May I Ask for One Final Thing? was one of the most anticipated anime series for me in the fall season of 2025. I liked the cover. The description sounded exciting, and it didn't have bad ratings on Anilist. I loved the first few episodes! The first one was so good that I paused the series to watch it with a friend. I didn't want her to miss out on the fun! After three episodes, however, I became sceptical, after five episodes I became disappointed, and after eight episodes it was pure frustration. My friend and I ended up hate-watching the rest of the series.
But first things first.
May I Ask for One Final Thing? tells the story of Scarlett, whose engagement to the prince of the kingdom is publicly broken off. Scarlett has endured everything and suppressed all her feelings over the last few years. When the prince's new fiancée also accuses her of various crimes, Scarlett snaps and does what we would like to see the protagonists do in so many other series: she punches the new fiancée in the face with full force.
After she has celebrated a veritable bloodbath among the other nobles (disclaimer: no nobles were physically harmed in the long term), the prince also has to pay the price. For viewers, this is pure satisfaction and great fun!
At the end of the first episode, Scarlett's nickname is revealed: The Mad Dog Noblewoman. Over the course of the series, much to the displeasure of her older brother, she will receive many more such nicknames, because if there is one thing Scarlett loves, it is putting on her knuckle gloves and fighting.
However, this violence is not entirely senseless: she primarily beats up the bad guys to protect the good guys. The nobles mentioned above are corrupt and involved in illegal activities such as the slave trade.
While we're on the subject of Scarlett and her love of fighting, I have to address the elephant in the room: Scarlett is a stereotypical Mary Sue!
She is completely overpowered! This may be fun and satisfying at first, but it gets boring because Scarlett is never really challenged in any of her fights. She does collapse from time to time, but firstly, it's never because of her enemies, but because she overexerts herself physically/magically, and secondly, the collapses are completely incoherent. Sometimes she lasts longer than in other fights. Sometimes she is completely knocked out, and on another occasion she is simply unable to move but is still conscious.
This brings us to another huge problem with the series: storytelling and logical gaps. Already in the second episode, Scarlett collapses due to the fight, and it is explained that using magic too often can drain her life force. Any reasonable person would then only use magic in absolute emergencies. Not so Scarlett, who sometimes uses it just to achieve a better effect in combat. So Scarlett is not only overpowered, she also seems to have no interest in her own life. In many places, it seems as if the creators tried hard to give Scarlett a weakness. However, this only comes into play when the plot deems it necessary.
Speaking of the plot, very little is made of the promising premise of the first episodes. Character development is lacking in the series, as are consequences for Scarlett's brawls.
The antagonist also has a lot of untapped potential. She was introduced with a nice twist, which made me curious. How will it be resolved? What could be done with it! Maybe even revolutionise an entire genre! Well, my expectations were probably a little too high.
In the end, it was broken down in a boring way, but at least you don't have to wait for the last episode to find out. But the way the antagonist's secret is handled also opened my eyes to another problem. At some point, the series starts to tell more than it shows. This is in stark contrast to the standard principle of every good story: show, don't tell.
In places, the storytelling goes so far that it's hard to understand anything. In other places, new lore is simply introduced without any prior teasing. Suddenly, one saint becomes two, or characters master new magic techniques out of nowhere. The explanations that follow seem far-fetched.
Added to this are a few questionable decisions regarding the romance genre. What the hell is the point of Scarlett's brother's relationship? And how am I supposed to ship the relationship between Scarlett and the princes when there is absolutely zero chemistry? Speaking of the prince: Why is Scarlett allowed to beat her way through world history, but the prince is off limits? He would have more than deserved it in several situations.
In later episodes, however, they cut costs or ran out of time. The fights are rigorously cut up or shown in the form of slideshows. Of course, this completely ruins the fun. Only in the final fight is there a little more to offer, but by then the viewer is so annoyed that the series can no longer be saved.
In short: the first two episodes are among the best anime of the season, but the series falls further and further behind as it progresses. At least there is a conclusive ending that leaves room for a sequel, but is perfectly sufficient for an anime ending.