From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!

Episode 11

The crossdressing drip-feed continues, without Bureaucrat to Villainess progressing to the full promised genderbending Student Council Campus Festival Play. At least we're blessed with glimpses of Queen Virgile, Prince Grace, Maid Pierre, Knight Lady Auguste, Street Urchin Anna, (terrifyingly accurate) villainess Lambert, and a rather-too-convincing magical girl/fairy Lucas. No wonder returning character Francette explodes with copious nosebleeds at all of this terribly exciting performative gender-nonconformity!

I do worry that Bureaucrat to Villainess has teased this whole play plot for rather a little too long. Without a surprising interlude like episode 9's Galaxy Express 999 karaoke session to break up the interminable setup, episode 11 begins to teeter on the brink of repetitive dullness. If we're not going to significantly progress the plot, then can we at least have some more laughs? Unfortunately the show's relatively sparse humor is starting to wear a little thin. That's not to say there aren't some fun moments in this otherwise transitory episode, particularly the revelation that Kenzaburo's girlfriend (now wife) was his booth babe at Comiket.

Green-haired, bespectacled Francette returns from an earlier cameo to reclaim the role she was apparently supposed to have inhabited since the beginning. Unfortunately, with Anna becoming besotted with not-so-villainous Grace from the get-go, supposed “best friend” character Francette was relegated to background status. With a play to organize, and Anna exhausting herself by trying to do everything alone, she finally has a role – though this mostly seems to involve nasal hemorrhaging and squealing. She's… a bit extra, to say the least.

Said play seems to be a variant on The Prince and the Pauper, and the script, suspiciously perfect for the current Student Council, was written by Jacqueline Auvergne, Grace's oft- teased but consistently absent mother. That she wrote it thirty years ago continues to lend credence to the theory that she's more than a mere background character in this story. From the next-episode preview, it seems we'll finally get to meet her in episode 12.

Poor Kenzaburo's super-stressed about this though – Grace is told in no uncertain terms by her father that a poor performance in the play might cause her mother's health problems to relapse – but the very “Elegance Cheat” that Kenzaburo has relied upon since day one may be his comeuppance here. Poor Grace can't accurately perform the lines of her rough commoner character, as instead they emit from her silver-spoon-fed mouth like the utterances of a haughty noble. Uh-oh. That last-minute complication may be exactly what the show needs to introduce a little drama. Unless Kenzaburo's daughter can find the option to disable the Elegance Cheat in the game's settings menu...

It seems highly unlikely, with only one episode to go, that Bureaucrat to Villainess can hope to resolve any of its plots. While I'd love a second season, this slightly shaky episode may be a sign that the premise has been stretched a little too thin to maintain my interest.

Rating: