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

Japanese light novel series and its franchise From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
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My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (Japanese: 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった..., Hepburn: Otome Gēmu no Hametsu Furagu Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shite Shimatta...; lit. I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess with Only Destruction Flags...), also known as HameFura (はめふら) for short, is a Japanese light novel series written by Satoru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Nami Hidaka. It began serialization online in July 2014 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. It was acquired by Ichijinsha, which published the first light novel volume in August 2015 under its Ichijinsha Bunko Iris imprint. Fifteen volumes have been released as of July 2025. The light novel has been licensed in North America by J-Novel Club.

Quick facts 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった... (Otome Gēmu no Hametsu Furagu Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shite Shimatta...), Genre ...

A manga adaptation with art by Hidaka has been serialized in Ichijinsha's josei manga magazine Monthly Comic Zero Sum since August 2017. It has been collected in eleven tankōbon volumes and licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.[1] A spin-off manga was serialized from November 2019 to July 2021.[2] An anime television series adaptation produced by Silver Link aired from April to June 2020, and a second season aired from July to September 2021. An anime film premiered in December 2023.

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Premise

Catarina Claes, the young daughter of a noble family, one day bumps her head and regains memories of her past life as a 17-year-old otaku girl. It is then that she realizes she has been reborn into the world of the otome game Fortune Lover as the game's villainess who, regardless of what route the player took in the original game, is doomed to be either exiled or killed. To avoid these routes that lead to doom, Catarina begins taking countermeasures. This, however, ends up having unexpected consequences on her relations with the other characters of the game's world.

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Characters

Catarina Claes[a] (カタリナ・クラエス, Katarina Kuraesu; nicknamed "Bakarina" by fans[4])
Voiced by: Maaya Uchida[5] (Japanese); Jeannie Tirado[6] (English)
A 17-year-old high school student and otaku who has been reincarnated as the real-life villainess character of the game Fortune Lover after she was hit by car while heading to school. Having extensive knowledge of the game that her friend Atsuko lends her to play on, she intentionally changes the most important game scenes, altering her own path to avoid as many bad endings as possible. Even though her earth magic was weak, she makes up with excellent charisma and is even able to break through to Sirius and Keith in season 2 from dark magic taking over them respectfully. Her good-hearted nature leads to many of the main characters falling in love with her, but Catarina is too dense to understand their true intentions. Also, in her mind set, she has five Catarina personalities, discussing and solving moments whenever she's in a crisis or at times remembering game moments that plays out between video game and real life. She has been given the nickname of "Bakarina" by fans due to her obliviousness, using the Japanese word "baka" in place of the first two syllables in her name.[7]
Geordo Stuart (ジオルド・スティアート, Jiorudo Sutiāto)[b]
Voiced by: Shouta Aoi,[8] Asami Seto[8] (childhood) (Japanese); Griffin Burns[6] (English)
A prince who became Catarina's fiancé after he inadvertently caused her to trip and injure herself, forcing him to take responsibility. In the game, Catarina uses this to her advantage to monopolize him for herself. In the good ending, he exiles Catarina and marries the protagonist, whilst the bad ending has him kill Catarina and abandoning the heroine due to guilt. Due to Catarina's continued efforts to better herself and avoid the bad endings, he now has developed genuine feelings for her and continuously tries to demonstrate his affection, only for her to remain oblivious of his feelings.
Keith Claes (キース・クラエス, Kīsu Kuraesu)
Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara,[8] Sora Amamiya[8] (childhood) (Japanese); Griffin Puatu[6] (English)
Catarina's adoptive brother and an earth magic prodigy, who her father adopted after his father, a distant relative, died. In the game, Catarina bullied him under the belief he was her father's illegitimate child, causing him to grow up to become a womanizer. In the good ending, he has Catarina exiled and abandons his womanizing ways to be with the protagonist, whilst the bad ending has him kill his sister in a fit of rage before disappearing. To avoid these endings, Catarina goes out of her way to be a good sister to him, which improves their relationship but also saddles him with the thankless task of keeping his sister out of trouble, mostly to no avail. Despite being adoptive siblings, he also develops feelings for Catarina.
Alan Stuart (アラン・スティアート, Aran Sutiāto)
Voiced by: Tatsuhisa Suzuki,[8] Mutsumi Tamura[8] (childhood) (Japanese); Bryce Papenbrook[6] (English)
Geordo's twin brother and Mary's fiancé. He was jealous of his more talented brother, which made him into an introvert. In the game, Catarina actually does not appear in his path, as Mary serves as the rival character instead. After Catarina becomes friends with Mary, he became angered by how she is constantly ignoring him in favour of her. Over time, however, he and Catarina become friends and his relationship with his brother also improves. While he has a crush on Catarina, he has yet to realize this due to Mary's interference.
Nicol Ascart (ニコル・アスカルト, Nikoru Asukaruto)
Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka,[8] M.A.O[8] (childhood) (Japanese); Nicolas Roye[6] (English)
Geordo and Alan's childhood friend and Sophia's brother. He is considered handsome by all who see him, with a smile that can charm both males and females. Details regarding his story in the game are sparse, since Catarina never played his route. Not only this, but the main rival in his route is Sophia Ascart, his younger sister as he is quite overprotective of her. Despite this though, he seems to have developed a crush on Catarina after she got him to open up to her.
Mary Hunt (メアリ・ハント, Meari Hanto)
Voiced by: Miho Okasaki[9] (Japanese); Colleen O'Shaughnessey[6] (English)
Alan's fiancée and the rival character during his path in the game. While she and Catarina had no relationship in the game, she became good friends with the current Catarina after the latter praised with her gardening skills. In the game, she fell in love with Alan after he praised her garden. As a result, because Catarina praised her first, she now has romantic feelings for her instead.
Sophia Ascart (ソフィア・アスカルト, Sofia Asukaruto)
Voiced by: Inori Minase[9] (Japanese); Kira Buckland[6] (English)
Nicol's sister and the rival character during his path in the game, though details regarding her story are sparse since Catarina never played that route. She was considered cursed due to her silver hair and red eyes, causing her to live a life of isolation until she met Catarina and opened up to her because of Catarina's shared interest in romance books and offer to be her friend. It is eventually revealed that she is actually the reincarnation of Catarina's best friend during her previous life, Atsuko Sasaki (佐々木 敦子, Sasaki Atsuko).
Maria Campbell (マリア・キャンベル, Maria Kyanberu)
Voiced by: Saori Hayami[9] (Japanese); Melissa Fahn[6] (English)
A girl who, in Fortune Lover, was the main protagonist and original bullying target for Catarina. Due to Catarina becoming much nicer and charismatic, Maria ironically ends up falling in love with her instead, which in turn gives Maria a route of her own like Catarina. She possesses light magic that is rare for a commoner, which lead to her being alienated during her childhood. But the reason Catarina became friends with Maria is her love of sweets which she's good at.
Sirius Dieke (シリウス・ディーク, Shiriusu Dīku) / Raphael Walt (ラファエル・ウォルト, Rafaeru Woruto)
Voiced by: Toshiki Masuda,[10] Yoko HikasaEp. 11 credits (childhood) (Japanese); Chris Hackney[11] (English)
A second-year student and the president of the student council, who played a side role in Fortune Lover. He possesses the fabled dark magic and is the second villain in a secret route where if the main protagonist did not conquer him if one goes down that path, all the characters are killed, leading to the ultimate bad ending. In his childhood, he and his mother were kidnapped by Marchioness Dieke as part of plan to transfer her ailing son's consciousness into another child that will serve as his vessel using dark magic. Seeing his mother sacrificed in front of him as part of the ritual and developing dark magic in the process, a revenge-driven Raphael seeks to kill his oppressors aided by the spirit of the man responsible for the ritual, who too seeks revenge after being killed by the Marchioness Dieke's cohorts. After brainwashing the students to frame Catarina, kidnap Maria, and temporarily placing Catarina into a deep slumber, he was eventually found in his hideout by the group, in which Catarina is able to end the darkness by revealing his true name. After overcoming the spirit, Raphael brings Marchioness Dieke to justice and eventually joins the Department of Magic.
Anne Shelley (アン・シェリー, An Sherī)
Voiced by: Azumi Waki[12] (Japanese); Cherami Leigh (English)
Catarina's personal maid. She keeps tabs on Catarina for her mother, which usually ends with Catarina getting a stern lecture afterwards. It is revealed that Anne is the illegitimate daughter of a noble, Baron Shelley, and one of his maids. Her father decided to keep Anne in his mansion, intended as a tool for a political marriage. However, when a fire broke out in the mansion when Anne was 15, which killed her mother in the process, she was expelled after it was discovered she was scarred. She would later become Catarina's personal maid upon entering the Claes mansion.
Millidiana Claes (ミリディアナ・クラエス, Miridiana Kuraesu)
Voiced by: Akiko HiramatsuEp. 1 credits (Japanese); Laura Post (English)
Duchess Millidiana Claes is Catarina's biological mother and Keith's adopted mother. In Fortune Lover, she was a cruel adopted mother to Keith since she thought Keith was her husband's bastard child with a mistress. Thanks to Catarina, Millidiana learns that this is not the case, which made her fall in love with her husband again. She is currently dismayed with her daughter's wild and unladylike behavior since the latter is engaged to a prince. As a result, she would prefer Catarina break her engagement with Geordo to save the Claes family any more embarrassment.
Luigi Claes (ルイジ・クラエス, Ruiji Kuraesu)
Voiced by: Takuto YokoyamaEp. 1 credits (Japanese); Chris Hackney (English)
Duke Luigi Claes is Catarina's biological father and Keith's adopted father. After Catarina got engaged to Geordo, he adopted Keith, who was the bastard son of one of his relatives, to continue the Claes family name. However, this caused a misunderstanding with his wife who thought he did not love her, and Keith was his biological son before Catarina helped cleared up the misunderstanding. Luigi loves his family and is a good boss to his servants where he defended Anne after she refuses to follow her father after the latter tried to force her into an unwanted marriage with another noble.
Geoffrey Stuart (ジェフリー・スティアート, Jefurī Sutiāto)
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu[13] (Japanese); Adin Rudd[14] (English)
The eldest brother of Geordo and Alan, and the first prince in line for the throne. While he acts like a fool in public, in reality he is a genius mastermind who uses his public persona to gather greedy and corrupt nobles who think they can control him so he can have them arrested when the time comes. He loves his brothers dearly and keeps a large collection of pictures of them in his room. Despite being first line for the throne, Geoffrey has no interest in becoming king and would rather have one of his younger brothers be king instead.
Susanna Randall (スザンナ・ランドール, Suzanna Randōru)
Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka[13] (Japanese); Erin Yvette[14] (English)
Geoffrey's fiancée. A master of disguise, she is also known as Larna Smith (ラーナ・スミス, Rāna Sumisu), the head of the Kingdom's Department of Magic. Despite being engaged, both Susanna and Geoffrey have no feelings for each other and are only engaged out of convenience. She seems to have feelings for Catarina as she enjoys hugging her and lets her join the Department of Magic with Maria.
Ian Stuart (イアン・スティアート, Ian Sutiāto)
Voiced by: Yusuke Shirai[13] (Japanese); Daman Mills[14] (English)
The second prince in line for the throne and Geordo and Alan's second eldest brother. He tends to be quiet and shows little emotion, which led to rumors that he is cold and is unhappy with his engagement to Selena. In reality, Ian does love Selena but is embarrassed to show affection to her as he feels it is inappropriate to show it to her in public until they get married.
Selena Berg (セリーナ・バーグ, Serīna Bāgu)
Voiced by: Yui Ogura[13] (Japanese); Julia McIlvaine[14] (English)
Ian's fiancée. The daughter of a prominent noble family with powerful magic, she was engaged to Ian as part of an arrangement between their families. Being in love with Ian since they were children, Selena strives to become a woman worthy of being his wife. However, as they grew older and it was discovered Selena was actually weak in magic, people began to disapprove of her engagement to Ian, with even her parents thinking they should call off their engagement, causing Selena to be insecure about herself.
Rufus Brode (ルーファス・ブロード, Rūfasu Burōdo) / Sora Smith (ソラ・スミス, Sora Sumisu)
Voiced by: Kohsuke Toriumi,[15] Yūko Sanpei (young) (Japanese); Kylen Deporter,[14] Amber Lee Connors (young) (English)
A butler seemingly under the employment of Selena, he is instead using her to kidnap Catarina and then take the fall later, eliminating the major competition for Geoffrey to become king. He wields dark magic, which he uses to hypnotize his victims. Over time, he begins to warm up to Catarina and reveal his vulnerable side to her, eventually turning over a new leaf and joining the Department of Magic after the mastermind behind the kidnapping is arrested.
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Media

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Light novels

The first light novel volume was published by Ichijinsha under their Ichijinsha Bunko Iris imprint on August 20, 2015. As of July 2025, fifteen volumes have been published. The light novel is licensed in North America by J-Novel Club.[16]

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Manga

There have been two manga series associated with the light novel. The first, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, has been serialized in Ichijinsha's Monthly Comic Zero Sum since August 28, 2017, and adapts the light novel series into manga format. The second, My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story: On the Verge of Doom! (乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった... 絶体絶命!破滅寸前編), was also serialized in Monthly Comic Zero Sum from November 1, 2019, to July 2, 2021.[60][2][61] This manga focuses on the question of what would happen if Catarina were to recover her memories when she was fifteen as opposed to during her childhood, leaving her without the friends and relationships that she garnered as a result of early planning against her bad ends.[2] Both manga series are licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment.[62][63]

Ichijinsha published a yuri anthology of the series, titled My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story: Girls Patch (乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった... GIRLS PATCH), on June 26, 2020.[64] The anthology is also licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment.[65]

Volumes

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
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My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story: On the Verge of Doom!
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Anime

An anime adaptation of the light novel series was announced by Ichijinsha on October 19, 2018.[98] The anime was later announced to be a television series on July 18, 2019.[99] The series was animated by Silver Link and directed by Keisuke Inoue, with Megumi Shimizu handling series composition, and Miwa Oshima designing the characters. Natsumi Tabuchi, Hanae Nakamura, Tatsuhiko Saiki, Miki Sakurai, and Shu Kanematsu composed the music.[100]

The series aired on Tokyo MX, BS11, MBS, AT-X, J Tele, and other channels from April 5 to June 21, 2020.[9][c] Angela performed the series' opening theme song "Otome no Route wa Hitotsu Janai!" (乙女のルートはひとつじゃない!; "There's More Than Just One Route For a Maiden!"), while Shouta Aoi performed the series' ending theme song "Bad End".[8][101] Crunchyroll streamed the series with subtitles.[102] On May 15, 2020, Crunchyroll announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered the following day.[6] Muse Communication has licensed the series in Southeast Asian territories and released via Animax Asia.[103][104]

A second season aired from July 3 to September 18, 2021, on the Super Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS and their affiliates, as well as BS Asahi.[105][d] Angela performed the second season's opening theme song "Andante ni Koi o Shite!" (アンダンテに恋をして!; "Fall in Love at Andante!"), while Shouta Aoi performed the second season's ending theme song "give me ♡ me."[15] An OVA was bundled with the special edition of manga's seventh volume, which was released on September 30, 2021.[107] After the conclusion of the second season, it was announced that the series would receive an anime film.[108] The film's title was revealed in April 2022;[109] it premiered in Japan on December 8, 2023.[110]

On May 18, 2021, it was announced that Sentai Filmworks had acquired the home video distribution rights.[111]

Episodes

Season 1
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Video games

Bonus DVDs containing demo versions of Fortune Lover, the in-universe otome game, were included in the limited editions of the anime's first season Blu-ray releases.[117] A free-to-play mobile game titled Katarina's Farm (カタリナ農園, Katarina Nōen) was released on July 31, 2020, with an online trial version being made available from June 19 to August 31, 2020.[118] A game for the Nintendo Switch titled My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Pirates of the Disturbance was released on December 23, 2021.[119] The game has an original story that takes place beyond Fortune Lover's final graduation event, showing Catarina having evaded all the doom flags only to face a new doom flag related to a new meeting and encounter with a pirate.[120] The game was released in English by Idea Factory International on November 28, 2023.[121][122]

Merchandise

On September 27, 2020, Premium Bandai began selling book cushions which "feature art of Catarina and her four (main) suitors" from the series, which each cushion folding up like a book, "featuring the character's name on the outside."[123]

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Reception

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The light novel and manga have over 600,000 copies in print.[98] The manga adaptation was ranked 4th in the 2019 Next Manga Awards in the print category.[124]

Some reviewers have described the anime series as focusing around Catarina Claes, who amasses a polyamorous, bisexual harem pining for her as she tries to avoid being a villain and becomes very thoughtful.[125] Reviewers pointed out two queer female characters: Mary Hunt and Maria Campbell, all of whom have crushes on Catarina, as reviewer James Beckett of Anime News Network pointed out.[126][127][128]

In May 2020, seven of the 10 spots of a "weekly favourite couple poll" by Anime Trending featured Catarina paired with most of the characters.[129][130][l] After the first season ended, with a "friendship ending", one reviewer calling it a "very definitive ending for Catarina and Her Polyamorous Bisexual Harem of Doom,"[128] and the series was later praised by Rebecca Silverman and Theron Martin of the Anime News Network for being well-done, and offers "a rewarding bisexual power fantasy" which Catarina is unaware of due to her dense nature.[131]

In a piece for Anime Feminist, Alex Henderson considered the series' "fantasy world [to be] accepting of queer love and queer identity," noting acceptance of female character's crushes on Katarina and the presence of queer romance novels being "seemingly mainstream" in the series' world.[132]

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See also

Notes

  1. Written as "Katarina" in the English light novel and manga releases.[3]
  2. Written as "Jeord" in the English light novel and manga releases.
  3. Episodes were released every Sunday at 12:00 a.m. JST on Netflix Japan and d Anime Store, an hour and 30 minutes before the original air time on Tokyo MX and BS11.[114]
  4. MBS listed the season premiere at 25:25 on July 2, 2021, which is July 3 at 1:25 am.[106]
  5. All English titles are taken from Crunchyroll.[113]
  6. Information is taken from the ending credits of each episode.
  7. In the episode, it is titled "I Turned Into a Villainess..."
  8. This episode aired at 1:40 a.m. JST, 15 minutes after the original air time.
  9. This episode aired at 1:35 am. JST, 10 minutes after the original air time.
  10. This episode aired at 2:00 am. JST, 35 minutes after the original air time.
  11. This episode aired at 1:30 am. JST, 5 minutes after the original air time.
  12. Specifically Maria and Catarina, Mary and Catarina, Sophia and Catarina, Keith and Catarina, Gerald and Catarina, Alan and Catarina, Nicole and Catarina.
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References

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