I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! – Episodes 1-2

Content Warning: Fan service, groping

What’s it about? Liam hasn’t always been part of the interstellar empire’s ruling family. Before, he was a Japanese man mired with workplace stress, but bolstered by his family. That is, until he gets betrayed on all sides and loses everything. Given the chance to reincarnated into another world, Liam takes it, fueling his desire to live for himself with rage and grief as he sets out to become a tyrant and rule the entire world.

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Ah, space, the final frontier. This is the voyages of…a 36-year-old man reincarnated into the body of a 10-year-old who will grow up to exact revenge on his entire world?! Okay, that’s still a star trek, even if it’s not the Trek. Question is, will this story capture viewers with a thoughtful engagement with the galaxy and its cast of characters, or will it become just another “guy who gets reincarnated with a bunch of buxom women” story?

You’ll have to read to find out though I suspect you already kind of know.

Also: this review will cover episodes 1 and 2, which dropped simultaneously. As always, there’s very limited spoilers: I’m only bringing up things that are necessary for you to know, given the above content warning. Otherwise it’s off to the stars with Liam and his life in a galactic world!

These two episodes are filled with the final frontier of war: Space! That, and lots of giant mechs traversing the ethereal black as they wreck ships, filling the soundless void of space with the battle cry of enemy versus enemy, bullet versus blade. We don’t yet know the cause of war: in this opening, it simply exists.

In the midst of this is Liam, protagonist and evil galactic overlord: formerly of Japan, now of the stars.

But there was a life lived before that, and for most of the premiere, we spend time learning about Liam’s life before he gets whisked away to another world. He’s married, has a daughter and a dog. He has a standard job, and while he’s definitely visibly exhausted by the mundanity of life, it’s also clear that he loves his wife (Mika) and daughter (Kanami). Yet the pressure of his toxic workplace quickly becomes apparent as the bags under his eyes get bigger and his shoulders droop even more.

And then he sees his wife with another man when she’s supposed to have been taking their daughter to her sports club. Worse, days later, Liam witnesses Mika bringing their daughter to a meet-up with another man and hears Kanami call the stranger “Papa.”

This, combined with the harsh reality of working in a brutal workplace, sets the foundation for Liam’s very upsetting spiral into a mix of rage and depression. In many ways, it’s quite understandable: the world he’s built, the family he relies on to give him a protective factor so he can push through life, is now falling apart around him. His tendency toward overwork and weekend shifts has obscured the fact that Mika, a homemaker, has felt intensely lonely and grown resentful. But she’s not the only one who resents their marriage, and soon, that pain will fuel Liam’s departure to another world and the story that unfolds over these two episodes.

I always try to find the silver lining in every premiere because I understand, at base, a series has someone–typically many someones–anticipating it. I also understand that there’s a lot of people who have wanted to see animated adaptations of series for their favorite light novels and manga.

And I will say that I do think this show sets itself apart in establishing Liam’s war-hungry personality in the world he’s been reincarnated to. I think he’s actually quite sympathetic as a protagonist: at least in terms of his backstory. That said, there’s also this underpinning sexism that exists: Mika goes from a wife who cheated to almost cartoonishly devious. She practically cackles about Liam being graced by being able to live with her for a decade. I get that he’s upset about his marriage but like…I don’t know, that feels like a step too far out of reality.

Strip away the galactic aspect, which might be the only interesting thing about it, and you’re left with a whole lot of unnecessary fan service and the most unlikable cast of characters ever. And look: I like fan service when it makes sense and has a point. One of my favorite anime, Keijo!!!!!!!!, is all about engaging and subverting fan service and having fun with it. Here, however, it just feels icky and misogynistic. It’s that strange male fantasy of having a bunch young women twisting and preening at the oddest moments—like in the middle of battle when suggesting sending more battleships or when getting into their mech. 

In episode 2, this includes Liam being able to choose every detail of his AI Maid Robot, who’s seen in the opening salvo of episode 1. This includes Liam being able to choose from dozens of censored reproductive organs, which, based on the very gendered nature of the world he exists in, means he’s choosing different vulva and vagina styles for his maid robot. As a child. Like he’s at the Honda dealership picking up his custom ride. Oh yeah, and he promptly gropes her, er… “inspects the goods” as soon as she leaves her packaging. He then wants to inspect her further in his playroom. The incredibly sexual implications are very uncomfortable.

It just don’t feel right, this level of fan service, and I think that’s because it feels like it’s entirely servicing a cishet male eye. I, as a marginalized viewer, find this show incredibly unsexy, leaving Liam to feel less like a realistic human being driven by grief and more like a caricature of human rage. Perhaps this will change, but honestly…I hold very little belief it will. In fact, I imagine it’ll only become more apparent as Liam grows up in another world and continues to feed his deeply internalized anger.

It’s striking that we’re getting so many of these “sad Japanese guy who got done by all of society goes to another world” series at a time when the world feels especially violent against marginalized genders and identities. It feels indicative of the industry and the ability to churn out dozens of these male power fantasy series a year without consideration for the type of story being adapted. It’s just money all the way down without a care to using animation to adapt stories that evoke a wider range of emotions and stories. It’s frustrating because while I understand, from a very pragmatic point, the ease, and likely the affordability, of adapting these dime a dozen light novels, I know anime can be so much more.

This is not more. 

At the end of the day, I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! is a male power fantasy. Liam Sera Banfield, our once Japanese protagonist, frequently says that he loves bullying the weak and picking on the little guy. It feels like the comeuppance of a former nerd who’s now got power beyond his wildest dreams, and thus…just doesn’t appeal to me as a story where the protagonist will actually work through his trauma. It’s sexualized and thinly written from the beginning, eroding any interest that could exist in a galactic war story adaptation like this.

The verdict? I personally don’t recommend you spend your time on this, unless you’re really interested in seeing this story potentially become more than the sum of its parts. I, personally, don’t think it will and suggest you leave your Spring Watchlist open for more…engaging titles.