Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess
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NG_Chloe
Posts: 140 |
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You make a fair point. I disagree, but there's nothing you've said that's incorrect. However, I feel that these points are incredibly basic or superficial. The story specifically doesn't make itself about a Villainess, rather Euphie's situation is just superficially similar to the common Villainess story Last edited by NG_Chloe on Sat Jan 21, 2023 12:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3448 Location: Finland |
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Being a novel reader, it's more that she coincidentally happens to match all those criteria here, outside of author intentionally trying to poke fun at the trope(very plausible). For the future of the plot, though, it has very little relevance, if any, her being relegated to the role of deuteragonist/sidekick/potential love interest of Anis... |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18188 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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While I don't disagree with this point in general, in this case Anis's behavior towards Euphyllia feels like much more than just the standard "platonically affectionate but in a way that can be easily misinterpreted" shtick, even if you ignore what Anis said as a kid. (And I would point out that the anime so far has given us no clue about what gender Anis was in her previous life, which may indicate that the writing doesn't consider that important to the situation at hand.) Last edited by Key on Thu Jan 26, 2023 11:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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One interesting thing about this show is it's essentially a "manic pixie dream girl" setup, but with the loony lady introduced first and more or less portrayed as the main character. Not something you see too often. The villainess angle here feels like little more than a reference; Euphyllia never does anything evil, and the primary protagonist is someone completely outside the structure of that trope who drags the story in a wildly different direction after episode 1.
On the "but is it really yuri" thing, my standard rule applies: swap the gender of one of them, then consider what people would assume about their relationship. In that scenario, I can't imagine anyone not seeing it as a romance plot, even if Euphy's feelings aren't clear yet. Honestly, I didn't have high hopes for this show; the concept seemed kind of trite, and animation from the trailer looked mediocre. So far, though, it's greatly exceeded expectations--it looks great and has many innovative ideas and good character writing and even actual humor (instead of extreme wackiness and reaction faces? in an anime? is that legal?), despite being yet another generic-sounding fantasy-isekai. Bring on the revolution! |
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DRosencraft
Posts: 665 |
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Alright, quick comment on the "villaness" angle. I don't think merely listing a series of commonalties and saying they've been met is enough. Some carry more weight than others and should be treated as such. In this case, it is the lack of clarity on the most salient aspect, which is whether anyone actually viewed "her" as a villain, whomever the "her" is in that story, and does the story focus at all on the conversion of that image either in the minds of the people, or relative to the audience's perspective. Unless things change at some point, it is not at all clear that Euphie was ever regarded as a villainess by anyone except her fiancee, and not even he really viewed her as a "villain" per se, but as another cog in the system he was trying to break. It may not matter to most, but to me it is an unnecessary blurring of the lines for the sake of forcing a compartmentalization of series. It's similar to how so many fantasy series are being grouped as "isekai" even if the protag has not changed worlds at all, in some cases not even reincarnated some long time afterwards after some accident, but into their same world, one generation later, after dying of old age.
Next, the king is one of the best written kings, if only because it's so common that series don't offer any insight into the why of the decisions being made by said king. If you pay attention to what he actually says aloud (as opposed to his inner monologue), it's not really any different from what many similar kings (re: anyone in position of authority) would normally be hated for in other anime for being idiotic or totally aloof, even complicit. Here, however, we get to hear the reasoning and process that goes through his mind first, which even if still flawed, makes it much more reasonable and makes him much less of a cardboard cutout of "evil/dumb adult/ruler". I've read some potential spoilers about the prince, so I'll spoiler tag my comments here in case they are correct or accurate at all. spoiler[I don't want to see any attempt at a redemption arc for him unless it can show that he's been under mind control from before he broke it off with Euphie. I understand his stated reasoning for rebelling. It is even admirable. His actions to that end, however, are not. He didn't just break up with Euphie. He turned his back on her in one of the most egregious ways possible by trying to publicly smear her with seemingly unfounded accusations that ultimately would have served no purpose towards those stated goals. Would she have changed her mind and joined his rebellion? Would she have just said, "oh, ok. Have a happy life with your new girl"? Not likely. As we know, her mentality would not have likely meant voluntarily coaxing her to abandon the nobility. But he owed her the chance to make that choice herself, and could have talked her into it much as Anis is having to talk her into realizing she has a freedom of choice. We can talk about how that would make for a different show, but my point is that there is currently very, very, little reason he's owed any sort of redemption. There's being conned into bad decisions, and then there's actual malice. He shies too closely to actual malice for me. ] I think they're playing up Anis eccentricity a little too much. From all appearances, it makes little to no sense that she would have been allowed anywhere near as much freedom as she has been to do half the stuff she's been doing. It's not clear that she's used any past-life or past-world knowledge to force that freedom. She just started doing whatever she wanted and from appearances didn't ever receive all that much pushback outside of some consternation from her father and the royal advisors and court. I don't hate that part of her characterization, but I feel that narratively they've made it too extreme. Very solid show overall. Definitely one of those shows I loop forward to each week. |
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Florete
Posts: 363 |
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I've read the first volume of the LN and honestly, the anime is so much better. It introduced the characters better, it plays out similar scenes better, and it just seems like it knows what it's doing better than the LN does. Very refreshing.
Lol, this reminds me of that one article pointing out how The Walking Dead and Toy Story have the same plot: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-walking-dead-and-toy-story-same-plots-2013-3 Except that was intentionally tongue-in-cheek. |
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 511 Location: Poland |
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Except it's nothing like it?
They clearly say they couldn't easily compare those two, when they tried to be serious about it.
But that's how those genre works - they are all some version of standard trope. "isekaied as villainess but heroine is also isekaied", "villainess but heroine is actually evil", "villainess but demon lord is actually good", "isekaied but as a sword", "isekaied but as a demon lord", "isekaied but was already isekaied before", "isekaied but without cheat skill", "reborn later but as a girl", "reborn later but as demon king" and so on. (Also reborn later is grouped with isekai since it's the same idea of "I'm super powerful but nobody knows it and I'm basically new to this world). All those LNs heavily use the tropes and references of previous stories, that's why they don't need to explain why the setting is pseudo-medieval with magic, or why is there Adventurer's Guild and so on. They clearly and intentionally use specific tropes, even if those tropes can soon get abandoned later, like often happens with isekaied trope, where it quickly stops mattering that MC was otherworlder. You can't just said people are wrong to notice trope so often used in this very specific way as a genre marker, and that had little resemblance to reality so isekai villainess stories can be the only origin for this scene. It's possible author used it only as a reference to the trope that has little to do with the main story, but it doesn't mean it's wrong to say Euphie is not typical villainess character. Saihate no Paladin is very different from most isekai stories, but it doesn't mean people are wrong to say "oh, so it's isekai" after first episode, even if author goes in very different way with the isekai part. As for the other discussion, this show is super blatantly yuri. I'm not sure if it could be any less subtle about it. |
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Blanchimont
Posts: 3448 Location: Finland |
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Well, that's the raison d'etre for this series, to sum up the core of its essence. You didn't realize it until now? 
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 511 Location: Poland |
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No, I saw some traces of discussion "is this really yuri?", and was really surprised that anyone would even question it. The original post by Folcwine P. Pywackett that Key responded to seems to have disappeared though? |
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Florete
Posts: 363 |
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Yeah, "when they tried to be serious about it," because that article is a joke. Both of them are pointing out a bunch of superficial similarities in order to draw comparisons between two things. |
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Thesarum
Posts: 402 |
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Do you think we can keep the "is it fair to say this show uses the villainess trope?" discussion running for the entire cour? Lets give it a shot!
My personal take: Calling off the engagement is relevant and foundational for the plot in a whole heap of ways, but the specific framing is very deliberately referencing the villainess tropes, so that comparision is very much invited by the author. It's not "coincidentally has some superficial similarities", it's "look, here all all the villainess tropes you're familiar with". But I think it's mostly a setup for the joke Anis makes about "wow, otome game scenes really happen in this world?!" (paraphrased). Euphie isn't really a plot villainess, but if Anis hadn't interviened, she probably would be. As fabricated as the claims are (and I'm pretty sure Algard and his friends are fully aware of this) the rest of the room and society at large would believe them, especially as Euphie found herself entirely unable to defend herself. The sense of having her entire purpose in life unjustly ripped away and society turning it's back on her could easily turn into the sort of self-destructive bitterness that would make a magical powerhouse like Euphie pretty dangerous. It might have been self-fulfilling. This is a villainess story averted. So, while I think the framing of the party is mostly a knowing eye roll directed at the audience, I don't think that makes the comparison invalid. I don't think it's wrong to say the story takes the setup for a villainess story and then goes elsewhere with it.
Oh yes, it's so incredibly unsubtle. Anis might be a next level chaos gremlin with very little impulse control, but even she knows you gotta spend a little time building a relationship before you get into the heavy petting stuff like hand holding and bento making. (Not so much bed sharing, that's fine as a day-1 activity). I don't think we'll be getting any "but I'm a girl? I'm so confused!" from her. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Maybe the real villainess trope was inside us all along...
We already saw a flashback to when elementary-aged Anis barged into her dad's room to announce that she wants to marry a woman when she grows up, so, yeah, way past the point of no return on that end. Euphie is still an enigma, but her relationship with Algard was purely political, so this is probably her first romantic experience of any kind. The real confusion will come when the citizens of the kingdom have to figure out what to call the queen's wife. First Lady? Queen 2? Or maybe it'll be that thing where the ruler is "the king" regardless of gender. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18188 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Absolutely in agreement with all of this, and honestly, I've found this whole debate about whether or not this was intentionally meant to ape villainess scenarios to be rather silly. The story's overall direction may not line up that way, but the first episode of this one was as much a call-out to traditional otome game villainess stories as the first episode of MSG: Witch From Mercury was a call-out to Utena. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1393 |
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Just take a note from how the British handle any royal spouse and call her the Queen Consort 
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Thesarum
Posts: 402 |
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It's never quite that simple, but that's the general idea... We really know how to do titles! And we like them 15 layers deep and with 1000 years of recorded history. |
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