The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess

Episode 4

The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess has never had particularly impressive animation, but it never really mattered all that much before. Decades of directing gag comedies has given Hiroaki Sakurai the ability to do a little with a lot and not just fight against limited animation but to find a way to make it work for him. He brought those skills over from productions like Di Gi Charat and Cromartie High School, so even though Dark History's animation was weak, it was funny and got the message across.

But that doesn't work quite as well when the episode is supposed to be centered around a duel. For that, you need some degree of animation budget, or at least an animation team that knows how to do a lot with a little to make it feel like you're watching a decent fight sequence. Unfortunately, that's not what we're working with here.

But first, let's talk about how we got to a duel. Despite Iana's attempts to dissuade him, Yomi is still determined to assassinate Konoha in her name, along with anyone who gets in the way of that goal. Namely, Sol and Ginoford. He attempts to take the trio of perceived enemies out a number of ways, including a sudden magical gale, poison, and summoning a man-eating flower, until he gets tired of being thwarted and challenges Sol to a duel.

Throughout all of this, Iana is plagued with a sense of guilt. Sol is twisted because of the backstory she gave him. She was the one who made his older siblings abuse him. She is the one who made him so devotedly in love with her that he would kill for her sake. And, in her original draft, she is the one who made him die a dramatic death so Konoha would have someone to beautifully mourn. And she did it all to satisfy her own emotional needs! She did it because she was mad that some boy at her middle school took the work from a pretty girl and shoved it off on her, and she wanted to be treated like the heroine of a love story.

As much as I delight in the adolescent sublimations of everything that frustrates her in her life, I am getting a bit tired of Iana's sense of guilt over it. Not just that she created all these problems, that it never once occurred to her that there was a world where these characters were real and suffering through all the problems she was putting them through. I wouldn't be so irritated about it, except that I've encountered people in real life who seem to think that authors building plots around conflict and drama are doing it out of meanness and not, you know, trying to tell an interesting story. Or that it's unkind to use fiction to work through, say, disappointment at not being asked to dance at the school festival, when in fact it may be the healthiest outlet. We can talk all day about whether or not fiction imparts morals and values and reinforces certain narratives, but a teenage girl writing self-indulgent fiction is never wrong.

Besides, when Iana describes Yomi as having a “great personality,” it made me seriously question her taste in men. Great social status? Undeniable. Great looks? Subjective, but I certainly wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers. Great personality, though? His refusal to listen to Iana's protestations that she really, truly doesn't want him to murder Konoha seems disqualifying to me.

After several failed assassination attempts, Yomi challenges Sol to a duel. Iana describes the duels she included as “doing nothing to advance the plot,” but she sure came up with a formalized system for them! It's absolutely the kind of hokey thing you find in low-rent fantasy: Yomi takes off his glove and throws it down. Sol picks it up, accepting his challenge because to ignore it would be “turning [his] back on the god of battle.” Iana's feelings of guilt may be annoying, but her shrieking embarrassment at hearing her cringey, overwrought world-building described out loud? That's real. 

Caitlin Moore has been a fan of shoujo isekai since she borrowed a VHS of Fushigi Yugi from her friend in seventh grade. She also writes and edits for Anime Feminist and is trying to spend less time rambling on her Bluesky.

The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.