After 7 years of
planning, Katarina has finally arrived at the Magical Academy. It is here where the main plot of Fortune
Lover begins and where Katarina’s future will be in constant jeopardy if she
doesn’t play her cards right. Her
actions in the past have already altered potential route for each suitor and
she’s even befriended the girl who will ultimately spell her downfall, Maria
Campbell. But is Katarina changing
things too much? What happens when all
eyes start moving away from Maria and over to herself as the object of their
affections, even Maria?
So this sophomore
outing for My Next Life as a Villainess surprised me in a number of ways. Not only did we get a lot of major improvements
over elements introduced in the premiere that felt tacked on and useless, but
we also got some good expansive and surprisingly heartbreaking backstories for
several characters. One of these
backstories seemed to come not quite out of nowhere but it was decidedly the
most tragic aspect of an otherwise feel good Issekai Harem Romance Anime about
a girl making a new life for herself in her favorite video game while trying to
avoid certain doom. Let’s dive right
into all of the goodness and especially break down that one revelation that I’m
a little on the fence about but thankfully don’t feel that it detracts from the
sheer fun this show can be…unlike another Anime but I’ll talk about that when I
get to it.
As much as I love
Katarina’s character and positive go getter attitude, her obliviousness to the
changes she’s made since arriving in Fortune Lover boggles me sometimes. She’s gone from her character originally
having four suitors and a rival to deal with to having 7 suitors: four guys and
three girls…and she hasn’t picked up on any signs of this whatsoever. Granted, some guys like Alan are still
figuring out just how in love with Katarina they actually are. But man, Katarina never stopped to think that
by saving Maria through scenarios and lines intended for the Four Princes that
she’d create and entirely new route for herself? She can’t understand why Geordo, Keith, Alan
and Nicol aren’t all fawning over Maria like they should be when, in fact, she
might’ve just created the most chaotic new story route to be in. I hope she’s ready for the seven way battle
for her heart this series might be heading towards. Everyones civil now but it’s only a matter of
time before Geordo and Keith finally duke it out. Heck, the Council of Katarina even believes
there’s a secret doom route involving Katarina’s mom killing her for not doing
well in school…now that’s hilarious (also Katarina’s Mom is ridiculously hot,
no wonder Katarina is good looking).
I’m surprised how
little time we actually spend with Maria, Katarina’s original nemesis in the
Fortune Lover video game. You can blame
that on how big the cast is and maybe not introducing her sooner during the
period where Katarina is living a Pre Game life as a kid. But when we did focus on Maria, her sad
backstory certainly stood out. We learn
that she’s a bit of an irregularity in this world as only Nobles are capable of
using magic. This makes Maria a rare
occurrence and is shunned for it, even rumored to be an illegitimate daughter
of a Noble. Her schoolmates even refuse
cookies from her and even her own mother refuses to look at her, cause it only
makes her sad to know just how ill fated Maria’s life has been so far. It’s pretty sad and that makes Katarina’s
changes more for the better. She’s
probably the first real friend Maria’s ever had and has come to her aid against
bullies several times (the same bullies that were supposed to be Katarina’s
Posse in the game). And again, Katarina
never seems selfish trying to ensure her own survival as the “Villainess”. She genuinely shows care and concern and
wanting to know Maria and even learn from her at times. Plus Maria makes awesome sweets which are Katarina’s
Kryptonite so they were always bound to be best friends.
Speaking of best
friends, let’s talk about Sofia. That
tragic heel turn I mentioned came from an extended flashback sequence where we
got to see Katarina’s previous life as a high school otaku girl. Long story short, Sofia is actually Katarina’s
best friend, Atsuko, from the real world, and she was absolutely devastated to
learn of Katarina’s untimely demise. She
wished from the bottom of her heart to be friends with Katarina again in their
next life…and that’s where I thought things were going to get pretty dark. BUT, thankfully, there’s no indication of
that and it seems Atsuko lived a long and fulfilling life for herself and her
lost friend before passing and somehow ending up in Fortune Lover. It’s a bit of tonal whiplash to go from
balling your eyes out over that sad history to watching Katarina and company
play out Raiders of the Lost Ark in a school exam. Sad backstories like Katarina and Sofia’s are
often seen in Anime like Angel Beats, where the first episode is hilarious fun
but then the real drama comes into play and it changes the tone and feel of the
series for the rest of the run. How can
you not be crying when Atsu sees Katarina’s very last text. Thankfully, Next
Life doesn’t seem to have those lingering effects as the show returns to it’s
feel good tone pretty well. Still, it
was something I never expected from this show.
Of course, that also opens up new questions as to this world and if
anyone else has been reincarnated into it.
Could this be a double edged sword for Next Life? Also, interesting visual choice to not show
us Katarina’s full face or divulge her real name.
But yeah, the fun
returned pretty quickly with two back to back hilarious episodes (well one and
a half, the first half of one is Sofia’s history). The first I mentioned before, Katarina and
her class have to retrieve a magical artifact from a tomb that is straight out
of an Indiana Jones film. Of course, Katarina
knows a lot about video game plots…but she’s never seen Raiders? DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING IN THE SCARY TEMPLE!!!! Another upside is Magic is at the forefront
of this exam and we get to see everyone use their abilities in some way like
Geordo’s Fire Magic and Keith’s Earth Magic.
For the first time, Magic felt integral to the world of Next Life when
it felt like a needless add on in the first set of episodes. And then we had an
episode dedicated to Mary when Katarina, Sofia, Geordo, Keith, Alan and Nicol
are sucked into a magical book that reveals everyones true desires. I wasn’t sure how this episode would play out
but it might be the funniest of Next Life so far. Seeing Mary freak out seeing everyone inner
most wishes for being with Katarina were all great and everyones was pretty
diverse and unique from Geordo’s darker side emerging to Sofia basically shoving
Katarina against a bookshelf to profess her love…to Alan…well Mary closed the
book on that because she didn’t want to see and she already knew how it would
play out. Naturally, it was Katarina who
saved the day accidentally as the book couldn’t handle her deepest desire: ALL
THE SWEETS IN THE WORLD!!!! Guess theyre
more her main source of power rather than her Kryptonite, don’t ever change Katarina,
you’re awesome.
Despite a pretty
impactful backstory that had me close to tears, My Next Life as a Villainess
improved a lot over its beginnings giving us deeper insight into the cast,
showing off more magic and showcasing how aloof and fun Katarina continues to
be as the main protagonist. There are a
lot more questions now as to how this world works and just what the heck was
that dark spirit lingering behind Katarina that saved her and Sofia from the
Indiana Jones cave? Guess we’ll find out
more about that next time, if not later, but next up is the Season Finale of My
Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom, this Friday over at the
Gundam Anime Corner. See ya then.
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