Villainess Level 99

Episode 8

I have got to hand it to Yūma Uchida. He is consistently knocking it out of the park as Patrick. From his panicked utterances to his attempts at being smooth to the garbled sound of a man with his head in a dragon's mouth, Patrick's lines are very well delivered. The voice cast and the pace of the adaptation are helping this anime overcome its production value issues, and I'm delighted because the source material deserves a good adaptation. On that front, it seems safe to say that this series will cover the first volume of the novels, and I think that's a good goal to aim for. (It's also, in my opinion, the strongest of the books.) And now that Eleanora and Ryu have come into the picture, the series has introduced the entire cast.

Yumiella gushing over her precious little dragon baby is hands-down her at her most relatable. As the proud dog mom of a chronically misunderstood breed, I fully understand that it's challenging to realize that not everyone sees your sweetie as the squishy love bug you know they are. I know my Max wouldn't hurt a fly (and literally has no teeth), but to other people, he could look like a big, scary beast. While we could question whether Yumiella truly knows that Ryu putting someone's entire head in his slobbery mouth (which absolutely has teeth) is a sign of affection, she certainly seems sure of it, and the fact that he didn't chomp down on Ed probably proves it. What's particularly fun about this entire escapade is that we're aware that this isn't just Yumiella being her usual dense self. We viewers have the context of what doting pet parents act like in our world, and while not everyone agrees that it's normal, it's at least a fairly common thing. But to Yumiella's classmates, she looks even more insane, calling a dangerous animal her "baby" and cooing at its perceived cuteness. Maybe the only person who could even sort of get it is Jessica, and that's because she has first-hand knowledge that dragons are no match for Yumiella.

Poor Patrick, however, is clearly at his wits' end. I'm glad that they animated his point of view chapter from the novel, because even though we've got a solid grasp of his feelings without it, it allows us both the confirmation of them and the chance to see that he's really a very ordinary guy in his world. When he's not freaking out over his crush's insane behavior, he's just a boy with a crush who wants to try to get together with her. Asking to see her over summer break is textbook stuff. Deciding to do major leveling up in a dungeon when she refuses so that he can better meet her criteria is…a little more extreme. But suppose that's not a marker of his determination (the equivalent of the high school romance character who studies hard to look smarter). In that case, it's at least a sign that Yumiella's rubbing off on him, which has its own positives for their relationship. He'll be better able to keep up with her, right?

This episode confirms that Yumiella is slowly but surely usurping the role that was meant to be Alicia's. If we think back to last week, when Yumiella started to wonder if maybe her "character" was shunned and the game just didn't cover her trauma, this could be seen as a positive – Alicia has demonstrated bias against Yumiella. However, the fact that she sees her as a murky pool of raging darkness, but that alone shows prejudice about dark magic. We'll have to see if this turns into one of the more typical villainess stories where the heroine and villainess swap roles completely.

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Villainess Level 99 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.