Keith has
vanished. There are many theories but
Katarina is worried she might be the cause of her brothers absence. Little does Katarina know, dark forces have
come for Keith and his life is in actual danger. On top of all that, Graduation is nigh and Katarina
must finally make a decision about her next steps in life. Can she save Keith, make it to the Graduation
ceremony and sort out her feelings for the several people who are openly
confessing their feelings for her? And
is a memory message from Atsu true…could there really be a Fortune Lover II?
Much like with
the end of the First Season, this Season Finale (yes Season, not Series, silly
me) of My Next Life as a Villainess decided to dial up the tension with
potentially the darkest storyline to date, one that would push Katarina to her
limits and test just how kind of a heart she has when someone was close to her
as family is threatened. For a finale,
those are good ideas to explore. Sadly,
I think that the finale highlights the many negative qualities Next Life’s
Second Season has had and even the finale itself cant recapture some of the
lost magic, save only for the end when the setup for a proposed Third Season
starts to take shape. Katarina still
rocks like nobody’s business, but could even her wholesome goodness save this
climax? Let’s find out.
The end of Season
Two kicked off with the abduction of Keith.
Kind of like how Maria suddenly vanished in the Season One ender, this
sudden change in the status quo naturally had Katarina worried, even more so
because Keith is her closest family member.
And yet, the show tired to make it not seem like it was such a big deal,
that Keith just waltzed off on his own.
Katarina’s Mom even believed he did so willingly because he was tired of
Katarina being such a pain to look after…when really he’s just been a bit
depressed because Geordo’s been making the moves on Katarina Keith wishes he
could. This extended into the initial
search for Keith which saw Katarina, Geordo, Maria, Lana and Sora heading to
neighboring villages in search of clues.
While yes they weren’t fully aware of the direness of the situation
(Lana had her theories but neglected to let everyone in on them until she was
sure). But still, watching Katarina
“ohhh” and “ahhh” over vendors and food felt inappropriate, especially when we
knew Keith was languishing in a prison, bruised and beaten.
As for Keith’s
abduction itself, we never really got a good idea of the why of it all. It seemed to kind of come out of nowhere as
the culprit was someone from the home where Keith used to live before he was
adopted by the Claes Family. Thomas was
an extremely pissed off individual but we never really got to know him or
understand why his hatred for Keith ran so deep. Then there was the Puppeteer behind Thomas
himself, a big eyed, creepy smiling girl named Sarah. She seemed hellbent on putting Keith through
as much pain as possible and borderline even killing him to accomplish her
goals with Dark Magic research. Like
Thomas, Sarah gets little backstory and no additional time to develop her
character beyond her creepy cruelness.
Which is a shame because Sarah is easily the scariest character in the
entire narrative so far, one who feels like an actual threat that not even
Katarina might forgive or try to reason with, as we kind of saw when Katarina
finally found Keith.
The actual rescue
of Keith had some good pay off in the form of a cool action sequence where
Geordo, Sora and Lana laid waste to some underlings while Maria provided
healing whenever needed. As Katarina
pointed out, “If this were an RPG, we’d be the best party ever.” But Katarina didn’t sit out of the
action. When she got to Keith and saw
just how badly he’d been messed up, I think this was the first time we’d ever
seen Katarina genuinely angry. She vowed
to crush whoever did this to him and even clawed at the oily tentacles that
bound him without any hesitation or fear of what those bonds might do to
herself. Katarina was on fire and it was
this deep love for her brother that helped free him from his dark mental
prison…and get her a Dark Magic puppy as a bonus? (We’ll come back to that in a second). It was nice to see a more aggressive and
protective side to Katarina, one who put aside the peaceful and understanding
negotiator in favor of a more physical and proactive approach to save her dear
Brother. No matter my gripes with this
Finale, Katarina is never someone I’ll ever complain about, even if the
situation might call for calling her out on her own aloofness.
As everyone
headed back to the Magic Academy for Graduation and the wind down, sooooo many
questions have been left in the wake of this incident. So Sarah just let Katarina, Keith and Geordo
go, along with her Dark Magic Familiar (who Katarina names Spot of all things),
and that’s it? She’s a legitimate threat
and we’re just gonna ignore she’s still out there waiting to strike at any
given moment? Apparently she’s also tied
into the history of the Dieke Family, the same that infused Raphael with Dark
Magic in Season One. What other
skeletons does that wicked family have in it’s closet. Also, what the heck ever happened to this
David Mason who orchestrated the kidnapping of Katarina back at the beginning
of the Season? Why haven’t we seen
anything of him? It’s like Next Life is
ok with dropping these pretty important and definitely dangerous threats in
favor of returning to its usual comedic status quo and the battle for
Katarina’s affections as if little has changed.
It shows how unfocused and unbalanced this Season has been at times and
more importantly, that it didn’t succeed at telling a solid stand alone story
like Season One. A lot of plot threads
are dangling, no doubt to be tied up in later seasons should more Next Life be
greenlit, beyond the Feature Film that is coming later this year but who knows
what that might cover (at the time I’ve written this, only the 2023 release
window has been announced).
As for the Season
Finale itself, yeah not much happens.
Graduation comes and goes.
Katarina eats herself silly as always.
And Mary and Sofia throw themselves at Katarina determined to do
everything and anything she does with an obsession that’s become less and less
entertaining the more this Season has gone on.
I know I was excited at the prospect of all out war amongst the friends
for Katarina but not much was done with that beyond the usual everyone goes
everywhere Katarina goes…which made it surprising so few of them went to go
look for Keith (Dear God I hope they aren’t petty enough they might’ve been
happy he was gone). Only Geordo and
Keith made serious strides, having become the two frontrunners in Katarina’s
love life…not that Katarina sees it that way, in fact she’s totally confused by
their romantic advances and confessions.
To be honest, it got a bit old and didn’t have the same kind of
entertaining magic as Season One.
However, the setup in the final minutes of the finale holds a lot of promise. The reveal that there is a Fortune Lover II
and Katarina is going to end up playing it out at the Department of Magic is
pretty exciting. New location, new
characters, new Dooms to avoid. It might
feel like they’re going back to the well but if it means new energy can be
breathed into this series and many of Season Two loose threads can be tied up
in the process, I say bring on Season three.
I feel a little
silly thinking that this was going the be the de facto Series Finale of My Next
Life as a Villainess. I know now that
there’s still plenty of story to tell (and yes that includes the Movie coming
sometime this year). But personally I
feel like this Second Season wasn’t nearly as strong or good as the first. It’s been mostly uneven with how all of the
characters are handling the competition for Katarina’s heart (especially Mary,
oh man she got pretty annoying imho) and how plotlines that should have been
running stories for the entire season got brushed aside, along with the bulk of
the new cast who felt like they barely had any impact on things. Only Lana and Sora got real meaty roles in
the season while Geoffry remained a creepy stalker and Ian and Selena barely
showed up after their initial storylines were done. A lot of the humor still works and Katarina
remains one of the most loveable and entertaining Female Leads in an Anime in
the last decade. Overall though, this
wasn’t the strongest follow up to Season One, looking to set up plots to be
explored later on than telling a stand alone story like before. While I do look forward to Season Three and
whatever the Movie ends up being, I think my thought that maybe My Next Life as
a Villainess might been better as a standalone series isn’t the worst thought…and
that sucks cause I love Katarina and her journey. Just make better use of the cast, dial back
some of their crazy and commit to settling serious matters and you’re on the
right track. Like I said though, maybe
Season Three will improve this Seasons shortcomings, we’ll see.
Till then, My
Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom X gets a 6/10.
And with that,
it’s off to Katsucon. When I’m back
we’ve got two more special features for the month of Romance. Check back Friday February 24th
for conclusion of Mai Sakurajima and
Sakuta Azusegawa with Rascal Does
Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, right
here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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