The “lack thereof” in the title above is just an excuse to lump saintess shows into this category.
Though I Am an Inept Villainess Ep. 1
It hasn’t aired yet, unfortunately. Start date isn’t until July 12th. Such a late start…
A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even Ep. 1
See the first impressions post here.
The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World Ep. 1
See the first impressions post here.
The Oblivious Saint Can’t Contain Her Power Ep. 2
We slowly learn the extent of Carolina’s saintess powers, and it turns out maybe she’s always had them. First, just having her around seems to power other people up. A priest can suddenly heal a grievous wound, and her future husband nearly immolates her while casting a fire spell. Whoops. We also get some of the worst fire effects in all of anime. Anyway, the characters are then astonished that they didn’t encounter a single monster on the way back home. Carolina is confused, because she’s never seen a monster in her life. If that’s the case, then the saintess powers must have been protecting her since she was a child. Unfortunately, now that she’s left her old home, what does it mean for the people there? Are they going to be beset by monsters now?
The part that annoys me, however, is that everyone acts as if this is some grand mystery. No one can seemingly put two and two together, and ask themselves, “Gee, what has recently changed? Oh, I know! This girl is now with us!” Ah well, much like how horror movie characters are dumb because they don’t realize they’re in a horror movie, villainess anime characters are also clueless about the genre they’re trapped in.
There is one part of the second episode that I kinda liked. Carolina meets the future in-laws, and they adore her already. She, however, has never known such kindness, so she has no clue how to act around them. She’s so shocked by how they treat her that she starts tearing up. I half-expected her future in-laws to ask her why she’s even crying. Still, it’s always awkward, isn’t it? You grow up with your dirtbag parents and your equally dirtbag siblings, then you go over to a friend’s house and see what normal actually looks like. You can’t help but be mindblown: “Shit, why can’t my family be like this? Why do we have to be such fuck ups?”
Anyway, the second episode ends on a cliffhanger. An assassin tries to take Carolina out. Hmm, what makes her important enough to eliminate, though? Also, it can’t be her sister who is behind this plot, right? Would her sister really go so far as to hire a hitman? Well…
Also, what is with Carolina’s salad? Leafy greens with kiwi, berries and walnut…? That’s an odd combination.
All Works Maid Ep. 2-3
The second episode is all over the place, but we do learn one crucial fact: Ritsuko (remember, this is her past life’s name) met a couple on the plane that crashed, and they were the reason why she reincarnated into this fantasy world. Apparently, they introduced her to an otome game while chatting, and that was all it took. Usually, anime protagonists get isekai’d because they were huge fans of a game they had played in their previous life. Not anymore. These days, you merely have to hear about it. Well, this couple has also reincarnated into this world, and they’re desperately searching for the saint, i.e. Celeste… i.e. Melody. After all, you need the saint to defeat the demon king, dark one, or whatever. Alas, our saint would rather wait hand and foot on some random noble girl.
In the third episode, we learn a little more about how the otome game is supposed to work: heroine enrolls in school, heroine woos one of the capture targets (or lets herself get wooed by them), then heroine defeats “The Dark One” and lives happily ever after. Pretty standard, and standard is often pretty boring. In reality, however, our saintess pawns one of her supposed love interests off onto Liliana while attending the same party with another bishie (awkward). I totally get the impulse to buck trends and go off the beaten path. I don’t really care if our protagonist doesn’t end up with any of the hot guys fated for her. Plus, there’s something kinda funny about the prince being stuck with the villainess/osananajimi because the heroine refuses to do her duty and show up. Said villainess/osananajimi isn’t even into the prince, though. First, these are like realistic childhood friends, because all they do is banter and sometimes even bicker. More importantly, however, the villainess is into… uh, little girls? Yeah, I’m not even going to touch that subject. Let’s just move on. My point is, does Ritsuko/Celeste/Melody (her aliases are getting ridiculous) really have to serve a noble? I still can’t believe that’s her dream in life. Nah, I’ll never give it a rest. Again, there’s nothing wrong with being a maid, but why limit it to serving one person and one person alone? So sure, our heroine is technically the saint in this story, but she might as well be the villain.
By the way, Melody disguises herself for the party by choosing to look like her late mother. Bold choice considering how her father is still out there somewhere, looking for her. In fact, he’s at this exact same party, but she wouldn’t know that; she didn’t even know she was headed for the royal castle in the first place. She then chooses the name “Cecilia” for the night, which is what her father would’ve named her. Sheesh, fine, add it to the list of aliases. First, we have Victoria of Many Faces, now we have Meido of Many Names. In the end, however, her effort was for naught, because Liliana identifies her maid immediately. Sure, but what is there to be mad about? Etiquette? Pffft.
Bit of a short post due to (again) first impressions being done for other shows.