Warumono-san is an evil general of an army that wants to destroy the Earth. As you might expect, this job is pretty exhausting, so on his day off he intends to get the most out of his time. In this episode, we see him visiting a zoo to see the pandas in particular. The thing he seems to hate most is being disturbed by colleagues or enemies in his free time. So when a Ranger challenges him at the zoo, he offers a truce instead and helps him with directions, all in order to continue his rest day as soon as possible. Throughout the episode, he does normal everyday activities, such as grocery shopping, cooking, and doing the laundry. But he also goes out of his way to help two lost kids at the mall. He gives them ice scream, and seems to be very patient with them. This makes you wonder, is he really that bad of guy?

The premise of this show opens up many opportunities for good comedy. It reminds me a bit of The Devil Is a Part-Timer, which has a similar premise. Just like that anime, this one does a decent job of being a cozy and wholesome anime. Personally, though, I think the comedy side of it is not the greatest. This might be a bit subjective, but I found most of the jokes to be a bit too much on the overt side. But the tranquil atmosphere that the anime goes for is effective nonetheless, so overall I enjoyed watching this episode. It might be a small thing, but I appreciated that the anime starts off right away with the opening. The OP itself is very relaxing, which helps to set the tone. The art and animation are clean, and the voice acting is good. So while the first episode isn’t as funny as I hoped it would be, I think I will check out the second episode next week, to see if the anime gets better when more characters are introduced.

Mr. Villain’s Day Off is streaming on Crunchyroll.