Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte (2023)

[ツンデレ悪役令嬢リーゼロッテと実況の遠藤くんと解説の小林さん]

Director: Fumihiro Yoshimura
Studio: Tezuka Productions
Starring: Tomori Kusunoki, Yuichi Nakamura, Kaito Ishikawa
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
Two members of the school Broadcasting Club find that they are able to communicate with characters in the otome game MagiKoi and use their power to try to save the misunderstood villainess.

Impressions:
Although I've only seen two otome game villainess stories, I came to this wondering what this series would bring to the table that was different. First, it isn't about the main character being reincarnated as the villainess in the world of the otome game. Instead, we have the eponymous Endo and Kobayashi acting as commentators for the game who start to interact with the game world. Lieselotte, for her part, is demonstrated to be not truly a villainess at all but rather a tsundere who can't honestly express her feelings and stands to be consumed by the true big bad of the game. It's kinda funny seeing meta fan commentary directly influence a fictional world, and there's decent character work going on both in MagiKoi and the real world. Kana Hanazawa's exuberance as major Liese-tan fangirl Kobayashi is particularly cute. The twist in the last few episodes, while telegraphed somewhat, does feel a bit out of left field, so your mileage may vary a bit on that, but overall, I enjoyed the experience and consider it worth a watch, so give it a shot.

Rating:
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