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My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Light Novel #1
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 1
After hitting her head particularly hard one day, Duke Claes' daughter, Katarina, suddenly recalls all the memories of her past life: that of a teenage Japanese girl. Just before her untimely death, this girl recalls playing an otome game... that is exactly like the world she's living in now!
She is now Katarina Claes, the antagonist of the otome game, who nastily hounded the protagonist until the end. Knowing all the possible outcomes of the game, she realizes that every single possible route ends with Katarina being murdered or exiled! In order to avoid these Catastrophic Bad Ends, she has to use her knowledge of the game and her own wiles, starting with breaking off this engagement with the prince...
Will Katarina survive while making her way through this world, where bad flags trip at every turn? Find out in this reverse-harem rom-com, led by everybody's favorite villainess!
She is now Katarina Claes, the antagonist of the otome game, who nastily hounded the protagonist until the end. Knowing all the possible outcomes of the game, she realizes that every single possible route ends with Katarina being murdered or exiled! In order to avoid these Catastrophic Bad Ends, she has to use her knowledge of the game and her own wiles, starting with breaking off this engagement with the prince...
Will Katarina survive while making her way through this world, where bad flags trip at every turn? Find out in this reverse-harem rom-com, led by everybody's favorite villainess!
183 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 20, 2015
342 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews
September 21, 2023
Katarina Claes, the world's dumbest densest character and harem Queen.
If you are young, old, noble, commoner, male, female, good or evil, you will definitely fall in love with Katarina and join her harem. Just so you know, only the harem's members are aware of its existence. World densest character, remember?
Katarina reincarnated as a villainess in the otome game she used to play just before dying in her past life. She's now the rival of the heroine and will die or be exiled at the end of the game. Because she doesn't want that (no kidding), she tries to learn magic (and fails), swordsmanship (also fails), and train as a farmer (kind of fails too) if she has to be exiled. Yeah, Katarina sucks at everything but tree climbing and eating sweets, and she does not even realize it.
Katarina is an idiot.
But she's like the cutest idiot ever and not only do we readers see it, the other characters do too. The game's love interests, the heroine's rivals, the heroine herself, her maid, the gardener, the evil student, ... everybody falls in love with Katarina and her gentleness, her density, her stupidity, her lack of common sense, and her honest personality. Too bad she doesn't realize her entourage is competing for her attention...
There are... already quite a few volumes available but the second book has a really good end and can be read as a whole. The following arcs are not as cute as funny as the beginning.
booked.unicorn
October 2, 2019
This is a cute story about a girl who (as far as she knows) dies in an accident, and is reincarnated as the character Katarina from a "choose your own adventure" romance video game she had been playing the previous night. She knows from playing the game that Katarina is a villain who meets death or exile regardless of the outcome for the game's unknown-thus-far protagonist. Desperate to save herself, she works hard to change the plot, and her fate.
My Next Life as a Villainess's main strength is its silly, ridiculously obtuse protagonist. Her plots have self-preservation at their core, but since they always also involve being kind to other characters, she ends up drawing a close-knit group of friends around her. Or are they potential lovers? Katarina doesn't see them that way, and always misinterprets their words and actions in ways that point away from it. It's pretty unbelievable, but it's also the main strength of the book. If our heroine for one second understood how lovable she was to her supporting cast, the whole house of cards would collapse.
Although I gave this three stars, that comes with a number of caveats. First, and most importantly, this is a fannish work in any way you'd care to name. It depends on some amount of knowledge of anime and gaming culture for its humor, which could easily confuse and alienate a non-indoctrinated reader. It bears the marks all over of having originated online and having had little or no editorial input before being professionally published. (The author thanks her editor in the acknowledgments, though, so what do I know...) The structure of the story is repetitive, making a lot of it easily skimmable or skippable.
On top of that, the translation is... well... it's readable. Barely. If you've read a fan translation of a Japanese work, it's exactly like that: grammar errors*, typos, stiff and clunky sentence constructions, wobbling verb tense, no regard for flow or sounding half-decent in English.
*my favorite: using "shirking" rather than "shrinking" or "retreating" for a shy girl. This error happens many times in the book.
If you're already a fan of light novels or Japanese comics and game culture, this is a fun and charming read. Anybody else should give it a wide berth. 2 1/2 stars, rounded up because despite everything, I like Katarina a lot and am interested in what will happen once she gets to the Magic Academy... and maybe meets the game's protagonist?
Thanks to LG and real life friend Brian for introducing me to this series!
My Next Life as a Villainess's main strength is its silly, ridiculously obtuse protagonist. Her plots have self-preservation at their core, but since they always also involve being kind to other characters, she ends up drawing a close-knit group of friends around her. Or are they potential lovers? Katarina doesn't see them that way, and always misinterprets their words and actions in ways that point away from it. It's pretty unbelievable, but it's also the main strength of the book. If our heroine for one second understood how lovable she was to her supporting cast, the whole house of cards would collapse.
Although I gave this three stars, that comes with a number of caveats. First, and most importantly, this is a fannish work in any way you'd care to name. It depends on some amount of knowledge of anime and gaming culture for its humor, which could easily confuse and alienate a non-indoctrinated reader. It bears the marks all over of having originated online and having had little or no editorial input before being professionally published. (The author thanks her editor in the acknowledgments, though, so what do I know...) The structure of the story is repetitive, making a lot of it easily skimmable or skippable.
On top of that, the translation is... well... it's readable. Barely. If you've read a fan translation of a Japanese work, it's exactly like that: grammar errors*, typos, stiff and clunky sentence constructions, wobbling verb tense, no regard for flow or sounding half-decent in English.
*my favorite: using "shirking" rather than "shrinking" or "retreating" for a shy girl. This error happens many times in the book.
If you're already a fan of light novels or Japanese comics and game culture, this is a fun and charming read. Anybody else should give it a wide berth. 2 1/2 stars, rounded up because despite everything, I like Katarina a lot and am interested in what will happen once she gets to the Magic Academy... and maybe meets the game's protagonist?
Thanks to LG and real life friend Brian for introducing me to this series!
November 21, 2018
It might not be perfect, but I actively resented having to do anything that made me stop reading. If that's not a five-star book, I'm not sure what is. :)
February 9, 2018
This takes otome tropes, flips them on their heads, flips them back again and give them pat on head. I live.
September 8, 2020
OMG THIS WAS SO AMAZING!!!!! Love love LOVE it!!! 5 stars and I’m getting the rest RIGHT NOW!
May 14, 2021
I knew that this would be cute and wholesome but I never imagined how incredibly cute and wholesome it could be!
This feels like a literal blessing after over a decade of otome game adaptions that always end up being somewhere between 'disappointing' and 'god-freaking-awful'. (The Diabolik Lovers anime getting a second season was the last straw for me. No. Just no.)
This feels like a literal blessing after over a decade of otome game adaptions that always end up being somewhere between 'disappointing' and 'god-freaking-awful'. (The Diabolik Lovers anime getting a second season was the last straw for me. No. Just no.)
January 19, 2021
This was so Hilarious and sweet, perpect to read in the cold winter nights.
July 9, 2021
Very unique concept!
March 17, 2019
Folks. FOLKS. This light novel series is SUPER. It's basically written for me.
- smart alecky girl hyper enthused about her chosen interests
- beautiful guys of varying levels of archetypal personalities
- absurd plots to defeat fate
- dense af love shenanigans from our heroine
- ADORABLE EVERYTHING
Meet Katarina Claes, daughter of the Duke, and for all you otome worshippers like me, the one you might recognize as the female antagonist in Choose Your Otome Title. Beautiful, intelligent and determined she makes the Otome Heroine (aka you) life horrible but ultimately either loses to the Heroine or destroys the Heroine's happiness.
This Katarina however remembers the horrible Bad Ends fated to be her Doom if she continues on recklessly and WILL NOT STAND FOR IT.
Adopted brother kills her bc he falls for the Heroine thanks to his loneliness? GUESS HE SHOULDN'T FEEL LONELY EVER.
Fiancee kills her bc he falls for the Heroine and hates Katarina's bullying behavior? TRY TO BREAK THAT ENGAGEMENT NO MATTER WHAT.
Classmate's aloof older brother kills Katarina for bullying his fragile younger sister who is friends with the Heroine? BECOME BEST FRIENDS NO MATTER WHAT.
And so on. What's amazing is that basically Katarina becomes the Otome Heroine in her absolute determination to not become the (future dead) Villainess. To the point where she accidentally uses the romantic overtures the male love interests would say to the Heroine upon meeting her, on all of the girls she becomes friends with.
This hilarious, fun, and a great nod to otome players like myself. While this particular niche sub genre of isekai light novels/manga is becoming more popular (ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF A DUKE'S DAUGHTER, and THE DAUGHTER OF THE ALBERT'S HOUSE WISHES FOR RUIN both come to mind) I definitely wouldn't mind EVEN MORE.
(Isekai "in another world" - basically hero or heroine falls out of our normal world into a fantasy world. We also call them "portal fantasies" in Western fiction)
(Otome, basically a romantic Choose Your Own Adventure style game where the player - aka Heroine - makes branching choices to fulfill set goals to make guys fall in love with her. There's usually three kinds of endings - Good End, or hey you got the guy!; Normal End, or hey you are friends/you didn't suffer unduly; and Bad End, or you're likely dead or kidnapped or trapped unhappily)
- smart alecky girl hyper enthused about her chosen interests
- beautiful guys of varying levels of archetypal personalities
- absurd plots to defeat fate
- dense af love shenanigans from our heroine
- ADORABLE EVERYTHING
Meet Katarina Claes, daughter of the Duke, and for all you otome worshippers like me, the one you might recognize as the female antagonist in Choose Your Otome Title. Beautiful, intelligent and determined she makes the Otome Heroine (aka you) life horrible but ultimately either loses to the Heroine or destroys the Heroine's happiness.
This Katarina however remembers the horrible Bad Ends fated to be her Doom if she continues on recklessly and WILL NOT STAND FOR IT.
Adopted brother kills her bc he falls for the Heroine thanks to his loneliness? GUESS HE SHOULDN'T FEEL LONELY EVER.
Fiancee kills her bc he falls for the Heroine and hates Katarina's bullying behavior? TRY TO BREAK THAT ENGAGEMENT NO MATTER WHAT.
Classmate's aloof older brother kills Katarina for bullying his fragile younger sister who is friends with the Heroine? BECOME BEST FRIENDS NO MATTER WHAT.
And so on. What's amazing is that basically Katarina becomes the Otome Heroine in her absolute determination to not become the (future dead) Villainess. To the point where she accidentally uses the romantic overtures the male love interests would say to the Heroine upon meeting her, on all of the girls she becomes friends with.
This hilarious, fun, and a great nod to otome players like myself. While this particular niche sub genre of isekai light novels/manga is becoming more popular (ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF A DUKE'S DAUGHTER, and THE DAUGHTER OF THE ALBERT'S HOUSE WISHES FOR RUIN both come to mind) I definitely wouldn't mind EVEN MORE.
(Isekai "in another world" - basically hero or heroine falls out of our normal world into a fantasy world. We also call them "portal fantasies" in Western fiction)
(Otome, basically a romantic Choose Your Own Adventure style game where the player - aka Heroine - makes branching choices to fulfill set goals to make guys fall in love with her. There's usually three kinds of endings - Good End, or hey you got the guy!; Normal End, or hey you are friends/you didn't suffer unduly; and Bad End, or you're likely dead or kidnapped or trapped unhappily)
November 30, 2019
I read the manga version of this, and decided to read a sample of the light novel. The translation was really well done, and flows like it was originally written in English, which is lovely. What's even more fabulous is the effortlessly charming story. I love Katarina and all of the other characters. Her harem is wonderful. Nicol is my favorite of them. This story has Katarina meet and form her harem, and establishes her own character and the setup for the academy events. It's done in a very smooth, readable way. I really like that we see each meeting from her POV, and then it's repeated (with slightly less detail, where appropriate) from the respective characters' POV. It definitely enriches the experience, as we see her in other people's eyes, and the situations. Overall, this was a really good read, and I can't wait to read book 2 tomorrow!
June 2, 2020
A Fun story with a fun premise of a fated "villainess" trying to fight back against her fate of meeting horrible doom.
That being said, The writing style is like that of a mid-2000s fanfiction: First-Person Perspective, but bouncing between multiple characters while still remaining in First. It's not a style that's for everyone, and this series could have used a better editor. There's a lot of Tense-jumping and A TON of repetition (not just throughout the book, but sometimes one paragraph after another).
As for this specific edition of the book (The English Translated Paperback), there are quite a few typos throughout, but must egregiously the text for the first page or so of the epilogue is MISSING. There aren't actual pages missing in the book (as it goes from 229 to 230) but the content is missing. Dunno how this could have gotten missed in the editing or prepress stage, but I hope future print runs will remedy this error.
That being said, The writing style is like that of a mid-2000s fanfiction: First-Person Perspective, but bouncing between multiple characters while still remaining in First. It's not a style that's for everyone, and this series could have used a better editor. There's a lot of Tense-jumping and A TON of repetition (not just throughout the book, but sometimes one paragraph after another).
As for this specific edition of the book (The English Translated Paperback), there are quite a few typos throughout, but must egregiously the text for the first page or so of the epilogue is MISSING. There aren't actual pages missing in the book (as it goes from 229 to 230) but the content is missing. Dunno how this could have gotten missed in the editing or prepress stage, but I hope future print runs will remedy this error.
February 2, 2022
girl collects love interests like they’re nfts (non-fungible trauma)
August 19, 2019
When Katarina is 8 years old, she bumps her head and suddenly recalls her past life as a 17-year-old girl in our world. What's more, she realizes that she is now living the life of the villainess in Fortune Lover, the otome game she was playing before she died. To her horror, she realizes that the Katarina of the game had absolutely no good endings. If the game's protagonist got a good ending, Katarina was usually exiled, and if she got a bad ending, Katarina was usually killed. Katarina would like very much not to die, so she comes up with new strategies to avert her bad endings each time she meets a person she recognizes from the game. What she doesn't realize is that she has managed to change the story enough that all these characters who were originally her enemies or neutral towards her now have begun to care for her.
If all of this sounds familiar, it's probably because I recently read and reviewed the first volume of the manga adaptation of this series. Now that I've read this light novel, I can say that the manga was an even better adaptation than I realized. It managed to cover the events of this entire first novel without feeling rushed or overly confusing.
It also neatly took care of one of this novel's biggest weaknesses: its repetition. This book really, really should have been written in the third person. Instead, the author opted to write parts of the story from Katarina's POV and then switch to the POV of (usually) whichever character from the game she'd just met, rehashing everything that just happened but with a few extra scenes, a more fleshed out backstory for the otome character, and all the subtext that Katarina missed or misinterpreted turned into text.
While I appreciated some of this - the bit where Alan and Jeord talked to each other was great, Jeord and Nicol's reactions in a few parts were suddenly much easier to understand, and a few details came up that were basically my romance catnip - it resulted in a lot of repeated dialogue. It got to the point where I was skimming for actual new and useful content. The manga cut out all of the otome game character POV sections, except for maybe a few lines here and there, and trusted readers to use the clues in characters' body language and dialogue to figure out what had been left out. For the most part, it did an excellent job.
Since I'd already read the manga, parts of this book felt like the "extended and bonus scenes" section of a DVD. Katarina's mother and father reconciled on-page (it was really pretty sweet), as opposed to the hasty and vague mention in the manga. And rather than having to guess that Mary Sophia, on the other hand, was angling for a sister-in-law, which made sense considering her original storyline in the game.
I was surprised at how differently I felt about some of the characters in the manga vs. in the book. In the manga, Katarina was, hands down, my favorite character. In the book, my top favorites were Jeord (so amusingly frustrated with Katarina) and Mary (the scene where she verbally sparred with Jeord was fabulous). I also found that I liked Katarina's mother more in the manga.
I'm really looking forward to reading the next volume, which should feature all-new content for me. I'm just crossing my fingers that it's less repetitive (please, Yamaguchi, don't spend the entire book showing us a scene and then repeating the same scene from a different character's POV) and a lot fewer uses of the word "abode."
Translation-wise, it was smooth enough that I was able to finish the whole thing in less than 24 hours, but there were definitely some awkwardly phrased sentences and more typos than I expected.
Extras:
Several illustrations, an afterword written by the author, and an interview/Q&A with the translator (in which even the translator admitted "the repetition really does have a tendency to drive me insane" (150) - ouch).
Rating:
I probably shouldn't give this such a high rating considering how bad the writing was, but since it hooked me enough that I didn't want to stop reading, even though I technically already knew most of what was going to happen, eh, 4 stars it is. Consider it 4 "forgiving of enormous light novel flaws" stars.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
If all of this sounds familiar, it's probably because I recently read and reviewed the first volume of the manga adaptation of this series. Now that I've read this light novel, I can say that the manga was an even better adaptation than I realized. It managed to cover the events of this entire first novel without feeling rushed or overly confusing.
It also neatly took care of one of this novel's biggest weaknesses: its repetition. This book really, really should have been written in the third person. Instead, the author opted to write parts of the story from Katarina's POV and then switch to the POV of (usually) whichever character from the game she'd just met, rehashing everything that just happened but with a few extra scenes, a more fleshed out backstory for the otome character, and all the subtext that Katarina missed or misinterpreted turned into text.
While I appreciated some of this - the bit where Alan and Jeord talked to each other was great, Jeord and Nicol's reactions in a few parts were suddenly much easier to understand, and a few details came up that were basically my romance catnip - it resulted in a lot of repeated dialogue. It got to the point where I was skimming for actual new and useful content. The manga cut out all of the otome game character POV sections, except for maybe a few lines here and there, and trusted readers to use the clues in characters' body language and dialogue to figure out what had been left out. For the most part, it did an excellent job.
Since I'd already read the manga, parts of this book felt like the "extended and bonus scenes" section of a DVD. Katarina's mother and father reconciled on-page (it was really pretty sweet), as opposed to the hasty and vague mention in the manga. And rather than having to guess that Mary Sophia, on the other hand, was angling for a sister-in-law, which made sense considering her original storyline in the game.
I was surprised at how differently I felt about some of the characters in the manga vs. in the book. In the manga, Katarina was, hands down, my favorite character. In the book, my top favorites were Jeord (so amusingly frustrated with Katarina) and Mary (the scene where she verbally sparred with Jeord was fabulous). I also found that I liked Katarina's mother more in the manga.
I'm really looking forward to reading the next volume, which should feature all-new content for me. I'm just crossing my fingers that it's less repetitive (please, Yamaguchi, don't spend the entire book showing us a scene and then repeating the same scene from a different character's POV) and a lot fewer uses of the word "abode."
Translation-wise, it was smooth enough that I was able to finish the whole thing in less than 24 hours, but there were definitely some awkwardly phrased sentences and more typos than I expected.
Extras:
Several illustrations, an afterword written by the author, and an interview/Q&A with the translator (in which even the translator admitted "the repetition really does have a tendency to drive me insane" (150) - ouch).
Rating:
I probably shouldn't give this such a high rating considering how bad the writing was, but since it hooked me enough that I didn't want to stop reading, even though I technically already knew most of what was going to happen, eh, 4 stars it is. Consider it 4 "forgiving of enormous light novel flaws" stars.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
November 7, 2021
Aside from the ironically genre-appropriate typos (Western otome adaptations are infamous for being riddled with typos; in a sad way I guess it fits for an otome-game parody light novel to have the same flaw) this book was everything I hoped for and more!
I loved the illustrations. I took some serious pointers as a professional; it is my ambition to write and illustrate fantasy books and this style is much like what I'd like to do.
The way each chapter was written from Katarina's point of view, and then retold from the view of whoever was the main support character in that chapter was a fun and unique experience.
For those who, like me, watched the anime first, this book only covers about halfway through the first season, right up to when Katarina is ready to enter the magic academy. The story is just as hilarious and charming as in the anime. It reads easy and quick, so I'm really excited to move on to the next volume!
I loved the illustrations. I took some serious pointers as a professional; it is my ambition to write and illustrate fantasy books and this style is much like what I'd like to do.
The way each chapter was written from Katarina's point of view, and then retold from the view of whoever was the main support character in that chapter was a fun and unique experience.
For those who, like me, watched the anime first, this book only covers about halfway through the first season, right up to when Katarina is ready to enter the magic academy. The story is just as hilarious and charming as in the anime. It reads easy and quick, so I'm really excited to move on to the next volume!
April 6, 2022
Really entertaining! Katarina is a dumbass and I love her, and all the supporting cast is great.
My lord, third Prince Geordo - please step on me 😳
My lord, third Prince Geordo - please step on me 😳
March 28, 2021
Plot - 4 🌟
Character - 4 🌟
Writing Style - 3 🌟
World Building - 4 🌟
Art - 5 🌟
Cover - 5 🌟
Rating - 4.7 🌟/ 5 🌟
Character - 4 🌟
Writing Style - 3 🌟
World Building - 4 🌟
Art - 5 🌟
Cover - 5 🌟
Rating - 4.7 🌟/ 5 🌟
January 2, 2019
Read up to ch.12 ch.14
Synonyms:Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shite shimatta... /My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
It's adapted from a light novel and an anime adaptation is on the way!!
Themes and What To Look Forward To: İsekai, Reincarnated in Another World, Strong Friendship, Reverse Harem, Comedy, Slice of Life.
What It's About: The heroine hits her head and finds herself in the otome game called 'Fortune Lover' that she played in her previous life. However, in the game she was the rival character that bullied heroine and got in the way of her relationship with ''capture targets''. Her fate in the same is either exile or to be killed by the capture targets. And which is even worse; one of the capture targets and cause of her destruction is the 3rd prince Gerard who accidentally becomes her fiance.
In order to become powerful enough to survive all of her 'bad ending' in all the routes, she decides to practice sword-play, magic arts to and learn the art of gardening.
HAHAHAHAHAHA.
OMG.
What a Masterpiece of a Manga. It's so awesome.
THIS GIRL.
O.M.G.
This girl doesn't realize that she is not a rival character in someone else story, but the mc of her own story. She's so dense that she doesn't realize she made a harem that consists of both male and female...
[FACEPALM INTENSIFY]
maybe she's just... No, density levels are way off the chart. HAHAHAHA.
Even though the MC's a dense idiot, with enough charm, personality, and big-heartedness she wins the admiration of nearly everyone around her. (Except her noble mother, who despairs over the MC's idiocy at being a good noble girl.) Forget about the capture targets that will kill BAKARINA, they will kill each other to get BAKARINA instead.
What Makes It So Different: Let me just compare with another similar manga to point put what's so different and unique here.
At the first glance, the premise seems similar to Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter Vol. 1 but the way they handle the core story is completely different. While Duke's Daughter is more serious, with a heavy focus on socio-political intrigue and focuses more on how the MC uses her economical knowledge to get ahead, this is more comedy based and Bakarina is an idiot, ok? Actually calling Bakarina idiot is an insult to all idiots. She has exactly zero feminity and an equal amount of awareness as a noble girl. She is a super tomboy, which make her sort of cute.
If there was an award for the densest character, if not for this guy she'd totally win.No one can beat that guy ok? NO ONE. Just watch infinite Stratos and ichika is by far the densest person I've seen. He's has a fucking harem and doesn't even realize it. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
OK.
OK.
Let's try to stay on topic but don't judge me, people. I was just trying to tell you MC was dense but hey it could be so much worse ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why is it infuriating when male mc being dense?
Why is it so ADORABLE when female mc being dense?
Is this the secret to the universe???
GODDAMMIT, this is good and cute. Don't ever think she is an annoying kind of dense, the borderline stupid. She is the sweet cute and in character kind of dense, that is quite the pleasure to read.
The Art:
Verdict: A must read manga.
Synonyms:Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shite shimatta... /My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
It's adapted from a light novel and an anime adaptation is on the way!!
Themes and What To Look Forward To: İsekai, Reincarnated in Another World, Strong Friendship, Reverse Harem, Comedy, Slice of Life.
What It's About: The heroine hits her head and finds herself in the otome game called 'Fortune Lover' that she played in her previous life. However, in the game she was the rival character that bullied heroine and got in the way of her relationship with ''capture targets''. Her fate in the same is either exile or to be killed by the capture targets. And which is even worse; one of the capture targets and cause of her destruction is the 3rd prince Gerard who accidentally becomes her fiance.
In order to become powerful enough to survive all of her 'bad ending' in all the routes, she decides to practice sword-play, magic arts to and learn the art of gardening.
HAHAHAHAHAHA.
OMG.
What a Masterpiece of a Manga. It's so awesome.
THIS GIRL.
O.M.G.
This girl doesn't realize that she is not a rival character in someone else story, but the mc of her own story. She's so dense that she doesn't realize she made a harem that consists of both male and female...
[FACEPALM INTENSIFY]
maybe she's just... No, density levels are way off the chart. HAHAHAHA.
Even though the MC's a dense idiot, with enough charm, personality, and big-heartedness she wins the admiration of nearly everyone around her. (Except her noble mother, who despairs over the MC's idiocy at being a good noble girl.) Forget about the capture targets that will kill BAKARINA, they will kill each other to get BAKARINA instead.
What Makes It So Different: Let me just compare with another similar manga to point put what's so different and unique here.
At the first glance, the premise seems similar to Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter Vol. 1 but the way they handle the core story is completely different. While Duke's Daughter is more serious, with a heavy focus on socio-political intrigue and focuses more on how the MC uses her economical knowledge to get ahead, this is more comedy based and Bakarina is an idiot, ok? Actually calling Bakarina idiot is an insult to all idiots. She has exactly zero feminity and an equal amount of awareness as a noble girl. She is a super tomboy, which make her sort of cute.
If there was an award for the densest character, if not for this guy she'd totally win.No one can beat that guy ok? NO ONE. Just watch infinite Stratos and ichika is by far the densest person I've seen. He's has a fucking harem and doesn't even realize it. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
OK.
OK.
Let's try to stay on topic but don't judge me, people. I was just trying to tell you MC was dense but hey it could be so much worse ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why is it infuriating when male mc being dense?
Why is it so ADORABLE when female mc being dense?
Is this the secret to the universe???
GODDAMMIT, this is good and cute. Don't ever think she is an annoying kind of dense, the borderline stupid. She is the sweet cute and in character kind of dense, that is quite the pleasure to read.
The Art:
Verdict: A must read manga.
June 7, 2015
Read translations on Omega Harem Translation's Wordpress (thank you for your hard work!!) I'm not sure how long the novel is, but I'm currently caught up to A-chan's POV. Anyways, like the summary states, this monkey girl is reincarnated as a spoiled duchess, but when she hits her head she regains her past life memories and becomes determined to prevent her own death (because she is reborn into the life of an antagonist in an otome game she played before she passed away). Though lol she ends up building a harem out of the capture targets (the charming sadistic prince, his dense twin with a talent for music, the not-related-by-blood + loads of sex appeal brother, and the devilishly charming prime minister son who attracts males and females lol) plus the rival girls (green thumb bisexual yandere, albino reincarnated friend, and the maid-sama). Like, Katarina is very kind, open-minded, charismatic.., and unpredictable!!! She friends everyone so easily that her fiancé and brother joke that she just keeps seducing everybody without restraint hahaha. The yuri context is another joke too, but as much laughter there are heartwarming moment - Tom the gardener was my favourite extra chapter. Anyways it's a fun story to read, and I wonder how the show-down between the heroine and the "villainous" monkey girl will go?
So yeah... Sorry for the spoilers, I think what I really enjoyed are the characters and their interactions. Lol it's very funny and sweet, thank you very much translators :)
So yeah... Sorry for the spoilers, I think what I really enjoyed are the characters and their interactions. Lol it's very funny and sweet, thank you very much translators :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 18, 2024
Let me preface this by saying that I love the anime of this light novel!
I found the novel to be full of great ideas that the anime capitalized on (an oblivious heroine everyone falls in love with, leading to a reverse harem Katarina doesn't notice), but there's a lot of redundant writing. Every scene seemed to go from Katarina's perspective to the love interest's perspective, regardless of overlap.
Still, the overall story is delightful, and it was fun to hear more about how Dark and Twisted Jeord's character was because I didn't fully get that sense in the anime. I also love Mary's energy (abandon both princely engagements to run off together - yes!!). What a fun subversion of the genre!
I found the novel to be full of great ideas that the anime capitalized on (an oblivious heroine everyone falls in love with, leading to a reverse harem Katarina doesn't notice), but there's a lot of redundant writing. Every scene seemed to go from Katarina's perspective to the love interest's perspective, regardless of overlap.
Still, the overall story is delightful, and it was fun to hear more about how Dark and Twisted Jeord's character was because I didn't fully get that sense in the anime. I also love Mary's energy (abandon both princely engagements to run off together - yes!!). What a fun subversion of the genre!
August 2, 2020
Will I ever drop the isekai that constantly seem to pop up in my life? Unlikely. Another individual's review on this light novel states that this isn't the first title among English-translated isekai light novels to be structured upon the otome dating game genre, but it is the first I've read and I absolutely love it, and it's a very refreshing change of pace to have an isekai protagonist who is female! I will say that this novel feels more like it's setting down the groundwork for the rest of the series than anything else, but that's not a bad thing. The entire installment is very fun and entertaining in its own right, and it's certainly whet my appetite for more!
I would go into further detail, but I feel like Lexie's review does a spectacular job with summarizing the plot in a fun and loving way, so you should absolutely go give it a read and a like! And honestly, you should consider doing the same with this book, if you read light novels and are into isekai/are a fan of otome games. I know it's only the first installment in what appears to be a seven-book series, but you can bet I'm already entertained enough I'll be getting the rest!
One thing I feel I should note, is there is a printing error in my copy; the first (possibly more?) page(s) of the epilogue chapter is missing. I reached the last page of the sixth chapter, turned, and there was the middle of a sentence at the top of the page, with the header proclaiming this was the epilogue. I don't know if this printing error is common across other copies of the book, but it's definitely a little frustrating. I was able to intuit what was going on due to context clues in the writing, aided by one of the illustrations, but nonetheless, I may have to eventually look into a replacement copy if this printing error doesn't hold true for every copy.
I would go into further detail, but I feel like Lexie's review does a spectacular job with summarizing the plot in a fun and loving way, so you should absolutely go give it a read and a like! And honestly, you should consider doing the same with this book, if you read light novels and are into isekai/are a fan of otome games. I know it's only the first installment in what appears to be a seven-book series, but you can bet I'm already entertained enough I'll be getting the rest!
One thing I feel I should note, is there is a printing error in my copy; the first (possibly more?) page(s) of the epilogue chapter is missing. I reached the last page of the sixth chapter, turned, and there was the middle of a sentence at the top of the page, with the header proclaiming this was the epilogue. I don't know if this printing error is common across other copies of the book, but it's definitely a little frustrating. I was able to intuit what was going on due to context clues in the writing, aided by one of the illustrations, but nonetheless, I may have to eventually look into a replacement copy if this printing error doesn't hold true for every copy.
October 28, 2020
As an aesthetic experiment, I was reading and comparing the light novel and the manga. Both, of course, in translation. The central idea here is the Japanese heroine was reborn in a dating game. As the villainess. Apparently a rather popular subgenre.
Set in a high fantasy world containing elements of medieval Europe, the 19th century, Japanese culture, and classic high fantasy tropes, but mixed together fairly smoothly.
Absolutely no explanation how the reborn effect came about
She's eight years old when she remembers -- about to become engaged to a prince who will kill or exile her in one path -- and, panicking, tries to figure out ways to survive, even though in the game, she will, in seven years, go to magical school and torment the heroine. Not just the path with the prince, but other "capture targets" for the heroine: the distant cousin that her father adopts because she will marry the prince; the twin of the first cousin, the son of the royal chancellor.
Sweet and dramatic moments. But while she tends to be passionately focused on single ideas and often doesn't realize what other consequences will be -- it produces many of the best moments -- she never notices much of the effects she has because she is certain that she's the villainess, despite the things she does, and the years she has to notice. Sometimes it's comic. Apparently other readers find more of it comic than I do. (Also, it doesn't seem consistent all the time, and I find it hard that years of doing such things don't have more effect on her character development.)
Manga vs. light novel -- well, the light novel moved along at good speed, which I have been unlucky about in my first samples. It also gave some sharp motivations and personality, which were intriguing, that the manga couldn't manage, and the manga adapted or omitted scenes, once or twice for the worse. But the light novel had the stupid failure to notice things more clearly. Also, there were a couple of moment when she was the point of view character but the text commented on her failure to notice things.
Set in a high fantasy world containing elements of medieval Europe, the 19th century, Japanese culture, and classic high fantasy tropes, but mixed together fairly smoothly.
Absolutely no explanation how the reborn effect came about
She's eight years old when she remembers -- about to become engaged to a prince who will kill or exile her in one path -- and, panicking, tries to figure out ways to survive, even though in the game, she will, in seven years, go to magical school and torment the heroine. Not just the path with the prince, but other "capture targets" for the heroine: the distant cousin that her father adopts because she will marry the prince; the twin of the first cousin, the son of the royal chancellor.
Sweet and dramatic moments. But while she tends to be passionately focused on single ideas and often doesn't realize what other consequences will be -- it produces many of the best moments -- she never notices much of the effects she has because she is certain that she's the villainess, despite the things she does, and the years she has to notice. Sometimes it's comic. Apparently other readers find more of it comic than I do. (Also, it doesn't seem consistent all the time, and I find it hard that years of doing such things don't have more effect on her character development.)
Manga vs. light novel -- well, the light novel moved along at good speed, which I have been unlucky about in my first samples. It also gave some sharp motivations and personality, which were intriguing, that the manga couldn't manage, and the manga adapted or omitted scenes, once or twice for the worse. But the light novel had the stupid failure to notice things more clearly. Also, there were a couple of moment when she was the point of view character but the text commented on her failure to notice things.
December 28, 2024
Katarina Claes, my beloved.
I've been holding out on reading this light novel series for quite a few years at this point. Because I wanted to "save them" for a special time. A sentiment I usually carry about series that are something extra.
I watched the anime as it was coming out years ago and even read some of the manga. As soon as the novel volumes started getting published in English I was buying them as they came out, but never read them.
My love for this series is deep and has layers to it. Katarina is one of my all time favorite protagonist, certainly of the anime realm but also in general. She is so effortlessly funny and charming. She won me over years ago and I still think about her often.
This series also started my absolute unhinged "Villainess spiral", you do not want to know how many of these manhwas I started obsessively reading after this anime, always chasing the same high. Sometimes getting close to it, but never surpassing the og.
This volume just set up all the characters and handles the whole "childhood arc". It's been some years since the last season and since I assume we will not see the rest of it animated I am just going to go ahead with this novel series and consume the story that I already know, and it's continuation in this format. Very excited!
I've been holding out on reading this light novel series for quite a few years at this point. Because I wanted to "save them" for a special time. A sentiment I usually carry about series that are something extra.
I watched the anime as it was coming out years ago and even read some of the manga. As soon as the novel volumes started getting published in English I was buying them as they came out, but never read them.
My love for this series is deep and has layers to it. Katarina is one of my all time favorite protagonist, certainly of the anime realm but also in general. She is so effortlessly funny and charming. She won me over years ago and I still think about her often.
This series also started my absolute unhinged "Villainess spiral", you do not want to know how many of these manhwas I started obsessively reading after this anime, always chasing the same high. Sometimes getting close to it, but never surpassing the og.
This volume just set up all the characters and handles the whole "childhood arc". It's been some years since the last season and since I assume we will not see the rest of it animated I am just going to go ahead with this novel series and consume the story that I already know, and it's continuation in this format. Very excited!
January 21, 2022
If you like otome games this is a really good read.
I really enjoyed this light novel, very lighthearted and cute and one of the better isekai stories out there. It's a harem romance, with one of the most dense main heroines out there.
The novel uses the jargon of otome games and other visual novels to quickly explain what is happening plot wise. However since things like red flag and bad end are self explanatory, I don't really think that it's so alienating to new readers.
The only downside I seen was the habit of each chapter switching POV to the romancable characters, which rehashed the plot of the chapter without adding too much. I would say it would have been better if the POV would have either switched in the chapter, or the new POVs dropped altogether.
Overall, I really enjoyed it, it's my first Japanese light novella and I wasn't disappointed. Its a cute romance story, with very likable characters.
I really enjoyed this light novel, very lighthearted and cute and one of the better isekai stories out there. It's a harem romance, with one of the most dense main heroines out there.
The novel uses the jargon of otome games and other visual novels to quickly explain what is happening plot wise. However since things like red flag and bad end are self explanatory, I don't really think that it's so alienating to new readers.
The only downside I seen was the habit of each chapter switching POV to the romancable characters, which rehashed the plot of the chapter without adding too much. I would say it would have been better if the POV would have either switched in the chapter, or the new POVs dropped altogether.
Overall, I really enjoyed it, it's my first Japanese light novella and I wasn't disappointed. Its a cute romance story, with very likable characters.
March 5, 2019
Hilarious
This was absolutely hilarious. I giggled while reading it more than once. Thanks to being reincarnated as Katarina, our protagonist goes from being a spoiled rich girl to an idiot. A lovable idiot, but still an idiot. Somehow, she gathers all of these people around her who were originally supposed to be enemies. Instead of the of one game's actual protagonist changing our male characters for the better, Katarina accomplishes this year's before any of them are supposed to meet that girl. She doesn't even realize what she's done. I love it.
This was absolutely hilarious. I giggled while reading it more than once. Thanks to being reincarnated as Katarina, our protagonist goes from being a spoiled rich girl to an idiot. A lovable idiot, but still an idiot. Somehow, she gathers all of these people around her who were originally supposed to be enemies. Instead of the of one game's actual protagonist changing our male characters for the better, Katarina accomplishes this year's before any of them are supposed to meet that girl. She doesn't even realize what she's done. I love it.
June 16, 2022
I originally saw the anime version of this series first and became interested in reading the light novels. There are a couple other series like that and I enjoyed reading the novels because they included lots of details not seen in the anime. In contrast, this book didn't really have much of anything different from the anime. And while that tells you how well the anime did in the portraying the story, it also meant that there wasn't really anything new to read. Next time, I'll have to start with the novels before watching the anime.
September 16, 2023
I loved the manga version and so finally got the light novel. The manga clearly stays very true to the original but as usual there's a lot more details to gain from the book so it was a lot of fun to read. I especially liked the bit where you get to learn more about her maid, Anne. This story is so hilarious and good natured, with an impossibly dense Katarina at the center of everyone's love and being so sure she's still the villain. It's why I love reading these stories over and over.
June 19, 2019
I kept giggling all the way through this. Don't think hard, because it's not that kind of book. The cute illustrations were fun, but didn't really add much.
bought because I was having a terrible day, and successfully cheered myself up!
bought because I was having a terrible day, and successfully cheered myself up!
November 4, 2019
A fluffy sweet pleasure to read. Katarina is a lovable idiot - I guess I'm in the same boat as everyone else in her little harem.
July 26, 2020
This is just so much fun and adorable.
October 6, 2021
This was a fun light novel. My father recommended it, and when I saw the library had it, I gave it a shot. I enjoy the humor, and it's fun to see how one person starts changing everyone with her kindness and enthusiasm (and is absolutely clueless about how they all feel about her). I immediately picked up the second volume, so I'll keep going for now.
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