My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! is a 12 episode anime based upon the light novel series. It follows Catarina Claes, a noble girl who is spoiled from being rich and pampered all her life. However, she hits her head when she was eight years old and from that, suddenly regains all her memories from her past life. She was a seventeen-year-old student, who was on the verge of becoming an otaku before being hit by a truck.
Interestingly, this sudden resurgence of her past life’s memories changes her behavior. Understandable but it is also something that a lot of stories will gloss over. From her memories, she starts to recognize the people around her as being the same as a game she had played… and her role is not the heroine, but one of the rivals who does not have a good ending, no matter what happens. She only has a limited amount of time to try and change her fate, given that the game’s story (and thus her fate), will start from when she enters the magic academy.
The premise isn’t so involved that it can pervade what is at heart, a fantasy story about a rich noble girl as she navigates her life, and the various suitors around her. Having recovered her memories, Catarina also gives up on acting like a proper noble, although that ends up adding to her charms. She also has the advantage of knowing the things to say and what to look out for when interacting with others her age, given her experience (and incredible memory) from having played the game before. As it is, she’s sowing the seeds to help her get out of the cruel ending that fate has in store for her.
The season starts off with Catarina being eight years old, and it is kind of weird to have an older girl inhabit the body of a younger one. Something just feels off, but surprisingly, the story quickly pushes forward to when Catarina is fifteen years old, and she has to face the trials and test whether fate can be changed. At least the anime doesn’t take itself too seriously, and Catarina creates genuine friendships around her.
It doesn’t take half the season before you realize (way before Catarina does) that despite her status as the “villainess” in the visual novel, in this life, she has changed way too many things for the “canon” routes to still go ahead. When the true “heroine” comes, that heroine ends up being just another side character. You can see that Catarina has taken the fancy of all those around her, only that she is too blind to see it.
As the season goes on, the premise loses its attachment more and more, and thus the uniqueness of the anime. Catarina desperately clings onto it though, despite the events changing so substantially thanks to her own actions to prevent certain things from happening. It’s good that she is from nobility, otherwise she’ll be the one bullied due to all the envy and jealousy from other girls at the academy.
Catarina ends up being a character that’s against the norms of the world she’s in. She brought over all her traits from her previous life. She loves to eat, particularly sweets. She continued her initial hobby of farming. Yet these are all traits that others do not find unusual, but rather endearing. You can see that she retains some of the otaku traits and personality, but not others.
Given that it is so obvious that everyone loves Catarina, except that it is not obvious to only her, the stakes are gone. Despite Catarina often worrying about her fate, we know that it will be fine, and so the season can feel like it has filler a lot of the time. It doesn’t help that the anime often likes to reuse animation on flashbacks or characters reminiscing about the past. The season also completely kills off the premise, which feels a bit quick.
Overall, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! is a passable anime. It’s not amazing, but surprisingly, despite its flaws and obviously low budget, it isn’t too bad either. The hook of the premise manages to keep the anime barely holding together. Really, it’s Catarina herself that keeps your attention and keeps you going.
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