"The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior" [short: "LasTame"] is an Isekai Shoujo series - or for being more precise, it is an Iyashikei belonging to the otome game villainess theme. The story was written by Tenichi, whose light novel originated in April 2018. The animation series consists of the classic 12 episodes à ~24 minutes and aired first in 2023. It has been animated by OLM studios, which are mostly known for titles as Pokémon or Berserk, but recently contributed to the ubiquitous Isekai-genre with titles such as Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout, or NiNoKuni. The experience of the director Norio Nitta mainly concentrates on the Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama - series, although he also was assistant director for the more well-known anime Odd Taxi.
In case you want a short recommendation of whether the anime is worth to be seen, feel free to skip the "Analysis" chapter and directly jump to the "Conclusion". I think I managed to avoid direct spoilers, though one might argue that criticism of missing elements can be seen as indirect spoilers. But enough of the preamble, let us start with the review.
If you are familiar with the otome game villainess theme, then you already know pretty much everything there is to know: The eighteen year old protagonist has an unfavorable encounter with Truck-kun which leads to her being reborn in her favorite dating simulation game "Our Ray of Light". The series does not make the effort to elaborate the reincarnation in detail, so there is no goddess involved, nor is the protagonist suffering from being severed from her former life and possibly loved ones. Still, her first reaction is disbelief, because she was reincarnated in the eight year old body of the diabolic villainess Pride Royal Ivy of all people. She then uses her knowledge about the game in order to help people, win the love interests over, and become a queen admired by everyone.
Prominently linked to the otome game villainess theme, it seems reasonable to compare LasTame with animes like Hamefura (My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!) or AkuLast (I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss), which I will do in the upcoming paragraphs. Both these shows however provide a real antagonist (former at least for the last few episodes) who drives the suspension of their plots. LasTame only makes half-hearted attempts in that direction, improvising some action taking place every two or three episodes.
Instead, LasTame builds a bright, colorful world where individuals experience hardships in order for Pride to save them - mostly by forgiving unallowed behavior or by being selfsacrificial in her attempt to help people. As streched many times throughout the series, the happy life with her siblings Gale and Tiara is the most precious thing in the world for Pride. In this fashion, the series has much more ressemblance with Iyashikeis like HonZuki (Ascendance of a Bookworm) or KumaBear (Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear).
This results in very heartwarming scenes which are so sweet that you risk getting diabetes - a point where the direcor's past associated with Kamisama Minarai shines through. The downpour of emotions led to misty eyes on my side for quite a few times and got me addicted early on in the series.
Whereas the villainess of Hamefura Katharina "only" abused her noble background to bully the commoners around her, the original Pride found pleasure in torturing others in the most cruel ways imaginable. Equipped with the knowledge of the game, occasionally paying visits during nightmares, the reincarnated Pride suffers from a strong imposter syndrome which makes her shower the people around her with love in an exaggerated fashion. This includes her step brother Gale and the son of the royal army general Arthur, who are both love interests from the game, as well as Pride's little sister and original game protagonist Tiara.
While I indeed like the elaboration of Pride's self-doubts, the resulting mental disorder showing in freely giving affection sometimes lacks measure. In some scenes she slaughters bandits just to embrace and comfort one of them in another episode. Pride is always stressing that she wants to save every single one of her subjects, so the only attempt I see to justify her actions, would be that the other bandits were foreigners - and I really do not want to go down this road. So let us please agree on the motive being purely the director's desire to elaborate Pride's forgiveness, mercy, and pureness without any sense of reason.
Whereas protagonists of other otome game animes regularly have to rely on their knowledge of the game events, Pride is additionally blessed with fighting abilities tailored to her role as endboss of the game, contributing to the quickly fading suspension. As prophetic abilities are common for worthy heirs of the thrones, there is also no danger to raise suspisions, as it is a prominent theme in other Isekai series. As a result, Pride is simply overpowered and outshines the love interests even on the battlefield (just as frequent viewers of the harem genre are used to).
Sadly, the critique for the love interests does not end here. As the male characters all profession themselves in swordsmanship, none of them can really stand out. All of them switch from hostility to affection in the moment their key events are passed successfully by Pride, but then this affection is not really elaborated any further. The game protagonist Tiara totally vanishes in the role of the little sister without adding more to the series than a pet would do.
If I had to describe the visuals with one adjective, I guess it would be economical. Fans of more action based Isekais (e.g. "Seirei Gensouki" or "The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat") have seen a lot better animations, but for an ambience-based Iyashikei I cannot complain about LasTame 's animation.
The opening song is "Kyuuseishu" by Tsukuyomi, who already sung the opening of I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too. Considering the ambience being the driving element in this series, the op is surprisingly fast paced and energetic - and to be brief simply a very nice piece of opening music. The visuals are powerful with a slight touch of mystery. Considering other Isekai animes like Seirei Gensouki or So I'm a Spider, So What?, this opening could be a 10/10. However, even though the series has a decent amount of fighting scenes, the opening overpromises in terms of action and suspense here.
The ending "PRIDE" named after the protagonist was the anime debut for ChoQMay. It has a slower pace than the opening and the main theme is happiness, which suits the overall ambience much better. It simply conveys Pride's feeling of being happy to live her life together with her new family. The visuals mostly refrain from animation and are limited to a series of photographs showing the everyday life of different characters with basically everybody laughing. Whereas the music as such does not stand out from the manifold of much better ending songs, it is a perfect fit to the soothing base ambience of the series.
The soundtrack in total is well-placed and supporting the emotions conveyed on the dialogue level. It really helps you engaging with the characters and adds to the wholesome overall experience.
In total, LasTame creates its own niche by combining the otome game villainess theme with the Iyashikei genre, focussing more on ambience than on story telling or character development. You may get overpowered by a fountain of emotions throughout the first few episodes, so make sure to have enough tissues to clean your eyes and nose. The feelings conveyed get you engaged with the characters at first, the absence of a main plot, suspense, or character development leaves a stale aftertaste in the second half, though. An overpowered protagonist, immoderate affection for single hoodlums, and a pack of happy but irrelevant support characters do not help the case either. Altogether, there is a lot to criticize on a rational level, but also a lot to appreciate on an emotional level.
If you are unfamiliar yet interested in the otome game genre, I would recommend you some other entry point like Hamefura, AkuLast, or mobseka. However, if you are looking for a heartwarming and wholesome Iyashikei which also has elements from the otome game genre, LasTame is worth considering.
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