“The Final Event Has Begun…”
What They Say:
Wealthy heiress Catarina Claes is hit in the head with a rock and recovers the memories of her past life. It turns out the world she lives in is the world of the game Fortune Lover, an otome game she was obsessed with in her past life… but she’s been cast as the villain character who tries to foil the protagonist’s romances! The best ending the game has for Catarina is exile, and the worst, death! She’ll have to find a way to avoid triggering the flags of doom, and make her own happy future! The misunderstanding-based screwball love comedy now begins!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sirius is confronted by everyone. He’s surprised to see Catarina here though. Why is she here? She simply remarks that she woke up, haha. That’s obvious! Why is she here after everything he’s done to her? Catarina doesn’t think anything he did was too horrible. Is she for real!? He had every intention of killing her! Nah, he didn’t. Catarina explains that if he really wanted to kill her, he would have instead of putting her to sleep. You know what? She’s right. Catarina just wanted another chance to speak with Sirius. The last time she saw him he had such a sad look on his face. Why did Sirius do the things that he did? Sirius? Sirius is dead. Okay, I’m going to need a little bit more elaboration on that.
Sirius backstory time! It seems like he had a happy childhood. It’s clear that his mom loved him and he loved her. What about his dad? One day, Sirius and his mother are kidnapped by some shady people. This evil plot was Marchioness Dieke’s doing. Hey, isn’t that Sirius’ last name, too!? It is indeed! Now here’s where things get weird. Sirius isn’t really Sirius. He’s actually Raphael Walt. His mother had an affair with Marchioness Dieke’s husband and that’s how he was born. The Marchioness has hated his mother ever since and I can’t blame her. However, she’s going a bit extreme with her anger. Her son, the real Sirius, is ill and about to die. She plans to use dark magic to transfer his mind into Raphael’s body. Also, Raphael’s mom will be used as a sacrifice. Well, dang. That’s all kinds of messed up. The Marchioness has her lackey kill Raphael’s mom right in front of him. Again, all kinds of messed up. The lackey then uses dark magic to transfer Sirius’ mind into Raphael’s body. Success! Maybe? Marchioness Dieke then has the lackey killed! Can’t have any loose ends lying around, you know? I don’t like Marchioness Dieke very much.
Fast forward to the present. Sirius, er, I mean Raphael, explains that the Marchioness Dieke’s plan failed. Her son’s mind wasn’t transferred into his bodies. Instead, he only gained his memories as information. He also acquired dark magic. He’s been pretending to be Sirius this whole time so he could get his revenge. He wants to destroy everything that Marchioness Dieke holds dear! You can’t really blame him either. Catarina finally understands why he’s in so much pain. She wants to help him. Raphael comments that she can’t save him like the others! She understands that though. She can’t save everyone. But you know what she can do? Stay by his side. She can listen to his problems when he’s sad and not leave until he feels better. Catarina’s words remind Raphael of his mother’s kindness. D’awwww. Raphael is crying. I also got something in my eyes. Catarina’s outstretches her hands but before Raphael can take them, a voice yells at him to take revenge. You remember that lackey that killed his mother? Yeah, he found his way inside Raphael’s mind when he died. Freaky. He’s been controlling him this whole time. But not anymore! Raphael doesn’t plan to live for revenge any longer! He’s going to try and be happy like his mother wanted. He’s engulfed by a brilliant light and the lackey dissipates. I think that means he’s back to normal!
After this ordeal, Raphael leaves the school to tell the authorities everything. He’s going to try his hardest to make his mother’s wish come true. He must atone and start over. Marchioness Dieke and her underlings eventually get arrested. It seems that Catarina has avoided the bad ending where everyone dies. Thank goodness! But she can’t breathe a sigh of relief yet! She needs to survive the second-years’ graduation party. Whether or not she meets her doom depends on this way. Time to commence the 19,800th strategy meeting in her mind! Wow, that’s a lot of meetings. This is the day when Maria confesses her love to the character she has fallen in love with. Whether she has a good or bad ending will determine Catarina’s fate! Will she face death or exile? Either way, she’s ready! She’s got all of her tools packed and her toy snake ready to go!
At the graduation party, Nicol is given flower bouquets by all of his adoring fans. Catarina also gives him a bouquet…of vegetables. Everything has a good laugh. Never change, Catarina. But more importantly, who is Maria going to confess her feelings to!? While watching Geordo and Alan perform, Catarina gets anxious trying to figure it out. Thus, she boldly walks up to her ace and asks her if there’s someone she likes!? In fact, there is! Maria is very fond of Catarina! Shocker, am I right? But that’s not what Catarina meant! Is there a boy she likes and wants to have a relationship with? No, of course not. She only has eyes for you, Catarina! You just don’t realize it because you’re denser than a black hole! Maria only loves and admires Catarina and wants to be with her all the time. What a coincidence! Everyone else – Geordo, Keith, Alan, Mary, Sophia, and Nicol – also want to be by her side forever. They make sure to tell Catarina that. She comes to the conclusion that she just unlocked the friendship ending! Classic Bakarina.
After the graduation party, everyone has some of Maria’s sweets in the student council room. Do you know what goes great with sweets? Tea! Catarina realizes that the tea tastes familiar. Much to her surprise, Raphael is also here! He reveals that he’s now working for the Department of Magic. But what he’s really here for is to ask Catarina if he can continue being by her side? Of course! Yup, he’s totally smitten by her. Add another member to the harem! Everyone realizes they have yet another rival, haha. A new season that wasn’t in the game’s script is about to begin! What’s in store for Catarina? I guess we’ll find out in the second season which was confirmed! Yay! After the credits, we get a hilarious scene outside a store where kids are excited about a new toy. The new toy? A toy snake. Catarina’s toy snake is now a big hit. Hey, if she wasn’t going to use it, might as well make money off of it, right?
In Summary:
Catarina managed to avoid the doom flags and the bad ending! Hooray! This series was hilariously charming from start to finish. As I mentioned in the very first episode, I’ve never seen an anime where the main character is reborn into an otome game before. It was refreshing! The isekai genre is an oversaturated one. There’s just so many isekai shows, you know? It’s hard to do something different and leave a lasting impression. That wasn’t the case with this anime. It managed to be a breath of fresh air. It definitely won me over! I loved My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! and it deserves all the praise it gets. Bakarina was such a fun character and her denseness never failed to entertain me. It’s not surprising that everyone fell in love with her. I think it’s safe to assume that anyone who watched this show probably did, too. Bring on the second season!!!
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, VRV
