The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - May I Ask for One Final Thing?

In the middle of a ball, Scarlet's fiancé, Kyle, suddenly calls off their engagement. She's falsely accused of being a bully, and people unfairly call her a "Villainess." The aristocrats and noble families all denounce her. For years, she had to put up with his abuse and idiocy, but she couldn't take any more of it. At her wits' end, she asks for one last favor: to give him a good fist in the face. So begins Scarlet's story of revenge against Kyle and his cronies.

May I Ask for One Final Thing? is based on the web novel series by author Nana Ōtori and illustrator Satsuki. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

Were this not an anime series lampooning the villainess subgenre, you'd be excused for wondering if there wasn't something pathologically wrong with Scarlet. Her one joy in life appears to be punching people in the face, and since she was told not to do that, despite her horrible fiancé's ghastly treatment of her, she's basically not enjoyed anything in her life. Mind you, being around Prince Kyle for more than three minutes could have that effect on anyone; he's a turd in human form.

Fortunately for everyone, though, this is an anime series lampooning the villainess subgenre, and so we are free to enjoy Scarlet beating the shit out of horrible people while also tacitly admitting that she doesn't hit animals because that's a bridge too far. And really, there's a catharsis in this. So many accused villainesses either take the blame heaped upon them by vile fiancés and their ladyloves. Not Scarlet; she knows what she's worth and that both Kyle and Terenezza are full of it. She's also been the victim of Kyle's bullying for most of her life, so when she has an opportunity to wipe the smirk off his face with her fist, she's going to take it. And truly, it is a blow struck for all falsely accused pseudo-villainesses everywhere. You deserve this absolution, ladies.

That said, I am a little uncomfortable with Scarlet's apparent inability to understand why her brother keeps telling her that hitting people is bad. Yes, she mostly hits the deserving, but even though this is fiction, it can feel like a bit much. It also stumbles in its worldbuilding; if it's not proper for Scarlet to show her legs, why does her school uniform skirt come to mid-thigh? If slavery is illegal, why is it so easy to find the slave traders in the capital? And how credulous is Scarlet that she thinks a rock is a precious ore even though she's clearly not stupid? Moments like that took me right out of the story.

Still, this is more fun than anything. Between Julius giggling like a ninny every time Scarlet's fists fly, her brother guzzling antacids, and that one brief shot of Sigurd playing with a butterfly while Kyle rants in the foreground are all delightful, and Kaito Ban's mad scenery chewing as Kyle (complete with Italian pronunciation of Terenezza), this show is a blast. Sometimes you really do need to see a lady punch a jerk in the face and then wear his blood like body glitter.

For weeks, I have been wondering what request could possibly follow the alluring title of this, one of my most anticipated anime of the season. Finally, I have my answer, and readers, it is so much more satisfying than I even dared to hope. Our heroine, Scarlet El Vandimion, has spent years putting up with the buffoonery and abuses of her betrothed Prince Kyle, only for all of that suffering to end up for naught when the asshole tosses her aside and cancels their engagement in favor of the conniving Terenezza Hopkins. We've seen how Scarlet is a fiercely proud and principled woman who instinctively uses her mighty fists to defend herself and the downtrodden people around her, but she has stayed her hands to protect her family's honor and future. In a moment of perfectly paced and expertly crafted catharsis, Scarlet realizes that she is now free from all of her past restraints. So, as a fabulously sharp little grin spreads across her face, Scarlet says to her former fiancé, “May I Ask for One Final Thing?” The haughty bastard concedes, of course.

What follows is the most perfect sentence I can imagine in this specific set of circumstances: “May I knock that bitch on her ass?”

Terenezza is just one symptom of the larger sickness that infects Scarlet's society, though. The entire ballroom is filled with venomous sociopaths who happily suck the blood from the peasants and slaves to fill their coffers. Naturally, every last one of those suckers is going to have to get laid out, too. Scarlet El Vandimion does not suffer monsters such as these.

You know, maybe it's just because I have been having to endure the endless quagmire that is “Being a Reasonable American Citizen in the year 2025”, but there's something about watching such a beautiful and powerful woman beat the everloving shit out of an entire herd of gluttonous aristocratic pigs. Sure, the excellent character designs, vibrant colors, and generally excellent direction would make for a good time regardless of exactly who Scarlet is brutalizing in any given scene, but May I Ask for One Final Thing? is clearly intending for our protagonist's very targeted and righteous anger to be a cornerstone of her appeal. In Episode 1, "Lady Mad Dog" kicks in the teeth of so many fat cats who would dare to flaunt their blood money and their shameless lust for power. In Episode 2, Scarlet doubles down and goes back to deal even more justice to a particularly heinous cretin with a penchant for enslaving the beastkin races and forcing them to do his dirty work under penalty of torture and death. If a gang of hooligans who prey on the poor and the weak get in her way, then all the better. Scarlet's fists and heels crave the sundered flesh of the wicked.

I went into this show desperately needing an entertaining and comforting escape from the perils of the real world (not to mention the weak-sauce premieres that the fall season has been slopping out). May I Ask for One Final Thing? Gives me everything I needed, and then, like a most generous and benevolent queen, it gives even more. The supporting cast is great, the jokes are funny, and most important of all, we have found in Scarlet El Vandimion a new messiah-waifu for our times. All hail the Bloodstained Lady, and may her decimating reign of terror flood the world in its righteous scarlet waves.

It's not as imperative as it is with some other anime, but I won't deny that May I Ask for One Final Thing? is a show that could work exceptionally well if you went in knowing nothing about it. The special spark makes itself apparent pretty quickly, and it's emblematic of where the villainess genre has arrived by this point. Opening with the devious fiancé and replacement love interest scheming to implicate and exile the leading lady is practically this genre's equivalent of seeing some isekai potato meeting with God and getting their stat sheet explained to them. That is, an entry in this crowded playing field needs a hook, and this show has a hook—specifically, a mean right one.

Yes, it's simple enough as a gimmick. But look, I'm a simple man. You're talking to someone whose favorite Street Fighter character is Karin Kanzuki, so I'm going to delight at the sight of a blonde noble lady in red throwing hands. Even as that opening scene of betrayal, followed up with much of the flashback of the first episode, is emphasizing the hard time Scarlet had to endure as she pent up her pugilistic predilections, the writing's still making clear from the start that "loving to hit people" is just how she's always rolled. Villainess series thrive on what unique appeal of their uh, heroines, they can put forward, and with Scarlet, May I Ask for One Final Thing? is absolutely hitting.

Going through that flashback, then following up on the aftermath of Scarlet putting up her dukes and dropping all those dukes—that helps prove that One Final Thing has legs beyond its clear base appeal. It's not just a one-trick pony, as the sociological situations Scarlet endured aren't there to incite her rampages; they inform the overall plot and themes that will be pursued.

Having the nobles out themselves as slavers right before Scarlet reconnects them to God's wi-fi is an easy enough way to make punching them more palatable, sure. But it also sets up the political maneuvering that other Prince Julius is managing, and how Scarlet is just one part of that. Julius himself is an interesting ally(?), being a "nice" noble who's still deathly lacking in empathy due to his life experiences, and even embraces how much of a sucky manipulator he can be. Naturally, I love him. Did I also mention that this has a cross-dressing maid assassin puppy boy? At this point, I worry the show's over-selling itself to me.

All this and it looks great too? Most of the attention is, naturally, paid to the potent impact of Scarlet's fists felling fools, and since those bits are literal punch-lines on so much of the story setup, that means the rhythm of it all works. It's just damn good direction from scene to scene, playing up the timing of threats to Scarlet and others, and either deflating or releasing them, depending on the situation. It's like the characters regularly being charmed specifically by Scarlet's punchy prowess—it all just makes me admire its moxy. Granted, that overall dependence on the action does make me wonder if One Final Thing can actually sustain the energy it needs to keep up. Plus, Scarlet's blessing of time magic does hit that level of power-bonus-contrivance I tend to roll my eyes at in these kinds of light novel shows. But said magic does provide an edge to mix up the action as it goes, and Scarlet's already showing some evolved choreography to her combat. I'm wondering what the writing plan is with Terenezza, the girl who tried to frame Scarlet and who was the first to get her bell rung. See her in the outro, she's clearly up to something bigger. But overall, this is a series that absolutely earned the two-part premiere status, plus a hearty"Good for her!" from me toward Scarlet anytime she did basically anything.