Ever since her
reincarnation into Fortune Lover, Katarina has been very careful to ensure her
character “The Villainess” doesn’t meet one of her fated “Doom Endings”. But despite her best efforts, something has
been stalking Katarina from the shadows, fully intent of making sure she
doesn’t get her happy ending. When that
darkness captures Maria, Katarina and her friends are on high alert. Katarina has fought hard and forged genuine
friendships along the way. But is it
truly impossible for her to escape her fate?
Katarina’s Judgment Day has come.
It always catches
me off guard when comedy Anime decide to take a slight detour into darker
territory. Like, why does it need to do
that when the conflict comes from the comedy and the light heartedness is doing
just fine on its own? Still, a lot of
RomCom Anime tend to take that route: Fruits Basket and Love Hina come to mind,
each with varying degrees of success in that divergence. So how does the Season Finale of My Next Life
as a Villainess handle a somewhat last second villainous twist? Well…for the most part rather well but that’s
mostly thanks to the power of the awesome that is Katarina Claes. Let’s get into it and wrap this season up,
shall we?
Now, it’s not to
say that there hasn’t been something nasty brewing in the background of Next
Life’s first season for a little bit.
Maria had been noticing dark energy here and there but couldn’t place
it. Plus, for me, there was no way Katarina
could change the entire narrative of Fortune Lover and not expect those changes
to birth something new as time went on.
Well…I was wrong about that, in fact the evil twist wasn’t really a
twist as it turns out: it was another ending Katarina totally spaced on. Yep, we learned of three, yes three, other
endings to Fortune Lover beyond the Exile or Death routes for Geordo, Keith,
Alan and Nicol’s storylines. In this
case, Katarina discovered a Super Bad Ending where if she couldn’t win the
heart of an unknown 5th suitor, it would spell Doom for Maria and
the others. If I were to invoke Mystery
Science Theater 3000 for a moment, I’d call this a “SECOND ACT TWIST!!!”
Well since he’d
been mostly keeping to the background for much of the season, is it any shock
that Sirius was that mysterious 5th Suitor? Did he always come with the grim backstory,
that was the bigger question. All of a
sudden, this kindly Student Council President turned nasty, declaring his
hatred for Katarina and even confessing he set up her Judgement Cycle to
discredit her and get her kicked out of the Magic Academy. Where the heck was all of this coming from
all of a sudden? It’s twists like this
that always make me feel like we should’ve had more build up to the
reveal. Often they just come off as one
last bit of forced conflict in a series that really didn’t need it. Plus, like I said, Sirius’ backstory was one
of the darkest parts of the entire show.
Turns out, he isn’t even Sirius at all- His real name is Ralph and he’s
the illegtimate son of the Marchioness Dieke’s husband. His mother ran off with him but the Marchioness
tracked them down and sacrificed Ralph’s mother to attain dark magic and then
transfer her son, Sirus’s, mind into Ralph’s body to give Sirius a new body
since his was dying of a mysterious illness…freaking yikes.
For a while, I
was wondering what any of this had to do with him despising Katarina. Turns out it was a little confusing but in one
OTHER reveal (yeesh so many last minute tack ons), Sirius’ Dark Magic was
actually the spirit of the Mage who performed the Dark Magic Ceremony before he
got offed by the Marchioness. Apparently
Katarina’s kindness was fueling this guys rage and he wanted Sirius to kill
her…which honestly makes no sense to me and just highlights how unnecessary
this last second villain turn felt to the overall narrative. The only reason I might not dock major points
from this seasons overall score is Katarina.
In spite of all the evil things Sirius did to her in the finale, the
girl who can reach anyones heart worked her magic with this poor lost soul and
gave one of the most honest and heartfelt confessions in the entire show: “I
know I cant save you. I’m not the heroine
in this story after all. I’m just the
Villainess, here to play the heroines rival.
It’s not possible for me to save anyone.
I don’t have any super powers. I
cant spare you from your suffering. But
I can stand by you as your friend. Just
like they all did for me. I can stay by
your side, listen to you tell me whats on your mind when you’re sad or hurt and
not leave until youre feeling better.”
Holy crap, how can you not love this girl and not want her to have a
happy ending after all of that?
Katarina’s trials
in the Season Finale were big and that’s even before the actual Final Event
that would determine her fate. We got to
visit Katarina’s old life as a high school student again, this time with Katarina
having a face…but still no real name. From
the looks of things, she had a great life with a great family and, of course,
Atsuko was there too. But as great as
that life was, once Katarina realized what was up, thanks to the help of
Atsuko’s spirit…yeah don’t get how that worked either but ok, Katarina embraced
her new life in Fortune Lover and fought her way back to her friends. Said friends all had good moments of self
reflection where they all realized just how deeply they cared for Katarina…except
Nicol, he’s still as dull as the day he arrived and his confession felt just as
dull too. If anything, nothing
highlighted the success of Katarina’s hard work more than when Sirius coerced
several girls into framing her for crimes her alternate Villainess self would
have committed by this point of the game.
Geordo, Keith, Alan, Nicol, Mary, Sofia and Maria all came to her
defense…albeit with very kindly insulting words as to Katarina’s non villainous
character, good to see the series didn’t totally lose its sense of humor in
this surprisingly serious Season Ender.
Then we have the
Final Event, the Graduation. And the
verdict? Well of course Katarina wasn’t
getting jettisoned or killed after everything she’d been through. Instead, she unlocked another surprise ending
(and hinted at an actual Harem Ending for Maria too): The Friendship
Ending. Yep, everyone’s cool with one
another and no one has to die or get kicked out. Even Sirius…er Ralph (what are we gonna call
him from now on?), was welcomed back after he’d handled his business. Only problem: Katarina thinks this is Maria’s
happy ending and is totally oblivious to the fact that everyone has outright
confessed theyre in love with her. So
does this mean it’ll be an all out war for Katarina’s heart in Season Two? We’re in uncharted territory now with Fortune
Lover. The game is done. Katarina avoided her Doom Flags so…now what?
We’ll start
answering that question on Monday but for now, how was Season One of My Next
Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom?
It was actually pretty good. The
sudden need for a dark, menacing evil at the end not withstanding, this show
did a good job with an amazing lead heroine and a mostly equally entertaining
group of supporting characters (Nicol is still boring to me, sorry not
sorry). The humor was excellent and it
did a good job at poking fun of Romance Stories, Issekai and Fantasy tales all
at once. I also really like the artstyle
of this show too. Not only does everyone
look great but I LOVED the hand drawn backgrounds as they looked like they came
from a Childrens Fantasy Storybook, such a cool artistic choice. Again, the ending is the weakest part because
it is wholly unnecessary but Katarina even saves that thanks to her amazing
character and even stronger heart. Does
this show need a Second Season? Eh,
maybe, maybe not. Still, grading this as
a stand alone, this is a fun series through and through. And I cant wait to see what lies ahead for Katarina
Claes in the Post Game Material.
8/10
And where exactly
does Katarina go from here? Monday we
begin a special 3 Day coverage of the entire Second Season of her adventures in
the lead up to Katsucon 2023. Join us
here Next Week for My Next Life
as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom X right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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