AWTY 182 - Accidental Bastard (My Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!)

Hello and welcome to our we've there yet in exploration and editing, education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime sauron.

But we're on a deep sauron.

I can't believe you made it.

Thanks.

Look beautiful tonight.

Thank you.

I've been staring at the sun for the plast eon. I think it's working for you. I don't know Lord of the Rings that well. You got it.

That was perfect.

Okay, yeah, I got a mouth, but it's not part of his body. It's down in the gates of mordor. Right. I think that was a deleted scene.

No? Yeah. The volcano is his mouth, so they have to feed it to him.

No, there was, like, a mouth of sore and it was like a different guy, but they cut it anyway.

I remember that. I remember that I've seen, like, half of the first Lord of the Rings movie, but I remember that.

Yeah, it was like a deleted scene, but it was like a fully done scene. I don't know why they got it.

There was a mouth.

There was a mouth. It was like a different dude. Anyway, none of us are here for Lord of the Rings. Not a single person I most of.

The times would rather be watching Lord of the Rings. What are we watching this week?

This week we're watching my next life as a villainess, which is an isaki, but it's not one of those gross esakais where a boy goes into a fighting game. This one's for the ladies. Dating SIM, baby. Yes.

Because there just wasn't enough over dating an anime before this.

No, we need it.

We need it explicit.

Yeah. They toe the line too much. There's too much will. They won't they in this one, it's like well, it's what it is.

The question is, who will? Because you have plenty of options.

Yeah. Have either of you heard of this one?

Not at all.

Surprisingly, no.

Cool. Can we talk about dating Sims instead?

When he told me the title, I was like, Cool East guy from the villain's point of view. I think there was another show like that. Some villain. I don't know. I already forgot. But when he said it was a dating SIM, I was like, oh, I forgot. Dating Sims could have, I guess, conflicts or, like, stories because I'm so used to the weird dating Sims at this point. Like the pigeon. Dating game. Hot tub. A boyfriend. Or the Dating SIM where you're dating refrigerators and stuff. So I forgot there's normal dating sims. I'm too far down the rabbit hole.

I don't think I've ever played a normal dating SIM, actually, because I've played Dream daddy, which is normal enough. I've played DOKIDOKI lucia club, which is not normal.

Normal. No, it's totally normal. Go ahead, play it, listeners. wink, wink.

But also, be very careful.

There's a warning on it.

Anyway, and Honey Pop, which is, well, just horny. And also it's my problematic fave. It's evolved in a way that went downhill.

Unfortunately, we've both talked about where we genuinely enjoyed Honeypop. Like it's a solid game. We don't talk about the second one.

No, the sequel came out and I said, well, you're really donked up on this one, honey dev.

Boy, howdy this guy racist fast. Anyway.

Yeah, I've only played Dream daddy and yeah, that's a fun one.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Lots of good hot dads, a dating SIM where I think you date a girl and she slowly turns into a llama fast one.

There's a horse one.

We don't no, we don't even talk about that one.

You know the horse one?

No, it's yeah, my love horse. Horse.

I love it.

It's my favorite. Sorry, I've played two dating Sims.

Ah, of course. Yeah. So I'm curious to see what this dating SIM will be because the internet's ruined me and my perspective of what dating sims are now. hooray actual recommendation hot of a boyfriend. It's funny because they're pigeons. If you finish all the routes, there's a buck wild ass story there and it's great. Like it's more than just a goof cookoo.

That's my pigeon noise. Anyway.

That'S all we got, so we're going to go watch this show.

Yeah. First three episodes.

I feel like I just had a tea party with a five year old who was telling me about their last tea party.

I love it. The gossip, the tea.

Wait, I get it now. Yes, okay, yeah, that makes sense now. In hindsight, tea has been spilt. Yeah, how you say dumb.

I thought you were going to say old.

It could be both.

Either way.

Either way.

Yes. Lots of tea parties going on in this show. So in episode one, we open on like a fantasy looking town and there's a carriage driving through with a girl in it and she's on her way to the magic Academy. Her name is katerina clay's. ooh, immaculate.

First and same last initial.

Yeah, I spelled her name wrong in my notes the whole time. Spelled it with a K. So she arrives at the school, she's like, I'm here to meet my doom, but I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen. And then we see her as a child and she's yelling at her maids like a little bret. And she's like, you're all fired. And you're like, okay, so I hate her. I'm supposed to hate her?

Is that the main character?

For now. For me, anyway. And then her dad walks in the room with a small prince named giordo. His father owns de jordo.

It's not delivery. It's jordo.

Yes. And she's just taken with him and they walk through the garden together. She's holding onto his arm. They pass this little mysterious boy with gray hair and he scoffs at them and he's like, oh, that's just my twin brother alan, don't mind him, but.

He'S such a bad boy.

They're like nine at this point. It's like.

Yeah, like the whole time we've seen Allen in other episodes, and he's got just his coat tied around his waist. And I'm just like, what is this out? What is this, sassy?

Where are you from? So she ends up tripping over a step, and she hits her head and sees flashes of another life that she doesn't recognize but also remembers some of it. And she sees a girl playing a game in her room. And she remembers everything. And she goes, I was in otaku, who played a dating SIM all night. And then I was late for school, and as I was running across the street, I got hit by a car and died.

Of course, by the books.

Thank you so much.

We can say the dub is incredible because that was pretty spot on.

I do like that. It's just like, this is exactly what happened. And we're not going to bother with it. It's just what happened. Accept it.

Yeah, I do kind of like that. They just get it out in front of like, here it is. Let's go. Speed through. Shut up. Shut up.

Here, this is the story. Don't ask questions. Just shut up.

I said in the fantasy times. So she had, like, fallen face first, and she hit her head pretty bad. She wakes up, she's in bed. The prince apologizes. She's like, oh, this wasn't your fault. And then she has a mark on her forehead from the fall. And he's like, oh, but if that scars you, it might affect your chances of getting married later. And she's like, lost in her thoughts of her previous life. And we hear her thoughts, and we also hear jordo talking, asking if she'd like to be engaged. And she wasn't paying attention and just says yes. So oops, the children are betrothed now.

Cool.

I mean, it's a thing. And like fantasy nobility. It's like, oh, yeah, you're going to get married to this other kid when you guys are 18 or whatever.

Yeah, it's just one of those things where the older I get, the more insane it sounds.

Oh, yeah. Especially the child asking for it, being like, hey, do you want to get married? Because usually the parents decide, yeah, these are the parents.

Do it.

Yeah. So he leaves. He's like, I'll be back again, like tomorrow. And then the maid in the room congratulates katarina on her engagement. Her parents are so happy. They want to celebrate, but she just wants to lie in bed. And she's like, this is so weird because he's eight and I'm technically 17. So this is terrible because she was 17 in her real life or her previous life, I guess we should say. And then she remembers. She's like, this is just like the dating SIM that I played. Wait a minute. This is the villain's storyline in the dating SIM that I used to play, and she sits down and decides that she has to remember everything about the game, which was called Fortune Lover. So it is set in a magic academy with a heroine named Maria, and she has four love interests at the academy, one being Prince giordo, who katerina is now engaged to her brother Alan. And two, we haven't met yet, keith and Nicole. And then there's the villain, katerina. And if you play Giordo's route, since they're engaged, she has two endings. She's either stripped of rank and exiled or killed by giordo. So either way, it's not good for her.

It's a bad time.

Yeah. So, yeah, she realizes she's like, oh, shit, that's me.

Oops.

And then we get the opening, and it's a shojo opening for sure.

Yeah.

It's a little gay at the end with, like, two girls holding hands on a beach.

Okay, you were getting that too.

I was getting a little vibe of that.

Yeah. There are gay vibes sprinkled throughout, but I especially, like, anytime she kind of mentions it casually, like, she's like, oh, maybe he likes boys. Or the book that they talk about later. Anyway, we'll get there. Yeah. Then we see a meeting inside of her mind with, like, five different versions of her little self, trying to figure out how not to meet her doom. So she's like, Should I not be engaged? No, I can't do that. I've already accepted. Should I not go to the academy? No, I can't do that because I have powers. I have to go. Should I not believe the heroine? Like, what do I do? So she decides there's no escaping any of those things. She's got to get some sword training and improve her magic so that way she can defend herself. So she does. So she trains and she studies. She plants a garden because she has earth magic, so she thinks she can connect to the earth through gardening. And she's out doing stuff in the dirt, and giordo is there to see her. Oh, no. And she's all dirty. She explains what she's doing, and it seems like he's upset, but he's, like, laughing probably, at her. And she mentioned several times that even though he's really handsome and seems kind, he has a quote, like, black heart, which we kind of have yet to see.

But, yeah, they have spoken, like, twice at this point.

Yeah, so at this point, he proposes formally, and she's just like, yeah, sure, whatever. And then at night, she's sitting on her own on a balcony, thinking about how this is all happening, like, the game, and she needs to be more careful. And then her father comes to introduce her to Keith, and she's been keeping a diary of the boys in the game. So Keith is like a distant family relative and is a bastard child.

In every sense of the word.

He's a little bastard.

We hate keith also.

Can we just comment on the wild choices of yes, katerina, giordo, Keith, and Allen.

Keith keith and Allen are also here.

Giordo kind of stands up most because then other characters are like, sophia, that makes it Mary. It's like, okay, wait a minute. Why is this one guy all fancy?

So he's he's an illegitimate child. That's sword. And in the game, katerina bullies him, and he's, like, really lonely in his childhood, and then he turns into a playboy when he's older and then meets the heroin and falls in love. So back in the Mind Theater, they need to take action. What should they do? So they decide that they should make sure keith isn't lonely in his childhood, so they got to be friends with him and give him attention. So she goes to show him the garden. She shows him her veggies that she's growing. There's a creek to fish in. It was at this point I thought, no, don't fall in love with her. She's your sister. Hopefully, that doesn't happen.

I unchecked, but technically not in the square on the bingo card.

Yeah, because he is a distant relative. Technically not just adopted. She takes him to this big old tree and asks if he's ever climbed a tree that big. He says he hasn't. She goes first, but she falls on him, but he's okay. And then she's back having tea with giordo. He's laughing at her about the whole situation. She also explains that this was irrelevant, but whatever. Her mother thought that Keith was her father's real son, but then that got worked out, so now her parents are, like, really lovy on each other. Then back with Keith. They did some sword training together. He also has earth magic, so she asks if she can see, but he's, like, nervous. And then he makes a little dancing dude out of dirt.

He's great. My man.

Yeah. Best character. And then she's like, can you make bigger versions of this? Because he says, I can make them do whatever I want. And she's thinking about how if she gets exiled, she could make a farm and still make money. And so he makes a huge dude and out of dirt. And she runs toward it. It hurts her. She wakes up in bed with her parents over her. And her father explains that while keith's magic is strong, he can't control it very well yet, so he can't just use it willy nilly because he's hurt people before. And Keith told their parents that it was his fault, but katerina is like, It wasn't his fault. It was my fault. What the heck? So she leaps out of bed, runs down the hall to find Keith, and he's locked himself in his room, and she's like, this is terrible. This is exactly what happened in the game. That's no good. I got to change this. And then we see a flashback of Keith. He's, like, looking at a bird's nest and a tree. Some kids start throwing rocks at it and he tells them to stop and does some strong magic and injures them. And people are afraid of him. So he's like, no, it's better this way that I'm all alone in this room.

That's why he's a bastard.

Accidental bastard. So, yeah, he's moping in his room and then katerina breaks in with an axe. And I was like, where'd she get this axe?

Is that like a fire axe or like axico? It's an ornate, like, battle halper. Like, it's fancy.

Someone had to give this to her.

I have it in my character's inventory.

It fits in my pocket.

It's supposed to be a gift for one of the princes.

So, yeah, she breaks in. She apologizes. It was her fault for making him do magic. And he's like, I don't want to hurt you. And she's like, I'm not afraid. And he starts crying because, yay, he has love in his life. And she's like, you should train your magic instead of isolating yourself. We can do this together. And that's the end of episode one. Very sweet.

The most affectionate, here's Johnny I've ever seen.

Absolutely.

Let me. And I must love you.

Oh, no. I'm getting future diary memories.

Yay.

Fucking show.

So we jump forward a few months and we see katerina out farming. But some of her plants are wilting and she doesn't know why. So both Keith and Giardo come out and they're both trying to put their moves on her and try to comfort her for being sad about the plants. And just you can tell the love triangle is forming. So we see them at dinner and Katerina's dad says that she got an invite to a tea party.

Ooh hooray.

And her mom is like, oh, she can't go to a tea party. She's a dumb idiot that doesn't know how manners work.

At that point, she's like, double fisting the rolls at the dinner table. You know what I get.

Yeah, yeah, same. And they're like, yeah. She's going to embarrass the family name. Keith, can you watch over her? Cool.

Great.

So they go as a date. So they're welcome to the tea party. All the ladies of the kingdom are there. And the youngest one, Mary Hunt, introduces herself.

What a name.

And she's just like, so shy and bashful and like, I'm so sorry you have to look at me at this party. So it's just constant meet and greets. And Katerina's exhausted, just like, pleasantry small talk, pleasantry small talk, pleasantry small talk. where's the food? This is a tea party. I should get some sort of refreshment. So she goes over and finds the buffet that no one has touched. And she's like, hell yeah. Score. I get my pick of everything. I wish I had, like a bag so I could just load up and bring all this stuff home. And then Keith walks up and is like, hey, you got that look on your face that says, I wish I had a bag that I could put all these pastries in and take home.

He just knows her so well.

They're so in tune.

I have that look on my face any time I go out. That's how I got through college.

You go to a party, you're immediately like, what food can I take home from this party?

It's the scavengers code.

I'm I'm quite literally a vulture. Some of my friends who lived in dorms had to buy, like, a food pass, like, to eat at the cafeteria on campus. So you'd pay, essentially to get in. And we'd go with empty backpacks and leave with full backpacks. Like, we took everything. Yeah.

In my dorm building, there was sort of, like, a cafe, like, grill place, and you would always try to, like, can I have, like, two cheeseburgers? And just, like, stack them and and just, like, sneak one out under? Yeah, it's like a 50 50 shot.

But anyways, that food is marked up. They know what they're doing.

Yeah, they want you to do it anyways. Anime, right?

Cool. Okay.

Not admitting to crimes.

Okay.

Sorry I got so lost in my notes. Keith is like, yeah, you can't steal food. I'm here to stop you from embarrassing yourself. And she's like, all right. Guess I won't embarrass myself. I guess all this food I'll just shovel in my mouth right now. Now who's the idiot? So she does that, and then she's like, bathroom. Okay, goodbye, and runs away. And as she's walking back, she finds a beautiful garden full of flowers in a courtyard.

Wow.

And she walks in, and Mary is sitting there, and Mary's like, yeah, this party's a lot. There's so many people I just had to hide because I'm the introvert. And katerina, in her mind, is like, well, I'm the villain of the game. And she's clearly intimidated by me. I got to butter her up. She's clearly about to piss herself out of fear of me for whatever reason. So she's like, oh, this garden is so beautiful, and compliments to your gardener. I'd love to talk to them. And Mary gets all bashful because wouldn't you guess, I'm the flower master here? katerina is ecstatic because, oh, hell yeah. I need someone who knows plants. Come on over, new bestie, and help me diagnose my plants. Not a euphemism.

I like Mary because she looks exactly like daisy from the Mario games.

Oh, yes. Orange with brown hair.

So that makes catarina luigi hell voice right now.

Yeah, sure.

Let's go with it. Sure.

So she comes over, and they discuss the plants wilting. And she's like, oh, yeah, we'll just replant them, put them in a new spot. And she's coming over a lot, making sure the plants are good. And once they're all better, katerina is like, wow, we should stay friends. I know there's no excuse for you to come over and check my plants. So I guess we got to be friends for real. So she goes and chats with Keith and they're talking about that party, and she's like, yeah, Mary's been so down due to she's got the classic, like, wicked stepmother situation, and all her evil stepsisters are doing a full cinderella on her. So naturally she's depressed, but she remembers from the game that everything will improve because she married giordo evil twin, Allen allen, the gray haired boy from before. So, yeah, he is Giordo's younger twin, so he is super spoiled and egotistical, and he has a real inferiority complex to giordo, the perfect one. So he's just a real dick. So Mary is technically Katerina's arrival now because Alan is one of the romance partners in the game. So she's the everyone's fair game for everyone else, basically. So they're like, all right, we're technically competing. I wanna oh, yes, sorry, I got lost in my notes. Yeah. So when they were in the courtyard discussing and katerina was complimenting Mary on all of her amazing gardening skills, she inadvertently stole the romance line that Alan would use on Mary. oops. So, like, you have the green thumb of a goddess, the nature flows through you, blah, blah, blah. Just like the flowery seduction text.

Oh, no, now Mary's going to fall for me.

Who would have thought?

Going to get exiled and live that lesbian cottage corps dream life.

Hang on a nightmare.

So she goes and talks with Mary and is like, oh, yeah, you've probably talked with Alan recently, right? And he tried romancing you, right? Because that's how it's supposed to go. I didn't break the game. And she's like, well, yeah, we did talk about how you put the moves on me. So Alan wasn't able to use the line because Mary already told him that Mary already told him that katerina told her. Truly, this show just feels like writing down middle school gossip, and it's infuriating at times. So later on, one of Katerina's maid says that Alan is there and he's there to challenge her to a duel because you're stealing my girl. And katerina is like, yeah, this guy's just coming in here, being a dick, insulting me. He's clearly mad. I was accidentally putting the moves on Mary, but my superior 17 year old intellect is much better than this nine year old. So clearly I can beat him in the most sophisticated adult way possible. I'm going to challenge him to a tree climbing contest.

Of course, like an adult.

They do it. He's all cocky and confident, but has never climbed a tree. Yeah, he loses, but he refuses to accept it. And just every day is like, I want a rematch, I want a rematch. But eventually he starts coming over every day to challenge her, and they're having a rapport. And at one point, they're Katerina's having tea with giordo, her fiance. A reminder, and Alan comes in and is like, hey, I challenge you to brother, what are you doing here?

Oh, no. And they're still eight years old. Nice.

Yeah. Reminder. Literal children. And this literal child, giordo, is like, oh, don't you remember? This is my fiance.

One of my notes was, god, I hope there's a time skip at some point, because these are actual babies.

Yeah. So they're like, all right, it's been, like, a month of this. You have to give up. You suck. You have never touched the tree. And instead, katerina is like, all right, let's change it up. Make it fair. Let's do a piano contest. And she plays a song. It's good. But then Allen plays and is incredible. He's so talented and amazing. But at the end, when everyone is like, holy shit, dude, you're the best, he's like, oh, don't patronize me. You're just saying that. And runs away, the angst. So she goes to console him, and he's like, everything I do falls short of my brother. It's very much like the Good Place. There's. The youngest hemsworth brother dates one of the main characters, and he has such a huge inferiority complex of, oh, I'm the ugly one, and he's just an adonis. I will never live up to the hemsworth. But, yeah, she's like, well, no, he's not amazing in every regard. He is afraid of snakes, so you can use that. I just happen to have a toy snake here. Yeah. And he walks by, he gets scared by the snake, and they're like, oh, he is fallible. We found his achilles heel.

He can bleed.

I know your downfall, brother.

It's hilarious.

Yeah. Then giordo catches katerina and is like, this is your snake. I'm telling your mom you were climbing trees and being not a proper lady. And that's where we end the episode again. It's so much just and then he said and then she said and then she said about him and the deeds.

It's very funny because, like, reading my notes, yes, that's exactly what it is. But that's how I tell stories anyway, so this is very comfortable for me.

But as I mentioned in the intro, it has that layer of like this is an actual eight year old playing, like, tea Party. I challenge you to the tree climbing contest, but I keep winning, so I changed my mind. It's a piano contest now. You're 17. Come on.

Yeah. Everyone else has the excuse of being an actual child. You're older.

Use your brain.

So we start off with episode three. We have katerina reading one of her favorite romance novels that everyone else considers low class, lowbrow literature. But it's a story about a princess falling in love with her commoner friends, and she can't get enough of it, and she wishes she had someone to talk to about it. And then while she's reading it, her mate comes in, giving her an invitation to giorgio armani. And allen's birthday party tea party, and he's got the one weird name. I'm not trying with that kid. She just says, like, I just wish I could find a friend to talk about my romance novel with. And then we get the opening, and it would cut to two kids we don't know. We find out. One in the scene, one is Nicole. I have to say it. We find out. His sister's name is sophia, but we don't find that till, like, much later in the episode. But it's Nicole and sophia. They're also getting invited to the tea party. And sophia is being told that it would be good for her to get used to the outside world. You're too cooped up in here. You got to stop playing your Game Boy. Join a sports. Brandon. Sorry.

Go make some friends, kids.

Oh, my dad locked me out of the house one time because I didn't go out enough jokes on him. I had a Game Boy just sat in the car. Cut to the prince siblings talking, getting ready for their tea party, and Alan reminding Greg gorio about being scared by the snake. And he's like, yeah, what about it? Like, yeah, that happens. He's like, I wasn't prepared for it. But honestly, the only thing I haven't been prepared for recently has been katerina since got something cooking up in his little evil child brain. And he tells Alan, he's like, let me remind you, brother, she has my fiance stand back. It's like, I am seven, sir. But yeah. alan's just like what? No, we're just, like, hanging out. And he's like, I know what you're up to. I know your game, seductress. And then everyone starts arriving at the tea party, and katarina is there with Keith, once again stuffing herself on the suites, once again runs off to the bathroom, and Mary's there hanging out. And on her way back no, she still needs to go to the bathroom. And on her way there, she runs into just, like, a stray dog. And I think she established it before she got her memory back that she hates dogs.

Yeah, she was, like, chased by one before.

Yeah. So she runs away from the dog, scared of it, and ends up climbing a tree to get away from it because dogs can't climb trees. And while she's up there, she sees one girl, sophia, being bullied by a bunch of other kids, and they're just, like, yelling at her, me like, Why are you out here?

You're cursed. Go back to your home.

It's like, what the hell is that? I know it's shows. I know they're exaggerated for a story. It's just always funny to me when I can't imagine bullying is ever this insane. But granted, maybe I just never saw experience this myself, but it's always just so insane. I'm like, you're a monster.

Get Eddie.

But so she sees sofia getting bullied, and she's like, oh, God, I wish they would go. Away so I could just climb down this ladder and go to the bathroom. I can't take it anymore. And she jumps down from the tree and lands, and the three point action heroes dance and stares up. Everyone's like, you all should leave. And all the kids run off scared of her. And she's like, oh, God, I got to go. And gets ready to run out to the bathroom. But before she can, she notices sophia is all struck by her beauty, her snow white hair, and her red eyes. Once again, the gay. And then she runs off to the bathroom. And meanwhile, Nicole, her brother, is wandering around the party trying to find sofia and keeps hearing people gossip. I love it because one of the ladies gossiping about him is like, oh, my, there's Nicole. I'm sure he's sick of people gossiping about how much he has to take care of his sister. I was like, that's what you're saying, lady. What?

Ear shot?

Yeah. Do you have no self awareness at all? And basically just like, putting down his sister, being like, oh, she's such a bird into the family. And he's just like he gets like Arthur clenched fist to meme, and he's sick of it. He's going to start swinging. And then we see katarina come back from the bathroom. She's like, oh, boy, glad I made any time. Time for more snacks. I never learned my lesson. The most relatable anime character. And while she's at the snack table, she sees sofia again. She's like, oh, and goes to touch her hair because she gets so wrapped up in the girl's white hair that she starts reciting a line from her romance novel she was reading at the beginning of the episode. And it was like a line about the hair being like, the snow was so beautiful, or the hair was so beautiful it looked like snow and felt like silk or something like that. And katarina catches herself saying that line out loud. And when she says that, sophia recognizes a line and goes, oh, that's from the emerald Princess book. And catarina's. Let me think. Oh, boy, I got a nerd. I got a book, worm buddy.

Another friend added to the collection.

We'll kiss too someday.

And she's very excited to meet someone to talk about her books with. But right as she's introduced her brother Nicole and Keith and Mary, I got lost in my notes. Keith and Mary come over with Nicole as they all meet each other. And they're like, oh, the tea party is over. And she's like, I just met my friend. We were going to talk. And they're like, well, you can come over to my house some other time. We'll hang out then. And Nicole and sophia are very surprised by this invitation. So the tea party ends, and the next day we see sofia and Nicole both show up at catarina's house. And she's like, oh, who's this boy? He's very pretty, but wait a minute, like zoom in on her head. Her mind palace. He's the fourth romance option from The Dating Game. His quiet beauty charms all the ladies and he's very doting of his sister. So that's his angle.

Hate it because she says that in that route of the dating SIM, the rival is sophia and not Katerina.

And it's like, that's when I definitively took off, not technically incest mark off the bingo. I'm like, well, that's the nail in.

The coffin bit too much here. Nicole needs to leave.

Get out of the house.

Get out of here.

Yeah, she remembers she never actually played his route of the game, but her friend did. So her friend told him everything. And yeah, apparently in every love route, there's always a rival in love. So yeah, his sister is hers. And this, it's like cool. Yeah, I hate that trope. But the rival. But while she's remembering that career academy remembers the rival in love is for the heroine trying to get Nicole. She's not trying to get Nicole. So that means sophia is not her rival. So they can be cool, they can be buddies. So she befriends sofia and they hang out and they have like a little book club and they're just talking about all the different books they've read. Nicole hovers around like a creepy obsessive guardian and eventually they leave. And while they're leaving, Katerina compliment sophia's hair again, asking if she can touch it again. And they're surprised because so far everyone Sophie has encountered has been creeped out by her white hair and red eyes. And that's why they call her cursed. And that's why people are slandering their family and saying all this shit.

And her insatiable bloodlust.

You go to a gallon and break out into tongues one time.

You may or may not be inviting villagers from nearby to your villa and they just may or may not ever show up again. I don't know why it's suspicious.

Who cares?

They're peasants, they don't matter. And katarina says like, no, sophia is beautiful and I'd love if you were my friend. And they're just all choked up. A friend. Yes, I'll be your friend. So they leave and on the ride back, they remember Nicole telling sophia that one day she'll find a wonderful friend and they're happy that that day is today and is in catarina. So after that they start hanging out regularly and they get married to join the book club. She's apprehensive at first, but eventually she joins in. And then soon Katerina finds herself being invited to sofia's house and she brings along Keith and they meet their parent, sophia's parents. Neither of them have the white hair or red eyes, so that's definitely the outlier in sofia. And we see them hanging out with sophia more and Keith hanging out with Nicole. During this time, I've seen Nicole getting a little more jealous of Gatarina, which.

Is weird, stop hanging out with my sister, my girlfriend sister.

And before they leave, they're like, saying their goodbyes. And Sophie is like, oh, wait, I forgot to give you a book. Let me go get that. And runs off. And Katerina is like, oh, I'm getting dejajavu. She reminds me of my old friend back home where who told me about nicole's romance around how we used to talk about manga and romance games all the time together. I'm glad, glad I found another one. And I feel like if she was if sophia was in present day, she'd be good friends with all of them. And then Nicole thanks, katarina, for spending time with sophia again. And it's kind of just like, short. He's not good at the small talk, so katarina is just like so tries to keep it going by herself.

Crazy weather out there.

Electricity. Still haven't figured that out someday. And she says, like, oh, your parents are so nice. And he goes like, oh, you think so? And at this point, I expected, like, a weird twist, like, parents beat me or something. Like, the way he responded made it seem like his parents seem much more sinister than they are. But he just is bad at talking. So I don't think they are. I think he's just really weird.

Or not, he's been stars aligned one too many times. Yeah.

That shoe is going to drop and it hits like a truck. And she says, like, oh, you must feel blessed to have such a nice family. You know, good parents, cute sister. And he's like, you really think I'm blessed?

She's like, yeah, you really think my sister's cute?

And he like, stops and goes, I guess you're right. I was like, okay. Like, once again, I'm like, bracing for impact, like but he's like, yeah, I guess you're all right. My parents my parents are nice. And my sister is cute. And she realizes he smiles back at her. She's like, this is the charm that you would get from the romance route of his. This is what people find charming about him. And while they're saying goodbye, he says goodbye to Keith as well. And once again, he's a little awkward in conversation. And karina pauses. It's like, wait, are his silent guardian charms working at Keith too? Is that what they're not talking right now? We got to go. Let's get out of here, Keith. And, like, drag Keith out real quick. But on the character dried back. Keith is thinking to himself he's seeing Nicole as a rival of karina's love also. Then we get a time skip, thank God.

Still technically children, but, you know, older children.

It's seven years later. I was like, they look like they do in the opening. And catarina's like, it's seven years later, and I am now a full adult at 15, I was like, ah, almost.

We all know mormons now, where it's a reasonable age for them to be engaged.

And she says she's like, here's the interest of the characters. She does everything in these, like, three days. Skip ahead seven years. We assume everything goes right for those seven years, and nothing ever went wrong. And she said she's been avoiding her doomed ending routes as best she can over those seven years and everything she knows about the game. And now that they're 15, they're caught up to the time period of the game where they enter the Magic Academy. So she goes downstairs, and it's her birthday, and everyone's there who wishes her happy birthday, all of her friends. And they look like how she knows them now. And giovanni asks her to dance, and he says, don't worry. I know you're still as innocent as the day we met, but don't worry. I'll love you through her through, and I don't plan on ever breaking our engagement and all this. And that, like, reassuring her, yeah, cool. If you want to bounce, if you want to end this, like, at any time, I'm super in for I'm down.

Man, just let me know, and I will back off.

I have no problems here. And he laughs at that, being like, oh, you're still as naive as when we first met, even though we're older now. And he leans in and kisses her on the neck, and she fluffs her by that being, like, not trying to lure you in any further, man, but really trying to distance each other here. So he walks away, and as soon as he walks away, keith runs over and goes like, katarina, there's a bug on your neck. Quick, let me clean it off for you. And scrubs the spot where giovanni kisser and scrubs. It, like, raw. She's like, oh, thanks.

So questionable.

Yeah. Young Keith is definitely like, my cousin sure is nice. And older Keith now is like, I'm fully in love with Katerina.

I mean, we don't know that for sure, but I hope it's not leaning.

The kiss off of her neck from her fiance.

Maybe he doesn't want her to be scandalized in front of everybody.

I don't know. They've been engaged for seven years. And she's like, oh, thanks for getting the bug off my neck. And Keith, in his head, is also like, man, you're naive, and you're not aware of what I'm actually doing here. And he says, Try not to be alone with your fiance. And she's like, okay, I'll try not to. Weird request. There Keith. And then Allen comes over. He's asking for a dance. They talk about stuff. It doesn't matter. And then Nicole comes over and butts in. He also asked for a dance. She's like, oh, very popular tonight. Sure. And dances with Nicole. I guess Allen goes and fucks himself. She's like a weird moment. We don't know what happens to Alan. So I'm just like, all right. So while she's dancing with Nicole, she asks, who is he interested in? And he says, oh, I'm interested in someone, but I can't say. And in her mind, she's like, forbidden love. Is he him interested in a taken.

Woman or possibly a man or possibly a family member?

But she's also fully not realizing that he's into her as well. She's oblivious to all of everyone's attraction to her. So that night they have, like, the party, and that night she's out on the balcony relaxing with Mary and sophia, and Mary is like, hey, how come all the guys got to dance with you? I want to dance with you, too. sophia is like, oh, I'd love to dance with you, too. It's like the one romance book, the peasant and the Princess Friend. katarina's like, jeez, everyone wants to dance with me. I'm so popular. And she's like, well, yeah, I think Mary even says katerina says, I only learned the woman's part for dancing. I don't know the guy's part. And Mary's like, don't worry. I've prepared for this. I learned both parts. Like, damn, Mary's ready.

Mary is down bad for Katerina. They should just kiss now.

She's prepped and see, katerina dances, both of them, and the guys come out on the balcony. I guess they all just hang out on the balcony and have a good time. catarina reflects on their time together up till now, being like, I live my life as a spoiled, shitty little, what, nine year old? No, eight year old. And then once I got my memories back, I've lived the seven years, I've lived quite a life within this game, and I believe we're ready for the Magic Academy soon enough. And I've done everything I can to steer myself away from being exiled or killed. And hopefully, as the game goes on, I can stay friends with everybody. And then we get the ending credits, but this time they're all older now. I think it's the same ending credits. They're just all 15 now. They've updated it, but some of the text would flash in and have, like, a weird red and black.

Yeah, it was like, glitchy and weird.

Is the ending going to change? Is this the dookie dookie literature?

Yeah.

What's happening here? Once again, I'm waiting for that shoe to drop. But that's episode three.

Yeah. How are we feeling?

That's not what we say.

You always say it. I feel like it's wrong for me to say.

Yeah, let's address this. We always have that awkward energy when we wait for someone to say it. I can't ask myself that.

Sorry.

Yeah, it's definitely doing some fun things with the Yusukai concept, but it is just a lot of teen gossip, and I need him to like her so she stops liking him and I can like him. It's just a lot of convoluted character dynamics. And every episode they're like, here's two to three more characters to complicate it even more. So, yeah, this fun concept, but not for me.

Yeah, I believe I said last week that this was for me, and it truly was.

I didn't know it worked out. Yeah.

I didn't know too much about it, but the premise was interesting to me. And I found I mean, this is really like, twelve year old D fodder.

Like, and it's like, where were you all my life?

I found these episodes especially delightful because it's just her making friends with everybody. I thought that was really sweet. And like, especially with Mary and sophia, I think their relationships are super cute. So I enjoyed it. I don't know if I'll keep watching because now I'm afraid now that they're older, I'm afraid more weird shit is going to happen. That I'm just going to have to be like.

Now that we've had the time skip. It definitely feels like kid goes are off. They're not kids, so we can murder or something. Like, yeah, the trauma can happen now something because we still haven't really seen anything of Ralph lauren's black heart sheep and wolf's clothes.

Not Ralph Lauren.

I refuse to remember his name. But yeah, there's definitely like that evil vibe. I mean, with him. Episode two, I got the feeling of like, oh, Katerina is set up to be the villain, but she's going to do so much to try and avoid those endings that everyone falls in love with her instead. And I think the main prince ends up being the villain or the heroine, who we don't even we haven't even been introduced yet because she gets introduced at the Magic Academy. So there's definitely going to be a twist to it.

Yeah, it still has potential to be interesting beyond the also potential cringe.

Yeah, I was I understood them setting up all the characters, especially since she's not the ease of Hide main character who comes out of nowhere at age 15 and like, is incorporated into the society flawlessly. She's an established character in this world. So, like, yeah, they all grew up together. They have this history. I was a bit surprised it took three episodes to do that as eight year olds. But yeah, I didn't hate it. It definitely was not pushing anything too hard. But I did enjoy that catarina is like, not falling in toe with the high society pompous bullshit. She was kind of grounded personality wise. And it was fun her seeing her just genuinely trying to make friends with everyone.

Yeah.

Being like, I got to make this girl like me so I'm not fucking murdered.

I don't know if the references to gayness will stay around, but just them specifically saying, like, yes, this romance novel is about a princess who falls in love with a common woman. Like, I was like, oh my God, that's cool that it's like, not made a big deal out of or anything like that.

Technically, the Cat arena, whoever she was beforehand would be a common woman. So maybe she's a common or falls in love with Mary and Sophie or something. But yeah, it definitely seems like they're making everyone like this is like a weird reverse harem where everyone falls in love with the villainess of the story.

Everyone falls in love with each other do it.

But I don't know if it's because we've seen enough bad high school romance anime or because we've seen enough really bad east guy. Is that my standard is so low. Yeah, I think I agree with you. I'm like, I don't know if I'll keep watching this, but I certainly didn't hate it. It was pretty by the books and trophy in some regards, but I think the pacing kept going fast enough or didn't linger too long on anything. Not like the last show, the fishing show, where I was just like, god, nothing's happening here and I don't care about anyone here. Yeah, I don't know if I'll keep watching it, but it was cute.

Not terrible.

Not terrible. That's a win for us.

We got handset psychic damage coming, but not accurately experiencing any.

So I imagine ribbon Quest will hit us up on Twitter being like, oh, boy, the episode five. Okay. Yeah.

Oh, they're all dragons. Then they all ate each other. Okay. All right, hold on.

You got me back now.

What will bring us back next week?

I suppose I'll tell you so next week. Oh, my mom's calling now. Hold on.

Maybe my mom will call today.

I'm just going to call her back in a minute. Okay. Next week we're having a guest. We're going to be joined by my pal Tyler Dennering from the podcast the Friend chives. And we are going to be watching a dragon Ball movie. Dragon Ball. Who. What is it? Sleeping princess in the devil's castle.

That's it.

Yes.

A whole lot of title. If there's a show with a whole lot of title that hopefully will fit in an email, it's anime. It's not guaranteed. You can send those email recommendations to us. Our email is arbybaria@gmail.com. Or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at arwibariat on both.

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok at honey. Period d or on Twitter at honey d eight and honey d art and honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. Find me on Twitter at abdospan.

And Twitter is a healthcare instead. I'm going to do a little out of character thing and genuinely plug my old podcast, almost better than silence. We had quite a few guests on. We had reggie Watson, Alan covert, Justin mcelroy. Give that a listen. We had a lot of cool people on filmar.

Yeah. And thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louisong for theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Who's dating a snake.