WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 1 of My Next Life as a Villainess, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
In My Next Life as a Villainess, the otome game Fortune Lover is the new reality for an unnamed Japanese high school girl who has been reborn as its sinister villainess, Katarina Claes. This game is all about juggling relationships, and Katarina has made it her mission to rewrite them all to ensure she doesn't suffer a bad ending as the villainess...
... Mostly, but not fully. Katarina has a heart of gold but is notoriously dense, relying on brute force methods to alter the course of Fortune Lover's plot. As Season 2 of My Next Life as a Villainess begins, it becomes amusingly clear that Katarina is still dense as a brick and sees budding romances where none may exist.
Katarina Pairs Keith With Mary Hunt (In Her Head)
My Next Life as a Villainess' Season 2 premiere sees Katarina on top of her game for a change. In Season 1, she overcame the villain Raphael Walt/Sirius Dieke and convinced him to turn good, so she has avoided all her doom flags as the villainess. Now, Katarina is free to relax and enjoy herself, but her imagination is running wild. Of course, her woman's intuition is completely broken as she fails to realize that everyone loves her, not one another. As a result, Katarina is given an inch and takes a mile when she sees the faintest hint of her friends becoming something more.
Things become complicated when Katarina helps the brother/sister duo Nicol and Sophia Ascart with rehearsals for the school play, where Katarina's and Nicol's characters are lovers. To Katarina's shock, Nicol confesses his love to Katarina herself, not the character, and Katarina's mind chews on this as she leaves to enjoy the ongoing school festival elsewhere.
She also meets up with Keith and Mary Hunt, the latter of whom is absolutely fixated on Katarina as a potential lover. Keith, ever protective of Katarina, quickly gets on Mary's bad side, and Katarina, inexplicably, perceives a romance blossoming before her eyes. In fact, she decides to support this imaginary relationship no matter what, even if she must take on the entire world -- determined to not let Keith end up with a Romeo fate. She even says as much, leading him to wonder if someone named Romeo is trying to seduce Katarina behind the scenes.
When Geordo & Maria Become Fortune Lovers After All ( ...Or Not)
Meanwhile, the original main pairing of Fortune Lover, Maria Campbell and Geordo Stuart, also becomes canon in Katarina's imagination. Right now in the anime, Maria is having as much fun as Katarina and feeling more confident than ever. Geordo, for his part, is delighted by Maria's latest baked treats and says as much. Once again, Katarina extrapolates far too much from a tiny hint and soon starts picturing Geordo and Maria as star-crossed lovers, even though Geordo merely gave Maria a platonic compliment.
Curiously, a Maria/Geordo romance was a major doom flag in Season 1 of My Next Life as a Villainess, since this fully realized relationship would definitely result in Katarina's exile. This pairing is Fortune Lover's main route, but despite imagining this taking place, Katarina isn't bothered at all. Rationally, she knows her doom flags are all behind her, but she still doesn't even flinch or hesitate in the face of what could have been. This shows just how confident Katarina has become about avoiding the doom flags and rewriting the game's plot in her favor. If anything, she's now rooting for the main pairing, especially since it no longer comes at the cost of her own happiness.
Of course, there is an entire season left to go. That's plenty of time for the ultra-dense 'Bakarina' to fumble things and end up facing a whole new set of doom flags. Her confidence may soon be shattered in My Next Life as a Villainess' second season if she's not careful.
