My favorite series so far in 2020 is easily the shojo romantic comedy My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (also known simply as Hamefura). I was absolutely ecstatic when a second season was announced, and now I’m even more pleased by this next rumored release.
According to a promotional video and a report that appeared on Comic Natalie on Friday, September 25th, but which has since been deleted, the series will get a brand new video game with an original story at some point in 2021. You’ll notice that I said rumored in the opening paragraph exactly because of the original source being deleted, but we’ll keep you informed regarding any confirmation once we get it.
In the game, the story will take place after the events of the first anime season and follow our heroine Catarina as she encounters new dangers from a handsome pirate captain named Silva.
Originally a light novel series written by Satoru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Nami Hidaka, the first volume of Hamefura was published in Japan in August 2015. Nine volumes have been published in Japanese so far. The series is licensed and published in English by the digital outlet J-Novel Club, who describes the story as:
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?
