Stark700

It’s time. And by ‘it’s time’, I mean it’s time for an otome isekai to take the world by storm. We’ve had so many different types of isekai these years that this was destined to happen. A show of this nature requires not just a colorful story but a character cast hammered to their roles. I tend to think Hamefura as a gift that any fan of isekai would be grateful to receive. It’s Bakarina time. The original novels gained a fan following and I’d assume popularity would surge more after this adaptation. Hamefura is based on the light novel of the same name featuring femaleprotagonist, Katarina Claes. She is reborn as a villainous character in a game known as ‘Fortune Teller’ and fate has it that she will die by destruction flags regardless what route she takes. Sounds eerie, right? Not quite. Hamefura is not a show to be taken too seriously despite the initial premise. By routes, we have Katarina playing her life like a game in this world with a variety of characters and circumstances. ‘ Before dissecting the show, I think it’s important to watch this with an open mind. Make no mistake as Hamefura has tons of moments of comedy, character gags, and is prone to open shipping wars. Katarina is a single woman after all and the male cast is made of gentlemen of high class. In fact, many of the male characters she meets are wish-fulling guys you’d see from an otome game. Katarina is not the type to chase after them for romance because she’s got way bigger problems on her mind. And let’s be honest, she’s so dense that they'd practically have to say ‘I love you’ to get her to notice. But besides that, Katarina has a rather peculiar mind evidenced through the surrealistic court hearings we see often throughout the show. It’s a running gag that plays on Katarina's psyche and shows how her mind works in a very peculiar fashion. That’s not the only running gag as we also see the younger version of Katarina although both retains the same personality. This same gag applies to many of the other characters including Alan Stuart, Keith Claes, Mary Hunt, and among others. A big question to answer is how much should we care about Katarina. Do you want to see her avoid her doomed fate? Would you like to see her enter a serious relationship with one of the main male cast? Or do you want her life to just be normal again? You don’t need to think too hard about these questions as the plot plays out naturally. From the first few episodes, we see Katarina adjusting to her life as a villainous protagonist. Armed with knowledge about Fortune Lover, Katarina takes chances at making meaningful relationships with important characters. She even becomes a gardener as part of her plans. In essence, she’s not just living in this game world but playing it. Katarina herself is the anti-thesis of the game version of her character. After regaining her memories, Katarina becomes a humble person willing to help others although she remains oblivious to others’ feelings around her. To put it simply, she is a dense black hole. Through character interactions, we see that she tries to change her relationship status with the male cast to avoid certain game endings. In contrast to her game version character, Katarina goes out her ways to fix mistakes such as being a better sister for Keith. Furthermore, Katarina’s actions causes others to view her differently compared to her in-game character. At its core, it can be said that Katarina is described as socially gifted but an academic failure in all respects. No wonder she is known by the community as “Bakarina”. An otome also has its fair share of female characters as we are introduced to Mary, Sophia, and Maria. In the present timeline and story, Katarina builds important relationships with all of them, a sharp contrast compared to her antagonistic connections from Fortune Lover. It’s because of Katarina’s selfless nature and compliments that earns her friends and to no one’s surprise, she also gain their admiration, or perhaps a bit even more. But make no mistake, this anime isn’t fully committed to romance but rather aims its focus at Katarina at very chance. Let’s also not forget how dense she can be towards other people’s feelings that sometimes, it can seem like a meme. Watching Hamefura takes an easy mind to enjoy and honestly, it’s a show that delivers what you see. Helmed by studio Silver Links, there’s an elegant charisma bestowed upon the characters. We see the studio dress the characters into noble clothes to fit their aristocratic status, especially for the male characters. In fact, this is an anime based on a fictional otome game so naturally, the male characters has the look of bishounens. Katarina herself is also an eye catcher with her lady-like behavior during important episodes. There are episodes that depicts her as more elegant than others especially during dance sequences. It gives a certain level of mystique look to her character when she has a mask on, or it can be rather plain and simple as when she is in her role as a gardener. The world fiction contains colorful architectures, void of modern technology. And finally, I do want to praise on our main heroine’s voice acting. Katarina may originally be a spoiled brat but in the present timeline, she manages to be very convincing as a humble woman. She even seems like a princess at times and wants to be treated as such despite her overwhelmingly dense personality. Oh Hamefura. The time finally came for an otome isekai to show what the world it can do and with just 12 episodes, it managed to be convincing enough to pull the trigger. Watching this show gives me hope that more otome isekai will be animated in the future. With Season 2 announced, we're in for more of Bakarina.

HotThotRed1

When I first heard of My next life as a villainess: all routes lead to doom! I thought it was a pretty good idea at first and to be honest it had a very good first two episodes or so. The setting is in an otome game---which is like those story-telling visual novel games that appeal to young women---and I thought this could possibly be the next big thing for isekai anime because of its two major differences as compared to all the other generic isekais every season, that being: 1. It is a story-telling type game with multiple potential endings that all end in hellfor the villainess (MC), and 2. It appeals to both men and women instead of just the men being showered with anime tiddies To my disappointment, this series was only good at the beginning. It was really funny seeing the MC desperately struggle to avoid her inevitable doom and they even had these cute moments of her various personalities debating their next move in her brain. It was also funny because the MC is a teenage girl in a child’s body which adds more drama and makes things really consistent with its humor. All of this, however, was lost after the timeskip which signals the beginning of the actual otome game. I find it really ironic how the MC just seemingly stops to care (or care a lot less) about her “inevitable doom” as it draws nearer and nearer. The entire middle part of the show is just her eating sweets and enjoying her time with her friends. The entire plot that was being built up before the timeskip is completely put on hold and then brought back at the final 2 or 3 episodes. It was so painful having to sit through that as I keep telling myself every episode that it will come back to its former glory of its first episode but just never does. The art and animations are nothing special either and are in fact actually extremely mediocre and dull due to the low budget. There is no memorable score either and the OP isn’t that well directed with matching the appropriate music with the actual scenes, not that any of those were any good anyway. The magic system was hardly ever touched upon (not that it mattered because of the nature of the show but if it bothers you that there is a magic system that is just there doing nothing for the most part then don’t bother with this show). Although all the middle episodes were absolute garbage, the show does get better at the final few episodes where they actually bring back the focus of the main storyline. It also has some good plot twists and a lot of character development for the side characters, but still no comedy despite it giving off a comedic mood at the very start. It’s a very unfitting genre change that can be described as illogical. The main criticism for this show is the lack of consistency with its humor where it starts off really good but just has a massive decline and just entirely disappearing really. I really hate it when a show has a good start and gets you all excited to look forward to something every week but then just turns out into a complete disappointment for the most part.