My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom! Season 1 [DUB] (2020) Review

 My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom Season 1 [DUB] (2020) 4/10

Hello everybody and welcome to another anime review. Today, I’ll be reviewing My Next Life as a Villainess. This is another isekai anime that aired from April 5 - June 21, 2020. The season clocks in at 12 episodes, with the Silver Link producing the season. The only reason why I watched this was because of its unique art style. Enough padding and let’s just jump right into it.

Our story follows Caterina Claes, a noblewoman in a high society magical land. This society is all prim and proper, like European royalty (with the culture seeming to derive mainly from English and French). Anyway, the story starts off with Catarina at the age of 8. One day while hanging around with a young Prince Geordo, she accidentally trips and hits her head. This triggers memories from her past life to come flooding back to her. Turns out that she was a 17 year old otaku from Japan that lived a fairly sheltered life and only had one friend. After an accident, she was killed and transported here with no memory of her old life, until now. Through deduction and investigation, Catarina concludes that she is in the world of an otome (romantic visual novel) game she was playing called Fortune Lover and she has been reincarnated as the role of the game’s villain. Hoping to change her fate, she begins to plan for her survival. You see, she has played this game religiously and knows her fate. By the end of the game, Catarina will be either killed or sent into exile. Preparing for all possible scenarios, she gets to work on forming bonds with the game’s conquerable love interests and honing her skills as a farmer.

So the general gist of the show is that she has to create her own harem to avoid certain death/exile. Interesting concept, even for an isekai. I know being reincarnated into a video game has been done before, but this was an interesting take on it. Like I said, this is a harem anime. Lots of lovey dovey bullshit. The concept for the show is a good one and the show is very character driven as opposed to an actual plot, which is a shame. For a concept like having to survive a video game that you already know, I was expecting actual plot progression, but considering its a harem anime, I guess I had my hopes up too much. Anyway, since this is character driven, how are the characters? A good majority of them suck. Completely cardboard/one dimensional. Honestly the only interesting characters are all the female ones. Catarina is a smart, cautious, yet carefree, protagonist. I enjoyed her, although I do wish the show developed her more besides “I’m the protagonist and I like sweets. I’m a very gentle person and constantly giving out compliments”. She's also a complete idiot who doesn't think things through when it comes to the actual love interests. Smart, yet stupid. I'm sure we've all met people like that before. Mary (the brunette with the yellow dress) is a decent character too. Her whole thing was that she was an outcast and Catarina complimented her on her agricultural skills. Honestly, I can see Catarina ending up with her by the end of the series. Either her or Sofia, the white haired one. Sofia is a sheltered person similar to what Catarina used to be. Catarina showed her love and affection and they became close ever since. All the males were completely forgettable. Typical male anime tropes that’s only there to fill out the roster. One of my personal favorite characters is Catarina’s maid Anna. I was not expecting the show to get so dark with her.

Speaking of dark, let’s go over this show’s world. The show takes place inside of a romance video game. Inside this game are fantasy elements, such as magic. In this world, there are six different types of magic: air, water, earth, fire, light, and dark. Near the end of the season, some shit happens to Catarina and the game’s MC Maria. Maria is a light magic user, which is very rare. Some shit happens with a dark magic user and the show’s magic system just shatters. Question for you guys: when developing a magic system, what is the most important thing to do? You set up its rules and make sure you stay consistent with it. In this world, dark magic is used to manipulate those with dark desires and amplifies those desires (such as hatred and envy). You can use this to puppeteer people into doing your bidding. If someone is under your control through a dark spell like that, you can’t just be like “I can break free through the power of friendship!” NO! This would’ve been the perfect opportunity to develop this world’s magic system and to further develop Maria as a light magic user. Instead, the show uses the shittiest “power of friendship” trope I have ever seen. Yes, worse than Yugioh. The dark magic user was being manipulated by another dark magic user and only through Catarina’s extension of friendship does the guy break free. Jesus fucking Christ was this bad! And it gets even worse. If you don't want to get spoiled, skip to the next section. Okay so the dark magic guy was being manipulated to kill Maria and Catarina. Unless I missed a crucial detail, this whole thing is fucking stupid and one of the worse plot points I have ever seen. So I kind of understand why they want to kill Maria. She’s a light magic user after all. But why Catarina? The only thing that comes to mind is a very tiny detail about her saying his tea has a gentle taste and it reminds him of his mother. I know you’re being manipulated, but holy shit this is retarded. Just thinking about it now has me cracking up. And you can’t say “oh it’s a harem anime. They don’t need to explain because that’s not what this kind of show is.” Shut the fuck up. If you’re going to implement magic into your story and use it for actual plot progression, then DO IT RIGHT! I haven’t been this pissed at anything in a while.

Magic is a complete joke here as well. Outside of what I just said, magic is only used for plot convenience. Like when Catarina got lost in the cavern and Nicole and Sofia use their wind magic to find her. Or when Geordo used his fire magic to do something (I forgot the context). We never get to see the characters use their magic outside of these moments and it sucks. Half of the show takes place at a school that teaches magic. Why not show the characters practicing their magic or teach the viewers about how magic is done. So much wasted fucking potential.

Another thing I HATE about this show is its dialogue. Because it’s a high society culture, there’s a lot of formalities to endure before we get to actual dialogue. So many introductions and pleasantries that it takes up literally over half of the total dialogue in the show. And what dialogue there is is either Catarina gushing over someone/vise versa, shitty plot progression, or something cutesy. Character interaction is a fucking joke. Literally every single one of Catarina’s initial introduction scenes with a new main character is this: Both introduce themselves, Catarina notices something wrong with the other person, she compliments them, she compliments them again, they become friends, and end discussion. It’s so fucking monotonous.

Okay so how is the rest of the show? Art direction is actually really good. I love the bright and shiny colors used for the show’s palette. It truly looks like it could be in a fantastical world like Cinderella. I love the character designs for a couple of the characters: Catarina, Mary, Sofia, Alan, and Geordo. The overall feel of the show is very adorable too. One example is one of my favorite parts of the show: Catarina’s internal monologues. When certain situations arise, the show will switch over to Catarina’s mind. Here, 5 different chibi versions of her will discuss the current situation. Kind of reminds me of Inside Out. I love these little moments as it helps develop Catarina. Too bad these are few and far in between.

The animation is lackluster. I wasn’t expecting anything like the last couple of anime I’ve watched, but still. It could be a lot better. It does however use this to its advantage to help deliver its very adorable look (similar to Maid-sama).

Music is actually not that bad here. I remember in a scene where the show is developing Maria’s past that the music was very befitting of the situation. Actually made the scene fairly emotional. Honestly one of the best parts of the show. The OP song is not bad either. A mixture of classical and JPOP perfectly fits the show’s aesthetic. The ED is forgettable like usual.

So I watched this in English dub and I gotta say that it’s actually not that bad. However, I can’t confirm nor deny if the English dub changed the dialogue or not, seeing as I was railing on that earlier. Anyway, Jeanie Tirado (Catarina) and Colleen O’Shaughnessey (Mary) were the best and most memorable performances. The rest of the voice cast is forgettable.

Overall, the show is wasted potential. It has the seeds to be a great anime but is squandered by shotty writing. I highly doubt season 2 is going to be any better, so I’m going to be dropping this. If you are into Shoujo harem anime, go watch this, but I can’t say it’ll be good. I’ve had enough of this piece of shit. I’ll end the review here.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.