Ever wonder what the bad guy from Power Rangers does on his day off? Mr. Villain’s Day Off has the answer.
Two AJnet Anime Club articles in one month? I’m on a roll here.
My tastes in stuff have always been pretty diverse. I’m not the kind of guy who just hones in on one genre of anything, be it music, books, TV shows, or movies. If I find something enjoyable then I enjoy it regardless of what other people think. Anime is, of course, no exception to this rule.
So when I told a friend that I enjoyed Mr. Villain’s Day Off, I didn’t care when he broke out the snide remarks. “You actually watched that shit? That anime’s for kids!”
Maybe Mr. Villain’s Day Off is for kids, but I don’t care. Not everything has to be Jujutsu Kaisen or Dragon Ball or Bleach. Those are all decent animes of course, I’m not putting them down. The thing is, they’ve set the bar for anime so high that many people don’t think to look under that bar sometimes. People like my friend are expecting everything to be fast-paced, serious, and full of intense action and gritty story arcs. They sometimes forget to have fun.
And that’s exactly what Mr. Villain’s Day Off is: Cute, silly fun.
The series has a simple premise. The main character, usually referred to as “The General” or “Mr. Villain”, is a high-ranking member of an alien race that wants to destroy all humans and claim the planet for themselves. The General constantly goes up against the Rangers, a team of five (well, technically six) costumed warriors that are essentially meant to be the Power Rangers/Super Sentai.
Even generals of alien armies need days off though, and that’s the focus of the series: What the General does on his days off. As it turns out, the General mostly spends his days off obsessively watching pandas at the zoo. I’m not exaggerating, this guy is absolutely obsessed with pandas, to the point where he feels guilty consuming panda-shaped foods and drinks. Most of the humor in the series comes from the General’s love for pandas. Here’s this evil alien creature with a scorpion tail who’s hellbent on eradicating the entire human race, and he’s having an internal struggle about consuming a latte because the foam is styled like a panda. It’s so adorably goofy that you have no choice but to love it.
When the General isn’t killing his phone’s battery by taking panda pictures, he’s trying new foods at the convenience store, smacking down boxes of mandarin oranges, and bumping into the Rangers on their days off.
The Rangers themselves aren’t just cookie cutter Power Ranger parodies, as you might expect from a series like this. The Rangers each have their own unique personalities. Red is notorious for getting lost, to the point where the General even takes pity on him and often ends up helping him find his way around. Blue is a miserable jerk with a constant stomach ache. Pink is secretly obsessed with a magical girl anime series. Black is the last remaining Ranger from the previous group of Rangers that came before. Sora and Mugi are twin children who together inherited the power of the Green Ranger. The series doesn’t focus on the Rangers as much as the General, but they do get enough screen time to properly shine, and we even get an entire episode showing how they came to live together in their house, as well as a look at how one becomes a Ranger.
There’s no serious plot to Mr. Villain’s Day Off, there’s not a bunch of intense battles or carnage, there’s no overarching threat building up in the background. This isn’t a series that needs to be taken seriously to be enjoyable. While it can be repetitive at times (the General really spends a lot of time at that zoo), the jokes aren’t beaten into you, and they’re usually used to set the stage for something else.
If you’re looking to take a break from the fast-paced intense nature that’s prevalent in today’s popular anime, then you’ll enjoy Mr. Villain’s Day Off for sure. With its lighthearted humor and wholesome moments, this series is essentially a nice relaxing day off from the hustle and bustle of current popular series like Jujutsu Kaisen, Solo Levelling, or Demon Slayer.
I rate Mr. Villain’s Day Off a 7/10.