"My next life as a villainess..." is often held up as the best and purest distillation of the villainess genre. I won't deny, it is funny. Unfortunately, it would seem the more accurate description is the un-distilled essence of the genre. While Vilainess shows have typically come to satirise the Otome game genre, this is not a satire. Rather this is simply an Otome game made into an anime. As a result the show doesn't quite scratch the subversive itch that one would normally expect from shows in the villainess genre.
Sadly, the show is more than anything else, boring. The pacing is glacially slow, and not even the slightest indication of stakes, tension or conflict arises until the last couple of episodes. Even then, the show bypasses its most deep and affecting themes in favour of a climax that is both built up and resolved solely within half an episode. It is quite frankly shocking that, with such a powerful plot arc in their back pocket, the writer of this would instead choose a boring and uninspired climax.
--Spoilers Ahead--
"My next life as a villainess..." has glimmers of greatness. Isekai are almost always at their strongest when they address the fact that the hero has left a world, and their loved ones, behind. This is what differentiates Isekai from standard fantasy, and most isekai-slop can be identified by how incidental the isekai aspect is to the plot.
But halfway through the series we learn that Sophia is in fact the reincarnation of Katarina's best friend in her previous life, even though she doesn't remember. Her friend who wished so hard to see her again. This is the where the show really flexes its emotional strength. This was the heart and soul of what we were watching. THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE CLIMAX. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the "destined friendship" trope, but when the show addressed this, the longing to be together again, how much they meant to each other; it brought me to the edge of tears.
Why then, when there was such obvious quality staring them in the face, did the creators instead focus on an Otome game plot? Why was the most powerful and emotional story relegated to a side-narrative? Greatness was right there, and they ignored it. It should have been the heart and soul of the show. The light that overcame the darkness that threatened them at the end.
I've scored this a 5 out of 10 purely on how much I loved those short moments of greatness, but otherwise this is a boring and straightforward adaption of an Otome game-style narrative, with no subversion or satire. Sure it makes you laugh, but it could have been so, so much more.
