Ladies, gentlemen, and others, welcome to Anime Rants. Today we have a review for the second episode of the unusual isekai anime, I’ll Become A Villainess Who Goes Down In History. You may recall that I wasn’t super impressed with the pilot. The second episode wasn’t much better. However, I’m growing attached to the character of Alicia and I want to see her succeed. So I’ll probably keep watching this anime after all. Anyway, my notes and responses for episode 2 are below. Enjoy!
Notes on Episode 2: Kiss with a Witch
Episode Rating: 6/10
I don’t know why this episode is titled “Kiss with a Witch.” There is a kiss scene at the end – sort of – but I’m not sure why they’re suddenly calling Alicia a witch. I haven’t heard that term used for nobles who can use magic yet. It just seems like an odd choice. In my opinion, “Secret Outings” would have been a better title, since most of the episode was focused on Alicia’s excursions into the village of Loana.
Loana is a village full of very poor people closed off by a magical barrier. Since there were once terrible criminals who came from Loana, the nobles wanted to keep them sealed. Only nobles – magic users – can pass through the barrier with ease. Alicia has read reports about the poverty and misery of Loana, but she wants to see it for herself. Thus, she sneaks out at night and passes through the barrier. (Apparently Loana is only a few miles from the Williams estate.)
In Loana, Alicia meets Will, a kindly older man who is completely blind. Alicia finds herself liking this man very much. She even tells him her dream of being a villainess. As for Will, he is an insightful fellow who used to work for some nobles. After he talked out of turn, he was blinded and banished. As a result, he isn’t fond of the nobility. That’s why it’s even more surprising that he’s so kind to Alicia. He knows she’s a noble, but protects and helps her anyway.
Alicia’s meeting with Will planted doubts in her mind about the way her country operates. But it would be two years before she met him for a second time and had another powerful experience. In the meantime, Alicia continued studying and training everyday. At ten years old, she asked to take the swordsmanship exam that her brothers took at her age. However, her father and brothers were against the idea.
In the end, Alicia had to agree to wait till she was fifteen before her father would consider allowing her to take the test. Surprisingly, the father wasn’t motivated by sexism. He tells Albert that Alicia’s talent with the sword is far beyond that of a normal child. Therefore, she would immediately ace the exam and attract all kinds of attention. In order to spare his daughter from becoming a public figure – and being exposed to danger – he makes her wait a few more years.
Alicia went on another secret outing to Loana. She witnessed a shocking scene of two men beating a six-year-old child nearly to death. Will bandaged the child and put him in bed, but said he was unlikely to survive. Long story short, Alicia saved the child by bringing him high-quality healing herbs. She recently met a kind shop-owner who sold herbal medicine. He gave her some of his stock free of charge.
What I thought was interesting was Alicia’s supposed motivation for doing this. She claimed she didn’t want to help others, but simply sought to prove that she could do everything the heroine of the game could do. I smiled at that part because it’s very obvious that Alicia cares, whatever else she tells herself. She may take evil actions down the road, but right now, Alicia’s strong sense of justice is very clear. I like that.
In the last section of the episode, we see Alicia learning magic from grimoires hidden in the Willaims Estate library. She advances quickly to level 5 magic, but is severely worn out by the effort. The King then pays a visit and asks Alicia political questions. Thinking of it as a villainess test, Alicia did her best to give good answers. As soon as the King was gone, she passed out in the hallway from fever and fatigue.
Luckily, Duke was there to catch her. He took her to her room and went to get a doctor. Before long, Alicia woke up, but she was too feverish to even take the medicine that was left for her on the bedside table. Seeing that Alicia was suffering and couldn’t take the medicine herself, Duke fed the medicine from his mouth into hers in a weird kind of emergency kiss.
I think Duke was genuinely trying to help and freaking out a little, but the “kiss” honestly felt creepy. Duke clearly likes Alicia. The thing is, he’s is supposed to be Albert’s age, or about fifteen. Why is he crushing on a ten-year-old girl? That probably wouldn’t be an issue among nobles in a medieval fantasy world. However, it still creeps me out. I hope my opinion of Duke improves because it’s obvious that he’s going to end up with Alicia in this series. Anyway, that’s all for episode 2.
~Thanks for reading~
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