English Dub Review: Though I Am an Inept Villainess “Split Curses, Too”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Reirin and Keigetsu try to break the curse while Shin-u and the prince investigate it.

Our Take:
Normally, the best way to break a curse is with an antidote, but venomcraft turns out to be very different from other curses.  So, a simple antidote won’t be enough to dispel it permanently, leading the two princesses to create a counter-curse to remove it.  How to create a counter-curse, you ask?  Well, it involves plenty of bugs, and by “bugs”, I mean a centipede that ate the bugs.  Of course, the only person standing between victory and loss is Gabi, whose hatred towards Kenshuu threatens the princesses’ lives.  This is another moment where a character’s actions would cause us to wish them to receive karma in return, but also make us feel a tad bad for her for what happened in the past.  But, regardless of her grief, Gabi’s assassination attempt has put her on a path that’s more villainous than the actual villainess.
With “Split Curses, Too”, the episode puts an end to Gabi’s horrendous plot to kill Kenshuu with a strategy akin to “The Apothecary Diaries”.  However, the episode’s heart remains with Reirin and Keigetsu, with the former wanting to befriend the person who was initially jealous of her.  It sounds crazy when you think about it, but it also highlights Reirin’s empathy for those hurting on the inside, even if they don’t express that pain.  This aspect, along with Grace Lu’s effective portrayal of Gabi’s psychotic nature, helps this episode find the right footing in its familiar “redeemed villainess” premise.  With this friendship starting to blossom and Gabi’s revenge plan being thwarted, that would’ve been the end of Reirin and Keigetsu’s body-swapping adventure.  But the recent announcement of the show’s second cours has proven otherwise, so we’ll see how its first part wraps up next week.