I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss - Reviews

 The first few episodes immediately hook you, suggesting a fun and light hearted series of a girl who decides to court the demon lord to avoid dying in an otome game. Aileen is endearing and crafty. Claude, despite being the demon lord, is surprisingly soft and affectionate. How Aileen decides to avert her own doom, sometimes through ridiculously concocted plans, is hilarious. The song for the ending credits goes hard.

Only, the pacing is entirely off. Somehow, the series feels like it's planning to adapt 8 volumes in a short anime. Supposedly emotional movements are introduced and discarded within the minute. Most episodes after the first 3 feel like they should have been given 3 episodes each. The plot isn't advancing at a breakneck speed, unlike some other series: it's just skipping too many important details to make you care in any capacity. There's a few issues with the animation which sometimes falls to embarrassingly bad but it is mostly passable, but these aren't the primary issues with the story. With such engaging and fun leads, it just needed a longer adaptation.

Satisfying Conclusion?✔️
Emotional?❌
Actual Romance?❓ (it's there, but don't watch if looking for a "romance" show)
Actual Comedy?❌
Fanservice/Nudity?❌

What is this anime?
Girl gets isekai'd into game where she is a villain character. To save herself from doom, she heads off to seduce the final boss of the game.

Did I enjoy it?
It was pretty bad. Nothing was fresh or new and had been done before. Similar to "My Next Life as a Villainess". The comedy was stale. Best shot at it was the MC's eccentric actions once in a while. And for the love of god if one more anime pops up where they go into the business of cosmetics I will lose my mind. The premise of "I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss" literally ends at ep 4, where she succeeds. Everything afterwards becomes random plotlines where the show isn't really heading toward a certain goal, like the first 4 eps. The villains are all annoying. Their personality type is "villain" with nothing else that distinguishes them as individuals nor their motives. While all that is said, it was decently entertaining to watch. If someone is new to the scene it's likely they won't notice the quelms I've had. Decent first 4 eps, fast derailment, give it a try.

This is a romance fantasy adventure that takes a path less traveled.  Aileen is projected as an ideal though perhaps uncommon woman.  She's a survivalist, manipulative, cunning, hardheaded,skilled, and at times quite powerful in her own right.  Claude is cast as an ideal romance novel protagonist. He has dashing long hair, poise, looks, physique, combat skills, magic, power, position, humility, care, rational reasoning, equality, and intellect but he's often quite naive and even susceptible to schemes.  Though technically, Aileen's motives may have been similar to the wicked Lillia at first, she quickly realizes it's not just a survivor move to flip the plot of the otome on its head but she actually starts falling for him upon first sight.  She even struggles to contain and control her own baser instincts and desires around him.

This isn't your usual love story by any stretch but it still fun to watch with plenty of fantasy and magic but most of the plot centers around the narcissistic Lillia who thinks the world is her playground and she's the only actual lifeform since she fails utterly to realize or accept the game has become reality and all her designs rise from false perceptions but that really doesn't excuse the level of her violence, harm, destruction, duplicity, inhumanity, or her treatment of others as playthings and not lifeforms.  She at some point herself seems to belatedly realize in her drive to push the story to a happy ending for faster, that she ended up becoming the real villain.

While other similar stories were certainly fun or funny, I think this one simply pulls the story together much better by shifting from one scheming plot to another that protagonist and antagonist play against each other.  The only weak points I may see are Lillia having the freedom to continue being an obstacle to so many without significant enough consequences to prevent her further disruptions despite the issues she caused, she was given opportunities again and again which technically doesn't make much sense.  Other weak points are some lost opportunities like Aileen's adventure in school or lack or exploring how or why she left and didn't go to another early on.  Or in another case, why didn't she continue school after getting in another eventually?

Cedric appears slow witted as it took him so long to realize he was only a tool and stepping stone and the first rejection did appear a bit out of nowhere to start the series off.  This could have been a much better and richer story with a bit more depth and time dedicated to developing it more with more episodes.  It still does a very good job of creating a memorable unique story with plenty of entertainment and excitement pushing things along.  There's a fair share of good characters, story arcs, challenges, and some setting and backstory but those last two are probably it's weakest pillar structures supporting solid story telling.

Wasn't bad but wasn't "good" either. I felt like they tried to jam too many things into only 12 episodes. Likeeee the beginning was good but then it started to become too much. I feel like the ml losing his memories was unnecessary and just extra. Also, the romance was quite questionable. Imagine getting engaged to the crown prince but then divorcing him because he fell in love with an evil bitch. IF THATS NOT ENOUGH the fl decides to barge into the villain's house and marry him. After just like a day of meeting her the villain falls in love with the fl at first glance. Anime logic these days....

It's a cute, average show.