The Process Forum - Saga of Tanya the Evil

So...I've recently been getting into the anime show, SAGA OF TANYA THE EVIL. I know Japanese cartoons have no inhibitions about using really "out there" concepts, but this one takes the cake: A ruthless, amoral Japanese businessman from our era is sentenced by a mysterious entity referred to as "Being X" to be reincarnated as a little girl in an alternate reality where the Germans won the first world war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Gx2_sHMRI

If she dies a natural death, or continues to refuse to have faith in him, his pitch-black soul will be thrown down to Hell to burn for all eternity. Yes, I know it's stupid that she proudly continues to deny God's existence (i.e. "Being X") WHILE SHE'S ACTUALLY TALKING TO HIM, but modern atheists would deny a unicorn is real even after getting impaled on its horn.

Oh, and magic also exists in Tanya's new world, which is why people can fly around like birds.

One creative decision by Carlo Zen (creator of the original manga) that baffles me is his choice of protagonist. Zen makes it clear right from the outset that this guy is a raging douche long before he gets "girled," and she only becomes MORE of a douche in the form of a militaristic little she-demon. He's the kind of atheistic Darwinian a-hole who justifies his brutality by claiming it's just pure pragmatism. In his very first scene, we watch him fire some miserable bastard for alleged incompetence, although the particulars are kept vague. ("Missing work multiple times" could easily translate to clocking in maybe three minutes late twice in one month, no matter if you're living on the other damn side of Tokyo and have to be at the office impeccably dressed by 6 in the morning. The Japanese are a notoriously unforgiving bunch when it comes to work ethics.)

Please note this is the same kind of sociopathic personality who evicts families out of houses so they can happily rot on the streets.

Look, I get it: The title is Tanya the EVIL, and she's intentionally meant to be an anti-hero, but even Tony Montana from SCARFACE had a diabolical charisma that made us want to root for him. Aside from the perverse thrill of watching a little girl march around in a soldier's uniform, there's nothing even remotely likable about Tanya as a lead character. All she's got going for her is the stereotypical "cuteness" that the Japanese love so much (to the point where it gets a little creepy). And we're stuck with this piece of shit for the entire show.

Here's how I would have done it: I'd make the fired employee the one who gets reincarnated as Tanya. Financially and emotionally at the end of his rope, he jumps in front of an oncoming train, figuring that death is the only way out from his dead-end existence. But to his horror, he discovers that "God" has the exact same intolerance for failure, life essentially being a workplace where souls are promoted to Heaven or tossed down to Hell based on their career performance, that is, becoming someone famous or finding a way to reverse global warming, as opposed to simply living out your life as a nobody. Performing "good" or "bad" deeds is largely irrelevant.

"God" gives the employee one last chance to shape up: He either becomes the absolute epitome of elite proficiency in his next life, or he BURNS. On top of all that, "God" deliberately reincarnates the employee as a girl in an extremely patriarchal society, just to make things twice as difficult for him.

So now the employee would still be fulfilling her reputation as "Tanya the Evil," while simultaneously being tormented by her inner conscience.

Would that version be any better than the show as it is? Maybe, maybe not. But I know I'D watch the hell out of it.