One prince's trash is another's treasure.
There's hokey that I like and there's hokey that I don't like. I like this hokey show, but it really is silly. It opens at an ending. The Crown Prince (CP Cedric) is declaring that they're engagement is over. He's not just saying it to her, he's shouting it to the entire room.
We're in the Elmir Empire. Cedric Jean Elmir has just made her the pariah of that empire. Dang. He was the main romanceable option! Huh? Where did that thought come from?
ITVSITTFB starts strongly enough. It's a good thing they built up credit in the first half because that credit carries the viewer through the second half where quality dips but levels out before things get too sour.
This isn't unlike 7th Time Loop-7.9 (2024), which also springs from a CP, like a bozo, dumping our wonderful FL. It isn't unlike the isekai story: Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion-8.6 (2023), either. Those 2 shows took the concept and perfected it. The 2020 My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X-6 is average and more suitable for kids, so Villainesses apparently get better with time. I'm currently watching Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I'm Not the Demon Lord, and through halfway, it's loads of fun. I 'spose I'll be watching 2024's 'I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History' next to continue the theme.
Wait. The CP is dumping her for Rainworth Lilia. He called her Aileen. These are characters from a game she was obsessed with! She was very sick - hospitalized - and games were all she had. Now it would appear that games are her life - literally! It isn't so much being spurned that's bothering our "Aileen". It's the fact that Aileen is the game's mean girl - The Villainess! That ain't fair! She's no Villainess! She's just a person who is not well.
She exits the grand hall without HIS Grace, but WITH grace. She will not let them see her cry! Now to what's most important: Surviving. Aileen is a character who doesn't survive the game she played, but THIS Aileen WILL survive. She's decided. In the game, Aileen dies when the Demon Lord awakens. Then the heroine (Lilia, the prince stealer) will defeat him. Hmmmm. Easy. She'll prevent that Demon Lord (DL) from waking up. Onward!
Her next move might be too simple. She naively approaches the DL's castle and demands an audience. At first, it's crickets... But then the door bursts open and there HE is. Long, flowing, luxurious hair, ruby eyes, and a face like a porcelain doll. He's prettier than she! "How dare he (Elmir Claude Jeanne, the CP, Cedric's brother... /half/ brother) how dare he just stand there looking beautiful?" "What business does a human have with me?" He demands to know. What-business, indeed. Aileen never tipped us off as to what she was planning, so it's a little unexpected, tbf. She proposes marriage to him. Then she faints.
Until now, Aileen's life was perfect... On paper. As a girl though, she didn't have the opportunities, education, and training that her brothers did. It made her feel worthless. The first time she felt like she was worth anything was when she became engaged to Cedric. She committed herself to train, study, and prepare to be the best empress possible. She developed a voracious appetite for improvement, but that doesn't win over many friends. Jealousy seemed to be the most common reaction. Before long, she was subjected to snark and envy from her schoolmates. They started to treat her like a villainess.
Back to the DL's castle. When Aileen wakes up, she hears a snippet of the conversation between DL and his 2 aides, Belzebuth (Bel) & Eigrid Keith. Not only are his aids confused as to why he didn't kill Aileen, they're also shocked that he healed her injuries. They believe she's likely a spy. She makes her second play for a lifelong commitment then, but DL insists he's not interested. He is, quite obviously, very flustered. He zapped her straight back home.
At home, her invitation to the CP Cedric and Lilia's engagement ball just arrived at the house. It's in 2 months. This is no time for timidity! She goes straight back to the Demon Castle, this time bearing cookies. She asks DL to escort her to the ball. While she's in the middle of her process she realizes the DL is very distracted. He's missing a creature - a pet, of sorts. She agrees to help recover the poor thing. "Don't fail me," he warns. What Aileen took from the exchange is the realization that this is the first time anybody's ever relied on her for anything. It felt pretty good. She didn't want to disappoint him.
Her mission is successful, but her actions are misunderstood by onlookers, including her schoolmates and the CP Cedric. Let's not forget Lilia. As Aileen is being berated and accused afresh, DL shows up, gets on one knee to thank her, and offers her a ride home. ,And his ride is one pimped out carriage. It flies! As ep1 draws to a close, he has two parting shots: He agrees to take her to the engagement ball, and he then says "I would very much like to see you cry." HUH?
In the game the DL is betrayed which upsets him so much that he loses control and transforms into his dragon form, at which point the sword maiden kills him. The sword maiden is Lilia. It would appear that Lilia and Prince Cedric are plotting to set up DL so that they can kill him. Why leave it to chance? In the game, it was villainess Dautriche Aileen Lauren who brought down the DL, but Aileen is no longer a villainess. Someone else has stepped in to take up that banner.
He must have fallen for Aileen right away. When Aileen returns to the DL castle again, the DL is so agreeable! He'll agree to almost anything. She now tends to come to his place whenever she's facing static at home; she has nowhere else to go. And she's always facing static. Cedric is messing with her business, her belongings, and her family's finances. She needs to make money! Her father won't show it, but he's clearly desperate. So she goes back to DL with an elaborate plan: His place needs work, she tells him. He should let humans do the job (whaaaaa? Unheard of! Says Keith). She asks for a plot of land that she can build on as her wages. He agrees to ALL of it!
The next day, she's started surveying the grounds when she runs into a reporter. They were having a very pleasant chit-chat when the skies darkened and rain pelted them. The reporter mumbled 'so it is true about the DL's mood affecting the weather,' as he narrowed his gaze onto Aileen. Whatever could be darkening the DL's mood? It was sunny out before she started conversing with that reporter...
By ep4 they are engaged. He's then called away to do some work but he will not let her come with him. Already excessively protective, he believes it's too dangerous. She, in turn, has a mini tantrum and says that she will not accept any visits from him if he teleports. He's going to have to do his time away /alone/. The reason she came up with this rule is because she's going to disguise herself as a boy and enroll in the academy right next to where the DL will be working. She'll just lay low and observe.
Or not. On the very first day, she generates a scandal. She helps one girl fend off her abusive boyfriend, and she makes an enemy immediately. She then meets the student council and decides that she wants to be part of it. The president is not impressed. In order to join them, especially since she's a foreigner, she, I mean HE (Aileen is disguised as male student, Aly) he will have to prove himself by figuring out what happened in a recent attack on a young woman. It appears to have been done by a vampire. Everyone thinks it's not really a vampire, but a demon.
Aileen goes duck-amuck at school. To get her investigative task force up and running, she needs the Duke to sign off on it. The Duke is away, though. The next person who would have the authority to sign off on documents is the DL who is temporarily working at the castle next door. She wears a duck mascot plushie suit to meet the DL. She can't let him know his fiance has enrolled as a male student at the school next door to him, afterall! Even wearing a duck suit, she gets under his skin. This student in the duck suit is up to no good. He's certain of it! In the meantime, the DL has been writing Aileen very passionate letters. It's adorbs.
The way things go down at school make it look like there's a villain in the background moving characters like...well, like /game pieces/. Why did Aileen assume she was the only tourist in this world? She now believes she's not the only player, and the other player plays rough. The other player is deadly.
After the school motif concludes they go into the weakest link of the show: The Amnesia Arc. It's not great. DL can't remember Aileen and wants to cancel their engagement. Aileen must make him fall for her again. The entire royal family is working against her, this time. Lilia, too.
The art is average. I'm tempted to say mediocre, but perhaps it isn't that poor. It's flat and simple. The backgrounds almost look like an outline, at times. Aileen has weird brown lashes that don't look good and seem slightly tarantula-like. It's among some of the worst anime art I've seen. ITVSITTFB still starts great. It levels out around halfway through and stays that way until the end. It never gets bad, it just drops to mid-level quality and maintains itself in that zone. Nevertheless, I found it enjoyable despite its simplicity.
QUOTE🗣
If a child is missing, you have to find them.
You shouldn't rely on dogmatic assumptions. Let's think through this.
Where does innocence stop and stupidity begin?
IMHO〰🖍
📣7.1 📝6.7 🎭7.6 💓6 🦋5 🎨5 🎵/🔊6 🔚7.8 ▪ 🌞5⚡6 😅2 😭3 😱3 😯2 🤢2 🤔4 💤0 🤗5
Age 12+ Language: se×y. The beginnings of a sexual assault that is quickly and thoroughly stopped. Rated: PG-13
Re-📺? Once is good.
