There is no one more surprised than I am that I’m here reviewing My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Volume 3 he Light Novel. Why? Because the Yuri in this series is 100% pure queerbaiting, written more lazily than one can countenance…and yet, it’s pretty enjoyable anyway. So here we are. ^_^
After Volume 2 and after the finale of the anime, Katarina is still in Magic Academy with her friends. Although Nicol has graduated, Sophia, Mary and Maria, Alan and Jeord are all at Katarina’s side to celebrate the school festival. The first half of the book is a description of a pop-up gourmet food and high-end goods town that passes as this absurdly weathly nobles’ school “festival.”
We meet Alan and Jeord’s older brothers…and their wives, which is going to clearly mean something at some point, because everything and everyone in this series is a gun on the wall. Katarina, despite her inability to remember the lines, is roped into playing an evil stepsister in Cinderella, so she draws on her memory of evil Katarina from the game and becomes a star actress. And then, she’s kidnapped.
I call the series “queerbait,” because while Katarina does go on at length about how charming and beautiful Maria is and how, if she had been a man, she’d have already asked her to marry her, and Maria’s machinations in order to stay near Katarina…and of course Mary’s open desire for Katarina…it’s only ever the men who get a kiss. I consider the writing lazy because every chapter’s dialogue, once written, can be used whole for the next, necessitating only rewrites for perspective. The most time-consuming part of the writing would be devising means by which Katarina explains away obvious, normal behaviors through ridiculously convoluted contrivances. These qualities might surely be flaws if this series were not obviously brainless fun from the get-go. But it is brainless fun, so one enjoys the obvious queerbaiting and takes to Pixiv to find art that does not make one wish to scream.
Ratings:
Art – 6 Not bad, per se, but not relevant either
Characters – 10
Story – 7
Yuri – 5
Service – 0
Overall – 9
I’m in desperate need of entertainment that requires no thinking right now, so this volume totally hit the mark.
I purchased this on Bookwalker Global, but it is also available in print and on Kindle from J-Novel Club.
I adore the cover of this volume, because we finally get to see the Villainess Katarina.
To be honest, I’m a little surprised that you think this is a “pure” queerbaiting. Yes, you are too well versed in the industry to accept everything without any skepticism, but even knowing the many important spoilers, I’m used to that most fandom still believe in intrigue and consider Katarina to be potentially bisexual.
I also like this series because it’s just so daft, and I totally agree about the yuri being queerbaiting. I’m glad that it’s there, but it seems obvious to me that the end pairing (if there is one, and I suspect I know which it will be) will be a heterosexual one. Although that certainly gives plenty of room for fanfictions in which a yuri ending gets its day! I’m holding out hope for some of the other otome isekai to give me a yuri ending, instead.
Agree on it being daft and great for fanfiction!
With regards to the description queerbaiting – this may be a fandom generational difference but I feel the word tends to taken in quite a damning way. I personally wouldn’t apply it to HameFura, especially since none of the pairings in Katarina’s exponentially expanding harem are close to being canon (yet, atleast). Even though I share the frustration with how the female love interests are handled vs the male ones.
Trying not to be spoilery here (am currently on book 8), but I do feel that it’s entirely possible this series will still end with a yuri pairing. I think Katarina comes across as an oblivious bisexual at the very least. The guys get kisses only because they don’t wait for Katarina’s consent, and Katarina simply forgets their kisses afterwards.
Also, if a minor non-romantic spoiler is permitted: There is a trans character in vol 7, and I feel this storyline ended up being handled better than it initially seems like despite how the character is first introduced.
It initially seems like this storyline’s being played for laughs given that the character’s a well-muscled bearded person who wears dresses and makeup. Katarina notes with surprise that people at the Ministry of Magic refer to the transwoman as a “witch” and not a “wizard.” So in that aspect, the game world society so far comes across as more open-minded than Katarina from our world is. So it’s Katarina who befriends this character and learns something. The trans person also receives several POVs of her own and is portrayed as an exceptionally kind and brave person (she’s Katarina’s teacher, so a recurring character).
If the author chooses to, I think it would feel very fitting to expand this storyline into a broader lesson for Katarina: not only do LBGTQ+ people exist in her near vicinity, this group might even include herself. I’m not expecting anything like that to happen, but the author has left an opening there.
I’m glad you think that, but this is exactly why I consider it “queerbait”-y. These non-straight possible pairings are seeded freely to keep fandom engaged, but I just don’t really believe that it will end with a queer pairing…or any pairing, frankly. By the end of Volume 4, for all Katarina’s time thinking that she’d marry Maria if she were a guy, only guys have gotten kisses.
It doesn’t bother me that it’s like this, but seeding queer pairings without any intention of following through is really, pretty much the basic definition of queerbaiting.
I’m not sure if spoilers are okay here, so please forgive me and feel free to delete my comment if they aren’t. I get what you’re saying and have learned not to expect too much from mainstream series, but I still find myself thinking that the yuri aspect is becoming hard to backtrack from at this point.
Spoiler example, Katarina POV quote from vol 6:
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No! This can’t be! Maria, my waifu, taken by another man?!
Maria, unaware of how much I was worrying about her being stolen from me now, kept on talking.
“Lady Katarina… I am so happy to have come to know you. I love you,” she said, slightly blushing after being complimented, and with her voice full of gratitude.
Having a girl this pretty blush while telling me that she “loves” me made me feel… weird. I knew that she was talking about love between two friends, but if I were a man, I would have gone crazy.
END QUOTE
So, yeah. Katarina’s still using the “if I were a man” disclaimer and assuming Maria’s love confessions are platonic, but I think it’s getting difficult for the author not to someday address Katarina’s feelings for Maria or to explain them away as not being romantic. But I agree with you that the story will most probably end without any settled final pairing, which is okay with me.
This passage doesn’t shift my position at all. If anything, the use of “waifu” solidifies it. That is otaku language designed specifically to identify a relationship as a fantasy, wholly unreal.