May I Ask for One Final Thing? – Episodes 1-2

What’s it about? Scarlet El Vandimion was known as “The Mad Noble Woman” as a child because she loved beating up terrible people.  She tries to change her behavior after getting engaged to the second prince for the sake of her family, but she’s finally had enough when he calls off their engagement after years of enduring his stupidity and abuse. Scarlet decides to enact vengeance by beating up everyone in the room and embarking on her new life.

There’s a saying, “I support women’s wrongs”—but in this case, my girl Scarlet isn’t wrong about anything.  Her ex-fiancé and his supporters absolutely deserved to get punched in the face.  It was simply glorious and I demand that all our readers watch this show immediately.  This is the second time I’ve enjoyed seeing a public broken engagement scene (the first being MagiRevo) and it honestly feels so cathartic seeing absolute jerks get punished for their awful behavior.  What makes Scarlet such a compelling protagonist is that she knows what she’s worth and isn’t afraid to show off her intelligence.  Plus, it seems that she has a magical ability that’s called the “God of Time” which enhances her physical strength and, honestly, that just makes her even more cool.

Scarlet knows that her ex-fiancé is extremely insecure and hates her for being competent.  She’s also wise enough to realize that his feelings are not her problem and any inadequacy he feels is entirely his fault.  While she does enjoy a good brawl, she doesn’t just indiscriminately attack anyone. Scarlet beats up everyone in her ex-fiancé’s faction because they openly admit to being involved in illegal slavery and treat commoners poorly.  The fact that she has morals is a breath of fresh air in the sea of anime that inserts slavery in every historical fantasy series.  

For once, I’m happy that this was a double premiere since it establishes what led up to Scarlet’s blow up and what happened immediately after she destroyed everyone in the ball room.  She quickly sets off to find out who’s involved in the underground slavery system in order to directly deal with the perpetrators.  Logistically, I understand that it’s probably smarter to make a long term plan to break down the larger network that helped create such an oppressive system, BUT sometimes it’s nice to see slave owners get punched in the face.  We live in a time where fascism is on the rise so anything that makes us feel empowered is a win in my book.

The animation is very good and the bright colors really makes Scarlet stand out as a bonafide baddie.  I just wish the fight sequences were a bit more fluid rather than the still images of her punching everyone.  Aside from Scarlet, the other main characters are interesting in their own right.  Scarlet’s older brother is afraid that she’ll fall into senseless violence while her main love interest, Julius (the first prince) finds her interesting.  Julius is definitely someone worth keeping an eye on since it looks like he’s capable in the art of politicking behind the scenes.  With Scarlet’s fists and Julius’s negotiation skills, they are the power couple we’ve all been waiting for.  

It’s worth mentioning the ending theme song is so good and visually beautiful.  It also isn’t lost on me that it hints that we shouldn’t discount the second prince’s girlfriend and that she might become a major antagonist in upcoming episodes (though hopefully she has more depth going on, so Scarlet isn’t the only well-developed female character). There’s also Nanaka, a spy who crossdresses as a maid but is thankfully not the subject of transphobic jokes. Basically, everyone needs to be watching this and I look forward to seeing Scarlet take down more of her enemies with her mighty fists!