English Dub Review: I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History “A Kiss with a Witch”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Alicia begins to hone her magic ability, unlocking new sources of knowledge.

OUR TAKE

Looks like we’re still in the prologue stage as Alicia, or at least the reincarnated person who has become Alicia, continues to learn more about this world and how to become the best Villainess in it. Only, as we see here, her concept of that doesn’t seem to really match up with what the role of the character she reincarnated into was originally made for. Alicia the Villainess was made to be a rival for the player character, an obstacle to work towards overcoming and defeat. As the one in the driver seat and fully self-actualized, THIS Alicia is very likely on track to overtake the protagonist character and become a far bigger influence on the events around her, as well as taking on some opportunities said protagonist would have normally taken. How do I know this? Well, it might be because I have seen this all happen before in a different anime with a very similar premise. And the thing that drove me up a wall about the ostensible villainess of that show was that she had somehow gained some sort of brain damage that caused her to be almost allergic to self awareness. Some found this charming and funny, but I did not.

Hopefully we can avoid some of the more aggravating examples there, but here in THIS show, we see Alicia already taking steps to become a more well rounded individual. Her sword training brings her to a remote village where she meets a kind old man who is in exile for questioning outdated traditions in the kingdom, giving her the beginnings of a more nuanced perspective on things happening around her. Likewise, her growing magical aptitude unlocks access to special magic books in the library, something that was previously impossible to find. This and the previous episode are pretty clearly just set up, building Alicia’s abilities and view of her surroundings, as well as showing how far she has to go before she can change things, though doesn’t present her with many direct challenges yet. Oh yeah, and the blue hair guy is now in love with her, which seems like it will probably be the endgame ship if the OP is anything to go by. Guess we’ll see how long it takes to get there. And at some point she gets an eyepatch, so probably something bad will happen to her? I wish I was more invested but we’ll see if that changes.