From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!

Episode 5

Now with her newly-named dual-casting dragon “Orion” in tow, not-very-villainous “villainess” Grace Auvergne/Kenzaburo Tondabayashi continues to win hearts and minds among her peers and teachers. With a little help from Kenzaburo's daughter Hinako (who, given the option, named the dragon after a shared childhood memory in the hopes it would clue in her father that she was the one helping from the “real” world – to no avail), Grace can see menus and status screens that none of the player characters can perceive, which allows her to switch Orion from Charmander to Squirtle mode, complete with appropriate elemental and skin color changes. The headmaster is very impressed, instructing Grace she must feature in the upcoming Magic Exhibition, which Hinako identifies as a major game event where heroine Anna and her chosen love interest get a big intimacy boost. Considering Grace demands Anna be her assistant at said event, it doesn't take a genius to realize the plot's now left the rails and continues to race towards an unprecedented yuri route.

Interestingly, the uber-geeky pair of Hinako and her mom Mitsuko haven't yet commented on the obvious yuri-leaning direction of Kenzaburo/Grace's new storyline. (Does it count as yuri if one of the participants is actually a man temporarily piloting a female body? Such musings are beyond my expertise in the genre…) What might his wife think of middle-aged Kenzaburo courting a starry-eyed pink-haired female teenager, while presenting as one himself? Sounds like a recipe for serious marriage counseling to me. Anna and Grace's close relationship seems to rabidly excite the so-far unnamed new green-haired bookworm character, though, who nosebleeds herself into a coma with sapphic glee, seemingly unnoticed in the background. I wonder if she'll be more important later?

In the library, we meet Prince Virgile's incredibly uptight servant Pierre, to whom Grace introduces the concept of Personal Time Off as a way to allow workers to rest and revitalize, thereby increasing efficiency. Such a radically humane, modern concept only causes Pierre's affection points for Grace to rise. Virgile's been hiding in the library from his overeager servant, but isn't averse to misusing his innate wind magic to eavesdrop on the conversation, revealing himself in hilarious fashion only when Grace intimates she's not necessarily destined to be Virgile's wife. By this she means to push Anna towards Virgile, but instead her actions essentially cement Anna as her own future wife!

From Bureaucrat to Villainess continues to excel at exploring its daft premise, providing plenty of humorous character moments, while deepening plot and world-building. I'm not sure how much of it will make sense by the end, but I'm not looking for intricate logic here. It's a well-made show that looks good, with plenty of color and personality. My only real concern is how we keep re-playing the same scenes but from different viewpoints. Yes, it's fun that Hinako is privy to her dad's innermost thoughts and how the Elegance Cheat skill translates them into vague-sounding yet impressive dialogue, however if every episode from now on is to be split between Grace's plot progression and Hinako/Mitsuko's reactions, then the pace will slow to a crawl. Hopefully future episodes will balance these dual perspectives a little more gracefully.

Rating: