I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History

What I liked:

• It shows different life-episodes of the characters (infant to teen)
• It is an Isekai but with focus on romance and playing the villainess and making sure to annoy the heroine, which is a refreshing storyline for me
• Got hooked with the story development, which is a mix of genius battle and romance
• It focuses only on the main characters without unnecessary sideplots for secondary characters

What I did no like:

• The ending was rushed and couldve span across at least 3 episodes
• Reconciliation between female characters who were enemies before are always annoying for me and I consider it unrealistic
• Even though the MC was developing her magic abilities to a max she barely uses them. Instead the story is more of an intellectual chess match

Overall: If you like a mix of romance and genius battles/confrontations with an outside the box romance storyline, then this is for you.

This anime series opens with a girl finding herself in the body of Alicia Williams, the villainess in a game she used to play. Knowing this destiny she determines to become the greatest villainess in history. Her preternatural wisdom leads to her gaining the ear of the king and befriending many of the nobility. She also takes a surprising interest to the poor in one particular village. When a prophecy indicates a saint has been born she is given the task of watching over her... of course this saint was the heroine of the game, an instantly popular girl.

Recently there have been quite a few anime series centred on a reincarnated villainess. This may not be the best but it is an enjoyable addition to the genre. The characters are solid and nobody is really unlikeable. As seems to be common in this genre our protagonist never seems particularly villainous; she is just in conflict with the designated heroine. This isn't really a problem as Alicia is a likeable character and other characters are fun to watch. Character designs and animation are both pretty good. The final episode seems more like the end of a chapter than an end of the story; if there is more I'd certainly watch. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the genre.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

The premises of the show sounded good, I like myself a good clueless idiot mc who wanna be the greatest villainess in the story.

However there is to much that has infuriated me.

Our MC is a clueless almost to stupid for words. However that is the least problematic with this story.

It's the fact that our MC keeps accepting everything of this world as truth.she doesn't questions or dispute the rules of the world.

For example, only Nobels can be mana users, ok she won't question why or how that is the rule of this world. Like no commoners can become mana users? Have no one heard of children made outside of wedlock? Like if it's blood or something else that makes one have mana then why is it only Nobels who has it?

The Nobel families has used a village to imprison people they find unlikeable by making a mana shield which no commoners can get through. Only Nobels can go through it who has mana. MC doesn't question why they have made such a place. Doesn't question or reflect on why such a place excist and why it's such a horrifying thing to realise. That Nobels can just decide to imprison a whole village and then leave them to starve or eat each other.

The world seems too flat and not even close to being fleshed out. Like there are rules but there is no deep dive into why these rules exists and we are not supposed to question or even reflect on why things are this way. I'm guessing we will maybe learn more but the main problem here is the fact that the MC has no interests in questioning this world.

Then we have the romance aspect. There is at least five years difference between her and the other male characters. And yes it feels icky seeing a fifteen year old getting possessive and romantic interested in a ten year old.

MC doesn't have friends, she has her brothers and the love interests but no actually friends for her. So it's even more icky to see her being persuade by her so called 'friends'

5/10 By the time I was on the third episode, I was completely tired of her insisting to call herself a villainess. The character is obviously at least as heroic as the main character from her game, but it just doesn't stop. Villains don't help people. Just stop stop stop with the villainess garbage. We can all see you are a kind person, who cares for the common people. It is just so irritating after about 2 episodes. Start calling yourself a heroine who cares for the people, and ditch the villain garbage on the side of the path where it belongs. No one buys it anyway, so just stop repeating it over and over again.

(12+) Ugh. Another series that could have been a lot better. The premise was fine, the voices and animation is great, but some of the female protagonist's actions are just over the top stupid and make no sense. I am all in for a sacrifice for a worthy cause, person, or goal - but hers just doesn't have a lot of wisdom (or reason) to it in my opinion. Not sure if there will be a second season or not, but I believe the writers have a lot to work with if so and the series could easily improve. If you are a fan of these types of tropes, you will like this series just fine.

Check out my comprehensive list of Anime titles to find your next watch - just click my profile link at the bottom left of this review!