From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!

Episodes 1-2

Although I'm by no means the biggest fan of the oversaturated isekai genre, I've developed a real soft spot for the villainess subgenre. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! was the trailblazer, blessing us with Her Undisputed Dumbness Bakarina, queen of the romantically oblivious villainess protagonists. The pinnacle of the genre for me, I'm in Love with the Villainess, is yet to be equalled in terms of sheer loopiness, with its wonderful characters and progressively wild story, yet these first two episodes of Bureaucrat to Villainess are very promising indeed.

Fifteen-year-old Grace Auvergne is every bit the stereotypical (at least, according to anime) otome game villainess. She's got the haughty ojousama attitude, noble upbringing, and regulation blonde hair drills down pat. The terror of her long-suffering maids, her sharp tongue is renowned and feared both within her household and at the 19th century European-equivalent high school she attends. After a head injury caused by falling from a horse, she suddenly realizes she's actually the reincarnation of Japanese bureaucrat Kenzaburo Tondabayashi, a balding, bespectacled 52-year-old husband and father, and all of his memories flood into her mind.

From this moment on, Kenzaburo's consciousness displaces Grace's, and her attitude changes completely. Now instead of berating her staff, she's supportive and thankful; these unprecedented changes triggering panic attacks in her poor, traumatized trainee maid, animal girl Josette. We're privy to Kenzaburo's thoughts, narrated in his voice, as he attempts to navigate life as a 15-year-old girl. From his perspective, moments previously he rescued a little boy from the omnipresent Truck-kun, before waking up in Grace's body. Kenzaburo's nothing if not adaptable, though, and recognizes Grace as the villainess of his daughter's console otome game… even if he doesn't remember a whole lot else about it. This leads to a very relatable extended joke about his inability to retain names...

Kenzaburo is a fun protagonist in that he has a certain degree of genre awareness, he identifies as a geek, understands that he's now an isekai protagonist… yet remains hilariously out of his depth. Every attempt he makes at taking on Grace's villainess role ends up filtered through his gosh-darned-decent dad-ness, and his good manners and people-pleasing nature are adapted into setting-appropriate behavior by an innate skill he christens “Elegance Cheat.” This results in Grace now presenting as a thoroughly mature and attentive woman, winning hearts left right and center.

Mere minutes into the first episode, and the game's plot veers into uncharted territory, as instead of bullying pink-haired heroine Anna Doll, Grace's harsh words of rebuke are instead interpreted as loving, supportive instruction. Anna's a huge-eyed innocent who hangs on Grace's every word, and Kenzaburo's fatherly concern ends up repeatedly triggering Anna's affection points towards Grace to rise. Kenzaburo even causes each of the game's male love interests to grow in affection towards his female alter ego. It's all so wonderfully silly, and very much played for laughs with sharp wit, incisive character observation, and impeccable comic timing.

What's really refreshing about Bureaucrat to Villainess is the total absence of creepiness. There's no fanservice here, Kenzaburo is a mature, reliable, salt-of-the-Earth kind of guy, and it wouldn't cross his mind to leer at the teenage girls surrounding him, nor is there any uncomfortable sexualization of Grace's body. Although obvious romance flags are set between Grace and Anna, plus the opening sequence shows them dancing together Utena-style, it's clear there's nothing predatory about this middle-aged man. The flashbacks to Kenzaburo's former work and home life are nothing but wholesome – he's the kind of man who thanks the chef at his work canteen, and encourages his daughter to pursue her geeky interests. His nigh saintliness manifests itself with Grace literally sparkling as she moves (though perhaps that's only how Anna sees her?), and his exemplary behavior inspires other snobby students to act with more humility.

The first episode is an excellent example of how to capture an audience – fast-paced, repeatedly hilarious, knowingly absurd, cleverly both reinforcing and subverting tropes as required by the story. Episode two can't quite match the first in terms of humorous intensity, but remains high in quality as we learn more about both Kenzaburo and Grace's respective pasts. It seems Grace was once a sweet and caring child, keen to interact with those of a “lower” station, until unpleasant lessons about her noble standing drilled into her a sense of superiority that led her to elevate herself above others. I wonder if Kenzaburo's purpose here is to draw out the “real” version of Grace, hidden beneath layers of artifice and social conditioning.

It's hard to know if Grace's “real” personality survives beneath Kenzaburo's – he can certainly access all of her memories, but I get the impression it's like him watching a video recording – they're not “his” memories. Perhaps later episodes will clarify what's going on. Grace's school teaches its students magic, and so far seems to be a generic institution that could exist in almost every single villainess isekai that exists. The magic lesson scene in episode two could have been ripped from any show in the subgenre, with Grace demonstrating unusual aptitude in a supposedly “safe” setting that isn't. There's an almost identical scene in I'm in Love with the Villainess. So far, this over-familiarity isn't exactly a negative point, because Kenzaburo's situation and narration are an original touch, but I do worry a little about how the show can maintain its freshness going forwards.

Thankfully, Kenzaburo's ongoing attempts at “villainy” look likely to continue to go humorously awry, as he completely fails to “get in the way” of Anna's potential love interest story routes, as he believes to be his villainous purpose, since it seems Anna's unlocked the Grace yuri route anyway. There's also the interesting wrinkle of Kenzaburo introducing the fantasy world to his favorite tool – the abacus. Will he destabilize this society with a crash course in ultra-efficient accounting? Who knows?

Bureaucrat to Villainess is without a doubt the funniest show this season, and I hope it can maintain the high quality of its opening two episodes. Going by the deranged tone of its astonishingly sparkly ending theme dance sequence, my hopes are very high.

Rating:
Episode 1: 4.5
Episode 2: 4