It's a familiar anime genre, but with a slightly harder edge than other examples. It's adapted from a South Korean web novel series (with a manhwa adaptation that's had an English release). I've come to expect that country's live-action films to be evil and shocking, so I wasn't surprised to find that here too. Somewhat. To a certain extent. It soon becomes a fun, happy show, but...

GENRE = a modern girl (Eunha Park) is reincarnated in another world as a fictional character (Raeliana McMillan) from a book/game she knows well. The only surprise is that she's not the villain.

THIS SHOW = Eunha was reincarnated because someone pushed her off a building in Seoul. She was murdered. Now, in this other world, she's due to get murdered again. She's engaged to Lord Francis Brooks, who's going to put arsenic in her tea... and he'll profit from this handsomely, so he's not interested in unimportant details like, say, what she personally wants. (Furthermore, he's been told by a mysterious figure that he'll get killed if she lives.)

Raeliana doesn't have enough status to shove Brooks aside, but what about a crown prince? Or something like that? She sets her eye on Noah, the Duke of Wyknight, despite knowing him from the original novel to be scary and evil. If she's seen to be jumping into the bed of someone as important as him, Brooks won't be able to retaliate. She won't really jump into any beds, of course. That'll merely be how it appears in public. Instead, she offers a cold-blooded deal. If they pretend to be engaged, she'll... er, have to do some fast thinking and live up to the heavy chess imagery throughout the series and indeed its title sequence.

It's sinister. Raeliana is treading a dangerous path with scary people.

Over time, the show becomes warmer and nicer. Noah Wyknight is indeed ruthless, but he agrees to this fake engagement and seems fascinated by Raeliana. Her down-to-business attitude is unlike anything he's met before. She doesn't even like him, even though she admits he's good-looking. She's certainly not interested in his lands or his title. She's as romantic as a spiked club in the face. She's capable of talking like Machiavelli, or like a thug who understands politics. Noah enjoys that. This is a slow-burning, unconventional romantic comedy.

It's good fun. I enjoyed it. The cast are entertaining. There's a super-killer bodyguard who takes his job seriously and likes Raeliana. There's an arrogant brat who's the most powerful figure in the church. There's a cynical bastard who appears to be driven by revenge for the death of his sister, but really couldn't care less and just wants the money. We see triumphant levels of mega-bitchiness. On one level, this is the kind of happy, heartwarming show where you know where the story's going and you can enjoy watching our heroes slowly getting closer. The show settles into its genre and becomes reassuring comfort viewing. You're no longer scared, or even worried... but this is still a world where kidnappers might put a knife to your face. Also, both of our protagonists have an edge. It's not impossible to find yourself wondering if Raeliana might have someone killed (if she hates them enough).

For what it's worth, this first season only covered about a third of the original web novels. I've done some googling and if they ever adapt the rest, the writer's had some pretty dark ideas...