The Villainess is Adored, Why am I Even Watching This?
Article at a glance:
- Another case of me clicking a shoujo romance knowing full well it’s probably slop—and being right, but still getting content out of it.
- The tonal whiplash of going from something genuinely charming like You and I Are Polar Opposites to The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom is honestly kind of impressive.
- A show that survives purely on surface-level romance tropes, with more effort put into the “bad guy” than the supposed main couple, and that really tells you everything you need to know.
Guys, I think I have a problem. I really need to stop consuming random assembly-line ass Shoujo animes just because they are romance themed. Sure, I have found some surprisingly good ones like 7th Time Loop, but, god damn, half of the time I end up with something like this. I gave The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom a try. Not because I thought it would be good or anything. I checked it out because morbid curiosity got the better of me, and the content demon won out over my common sense.
And yeah, I did get content from it, so here we are. It is such a tonal whiplash going from something like You and I are Polar Opposites to THIS. As you can tell, this is about to be a rant. So welcome to another article, and today we are talking about The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom. So let’s get started.
What did I think of The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom?
I’ll get my compliments out of the way first. Yes, there are still some redeeming aspects to this anime, though not that many. First of all, I don’t hate the plot setting. The idea of taking a typical otome game-type setting and having it playout differently is quite commong but, far as I know, no one has done it like this. So that’s good. Secondly, I would like to appreciate that they actually put some effort into Hartknights’s character rather than have him be a straight-up bad guy. He realizes he wronged Tiararose and apologizes.
But that’s about it. How is that, two episodes in, Hartknights, someone who is supposed to be the “bad guy” for calling off his engagement with Tiararose publicly, has more depth than the main duo? Tiara is a purely reactionary character. Outside of flashbacks, so far, she hasn’t been showing doing anything by herself and only reacts to things happening to her. And Aqua is more one-dimensional than a straight line. His only character trait so far is that he loves Tiara very much. That’s it!
Oh yeah, they did get a bunch of good VAs for this anime, by the way, like Yuuichirou Umehara and Shinichiro Miki. But outside of that, the production sucks lol. Sure, the colors are pretty, but there is little to no shading, which makes everything look flat. And the animations are very stiff. Sure, it isn’t as bad as One Punch Man Season 3 because character at least still show some movement, it is not THAT much better either. Hey, at least they don’t use weird neon color filters, and at least the still frames look good, unlike OPM Season 3.
Man, what a time to be alive. I am comparing OPM to a random seasonal slop show, and the seasonal slop show is coming out on top. END ME.
That is all for now
In conclusion, only check out this show if you are REALLY desperate for a wish-fulfillment romance. I am not joking, this show has no depth whatsoever. But it does provide surface-level enjoyment depending on what you’re looking for, though. I cannot give this more than a 4/10. Pretty unlikely I will return to cover this anime again. But well, morbid curiosity will be the death of me. Sometimes the content demon is way too hungry. Lord gives me his toughest battles. Either way, I am off to find The Fates in Hades II. See ya!
Also, check out my thoughts on Hell’s Paradise Season 2 so far here!
