Tensei Akujo no Kuro Rekishi

“If it isn’t the consequences of my own actions” the anime. Ever created your own head canon/OC and wanted to escape to that world? Well, be careful what you wish for. As Iana discovers in this show, things don’t always turn out as rosey as we imagine them in our heads. Tenkuro isn’t a groundbreaking show, but it is an extremely fun Otome style story because it follows Iana dealing with the edgy universe she created back in school as an escape from her mundane life. While her real life was boring, this world she created in her story was anything but. It’s a world ... of magic, hot guys, perfect female self inserts like her namesake Konoha and a villainess who is constantly trying to kill her sister and is hated by the entire kingdom. Iana being reincarnated as the villainess and having to deal with the fallout from the story she wrote is so fun to see play out. Yes, a lot of the things you see in this show are not original. We’ve seen them done in many other Otome shows. The thing that makes this show fun is that it’s aware of those tropes and is poking fun of how cringe they are through the lens of Iana who wrote this story. Seeing Iana fight to change the perception people have of her and ensure she gets a good ending, even though everything in this world is stacked against her was a blast. There’s a nice amount of romantic teasing, comedy, some action, this has everything I could want in a shojosei like this. We get 1000 male self insert isekai slop shows a year, so I see absolutely nothing wrong with the ladies getting a fun parody spirited show like this!

Your enjoyment of this show will basically come down to how much you like Iana. If you find her antics funny, you’ll have a good time. If you take everything too seriously in this, you’ll won’t. Fortunately for me, all of Iana’s jokes and gags hit. Seeing her overcome one obstacle just for another death/bad end flag to pop up in its place was great. The absurdity of the story is what makes it to me. This show gets progressively more unhinged as we go on, but it’s also got a genuine charm to it. Iana begins to empathize with the character of Iana and feels bad for creating such a world where people had to endure such hardships. Obviously most of us are not going to be isekai’d into our own story worlds, but I do think it’s a nice little creative thought process to envision how YOU would feel being in the shoes of a character you created. It adds an authenticity to the story and will probably help you write a better one overall. The way things diverge from the original story she created as the show goes on keeps things unpredictable and engaging as well. Iana doesn’t know what’s coming next which means she needs to fully understand her characters and world.

I’m a romance merchant so for me, after Iana herself, her interactions with the male leads, especially Sol, were awesome. In typical villainess fashion, Iana becomes the center of everyone’s attention and pulls all the hot guys. While some like Yomi are just plot conveniences, I actually really liked how things played out with she and Sol. It’s a gradual thawing that shifts to romance and it’s so sweet! I will definitely be reading more for them!

The production values aren’t the best here, but they’re good enough for what the show is. Iana looks pretty, Konoha is cute, Sol, Yomi and Guinoford are hot. That’s all you need.

Really enjoyed this show from start to finish. This has to be one of the most underrated shows of the season. If you go in with the understanding that it’s supposed to be campy comedy series that pokes fun at some traditional Otome tropes, you’ll really enjoy this. Iana is one of the most fun MCs this season and every moment she’s on screen is such a trip. I’ll miss this show

Tenkuro gets 9 out of 10.

The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess — When you get to live out the fantasies of your crazy ideas and yet have to suffer copious amounts of cringe for it, for bland…or for fun?

By this point in time, we've seen just about anything that is shrill in line with either the Isekai reincarnation aspect or the prevalent themes that continue to prove its popularity with the villainess theme, because for better or worse, it too has become part of the Isekai slop for years on end now. Yet, for all of the mediocrity that we have and had to suffer through for seasonal anime ... on end, as much as it has become the butt and joke of the AniManga industry, the Isekai theme will find a way to strike again and make a comeback that's worth enjoying once again.

Case in point, mangaka Akiharu Touka's Tensei Akujo no Kuro Rekishi a.k.a. The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, where living the Isekai life as a villainess is not enough; you have to be self-inserted into your own written story to see how things will occur, as is with following the branches of its plot! Talk about self-indulgence in the name of the cringe-worthy fest incoming...

The Dark History, a novel that was written as is on the stereotypical premise of evil being beset by justice, and where characters live and die for reasons based on how the author wants to make his/her series, for the flourishing and the setup for the story as a whole. That's fine and all if you're reading from the comfort of your couch, but if you're MC Konoha Satou, the story is not just fictional; it's reality. Because for one, while the Isekai reincarnation gods have not been so kind to her as to send her to her death, for Konoha to find herself being in the stereotypical Isekai fantasy world that's not just ANY kind of world but in the mystery fan-fic novel that is the Dark History. It's history repeating itself once again, but with its original author sucked into its premise that Konoha, now known as Iana Magnolia, the wicked sister of the story's main character Konoha Magnolia, who's supposed to be sentenced to death for the latter's killing, has to do everything in her power to avoid getting executed yet again, while she tries her damndest to protect both herself and her elder sister Konoha. If that's not enough, in an interesting twist, the story that Iana/Satou originally penned out always gets changed in one way or another due to her inactions; the unpredictability sets in of unforeseen circumstances that the villainess herself has to circumvent in order for the story not to wind back to its original ending.

I mean...who comes up with these kinds of weird stories that somehow, they actually manage to make and not make some sense!? Some will say that it's a total cliche for an over-the-top fanfic that one will be happy getting Isekai-ed into his/her own story, but to hear the cringe of it on top of the plot already at play...woo boy, whoever is writing the fanfics MUST be a dedicated lover and a fanboy/girl at that, and surprisingly, I don't find this bad at all to begin with! Yeah, sure, Konoha Satou, as her in-book novel character Iana Magnolia, faces the dread that every villainess series has its traits for better or for worse—the connivings of an assassination for the typical villainess that the world will be better without her, but when she's all-in for the story plot, being the only one who knows what will happen, that's when shenanigans occur that show off the show's comedic side to the rom-com formula. I simply cannot understate how having Satou as Iana trying to undermine her own story arc by rewriting the events of what transpired and went down in the first place, to then only have karma bite back at her that the story IS the one and only definitive path in and out of the plot, is just tons of fun, which makes her an easy character to love. And if you ask me, a work that's honest about itself and doesn't try to involve external forces for that matter to even manage to dig its own grave at times makes for a story that will give you chuckles alongside the seriousness of the content itself.

And when it comes to seriousness, neither of her fan-fictional characters are playing around, being one and whole with the story that Satou planned for them. Supposedly, Konoha is supposed to play the saintly role in between her and Iana, though no thanks to the altered timeline, its power was meant for decimating Iana in the first place; instead, the role is shrunk down to nothingness, and Iana would rather live a life with her alongside the Ikemen who are concerned for her. As is the case for Ginoford Dandelion, as Konoha's fiancé who had a detest for Iana in the original storyline, to do a 180-degree change in the altered timeline, he will forever be always upstanding and loyal to Konoha. The good and bad are paired side by side, with Konoha and Ginoford, as are Satou and her own self-inflicted harem that has both sides covered by men who are not smitten by the villainess's evil but her charm instead. Like Ginoford, Sol Nemophilia was once under the task force meant to kill Iana in the original storyline, but when the villainess attempts to change her story for the better, so does he in the stance that he doesn't kill her but falls in love with Iana instead. Similarly, the charming villain of Yomi Blacksarena, who was previously Iana's co-conspirator in the assassination of Konoha, instead finds himself in quite the identity crisis of a villainess that continues to act like an evildoer but, at the same time, be the caring girl that Iana is in the alternate timeline. Confused, but not out, Yomi would be happy with how Iana is, because he too has a crush on her, just like Sol, and the rivalry between the two is as ever strong and powerful that the villainess herself has to act as the middleman should these two clash with each other. So, an eccentric group of characters for an eccentric plot that's made out of a fanfic...how quaint.

I know that we often chide Studio Deen as an incompetent studio whenever they choose to show up as the chosen studio for anime production, but as simple as they look, in the case of this show, they get the job done alright as intended (the same can't be said for Ninja vs. Gokudo, however). This comes at the cusp of Machikado Mazoku, a.k.a. The Demon Girl Next Door director Hiroaki Sakurai and his staff team delivering a better-than-average product as a whole, and I'm certainly glad that I can watch a Studio Deen show without criticizing the low-budget efforts (of which there are some here).

The music is...frankly, just there and noticeable as heck, but it's not something that you'll be hearing outside of the anime. Alongside Exile Tribe's Kid Phenomenon's OP and Zerofrom's ED, they're just songs that appeal much to the Shoujo market, and for good reason since the original work is published in Hakusensha's LaLa magazine, which is the specific target for all things Shoujo.

Some will say, "This is weird and all for putting yourself in the shoes...of a fan-fic version of yourself," while others embrace the notion that even the cringiest of people can experience heart that way. Either way, I truly stand conflicted, for the Shoujo story has a way to beat the hearts of people that I just cannot understand how, but if you do, then...congrats, I guess?

This is a "bad" anime, but it is a good "bad" anime. I genuinely think that coming here and complaining that this anime is "cliche" or expecting something extraordinary is dishonest. Like, for real, you could have seen the rating, the title, the cover art, the description and everything else.

But if you are into crappy cheap romantic isekai, this one is superb. There is just enough action and lore to keep you hooked, while also playing along with the basic tropes. It doesn't feel boring and the pacing of the first five episodes is nice. I didn't feel the need to skip parts or to ... "skim" the episodes at any point, which is not something I can say about A LOT of the "big names" in anime.

The anime is honest about itself, but doesn't try to force any self-irony on its content. It is not going "haha, you are watching a crappy anime". There have been quite a bit of funny moments, especially in the "reminiscing about the pre-isekai days" parts. That part is built really-well, and it's quite nice to see.

It is plenty annoying to read reviews that miss the point of this anime, reviews of outsiders basically. Yes, the "heroine" character is a monolith, with the only feature being her "angelic" presence. Yes, THAT is the point. It is meant to be a character written by a teenager, and the way the MC actually navigates that is plenty cool. The other characters have a certain monotony to them as well. In my opinion, it is what makes it cool. It creates conflict and it is funny to see dumb characters acting dumb.

I genuinely think you should watch it if you are a connoisseur of this genre of anime. It is one of the best ones, to be honest. Otherwise, simply skip it and don't come here to complain about it being "bad" after being warned multiple times. I gave it a "not recommended" because I am pretty sure most people will not enjoy it. But that doesn't make it less enjoyable for those that understand the beauty of crappy isekais and crappy romances.

You have been warned.