Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 12
Source: Light Novel
Episode Summary: In his former life, Leon was a typical Japanese adult who happened to have been blackmailed by his younger sister into completing an otome game for her. He does it grudgingly, complaining the entire time. Unfortunately once he completes it he gets little time to celebrate his freedom from the task before taking a fatal spill down a staircase. Having been reincarnated, it takes Leon several years to realize that his new life exists within the boundaries of the otome game that he so despised.
In the world of this game, men are second-class citizens. Rather than go to the academy to try to woo a young woman as his suitor, Leon is tossed into an arranged marriage with a woman 50 years his senior. Rather than sit idly by for this scenario, Leo goes on an adventure using his prior knowledge of the game to uncover a futuristic space ship that he makes his own. Returning to his his father with treasures unimaginable, Leon buys his way into the academy to try his luck there. But searching for love among the elite might be a challenge in and of itself.
Impressions: One thing I’ve come to believe is that often the thing that oppressors must fear the most is that the social positions will somehow be reshuffled and they become the oppressed. Cue entertainment like this, which stars a protagonist so maladjusted that he can’t afford a form of entertainment aimed at an underserved segment of society some leeway in portraying a form of social fantasy that makes his fee-fees sad. Talking about this kind of thing can be touchy; as someone who’s personally invested in the idea of equality for all humans, my ideal endgame doesn’t really involve seeing certain people suffer and I think turning the tables would ultimately be the wrong thing to do. But there have been times where I’ve wished that people behaving in awful ways toward others could get even just a small taste of their own medicine, on the off chance it might help them gain some valuable perspective.
Anyway, about this series. I frankly haven’t played many otome games myself, but as someone who is (or was) in the genre’s target audience, I have some sense of its appeal. Looking past all the pretty window dressing (which might be a little bit difficult, depending on how attracted you are to cute anime guys), I think the fantasy at play in these stories is simply the scenario in which the heroine (or the player) has agency over their life and relationships. It’s unfortunately not a reality for some folks for whom expectations regarding their conduct as a product of their gender are more pronounced.
This series’ attitude regarding this form of entertainment gives off the vibes of being written by someone who doesn’t “get it.” It seems to bubble from the same rancid well that designates feminists as “man-haters” by constructing various straw-man positions about what feminists might want to do to society. In short, it designs its key conceit around an idea that has no interest in representing its subject accurately, because the point isn’t to make real commentary – it’s to make fun of something.
So perhaps the real question is – do I feel like watching anime that makes fun of an entertainment genre that already gets picked on enough as it is? Nah, not really.
Pros: Usually I don’t have too difficult a time coming up with something positive to say about most series, because in spite of some truly terrible content in many cases there’s usually some aspect of the premise or the production that manages to stand out in one way or another. This isn’t nearly the worst premiere I’ve ever seen, but it just kind of left me with a bad feeling and not much nice to say about it. I suppose the animation was decent enough.
Cons: “Not the worst I’ve seen” really is damning with faint praise, though. There are a lot of series that seem more outwardly mean-spirited than this one, but there are very few that I’ve watched and just disliked most of the characters. Leon is a jerk, his sister from his former life seems like she was kind of a jerk, and the gender-based villainy going on in this world just seems to have turned many old women into villainous moustache-twirling baddies, and I just don’t really have time for it.
Content Warnings: Cartoonish sexism. Age gap relationships. Violence.
Would I Watch More? – Sometimes shows like this are so out there that I’m compelled to watch a little more just to kind of enjoy the grotesque unraveling of the plot. This episode really wasn’t fun to watch in that way and I can’t imagine watching any more of it.