Higeki no Genkyou to Naru Saikyou Gedou Last Boss Joou wa Tami no Tame ni Tsukushimasu.

I confidently recommend the first 7 episodes. Lovable red-haired former villainess cutie goes around being really, really nice to people. She's also an OP badass, incidentally, and there are mild cloak-and-dagger political elements too; but mainly, you're there to gush over the main character and how cute and nice she is, just like the other characters in the show do. At first, adequately written. Character emotions and reactions made sense and the redeeming or inspirational moments had some weight to them. There were times where the scene may have been taking itself a little too seriously, but overall, the energy matched what was happening onscreen. The scenes of her former villain life made her kindness towards others especially impactful. But then, episode 8... Suddenly, what was once charming gets a bit annoying, and you're not sure why. Maybe it's the cheesy inspirational moments or overbearing sobfests? Or perhaps the 9th joke about how all the male characters are thirsty af over her? Or the 3rd scene in a row where someone kisses or licks her feet? Maybe, but more than likely it's because you realize the show isn't really about anything. The main character is annoyingly likeable and has no need to change. Sure, she WAS a villain in her past life, but she isn't anymore. Those villainous impulses from her previous life seem completely gone now. And the other characters have no real growth to do either, and even if they did at some point, their growth happens in essentially one scene. The princess saves the day for them in some way, and as soon as they grovel in thanks and swear undying loyalty to the princess (and give a big ole smooch to her little piggies), they are essentially flawlessly good characters from then on. It's just not well-written. The author clearly has a soft spot (and foot fetish) for the princess and wants those around her to gas her up endlessly, which can be entertaining, but not when she's flawless and thus boring. "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" has a similar formula. The main character is gassed up constantly by literally every character - and honestly, that's more or less the point of the show - but the main character has genuine enemies that get in their way. Their enemies kill allies, plot against them in the shadows, and those villains are in and of themselves interesting. Their personalities are all over the place and their mannerisms and behavior are extremely difficult to predict. This makes for great entertainment. Also, the main character is just silly. They make silly errors, say cliche jokes, don't really know what to do most of the time and need advice from equally silly and flawed allies. This is extremely human and endearing. Even though it's literally just one big circle-jerk, it's done so well that it makes the audience feel like unzipping and joining right in on the fun. That's what I wanted from this show. It was sort of there at the beginning, maybe, but it was definitely absent towards the end. The author focused too heavily on trying to make plot events inherently interesting that they neglected to make the characters relatable and human. I feel this is typical with anime that are rather heavy-handed with the royalty/nobility theme. Honor, pride, ceremony/ritual, loyalty/servility, fully devoting oneself to one's society - all of these elements muffle the personalities of characters. One character prostrating on their knee swearing loyalties looks like any other doing the same. These values are paramount in Japanese society so it's not surprising they show up so often in anime; but if done too much, it dilutes the vibrant colors of character personalities into the same shade of grey. But suffice to say, if you're a villainess genre junkie, you'll probably enjoy this just fine. If you're stumbling onto this show and this genre, that "good genre" filter won't apply to you, and you'll probably judge it for its story and characters. That might not go so well. 7/10 because I'm that villainess genre junkie I was talking about. Probably 5/10 if I wasn't.

Its a simple show. At around age 6, MC gets her memories from past life and realizes that she is a villain princess who will bring this country to ruin (does lots of evil stuff in the process). And she wants to somehow try to save her kingdom from herself. It does resemble bakarina in regards to villainess + harem + not realizing that everyone loves her + saving the love interests etc.. But this show is much darker with basically no comedy/romance. Right now, we are still in the harem gathering phase. It basically loops through a plot that roughly goes --> "introduce sadboi, MC does something nice for him and saves him, sad boi become happy and join her fan club". MC saves 4 bois by the end of the season. 1. In the supposed game, the villainess was really fucked up and felt like a truly evil person. not like the usual stuck up ego princess bullshit, but someone who truly enjoys the misery of others. 2. MC is (sort of) realistic and actually understands her situation. She also has no problem with killing people or making people into slaves as long as it is in the best interests of her subjects/country. She is also a little suicidal (self-sacrificing?) when trying to save others. 3. She uses her brain, which is a rare trait among anime leads. And She has something called the "last boss buff" which allows her to be OP. This makes her really strong and we can always appreciate a strong badass female lead. 4. The harem members. instead of infighting, they actually work together hard to be of better service to our future Queen (MC). Lots of bromance moments. On the negative side though, 1. the original villain character was so unhinged, that i am starting to wonder if she had brain damage. why so dark :(. I am here for otome harem gimmicks, not to be repulsed by tragedy/torture. 2. The show milks that "tragic" heroine sentiment really hard. our MC is continuously worried (whining) about how she may become a cruel person eventually. It gets annoying after a point and doesn't need to be forced into every episode. It definitely needs a Drama tag. 3. zero creativity. The story is very predictable (especially the plain dialogues). Every scene feels like you have already watched it a hundred times in the past. Overall, this is a mediocre show just like most isekai/otome productions. But within the otome genre, this may be a decent watch.

I’ve spoken at length about how much I love this trend of Otome/villainess style anime we’re getting lately and I really think Lastame is one of the best of the bunch. If you’ve ever watched fantasy shows and cringed at how stupid the main character acts or the usual anime shenanigans like not being able to communicate properly which would solve 90 percent of issues, good news for you. This series actually addresses those things. In fact, that’s the bulk of the show. The characters communicate and talk through their issues like normal people. It was such a breath of fresh air and I willmiss it greatly. If you’re a fan of good worldbuilding, fantasy, shoujo, otome or just cute anime girls, this is a great watch that you won’t regret. I’ve always felt that the best fantasy shows are the ones that you forget are fantastical. Instead of focusing on magic and action, they focus on interpersonal relationships and character growth. Lastame is exactly that. There’s several episodes that largely consist of just the main cast talking and working their way through ideological issues, but they’re set up in such a way that you become captivated and lose track of time. Pride as a MC just finds a way to compromise and achieve results no matter what. The thing is, it never feels like an asspull. The show walks you through the perspectives of everyone involved and by the time a solution is found it feels natural. This is the biggest selling point of the show for me. Yea, Pride is cute, but she’s not just a pretty face. She’s aware of the things that she’s done in the past and truly wants to make amends, while promoting equality for her kingdom. She doesn’t just want to change her future, she wants to change the systems and traditions that made that future possible in the first place. You’ve probably gathered already, but Lastame is a slow-burn character driven story that focuses on Pride and her relationships with the side characters. All of the side characters are dealing with some trauma that Pride helps them through. They all feel developed, meaningful and their emotional story beats land very well. There’s a couple scenes throughout the show that truly got me emotional. It’s always good to see smaller casts in these fantasy shows as they really make it easier to flesh them out and become attached. There’s no harem or fanservice antics either in here. There’s a little bit of romance hinted at, but it’s very much on the backburner other than a blush every now and again, so if you’re someone who likes good writing that doesn’t rely on anime booba or wish fulfillment, you’ve got one here. Lastame takes its time getting into the meat of the story. It’s not until the last 3 episodes that we even get hints as to the big bad(s) of the story. Up until then it’s mainly worldbuilding and conflict resolution. That’s not a knock on it though. In an era where every fantasy show has 3 episodes before a 5 year time skip where the MC is already OP, I will always appreciate shows like this that take their time. There’s two minor time skips, but for the bulk of the show Pride is still a little kid/pre-teen. Albeit a very smart one. I think if you enjoyed Honzuki, Niehime or other slower paced stories you’ll see similarities both in the maturity of all 3 MCs as well as the vibe of the story. Really the only flaw I could point out with Lastame is that the animation is a little meh. The studio aren’t exactly known for groundbreaking stuff, so it is what it is. The story also doesn’t have too much action, but when it happens, it’s noticeably low grade. A few of the fights use that generic white line going towards the character to indicate motion gimmick. If you’ve watched enough anime you know what I mean. But, since it is overwhelmingly dialogue based it did not affect my enjoyment too much. In closing, I think we’re in a weird limbo of sorts with anime. People claim they’re tired of the same old same old, but then they get shows that actually focus on characters and establishing a world, and they don’t check them out. This show is quite simply put criminally underrated and deserves more love and attention. One episode is all it took for me to know it would be in my top 4 of the season and to go out and buy all the books. I thoroughly enjoyed this series and am very much looking for a possible second season. Here’s to hoping it’s soon. Lastame gets 9 out of 10.

First of all the good points: - The instances where characters interact with one another instead of completely centering on the mc - The mc focusing on self-improvement - The scene where it showed that the character was positively influenced by mc and it was executed nicely The main reason I think its a waste of time - The implications of the sexualisation of a fkin 13 year old - THIS ANIME WOULD HAVE BEEN A 7/10 IF MC WAS 18 - WHY ARE YOU SHIPPING A GROWN ASS MAN WITH A 13 YEAR OLD - STOP PUTTING A 13 YEAR OLD IN SITUATIONS WHERE HER BEING AN 18 YROLD WOULDVE MADE IT 10000000% BETTER - ABSOLUTELY UPSET I FINISHED IT, I COULD NOT EVEN WATCH THE LAST EPISODE PROPERLY BC I WAS SO DISGUSTED

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