On paper, I should enjoy A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even as a guilty pleasure. The prince betrays his fiancee Elizabeth, slings accusations at her at a party (standard villainess setup), and throws her in prison. The people whom she fought so hard for now believe any salacious rumor they hear, so they’ve betrayed her as well. Meanwhile, daddy dearest is content to let Elizabeth handle the aftermath, because he and the king have more important matters to attend to. As a result, Elizabeth defects to the empire (rival country) and plots her revenge. Okay, the setup is generic, but I do like me a good revenge story. Y’know, as long as it doesn’t involve some the protagonist marrying someone half their age (looking at you, Edmond Dantes). So yeah, I should be able to enjoy this show.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth is just so boring. First, she’s a huge Mary Sue who can do anything. At the ripe age of ten, she supposedly dealt a major blow to the empire when the two nations clashed. Uh-huh. Currently, she runs a corporation, handles all of the prince’s daily affairs, and ensures that the wealth gap between the rich and poor doesn’t grow too large. It’s okay to have one, though. We can have a little wealth gap as a treat! But it goes even further than that. The prince disrespects Elizabeth to her face, and she just lets it slide. For the people, she says! She looks out the window and sees the prince openly cheating on her. Well, it’s okay for the prince to have consorts. She’s more concerned that the girl he’s cheating with isn’t conducting herself with propriety. For the people!!! Even when she’s in jail, Elizabeth works around the clock… again, for the people. I’m sitting here, thinking, “What the fuck is wrong with this lady?”

But this is when her maid steps in and argues that Elizabeth should get mad. And I agree! Our villainess is allowing everyone to walk all over her! My problem, however, is that the flip gets flipped just like that. All this time, she’s been hit with disrespect left and right. And all this time, Elizabeth has remained completely and utterly composed. But her maid gives her a single talk — not even a dramatic “come to Jesus” intervention — and our villainess is just like, “Oh, alright. Let’s get our revenge.” Bruh. One casual conversation reversing a lifetime of martyrdom is ridiculous. Even then, however, Elizabeth continues to feel so placid. No tears, no bitter words spoken through clenched teeth, no veins poppin’, no nothin’. Yeah, she punches a nearby wall and leaves a huge dent. But her countenance barely changes. Her pupils dilate for like a second. If you could somehow hook her personality up to a cardiac monitor, it’d be flatlining as we speak. It’s been flatlining since the start of the episode. I hope Elizabeth gets a little more seasoning in future episodes. Currently, however, she’s bland as hell. It feels like a robot trying to act human.

Hey, maybe someone isekai’d Claude into this anime! Yeah… yeah… I could see it. Maybe Elizabeth can remain so calm because every time someone offends her, Claude is there to gently pushing back on all her emotions. Alright, alright, this is getting off-topic. Next show please.

Sticking with the fantasy setting, I next watched The Insipid Prince’s Furtive Grab for the Throne. The title makes me think that revenge might be involved, but not really. Not yet, perhaps. There is, however, some intrigue. To set the stage, Arnold is the seventh prince, and everyone thinks he’s useless. Everyone thinks his twin brother, the eighth prince, somehow sucked up all of Arnold’s good qualities. I dunno how that works, but we don’t have to worry about it, because it clearly isn’t true. In reality, Arnold is secretly Silver, the strongest adventurer in all the lands. Yeah, he’s just a dude who wants his freedom. He wants to have fun going on adventures, fulfilling quests, and maybe marrying a pretty wife one day. Yup, Arnold has no designs on the throne despite being uber talented. Instead, he works behind the scenes to ensure that his brother Leo eventually becomes emperor.

I’m not completely sold on the premise, but I do appreciate the fact that the action is kept short and simple. Y’see, like most anime protagonists, Arnold is broken as all hell. He wields ancient magic, so he can just zap all of his enemies in a single move. Good, I don’t wanna watch low budget action anyway (I barely wanna watch high budget action). As a result, the majority of the episode mostly consists of characters sitting or standing around, yapping in rooms. Sounds boring, right? Well, I kinda enjoyed the good cop/bad cop routine when Arnold and his butler worked over an influential duke. Basically, Leo needs supporters, so Arnold cooks up a scheme. He’s pretty much acting like an incorrigible member of royalty by demanding an oath of loyalty over a mere slight. Meanwhile, his butler has to be all, “Now, now, I think the duke is telling the truth, so quell your anger…” This isn’t exactly ethical, but Arnold clearly isn’t concerned about his own image. And I dunno, I actually find this somewhat novel. If we can get more of this and less shooty, pew pew ancient magic action, I think I can stomach this show from start to finish.

The part that makes me roll my eyes a bit, however, is near the end of the episode. After wiping out the slimes threatening the duke’s lands, Arnold returns to his private chambers to find the duke’s daughter already in there. Apparently, she’s so pretty, she could launch a thousand ships. More importantly, however, someone has discovered his secret identity. This might be fine if she looks or seems like someone who could go toe-to-toe with Arnold in terms of banter. Maybe she even tries to wrest back some of the advantage he negotiated over her father. But no, the girl seems like someone who will likely worship the ground Arnold/Silver walks on. Ah well, we’ll see how it shakes out. I’m adding this show to the “Everything else” pile.

Let’s wrap this post up with something even more light-hearted and thus stupid. Rin from The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World is in her element when she’s fishing in the great outdoors. Well, I’m the opposite. I’m very much anti-camping and anti-outdoors. No, I do not want to shit in the bushes. I hate bugs. I don’t want to lie down and have ticks crawl all over me. I don’t want to hunt for my own food (fishing is really just a form of hunting). I don’t wanna fend off bears or any other natural predators. But most of all — and this is the crucial one — I don’t want weirdos straight outta Deliverance to make a piggy out of me, ’cause god knows people disappear all the time in the woods. But for others, I suppose that’s part of the excitement — humans taking time off from civilization to play pretend as the hunter-gatherers that they used to be. Even rich city boy Roosevelt was basically larping. Point is, it wouldn’t be any fun if there weren’t any friction. So my only reaction to this anime is… what’s the point?

Y’see, Rin doesn’t just have magical powers. She has everything at her disposal to make camping as breezy as possible. She literally has magic to warn her of nearby dangers. And what’s that thing I always harp on about with isekai anime? Ah, that’s right, I always complain about how nobody ever bemoans the fact that they’re now trapped in a strange, new world — how they never get sad about the possibility that they might never see their friends and family again. At one point, someone asks, “…are you okay, Rin? Being taken to another world out of the blue… I would imagine you’re distraught and miss your homeland.” Fair question! Even the dumb bishie ogre, whom she fished out of the lake just moments ago, has half a mind to ask her such a relevant question! Well, we can hand-wave this concern away too! Rin’s survival magic makes her physically and mentally resilient, so she never gets sad. But that’s… kinda messed up, isn’t it? I mean, it’s sad but in a different way. Imagine losing a kid, but not even shedding a tear thanks to magic. It might seem like I’m using an extreme example, but am I? I mean, she’s never going to see her parents again. In some hypothetical Depression Olympics, I suppose it takes second place to losing a kid, but it’s still pretty damn sad on its own! We are human because we feel. Weirdly, this doesn’t concern anyone. As soon as the bishie ogre gets her answer, he instantly moves on: “I’d kill for something like that!” Yeah, no. For better or worse, I think I’m going to keep my emotions, thank you very much. But I digress.

Rin’s greatest magic of all is her ability to summon forth a magical RV, and the word ‘magical’ is an understatement. Not only does the damn vehicle utilize impossible space so it’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, it also comes with all sorts of modern amenities, the fridge auto-fills itself! It absorbs the ambient mana in the air and magically conjures up more… just more stuff! Even the toilet magically cleans itself. At this point, what’s even the point of camping anymore? What’s even the point of going on a road trip when everything is handed to you on a silver platter? There’s no friction here. You might as well be a princess living the high life in a castle. Is there a word for this? I feel like glamping doesn’t quite capture the ridiculousness of this scenario. Lipstick camping? Nah, that’s a little too weird. Point is… well, again, what’s the point? Rin has been magically lobotomized to never feel sad again, and her reward is a hollow isekai life disguised as a roadtrip.