Did you click on this just to know if you should watch the show or not? If so your answers just a few scrolls away at the end of this review in a TLDR. Otherwise go ahead and be enlightened with the result of my wasting valuable time whining on the internet about some animated frames. Spoilers ahead although that doesnt exactly matter since IMO nothing of worth happens anyway. When I first heard about this story being adapted into an anime I couldnt help but think to myself wow out of all of the fifteen million fantasy isekai webtoons this ones getting an adaptation? I was very curious to see how this would end up so I decided to watch it. Truthfully I was captivated by the romance that this series allegedly promised and me having a massive guilty pleasure in regencystyle smut with an interesting premise I immediately took to giving this a go. However instead of getting those sweet little butterflies I ended up finishing it with a sour taste in my mouth that couldnt possibly be alleviated unless I would complain about it in depth on Anilist.co real. In general Im not one to complain about animation. I understand how difficult and timeconsuming it is to draw let alone color shade and in the end animate it all frame by frame. But in this show it feels like they arent trying at all. All of what you would consider cool movements ex. falling sword swinging etc are covered up and substituted with a sound effect which is in my opinion such a lazy way to avoid animating. I didnt have a problem with it the first few times but good God is that the only thing you could come up with? It doesnt even feel like Im watching a show anymore. Its more so a visual novel or just a moving storyboard. In scenes where there is a crowd around their faces are always greyed out and this makes the background seem even more empty than if there wasnt anyone around in the first place. Even the walking sequences which were probably the only effort to animate anything feels unnatural. CGI is used pretty badly on the horses and carriages as well as that one ballroom scene with MC FMC. I could not enjoy their conversation with the contrast between the different movements main characters dancing frame by frame CGI background people dancing and it feels so out of place and disconnected. Yes their budget definitely isnt equivalent to half of that of ufotables but still could you not try to use what you have in an engaging way? Theres nothing interesting happening visually. Also the facial expressions of the characters are so deadpan and every time they talk they show legitimately zero emotion at all especially the main guy Noah. I could go on and on about how blank and lifeless he always looks even when he is apparently showing affection for Raeliana. And here we go onto my next point. Noah. Hes hot and thats his only personality trait. In the first episode he is described as this devilish horrible man with a black heart. This description was never portrayed at all and Im not taking well thats because he just really likes Raeliana as an excuse. We never got to see anything other than one of the most uninspiring characters ever saying corny and lowkey creepy things to FMC. He has no dimension. We did see parts of his past that attempted to add character such as how his mother tried to kill his older brother so Noah could be king and how his father was deceived by love but this development was not expanded at all and certainly Noah was not concerned about being deceived into loving Raeliana. And to top it off there was no mention of why he even likes her. He just seems so emotionless that I doubt that he could even feel such a sentiment. Okay you know what they actually might be right about him being an awful person. There was one part where Raeliana accused him of exploiting her waking up in the morning one day on his bed her lower body aching. He didnt actually do this but he took her charge so nonchalantly that I was shocked. He did apologize to her but in the most manipulative way possible pinning her to a bookcase and sucking on her fingers what the fuck? until she said shed forgive him. If it werent for the fact that she was obviously developing feelings for him who would though in the first place?? this event is just so creepy if you think about it and it still is even if she does like him. He is also overly protective and possessive treating anyone of the opposite gender who might even have the slightest smidgen of interest in her like a maggot on spoiled meat. He appears so randomly in the story always ending up as the knight in shining armor whenever his beloved maiden is in trouble. His voice while initially pleasant ends up becoming so irritating with the cringe that he spits out that I do not understand how Raeliana can have a conversation with him without punching him in the cranium every fifteen seconds. The amount of physical touch that he imposes on her is astonishing there are probably more frames of their hands touching than there are millimeters from Earth to the Andromeda Galaxy. Its obvious that his VA is trying extremely hard to sound alluring and irresistible and it just feels so forced at times that I cant help but laugh at this ridiculous goober. He is much more likable in the manhwa so if blushing for him is what you want go ahead and read it instead of watching this. The other characters arent much better either. Almost none of them are memorable in the slightest. The main girl is your average clueless shoujo protagonist who tries to use lengthy inner monologues to create the illusion that shes smarter than she actually is. Considering how this is an isekai we should probably have a bit of background information on who exactly she was before she became Raeliana McMilan right? Nope we didnt get anything at all. There is zero explanation on her original identity Rinko Hanasaki other than the fact that shes a graduate desperate to get into a good college. So whats the point in having those moments where theres a little flash of Rinkos image beside Raeliana? It just seems so unnecessary for this to even be an isekai since we know literally nothing about Rinko what she liked what she did her personality etc. I do give credit that they at least tried to make her somewhat reliant on herself and not a complete idiot. However key word somewhat. There are moments where shes pretty badass such as that one scene with her taking Noahs gun and threatening to shoot Francis Brooks but she always ends up getting saved by Noah anyways. She always tries to get herself together around him and seem witty in every single conversation they have. It was entertaining at first but this style of interaction ended up being so overused that it feels like different ChatGPT generations of the same prompts. Heres how their discussions would go: Noah says something cheesy Raeliana says something insulting/clever Noah seems completely unfazed and says more cheesy things Raeliana starts blushing Same formula over and over again. The antagonists are exactly what theyre supposed to be. Antigonist. Against the protagonist. So they have to be immature pieces of shit right? Yup weve got the jealous villain woman Vivian Shamal who has no character trait other than wanting Noah all to herself goodness gracious what the hell do these women see in him?. I honestly hate these kinds of characters not because they suck but because theyre not interesting at all. There arent any underlying motives behind anything they do nothing that might make me relate to them. They have no purpose other than to be hated. Beatrice might seem to stir up something cool but thats because we also know nothing about her. We see slight snippets that she may be the one wanting to kill Raeliana but Raeliana thinks about her at minimum about five seconds in each episode before her train of thought is interrupted with the appearance of the incorrigible numbskull that is Noah Wynknight. The only character that I do actually like is Heika the high priest. Hes funny and has a personality. I do understand why hes always alone because everyone else in the story is nothing but infuriating shallow excuses of people. In moments of high tension it falls flat. Like when the cursed crystal that Raeliana wore in her hair was about to explode the screen immediately cuts to the shocked but static reactions of the people watching just like in a childrens gag comedy. It was such a laughable attempt at suspense and the crude animation made it even more awful. Well Heika did literally pull a fucking Jotaros Star Platinum time stop when that happened though so that was kind of one of the only awesome moments. The plot itself is a mess. The scenes are dragging and the progression makes no sense at all. The politics makes no sense. The mysteries throughout the show are so blatantly obvious since guess what they were all revealed to us in the first place While Raeliana spent three episodes wondering who exactly wanted to kill her we were blessed in advance with this knowledge from a great scene where it was shown to be none other than Vivian Shamal. Seriously could you at least make these characters just a bit less shallow? They legitimately have as much depth as those inflatable kiddiepools they sell at WalMart. Im not sure if this is the right word for it but the dramatic irony in this story makes it fifteen times worse than it already was. Destroys the very last smidge for any excitement that I could have about it ignoring all the romance. What was supposed to be the main focus Whats happening with Beatrice the isekai worlds protagonist gets flashes of relevance here and there as mentioned before and is only truly the subject in the final episode but throughout the series it just seems like a side quest romance being the highlight. Really unfortunate because I was pretty invested in that as well in the beginning. Then again this is probably all on me. I shouldnt have expected anything more from an isekai shoujo but whatever Ive already written this thing at full length. If you liked this anime I am personally very jealous of you since I definitely did not experience here the desperatelysought giddiness familiar to all in enjoying a nice heartthumping romance. TLDR: Overall I do not recommend watching this. The story flows more smoothly in the manhwa and its better than watching dull pretty much moving slideshows for 12 episodes although besides the eyefull of attractive people the manhwa itself isnt amazing after giving it a go. The MC is an irritating and entitled troglodyte and does not come across as charming at all other than his appearance. The dialogue and interactions between the characters have almost no meaning at all and the story just seems to go nowhere with its main narrative. I do have hopes that the next few seasons might be more enjoyable but from what I experienced Im not very optimistic.