“Revenge”
What They Say:
He spent his life working for a black company, only to learn that his beloved daughter was born from the man his wife spent years cheating on him with – his own boss. Yearning for revenge on his deathbed, he’s reincarnated in a space fantasy as the Evil Lord Liam.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the light novel series Seikan Kokka no Akutoku Ryōshu!, this show is the kickoff of the spring 2025 season with the first new episode launching. The light novels from Yomu Mishima and Nadare Takamine began in 2020 and have nine out already – and an English pickup through Seven Seas Entertainment. The anime makes out well with studio Quad handling the production and getting Tetsuta Yanigasawa to direct it from the scripts by Katsuhiko Takayama. Yanigasawa has been around a long time, even working on VOTOMS back in the day, and worked on more recent projects like High School DxD and Berserk of Gluttony among others. Takayama has some solid experience across genres from Aldnoah.Zero to Baka and Test and the screenplay for the Zegapain STA film.
While the show starts us off with a sprawling space battle that’s reminiscent of anime of old, we’re introduced to “Liam” in his normal life at home on Earth in the present. Here, he’s happily married with a daughter, has a solid job, and is a good family man that even enjoys puppies. His life is not easy as everything is seemingly working against him but it’s all worth it for those at home that he loves. Even if he’s blamed for everything that everyone else does wrong. But it helps him provide for a good life for his family so it’s worthwhile. Where it starts to go downhill is when he finds out that his wife, Mika, is apparently cheating on him when she sees him with another man. And then to discover later that the man is actually his daughter Kanami’s actual father? It’s the most brutal of discoveries for him, especially since Kanami even knows that the other guy is her real father. It’s just a series of brutal moments for him that primes him for what’s to come.
With is family life falling part as he’s accused of being the weak link in it all, and the company going under with him seemingly to blame as well, he’s a shell of the man he once was doing basic construction work to survive and pay back what he owes. As his health is failing as well, he ends up in a small one-room apartment when a light suddenly shows up there and reveals the truth of all the things that went wrong, which is even worse than imagined, making it clear just how manipulated he was all these years. It’s the worst of the worst and they do a good job of showing how this guy who tried to do everything right was just take advantage of in so many ways. But when the light reveals itself to be a sentient Guide who essentially offers him revenge of sorts by leading a life of evil in another world, he can’t resist and goes all in on it because all that goodness has been twisted into a hate he can use, which is what we saw the result of at the start of the first episode.
The show launching with two episodes is good because I rather like that it spent the majority of the first episode on how his life went bad and just how deep the awfulness was, making it clear why he chooses this science fiction life in order to live his darkest and most evil life after such goodness only got him pain and heartbreak. While he finds himself in this science fiction world that also has magic as Liam, it’s done by him taking over the life of a young boy from a family of immense wealth who just had a birthday and has been gifted an AI maid robot that he’s able to custom build. Which is about as you’d expect from him after his life. The best present is that his parents essentially gift him everything they have and scoot off to the Imperial home planet with an allowance funded by their son so they can just have e life of leisure while he handles all the duties. With a classic old guy human servant and a buxom AI maid robot, and an adult mind who is intent on dominance in the body of a boy, Liam is set up for a truly wild ride.
While bits of the “present day” battle are mixed in and we do get some follow-up on what happens in Liam’s old life with his ex-wife and boss, most of the second episode is focused on his transition to this new life. The big with his maid, named Amagi, definitely scratches an itch for the guy in a lot of ways since she’s mostly custom-built. That he goes right to groping her just makes me laugh, though. Of course, the problem that slowly comes to surface is that while he’s certainly enjoying Amagi, it turns out that the empire has a strong dislike to say the least when it comes to AI and that it’s pretty much looked-down upon to say the least, which makes it all the more curious his mother gifted him on. There’s a dark history to the revolution that crushed AI and formed the empire, but this is just one of a few reveals about the tough path ahead for Liam as his plans to be an evil lord are facing numerous creditors looking to collect – and his parents have ensured he’s the one on the hook. It’s classic stuff but you can see the path he’ll take to try and not just survive but thrive by bringing in his knowledge from another world.
In Summary:
The show works the origin story well across the two episodes while giving a couple of nods to the characters that will populate his larger fight and experience. The heavy focus on his time before coming to this world was welcome since it’s not the usual gimmick of hit by a car and bam, he’s living his new life. We get something that across the two episodes digs deep into why he’s going evil in this world in a way that feels earned even if it’s not the right thing to do. But it avoids going so far as to make him truly terrible in the way one or two other series have done, such as Redo of Healer. There’s a certain charm to all of this once Liam takes more of the stage and sets his plans as his knowledge of this new life increases, but it’s still got its moments that are going to frustrate a lot of viewers. But those quirks are what will definitely amuse others and make the show fun in uncomfortable ways. It’s got a good look to it and some interesting ideas it can play with in the episodes to come.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
