REVIEW NON SPOILER

VISUALS and CHARACTERS
As an anime set in a Victorian style setting, this anime does a fairly successful job portraying it. This can be seen from the building architecture, character costume designs, hierarchy of power, and royal family etiquette. What surprised me a bit is that the anime also adapts familiar nickname styles, such as Constance becoming Connie or Cecilia becoming Ceci. The world building and royal conflicts are neatly structured. The animation and character movements are nothing special, but not bad either. The portrayal and animation of Scarlet as a spirit her appearance and disappearance are quite good.

STORY and DEVELOPMENT
The story begins when Scarlet (The Spirit), who was sentenced to public execution, becomes a wandering spirit ten years after her death, seeking revenge. She does this by possessing our main character, Constance (The Blonde), after they make a deal to help clear Constance (The Blonde) from false accusations during a party.

Constance (The Blonde) is initially portrayed as an innocent and timid girl who cannot even defend herself when falsely accused. However, Scarlet’s (The Spirit) presence gradually makes her more clever and confident in facing challenges without losing her gentle personality. Likewise, Scarlet (The Spirit) slowly changes as she spends more time with Constance (The Blonde) she is no longer arrogant and begins to think about others besides herself.

At first, I somewhat underestimated this anime because of its fantasy mystery genre. I thought mystery anime would be more interesting if everything could be explained logically with limited possibilities. If fantasy elements are involved, the probabilities for solving a case become limitless and less exciting. However, this anime does a good job balancing that aspect. The mystery behind Scarlet’s (The Spirit) execution and what is actually being hidden is handled very well.

Initially, I thought it would just be a cheap mystery where Scarlet (The Spirit) and Constance (The Blonde) would only follow clues left by Lily (Scarlet’s Best Friend) to uncover everything. But the plot twist instantly made this a strong mystery anime. It reveals a conflict much bigger than just Scarlet’s (The Spirit) false execution and includes effective callbacks to what happened to Constance (The Blonde) but with the happy ending is very satisfying. What I found lacking is that there is almost no limitation to Scarlet’s (The Spirit) powers. Even though it’s explained in the anime, she still feels too overpowered, as she can always protect Constance (The Blonde), creating a somewhat annoying plot armor. Also, I think the ending would have been more beautiful and poetic if everything had concluded when Constance (The blonde) visited Scarlet’s (The Spirit) grave. The ending feels made solely to please the audience and comes across as very cliché.

FAVORITE CHARACTER
Both Constance (The Blonde) and Scarlet (The Spirit) have their own strengths, but I think I would choose Constance (The Bolnde) because her character development and romantic storyline are portrayed very well.