In case you were not aware, while AlphaPolis has titles on their manga app, they also have been releasing a number of their titles digitally only on Amazon. The title I’m taking about today is based off a light novel, and it’s one of the better series you can read right now. I mean, it’s based off the numerous villainess tropes, which means you’ll see instead of a meek, sheltered noble a young, ice-cold lady knocking out her enemies with her fists and generally enjoying punching the living lights out of slave traders rather than someone timidly accepting that they must…
…Wait a minute, this “villainess” is doing what?
Scarlet ends up having her engagement broken by Prince Kyle at a bal. He does that by bringing forth a young girl Scarlet has never seen or met and announces that she is the person he will marry instead. The Prince then brings up false charges to incriminate Scarlet, but the nobles immediately believe this is true no matter what. With nothing she can say that would get them to change their mind, Scarlet accepts the annulment. She then puts on some gloves and clocks Kyle’s new fiancée immediately. Well, that sure took a turn for the violent.
And yes, it is awesome.
Due to politics Scarlet has had to deal with the useless Prince Kyle since childhood. And at no time did she ever like him or the people he associated with. So for better (Scarlet) or worse (Kyle and Scarlet’s brother, but for different reasons), the engagement being broken up in public only allows Scarlet to finally do what she wants to do: beat the snot out of the corrupt nobles who have been threatening the Kingdom of Pallistan behind the scenes. And the ball turned out to be the best way to do this!
May I Ask For One Final Thing? is not all blood and brawl though — her brother, Leonardo, is beside himself at having to save his family’s reputation, but it is Prince Julius that seems a couple steps ahead, whether Scarlet wants to admit it or not. (She would rather punch him though). The two show up at the end of Scarlet’s ball and because of how much energy she exerts she does faint, but when she awakens, they tell her the results. And yeah, it’s not good…for Prince Kyle and his cronies of course. However, this does begin a new chapter in Scarlet’s life, as now that the royal family has disassociated with Kyle for his actions, new political threats begin to emerge, and this means there’s many people deserving of punishment — like those people engaging in the slave trade (which is illegal).
The highlights, of course, start and end with Scarlett punching and putting total fear into all she meets (except Julius), but helping that is the way Sora Hoonoki captures each and every part of her knocking out her overmatched and conniving foes. Series like this can certainly get a boost in quality with how the action is depicted, so being able to clearly see these punches and facial expressions either every time Scarlet’s looking to take someone out or she’s positively annoyed by Julius is a delight. The overarching story is important, as figuring out what the main deal is to keep the characters going, makes the action stand out. But to be honest, there’s satisfaction in a bunch of brigands thinking it’s all good to surround Scarlet and think it’s gonna go great, only to soon realize they need to pick their battles much better.
So all in all, everything about this series is great, and I’d say if you haven’t checked out already you should…well, barring a few things. AlphaPolis has only released their titles on Amazon, so if you have a preference for other digital outlets, then you can’t read this. A large majority of manga releases list who did the translation, editing, etc, in their book, but for this one, you can only find out who did it on Alpha Manga. Which, speaking of Alpha Manga, you can read a couple of chapters there but eventually you’ll have to use tickets. And finally, this is really just them designing an English cover and adding the chapters in one book. There’s no table of contents or any way to indicate that this is the same thing that was released in Japan. So it’s arguable that there’s stuff missing compared to a standard book release.
Which is pretty disappointing, since there’s a lot to enjoy in May I Ask for One Final Thing?. Maybe its price point might be enough for some, but for others it might not, which means a lost sale. The real issue is that means people will be missing out on Scarlet enacting justice with her fists, which is a major loss. All of that said, if none of what I mentioned is a deterrent, then by all means, you’ll want to give this a read. Even more so if you’re looking forward to a “villainess” aiming to totally decimate anyone she meets who pisses her off. This also includes the prince, but that at the moment decimating him will be Scarlet’s greatest challenge yet…