The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess

Konoha Satō has a dark history, written throughout middle school—a fantasy adventure of love and magic about the Count's daughter, Konoha Magnolia, and the knights who love her. But when it looks like that dark history is going to be uncovered by her mother, Konoha panics and dies in a traffic accident. Opening her eyes, she finds that she's been reincarnated into the world of her own dark history as Iana Magnolia, the worst villainess of her own creation.

The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess is based on the manga series by Akiharu Tōka. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Wednesdays.

This definitely felt like one of the most jumbled premieres of the entire season thus far. Not only is the entire thing frontloaded with exposition from beginning to end, but it feels like the show goes through stylistic changes every couple of minutes. I don't know why there were some points where I felt like I was watching an episode of Panty and Stocking or Kill la Kill with the use of flat character portraits and odd frames in order to generate a comedic response. I think the reason why they stuck out to me so much is because the style of those scenes just didn't match the aesthetic of the rest of the show. I can't put my finger on it, but it really does feel like the production of the show, while ambitious, has no real sense of consistency.

Then again, the show is being told through the crazy ramblings of a girl that is trying to piece together a story that she seemingly wrote over a decade ago, so maybe that's part of the point? There have been a couple of shows that have leaned into the idea of a woman being reincarnated as the villain of the story. This one doesn't do much different in the way that the protagonist tries her best to change the story—considering the usual fate of villains—but there is something a little engaging in the way that she is constantly trying to play catch-up with her past self. However, that sporadicness does come at a cost because it also makes the narrative come off as a bit more contrived than I think it should.

It's very convenient that the villain she got reincarnated to didn't happen to fully follow through on all of her legitimate evil schemes or she would be dead. The irony is that a whole reason why those things failed is because our protagonist originally wanted to be reincarnated as the heroine so the heroine couldn't die. If the heroine did die, it would be much harder to get out of the situation that she found herself in. It's really convenient that our protagonist made up an entire backstory involving a side character that she forgot about until the very last minute so that she could get back into the good graces of the cast. Now we don't have to spend a good chunk of the show trying to redeem herself and instead, I worry that the show is just going to be a more typical reverse harem. After all, we arguably fixed and resolved the major conflict within this first episode leaving the rest of it as uncharted territory. I know that the show brought up this idea that they need to protect the actual heroine now so that responsibility doesn't fall back onto her but that logic does feel a little bit strained. Maybe the next episode will justify it a bit better.

I greatly underestimated this show because episode two somehow manages to load us with even more information than what we had in the premiere. While I do still think that is a problem, especially when you add in the sporadic presentation, I do have a better idea of what kind of humor this show is going for then I originally thought. Turns out the “dark history” of the villainess doesn't actually pertain to the history of the villain from Konoha's story. Rather, it's the “dark history” of our main character when they were just normal chuni girl writing this story during their adolescence. It looks like every episode is going to be broken up into chapters of the story that Konoha wrote when they were alive and every chapter's scenario has some kind of tie into some socially warped trauma that she grew up with.

Chapter two of her story deals with the heroine being abducted by a wolf monster that's going to “ravish her” because at the time Konoha was writing it, she was just discovering carnal desires. Chapter three was about horrible things happening at a ball because Konoha was upset that no one invited her to a festival. The revelation that our main character wrote this whole story as one big act of angst and rebellion is the funniest thing about this show and definitely recontextualizes a lot of the more typical fantasy elements. There were a lot of moments where I actually found myself laughing at that connection.

There's also just the sheer insanity of the setting wanting our protagonist dead. I'm not a big fan of how sporadic the comedy can be when it comes to the show's presentation. It's a little too all over the place without enough of a consistent, stylistic feel. I know it's trying to go for a contrast between shoujo-style and flat skit comedy but it feels more jarring than thoughtful. But things like the castle randomly exploding because of a fire absolutely got to me. I was impressed with this episode more than I was with the first one and it is enough to make me consider it more of an enjoyable watch this season.

I think I like the concept of this anime more than the episode we got. While we've seen numerous shows of normal people being reincarnated as villainesses in a game or novel at this point, this is the first time we have a person reincarnated in their own novel—and that's only the start. Even more unique, this book is actually just middle school girl delusions of the author—a girl so sure that she was going to be isekai'd one day, that she designed an entire world to cater to the main heroine (who she, of course, named after herself). Now, a decade later, that now-working woman finds herself in her long-forgotten escapist fantasy—though not as the protagonist, but as the villainess, Iana. Fated to be assassinated in short order at the hands of her own butler, she tries to prove to everyone that she no longer hates the heroine.

There are two additional layers to this setup that make it enjoyable. The first is that Iana feels responsible for everything. While she is not the original villainess, she did make the world, the people in it, and set up all their troubles for the sole reason of middle school self-satisfaction. She can't simply stand by and watch her creations be hurt—especially Konoha, her self-insert, who is designed to be the most kind and loveable person ever.

This in turn leads to the second additional layer—the one that sets up the ongoing plot for the show. By helping the heroes, she clears herself of at least some suspicion but also completely derails the plot. Plenty of more bad things are coming for Konoha but, thanks to Iana's timely rescue, the heroine has missed her opportunity to get her Deus Ex Machina powers. Now, it's up to Iana to do what she can with what little she has to keep everyone safe.

But as much as I enjoyed all that, a lot of this episode fell flat to me. The jokes felt obvious and the slapstick was hammed up to the extreme. However, I think it was the pacing that really got me. Everything was a bit too rushed. There was no time for the danger to build at any point in the episode, either for Iana or Konoha. It's simple “dangerous thing happens” and, seconds later, “dangerous thing is resolved.” There's no tension available for either the drama or comedy to play with.

All that said, this is a perfectly watchable show—especially if you like villainess stories. The concept is sound and the characters are enjoyable enough. I'm just left hoping that this first episode was only rushing things to get to the point where the status quo was established and things will slow down a bit going forward.

Like with the first episode, I think the big thing holding this series back is the pacing. In this episode alone, we have two entirely separate stories crammed into one. Each one could have easily been their own full episode without any problems. Instead what we get is a show that both feels rushed and doesn't at the same time. This is because this show is two things in one: a comedy and a drama.

On the comedy side of things, we have all the jokes about how Iana's first life effected what she wrote in the story. She was going through her “monsters are hot” phase and so wrote in a werewolf out to ravage her self-insert character. Later she wrote about how Konoha's dancing would be so beautiful she would be made the saint and sent out to save the world—just because no one had asked Iana herself to dance with them at the local obon festival in the real world. The quick pace of the show is generally a boon to the comedy as it assures us a constant stream of joke to keep us laughing.

However, on the other hand, the fast pace absolutely destroys any and all drama the show tries to create. Sol, for one, never really feels as dangerous as he should as there is no time to build any kind of tension before everything is over. The other dangers she faces, be they the werewolf or the burning palace, likewise don't feel all that threatening.

For the big emotional beat of this episode, we're supposed to sympathize with Iana's fate and how she comes to terms with her own death—knowing that her self-insert character will get her happy ending—but it all falls flat. We don't have the chance to think it over—to put ourselves in her shoes—before the situation is already resolved.

Is this show “bad”? No, not really. It's just not as good as it could have been with a bit slower of a pace. But then again, if all you care about is the comic beats that come naturally from a world formed from a pubescent girl's cringiest fantasies, then you'll certainly enjoy what this show has to offer.

Oh, this is one I've been excited for. I actually first encountered The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess as a manga review copy early in my tenure here at Anime News Network. I was charmed not by its art, which was generic and bordering on amateurish; not by its story, which is a variation on the oversaturated theme of villainess reincarnation stories; not by its characters, who are largely cardboard cutouts; but for its metanarrative, driven by sharp observations about teen girls' isekai fantasy stories as psychosexual manifestations of their adolescent preoccupations.

The Dark History of the Reincarnated originated as a manga, traditionally published in LaLa magazine, rather than starting out as a web publication. While we can debate the advantages and disadvantages of having editors shape a story, it tends to result in a more polished and clearer narrative with a greater sense of purpose. In middle and high school, Konoha Satou imagined herself as the heroine of a great fantasy epic, but when she grew up, she put all her sketches and story outlines in a box and moved on. That is, until she met Truck-kun. Meanwhile, in the fantasy world she created, fantasy-Konoha's little sister Iana opens a book that is supposed to cause the identity of whoever reads it to collapse, both creating an opening for reality-Konoha's mind to take hold and creating a nifty little explanation for just what happens to the body's original owner after the new personality overtakes it.

After the first episode, I'm not sure how well that element will come through for two reasons. One is that the rapid-fire plotting doesn't allow for the narrative to take a break and explain teenage Konoha's subliminal thought processes behind why she made melodramatic story choices, such as, say, fantasy-Konoha's uncle plotting to rape her. The other issue is that, although Crunchyroll may have adjusted its subtitles to resemble the old style more, large swathes of on-screen text remain untranslated, leaving a significant portion of the story inaccessible to viewers who aren't literate in Japanese.

And that's a shame, because this is a fun adaptation with a lot of surprises. Was I expecting a hip-hop opening? Not even a little bit! The director, Hiroaki Sakurai, has been in the industry for decades and has helmed some of the best-loved anime comedies of all time, including Cromartie High School, Di Gi Charat, and, most importantly, Kodocha. His wild sense of humor almost makes Dark History feel like a throwback in the best way possible, full of the kind of silly sight gags and energy that shoujo adaptations almost never get these days.

I'm not sure if Dark History will retain the things I love best about the manga. Hopefully, having someone with a strong creative voice and a longtime love and understanding of shoujo manga will make sure the anime has its own appeal.

You'd think being familiar with the source material would make it easier for me to review Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, wouldn't you? Sometimes having read the manga or played the game ahead of time can make it easier to see what the story is doing, it's true, but it's hard to shake off the feelings that already exist. Is it a good adaptation? Does it stand on its own to be accessible to newcomers? Is the pacing right?

To answer my own questions, I pulled out my copy of Dark History's manga. If the anime feels rapid-fire, well, it's going at more or less the same pace as the original. In fact, it's an almost shot-for-shot recreation of the manga, but with even more gags added in—no doubt thanks in large part to Sakurai's distinctively wacky directorial voice. There is a downside to this; one of the reasons I checked the book was to see if I could get translations for the copious on-screen text that Crunchyroll has once again failed to translate into English—only to find that there's way more of it in the anime than in the manga. Great! Thanks, Crunchyroll!

Jokes lost in translation aside, this episode has one of my favorite examples of the series of Akiharu Tōka's whip-smart observations about the genre. If you read a lot of 90's shoujo, you may notice there's a lot of sexual assault used for drama. Such is the case in Konoha Satou's Dark History, when a “carnal beast” kidnaps Konoha Magnolia. Rather than condemning the trope or reproducing it without thinking it through, the series Dark History identifies that the young women drawn to this trope are using it to process developing feelings and desires that they're not yet ready to confront head-on.

And that's really the charm of Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess. It may parody shoujo, but it's in a way that comes from a place of genuine affection and understanding, rather than scorn and denigration.