They say that evil never sleeps, but that's not always true. Whether it's spent sleeping, eating ice cream, or watching pandas at the zoo, even villains trying to take over the Earth need some time off from all of that. That sentiment is best demonstrated in the anime "Mr. Villain's Day Off", the subject of today's review. I didn't watch it back when it was airing, but I had been hearing about it quite a bit; thus, I eventually decided to give it a watch. If there's one thing I can take away from this anime besides the whole "needing to take some time off" thing, it's that pandas are cute, although that's something I already knew.
The premise of Mr. Villain's Day Off, or "Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san" in Japanese, is pretty self-explanatory. The titular Mr. Villain is a general for an evil organization plotting to exterminate humanity and conquer the Earth in the name of their home planet (which I don't remember if it was even given a name), fighting against a group of Rangers who aim to protect the Earth. (Yes, Rangers as in Power Rangers.) However, most of the anime doesn't focus on these battles between the Rangers and the organization; instead, it is a slice-of-life focusing on the general's time off of work and how he spends it. A common way for him to spend his days off of work is using his annual pass to the local zoo and watching his favorite animals there: pandas. In addition, we sometimes get to see his interactions with other characters whether at work or on his days off, including those with the Rangers.
As you can see, it's the kind of anime that puts a character who is normally in a villain role into that of a protagonist. That being said, to sort of steal a quote from the movie "Wreck-It Ralph", just because he's a bad guy doesn't mean he's a bad guy. He doesn't want his work and private lives to intermingle, he can't help but take multiple pictures of cute animals at once, and he just wants to spend his precious time off of work relaxing; I'm sure we can all relate to all of that. Plus, he has displayed multiple acts of kindness throughout the series, such as when he helps the Red Ranger - who is his enemy, mind you - find his way on the multiple occasions when he gets lost. I think Red Ranger's nickname for the general, "nice guy from the Evil League", really says it all.
In regards to the other characters....well, it's not like I'm not quite as interested in how they spend their times off as the general, but none of them are really bad characters. Sora and Mugi, a pair of twins who combine together to make the Green Ranger, have a pretty sad backstory, so there's that, at least. There's also Trigger, one of the general's coworkers who has a grudge against him, and I'm still not entirely sure whether he amuses me or annoys me. One character that I wish we got to know more about is Hiroki, a child who the general meets at the zoo. His dream is to become an animal doctor, but his mom tells him that he can't do it; I really wanted to see him show his mother that he really is capable of what he wants to accomplish. Other than these characters, I was, unfortunately, not too invested in any of them.
Right there, in that last sentence, lies the main problem of Mr. Villain's Day Off; it's not incredibly interesting. Sure, it's a slice-of-life anime that is not meant to have a real story to it, but you could at least make the supporting characters more memorable than they already are. Although I wouldn't say I'm a tokusatsu fan, it's also a bit of a disappointment for tokusatsu fans who want to see some cool action scenes between the Rangers and the evil organization and don't really care for what happens inbetween the battles. That being said, if anyone who's like that is able to sit through the entire series, they are rewarded with a full-blown battle scene between the Rangers and the evil organization in the final episode. This battle scene doesn't have spectacular animation, but it's campy enough to be a fun watch regardless.
What I said about the animation for the final episode's battle scene can be said about the animation in the rest of the series, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Shin-Ei Animation and SynergySP worked together to give viewers some solid animation with some solid color design; it's nothing thrilling, but it suits the vibe of the anime very well. Speaking of vibes, I have to mention the opening theme, "Yuuho" by Ivudot; the backing track for this song sounds to me like it could be heard on a lo-fi hip hop playlist, and the vocals are pretty good, too! Oh, and the ending theme, "Kyuusoku Juuden" by GLASGOW, is pretty good, too. Even the voice acting was pretty good, and I especially want to give a special mention to Nao Touyama, who voices a convenience store clerk named Yamano who appears a few times in the series; she does a good job at making her sound enthusiastic!
I may have said some pretty negative things about Mr. Villain's Day Off, but I do think it's on the higher side of average. If you want a nice slice-of-life anime to watch on your day off, you could do much worse than this. At least you'll get to see some cute anime pandas!
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