© Michio Kamiyama/Shōnen Pictorial Agency/Uncle Reincarnation Production Committee
Let the audience have a preliminary understanding of From bureaucrat to villain: Dad is reincarnated! (hereinafter referred to as FBtV), lurkingown celebrity butler I can’t help but express my great love for this series, and it’s not hard to understand where this attraction comes from. Even just the title of FBtV will make you want to laugh – and the anime’s first episode itself is no exception. FBtV is an anime with a name that more or less doubles as a plot synopsis: a 52-year-old father, a bit of a bureaucrat. otaku After a winning streak, he gets hit by a truck and wakes up to find himself transformed into the villain in an otome game played by his daughter. The only problem is, he only remembers snippets of what she told him, and his personality doesn’t quite fit the bill for a villain – he’s a mild-mannered bureaucrat and a loving father. Although he tried his best to play a mean girl, he ended up triggering the love flag of all the main actors, especially the heroine – a peasant in a school full of nobles – who was particularly endearing at the end of the first episode .
It feels like there are a lot of villain-centric anime coming out lately, so I can imagine it must be getting harder for them to stand out. Still, the idea that the titular villain is actually a middle-aged man is an interesting enough twist that I love villain stories. But in fact, my fondness for the main character Kenzaburo Tomitabayashi (aka Grace Owerna) is by far the most important thing about this anime. Through his fatherly filter, the villain becomes more like a sister or a helpful senior. But in his case, the villain could also be Regina George, which is interesting. He’s so polite that things he expects to be seen as slights or insults actually end up being seen as compliments or good advice – and by the end of the episode, he’s almost unrecognizable as a villain at all.
Overall, this was a very cute and silly first episode. My only major concern with the series going forward is that sometimes, an anime like this with a very interesting premise ends up relying too much on those premises, with the result that they end up telling the same jokes – and even then, admittedly, a very Funny joke – for their entire run. I hate to see this guy fall into this trap. But I guess the only way to find out is to actually watch it once it starts airing, which I fully plan to do.
