All Routes Lead to Meh
I’ll applaud My Next Life as a Villainess for the fact that it’s a premise I certainly haven’t seen before. I’m sure it’s not the first but it’s the first to me so it gets some points for that. It’s technically an isekai where our female protag realizes she’s the character in an otame game, and not just any character but the Villainess rival of the game’s MC. For those unaware otame games are essentially the female version of dating sims you’ve probably played at least once in your life. The goal is to romance some male character and live a happy ending. Unfortunately for our protag both the good and bad end of her route are supposed to result in either her exile or death. Thus the premise of the show is her doing everything in her power to avoid either ending and hopefully come to one where either she lives or is prepared to succeed in exile.
I did like the idea that the protag of the anime was actually supposed to be a bad NPC of the game. It’s a cool concept in theory and how she goes about trying to change the narrative is a nice idea. However, the execution in the show is mediocre. The characters are fine, kind of bland to me at least in the first 4 episodes. There wasn’t really a hook that keep me wanting to watch to more. everyone is cute and pretty and it seems happy enough, but it feels like I just wasn’t the target audience. SPOILER WARNING!!!! I did skip to the last episode just to see how things ended. Ironically, it ends like most harem animes do, only in reverse of course, so it was interesting to see both sides I guess like the same thing. There are probably better ways to spend your time but there are definitely worse ways. If you like drama and romance, you like trash and you like a reverse harem you might just like this.
Is it trash? YES
Rating: ★★★☆☆