Season aired: Fall 2025
Number of episodes: 13
Watched on: Crunchyroll
Translated by: Elizabeth Ellis
Genres: Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Action
Thoughts: May I Ask For One Final Thing is the newest anime that takes the villainess trope and does something refreshing with a tired concept. Scarlet, a noble girl engaged to the asshole second prince, has endured years of abuse under the idiotic and insecure fiancé. When the prince finally announces his engagement to a new woman, Scarlet takes the opportunity to punch him, the homewrecker, and every single person in the hall participating in her humiliation to pulp. Little did she know this was a calculated political move that she accidentally pulled the rug out from under, throwing her into a world of international politics she believes should only be rightfully solved with her fists.
This anime left me largely conflicted. On one hand, I absolutely adored it purely because of the protagonist, Scarlet. It’s rare to see a female character MC who not only loves a good beat down but actually looks ladylike and gorgeous on top of it all, while still showing more than enough empathy and love. Scarlet is that MC, and more than anything, I’m going to miss her putting on her battering gloves while dancing in a blood-red dress, happily flinging the corpses of her enemies left and right.
Beast people
On the other hand, I have some serious issues with its worldbuilding. It’s ironic because I’m not usually a stickler for worldbuilding, but because so much of the later plotline involves international politics, the sudden inclusion of not only demons, dwarves, and elves on top of the more gracefully introduced dragon knights and beast people often left me asking in shock, “There’s [insert fantastical species] in this world?!”
This left me in a complicated spot of wanting to see Scarlet as the highlight of my week and also feeling lackluster about the whole conflict. A lot of the supporting characters also paled in comparison to her, which is a problem because it’s hard to elevate a story based on just one character alone. Aside from Prince Julius, the heir prince of the kingdom and the older brother of Scarlet’s ex-fiancé, and her weary brother Leonardo, there’s a whole cast of stereotypes like the little sister, the elusive gods, the honorable knights, the flirty less-honorable spy, all of which I ultimately felt nothing toward.
Even the antagonists fall victim to this critique. Terenezza, the girl who stole Scarlet’s less-than-attractive fiancé, could’ve been a genuinely interesting villain but fell flat at the finale of the series. By her side, a whole host of other antagonists were introduced only to become nothing but caricatures at their easy defeat.
Wanted more from the antagonist
Yet, my biggest complaint of the series is the end. Prince Julius is Scarlet’s real love interest, and their romance is genuinely one of the best parts of the story. In front of a girl like Scarlet whose first motto is to punch first and ask later, Julius isn’t the kindhearted, golden retriever prince that tends to get paired with wacky, chaotic girls like Scarlet. He’s just as chaotic as her and finds great joy in ragebaiting Scarlet all the while fully supporting her almost-murderous dreams. A recurring joke in their relationship is how far Julius is willing to push his ragebaiting, and because he’s heir prince, Scarlet still has to be careful of throwing her fists at him. So when the finale resulted in what seems to be the biggest fight between Scarlet and Julius only for none of that to truly materialize in the name of love, it was disappointing not just for their actual relationship but for the biggest setup the story had been teasing.
I’d be lying to say that I got tired of the joke that Scarlet simply punches her way through everything. There’s something delightful about the anime adaptation purposefully using classical, ladylike music in the background while blood splatters against Scarlet’s grinning face. Meanwhhile, she never loses her gorgeous dresses or her classy updo. This is partially lent by the fact that the animation for Scarlet smacking people around never misses, and the premiere episode dedicated a full half episode to showcasing her various flavors of kicks and different methodologies for punching.
Power couple
The soundtrack is memorable mostly because of its utilization of classical pieces, but when it comes to the original scores, aside from the theme songs, I don’t actually remember anything. Due to the weakness of the rest of the cast of characters, the voice cast also doesn’t have many opportunities to show off even though Asami Seto and Wataru Katoh pull off Scarlet and Julius handsomely.
In the end, I am left reeling from both my positive and negative feelings. On one hand, I had genuine issues with the story progression and wished I could love this anime to shout to the skies. On the other hand, I adored Scarlet and Julius, and it remained one of the anime I looked forward to the most every week. If only Scarlet could just punch away my critiques, but alas, I am forced to say that objectively it could’ve been everything. Subjectively, I had plenty of fun.
Rating
Plot: 7 (Multiplier 3)
Characters: 7.5 (Multiplier 3)
Art/Animation: 7.5 (Multiplier 2)
Voice acting: 7
Soundtrack: 7
FINAL SCORE: 72.5
