The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess

Konoha Satō has a dark history, written throughout middle school—a fantasy adventure of love and magic about the Count's daughter, Konoha Magnolia, and the knights who love her. But when it looks like that dark history is going to be uncovered by her mother, Konoha panics and dies in a traffic accident. Opening her eyes, she finds that she's been reincarnated into the world of her own dark history as Iana Magnolia, the worst villainess of her own creation.

The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess is based on the manga series by Akiharu Tōka. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Wednesdays.

This definitely felt like one of the most jumbled premieres of the entire season thus far. Not only is the entire thing frontloaded with exposition from beginning to end, but it feels like the show goes through stylistic changes every couple of minutes. I don't know why there were some points where I felt like I was watching an episode of Panty and Stocking or Kill la Kill with the use of flat character portraits and odd frames in order to generate a comedic response. I think the reason why they stuck out to me so much is because the style of those scenes just didn't match the aesthetic of the rest of the show. I can't put my finger on it, but it really does feel like the production of the show, while ambitious, has no real sense of consistency.

Then again, the show is being told through the crazy ramblings of a girl that is trying to piece together a story that she seemingly wrote over a decade ago, so maybe that's part of the point? There have been a couple of shows that have leaned into the idea of a woman being reincarnated as the villain of the story. This one doesn't do much different in the way that the protagonist tries her best to change the story—considering the usual fate of villains—but there is something a little engaging in the way that she is constantly trying to play catch-up with her past self. However, that sporadicness does come at a cost because it also makes the narrative come off as a bit more contrived than I think it should.

It's very convenient that the villain she got reincarnated to didn't happen to fully follow through on all of her legitimate evil schemes or she would be dead. The irony is that a whole reason why those things failed is because our protagonist originally wanted to be reincarnated as the heroine so the heroine couldn't die. If the heroine did die, it would be much harder to get out of the situation that she found herself in. It's really convenient that our protagonist made up an entire backstory involving a side character that she forgot about until the very last minute so that she could get back into the good graces of the cast. Now we don't have to spend a good chunk of the show trying to redeem herself and instead, I worry that the show is just going to be a more typical reverse harem. After all, we arguably fixed and resolved the major conflict within this first episode leaving the rest of it as uncharted territory. I know that the show brought up this idea that they need to protect the actual heroine now so that responsibility doesn't fall back onto her but that logic does feel a little bit strained. Maybe the next episode will justify it a bit better.

I think I like the concept of this anime more than the episode we got. While we've seen numerous shows of normal people being reincarnated as villainesses in a game or novel at this point, this is the first time we have a person reincarnated in their own novel—and that's only the start. Even more unique, this book is actually just middle school girl delusions of the author—a girl so sure that she was going to be isekai'd one day, that she designed an entire world to cater to the main heroine (who she, of course, named after herself). Now, a decade later, that now-working woman finds herself in her long-forgotten escapist fantasy—though not as the protagonist, but as the villainess, Iana. Fated to be assassinated in short order at the hands of her own butler, she tries to prove to everyone that she no longer hates the heroine.

There are two additional layers to this setup that make it enjoyable. The first is that Iana feels responsible for everything. While she is not the original villainess, she did make the world, the people in it, and set up all their troubles for the sole reason of middle school self-satisfaction. She can't simply stand by and watch her creations be hurt—especially Konoha, her self-insert, who is designed to be the most kind and loveable person ever.

This in turn leads to the second additional layer—the one that sets up the ongoing plot for the show. By helping the heroes, she clears herself of at least some suspicion but also completely derails the plot. Plenty of more bad things are coming for Konoha but, thanks to Iana's timely rescue, the heroine has missed her opportunity to get her Deus ex Machina powers. Now, it's up to Iana to do what she can with what little she has to keep everyone safe.

But as much as I enjoyed all that, a lot of this episode fell flat to me. The jokes felt obvious and the slapstick was hammed up to the extreme. However, I think it was the pacing that really got me. Everything was a bit too rushed. There was no time for the danger to build at any point in the episode, either for Iana or Konoha. It's simple “dangerous thing happens” and, seconds later, “dangerous thing is resolved.” There's no tension available for either the drama or comedy to play with.

All that said, this is a perfectly watchable show—especially if you like villainess stories. The concept is sound and the characters are enjoyable enough. I'm just left hoping that this first episode was only rushing things to get to the point where the status quo was established and things will slow down a bit going forward.

Oh, this is one I've been excited for. I actually first encountered The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess as a manga review copy early in my tenure here at Anime News Network. I was charmed not by its art, which was generic and bordering on amateurish; not by its story, which is a variation on the oversaturated theme of villainess reincarnation stories; not by its characters, who are largely cardboard cutouts; but for its metanarrative, driven by sharp observations about teen girls' isekai fantasy stories as psychosexual manifestations of their adolescent preoccupations.

The Dark History of the Reincarnated originated as a manga, traditionally published in LaLa magazine, rather than starting out as a web publication. While we can debate the advantages and disadvantages of having editors shape a story, it tends to result in a more polished and clearer narrative with a greater sense of purpose. In middle and high school, Konoha Satou imagined herself as the heroine of a great fantasy epic, but when she grew up, she put all her sketches and story outlines in a box and moved on. That is, until she met Truck-kun. Meanwhile, in the fantasy world she created, fantasy-Konoha's little sister Iana opens a book that is supposed to cause the identity of whoever reads it to collapse, both creating an opening for reality-Konoha's mind to take hold and creating a nifty little explanation for just what happens to the body's original owner after the new personality overtakes it.

After the first episode, I'm not sure how well that element will come through for two reasons. One is that the rapid-fire plotting doesn't allow for the narrative to take a break and explain teenage Konoha's subliminal thought processes behind why she made melodramatic story choices, such as, say, fantasy-Konoha's uncle plotting to rape her. The other issue is that, although Crunchyroll may have adjusted its subtitles to resemble the old style more, large swathes of on-screen text remain untranslated, leaving a significant portion of the story inaccessible to viewers who aren't literate in Japanese.

And that's a shame, because this is a fun adaptation with a lot of surprises. Was I expecting a hip-hop opening? Not even a little bit! The director, Hiroaki Sakurai, has been in the industry for decades and has helmed some of the best-loved anime comedies of all time, including Cromartie High School, Di Gi Charat, and, most importantly, Kodocha. His wild sense of humor almost makes Dark History feel like a throwback in the best way possible, full of the kind of silly sight gags and energy that shoujo adaptations almost never get these days.

I'm not sure if Dark History will retain the things I love best about the manga. Hopefully, having someone with a strong creative voice and a longtime love and understanding of shoujo manga will make sure the anime has its own appeal.