Romance Quest(?)!: My Next Life As A Villainess

Okay, so I have been watching the anime, not reading the original books, but it is romance focused, so I feel like it still fits the Romance Quest!

Catarina Claes is your standard spoiled brat daughter-of-a-duke eight year old, until she trips and hits her head-- and remembers her past life as a nerdy Japanese high school student, who's favourite visual novel was Fortune Lover, and who died tragically young. Fortune Lover featured an antagonist who either died or was exiled at the end of every romance route, and said villain was none other than Catarina Claes. So, Catarina plans to do her best to avoid dying tragically young again, and do everything possible to avoid her fated doom. Her main strategy is being a good! and enthusiastic! friend or sister, as applicable, and do her best to both stop any budding romance between the main character of the game and her possible love interests, while also being ready to step right out of the way should any blossoming romance occur, so no one has any reason to kill or exile her!

This plan more or less works out... except for the fact that now literally everyone has a crush on her? And while Catarina is a good friend, she's not good at 'thinking things through' or 'picking up on subtext', so, uh. Harem comedy ensues.

I really like the show so far. I am a sucker for sappy shippy moments, and apparently also a sucker for those shippy moments played for comedy? I kept laughing at one joke, and then there was another rapid fire joke before I stopped laughing about the first one, and then another, until I was laughing all the way through the episode. All the characters have great chemistry with each other, both comedic and... otherwise.

And even better? Gender. Balanced. Harem. In Catarina's friend circle, there a 4 guys and 4 girls, including Catarina. There is equal shippiness between Catarina and the female characters as with the male characters. (Did I watch this show purely because 'gender balanced harem'? No. Was it a major factor is my decision? ...maybe.)

Harem comedies are known for containing Creepy Anime Bullshit, and this one is... okay I don't want to say 'light in Creepy Anime Bullshit', but it's light on the kinds that bother me.

( cut for discussions of accidental groping, worryingly young characters, and incest, not all of which are in the show )

But overall, I very much like the show so far! (...who knows, maybe I'll end up reading the original novels ;P)