I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss

The villainess trope is something we’ve seen a couple of times now as it has slowly become more popular. I myself was questioning if this could follow up on the success of something like My Next Life as a Villainess. I must say, I think it kind of did as this was an enjoyable ride to sit through, but by all means, it isn’t perfect and can be a little bit goofy at times. I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss is a fun watch for those interested in it, but it can definitely have been improved upon. Art: 6 I always say thatart isn’t the biggest factor in my enjoyment of an anime, and while the art style and animation aren’t the worst, it's honestly not the best either. Sometimes character movements seem stiff, and to be honest other than the main duo the character designs themselves were a little bit boring, but conversely, I thought the colors meshed well together and really made some moments pop out. I also thought the ost was fine at best as well. Characters: 8 I believe this is where this anime strived the most and is really where it kept me in my seat. I think Aileen is a pretty good female lead and has a certain charm behind her serious yet nurturing personality. I also really liked how they portrayed Claude as well, they showed both his softer and stricter side very well. To be honest I dont have many complaints when it comes to the side characters either, other than designs. My main issue lies with the antagonist as their motives never were the clearest, and kind of seemed a little shallow, but overall, the cast was great. Story: 6 While I do think the characters made the show enjoyable, the story wasn’t anything too special, as the pacing at times would be a little all over the place, and the main antagonist kind of got less interesting to watch after the first arc which affected the overall plot as they were the main driving source for it to move forward. That being said, I dont think it's bad enough to drop the whole anime and for the right person, this can be an enjoyable watch. I’ll give it 6 almonds out of 10.

'Taming the Final Boss' is a mildly enjoyable diversion at best: it's an uninspired romantic comedy in an uninspired fantasy setting with a convoluted premise, a badly rushed plot, and lackluster romance and comedy. Though the setup is superficially similar to this year's excellent 'Trapped in a Dating Sim', what develops is much less impressive: like a winning chess position, except every piece is slightly misplaced. The pacing is a disaster: the season is crammed with standalone arcs, each of which is rushed, all of which together leave little time for characters and relationships to develop. Nine episodes in, the show is still introducing entire factionsin thirty-second expository clips. I thought we were going to see a video-game villainess seduce a demon lord: are we done with that? I feel like we could have squeezed more out of it. Actually, it's not clear at all how the story builds on or benefits from the premise. Why make her a villainess? Why reincarnate her? Why in a dating sim? Any one of those elements could have taken the story in an interesting direction if it had been treated as more than just isekai overhead. It's not difficult to imagine: an evil heiress gets dumped, tries to get even, and winds up fixing her life, and the kingdom, essentially out of spite. Or how about this: reborn into fantasy high society, an ordinary modern girl has to act the part of a notorious noblewoman or face destruction. As for being trapped in a dating sim — I mean, that one practically writes itself: it's funny when a normal person has to deal with stupid genre tropes. Unfortunately, the show delivers none of the above. The animation is noticeably cheap, but the real problem is the lazy writing, whether it's solving mysteries offscreen — no time for fun, we've got plot points to deliver — or ruining a joke by explaining it. The fight scenes lack tension because everyone has poorly defined magic powers. The romance is half-baked. The antagonists are not well motivated. Like 'The Dungeon of Black Company', a much better show, the protagonist is refreshingly motivated. But instead of pruning her overgrown backstory and giving her room to grow, the writers merely embroidered her with isekai kitsch. Although I mildly enjoyed parts of every episode, I wouldn't watch another season.

Akuyaku Reijou is an anime that I can only really recommend as background noise. The isekai and reincarnation genres have always been a refuge for shows with wasted potential, but even if lost potential is unavoidable, Akuyaku Reijou is utterly self sabotaging. However, I did give this show a 4 not a 0, so I'm inclined to point out a few of its redeeming qualities before I disparage it. Pros: It can be fun, I'd say somewhere half way through the show I would confidently state that I was enjoying myself watching the show, certainly keep your brain off while watching, but once your brainis off it can be mildly entertaining. It's not a slow burn at all, the main character and her pet (the demon lord) are openly head over heels for one another by like the third episode. So if you hate the will-they-won't-they-tropes that plague a lot of the romance genre, maybe you'd prefer this. I personally think they shot themselves in the foot having the two main characters get together so quickly, but I can see it appealing to a few people. The comedic beats do land sometimes, not always mind you, but often enough to give the show an upbeat feeling so good enough. Cons: The pacing is terrible. The show should have absolutely ended at episode 4, it is as if they crammed all their main ideas for the concept into the first 4 episodes, then realised they still had 8 episodes left to fill. Instead of going back and trying to give more depth and flesh out what could be considered the core of the story, they instead just tacked on 8 episodes worth of nonsense. It's the writing equivalent of being sold a bag of flour by the pound, opening it and finding two-thirds of it is rocks. It isn't "I'm the villainess so I'm taming the final boss", it is "I tamed the final boss in 4 episodes, now watch me go on side quests for three hours." The depth of this show is lesser than the depth of my carpet. No character development whatsoever, the only exception I can maybe think of is Keith; the demon lord's right hand man, and Levi but they are both side characters and their arcs only last 1 episode. Otherwise if there is "development" it isn't really development, it is just a random and inexplicable shift in a character's attitude, see-> the demon lord during the third arc, or prince Cedric in the final episode. The character with the most interesting concept was probably Lillia, and her motivations absolutely deserved exploration, but no, nothing. Don't expect anything in the realm of high quality writing, you will inevitably be disappointed. It doesn't make sense. I don't think this warrants an explanation, I just thought I would leave this here, if you even pay a modicum of attention to the screen you'll probably become extremely confused and frustrated. There's way too many characters. Maybe this explains why the show couldn't be bothered to develop any of them, but my god why are there so many of them. Although preferably they wouldn't constantly introduce new characters, the issue is only further exacerbated by the show's refusal to drop them from the screen after they are no longer relevant to the current arc. Furthermore the characters aren't even eye-catching, the designs are all bland, and you couldn't even consider them to be gimmicky, they all have cardboard personalities with few exceptions. Almond. Fuck his inclusion in the final two episodes, he alone dropped my rating by a point. Let's wrap this up. You should watch this show if you have an infatuation with the isekai/otome game genre and a thing for lord claude. You should not watch this show if you don't belong to the former group.

"Akuyaku Reijou nanode Last Boss wo Kattemimashita" is a 2022 Issekai romance from Maho Film. The plot is quite simple: the protagonist, as a classic Issekai scenario is supposed to be, finds herself in the world of a video game, where she finds herself in the role of a villain whose destiny is death. The task is clear: to change the plot of the game by defeating the final boss...with her love. Romance, though. The series itself is divided into three arcs, in each of which the story changes, the characters remain the same (except that new ones appear). In my opinion, the first andsecond arcs are very good, but the third seemed boring and unnecessary, although in general, the plot of the anime could have been finished at 4 series (the end of the first story). There are quite a few characters in the anime, but not all of them decided to reveal. Of the 5 assistants of the main character, Aileen, only Isaac was given time, while the rest became third-rate. The music is present, but the same music is played time and time again throughout the anime. A tense moment - long live the medieval melody. Drawing looks a bit sparse, although maybe Ufotable Studios have lavished me with artistic beauty, but for 2022 it does look a bit lacking. But come on, it's all subjective, it's a my opinion. I didn't really get the gist of it. Maybe the author wanted to say that even in the game love and friendship work wonders and solve many issues, change the fate, but most likely the anime is just a normal isekai, covered with the feelings of the main characters. Some characters are revealed, discarded, and what is timeless is the beauty and allure of the prince of darkness, Claude. By the way, I would argue with the word "darkness." After all, all the darkness is crows, furry critters, cyclops, and green-haired helpers... Seriously, they even have a fortress? A fortress for one man, two demons and beasts...that's "darkness." Whatever. I found the anime and its plot entertaining enough, despite the third story. The occasional interesting characters were also fun to watch. I want to mention Kana Hanazawa's wonderful acting as Lilia, it was gorgeous! That's all for now :D