May I Ask for One Final Thing?

“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. […] The object of power is power.” - O'Brien, Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell) Watching power fantasies is probably my very own special hell: I deeply despise most of them. The majority are soulless and cheaply made, and their predominance on the market reflects the current popularity of low-effort entertainment. They demand almost no narrative care, consistency, or restraint on the author's partand little investment—be it emotional or intellectual—on the recipient's side, which is why they are unchallenging to write and to watch. Just like the Party in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, they understand and portray power not as a means but as an end. Instead of actually discussing and contextualizing power, they romanticize it, no, fetishize it. Their main appeal, as far as I can see, seems to lie in their promise of easy escapism from a complicated world that evokes feelings of being overwhelmed and powerless in many people. It's pretty much junk food for the mind: immediately gratifying but narratively empty. Commonly, you have those edgy shows like Solo Leveling, expecting the viewer to grovel and partake in the glorification of whatever omnipotent protagonist there is. While the prototypical Sword Art Online at the time was criticized for the Kirito worship, even though that was by all accounts very tame compared to the present brainrot slob, nowadays such vainglorious excesses are being encouraged, with the cringeworthy concept of ‘aura farming’ regrettably having gained traction. Some shows, like this specimen right here, try to exploit the protagonist's omnipotence for comedic purposes, maybe even as a parody like One Punch Man or—to name a particularly awful example—the horrid Cautious Hero. As the power fantasy premise is quite primitive by itself, you have to be really clever to draw humor from it. From my experience, many of those comedies lack that cleverness and fail because they still gleefully operate within the same basic logical framework using the same exact tools, with May I Ask for One Final Thing? being no exception. To my surprise, when I watched the first episode, I actually rather liked it and would have given it maybe a 6 or 7 had it stopped right there. Sure, the setting is generic and the premise extremely simple, but the princess heroine, Scarlet El Vandimion, is actually not one of those bland protagonists this type of show usually has; her design is pretty good, and there was definitely some charisma, courtesy also of the good voice acting. The duality of elegance and crudeness works well, and I did find her whole demeanor to be quite refreshing; they also gave me enough reasons to understand and support Scarlet's actions. From her almost pathological obsession with beating up people and how over-the-top the whole punch-up session was, I would have expected it to become some sort of parody. But in truth, I was grossly mistaken to think that this could be something of quality, because—good god—I try to use that term sparingly, but Scarlet really is a Mary Sue among Mary Sues. Beautiful, dominant, and freakishly strong, she serves as an ideal vehicle for the aforementioned fetishization of power, trying desperately to be a badass powerhouse waifu. They really went for broke here, pulled out all the stops, and cranked it up to 11 because she pretty much dominates the entire story, never breaks a sweat, and always has a witty remark on her lips as she marauds through the lands, brutalizing and pulverizing everything in her wake like a maniac. Moreover, she is naturally highly intelligent, but you would not know that if the show did not tell you. There is also never a real need for her to grow as a person, because no conflict ever forces her to, as the story always submits to her and her modus operandi of just beating the crap out of everybody. The story never bothers to explain why she is given so much leeway and how she can be so inhumanly powerful, and there is no clear feel to the rules that concern her powers, or any rules, for that matter. She is more of a force of nature than a real human character. The series tries way too hard to build up that idiotic ‘girlboss’ aesthetic around her, therefore she is a good example of why that stereotype is obnoxious as hell. I know I’m being generous here, but even if we gave this show the benefit of the doubt and read it as an aggressive take on female self-assertion in a patriarchal surrounding, the show actually adopts pretty much the same old masculine power aesthetics and revels constantly in shallow dominance gestures, with Scarlet savoring her superiority decadently in an almost sexual manner. That is not to say that you cannot do overpowered female characters. Take Yor Forger, for example: she is brutishly strong and pretty much invincible as well, but her character is much more well-rounded, and Spy × Family knows how to keep a certain balance (at least most of the time; Season 2 overdid it a little for my taste), and the show is not centered solely around her. Whereas Yor can switch between two vastly different personas (demure, awkward mother/wife/office worker vs. unstoppable, cold-blooded assassin), allowing her to be employed in a more flexible role, Scarlet, while she can switch between acting refined and coarse, pretty much keeps the same aura of untouchability all the way through, restricting her narratively. If she occasionally had to hide her power like Yor, she would already be considerably more variable. Now, I get that in regard to Scarlet's strength, you have to take into account that this is supposed to be a comedy. Even then, my suspension of disbelief has its limits, because this show at least suggests a plot and stakes, so I expect the show to respect those a little bit more, alright? Don't get me wrong, though; the plot is trite and tries way too hard for something this absurd, with a lot of generic political talk, religious disputes, and pseudo drama, and the show's artificial worldbuilding drops information not even the narrative itself pretends to care about. Speaking volumes about the quality of the writing—or rather the lack thereof—is the laughable twist that the main antagonist unironically turns out to have been isekai'd into this world; seriously, isn't this creatively embarrassing? This all underlines that if this was supposed to be a parody, it would be a particularly witless one. The comedy doesn't really work because Scarlet beating up everybody is not intrinsically funny, as it (ironically) lacks a real punch line (haha) aside from her being unrealistically strong, the visual humor becomes repetitive really fast, and the dialogue is mostly occupied with milking from the premise whatever little comedic value there is, which often results in some stilted and unnatural lines. There are only so many times that Scarlet can casually obliterate whatever irrelevant adversity there is—accompanied by a cheeky one-liner (she likes to describe her victims as meat for her to devour or compare the beatdown to a dance—underscored by classical music, of course—or do some other drawn-out nonsense that shows how effortless and trivial everything is for her)—before it gets tiring and, frankly, just a slog to watch. While I found her attitude entertaining at the beginning, I was stone-faced by the end, as she more and more lost charm and just seemed like a bit of a sadistic sociopath. As an action show, this fails too, because for a show with such an action-loving heroine, the animation is decidedly average, often lifeless, which I'm not surprised by, as LIDENFILMS does have a certain reputation in that regard. Truth be told, even if there was the budget for elaborate fights, Scarlet wouldn't allow any of them to unfold, so I guess they just said, “Who cares?” The soundtrack, which gets recycled over and over, is similarly unremarkable, even though I found the OP and particularly the ED to be quite good. Apparently, this also bills itself as a romance, but that aspect is so incredibly barebones, as any possible love interests are just as undercooked as most of the characters here, and their dynamic is incredibly clichéd as well, serving mostly as a tool for the comedy. As is typical in such a series, the side characters mostly serve as cheerleaders for Scarlet, catering to her every whim just like the story does, while the villains are one-note bad guys for her to humiliate and vanquish. The show constantly mocks and neglects its supporting cast: “Is there even a point to us being here?” is what one distraught side character says in the penultimate episode during another completely meaningless display of Scarlet's power. This adequately mirrored what went through my mind as well, because this show feels unbearably empty; aside from Scarlet pretty much breaking this world, there is almost nothing else. What a miserable experience; I'm very, very disappointed and did not expect that I would have to rip this thing apart like that. I tried my best to like this anime after the first episode and gave it so many chances, as it tricked me into thinking it might be any good, but after suffering through 13 episodes of this vapid drivel, I find it to be one of the most insufferable and frustrating shows I've ever watched. Had the heroine been better used, she really might have become one to remember. She is simultaneously the best and worst thing about this series—she makes the show and breaks it too. But in this state, it is a thoroughly dismal comedy and reads as little more than female wish fulfillment of the absolute lowest kind, trying to cash in on the Villainess trend. For me, this doesn't even succeed at just being a really wacky and dumb show. It showed its hand in the first episode and repeats the same gag ad nauseam without subversion, consequence, or wit. Brute force is no punch line on its own, and I simply cannot see why I should be bothered to be in awe of or laugh about some Herculean dominatrix who has not earned an ounce of her strength. Maybe the secret lies in getting a kick out of the sadomasochistic undertones permeating the whole thing; it clearly plays into that kink. Had it not become this obnoxious over time, I would have rated it higher; maybe I would even at some point call this ‘so bad, it's good’, but I doubt I could ever call this genuinely fine. This show definitely did not hit the spot, but it does make me wish I was punch-drunk. May I Ask for One Final Thing? Please let it rest here—do not give this another season. 3/10 (26%)