In May I Ask For One Final Thing, Scarlet has suffered as the fiancée of Kyle von Paristan, the second prince of the Kingdom of Paristan. He has picked on her as a kid, and as a teenager bosses her around and demeans her. She treats him with stony silence, holding back her rage, until the day he breaks the engagement to be with a new girl, Terenezza Hopkins, who claims Scarlet bullied her. Scarlet asks for one last thing–to hit this lying girl. It turns out that Scarlet is not only good at hitting but also really enjoys it! Now free of Kyle, she can unleash her rage on him and his corrupt supporters.
It also helps that First prince Julius von Paristan is greatly amused seeing her beating people up and finally getting to be herself. But her older brother Leonardo (who is also Julius’s attendant) is worried sick about his sister’s reputation and Julius’s antics. That said, because Scarlet is a noble woman she can legally hit other nobles when others cannot, and now that she is free and has insight into many corrupt people, she wants to let loose. Luckily for her, Julius and Leonardo have been secretly investigating corrupt nobles and they recruit her to help them investigate corruption.
Scarlet takes to this task with relish. Besides her fighting skills, we learn she is a strong magic user, using spells to augment some of her fighting abilities, and incredibly good student. But she is also a bit boring as a lead. She starts out with an ice queen persona and keeps quiet or dull to get by during her engagement. Now free, she does have some great one-liners in her bluntness, but we really do not have a sense of who she is beyond her rage and annoyance with people. As satisfying as it is to see Scarlet beating up corrupt and/or arrogant individuals four episodes in, it got a little repetitive and is mainly used for laughs and not as real battles. She is not all-powerful, and rules about her magic’s limitations are set up early, but I found myself not wondering too hard about the battles after a while.
She does get a bit more open about her relationship with Julius, but that also has some weaknesses. Their dynamic is a well-known trope of the strong woman getting teased by the overconfident man who holds some degree of power over her. (She can’t hit him because he is a prince.) A big part of the humor on the show is Julius purposely picking on Scarlet to get a reaction, and the show heavily hints at a romance between them. There are some details about why he is interested in her that aren’t quite romantic that makes me curious how they are going to navigate the two of them going forward. I am not invested in them as a couple but they are playing around with some well-known anime archetypes that could pay off.
Where things could get more interesting is the lore of the world. The opening shows more characters to come and, through four episodes, the rules of magic users and where their powers come from is detailed. Also the larger world, including neighboring countries with very different cultures, could open things up.
Then there is Terenezza, She is the only one shown during the end credits in all sorts of well-known Disney princess outfits that were very unnerving. We also see hints of a darker personality coming through when she is egging on Prince Kyle. Something bigger is happening with her and she almost seems like the Joker wanting to watch the world burn.
In May I Ask for One Final Thing, the premise of seeing jerks getting beat up is very fun, but hopefully it expands beyond in some interesting ways. A lot was set up in the first four episodes I’ve watched and more is definitely going to be unveiled. While I remain concerned about how interesting Scarlet as a character will be overall, her interactions with other characters like Julius and her brother mean we at least get some good jokes out of her.
May I Ask for One Final Thing? airs on Crunchyroll Fridays.
