Mr. Villain’s Day Off Episode 1 Review And 2nd Episode release date

The hilarious Mr. Villain’s Day Off has an official anime adaptation and here is how the first episode went. (SPOILER’S AHEAD)

Mr. Villain’s Day Off is a comedy manga series written by Yuu Morikawa which was originally serialized on the Pixiv website in 2018 and later got a print release by Square Enix. The same publishers of manga such as Black Butler, Fullmetal Alchemist, and more.

Mr. Villain’s Day Off our titular villain…on his day off. That’s about it.

Well, beyond that, our Mr. Villain works for an evil organization from another planet with plans to take over the Earth. Every day, Mr Villian fights tirelessly against Earth’s Defenders and each battle is a battle of life and death. And now we follow his day off. The manga and anime adaption strike a similar beat to the iconic anime, The Way of the Househusband in its approach to viewing overpowered and deadly men doing everyday mundane things.

The trailer for Mr. Villain’s Day Off was first released on September 26, 2023. The trailer showcases some hilarious scenes and interactions with beautiful animation that showcases the eccentric nature of the comedy. We are introduced to our Villain and his bevy of “friends” and side characters as they all navigate this day off. Each character has their own distinguishing characteristics and relations to our listless and tired Mr. Villain. Moreover, the trailer promises hijinks and a deep connection to Panadas. Every listless character has something they are obsessed with like Saiki K being obsessed with Coffee Jelly. It will be interesting to see how our Villain ties into the ideas of Panadas in the long run.

So how does Mr. Villain’s Day Off start off the anime series on its first episode? Let’s find out.

The episode begins with a flat 2D montage of where the show is going along with a very nice and relaxing ost of “Yūho” (遊歩, “Walk”) performed by Ivudot. The OST sets the tone for Mr. Villain’s Day Off not only thematically but also what the show aims to do. The episode briefly opens without the intergalactic villain and his plans to take over the world before quickly cutting to Mr. Villian’s Day Off (a running gag that gets old pretty quickly considering how much it’s used throughout the episode but still is a nice call back to the title).

Our first interaction with pandas happens up front with us finding out that Mr Villain really likes pandas, a lot…a creepy amount as well. All Mr. Villain wants to do is spend his day off with good food and pandas, however, he runs into an Earth Ranger called Ranger Red Dawn. The two decide to call a truce and not fight each other on their day off. However, Red is a little bit clueless when it comes to directions so Mr Villain has to help him find his way before leaving.

We are then taken to a supermarket where he does not find his favorite ice cream and gets devastated. It is here that we are introduced to the supermarket lady character who does a great job embodying the ditty yet level-headed store employee.

Back home, Mr. Villain eats his ice cream, wakes up the next day does laundry, and makes breakfast. What you can observe from Mr. Villian’s Day Off is definitely that the show loves repetition, whether it’s repetition in gags, jokes, lines, or even characters, Mr Villain’s Day Off loves repetition.

We find out why Mr. Villain loves Panada’s so much. It’s because he’s trying to find the perfect animal. And for some reason, Panada’s are the perfect fit. But on Mr. Villain’s Day Off, he can never seem to catch a break, he either runs into his coworkers, or rangers or has to research Pandas even though he loves them.

The final act of Mr. Villain’s Day Off is by far the funniest with us being introduced to the twin children who latch onto Mr. Villain and get him to buy ice cream for them. The running joke in this section is that they call him, “Mr. Stranger who isn’t our Daddy”, the joke doesn’t wear thin and we realize that they are also rangers and the reactions in the background and secondary characters are hilarious.

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Overall, Mr. Villain’s Day Off is great but not revolutionary in any way. There is a lot of room for improvement and given that it’s the first episode we may see a lot of improvement in the coming episodes. The jokes are too sparse and sometimes it’s dry humor does more harm than good. Hoping to see it up the ante in upcoming episodes. It will interesting to see who gets introduced in the following episodes how they play into Mr. Villain’s Day Off, and moreover how many days off he actually has.

The next episode of Mr. Villain’s Day Off is scheduled for January 14, 2023. So stay tuned for more pandas, listless hijinks, and fun side characters.

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