When we last left off, Cheneau had told Iana to run away and look for help, but she steadfastly refused. She believed that if she left, he would most certainly die at Amaryllis’s hand. So instead, right at the start of this week’s episode, our heroine/villainess strikes a pose and embraces her identity as Iana Magnolia. The animators probably intend for this scene to be comedic — and I know Iana is just bluffing — but I’m still cringing. It’s just that she doesn’t really have a plan to get out of this mess. Rather, she just thinks she could tap into her inner chuunibyo and scare Amaryllis into backing off. Well, luckily for her, the cops soon arrive thanks to ideal Konoha awakening to some of her saintly powers.
In the aftermath, the masses are still scared of Iana, which is understandable. They don’t interact with her on a daily basis. All they know is past Iana’s history of abominable crimes. On the other hand, Ginoford and Konoha trust her despite how shady she’s been at this party, so I guess you can call that progress. Unfortunately, Sol gives Iana a withering look that penetrates her defenses. The real Konoha inside her then remembers how her younger self had characterized Sol to be exactly like this with everyone he doesn’t love. Like I’ve said from the start, for this show to avoid being yet another generic “I was reborn as the villainess of my favorite game/light novel/whatever,” then real Konoha needs to use her unique position as the story’s author to be a little meta, a little reflective. But does this moment count? She’s just kinda explaining Sol’s personality as a fact of the matter. Why was he written to be this way? Because that’s what her younger self desired. But how does she feel about him now? Does she still think boys like him are cool? Or does she think differently these days? Y’know, deconstruct your story and re-evaluate it! This is what your kid self desired, but what do you now desire as an adult? Would you want to be married to someone who acts like Sol? Do you think it’s healthy for man to be so cold to everyone but the one person he loves? Unfortunately, real Konoha never takes that extra step. She always stops short of actually analyzing her writing. Instead, she just goes, “OMG, he’s going to kill me!” And you might think, You seem to want real Konoha to lean towards a certain conclusion about her beloved characters. But not really. If she wants to put her foot down and declare, “Nope, I’m still down bad for men like Sol even as an adult,” then that would be fine too. Real Konoha embracing her childish writing with all its foibles would at least be interesting to see. My point is, I don’t want her to just explain her characters. I want her to take a stand on them, whether she still loves them or not.
In the aftermath, Amaryllis tries to poison herself, but Iana literally tackles the woman to the ground to prevent this from happening. When Amaryllis’s brainwashed slaves retaliate, Sol knocks them out. He then gives Iana the sweet talk that was originally intended for Konoha. I mean, he’s gotta be the guy she ends up with, right? This show might be a reverse harem of sorts, but whenever the author — the actual author and not real Konoha — calls it quits, the last man standing has to be Sol. But moving along, Menoa testifies in Iana’s favor, but she also immediately fucks off without much of a goodbye. This is disappointing, because I would like to see Iana interact with people other than her bishie harem and her sister. Basically, I would like to see her make actual friends. If you read my posts on other shows, this is something I harp on a lot. I want these main characters to form organic relationships with their own peers and not constantly hide within their self-made bubble. Alas…
The second half of the episode mostly deals with Iana’s reflexive need to constantly clear her name. Again, she keeps thinking that Sol’ll kill her. She keeps thinking that she wrote him to be a certain way, and as a result, he can’t disobey his initial programming. Well, we’ve been at this for over two months’ worth of episodes. It’s starting to get tiring, especially since it’s easy for us to see how wrong she is. Yes, Sol’s mad, but he’s obviously mad because she never asks for help. From his perspective, she keeps running off to do things on her own with nary an explanation. How much longer do we have to do this, “Haha, there’s no way he would actually be worried about me… unless… nah, it can’t be! The Sol I know would never say sweet words to me… unless…” It’s just so repetitive and overdone by this point. Move on! Come up with a new subplot already!
But we’re stuck on this path for now. As a result, when everyone initially assumed that someone had broken into ideal Konoha’s room and stolen something, Iana doesn’t hesitate to once again run off to catch the thief. After all, despite everything we’ve seen up to this point, the servants jump to the conclusion that Iana is up to no good. Seriously, just fire them. Whether or not they’re justified to feel this way about her, there’s just too much baggage and thus toxicity at this point to keep employing them in this household. Nevertheless, as Iana goes on her mad pursuit, she thinks about how people perceived the real her, and how this eventually led to her creating her idealized self. Basically, real Konoha is trying to explain to us why she has to be so defensive all the time. And it all comes full circle back to Sol. He proceeds to give her a scolding for never relying on him, but again, Iana brushes it off. She always goes back to that stupid calculus in her head. I’m sick of it. Nine episodes in, and we’re still annoying doing the same thing we did in the first episode.
Well, the culprit ends up being a monkey-like monster that can shoot freakin’ laser beams out of its mouth. It wasn’t a thief, though. Rather, the “stolen” item was actually an egg that had hatched. To put it simply, someone is trying to assassinate Konoha. We learn later that Amaryllis had somehow died of a poisoning despite being in the custody of the police. Right before the credits roll, a shadowy figure takes credit for her death as well as the assassination attempt on Konoha. I guess this sets us up for the next major arc, which will likely wrap up the first season of The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess. I can’t say I’ve been happy with the show thus far. It has been rather disappointing. The way I see it, if Iana still doesn’t believe that Sol genuinely worries about her well-being by the end of the final episode, then this season has been a failure.
Stray thoughts & observations:
- That’s a weird way to put it.
- Ugh, this bastard is still around. This is why I hate harems. It feels like the character’s cheating without actually cheating, y’know? Like I said up top, it feels like Iana is destined to end up with Sol when this is all said and done. But along the way, she’s going to have these flirty moments with everyone else, and it’s like having your cake and eating it too. I’m not a fan.
- The shadowy figure laments that “they dealt with [the monster egg] so easily.” Bro, your precious monster jumped out the window before its target even arrived. What kind of assassination attempt is that?
