Convenience store clerk Byakuya is secretly a magical girl, as we see when she transforms in stereotypical magical girl fashion and then smites a dragon. She confronts the Evil Lieutenant who unleashed said dragon, and he is lovestruck. Roll OP. At the evil castle, a council of evil lieutenants questions Mira, the eponymous Evil Lieutenant, about his failure, and he assures them that everything is fine. We cut back to the scene at the beginning, where Mira notes Byakuya has foiled his plan, and gifts her cake (apparently this isn’t their first meeting). They find a free pavilion to get out of the rain (it has started raining) and share the cake while chatting. After he returns home, he thinks about how he needs to report what he’s learned…and instead orders a cheesecake. The next day, they confront each other, and he presents her the cheesecake. They flirt, awkwardly. We also learn her cutesy magical mascot creature works with the yakuza, apparently?
Meh. The premise sounded interesting (and reminded me a little of the underrated and delightful World Conquest Zvezda Plot), but the execution was disappointing. The show felt like it was trying to be cute and funny, but, well, both the “rom” and the “com” elements were missing from this romcom. I’m not sure how to put it into words, but something about the visuals also bugged me, or felt off. It seemed…washed out, maybe? In light of these factors, I can’t recommend this show. Instead of taking time to watch this, you should be watching one of the 574 anime in your backlog, or catching up on one of the 362 light novels/manga you’ve been meaning to read. You’d be more entertained. To be fair, the premise is appealing enough that I’ll concede the show still has potential; I’m just not willing to give it any more of my time to find out whether it lives up to that potential.
The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies is streaming on Crunchyroll.
