This Week in Anime
Can the Villainess Find True Romance?
by Nicholas Dupree & Monique Thomas,
In its second season, everyone wants to be or do Catarina Claes, but can our heroine with macarons for brains find true love?
This series is streaming on Crunchyroll
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Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
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Nick
Nicky, we've answered a lot of important questions at TWIA, but this week we're tackling something of dire importance. A quandary anime has been pushing and prodding at for decades: Just how many people can you fit in one anime harem?
Nicky, we've answered a lot of important questions at TWIA, but this week we're tackling something of dire importance. A quandary anime has been pushing and prodding at for decades: Just how many people can you fit in one anime harem?
Nicky
In the case of one Catarina Claes, the answer might be "Too Many!" or maybe "Not Enough!" But, like I've seen things about the later parts of Tenchi Muyo so I guess anything's possible in the world of anime. After managing to survive all her known doom flags, the number of noblemen and noblewomen (and also some of those of non-noble status) falling head-over-heels for this reincarnated idiot girl continues to grow bigger than a blue ribbon vegetable. But can our resident Bakarina, equipped with only five whole brain cells, actually learn to take a goddamn hint before the competition gets too fierce? Let's find out in the second season of this otome isekai, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X
In the case of one Catarina Claes, the answer might be "Too Many!" or maybe "Not Enough!" But, like I've seen things about the later parts of Tenchi Muyo so I guess anything's possible in the world of anime. After managing to survive all her known doom flags, the number of noblemen and noblewomen (and also some of those of non-noble status) falling head-over-heels for this reincarnated idiot girl continues to grow bigger than a blue ribbon vegetable. But can our resident Bakarina, equipped with only five whole brain cells, actually learn to take a goddamn hint before the competition gets too fierce? Let's find out in the second season of this otome isekai, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X
Signs point to "No."
Lol, I'm pretty sure even by the start of the season her brain cells have given up on her, yeah. She survived the plot of the game so their work is basically over.
But yeah, we're back with season 2, labeled X because at this point that's Catarina's unofficial middle initial. Catarina X Alan. Catarina X Maria. Catarina X Some Person She Met On The Street For A Hot Second. All are viable options in this mistress of seduction's future.
Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure Catarina's actual OTP is just Catarina X Food. As demonstrated by this image of her demolishing all the boys under the table with her monstrous appetite.
Can't believe Catarina defeated Joey Chestnut. Truly nobody is safe against her.
Though that is kind of a big question hanging over this season. The first storyline of Villainess had plenty of wiggle room for goofy romcom bullshit, but it did ostensibly have the premise of Catarina avoiding the death flags in the narrative of her life. She's completed that storyline, though, what now?
The first season was short but managed to cram in quite a bit of development for the individual characters. There's still a lot of room for the cast to grow and hangout without an overall plot to tie it all together. It certainly won't be reduced to endless bickering between all her would-be suitors, right? Certainly we're not just gonna watch everyone duke it out in the Bakarina Bowl for the entire season with no further exploration?
Said suitors:
Honestly, I'm of two minds on this season. On the one hand, it's been a pretty solid redemption tour for the guys. Outside of Alan, the dude half of Catarina's harem left me fairly cold in season one, and this one has done a lot to flesh out their personalities to make them feel like actual characters. On the other, that means the cast I already liked haven't had much to do but sit on the sidelines. Which is bullshit. Mary should be diving into that fracas with a steel chair.
I jest, but only partially. I still rather enjoyed this season because I truly love the whole cast (except Keith) but it does feel like a bit of a dip where the quality ranges from enjoyable fluff to re-treading the final kidnapping plot from the first season, twice. It all comes off as superfluous where I wouldn't begrudge people for skipping out on this season and letting the first season stand on its own. But for those of us not satisfied with a stalemate (again, Mary) or just looking for a fun distraction, I think this season still has enough to offer.
To be fair, it's DIFFERENT people getting kidnapped now! Though yes, the show does start dipping into its old school shojo tropes when we have Catarina get kidnapped two eps in. But really, that's just an excuse for her to start setting up Harem Subsidiaries.
Why escape when you can simply eat your captors out of house and home?
Why escape when you can simply eat your captors out of house and home?
We also get some new characters that aren't in love with Bakarina (shocking, I know), most of which are involved with the Department of Magic or the other crown princes and their respective fiancés.
You say they aren't in love with her, but this is literally the first thing Suzanna says to the girl:
Okay maybe some of them are a little bit in love with her, but they're not part of the fight! Especially because Lady Suzanna could totally kick everyone's asses.
Mad respect to Suzanna. She's basically the only person in this entire cast with her shit together, and that's despite being engaged to the doofiest of the royal princes.
Meanwhile, her fiancé, Prince Jeffery (Big Bro as he prefers), is too busy being obsessed with caring for his little brothers to focus on Bakarina! He's actually the first in line to the throne, so I was a little suspicious of him at first, but he actually cares about protecting his three baby bros. He's also voiced by Takehito Koyasu, so you know he's eccentric AF.
We're definitely meant to suspect him for a bit, along with the other older brother, since Catarina's abduction is seemingly all about getting Geordo out of competition for the crown. Though that quickly turns out to be the machinations of somebody very, very much into Catarina. Too much, honestly. Somebody spritz this guy with a spray bottle.
A spray bottle is too light for trying to assault Catarina. This man needs to cool off with a fire hose. It sucks because up until that point Sora was a pretty quick candidate for being one of the best boys despite having kidnapped her under orders and used dark magic to control one of the other prince's fiancé. Also he looks pretty good. Though he's not really a butler.
Yeahhhhhhh. It's one of those hoary old bad boy tropes I'm not a fan of. I get the appeal of this kind of character, but it's still uncomfortable, especially when Catarina is too dumb to even recognize what he's doing. It's a shame too, since until then they actually had a pretty fun rapport.
Yeah his conversations with Catarina are genuinely insightful and unique compared to her interactions with most of the cast. She even gives him her pendant. The whole "kidnapping" is really more of a vacation from the rest of the cast. He has a pretty sad backstory too, as a former slum kid until a magic dude took him in before dying from illness.
He's a solid character, and does a good job of showing the supportive and loving side of Catarina that can sometimes get lost in the harem shenanigans shuffle.
Wish I could say the same about Ian and Stella, but their entire arc is maybe the dumbest thing in a show where our heroine eats food off the ground.
"You see darling, the reason I never talk to you is that I'm so uncontrollably hot for your bod every time our eyes meet, and we have to leave room for Jesus until our wedding night!"
I thought their small arc was rather sweet! It was nice to see Catarina give romance advice to someone that wasn't herself. It really reminded the audience of her good qualities outside of making every man and woman in the vicinity want to ditch their clothes.
It's sweet up until the reveal that Ian is just too fucking horny that he "can't control himself" around her. Much like Sora's dubcon moment, it's a dating sim trope I find absolutely tiresome. That it's the sentimental conclusion to their arc is just too much for me to take seriously.
Also like the end of the first season, putting Catarina in peril is the way to light a fire under the squad's butts. In more ways than one.
I see we are just piling on the tropes now, aren't we?
I see we are just piling on the tropes now, aren't we?
Somebody give these princes lessons in affirmative consent, I beg you. Alan is the only one with a healthy and equal relationship and he's literally competing with his own fiancé for the same woman.
Poor Alan. He's one of my favorite boys but he definitely gets the least to do out of all the boys in the whole season. Even Nicol has more lines than him!
He got hands down the most romantic scene last season, so I guess they felt they needed to compensate. So all he's gotten to do this time is express his inner Animorph.
I agree that his partnership with Mary is pretty great too though, even if it's more of an alliance borne of necessity. It really seems like Mary is dedicated to blue shelling the competition (specifically Geordo) is part of what keeps the status quo from toppling once he starts becoming adamant about his pursuit of HIS OWN FIANCE. Once again, The Mary Faction is quite a strong force not to be reckoned with.
Though the Geordo part does actually kick off a pretty big event: Catarina has to actually confront the fact that somebody's in love with her. And while she's alright with Geordo himself, becoming official royalty is something she isn't too keen on.
Catarina has her whole life ahead of her now that she's beaten the game, which means she actually has to decide not only who she wants to be with, but what she wants to do with her life. Though, I think she's selling herself short here. If she were queen she should be able to read all the books she wants!
This is also where the Department of Magic comes in, as both Maria, Raphael from last season, and Sora all join it. At first it's presented as an "out", but I think it's a genuine career opportunity and opens the door for more magic elements.
I dunno, Catarina seems like the last person to trust with dangerous magical situations. Maybe her real "out" should be to elope with a pair of nobles' daughters and a peasant girl to start a cottagecore lesbian commune in the woods.
Well fine, be a spoil sport about it Maria.
Well fine, be a spoil sport about it Maria.
I'm just thinking about what's best for her future, though another topic that's often brought up is travel. And while certain characters have their potential fates tied up as members of the upper class, the show still often points to Maria as the best companion for that as well. This makes her major shoe-in for the best candidate overall, despite the fact that she's not as feisty as some of the other members. So now I'm just wondering if there will be a way for Catarina to do it all? Can she travel the world while mastering magic and upholding some sort of status? She may be an idiot but she's got the connections to make that happen!
Stranger things have certainly happened, but I think she should also consider Sophia's proposal:
Really, they're all great candidates. Except for Keith. Even Nicol gets a surprisingly touching episode this season that ended up being one of my favorites. And it's not too far off from what I was talking about earlier regarding what it means to want to decide your own happiness in a rigid social structure. It's stunning!
Dead to rights if you told me before this season I would give a single solitary fuck about Nicol of all characters, I'd have laughed in your face. Dude's entire personality is being the ideal Tuxedo Mask cosplayer, yet somehow just having him talk honestly with somebody about being in love made him possibly the standout of this whole season.
And yeah, for some reason episode 8 just goes buck wild with its direction and backgrounds. I'm used to this show looking functional, not gorgeous!
Oh, what a great episode director can do for a show. But it's that kind of sincere sentimentality overall that makes Villainess' character writing really effective. Most of the season is padded with more fluffy shenanigans, but those small bits are still quite good. It doesn't feel quite as momentous as before, in fact, the characters are still largely static in comparison to season 1, but that kind of interior look is still a treat.
And even the fluff can give us some gold moments. Like yeah, we get a second "everyone trapped in personal fantasies" episode for some reason, but this time they feature fun stuff like Maria getting buff, or Mary and Keith bringing up a whole lot of questions about themselves.
You can't just mention Buff Maria and not post it!! People would think we're cowards!
Also yeah the dollhouse episode was fun and I enjoyed it more than spooky forest episode.
Also yeah the dollhouse episode was fun and I enjoyed it more than spooky forest episode.
I mean I also have to post Princess Geordo so people can also realize this was the reason they cast Shota Aoi in the first place.
It's only a few seconds but hearing his Cagliostro voice again was a delight.
It's only a few seconds but hearing his Cagliostro voice again was a delight.
You can't make me watch Symphogear, Nick. I swear, people have TRIED.
You'll all succumb one day. Just like the tsundere classmate who gets added into Catarina's harem last minute.
She just cannot be stopped.
She just cannot be stopped.
Though, to be fair, that classmate already totally has a girlfriend.
Oh like that stops anybody in this show.
That's true, even people who are already dating each other also want to date Catarina. Like Mary and Keith, a totally real pairing. Catarina's intuition can't be wrong!
Though tbh at this point if there's anyone in the harem I want to find someone else and move on, it's goddamn Keith.
Though tbh at this point if there's anyone in the harem I want to find someone else and move on, it's goddamn Keith.
Well Keith does move on for a bit! In that he moves into a dungeon. If Duke Claes had a nickel for every time one of his kids was kidnapped by a Dark Magic user, he'd still be filthy rich.
I don't hate Keith as a supportive person in Catarina's life, but part of me was happy he was gone. But then unhappy that we had to spend three whole episodes focusing on him being gone. He's not really fun like some of the other characters. He mostly ends up being a cock blockade for Geordo by being a over-protective third-wheeler and this is hampered by the fact that he's y'know...her brother?! I've never really been one for incest romances even if they're not really related so the whole Keith storyline is sour for me.
I'm alright on the brother aspect because they are both aware they're adopted and met relatively late into childhood. If I can buy Mary or Alan falling for Catarina as kids, I can buy Keith seeing her as a love interest rather than a sister. But everything else I'm with you on. It doesn't help that this arc has some real bad tonal whiplash. Love to cut between Keith being brutally beaten by his disgraced biological brother to Catarina bullying a teddy bear.
I like those two parts separately but like everything with Sora, there's some introduction of some extremely dark elements without a whole lot of big consequence. However, I'm exchanging that for more time with Geordo and Maria. I give Geordo shit for his forwardness but he's actually turning into quite the supportive man.
He's gotten better, but still needs to learn to ask permission before macking on someone. Ironically, Sora ends up being the No Horny chaperone for their trip because Mary is a god damn chess master.
It benefits him. Also he looks pretty good in denim while everyone else is dressed in Victorian fashion still.
Sure, but imagine Mary submitting paperwork to formally ask the government to cockblock the royal prince. And they agreed to it. How does this country function?
Also we sorta glossed it over but Suzanna, Prince Jeffrey's fiancée, is also secretly the head of the Department of Magic, a master of magical disguise, and is the actual adult helming this little rescue operation. Also she has a magic cell phone.
I wasn't kidding when I said she could kick everyone's ass—with magic!
Definitely in the running for best new character this season. Though them getting Aoi Yuuki to voice Hex Maniac here is making that call a lot harder.
I wish they'd give Aoi Yuuki something more to do. She just kinda there to be creepy and even after Bakarina satisfyingly breaks Keith from his fetters of dark unholy magic via McGuffin and the power of her own fists, she just...lets her go after stealing her dog born of her BROTHER'S SUFFERING?!
Well yeah, she's clearly being set up as a future antagonist for potential future seasons. So let me call my shot right now and say these two are gonna make a great, fucked up ship once Catarina inevitably seduces her.
Get yourself that goth GF, Bakarina.
Get yourself that goth GF, Bakarina.
I just wanted to see Catarina beat her up first, is all. Nothing says love more than the sweet taste of justice!
Well there's one more episode left where that just might happen! It's a bit odd to clean up this whole story arc with a week to spare, but I assume we're reserving that time for an 8-person boxing tournament to decide who gets to kiss Catarina next.
Geordo: Here let me get the taste of incest out of your mouth, with my mouth.
These guys gotta learn to ask!
These guys gotta learn to ask!
Just like, one time guys. It's only polite.
We end on Keith waking up and spouting out his true feelings. This prompts two harem members act in a way so that Catarina can no longer ignore or feign ignorance about them. She had no romantic experience in her past life, so God help her and all her brain cells if anyone else decides they want to come out of the woodwork about their feelings now. But overall, this is still just set up for the next season.
This is mostly a decent return for the show. I still think it could stand to use its ensemble better, and boy would it be nice to get this kind of serious storyline with one of the girls at the center, but on the whole it's still a fun time even if it's not as fresh as S1.
I think it's hard to beat how S1 sets up all the characters and their arcs of healing with the power of one girls stupidity. We get some of that, and I still can't say I had a bad time. One downside is that I think this season relies a lot more on tropes where S1 didn't and it sours me on enjoying some parts of the story more. I also gotta give props to the anime staff because it really seems like they elevated the material. The ED portraits are gorgeous too.
Now if only they could elevate Mary's screen time.
This ones for you, Mary stans! A good end for you might mean a bad end for everyone else, but sometimes you gotta take it. END!
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