the falling action so Im counting that in the end and Liz and Duke future prince in particular were redeemed. I have more to say but Im not so sure how else to say it. Is this worth watching? Yes. Are you missing out if you dont? Nope. But it was spectacular background noise as I worked on transcription and Im sure Corp. Louis Williams will forgive me Its not like he has a choice on account of the fact hes dead. RIP Louis Williams. I promise I paid halfattention.