The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess

Episode 8

“You're always the hero of your own story.” This is true in both real life and fiction—and is certainly true when it comes to our villain for this series. In his head, Algard is both righteous and pragmatic—willing to do whatever it takes to reform his kingdom and bring equality to the people. Burden by a corrupt class of nobles who use their magical ability as a sign of the divine right to rule and a sister who has selfishly discarded her duty as heir to the throne, it has fallen upon him to do what the two previous generations of his family have failed to do. And since the nobles will never give up their power to rule over the commoners willingly, he has no choice but to literally rob them of their free will with vampire charm magic. Most importantly, his actions are dictated by cold logic rather than any kind of emotion.

Of course, this is all total BS. It's nothing more than his rationalizations to get what he truly wants: to become a beloved king. Algard would always take the throne, but he is far too insecure just to let it happen naturally. Feeling that he is only getting the throne because of his sister's magic-less nature and refusal to take it, he fears he will never outgrow her shadow. However, with vampire charm magic, everyone will see things his way, and no one will ever compare him to his sister again.

Now, to be clear, I do not doubt that Algard feels bad for the commoners and truly wants to free them from noble oppression, but that doesn't mean he isn't using them as an excuse to give some greater selfless meaning to his prideful and envious actions. If helping the commoners was truly his goal, he would become king and fully support his sister's research. It only took Euphie a minute in Anis' lab to understand that her magical technology would upset the power balance of the kingdom by bringing magic to the magic-less. The mages in the ministry of magic have likewise realized the same thing. And while Algard is no prodigy, he's no idiot either. He knows that change is inevitable—that even if his sister is stopped from doing her research, the genie cannot be put back into the bottle.

What Algard has chosen is the path that gets both his noble goal accomplished and also gets him everything he's always wanted. This is why he waits for Anis and Euphie to return instead of escaping after running Lainie through and stealing her magic stone. He plans to kill them both: his genius sister and the perfect queen-to-be—the two women at the heart of his inferiority complex. With them out of the way and vampire charm magic in his hand, no one will ever look down on him again. He can be the perfect king once they're out of the way.

Of course, I'm sure there is some plan to blame Lainie's death (and Anis') on Euphie—and have Algard weave a sad tale about how he was forced to put down his jealous ex-fiancé—but we all know that things would never end there. Undoubtedly, Algard's father and mother would be the next to die—along with anyone else who questioned him and his methods. Algard is a tyrant in the making and one who would rule on a throne covered in the blood of not only his family but his people as well.

It's a good thing Anis and Euphie are there to stop him.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Algard is a teen at that age where every problem in the world seems easy to fix if everyone would do the “obvious” thing they're too selfish to do. The problem is he figured out how to get the power needed to force everyone to do just that.

• I'm interested to see if Moritz knows Algard's plan to give equality to the commoners or if he thinks, like his father (the minister of magic), that Algard wishes to keep the status quo.

• Anis' magical girl optimism—that magic's purpose is to bring people joy—is back in full force as we head into the next episode.

• Tilty sure had fun using her black magic on all those uppity mages. Probably the most cathartic moment of her life.

• If things go even a little bit realistically, many mages and guards in that ballroom will be executed for trying to harm a member of the royal family and/or not stepping in to help her.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.

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