Unable to think
of a life without Katarina after her abduction, Geordo makes a stunning move
that puts the rest of Katarina’s friends on high alert. After all, if Geordo’s being more honest (and
physical) with his feelings, he’s well on the way to winning the war for Katarina’s
heart. But Katarina still has adventures
of her own waiting for her and those dearest to her heart, including a reunion
in a haunted forest and a trip into the Department of Magic where a haunted
Doll House and some old friends await them.
Between ideal lives, overbearing parents, political intrigue and the
prospect of one of their own leaving forever, will Katarina even have time to
worry about who she herself might have feelings for?
After a premiere
that introduced potential stakes early on, My Next Life as a Villainess Season
2 dialed things back considerably with several reflective and classic fun tales
that relied heavily on flashbacks to simpler time and the reusage of a familiar
plot from Season One. While it feels
like things weren’t progressing very far or old ground was being retreaded,
there was still good stuff to come out of it.
Granted the most boring character finally got an episode and I still
don’t think that was enough to make him interesting…yeah all in all this set of
episodes was a little uneven and I wish we couldve just delved more into the
political mess Katarina got kidnapped to implement. Let’s break it all down.
Half of this set
of episodes involved returning to the kid days of early Season One and man I’d
forgotten how cute but still awesome Katarina was. In a way though, I feel like some of these
elements could have been used in Season One but I get we had to reach
Katarina’s older self for the main Fortune Lover storyline quickly. Still, the one episode where this paid off in
a Lost Episode kind of way was the flashback to Katarina’s summer adventure
with everyone, minus Maria cause they hadn’t met her yet. It's fun to see little Katarina climbing
trees like a Monkey again and fearlessly walking into danger with her
friends. There were two stand out scenes
from this tale. The first was Sofia
learning to cope with her fear of lightning by imagining she and Katarina were
an older Mage and Knight respectively, fighting off a Dragon before falling in
love and getting married. The second was
the payoff to the Ghost mystery. It
wasn’t a ghost, it was the monstrous, shadowy silhouette of Mama Claes berating
a terrified Katarina for leading her friends into the forest, so unlady
like…and the perfect comedic payoff.
However, the
flashback to Geordo and Alan’s childhoods felt like a trip we didn’t need to
take. It would make sense if it was more
about establishing how always around Geoffry was but Geoffry barely felt
present. He just popped up with a “hey
how ya doing?” and then was quickly dismissed without a chance to see him
actually bond with his younger brothers.
Most of the time it was rehashing how much more of an impact Katarina
has had on Geordo and Alan, more so than Geoffry. With that in mind, you’d think Geoffry would
have a jealous streak by now and want Katarina out of the way so his brothers
could see him as their one and only protector.
But sadly, Geoffry’s motivations are all we know, which is keep his brothers
safe from any threat. We don’t spend any
more time with him or his incredibly sexy fiancée, Susanna…actually scratch
that we do spend a lot of time with her, just not as Susanna, but as Lana
Smith, Director of the Magic Tool Laboratory of the Department of Magic.
We didn’t get to
see a huge amount of this fabled department but it still provided the best
moments from these episodes. Firstly,
with all the talk of toxic work environments and crunch times at Video Game
Studios these days, seeing just how overworked and exhausted Lana’s staff is
can be kind of awkward and uncomfortable, especially since poor Raphael wants
this department to be anything but hectic.
Here, Katarina and company found themselves trapped in a Doll House that
showed them any alternate lives they might’ve dreamed about. I was a bit worried about this idea because
it seemed like it would be a rehash of the Book of Desire from Season One, aka
my favorite episode of Season One. But
thankfully the new spins on alternate lives were great. Surprisingly, Maria wishing to get super buff
like the Incredible Hulk was the only dream not to involve Kataraina. And Katarina herself imagined a very Umaru
Chan style life where she just laid in bed playing Video Games, eating junk
food and reading romance novels, classic.
Everyone else was either an animal or even gender bent in order to be
with Katarina. I loved Anne’s reaction
to seeing herself as a Male Butler. In
fact Keith’s entire fantasy of everyone swapping genders might’ve been the
highlight of the entire episode. I’m
glad it all paid off and Raphael got to engage in a magical duel with a cursed
doll for added measure.
As for the stuff
I’m more iffy on in this set…yet it’s a lot.
Considering the danger Katarina found herself in, I’m shocked there
wasn’t more looking into this David Mason and his mission to get Geordo kicked
out of his inheritance so Geoffry can take the throne. You’d think that would be a serious threat to
investigate and stay on top of. Instead,
Geordo doubles down on his romantic advances towards Katarina and everyone is
ready to actually kick his ass to make sure that doesn’t happen. The way that everyone seems to find their way
into the same adventure, no matter what, kind reminds me of the TV Series
Archer, which finds the cast in similar predicaments. It can borderline on a bit much, like it’s ok
to have lives and interests outside of hooking up with Katarina everyone…though
I did like Keith’s reaction to seeing Geordo kissing Katarina again, it
reminded me of an episode of Friends when Ross saw Chandler kissing his sister
Monica from another apartment, “Hey…what are you doing? GET OFF MY
SISTER!!!”. Finally, Nicol finally got
an episode to himself and man, oh man…I tuned it out. Nicol remains one of the most boring
characters in a show with a very vibrant cast.
He’s so dry, wooden and while he does express actual emotion admitting
his feelings for Katarina to a total stranger…I’m sorry, it’s not enough to
change my opinion on him and we spent an entire episode hashing out what we
already kind of know. It was the first episode of Next Life X I feel like I
could have skipped and not have missed a lot.
I don’t like Nicol, my minds not changing on that, sorry Nicol fans.
While I did have
some fun in this set of episodes, I feel like the more important plot threads
didn’t get the right amount of attention.
Katarina remains a pillar of awesome and inspiration but her friends
clamouring to be around her 24/7 is starting to lose its appeal a bit and the
new cast has barely had any time to shine on their own. With only four episodes left (plus a bonus
OVA episode that I will be covering), will we get any resolution to the Geordo
inheritance plotline and, if so, what kind of inspirational solution and speech
with Katarina come up with to save the day?
Guess we’ll find all of that out tomorrow with the conclusion of My Next
Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom X right here at the Gundam Anime
Corner.
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