I'll Become a Villainess who Goes Down in History

Damn these anime that end on a cliffhanger and may or may not have a second season coming. Sheesh. Maybe I should go back to Kdramas--they almost all are one season and done. The problem is that I generally need a 25-ish minute block for working out (or around 20-ish when you factor in skipping intro/outro). Anyway: I'll Become a Villainess who Goes Down in History.

This one has so many similarities to Bakarina (and, honestly, a lot of other shows), except that Alicia (our titular villainess) is much smarter (which, to be fair, isn't hard) and actually wants to be a villainess. So when she wakes up at age 7 to the fact that she's destined to be a villainess later, she works super hard -- and capably -- to improve herself. She never liked the namby-pamby holier-than-thou heroine.

Of course, she's not really a villainess at all though. She may try to be, but her actions are generally noble and good-hearted as she works to free wrongfully incarcerated people and stand up for the downtrodden. And it's obvious very early on that Prince Duke (who names these characters??? That's like saying Princess Duchess) has eyes only for her. 

The heroine or "Saint" is an annoying character, but in the way of "she doesn't know any better and is kind of an airhead". She's literally no match for Alicia, even if she does have amazing magical powers (which you almost never see). 

So...okay, I'm not meaning to sound too negative. It isn't a bad show at all. I think there's just so many with similar (nearly identical) storylines that it feels hard to judge them separately. Overall, I enjoyed it. If it had been the first one of these I'd ever watched, I would have enjoyed it more.

However, I'd still be annoyed that the end is her being exiled by Prince Duke (who is doing it because he knows she wants to go investigate another country) and it's very much a cliffhanger / needs a season 2. Also, she'd been sneaking around to the prisoner village for ages...why wouldn't she have just snuck into the other country? Or pretended to defect? I mean, do these two countries not allow any trade at all? It seemed ridiculous grandstanding.

Anyway, am I glad I watched it? Er, indifferent, I guess. If a second season comes out, I will more than likely watch it though.