(Neo): Hey guys, Neo here.
(Mira): And I’m Mira. Welcome to Project Nitsuj. When it comes to isekai anime there are two different types of isekais out there. There’s the standard transported to another world.
(Neo): And the I die and got reincarnated into another world formula. Trying to decide which one is the best is always subjective, but for me personally, I’ve always enjoyed the reincarnation formula. A character gets a new lease on life as a different person while still maintaining the knowledge from their previous life. It’s a lot of fun and leads to some interesting moments like today’s anime, My Next Life as a Villainess.
(Mira): In an effort to appeal to the female demographic this anime came out in 2020. Based off the novel series written by Satoru Yamaguchi in 2015, this was a series that was a surprising hit. Not only was it good, but it launched a whole new sub-genre in the isekai genre, dating sim reincarnation and showing everyone that female leads can work in this genre as well.
(Neo): The anime was produced by Silver Link (Bofuri) who like Nitsuj said was an MVP studio in 2020. While their stuff wasn’t great it was entertaining, for the most part and for next two weeks we’re going to be taking a look at this series. Let’s dive right in. This is My Next Life as a Villaniness.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Mira): For the opening we have “Shoujo no Route wa Hitotsu Janai!” by angela. It’s all right. Not really my cup of tea but it does a good job of showing the lighthearted and comedic side of the series.
(Neo): The ending is “Bad End” by Shouta Aoi. Talk about a shift in tone. Unlike the opening which is more comedic this song is surprisingly deep with a hint of reflection. I especially like Shouta’s voice.
Episodes 1-4
(Mira): The anime starts with the main heroine (or villainess in this case) Catarina voiced by Maaya Uchida (Lili from Danmachi), the spoiled young daughter of a noble. One day, her dad introduces her to Geordo the third prince of the nation voiced by Shouta Aoi and the two hit it off with each other right away. While in the garden, Catarina trips and hits her head where she remembers her past life. In the past, she was a 17-year-old otaku who became obsessed with an otome game called Fortune Lover (Neo: Does the game have anything to do with fortune telling? (Mira): From my understanding, no). In the game, the main heroine goes to the school of sorcery and falls in love with one of four males (Neo: What? No harem route? (Mira): Well of course, but it’s in loot boxes. Fucking EA). Catarina is the game’s main villainess as well as Geordo’s fiancée who bullied the main heroine on a criminal level. In Geordo’s storyline, Catarina is either killed or gets exiled from the country, and the rest of the routes are similar meaning Catarina is screwed no matter which route she takes (my advice, don’t be a bitch). Catarina begins to train herself in swordsmanship and increasing her understanding of magic so that in case she does get exiled she’ll be able to defend herself (scene here: https://youtu.be/-a9cXb9-y_g. Again, don’t be a bitch and you’ll be fine. Befriend the heroine, make her fall for one of the other male leads, marry Geordo, and live the good life. (Neo): How come we can solve this in the span of 10 seconds and she can’t? (Mira): People are idiots, Neo). We meet the second male lead Keith voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara (Natsu from Fairy Tail) a distant relative of Catarina. In the game he was the son of a mistress which resulted in him getting bullied quite a bit. Things didn’t get better when he moved in with Catarina who continued the bullying. He would grow up to become a playboy in order to hide his loneliness, but all that changed when he met the main heroine. Catarina decides to shower Keith with affection which seems to work until one day Keith shows her his dirt doll magic and accidently hurts her. It turns out Keith has powerful earth magic but can’t fully control it which is why his other family abandoned him. Keith locks himself in his room just like in the game, but Catarina breaks down the door with an axe (Neo: Here’s Catty) and apologizes to Keith for making him worried. She vows to stay by his side saying that she’s not afraid of him and that together they’ll get stronger (something tells me Keith is going to fall for her).
In episode 2 we start off by seeing that Geordo and Keith are developing a rivalry with each other over Catarina. After attending a tea party Catarina befriends a girl named Mary voiced by Miho Okasaki (Rimuru from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) who is about to be engaged to the game’s third love interest Alan voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Yuji from Baka and Test), the twin brother of Geordo (who looks nothing like Geordo. Seriously, just make them half-brothers). Due to his poor health at a young age he had a sheltered upbringing making him spoiled and egotistical (Neo: That’s royalty in a nutshell). Because of this, he has an inferiority complex/rivalry with Geordo. Catarina should have nothing to worry about as she barely appears in this route from the game. Instead, the role of rivalry gets filled by Mary who will either marry Alan or wish him and the heroine a happy life (Neo: So, nothing bad happens to her? (Mira): Of course not, look at her. She’s as cute as a button, has low self-esteem and is surrounded by sisters who mistreat her. She is the last person you want to see become a villain. It’s the equivalent of making you a villain in a story, it would make no sense and the fandom would hate me for doing it. (Neo): Wow, thank you). Catarina decides not to interfere, but it doesn’t work as whenever Mary is with Alan all she ever talks about is Catarina and he starts to think that Catarina is trying to seduce her (Neo: This might explain why she was okay with losing Alan in his route). Alan no longer able to stand this goes to face Catarina and tells her to back off, but Catarina retaliates by saying he has no appeal (Mira and Neo: OHHHHH~. (Mira): Oh no she didn’t). Alan takes offense to this and challenges her to a showdown of her choosing. Since she’s good at climbing trees she challenges him to a tree climbing contest and beats him multiple times (scene here: https://youtu.be/0twaehKodKU). However, Alan refuses to give up and keeps challenging her day after day (Neo: And in a way the two develop a strange friendship with one another. (Mira): I’ve seen stranger). The two eventually decide to settle their differences on the piano (Neo: Phrasing. (Mira): I know. The minute it came out of my mouth) where Alan wins and impresses everyone, however he doesn’t consider this a talent worth praising. For all of his life he’s been compared to Geordo and whatever he does Geordo managed to do it better. To Alan, Geordo is the perfect being with no weaknesses whatsoever. Catarina says that’s not true and reveals to Alan that Geordo has a deep fear of snakes and after she proves this firsthand it manages to get a good laugh out of Alan.
(Neo): Episode 3 starts off with Catarina receiving an invite to attend a tea party hosted by Geordo and Alan (aren’t they a little young for that?). While at the party Catarina meets a white-haired girl named Sophia voiced by Inori Minase (Hestia from Danmachi) who everyone says is a cursed child because of her hair and red eyes. She saves Sophia from some other kids who were picking on her (scene here: https://youtu.be/TIowe_OMksI) and discovers that she likes to read novels just like Catarina (Mira: Isn’t it great when you find someone who shares your interests?). Catarina invites Sophia over to her house where they can continue to discuss novels and the next day she arrives with Nicol her older brother and the last love interest for the game voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Inosuke from Demon Slayer). Nicol is the son of a premier and the childhood friend of Geordo and Alan (he also seems to be the best-looking of the bunch). He’s a year older than the others, is quiet, and has a hardcore sister complex. Just like Alan’s route, Catarina barely appears, and the rival role gets filled by Sophia, so taking that into consideration befriending Sophia should have no impact on the story (Mira: Oh trust me it will. Befriend the sister and the brother will take notice). Catarina and Sophia quickly become friends with Catarina even commenting on how beautiful Sophia is. 7 years pass with Catarina and the others being 15 or 16 now with things progressing smoothly as she’s worked through all the death flags and prepared herself for what’s to come. Perhaps she did her job too well as apparently everyone including the girls seem to have fallen for her (scene here: https://youtu.be/IbiDnCmD6CU).
So not much really happens in episode 4. Catarina and the others go to the magic academy and settle in where Geordo and Alan join the student council along with the main heroine Maria voiced by Saori Hayami (Yor from SpyxFamily. (Mira): Who I swear is like the most perfect heroine you will ever see. I mean, look at her. It’s like what would happen if innocence and cuteness got together and had a sweet baby). Geordo and Keith already make contact with Maria which scares Catarina as this starts their routes (scene here: https://youtu.be/Cn4NnLoJG60. I really do feel like she’s overthinking this. You spent the last 7 years getting on everyone’s good side. Just don’t be a bitch, befriend Maria, and everything should work out). Catarina begins to make frequent visits to the student council to see Geordo and Alan, and even runs into Maria who makes good sweets that Catarina would love to try. The friendship between Catarina and Maria grows when Catarina saves Maria from some bullies who were looking down on her because she’s a commoner (Mira: Oh yeah, we forgot to mention. In this world only nobles can use magic, but Maria being a commoner is an exception to this. (Neo): On top of that, she can use light magic a rare magic that very few can use). After Catarina saves Maria, she eats the sweets unknowingly stealing an event from Geordo who in the game saved Maria from Catarina and the bullies and ate the sweets. By stealing Geordo’s event, Catarina has most certainly stopped any development from happening between him and Maria (scene here: https://youtu.be/f1pWPoHSqW8).
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 continues to focus on the relationship between Catarina and Maria. Catarina once again saves Maria from some bullies not knowing that once again she stole an event from Keith and this in turn increases the friendship between the two young ladies (scenes here: https://youtu.be/VPGjI127ktQ and https://youtu.be/j7kOlluwwyg). On their next day off Maria returns home to help with her mom around the house and Catarina along with Keith pop in for a quick visit where we see the townsfolk like to gossip about her because they believe she’s the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman (Mira: Or did it ever occur that maybe just maybe she was born under a lucky star and was blessed with magic? (Neo): I can’t help but feel that this place is following the logic of FE: Three Houses). We learn that Maria’s powers pretty much alienated her from everyone else as they refused to get close to her and the happy life she knew and loved disappeared (Mira: In fact, in the novel it caused a gap to form in her family. Her dad left believing his wife had an affair which isn’t true, she is his legit daughter. Even the mother had thoughts of killing Maria to end her suffering). Desperate to make friends, Maria taught herself how to bake sweets, but even that wasn’t enough to earn herself some friends. So you can imagine the shock and happiness of Maria’s mom when Catarina and Keith came to visit (scene here: https://youtu.be/Bs8URE5R0K4).
We get filler in episode 6. It’s summer vacation and Catarina makes good memories with everyone and does all her summer homework on the last day.
(Mira): So episode 7 starts off on an interesting note. The anime hints that Sophia might actually be Catarina’s best friend, Atsuko, from her former life. We see how Catarina met her best friend who got her interested in Love Fortune which only helped to make them grow closer together. Things were great until Catarina was caught in a traffic accident (Truck-kun strikes again) which killed her (Neo: The flashback really does a good job showing the pain and sorrow Atsuko went through after her best friend’s death). After that, it’s exam time for Catarina and the others. The practical part of their exam is exploring some ancient ruins that were once home to a powerful mage. Catarina gets put in a group with Sophia, Geordo, and Keith while Alan, Maria, and Mary get put into a group. During their adventure each of the boys gets a chance to shine in the episode but it’s Sophia who steals the show when Catarina gets lost and it’s Sophia who uses her wind magic to find out where she’s at and save her from falling to her death. In the end, Catarina’s group passes the exam thanks to her for accidently finding a magic stone they were supposed to find (scene here: https://youtu.be/wSl-dxyQNA4).
In episode 8 while Catarina and her harem are studying in the library, Catarina grabs a glowing book which teleports her and everyone else (minus Mary and Maria) inside of it (scene here: https://youtu.be/liPXs1vzsjk). Mary and Maria figure out that the book is one of the seven mysteries of the school which feeds off the desires of the people inside the book. The only way for Catarina and the others to return is for one of their desires to be fulfilled (Neo: And since everyone wants Catarina, this book may need an 18+ logo on it). So, we see everyone’s desires which all involve getting together with Catarina, but before those desires can be fulfilled Mary keeps closing the book shocked and jealous that someone is trying to put the moves on her Catarina (she’s like a dog keeping everyone away from her master, so she can have her all to herself). Mary and Maria finally make it to Catarina’s desire which was eating delicious snacks and drinking tea. Apparently, her desire was too much for the book and this allows everyone to return to the real world (scene here: https://youtu.be/I6LF7WxR7rc).
Episodes 9-12
In episode 9 we focus on Anne the maid of Catarina who helps her out at school. We see how Anne is more observant than Catarina and actually knows how everyone is secretly in love with her. Anne of course understands why as she too was helped by Catarina in the past. We find out that Anne was born as the love child between a baron and his maid. The Baron of course cared little for Anne and her mom. Things got worse when a fire occurred one night which resulted in Anne’s mom dying and Anne getting a severe burn on her arm making her damaged goods in the eyes of her father. Anne was soon disowned and got hired as a maid by Catarina’s family. At first, Anne thought Catarina was a rotten spoiled child (going by standard game logic, she was), but after that fall as a child, Catarina changed for the better and started to enjoy serving Catarina. One day Anne’s father came by to take her away saying he’s found her a man, but Catarina comes in to save her saying how much she depends on Anne and for the first time in Anne’s life she finally feels like her own person. Anne rejects the marriage proposal and has since then been by Catarina’s side. Other than this story nothing much really happens throughout the episode.
(Neo): In episode 10 we start off with a bunch of bullies confronting Catarina for her cruel actions against students of the school. They accuse her of using her family name and position as Geordo’s fiancée to bully other students and take advantage of them. They release a newsletter of her cruelty to the students which get revoked by Maria and the others saying that Catarina is too simple-minded to do such things (Mira: Yeah, that’s code for she’s a lovable idiot. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/ajOSCza38ok and https://youtu.be/hrcsxhnQpUk). With this issue resolved, Catarina has overcome her last death flag meaning she’s in the clear. However, danger still lurks around the corner. Maria senses a dark presence and goes to investigate where she winds up disappearing on them and nobody can find her. Geordo believes this is the work of dark magic and Catarina finds out that the culprit is Sirius the student council president. Up until this point he’s been a side character not really doing anything, however it turns out he’s actually a hidden route in the game (the hardest route to be exact). His route is very difficult because if you make one mistake everybody in the game dies (wow, a true bad ending). Sirius grabs Catarina saying how much he hates her (Mira: Why, she’s done nothing to you) and puts her into an eternal sleep.
Episode 11 starts with us seeing what Catarina looked like before she got isekai’d (her appearance is rather- (Mira): Plain. Which perfectly matches her personality). We see Catarina’s family and see her go to school like a regular high school girl completely forgetting about her time in the other world (scene here: https://youtu.be/fjUOtmmoJXA). Meanwhile, in the other world, Catarina’s body has gone into a coma where she’ll eventually die if she doesn’t wake up (kind of obvious, don’t you think?). We take a moment to see everyone reflect on their feelings for Catarina, how much she helped them, and how they all realize they love her (Mira: Including the girls). Sophia hears the voice of Catarina’s best friend who tells Sophia to go to Catarina as she has the power to wake her up. Everyone rushes to Catarina’s bed where in the dream world Catarina and her friend meet. Catarina remembers her life and finally gets to say a proper goodbye to her best friend and thank her for everything (wow, so does this mean Catarina’s best friend killed herself? (Mira): No. In the novel, it’s revealed that Catarina’s best friend lived a rich and fulfilling life. Her only regret was that she never got the chance to say a proper goodbye to Catarina. So, through divine intervention, the two best friends were able to reunite with each other one last time and say farewell to each other. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/iHBz54GW0CI and https://youtu.be/MHw99A9mROY). Once Catarina wakes up, she tells everyone that Sirius was the one who attacked her and she knows where Maria is located. They manage to find and save Maria and then go to face Sirius.
In the final episode we learn about Sirius’s past. It turns out Sirius isn’t his real name, but instead the name of the boy who inhabits his body. In past, he lived as Raphael with his mom. Raphael was the result of an affair his mom had with a marquis and was later abandoned by him. Despite the two being poor they lived a happy life with each other, but all that changed when the noble’s wife kidnapped them. Her son Sirius has a terminal illness and refusing to let her son die, she planned to use dark magic to transfer Sirus’s mind and soul into the body of Raphael. After sacrificing Raphael’s mom, Sirius’s mind and soul was transferred into the body of Raphael. However, only the memories of Sirius were transferred into Raphael’s body meaning that the ritual backfired and Raphael gained dark magic from the failed ritual (Mira: Because potatoes. (Neo): Exactly). Raphael pretended to be Sirius so that he could inherit his family’s fortune and exact his revenge (so why go after Maria and Catarina? (Mira): Every evil plan needs to have one dumb flaw that makes no sense). Raphael says there’s no way for her to save him like she did everyone else and she agrees. She’s not the heroine of this story she’s the villainess, all she can do is just stand by his side, listen to him, offer him comfort, and never leave him alone until he feels better. This actually works and makes him remember that his mom only wanted him to live a happy life, but the dark magic won’t let him give up on his vengeance. With the help of Catarina he’s able to exorcise the dark magic from his body (well that was anti-climactic). Raphael turns himself in and exposes the dark dealings of his family to get them all arrested thus avoiding the ultimate bad end. However, the battle still rages on for Catarina as she’s finally reached the final event in the game, the second-year graduation party. In this event Maria confesses to the one she loves and ultimately deciding what Catarina’s fate will be (Mira: Will she be killed or exiled?). Catarina watches Maria like a hawk waiting for her to make her move but it never comes. Catarina has enough and just straight up asks her who she likes to which she says there’s no boy she’s interested in, however she does confess her feelings for Catarina who misinterprets this as Maria just saying she likes her as a friend (scene here: https://youtu.be/qRjft29z3nc). With this information Catarina believes she got the friendship route where everybody just likes each other and nothing else (Mira: This would be the worst ending in any real-life dating game). Raphael also makes a return deciding to work in the Department of Magic at the school and even shows signs of liking Catarina as well (she got another one).
(Mira): And that was the first season the anime. But tune in next time when we take a look at the second season.
(Neo): Until then. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.