The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess

Episode 12

While this series had its big action climax back in episode nine, the emotional climax of the series is a much shorter fight with lower stakes objectively. Anis doesn't want to be a puppet queen forced to give up all that makes her the person she is, but her guilt makes her feel she has to. Even more so, she refuses to let Euphie sacrifice her humanity to take the throne in her place. She's already lost her brother due to how irresponsibly she handled the kingdom's looming succession crisis and can't lose Euphie for the same reason.

There's also a second layer to Anis' mindset—one that only became clear to her when Euphie announced her intention to take the crown. Anis is suffering from a severe case of existential impostor syndrome. At the moment Anis received her memories of her past life, they completely overpowered the memories and personality of the child princess. This makes her feel like she killed the girl she was supposed to be, that she stole an innocent child's family and future yet ignored all the responsibilities that came with it. This carries with it a ton of additional guilt, which is made worse by the fact that she truly loves her family. She'd give up everything to stay her parents' daughter, even live the hellish life that would await her as queen.

But here's the thing about this fight: Anis never had a chance. Anis is in a horrible emotional state with little experience using the dragon powers in combat. Meanwhile, Euphie is more driven and focused than she has ever been, with a literal decade spent refining her massive magical talents. And as the battle goes on, one thing becomes clear: Euphie never intended to give Anis a choice in the matter. She was going to force Anis to relinquish her claim to the throne regardless of how the duel turned out. That's why Euphie becomes a spirit contractor midway through the battle—not just for the additional power it grants her but to deliver a critical emotional blow—to show Anis that she has already failed to stop her from dooming herself to losing her humanity over the course of an immortal life.

This is doubly effective because, in doing so, Euphie has become a magical girl right out of the stories that inspired Anis so deeply. As Anis herself has said, magical girls use their magic to protect the smiles of others—even at the risk of their own lives. They are an unstoppable force of empathy and love. And with Euphie's final attack, Anis gives up. Even she can't beat her own dream made real, nor would she ever want to.

And so we get our bittersweet ending. Over the years to come, Euphie will become less and less human. But in the time before that happens, she has the chance to live a life beyond any she could have ever imagined just months before. As queen, Euphie has the power to protect Anis, allowing her to create magical inventions and spread them to the masses. By the traditions of the kingdom, magic power gives one the divine right to rule. And as she is the most powerful magic user in existence—one directly contracted with the spirits themselves—if the nobles were to reject her leadership, they would be undermining their own right to power in the eyes of both the people and other nobles.

More than that, the mixture of a ticking clock and a clear sense of purpose has given Euphie the clarity needed to go after the things she wants—namely Anis. It's a great role reversal to see Euphie so actively pursue Anis romantically, especially when it becomes obvious that Anis, despite being out of the closet from a young age, never expected to actually find another woman willing to be in a relationship with her. Having a woman she is highly attracted to put the moves on her constantly is new territory for Anis and she is completely unsure how to act. It's cute, endearing, and pretty much the happiest ending we could have hoped for.

All in all, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady is an excellent piece of genre fiction. It takes the typical otome villainess story as a base and explores the implications and consequences—as well as the hidden motivations that could cause such a story to come to be. At the same time, it plays with the idea of what it would be like if a magical girl was reincarnated in a fantasy world. Both stories build on and complement each other to create an amazing anime that is far more than the sum of its parts.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• It's not flying that makes Anis happy at the end. It's seeing the smiling faces of the children around her—children being inspired by the image of a magical girl just like she had been in her past life.

• I still kind of hate Anis' parents. Getting to retire and farm like they always wanted seems like too good of a reward considering how their bad parenting is the root cause of many of the series' tragic events.

• I feel like a lot of Tilty's story must have been left on the cutting room floor. I really want to learn more about her past, motivations, and ultimate goals. Still, she seems very happy to witness the birth of a new age.

• Thanks for watching along with me this season. While I was excited for this series from the start, it turned out far better than I ever expected and it was a treat to read everyone's thoughts in the comments each week.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.

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