Anime Review: Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: Watashi wa Ura Boss desu ga Maou de wa Arimasen

I don’t like Villainess stories. The whole Otome Game thing is beginning to oversaturate the market. So, what in the holy hell am I doing watching… *takes a deep breath* Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: Watashi wa Ura Boss desu ga Maou de wa Arimasen (Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord)?

Well, part of that answer is simple… I reviewed the first volume of the manga from One Peace Books and, to be honest, I discovered that it did something a little bit differently than some of the other Otome Game series I’ve tried to read (yes, I attempted to get into this genre! You know… open mind and all that.) What did it do differently and does that mean it’s worth your time if you’re not into this sort of stuff?

Let’s Jam!

The Story

Level 99 opens with the classic trope. A person gets smacked by a truck and ends up getting reincarnated in another world. This world just happens to be an otome game. In most of these stories, the main character will want to alter the game’s story; however, not Yumiella. Instead, she wants a life of peace and quiet because she knows that in this game, she’s the hidden boss and will eventually get killed by the game’s main character, Alicia.

The problem is, that her plan to lead a quiet life fails when her magic power is assessed and it’s revealed that she’s level 99. She reached this level by going into dungeons with an amulet of growth and soloed them over and over again until her level maxed out. With the rumors of the Demon Lord’s return, they think she’s the Demon Lord because of her black hair. That, too, ruins any chance she has of having her desired life of peace.

She attends the royal academy, gets recognized by the King and Queen, and then gets invited to take on the Demon Lord when he returns. Now, she’s completely ensnared by the game’s plot and no matter what she does, she has to go along for the ride, much to her chagrin.

The Characters

Yumiella made this show. Period. There is no doubt in my mind she was the best character in Level 99 here and it was due to a lot of reasons. The first was her awareness of the whole game, its characters, and its plot. After all, she played it in the real world so she had that advantage on her side; however, she is so monotone and lethargic about everything she does, that she doesn’t care all too much about going out of the way to circumvent the events of the game. This is also where the bulk of the humor comes in because no matter what happens, who is angry at her, who likes her, etc., she never changes her personality. She feigns fear and doesn’t even care about what happens to her. Heck, she ends up getting a dragon called Ryu and dismounts it by falling off its back in flight. She doesn’t care about plummeting miles through the air and slamming into the ground because her level is so high she knows that she won’t take any damage.

It’s this apathetic and lethargic approach to everything that makes the comedy shine and it’s all thanks to this one character. The entire show is built around and banking on her delivery to make everything work and it truly worked well!

Sadly, the rest of the characters are about as run-of-the-mill as you can get.

Edwin is the prince and he is in love with Alicia. He’ll do anything to protect her which means he will believe anything Alicia says. When Alicia claims that Yumiella is the Demon Lord, Edwin takes it as truth and tries to get her kicked out of the academy. He loathes and hates her until he sees reason and has a change of heart. Then, he’s just a typical boy with no redeeming personality qualities about him. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one who shares the same fate.

Oswald is a genius mage and can control all four elements at the same time. His talents have given him a huge ego and he thinks anyone not as talented as him isn’t worth his time. When he discovers Yumiella is level 99, he actually feels threatened. He comes to resent her because he feels the spotlight should be on him and him alone. Towards the end, he too sees reason and ends up befriending Yumiella, erasing all of the qualities that made him stand out.

Next up is William Ares who is a master swordsman. At first, he seems cool when he helps her sneak into the academy; however, he becomes easily swayed by Alicia’s words as well. After getting bested and embarrassed by Yumiella in a practice sword fight, he turns into a male tsundere until, you guessed it, right at the end when he sees reason and begins to respect her, thus reducing his personality to just another run-of-the-mill boy like everyone else.

The only interesting character of the lot was Alicia herself because of one unique caveat about her… being the main character of the game, she loses control of her body and self-awareness whenever the game’s plot deviates and tries to course-correct itself. This means that even though Yumiella doesn’t care enough to change the game’s story, she couldn’t even if she tried. Yumiella realized this and even went out of her way to help Alicia level up just so the game’s plot could move forward as intended. Alicia also sees Yumiella as an evil black shadow instead of a human being. That should have been the first clue since she is the only one who can envision Yumiella as such. There were more layers to her than meets the eye and, no, unlike the others, she didn’t revert to the same generic archetype. She remained pretty unique all the way through the final episode!

Lastly, we have Patrick. Not really sure how to describe him but he’s the first one to doubt all of the rumors about Yumiella and befriend her. He trains with her and despite getting the ever-living crap knocked out of him every time, he still pushes forward. He begins to feel a certain level of admiration towards Yumiella and even plays a critical role in overturning Edwin, Oswald, and William’s views on Yumiella. He was a pretty wholesome character and served as the balance to all of the negativity the other characters created. He was pretty solid, even if he was still a bit on the vanilla side of things.

Art, Animation, and Sound

Okay, I have some things to say about Level 99 here and if you’ve watched it, you know where I’m headed with this. It has nothing to do with the character design, backgrounds, or the world itself. All of that was great and truly showcased that this was a fantasy setting within an otome game. The characters had great designs and all of them were akin to what you would expect from nobles, royalty, or the upper echelon of a medieval society… so it nailed that aspect pretty well.

Then there was the animation. While it was nothing to write home about, it served its purpose and was pretty average by television anime standards. That’s, sadly, where the praise ends.

It’s time for the elephant in the room and you know where I’m going with it. Let’s all channel our inner Gigguks here for a moment and say it together.

BAD CGI

When you notice the sudden change from hand-drawn animation to computer-generated CGI because it sticks out like we’re watching the long-awaited new season of Berserk after waiting nineteen years for it, you know you screwed up. Let’s take Yumiella’s pet dragon Ryu for a moment here. So they hand-draw him as a whelp… hand-draw him as a drake… and yet… when he becomes a full-blown dragon, it’s time to whip out the CGI? Why!? It looked so out of place and terrible that it broke your immersion. I know this show is supposed to be a comedy but we’re not supposed to laugh at how terrible the shortcuts you take look.

Then, there was the fight against the Demon Lord’s army. All of the skeletons were obvious CGI. Then, there was one scene where they were journeying on horses to the Demon Lord’s castle. In one scene they were CGI, the next, they were hand-drawn. They can’t even remain consistent in their art direction from scene to scene within the same episode! I’m sorry, but that’s embarrassing.

At least the magic spells looked good and fit in. That’s about the only good thing I can say about the CGI working in this show.

As for the music… oof. For a fantasy series, there sure weren’t many memorable tracks. Heck, I honestly can’t recall ANY music from the show outside of its opening theme song and I marathoned six episodes of it yesterday before watching the final episode right before writing this review. I get that not every soundtrack has to be a banger by Hiroyuki Sawano or Yoko Kanno but… at least make ONE track stand out and get stuck in our heads.

And I mean something other than the OP…. which was decent. I didn’t mind the song but the vocals were a bit off-putting in some parts of it. It was serviceable, though so it worked for what it was. The ED was just there and didn’t really do much for me.

Overall Thoughts

If there was a show that got carried HARD by its main character, Level 99 was it. Yumiella not only stole the show, she WAS THE WHOLE SHOW. Without her, this show would be a 0/5, don’t waste your time; however, he attitude (or lack thereof), the well-timed comedy, the aura that she brings, the situations she gets herself into, the way she feigns and forces excitement, all of it keeps you watching and wanting more.

Plus, the fact that this show doesn’t truly treat this as an otome game is a massive plus. Too many times one of these shows focuses more on the upper echelon of society, politics, and romance than attempting to make it interesting and while, yes, this show does have that, it takes a backseat to Yumiella, her desire to just be left alone, and gearing up to fight the Demon Lord. In fact, they treat Level 99 more like an actual fantasy adventure series than an otome game which, I believe, breathes enough life into this genre to make this show interesting and worth watching.

It’s not perfect; however, even with its flaws, Level 99 is definitely a watchable show that a lot of people are going to enjoy. Someone needs to give Fairouz Ai an award for her portrayal of Yumiella Dolkness and gift her a lifetime supply of Advil because she literally carried that entire show on her back for all 13 episodes. She was so good that it’s one of those moments where I can say that you can completely forget the plot because Yumiella alone is worth your time watching this show.

Yeah, there are areas where it could have been better but for what we got, it didn’t truly need to be. It was fine as it was.