From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!

Episode 12

Finally, the day of the promised cross-dressing Student Council Campus Festival Play is upon us! Grace remains understandably anxious about her inability to “speak commoner,” as Kenzaburo's innate skill “Elegance Cheat” translates everything he tries to get Grace to say into verbose, upper class “noble speak.” That's a problem when Grace is supposed to play a dual role of Prince and Peasant. At least fairy-Lucas' ad-libbing covers for her, and the play proceeds without too much trauma for Grace (though it turns out Grace's mother Jacqueline had a hand in this...) Kenzaburo's constant musing over Jacqueline's purpose in writing the play does make him fluff his lines; I can empathize, I'd likely be terrible on stage too.

Grace and Jacqueline never get to interact, for reasons that, superficially, seem very odd. Let's break it down a little. Jacqueline Auvergne has long been the most mysterious aspect of Bureaucrat to Villainess. Her existence has been mentioned multiple times during the series, but she only appears in this final episode, and most of the time, her face is covered. She wrote the play performed by the Student Council thirty years previously, but every role seems tailor-made for each of the current actors. Then there's the content of the play itself, which seems too much like a meta-narrative commentary on the central premise of Bureaucrat to Villainess to be merely coincidental. In the play, a noble and a peasant swap bodies and minds, and pretend to be one another. Sounds quite similar to Grace and Kenzaburo, no?

Unfortunately for Grace, her mind is probably trapped in Kenzaburo's comatose body, hence her appearance inside a cage in the opener, and in a previous episode's dream sequence. We're led to believe that Jacqueline knows what's going on with her daughter. Then, there's a weird scene with Grace's father and Anna's mother, where they seem to recognize each other, and Anna's mother seems to indicate they're keeping some kind of secret. Add in the reveal at the end that Jacqueline has some kind of sparkly fairy familiar. Is the reason she ran away from meeting Grace that the fairy's magic is like Lucas' character's in the play, in that it will be reversed by familial love?

If that's the case, then Jacqueline coming into close contact with Grace might send Kenzaburo back to his body, or… and this is a bit wilder… could Grace's mother and Anna's mother also have switched places at some point in the past? That could explain Anna's mother's familiarity with noble customs, and why she knows Grace's father. Sadly, all of this is subtext, and none of these mysteries are explored in any great depth.

As I'd previously expressed, my concerns that the season would wrap up without any narrative resolution were well-founded. We don't learn much about why Kenzaburo was summoned to this game world, nor does Jacqueline's role in this all become much clearer. At least Kenzaburo does his best to set the plot back on track by hiding from Anna during the festival's closing firework display. As he's correctly intuited, Anna has imprinted most on Grace, when she's “supposed” to be following a male character's romance route. Despite a desperate search for Grace, Anna ends up watching the fireworks with all of the male characters. Of course this situation doesn't go at all to plan for Kenzaburo, as they all end up raising affection points for Grace and her multicolored fireworks display. It's another variant of the same recurring joke, but it's still funny.

As of writing, no announcement for a second season has been forthcoming, which is a shame. Bureaucrat to Villainess has been one of the better “villainess isekai” shows (and I've enjoyed most of them), with a fairly unique premise, a wholesome vibe, very consistent quality, and a genuinely funny sense of humor. I'm unsure if the premise can stretch to fill a second season without losing its luster, at least not without further expanding its premise. Unfortunately, I don't believe there's an official English translation for the source manga. I'd really like to know if Kenzaburo ever gets home!

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