THOUGH I AM AN INEPT VILLAINESS

DESCRIPTION

CAST

Episodes are being prepared. Check back soon.

MANGA ComedyThough I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court
NOVEL ComedyThough I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court
ANIME DramaFutsutsuka na Akujo de wa Gozaimasu ga: Suuguu Chouso Torikae Den Part 2

REVIEWS

• 

  Rastrelly

  90/100
  One of the best "feel-good" stories. Not perfect, but great for what it goes for.

  As it goes, I went in to watch an anime titled “Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court”; I am in an opinion this is enough of an indication of my mental health. When I’ll watch “I got hit in the head by an airborne moose and became a tridimensional entity” call the national guard.

  Spoiler warning for adaptation discussion!

  Now, really, the only reason I even touched this anime was a constant stream of comparisons it gets to Apothecary Diaries, which is my current obsession and one of the reasons of my complete dysfunctionality.

  Okay, let’s set the cards straight so that I’d never need to touch the Apothecary Diaries subject in the rest of this text. This is not an AD substitute. Not near, not close, not adjacent. There are two key similarities: “Chinese” setting and a gremlin of a protagonist who is a the best girl. That’s it.

  I’d say, IV and AD are almost opposites to each other. Where AD is standing on the ground very firm, building up its intellectual side with historical parallels, scientific accuracy, sometimes absurdly nuanced layers of foreshadowing, and only then adds on top an ensemble of characters and their emotional baggage, IV is primarily a purely emotional experience. Neither is it as ambitious as AD is, nor is it as layered, and, objectively, its level of execution quality is plain lower. Apothecary Diaries is a better crafted work by a mile, for a variety of reasons which are far out of scope of this review. Scoff at me all you want if you disagree. Now we are closing the AD part to never return to it.

  All said does not nullify my enjoyment of this anime, after all, nor should what I said before be considered as a dunk towards IV, because I really, really, really like what IV does.

  If I’d be asked what genre the Inept Villainess belongs to, I’d say “good person porn”. This “genre” is not something new, I read stories like this from the 70-es. But it’s a tough cookie to make in a proper way. Whomever writes a story jumping off the goody-two-shoes protagonist needs to tightly balance it, so that the goodness was not too shallow, not too much, and that it had a proper vector of application.

  This anime (as well as the light novels it’s based on) does not possess the characters too complex, or a plot to break a brain untangling, which is actually a good thing. It’s also not some kind of a “court melodrama”, even if it has some elements of it. The key reason to watch IV is to observe the grossly incandescent (c) power of the protagonist, Reirin, being so overwhelmingly a good person, the laws of reality itself bend, break and get inhumanely abused. No need to ask questions, no need to dig too deep into worldbuilding or factions, or whatever (to the author’s credit – the system of local factions is there, it works, and gets significant development further down the line).

  We focus on one person: our heroine, Reirin. Reirin’s never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Though she might make you cry, being a polite girl, she’ll definitely say goodbye, and there are clearly documented cases of her telling a lie or, potentially, hurting you.

  Honestly, I’ll perform a sacrilege, and say that actually what this anime reminded me of was…… Columbo. Lieutenant, in my very personal theory, is not a cop, and of course he has no wife. He’s a manifestation of an ancient, forgotten deity of ironic vengeance, or, maybe, a side gig for the King in Yellow. You don’t watch Columbo for some complex, ultra realistic plot resolution. What the series runs on is the vibe. You want to feel the catharsis of a convoluted murder plot by (usually) a rich arsehole be brutally violated through the power of nagging via a scruffy everyman who has some iron principles underneath an entertaining façade of feigned incompetence.

  Same with IV. If you do watch it – is to get a dose of pure sugar injected directly into your veins, with added bonuses of honey, syrup and candy. It’s a story that is, by its sense, meaning and definition, absolutely saccharine.

  Again, I’m not implying it to be bad for that. What I am trying to emphasize – attempts to watch this through cynical, purely intellectual lens will make you feel deep pain, cringe and suffering.

  Nononono, you put this on to enjoy someone on screen being unbelievably, enormously, unhingedly good. Forgive your enemies, forgive your offenders, forgive insults, injustice, pain. Be able to demonstrate empathy to all and everyone, to make an enemy into a friend, and to demonstrate true beauty of spirit through the ugliest circumstances. Find positives in the negatives. Rip to shreds those who dared to look funny at your subordinates.

  So, it is, in theory, and in potential perception, an absolute mary sue narrative.

  But, and this is a pretty large, solid, round, one might even say plum but, the thing with mary sue is that it is, like many other tropes, a very subjective identifier when approaching margins. There are obvious cases, when a character is a clear self-insert breaking the story in half, and then there are cases when it starts depending on the angle at which you inspect it. Mary sue, if I need to remind you, is a character, who is unrealistically successful in an environment despite the stated logic of the environment to the detriment of the narrative. Keyword – “detriment”. However, if a narrative is, in its entirety, built around this exact concept, a mary sue archetype stops being that, as it stops being detrimental.

  Now, it’s a rather tough task to write a good feel-good protagonist and avoid a mary sue trap. IV, in my humble opinion, does that by going all in and never letting the steam pressure drop. Reirin is not just good, she’s a friggin’ angel, no, she taught friggin’ angels what kindness is. The unreasonability of how good of a person Reirin is goes far beyond any normality, she’s absolutely, definitely insane, which is the point of all the story. If this girl were sent to hell, three days later a visitor’d find imps tidying the place up so that their beloved butterfly weren’t seeing no dirt, no sir.

  The narrative does some solid grounding, of course. Reirin, being a frail and sickly girl, needed rigorous training, enormous self-control and BALLS OF STEEL (c) to function and, in her family of earthbenders Earth Element worshipping clan, this is the minimal expectation of her. So, to combat her illnesses, she was taught various skills, from embroidery to archery, including dancing, physical training and so on. Plus, she herself is a workaholic of the highest degree.

  Now, as the inciting incident, Keigetsu, a girl suffering from crazy inferiority complex, swaps bodies with Reirin in such a way that Reirin, trapped in her body, is considered an attempted murderer. Plus, she’s enchanted so that it was impossible for her to tell anyone of her predicament.

  Ironic punishment Keigetsu receives is also a fun watch. Finding out that the person whose status and effortless popularity you envied so much, that you decided to murder her and take over her life, lived in constant pain and held only on BALLS OF STEEL (c) to the point that she actually was able to feign being just frail instead of literally falling apart - what a news for someone clearly lacking that backbone the Empress expects of her clan.

  So now Reirin gets a healthy body to exploit her limitless hyperactivity, and Keigetsu is to get busy learning how to breathe. Shenanigans follow, add evil conspiracies for seasoning.

  The main enjoyment of watching this series – observing how Reirin works from the absolute bottom, winning people over one by one, using her BALLS OF STEEL (c), magnetic personality and skillset, developed by years of fighting her own body, completely overriding whole systems built to manipulate, abuse and hurt. The lady-in-waiting who despises her for years of abuse, the entirety of Shu can palace, rear palace eunuchs, other maidens and consort – everyone hates Keigetsu for one reason or another, and Reirin now has to win over each and every one of them. Well, I’d say there are four major win-overs to do, three for Reirin and one – against Reirin, plus some collateral. Luckily, this does not get formulaic. Each obstacle is set up reasonably well, and they flow one into the other.

  Of course, not everything is so simple. Reirin has a double bottom – her willingness to self-sacrifice can get dangerous to herself and the others; as well as Keigetsu’s breakdown leading to the body swap is built on her character and personal story, not just “because bad”. After all, since the episode one Keigetsu is the obvious final boss for Reirin’s charm, and she cannot be just a bad meanie who then suddenly turns all nice and cozy (and, thank gods, she does not turn nice and cozy at all, yet again, kudos to the author for keeping her characters psychological integrity close to heart). Stories like this just cannot work on complete cardboard cutouts – it’s impossible to adore over thin pieces of layered paper, and it’s equally hard to hate them. Plus, there ARE proper stakes in the story, and some of the side characters are not just NPCs for Reirin to proc her “Persuade” skill on.

  And what’s also important to mention – the story is not falling into the “oblivious protagonist” trap, quite a common obstacle for stories like this. Reirin is not Inspector Gadget. When someone starts harassing her, for example, to, of course, a comedic effect of all forms of harassment being completely ineffective, Reirin fully understands she’s being harassed. She just manages to both not care about the fact and be resourceful enough to actually get several benefits from her behaviour towards the harasser. Reirin is not a fool, quite the opposite – she’s a smart girl who can make things go her way, and this ability is supported by… Yes, of course – BALLS OF STEEL (c), what else? One of the things making Reiring properly endearing to follow is her often being the smartest person in the room despite also being the most idealistic one, and, at the same time, she does make mistakes, and she is able to see them and learn from them. This gets an official seal of approval from yours truly.

  Anyway – WHAT DO YOU MEAN -- ANYWAY??? – in the end of things this is not some kind of a masterpiece of literature or animation. But it is not just some shallow chewing gum to waste time on. If this thing hits you specifically with how it works – it’s a masterwork of making you warm and happy. If it doesn’t though, don’t even bother.

  The character roster taking active part in this story at this point is rather small overall. We have Reirin and Keigetsu, obviously, we have Leelee, Keigetsu’s lady in waiting, who was the main recipient of Keigetsu’s abuse, not to mention her baggage of other grudges; the prince, who is a proud man of proudness, but also deeply worried, and kind, but can be rash at times, but has so strong morality, despite the passion to break them for the one he loves!!!! [heart emoji here in multitude], his half-brother, the captain of Eagle Eye guards, a mostly eunuch squad keeping security tight at the palace, who is a manly man with just a glimpse of emotionality, who is torn between his royal lineage, duty, and suppressed blooming love towards the [redacted]!!!!!!! [heart emoji here in multitude] and his eunuch aide Bunketsu, who’s there for comedic relief, mostly, and then there’s the Empress, who’s strict but fair, consort Shu Gabi, who is the Empress’ closest friend, and we have Reirin and Keigetsu’s colleague in Maiden status – Kin Seika, a deeply artistic nature bored with mediocrity, and Tousetsu, Reirin’s senior court lady, who deifies her beloved butterfly to no end. The rest of the cast exists mostly to tease the possibility of their importance in further seasons/novels.
  I hope the point is clear – majority of the current roster is quite archetypical and doesn’t have much to show in terms of characterization beyond bouncing well with the main duo. Except for Leelee, they are, mostly, rather one-note, at least in this section of the story. Yet, at this point, they need not to be much beyond that. We get some development for most of those people further down the line, but we’re far off from getting there yet in the anime.

  Again, I saw a bunch of eager defenses of complexity and deepness of the cast of the light novel series and anime. After going into the narrative of the further material I can reiterate that it does go deeper further down the line, and the key players do progress in interesting directions, stakes do go higher and, luckily, the story avoids most of pitfalls I was afraid to see. That, however, is in the future, sometimes far in the future, and what we have in the first season is what there is, and I say it’s more than enough.

  I’ll reiterate and underscore for the third time – this is not Crime and Punishment or War and Peace, neither is this Dune or Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. What this specific season of this specific anime is - it’s a concentrated dose of good person making people around her better people, created in such a way that it does not feel unearned or cringe even to a cynical piece of human rot like your humble servant. And I value this far more than clan wars, factions and counteragents, moral relativity or other self-serving embroidery.
  Now, this is an adaptation of a text. So, we need to look at this anime as such as well, aren’t we? I must say, overall this is a faithful product. Majority of the light novel scenes (which is – volumes 1 and 2 of the original) successfully got from page to screen. Alas, some compression was unavoidable in 11-episode format. Honestly, the anime version would only win if we’d get one more episode to flesh out some scenes, to let them breathe a bit. A few scenes got cut, while maintaining their informational content, others clearly lost their bite. Alas, it’s impossible to properly work through without clear spoilers – so…

  Spoilers start here

  Now, there are three scenes I’d highlight as actually damaged by adaptational cuts.

  First is the moment of Tousetsu’s (that’s Reirin’s chief lady-in-waiting) discovery of the bodyswap. She does put the knife to Keigetsu-in-Reirin’s throat, yes, but the LN version of this scene goes further: it’s Tousetsu who remains in control, even though Keigetsu manages to shake her with her mockery of court lady’s inability to see the truth for over a week. Not only is Keigetsu threatened with a knife, Tousetsu on the blue eye promises to torture her in such a way that lady Reirin’s body completely recovers by swap’s reversal, including dislocating her fingers and spending time in a pit with insects. Kinda stronger inter character moment here, and Keigetsu’s panic during the following flame call makes much more sense.

  Second happens not long before. When Shin-u, the Eagle Eyes Captain, brings Reirin-in-Keigetsu an ointment for her wounds, he goes far further than innocently answering a few of her questions. He pushes himself on the girl, getting close to getting violent in his inquisitiveness. Again, these are the “seeds” of some further, darker developments, that are not there in the adaptation.

  Third is the overall presentation of the chain of events when Reirin-in-Keigetsu sneaks into the Golden Quilin Palace. The novel shows her organizational and leadership skills – she breaks into the empress’ chambers like in the anime, but she shoots out her series of orders right then and there, making a big impression on the court ladies and maids (with some help from Tousetsu, of course).

  The anime still does great job, and author’s cheering of her achievement in getting the anime for her novels in Volume 8 afterword is completely deserved. Big thumbs up for Nakamura-sama.

  Spoliers end here

  Finally, on non-spoilery side, the anime makes it kinda hard to parse the lore side of things. I, for one, could not even wrap my head around what the maidens were supposed to do until digging through the novels. Though it was quite simple – it’s the setting of reformed Chinese court. The traditional imperial harem of the rear palace was restructured to a rigid five-clan model after a historical crisis, and now five core clans, representing the Eastern elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Metal and Wood) assign a maiden as future consorts to the future emperor (crown prince). One of them becomes the Empress when the prince takes the throne, the others take the four traditional High Consort positions, maintain their clan’s influence on the crown. Again, if the series had more time to slow down a bit, this info could be safely delivered while not turning into an exposition dump.

  Now, as per tradition to address some boring stuff.

  On technical level – the anime is very competent. Characters rarely go off-model, there are some very nicely done sequences (like Reirin’s dance, camera movement in the scene in the dungeon, Keigetsu’s nightmare etc), even on the verge of sakuga at times; decorations and character designs are bright and nice to look at. Alas, at the same time, it’s all, overall, sadly, typical and not too memorable, lacking some kind of unique touch. It does its job, but that’s it. I’d say one image in the entire anime that actually cuts into memory is Reirin-possessed-Keigetsu. She gets very striking visage with bright gold eyes in red-and-black framing.
  Voice acting is well done. Reirin sounds fluffy, flowery and huggable, Keigetsu emits appropriately evil screeching until [redacted], Leelee’s VA does some great character acting and plays off a wide set of moods and emotional states, and… Er… Um… There are other characters as well. In any case, I had zero issues with how this anime sounded. Music was appropriate, voices were cast well.

  Tallying everything up: the first (and hopefully not the last) season of Inept Villainess is a great way to enjoy someone being uncontrollably good. It’s not a first story to do this, not the last, and I absolutely do not regret watching this. Our life nowadays is lacking Reirin’s unhinged positivity.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  MetaThPr4h

  95/100
  Wonderful work with a fantastic story, interesting and unusual setting, and a protagonist worth watching it by herself.

  I love Reirin so much I'm legally forced to make a review for this anime like 6 years after my last one.

  Yes, I'm starting this review by just throwing a gigantic shill at the protagonist, her personality, so kind, caring, earnest, and more than anything full of sheer willpower has absolutely melted my heart week after week and I love how absolutely not forced or fake it feels, she is simply that wonderful of a person and deserves all the love, care and support in the world.

  When I started this anime I wasn't expecting a new character in my top 10 favorites, but more and more after each episode I knew I was following the story of a very special person I have come to absolutely adore. This anime is 100% worth watching for her alone, seriously, don't let yourself miss on the joy of seeing Reirin being Reirin.

  The setting of this story involves body swapping, a very rare plot theme that I struggle to think other examples of, and it was executed in a very nice way. I love how for borderline every other person, having all she had stolen and being in the place of someone people despise without being able to explain it has happened due to the effects of the spell used to swap the bodies would be a catastrophic nightmare that would break them... but for Reirin is genuinely something that she is treasuring every second of.

  Her crippling physical frailty was genuinely the one and only thing holding her back, and despite that she was constantly learning and pushing her limits in a crazy admirable way to continue doing all she could the best she could... and now that she is in a healthy body, silly things to us like smelling oil and not making her feel horribly faint have become magical moments she is enjoying every second of.

  Seeing her rejoicing at things meant to be punishments to the person her new body belongs to is both hilarious and incredibly endearing, and the same can be said about the way people react to this brutal swing in personality, her preciousness is simply impossible to resist!

  Leaving dear, precious, lovely and outstanding Reirin aside for a second, I also really enjoyed the side characters as well! Leelee in special is simply awesome. As Keigetsu's court lady she had to deal a lot with her nasty personality, and alongside other struggles I will leave for you to see she had it very rough, the interactions with Reirin in Keigetsu's body (took me long to mention her again lmao) are worth watching this anime by themselves.

  Keigetsu herself is also obviously a super important character, and I came to absolutely adore her interactions with Reirin as we understand more and more her own story, the main cast is seriously fascinating and I need 10 more seasons of them interacting.

  Now judging the work quality a bit, the story delivered in the body swap setting and the effects of it on the characters, and I'm extremely satisfied with what it wanted to tell. I'm so happy to say that at the time of the review we already have a sequel announced, but even if it hadn't happened you can watch this season as a self contained story and you would leave very satisfied with a proper conclusion to it.

  The visuals are also very solid. This anime looks very pretty and if a scene requires nice animation it lives up to the need with super lovely visuals. It's not a sakuga festival mind blower on this regard at all, but it doesn't need to either and Doga Kobo did a great job, one would need to be a true hater to actually complain about this.

  I cannot recommend this anime enough, the protagonist alone makes this anime at least a must try because you're doing yourself a disservice by skipping the chance to meet her, but everything else also delivered too! First episode already surpassed all my expectations, and every one after that only did but widen the gap I had from watching the trailer and thinking I was about to start a perfectly fine but ultimately forgettable show I would struggle to remember what happened 1 year later. This show is anything but that, positively.

  Do yourself a favor and check if both Reirin and the anime have a precious spot in your heart too.

  I LOVE REIRIN

  Continue on AniList
• 

  Misoony

  93/100
  The Not So Inept Villainess Anime

  Villainess anime, one of my favorite genres to watch, not because they're particularly unique or anything of that regard. But simply, because I like them. So you can probably guess how much I end up liking a villainess anime that is actually unique...hint...it's quite a lot! Inept Villainess stands out to me for many reasons: there's a strong female lead, a strong female antagonist, a mystery, and also a bit of slice-of-life, sort of all tied together, and I really, really like it. There are moments I can enjoy just watching Reirin live her new life and how much joy that brings her, and other times I'm really intrigued by the mystery of the story adn what's to happen next. __Characters__ I kind of what to focus on the two main characters the most in my review because those are the two I really enjoy the most and what I like the most about the story. __ Reirin__ Overall, I just really love Reirin as a person. She's kindhearted, determined and strong. Just the amount of joy she has for her new life is in a way, just nice to watch and I really enjoy that about her. I also just like watching how kind she is to everyone around her in general. I also have to mention how much I've enjoyed scenes such as when she dances or shoots the bow and arrow. She's a compelling female lead. My only critique is she can be a bit of a Mary Sue, but she's so likable that it doesn't even really bother me. __Keigetsu__ At first I really didn't like her, and I still don't like her all that much as a person but I really like her as a character. She's done many awful things, but I like how we see what made her the person she is. The story is very open about how her choices were wrong, it doesn't excuse what she's done, but she's also not just written off as some villain. She feels genuine emotion, especially when she starts interacting with Reirin more and over time, that makes the viewer, at least me, begin to care about what happens to her more. __Honorable Mention Leelee__ If it weren't for Reirin, Leelee would probably be my favorite character. She goes through so much and yet she really has this sweet side to her. I love seeing her almost sisterly relationship with Reirin. __Overall for Characters__ I really just love seeing how these three characters interact with one another. Especially how Reirin brings love and joy to each one of their lives. It feels meaningful to watch, especially when you can see that love she offers them really begin to soften or change them in a way. The other characters are alright too, I just don't like the emperor. He's yuck. But that's p-art of his character. So I really don't have any faults with the characters. I really like all of them. __Story__ As for the story, it's really interesting! As I said earlier, it has some slice of life, mixed in with courtly drama and then mystery. It really blends the three of them together and makes a compelling story. I don't really want to spoil anything but the story makes you care for the characters, makes you wonder what's going to happen to them, how they'll develop, handle the court politics, and simply live their lives. It's compelling. And I honestly just want to know how Reirin is going to navigate her new life and grow stronger. She has many moments of courage and I love watching them. It's a story that'll get you invested, especially in comparison to other villainess anime. __Animation__ I would say the animation is pretty good! While being a different studio, I'd compare it to the Apothecary Diaries art style and animation; they're pretty similar for the most part. The color schemes are somewhat different and the character designs aren't exactly the same, if you put them side by side, you could notice a difference. But I would say its animation is pretty comparable to The Apothecary Diaries. It doesn't amaze me, usually I would say it's an 8/10 but during scenes such as the dancing scene, with the movements being so fluid, I'd say a 9.5/10. So it certainly has good animation. __Music__ I like the music! I wouldn't say there's any track that really stands out to me but the opening and ending songs are good enough that they've been added to my montly playlist. My biggest issue is that I just think the opening is a little boring, but that's not a music issue. I would say it's pretty good! __Conclusion__ By far one of the better villainess anime I've watched. While it has a villainess plotline, that's the only similarity it really has to the genre. It stands out with its unique characters, interesting plot and actual good animation. If you enjoy otome isekai, villainess anime, Raven of the Inner Palace or The Apothecary Diaries, then I'd certainly recommend this. Or honestly I would recommend this to anyone because I really enjoyed it, and it has a slice of many different genres within it.
  Continue on AniList

COMMENTS

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• ANIME

  2022, DramaRaven of the Inner Palace
• ANIME

  2023, DramaThe Apothecary Diaries
• ANIME

  2006, AdventureThe Story of Saiunkoku
• ANIME

  2024, ActionYATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master
• ONA

  ComedyPsychic Princess
• ONA

  FantasyFairies Albums
• ANIME

  2023, DramaMy Happy Marriage
• ANIME

  2026, AdventureJaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia
• ANIME

  2014, ActionYona of the Dawn
• ONA

  ComedyHow Dare You!?
• ANIME

  2014, AdventureThe World is Still Beautiful
• ANIME

  2015, DramaSnow White with the Red Hair