Summary
The 7th Time Loop breaks new ground for fantasy anime by introducing a unique twist to the isekai genre. The anime addresses a flaw in other villain series by allowing the protagonist to rely on knowledge from his past life to navigate the present time loop. While the show may still follow the isekai formula, it has proven to be innovative and promises more surprises in future episodes.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for The 7th Time Loop episode 3!! A new anime titled Time Loop 7: The villainess enjoys a carefree life while married to her worst enemy! that proved how the reincarnation series could survive without isekai just revealed a major weakness of this genre in general. Some series also draw attention to this issue by combining multiple types of Isekai to create magical effects.
While a great and misunderstood genre can play with metaphors more effectively than most anime genres, the general foundation of isekai has an existential flaw, and that’s how the main character must use their extensive knowledge of the new world to “play” the game. system.
These villain series often rely on their main character suddenly remembering a previously unannounced part of the otome or romance novel they put the isekai into every time they face a problem. problems or “death flags” that they must overcome. However, Time Loop 7’s complete focus on reincarnation allows the anime to create intriguing set-ups that are currently being implemented in the latest and third volume.
The 7th Time Loop is Fixing My Next Life as the Villain’s Only Vulnerability
Shoujo series are breaking new ground for fantasy anime as a whole
The villain of the 7th Time Loop, Rishe Weitzner, is not from the modern world and does not feature Isekai in a romance or otome novel. She is a person born into her own world, trapped in an eponymous time loop, which requires her to rely on her past life to survive in her present one, much like how the villains do. Isekai representatives often work with their otome or novels in their home country. The 7th Time Loop’s first episode sets the scene by showing key moments in each of Rishe’s past lives, and by the end of episode 3, Rishe is now monetizing the knowledge she’s accumulated from the loop for the first time to meet an important merchant who will help her in this new life.
This new format fixes a major flaw from one of the first and very popular villain anime called My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! In that film and many others like it, the villain encounters a new potential “death flag” and reflects on how her character initially handled that situation for the worse.
My Next Life as a Villainess is the main culprit in this case, as the eponymous Katarina Claes did this in the very first episode when she met a character named Keith, during which time the main focus of the series is making sure he doesn’t succumb to the same emotions that led to her character’s death. This pattern is repeated throughout the first season, and while the execution is excellent, the 7th Time Loop’s ability to set the stage creates a more profound effect when it comes full circle.
Ways other Isekai villains have solved this problem
The subgenre has a way of overcoming its biggest flaws
Of course, there are ways in which series that use isekai in the traditional sense have successfully addressed this problem without completely eliminating the phenomenon. For example, the new anime Doctor Elise simply added a stunning example of reverse isekai to the usual catalog of time travel and isekai to create an effective flashback that was completed in the first episode. I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss’s solution is to create a sense of the unknown by having its villain not recall important moments or characters from the otome she participated in isekai.
Of course, …I’m Taming the Final Boss relied on the same crutch as almost everyone in the genre. While Time Loop 7: The villainess enjoys a carefree life while married to her worst enemy! will most likely succumb to this isekai as well as the formula, it has proven to be innovative in this regard and will certainly continue to bring more innovations and breakthroughs in the future.
The 7th Time Loop… is streaming on Crunchyroll.
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