My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to DOOM!

[ozaline]

This has become my latest obsession, the light novel series "My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom," which has both a manga and an anime adaptation (the first season of the anime just finished, and it's been announced for a second season). It's a shoujo isekai series about an Otaku girl who is reborn as the villain in her favourite otome game (a dating sim for girls/women), where she is destined for death or exile. She comes up with contingencies for this, the main one is, "be nice to everyone," and they all fall in love with her (girls and guys alike).

It's super charming, and some of the characters remind me a lot of people I've known... so I thought I'd share some of the manga. So here's 11.6 pages of chapter 1, and 11 from chapter 2.




The manga begins abruptly with her regaining her memories, Katarina Claes, the spoiled and bratty eight year old daughter of a duke, was on a stroll with the third prince when she fell and cut her head on a rock... this brought back the memories of her past life in Japan.
















She decides to practice her magic, and sword skills things the OG Katarina was too vain for, so that she can defend herself and maybe make a living in another land with her magic. She gets it in her head after reading a text that she should commune with the Earth to improve her Earth magic, and her grandma in Japan said farming was how you "talk to the Earth," so she starts a small farm. The unexpectedness of this catches Jeord's fancy, as he's bored with the predictability of most nobles.

A while later she meets her new adopted brother Keith, she always wanted a younger sibling, but...



Like with Jeord she will be killed or exiled in Keith's route, this time by magic instead of by teh sword, and she reasons that there's no way she'll ever be able to match Keith's powerful magic. Besides he lives with her, and could kill her at any time. So there's only one thing to do.









Katarina is hurt by the larger sand doll



Though she wasn't paying attention when her father told her this earlier she knew the backstory from the game, and feels terrible about doing something so cruel to Keith as to exacerbate his existing trauma.

She also worries that his going into self Elsa-lation (I'm sorry!) will lead to the doom endings, same as before.



In the novel Katarina checks for the key and it's not there, and in the anime Anne mentions that he took the spare key. Those are perhaps a better escalation of "intention and obstacle," this is funnier!



Has anyone done a metal version of Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

The anime is available on Crunchyroll with both subtitles and an English dub

Watch on YouTube

It also gets delightfully queer sometimes... with Katarina showing overt attraction to Maria (despite quashing it each time, as far as I've read cause of her own internalized heteronormativity), and well her female friends...

Watch on YouTube

Anyway I'm enjoying it a lot.

Comments

[crabby_lioness]

We just finished the anime, and it is adorable. The thing I noticed is how much Katerina is a classic Disney princess. Their only powers were kindness, charm, and diligence (as opposed to modern Disney princesses who are smart, brave, talented, etc.), and someone else had to save them. Katerina isn't smart, brave or talented. She's just kind, charming, and diligent, yet she ends up saving everybody.

[arilou_skiff]

I mean, she is brave, mostly because she is too dense to ever figure out real danger (as opposed to imaginary danger)

[ozaline]

She has good instincts some of the time... and when she is correct she's still pretty brave.

[leahandillyana]

Of of this is based on a webnovel. The online story was published on paper in two volumes and the author is still writing new material.

[ozaline]

Is the web novel significantly different than the light novel (like in the case of Re: Zero?) I am on the fourth volume of the light novel series now, I'm really invested in it.

I just hope Sophia and Katarina learn about you know what at some point.

[leahandillyana]

No, it was published in the first two volumes of light novel. I think it just lacked illustrations.

[skjam]

Liked the first season of the anime, writing formal review soon.

[coldfury]

Have you seen the spin-off Manga where she doesn't regain her memories until she's *in* the academy?

I haven't read it yet, so this isn't an endorsement, I just happened to see it and thought it was a great spin-off premise. "Here the same story, but things start out much worse."

[lordultimus]

Mary's thirstiness for Catarina will never fail to amuse me.

[arilou_skiff]

What amused me was her entire convoluted plan to make sure her fiancee doesen't realize he is in love with Catarina... Because she wants her for herself!