Always a Catch!

Episodes 1-3

This is not a villainess story. Oh, sure, it looks like one at first, what with the whole denunciation scene, and yes, the second part of heroine Mimi's last name is remarkably similar to two Italian words that are, shall we say, not flattering (“cazzo,” often translated as “fuck” and “pazzo,” meaning “crazy”), but that's just Always a Catch! working to throw you off. It uses the tropes of several different established fantasy subgenres to go completely off the rails, and that's what's glorious about it.

Mimi herself is the main draw. The youngest daughter of the Annovazzi family, she was raised to be the ducal heir until the unexpected birth of her younger brother Teodorico. Rather than be angry that she's been disinherited based solely on gender, Mimi (real name: Maria) simply adores her little brother and realizes that this means that she's free to marry – and her goal is to wed a “catch,” meaning a highly desirable man. To that end, she goes to stay with her old friend Aida in the much-larger neighboring kingdom, hoping to both meet said catch and to perhaps polish herself into something resembling a noble lady. My favorite part of all of this is that absolutely no one has any doubt she can do it – not her boisterous family nor Aida, who arguably has a better idea of how Mimi does not fit into high society. Mimi just encourages that sort of attitude in people, like a puppy with boundless energy and cheer who you forgive for getting muddy paw prints on your clothes because they're just so darn wonderful.

While Mimi's energy is infectious, what's even better is the way that she never pretends to be anyone other than herself. When Prince Renato denounces her instead of Aida, she tells him to get glasses. When Rosalia tries to bully her, she gets excited about meeting someone new and learning about perfume. The only thing that throws her off her stride is when Renato is physically affectionate or when his aide Raimondo pops up out of nowhere, and even then, her reactions are pure Maria Annovazzi. She doesn't have a duplicitous bone in her body, and she'll always go out of her way to do what's right, be that rescuing a cat from a tree or saving the queen from an assassin's arrows…or telling off the crown prince for being an idiot.

There are snide comments I could make about Renato falling for Mimi based on her telling him off, but I think, when you come right down to it, it's not the scolding itself that draws him to her. It's the fact that she treats him like a person rather than a prince. Her earnest efforts to help him fall asleep more easily come from a place of genuine caring. She permits him to just be Renato, a guy who just graduated from high school, and that's very appealing to him. Similarly, he doesn't treat her like a preternaturally strong force of nature. After Eleanora kidnaps her in episode two, he offers her comfort, telling her that she must have been scared. I don't believe she was, but it's not something anyone else has ever thought to say. The assumption that she's strong enough to get out of any situation she finds herself in may be true, but that doesn't make her inhuman. Regardless of whether she was scared, Renato gave her permission to feel so-called weak emotions. Together, they get just to be regular people.

Of course, that doesn't take away from the fact that Renato appears not to have actually asked Mimi if she'd like to marry him. He decides it and expects her to go along. Granted, he fits the definition of what she's looking for, and she doesn't seem to mind their abrupt engagement, but it's still striking in a not-great way. It's wonderful that he wants Placido and Aida to marry because they love each other. Wouldn't it have been nice if he'd had the same concern for Mimi?

Still, even with that issue (and the way he's always touching her and how that seems to make her a bit uncomfortable), this is off to a fun start. Mimi can't be kept down, and I think Renato needs that in his life. While I wish the anime had retained the sense of weight to Mimi's skirts when she's fighting, this looks good enough that I don't feel like complaining, and I can't wait to see what she runs into on her way home.

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