I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss is a lovely new isekai anime making its debut in the Fall 2022 anime season. This is the tale of Aileen d’Autriche, an otome game villainess who, like Katarina Claes before her, knows she’s the villainess of this story. This isekai protagonist is determined to change her own fate, and that means swapping one fiancé for another, from prince Cedric to his half-brother and demon king, Claude.
These half-brothers couldn’t be more different. Cedric is the beloved prince of the Ellmeyer Empire, while Claude is the demon king, a powerful and wicked man who is feared far and wide. But that’s only according to the lore of the original otome game, Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens, and Aileen learns for herself that good and evil are much more personal and subjective than game summaries would suggest.
The True Measure Of Good And Evil In This Otome Isekai Anime
It’s an endless debate about what good and evil truly are, and how objective or subjective they can be. It’s a topic that can’t be conclusively settled in a single series, but I’m the Villainess does define its own stance on this topic. In I’m the Villainess, protagonist Aileen d’Autriche was reborn as the villainess, just like Katarina Claes in My Next Life as a Villainess, meaning they are antagonists on the outside, but couldn’t be further from this characterization on the outside.
The new Katarina and Aileen are totally different people than they were in their respective original games, and they also have the meta-knowledge to tinker with the game’s plot and understand what people are really like. This allows Aileen to redefine good and evil on a personal level and refuse to let the original game’s story decide that for her.
Aileen doesn’t let abstract, lofty concepts of good or evil define her actions, nor will she take any person or situation at face value. Instead, Aileen will respect, support, or oppose a person based on who they truly are. It doesn’t matter if Cedric is a popular prince, or if his half-brother Claude is the demon king; Aileen sees these half-brothers for who they actually are. Aileen recognizes the supposedly noble Cedric as a petty, ill-tempered and inconsiderate person who tends to cause trouble, while Claude is merely a misunderstood kuudere who deserves better. In a way, Cedric and Claude embody each other’s titles, with Cedric having a villainous attitude and Claude being like a timid protagonist who just needs friends.
The anime’s plot seems to understand that, too. The best example is how Cedric not only embarrassed Aileen by breaking up with her in public, but in Episode 2, Cedric gets riled up on Lilia’s behalf and swears to destroy the innocent Aileen without mercy. On one hand, Aileen is being framed, so Cedric honestly thinks he has solid evidence of Aileen’s supposed misdeeds. Even so, Cedric’s reaction is more fit for a villain, while a truly noble prince would keep his cool and try to settle things diplomatically and fairly with Aileen. But that’s not what he’s going to do.
Moral Ambiguity Plays a Major Theme
It’s not the job of anime to boldly declare that good and evil are nonexistent. Because these terms do serve vital functions in society, however, society shouldn’t be too rigid and dogmatic about it. Good and evil are, in many nuanced works of fiction, open to some degree of interpretation. A great deal of harm may be done when good and evil are purely black and white, oversimplifying things and unfairly condemning some people as evil when they are merely misunderstood misfits or troublemakers who just need help.
Such is the case not only in I’m the Villainess, but also the much bigger anime series My Hero Academia. Characters like demon king Claude and Twice are not evil just because society labeled them as such. They must be judged by their own merits as people, and when Aileen does that, she realizes the truth: that good and evil are more than skin-deep. Claude isn’t who people think he is, and neither is prince Cedric. Aileen won’t let society label these half-brothers any longer.
