My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X ( Anime Series Review/Season 2)

 

CW; mentions of sexual harassment, mentions of incest.

 

Disappointment. That's the term I'm going to bring to bear here because this anime is the second season to one I consider one of my favorite anime, perhaps ever. The more I look back on the first season of My Next Life as a Villainess, the more I love it. Ironically, watching this only made me love it more. Because as said, this season musters a feeling that's highly important to me; disappointment.

 

There is still good to be found in this story. Whether that is me trying to cope or a true analysis, I have to stand by that. This story, about a woman named Catarina, a woman from another world transported into the body of a villainess from the game she played, is about her forming bonds with those the character once spurned and now she considers her closest loved ones; all of them loving her. There is incredible music that scores even the most awkward moments. There's beautiful vistas and shots that pop up at many points. There's silly humor and genuinely funny moments; it's a season based around introducing some new characters and some of them truly do hit well. It has plots that show promise or intrigue.

 

And each sentence I speak, I have to caveat. Each thing I talk about has something that kind of chews away at the good of it. The music is used during moments where multiple male characters force themselves physically on Catarina to steal a kiss which continues to happen again and again. Some of the vistas and shots are undercut by the plot not really making much sense or making us wonder why we're here, such as a kidnapping plot that kind of just 'exists' towards the end of the show. The humor is funny until again, it lands into the 'and the character forces themselves physically on Catarina' which some may argue that she's so dense, they need to make their intentions clear and I would argue, write the show better. You can write her a little less dense and then not write such thoughtlessly harmful actions instead. People -wrote- this show and it was their choice to pick such a thing and I don't agree with that choice.

 

Also? One of those characters who does it is supposed to be one of the central male leads of the new batch and he is so irrelevant, he exists to ahave a story, be this incredibly off-putting character and then kind of matters so little, he doesn't feature in the ending of the show.

 

The show feels not just like its filling time, but as a rejection of the previous series charm. Most of the femme leads who are into Catarina get no time or focus; the male leads instead get nearly all the run time to talk about their love of Catarina or to, as I keep saying, have these incredibly awful physical interactions. What new femme characters get introduced either barely matter or are used to facilitate other male characters growth; or get turned into running gags. The entire season seems to exist to flesh out the fiancée of Catarina, Geordo who is just the most dull character from a narrative perspective. Mary, a woman in love with Catarina who plays closer to the role of an actual 'villainess', willing to trip others up and interfere to ensure others don't get closer to her, is far more interesting and is basically a running gag for the series. It feels like its running a gag that no one's laughing at. And to top it all off, the ending of the series focuses on validating the love of an adopted brothers love for their sister, seriously.

 

I'm tired. And unlike when I wrote the first series review, I am sad to say this is part of the reason why. If there's a season three, I want to trust it'll do something interesting or worthy of change. But much like how Catarina continues to be dense; I don't know if I'll be seeing any change anytime soon.

 

Picture taken by me.