Forum - View topicMy Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (TV) (all seasons).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Season 1 - My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (TV) Season 2 - My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X (TV 2) (discussion starts here) Genres: comedy, drama, fantasy, romance Themes: otome game, school Plot Summary: After hitting her head particularly hard one day, Duke Claes' daughter, Katarina, suddenly recalls all the memories of her past life: that of a teenage Japanese girl. It seems in her past life, Katarina was playing a video game very similar to the life she lives now right before she died. She is now Katarina Claes, the antagonist of the otome game, who nastily hounded the protagonist until the end. Knowing all the possible outcomes of the game, she realizes that every single possible route ends with Katarina being murdered or exiled. In order to avoid these Catastrophic Bad Ends, she has to use her knowledge of the game and her own wiles, starting with breaking off this engagement with the prince. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
Oh yes, this was one of the new shows of the season I was looking forward to, and was quite happy with this start. Female heroine isekai are a little rarer in the whole genre, but like Ascendance of a Bookworm I think can be a nice breath of fresh air from the normal. Added that the heroine is already familiar with how the plot is meant to play out, with herself as the meant to be villainess, kind of hope some good humour. My take on the new Catarina is that she is maybe not recognising some changes she might have with the guys. She already takes Geordo as a secret black hearted person that will eventually turn on her, but I wonder if that will change from the single fact that his fiancée wont be a stuck up awful person. Geordo does seem to have a mask, which had him trying to hold back at laughter from Catarina being ridiculous, surely different from her previous self, wonder if the plot will take into account him changing from what he would have been. And Keith may well go from horribly lonely and afraid from his adopted sister's abuse, to looking up to her. Wonder how this may go when the heroine eventually comes in. Wonder if she will be in any way a villainess after her personality shift, I thought that might still be fun to an extent. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 2
I think my favourite part of the episode was Catarina realizing that her great heartfelt speech to Mary was something she literally stole from Alan and was meant to say to Mary, his fiancée, that would have her love him. Catarina seems to have turned the tables by having Mary fall for her instead, her expressing joy about the engagement because it makes her like Catarina. Although seems clear Alan will be pulled into this harem too, which four now. Catarina too dense to realize that Geordo and Keith were not being friendly to each other when offering to help her up, but a budding rivalry for her. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 4
I think she just turned the Otome game with a pick of guys into yuri, now that she got the would be main character, Maria, into her harem. Catarina herself seems quite charmed with the girl. Totally big bi energy here. Her inner council even noted that Mary is not in love with her fiancé, but I am not sure if she is actively aware which person Mary is clinging onto in that example. Mary is also pretty thirsty. Catarina was also specifically told by her mother not to eat food off the ground, and it was ignored as too ridiculous of advice. Also, the student president's name is something like Sirius Dieke. Based off of the energy from things like in the OP, I get the feeling he will be revealed as a serious dick. |
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Anime Viewer
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Like you I've very much been enjoying the show so far. Funny comedy, interesting main character, nice art/animation. I wouldn't mind it going the yuri route. I'm not a fan of harems in general. Especially the type when its some dumb guy with no appealing qualities, and there is no reason any of the girls should fall for him or even give him the time of day. Likewise I can't stand when writers, produders, directors feel like they self-insert themselves into a guy in the stories and make the girl characters fall for them. On other forums there are some people who don't properly spoiler things that bring up light novels and manga that are apparently related to this story. The good news is that this isn't necessarily following, or going to follow those, and there are alternative route stories like the spoiler[ yuri ] route being created by the creator and published by his company. We could even get a new unique story in the anime that differs from what has previously been made. There have been other anime that differed significantly from the novels, mangas, and games they were based on and this could follow suit. I'm looking forward to episode five, and what this story could potentially have in store for us the rest of the season. quote="DuskyPredator"]Episode 1 Female heroine isekai are a little rarer in the whole genre, but like Ascendance of a Bookworm I think can be a nice breath of fresh air from the normal. Added that the heroine is already familiar with how the plot is meant to play out, with herself as the meant to be villainess, kind of hope some good humour. [/quote] Like you i've also enjoyed the Ascendance of a Bookworm anime as well through the 1+ seasons that have aired so far. There do seem to be a number of parallels between that story and this one, and they both are giving us some funny and interesting stories and characters. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 10
Called it. Knew he was a villain, although I wonder if some sort of explanation will be given to make him more sympathetic after things like mind control, drugging and kidnapping. Wonder if he has Maria in a cage somewhere. Also, might have Catarina in the game have always been affected by him as a reason for acting extra horrible? |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (finale)
And I would say that it managed to stick the landing, even managing to have Sirius, Raphael, come across as sympathetic with a road to redemption. I recently binged some western cartoon that also did the show love thing to the villain, so it felt a little odd. I would say it all worked fine, even a great extra bit of Catarina worried about the even of who Maria would end up with, Catarina clueless that indeed it is a harem end but just not Maria's. I really enjoyed this show, although I might start with a couple complaints. I think that it sagging a bit towards the start of the second half of the season, where episodes like the book one felt largely like a filler, showing a bit of the other characters thoughts of Catarina, but nothing actually interesting or as funny as other parts. It was a part of how I thought at the start of the show this would be my number one pick of the season, but Bookworm ended up being a bit more consistent, but I would look forward to another season. But I also in general hold a love of this show for kind of what it represents. Following what Catarina did in her childhood, it kind of felt like it refused to follow a romanticisation of the kind of awful traits the characters might have had if it was how they were all designed to be, being just better people. It is pretty clear that is generally part of Catarina being a good person, which is not exactly unique among these sort of romance harem settings, I genuinely how active of a character Catarina is in all of this. I had honestly been starting to think that I had grown out of harems (reverse or not), but Catarina is a character onto herself, and although maybe takes harem protagonist idiocy up a couple of notches, she is very active in what happens rather than being reactive in a way that it feels like most harem protagonists are. Why is this so rare, especially since it is rather common to be a bit complaint I give for female leads. And I feel like it maybe gets said too much in places, but I do think the fact that the harem is so clearly bisexual should give it some credit, that feels really rare, and especially in that I don't think this show actually itself makes a fetishy deal out of the fact that the girls are very prominent. there is girl and girl, but it doesn't feel like "yuri". I think that things like anime could do better if they normalize this sort of thing, I wonder if we could have a male protagonist harem with bisexual options that don't feel forced? My personal favourite ship in the show would be Catarina with Mary, I know that Mary is kind of the sneakiest, but something about that charm and how Mary is kind of super upfront (even if Catarina can't see it). If I was to make some improvements for the show, I guess that I would like more of Catarina actually looking like a villainess. Her innocent dumb face is nice, but it kind of feels like a missed importunity to not have some focus of Catarina unintentionally looking evil. Especially since I think that she even mentions a few times that she thinks that she has an evil face like it affects things, but I don't think it ever does. It maybe would have made the scene where she is accused of bullying Maria work a bit better, rather than just the humour of all her friends saying that Catarina is far too dumb for something like that, which worked too. It mostly felt like just Catarina thought that she looked that way. Catarina's misunderstanding of everyone's attraction and stuff also feels a little off in whether there is something like her being ace or something, and while I am going to assume she is bi based on how she does comment a few times on both gendered characters are attractive, maybe a bit more than her just thinking everything is friendship and she could find herself into them. I feel like I need to go into several other touches of things I liked in the show, such as her relationship with her mother that was always frustrated in how unladylike Catarina might be, it felt like a distinctive feminine parental relationship that worked well in comedy. The Bakarina council were also a highly enjoyable element, and could not imagine enjoying this as much without them, if anything I would almost like a further split up of personality fragments, a nice metaphor for her complex character. Even if that complex character is made of simple minds. My rating is Very good (8/10), while flawed in areas that it could improve on, and really not that surprising, I think that it is a do not miss show, and I might hope could improve a lot of series that could take some notes in the series. |
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Saeryen
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This was my favorite anime of Spring 2020 (well, alongside Fruits Basket, but I don't count it as much since it's Season 2 of a 2019 anime).
Katarina Claes is the isekai protagonist we deserve. I just thought this was very heartwarming, funny, and emotional show. Perfect. It's one of my favorite anime. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 1
Woohoo, season 2, back with our bisexual harem. We got to see Catarina with other friends from her class, them not (yet) in her harem, but well aware of using food as a motivator. Her love interests can also fight right in front of her over her, and she can't pick up a thing. Like Mary straight up admitting that she uses accepted signs of affection of female friends to touch Catarina. Keith being caught in using his status as her adopted brother to have her feed him. And a love confession from Nicol via reading some play lines handed by Sophia. And Catarina admitted that Maria can make her heart flutter. Also, the fiancée of one of Geordo and Alan's brothers flirted with her. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 3
Catarina being so able to relax that she kept forgetting that she was kidnapped, well at least it wasn't too harsh treatment. She also managed to redeem/charm her supposed captor into not being worried about what others think of her, and thus let Catarina go, although obviously she has just been getting manipulated by the butler into getting rid of Geoffrey's competition for the throne. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 7
Oh yes, one of my biggest weaknesses, gender swapped characters. Granted is apparently the idea of Keith of what other kind of life he would like to live, apparently with himself as a girl. Wonder if there is actually anything to unpack from that. Mary's dream world also had herself seeming to be gender swapped as a king, so he can steal Geordo's girl (Catarina). Not really a gender swap, but Maria's world apparently had her being super buff, so that she can make all the sweats for her friends. It also plays with gender in a way, so it also gets my notice, while a little funny that it is apparently a side of her. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 9
Thought that it was going to be a silly little episode of Catarina trying to find Keith, and then there is a scene showing him kidnapped and abused. It is playing with my heart showing that. Also, loved the bit showing Catarina and her mother both getting emotional over the idea of Keith not having been able to handle things and Catarina needs to apologise. Especially to that element of how we know that it clashes with the way the characters were in the original game. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 10
A rare thing to see Catarina lean into her villainess thing, and it was with a petty dispute with an animated teddy bear that just doesn't like her for some reason, she covered him in stickseeds. And along those similar notes, Catarina was getting really close with Maria, while Sora seemed to be acting on instructions from Mary to get in the way of Geordo pulling anything with Catarina. Looks like they might be able to get to Keith next episode, which seems to be giving him another night of torture. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 11
They got Keith back. And after mistaking actions as a dream he kissed Catarina, and is now refusing to have take backs at ignoring it, and confessed to her. Now two boys have started to make their stances much more clear, which has kind of tipped the balance a bit in the favour of boy pairings with her. We probably only have one episode left, but based on the order of Geordo and then Keith, it would make me think Mary should be the next one to make her feelings to Catarina much more clear. Also, Catarina got a cute puppy, which is actually a familiar made of dark magic. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15486 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 12 (season finale)
Apparently a movie is in the future, which is good because I certainly would like to watch more, and the end of this episode pointing to there being more as Catarina joins the magic ministry, would be too cruel otherwise. Although, I do have a couple of minds on things, such as it didn't really feel like this season did much with the school setting, other than it just being a place for the characters to meet, between kidnapping plots. Some plots were like random doll house episode within the ministry. Granted I did like that episode in particular for its gender swapping parts. With additions to the harem, there was Sora, maybe Suzanna, and I was not sure until really the end with Ginger, which the characters seem to agree that she probably has a crush on Catarina too. And it kind of makes me wish that maybe Ginger and her friend, Frey, had bigger parts. Frey herself, she had an interesting part in Nicol's, where she saw through him and voiced not wanting to be stuck as a wife, or something. Maybe biased take, but I was kind of wondering if there were hints that she wasn't into dudes, and maybe actually even Ginger she is more focused on. I think a bit of that goes into one element of why I like the show so much, that it has queer elements, liking both male and female elements. Maybe one reason I would be interested in more clear bi male characters too, that would exist in the genderswap fantasy of Keith, although also with Nicol's male admirers too. But also this season kind of leaned more on the male love interest sides, which would be Geordo, Keith, and arguably Sora too. Especially the first season I think was putting Maria around the same level as Geordo, that at this point I would make arguments that true pairing would likely be Catarina with both Geordo and Maria. Anyway, my rating will probably be Very good (8/10) again. Not really as perfect as it could be, but parts are so novel that has kept as something I needed to watch. |
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