Warning: Spoilers for 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! episode 9!
Although it follows some of isekai‘s most well-known tropes, 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!‘s unique formula on Crunchyroll just allowed it to expose one of the genre’s greatest flaws a second time and almost identically to how it did originally. Ironically, the episode where this happens later panders to the very dynamic that these moments have been subverting.
Essentially, most isekai series are limited to only foreshadowing events from the protagonist’s second and current life in the new world they were transported to. That’s because the moments from their first life are naturally disconnected from their second one. At the most, memories from a former life can impact events in the new world, but that’s about it.
7th Time Loop deviates from the norm because its protagonist, Rishe Irmgard Weitzner, doesn’t teleport to a different world. She just goes back in time to a specific moment in her life every time she gets killed, automatically linking all of her lives together. As of episode 9, the series has now revisited two characters from her previous lives – who were initially explored in the debut episode – by introducing them in her seventh and current life.
7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! Takes Advantage of Its One and Only World
Based on the light novel series by Touko Amekawa; produced by Studio Kai & Hornets
In what serves as a perfect example of gradual development, this second character from one of Rishe’s former lives has much deeper ties to even more lives than the first one did. Professor Michel is best known as the man whom Rishe trained under during her third life, but viewers who paid attention remember that he also appeared in one additional scene, while Rishe was discussing the events of her second life.
Episode 9 has proven that all of her lives are fair game.
However, Michel isn’t mentioned by name at this point, and his face isn’t even shown. All viewers see is the back of his head. In fact, this brief moment is one of the few interactions Rishe had with Michel that compelled her to look for him once she started her third life. Meanwhile, in episode 3 of 7th Time Loop, Rishe met with Kaine Tully from her second life. Much like in episode 3 with Kaine, how Michel is introduced six episodes later is much more effective than most Isekai can accomplish with newer characters, since the format naturally prevents it from using foreshadowing as deeply. Every new character an isekai protagonist meets can rarely be connected to their former life, since they come from a different world.
7th Time Loop Also Adheres to Some of Isekai’s Restricted Forms of Storytelling
Episode 9 uses popular isekai tropes to their advantage
Incredibly, episode 9 employs two additional modes of storytelling used by most isekai and other anime genres in general that undo its earlier subversion. Not only does it explore a significant portion of Rishe’s past with Michel that is completely new, but introduces a random power that she apparently learned during her fifth life that wasn’t included in the debut episode. The latter incident is what many isekai are forced to use early on, since they are unable to foreshadow events from the protagonist’s former life when they were still living in their original world.
This is also an example where a mystery has finally been solved. For viewers paying attention, they would have noticed that Rishe didn’t discuss everyone she met and everything she learned in all of her lives during the debut episode. This left fans wondering what happened during those lives and if the series would ever explore them. Episode 9 has proven that all of her lives are fair game.
So, while 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! exposes isekai’s inability to foreshadow events as effectively as most genres, this Crunchyroll anime is also proving that it won’t just rely on its own unique formula and is capable of adhering to conventions, even in the same episodes that subvert expectations.
7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!‘ is simulcasting on Crunchyroll
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