It’s funny how this show is scratching my new game plus itch far more than the series that actually has the words “new game plus” in its title. I only wish Bertia was a little less clueless. In fact, she might be a touch too clueless. Y’see, she’s too brain-rotted by cheap, cliche otome games, so she continues to see her life as a “scenario.” Everything, she thinks, is dictated by said scenario. For example, saving her mother’s life has led to the woman bearing a second child, which doesn’t happen in the original story. This has the unintended consequence of her father not turning evil, which is necessary for the the scenario to play out as it should. Bertia fears that Cecil won’t have his happy ending as a result. So what does the girl do? She tries her best to corrupt her own father. She even gives him a book with pretty pictures and everything — a literal how-to on the finer points of being evil. By the way, how did she manage to print something like that in this universe? Are there people passionate about graphic design in our fantasy setting? But I digress. This part is a little odd to me, though. Bertia was so deathly afraid of her mother dying, but she’s just fine with her father becoming an evil doer who might get punished harshly, i.e. executed? I dunno, man…
The thing is, Bertia wants to be the villainess as required by the scenario, but she doesn’t have a single evil bone in her. She needs to go find someone else to help her be evil. In enters the viscount, who was supposed to corrupt her father had the prince not defeated the epidemic. In fact, this guy is so evil, he’s also a pedo. The anime tries to euphemize his horrific actions as “gentle pats,” but when the prince helps Bertia realizes what really happened, she breaks down in tears. But wait, why is she this clueless? Wasn’t she at least a teenager in her previous life? Shouldn’t she know what said creepy actions were? Did her brain also de-age when she got isekai’d? But that wouldn’t explain all the information she knows about the scenario. I only wish Bertia wasn’t so dense and ditzy at times. And if the prince is aware of the viscount’s predilection for underaged victims, then why hasn’t anything been done about the man? I guess he can’t prove that the viscount is a pedo, but now that Bertia’s father is working for him as a spy, I hope Cecil finds an opportunity to nail the creep to the wall at some later point in the series. If I can’t see pedos get punished for their horrific crimes in real life, can I at least see it in my fiction? This is the only wish fulfillment that I’ll ever ask for.
Anyway, I get that Cecil is the primary protagonist of the story, but to continue the previous line of thought regarding Bertia’s cluelessness, it would also be nice if she had a little more agency. For example, there’s another unintended consequence to her mother bearing a second child: Noches family no longer has a reason to adopt a son from the “lowest branch of the family.” Said adopted son was supposed to become one of Cecil’s most trusted aide. But again, Bertia is brain-rotted by the otome game, so she thinks magical things will happen to course correct the timeline. Basically, she’s been deathly anxious over the possibility that a tragedy might befall her newborn brother. She thinks he has to die so that her family will do what it must and adopt the other kid. But c’mon, if the scenario was actually a real thing — if there was going to be any course correction at all — wouldn’t it have been simpler to just kill off her mother? Or make her have a miscarriage? My point is, nothing has happened to her mother. She’s still living her best life. If the universe is allowing Bertia to keep her mother, why wouldn’t it also allow her to keep her brother? So this scenario thing is nonsense, and yet, Bertia is too clueless to realize it.
After hearing about this brilliant hypothetical aide he was supposed to get, Cecil goes out and looks for the guy himself. He’s not going to pass up on good talent when he has the power to personally recruit the guy. But I look at this and wonder why Bertia couldn’t have done it instead. After all, this Courtgain fellow is supposed to be her distant relative. Why couldn’t she work her influence on her father? He doesn’t have to adopt the kid (and thus trigger some sort of power struggle over who should be the family heir), but he could still at least give Courtgain a leg up and thus attend the academy. Bertia thinks she can make her father evil, but she can’t get a promising relative a spot at their school? I dunno, that just strikes me as odd. Plus, this could’ve been an opportunity to give her a little more agency in the story. Again, I get that Cecil is the primary antagonist. I don’t think Bertia doing this one thing would take the crown away from her fiancé, though. To reiterate, I like the show so far, and I like how Cecil is using all the knowledge he gets from Bertia to make the world a better place. I just think Bertia’s role feels a little too passive at the moment. She’s a font of information, but other than that, she’s also just comic relief.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— What’s with blond princes finding the world boring until a certain amusing girl comes along?
— I’m guessing this is where Cecil actually falls for Bertia. He found her amusing before, but he’s only now realizing the extent of her dedication to him.
— I find it strange that Bertia will spill the beans on everything, but she won’t reveal what tragic fate will befall Cecil should they get a bad ending. What is she so afraid of? Obviously, something really, really bad will happen to Cecil, but why can’t he know about it? Is this just an inorganic attempt to withhold information from the audience?
— Cecil tries to convince Bertia that a reverse harem simply isn’t feasible in the real world, so Bertia has nothing to worry about. But then they start talking about how the heroine might have charm magic, so maybe… We even get to see it in action in the after credits scene. Even then, a reverse harem still shouldn’t work, right? Sure, the heroine might charm the people in her vicinity, but everyone else on the outside looking in should still find it questionable. I dunno, I guess we’ll see later if the charm magic has limitations or not.
— I didn’t realize last week that Zeno was actually just a spirit and not a human man. So how come he looks like one but Bertia’s spirit is just a lazy fox thing draped around her neck all the time? Are we going to see it adopt a human form at some point? And will the same happen with the heroine’s bird?
— Really? The heroine’s name is Heronia? Are we going to meet Badguyio at some later point in time?
