Let me start off by saying this: I love anime/manga involving princess intrigue, including all things villainess-related. Like any red-blooded American, I too want to be thrust into a life of pretty dresses, cute boys, and political disasters that I need to figure out how to solve by being a good person. My inspiration to watch this show was absolutely in that vain, and that along with the amusing premise is what carried me through the first couple of episodes. Eventually, I reached a point where I went from "this is a fun premise," to "I'm probably watching half of this before I go to bed tonight.

I then proceeded to watch the entire thing.

I LOOOOVED THIS SHOW OMGGGG

As I said, I was hooked by the premise, thinking that watching our wholesome little Connie surrendering control to the DIVA Scarlet would be pretty funny...

...and it was.

But there is absolutely more to this show than just that! Throughout the entire story, there is always something happening that is interesting and important! There are no dull moments, as virtually everything that happens does so with purpose, with the everything coming together over the course of the season as we learn intricate details of characters' backstories and why all of these crazy things are happening.

CHARACTERS

On top of the main characters being charming and interesting, the other characters are mostly great! I'm going to discuss some of my favorites.

KATE!!!!!

Kate is a great "best friend" character! It is refreshing to see a well-written character like this, where she's a kind, overall awesome person, has conflict with the main character, and still doesn't feel like a Mary Sue or as though her conflict is some forced issue to create issues for our MC to solve for the sake of the plot! Personality-wise, above all else, she is strong-willed and a good friend through and through! Her main conflict with our MC is how Connie disappears and won't tell her anything despite them being best friends. I would be upset too! And, despite it all, she doesn't throw a fit like I was kind of dreading she might! Kate would be a lovely friend to have in real life, and there might be no more problems in the world if everyone was just like her.

THE SAME CANNOT BE SAID FOR THE GOOOOAAAATTTT!!!!! I LOVE CICI!!!!!!!

Crown Princess Cecilia is NOT a good person, and I would NEVER want to deal with her in real life. As a character, however, I love her. I could kind of tell that she was going to be evil from the millisecond she first appeared on my screen, but that didn't take away from my investment in her story. In my opinion, it is one of the most interesting things about this whole show. A diva has unfortunately been swiss cheesed by the opps in a sewer, but that's okay because she died how she lived: serving.

YAAAAYYYY!!!! CONNIE!!!

She is never going to not be a lovable goofball, because that's just who she is, but she has GOT IT GOING ON by the end of this show! Constance stands by being a good person through and through, even when that means telling a princess who's very clearly trying to drink poison that she's drinking that poison, even though she definitely doesn't want you to know about it. She never loses her good nature, no matter how much messed-up stuff is happening, and while she may still be naive at times, watching her go from innocent and sheltered to ready to be decapitated for a just cause, all coming from about the same place deep-down, made for a great character arc.

CONCLUSION

Watch the show.

ACTUAL CONCLUSION

This is my favorite anime of 2026 so far, and legitimately one of my favorites overall. If I had to pick something I didn't like, it would definitely be the romance, which I could have easily lived without. However, it wasn't a huge focus of the story, and every princess politics story needs a hunky love interest (or replacement tsundere yuri if not), as stated in the Constitution. Overall, though, I loved it, and the biggest complaint I have is that the story is over so we won't get more.

9/10