My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Catarina Claes, the young daughter of a noble family, one day bumps her head and regains memories of her past life as a 17-year-old otaku girl. It is then that she realizes she has been reborn into the world of the otome game Fortune Lover as the game's villainess who, regardless of what route the player took in the original game, is doomed to be either exiled or killed. To avoid these routes that lead to doom, Catarina begins taking countermeasures. This, however, ends up having unexpected consequences on her relations with the other characters of the game's world. ==Characters==

; : :A 17-year-old high school student and otaku who has been reincarnated as the real-life villainess character of the game Fortune Lover after she was hit by a car while heading to school. Having extensive knowledge of the game, she intentionally changes the most important game scenes, altering her own path to avoid as many bad endings as possible. Even though her earth magic is weak, she has excellent charisma. Her good-hearted nature leads to many of the main characters falling in love with her, but Catarina is too dense to understand their true intentions. In her mind, she has five Catarina personalities, discussing and solving problems whenever she's in a crisis. ; : :A prince who became Catarina's fiancé after he inadvertently caused her to trip and become injured, forcing him to take responsibility. In the original game, he either exiles Catarina and marries the protagonist, whilst the bad ending has him kill Catarina and abandoning the heroine due to guilt. Due to Catarina's continued efforts to improve her situation and avoid the bad endings, he now has developed genuine feelings for her and continuously tries to demonstrate his affection, only for her to remain oblivious of his feelings. ; : :Catarina's adoptive brother and an earth magic prodigy, who her father adopted after his father, a distant relative, died. ; : :Geordo's twin brother and Mary's fiancé. ; : :Geordo and Alan's childhood friend and Sophia's brother. ; : :Alan's fiancée and the rival character during his path in the game. ; : :Nicol's sister and the rival character during his path in the game. It is eventually revealed that she is actually the reincarnation of Catarina's best friend during her previous life, . ; : :A girl who, in Fortune Lover, was the main protagonist and original bullying target for Catarina. She has a rare light magic ability. ; : :A second-year student and the president of the student council, who played a side role in Fortune Lover. He possesses the fabled dark magic and is the second villain in a secret route. ; : :Catarina's personal maid. She keeps tabs on Catarina for her mother. ; : :Duchess Millidiana Claes is Catarina's biological mother and Keith's adopted mother. She is dismayed with her daughter's wild and unladylike behavior since the latter is engaged to a prince. As a result, she would prefer Catarina break her engagement with Geordo to save the Claes family any more embarrassment. ; : :Duke Luigi Claes is Catarina's biological father and Keith's adopted father. After Catarina got engaged to Geordo, he adopted Keith, the bastard son of one of his relatives, to continue the Claes family name. However, this caused a misunderstanding with his wife who thought that Keith was his biological son before Catarina helped cleared up the misunderstanding. ; : :The oldest prince, brother of Geordo and Alan. Despite being first line for the throne, Geoffrey has no interest in becoming king and would rather have one of his younger brothers be king instead. ; : :Geoffrey's fiancée. A master of disguise, she is also known as , the head of the Kingdom's Department of Magic. Though they are engaged, both Susanna and Geoffrey have no feelings for each other and are only engaged out of convenience. ; : :The second prince in line for the throne and Geordo and Alan's second eldest brother. He is quiet and reserved. ; : :Ian's fiancée. The daughter of a prominent noble family with powerful magic, she was engaged to Ian as part of an arrangement between their families. However, she herself has weak magic. ; : :A butler employed by Selena, he is befriended by Catarina. ==Media==

Light novels The first light novel volume was published by Ichijinsha under their Ichijinsha Bunko Iris imprint on August 20, 2015. fifteen volumes have been published. The light novel is licensed in North America by J-Novel Club. }} }} }} Manga There have been two manga series associated with the light novel. The first, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, has been serialized in Ichijinsha's Monthly Comic Zero Sum since August 28, 2017, and adapts the light novel series into manga format. The second, , was also serialized in Monthly Comic Zero Sum from November 1, 2019, to July 2, 2021. This manga focuses on the question of what would happen if Catarina were to recover her memories when she was fifteen as opposed to during her childhood, leaving her without the friends and relationships that she garnered as a result of early planning against her bad ends. Ichijinsha published a yuri anthology of the series, titled , on June 26, 2020. The anthology is also licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment. Volumes My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story: On the Verge of Doom! Anime An anime adaptation of the light novel series was announced by Ichijinsha on October 19, 2018. The anime was later announced to be a television series on July 18, 2019. The series was animated by Silver Link and directed by Keisuke Inoue, with Megumi Shimizu handling series composition, and Miwa Oshima designing the characters. Natsumi Tabuchi, Hanae Nakamura, Tatsuhiko Saiki, Miki Sakurai, and Shu Kanematsu composed the music. The series aired on Tokyo MX, BS11, MBS, AT-X, J Tele, and other channels from April 5 to June 21, 2020. Angela performed the series' opening theme song , while Shouta Aoi performed the series' ending theme song "Bad End". Crunchyroll streamed the series with subtitles. On May 15, 2020, Crunchyroll announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered the following day. A second season aired from July 3 to September 18, 2021, on the Super Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS and their affiliates, as well as BS Asahi. Angela performed the second season's opening theme song , while Shouta Aoi performed the second season's ending theme song "give me ♡ me." An OVA was bundled with the special edition of manga's seventh volume, which was released on September 30, 2021. After the conclusion of the second season, it was announced that the series would receive an anime film. The film's title was revealed in April 2022; it premiered in Japan on December 8, 2023. On May 18, 2021, it was announced that Sentai Filmworks had acquired the home video distribution rights. Episodes Season 1 Season 2: X Video games Bonus DVDs containing demo versions of Fortune Lover, the in-universe otome game, were included in the limited editions of the anime's first season Blu-ray releases. A free-to-play mobile game titled was released on July 31, 2020, with an online trial version being made available from June 19 to August 31, 2020. A game for the Nintendo Switch titled My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Pirates of the Disturbance was released on December 23, 2021. The game has an original story that takes place beyond Fortune Lover's final graduation event, showing Catarina having evaded all the doom flags only to face a new doom flag related to a new meeting and encounter with a pirate. The game was released in English by Idea Factory International on November 28, 2023. Merchandise On September 27, 2020, Premium Bandai began selling book cushions which "feature art of Catarina and her four (main) suitors" from the series, which each cushion folding up like a book, "featuring the character's name on the outside." ==Reception==

The light novel and manga have over 600,000 copies in print. Some reviewers have described the anime series as focusing around Catarina Claes, who amasses a polyamorous, bisexual harem pining for her as she tries to avoid being a villain and becomes very thoughtful. Reviewers pointed out two queer female characters: Mary Hunt and Maria Campbell, all of whom have crushes on Catarina, as reviewer James Beckett of Anime News Network pointed out. In May 2020, seven of the 10 spots of a "weekly favourite couple poll" by Anime Trending featured Catarina paired with most of the characters. After the first season ended, with a "friendship ending", one reviewer calling it a "very definitive ending for Catarina and Her Polyamorous Bisexual Harem of Doom," In a piece for Anime Feminist, Alex Henderson considered the series' "fantasy world [to be] accepting of queer love and queer identity," noting acceptance of female character's crushes on Katarina and the presence of queer romance novels being "seemingly mainstream" in the series' world. ==See also==