I loved this one. I've decided that I like the "reincarnated as a villainess" isekai genre.
What's different here is that our hot young fantasy heroine (Grace Auvergne) is really a 52-year-old Japanese bloke (Kenzaburou Tondabayashi). (He's also been drawn to look as if he's well into his sixties, or possibly even his seventies. This gets lampshaded after the end credits of episode 8. "You know, doesn't Dad look way too old for a 52-year-old?") He has two voice actors, a female one for Grace's public voice and an old geezer in his seventies for Kenzaburou's thoughts.
These "villainess isekai" heroines are usually lovable. That's true here too, but also with a "dad" viewpoint. He behaves as if he's everyone's father, or perhaps their benevolent superior at work who's an old hand at supporting juniors and handling difficulties. He's also a 1980s otaku, so he's genre-aware even in this world that's he's assuming is a copy of his daughter's otome romantic game. (He doesn't know the genre, but he can infer from general principles.) He realises that his character is the villainess, so every so often he tries to do his job and be cruel and bullying... AND HE ALWAYS FAILS. He's too nice. Everything he says is taken as proof of how supportive and friendly he is. This is funny. Kenzaburou makes the genre less generic. His obliviousness to love is because he's your dad. (He usually forgets the villainess thing and tries to help the game's heroine, Anna Doll, succeed in her romantic routes even though everyone's more interested in him. Yes, including Anna herself. Obviously, he helps the handsome blokes too.)
What I loved most about him, though, was his diplomacy. "In other words, Miss Grace motivated Anna without rebuking or forcing her." When facing hurtful lying bitches whom any other hero would crush like bugs, he tries to avoid humiliating them. He wins them over. He makes new friends... which is because he's your ideal boss and he knows all about awkward situations.
I liked the whole cast, though. The otome genre is romance-driven, so everyone's civilised and willing to talk things out. The nastiest thing that happens is some easily deflected bullying. Kenzaburou goes out of his way to make Anna the heroine, not just Grace's devoted-and-semi-lesbian disciple (which she thinks she is). The princes are likeable. The whole thing's thoroughly nice and everything Kenzaburou did made me happy. What's less effective is the real-world segments. The flashbacks I liked, but there's an odd development by which his wife and daughter realise that he's trapped inside the game and start following his progress. This is fine and I didn't dislike them, but it's less charming than Kenzaburou's adventures.
We have some cool voice actors. The narrator (and Grace's mother in the final episode) is the legendary Kikuko Inoue, who's the most prolific Japanese voice actress of all time. I also liked the veterans playing comedy old geezers (Kenzaburou, the magic school headmaster and the dwarf artisan).
The only thing I didn't like much was the closing title sequence... and that's harmless because I'd just skip through it. Otherwise, everything's good. It's full of lovely bits like Grace re-establishing her relationship with the grumpy dwarf artisan, or the episode where Anna sets out to learn from the servants and effectively finds another world. (There are 300 servants working on Grace's family's estate, in what's effectively a private town that hardly anyone knows about.)
I loved it. It's great. It even has some interesting ideas, with a surprisingly detailed magic system and some genuine surprises in the fantasy/reality crossover. I suspect we'd get diminishing returns from a second season, given its gentle, low-intensity narrative, but the final episode ends on some information I want to know more about. I'm keen to see more of this.
