After an accident as a young child, the bratty noble girl Catarina Claes remembers her past life as a romance video game nerd. She finds out that the is destined to become the villainess of the magical academy romance game she played in her previous life and endeavours to avoid all the 'Doom Flags' that would lead to a bad ending. However, Catarina is as oblivious as she is dense. Her cheerful and likeable personality have her befriend (and accidentally seduce) all the characters of the video game without her even noticing.
The premise of 'My Next Life as a Villainess' (also known as 'Hamefura') is a fairly interesting deviation from the usual Isekai tropes, and Catarina is a likeable main character. That the various romances evolve into an 'inverse harem' not only with the male but also the female characters of the show is another unexpected but welcome deviation from the norm. That is, unfortunately, pretty much everything the show has to speak for itself.
While the first episodes are fairly fun, showing how Catarina befriends what are supposed to be both her romantic rivals or eventual murderers, 'Hamefura' quickly simmers down into a fairly slow slice of life show that doesn't really do much of anything. The quirky protagonist and some running gags are all that remain to keep the audience's interest. At least in my case, I fast-forwarded through the last few episodes of the first season and decided to outright ignore the second (allegedly considerably worse) one.
From a technical standpoint, there isn't much to say. The art style is somewhat unique, reminding me of crayons, but not all that stunning. The English dub gets the job done but certainly won't win any awards. The rest... well, it's a simple show only meant to serve as light entertainment. It's certainly not bad, but I also wouldn't call it all that good. I'm sure I'll have entirely forgotten about 'Hamefura' in a few weeks' time.
