The Fall 2024 Anime Preview Guide

I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History

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Alicia hates "goody-two-shoes" heroines. Her wishes come true when she is reincarnated into a villainess in her favorite otome games. She strives to be the world's most evil villainess in history. However, the more she tries to be a villainess, the more the prince appears to like her.

I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History is based on the Rekishi ni Nokoru Akujo ni Naru zo light novel series by Izumi Ōkido with illustrations by Jyun Hayase. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Tuesdays.

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Rebecca Silverman
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If you're already tired of the villainess subgenre of isekai, there's probably not much this episode can offer you. It's very much a retread of familiar tropes: a girl is reborn as the villainess in an otome game, regains her memories at age seven, and immediately begins accidentally enthralling all of the heroine's love interests while becoming ludicrously powerful. Nothing new to see, move along. It also has the bonus feature of the twelve-year-old prince crushing on her, although they may be thirteen and eight by that point. Either way, it's a bit uncomfortable, even if it's also wholly expected.

The twist that this story has to offer us is that Alicia is just tickled to be the villainess. She always preferred the bad guys to the good ones in her previous life, and she wished to be reborn as an otome game villainess should she ever have a chance run-in with everyone's favorite truck. She's utterly delighted to be who and where she is, and that's kind of fun. Is she any good at villainessing? Not really, no. Her newfound desire to study and learn swordsmanship is so at odds with the girl she was before that it catches everyone's attention, including that prince I mentioned and his royal father. At this rate, Alicia looks set to usurp the heroine rather than destroy her, and all that remains to be seen is whether she will accidentally reverse their roles.

As the opening theme shows, this is only the introduction to the story; Alicia is going to grow up before too long. What looks like the potential problem is the whole rose system that the king and his closest advisors are all talking about – Prince Duke (yes, sadly, that is his name) has a magical blue rose that bloomed at his birth, and the golden rose has also shown up, presumably belonging to the heroine. We see Alicia's mother walking with a dead rose towards the start of the episode. I'd bet that will turn out to be a legendary and unanticipated black rose, foretelling Alicia's role in the kingdom's future. This is the most interesting part of the story as far as I'm concerned. While it doesn't make up for overly simple art and Alicia's personal chibi cheerleader – or Prince Duke's name – it does make me want to give this another episode. It's not a great start, but it does have some potential. Clearly, I'm not quite sick of the villainess subgenre yet.

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Cailtin Moore
Rating:

I'll Become the Villainess Who Goes Down in History sure has energy! That was the first thought rolling through my head as Alicia popped out of bed, full of vim and vigor to live out her freshly-recalled destiny as the villainess of her favorite otome game. I personally had just risen and stumbled to the couch to watch the episode, so the feeling was something akin to being woken up by an excited child at 6 am on a Saturday. But even as I waited for the stimulants to kick in, I had to admit it was a fun episode to watch. The animation is bright and colorful, with some fun flourishes, like a little Alicia in the corner holding up signs and counting her push-ups. While it's unlikely to show up on any sakuga lists, it's probably the most competent production by MAHO FILM thus far. Frankly, I'm a little mad that I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss didn't look this good!

This appears to be one of those reincarnation isekai where the “reincarnation” feels a bit obligatory, giving context to the character's motivations without playing much of a role in the actual story. Alicia decides to brush up on her academics and train in martial arts to live out her image of the perfect villainess. Still, it's entirely possible that's just an excuse to make her the specialest, smartest girl in the whole wide world, capable of coming up with brilliant military strategies at the age of eight. Maybe there's something supernatural beyond just the reincarnation at play, but it was a bit too much for me to buy that after a week of strength training, she was capable of swinging a sword and slicing an apple in midair.

By the way, one of Alicia's brothers really needs to do something about Prince Duke Seeker. Sure, he's the crown prince and is an early frontrunner for the funniest name of the season. And yes, we know from the opening credits that he and Alicia become a thing later. But she's eight, and he's a teenager, and at this point, it's extremely inappropriate for him to run his fingers through her hair after patting her on the head and gifting her an expensive diamond necklace. It's probably not great politics to take a swing at a member of the royal family for creeping on your baby sister, but maybe they should say something? Or try to prevent them from being alone together? It's weird and uncomfortable to watch, even if mentally she's a teenager (?).

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.