Anime 42282 Otome Game No Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou Ni Tensei Shiteshimatta X Reviews Filter Check 2

The season of this anime is nothing but a disappointment compared to its predecessor season. The element (kidnapping, etc.) that has been used to progress the story has been recycled throughout the season. To put it simply-- it's plain boring and offers nothing new to the audience. I just continued watching it for the sake of completing this anime.

The harem genre often follows a certain pattern and is full of cliches.
MC *exist*
and then everyone falls in love.
They attempted to push the story forward by having character development (Nicol, Geordo, Keith, Mary), but they failed in the execution. Mary, specifically, gets more annoying. Sora ... is the only new character that has more depth than the established main cast.

OSTs and sound are pretty mediocre, and the only saving grace of this anime is the art, which is as good as season 1.

Overall, I rated this anime 5/10 as it is average in pretty much everything—just your average cliche harem but with no exciting development.

My daughter and I enjoyed Season 1 very much. It was cute, light and funny, and the characters were likeable and the progression of their relationships with the MC and why they all loved her were fairly believable within the suspension of disbelief that comes from knowing you're watching a harem anime. She actually did help them all grow and overcome some things, and they had an entire child- and teen-hood to become close to each other.

However, in Season 2 her cluelessness about their feelings for her was no longer excusable, cute or silly; it was extremely frustrating, particularly since some of them ... started getting much more forthright in their wooing. The "who are they going to fall for?" plot device cannot be stretched this thin without breaking. By episode 10 we were ready to throw things at the screen every time she said, "Huuhh??" or did not understand what a character meant even by an outright declaration or clear demonstration of romantic love. This is a person who loved otome games and romance novels so there is NO WAY she could be this clueless. And even if she was, did either of her moms not teach her ANYTHING about sex or relationships? She's 17, for goodness' sake. The excuse the writers give her is that she thinks so little of herself that she can't imagine anyone would love her that way. Oh how noble, she's so humble. Nope, it makes her look like an absolute idiot the entire season. And her reactions when someone went 'further' than she was comfortable with was not cute or funny but just weird.

I actually enjoyed the first arc because the new "love interest" she meets is the first one who is immediately up front with her about his attraction and she also expresses more open admiration for him as a person than I recall her doing with any of her other friends. And she doesn't recoil at his advances. So I actually kind of got my hopes up that maybe he was "the one" she would end up with. But nothing went anywhere with that the rest of the season and it focused on the other people, and he became just one more groupie.

There is almost zero story progression. It takes the entirety of season 2 (instead of the first few episodes as we expected) to even progress to the point where two of her suitors have finally gotten Catarina to realize they are in love with her and it's only because one of them said it loudly in her face, understandably frustrated at her complete cluelessness, and the other kept 'wooing' her with gifts and clear advances. And even AFTER they did this, she went into one of their rooms to show him her new PJs and the guy did the best thing in the entire season: exhorted her to realize they're all now adults and that people are sexually attracted to her, and not to put herself in situations she's not ready for. (If you've seen Ouran HSHC, he used the same tactic as Kyoya did.) When he asked her how she could still not realize he was in love with her after he actually outright told her, she said, "I thought it was a dream." That is the laziest possible writing right there.

And of course they ALL still love her and want her to 'choose' them, not just the two whom she finally knows do. So they're all still at square one in the relationship department. And now for Season 3 there are even MORE characters being introduced who, in her previous world, show up in the sequel game, so of course the same thing happens in the game world. And we're supposed to be excited for the harem to get new people in it? Definitely not at this point. The plot device is dead and needs to be buried and the characters need to move forward!

The second season of Hamefura is sure to please enjoyers of the fun vibes and warm empathetic notes of the first season. Catarina once again excels in being what fans have come to call "Bakarina": an amusing yet charismatically caring buffoon who seems eternally oblivious, but manages to stumble backwards into solving problems with her friends and her five brain cells. The dissonance between the situation and how Catarina perceives (or doesn't perceive) it makes for great comedy and permeates much of season two. The large, jovial, central crew of characters who came to love and admire Catarina in the first season reprise their roles, ... remaining great friends with one another aside from the sparks of romantic rivalry, and continue to showcase their personalities when the central cast faces dilemmas.

Having cleared the doom flags of Fortune Lover, Catarina has been freed from the shackles of turning into the archetypal otome game villainess. However, without that clear threat looming over the protagonist, most of this second season could possibly be titled "The Hijinks of Catarina Claes and the Friends She Made Along the Way". There's not really a broader plot that ties the season together aside from the romantic tension that Catarina has helped foment between essentially all of the core cast. One could reasonably argue that Hamefura X counts as slice-of-life. There's a lot of screentime dedicated to backstories for new secondary characters and throwbacks/callbacks to previous events (such as before the season 1 timeskip). Several episodes are wholly dedicated to opening and closing a particular incident or story "arc", nipping the bud for any further growth of the story. It takes until episode 9 for the show to take itself a little more seriously and hold and develop a plot point with stakes for more than one episode. These serve to flesh out the characters and their attitudes, but might be a drag for viewers wanting more forward progression. The backstories and the diversions that lead to them can be fun and intriguing, but many ultimately don't contribute a whole lot to the plot, and some of the introduced characters don't add a whole lot. In fact, one of the episodes is essentially a recycling of an episode from season 1 re-envisioned in a different setting. The characters don't change substantially throughout the season, though some of these diversions give them some additional depth.

As a whole, Hamefura X doesn't particularly stand out as far as comedic reverse harems are concerned, but viewers who liked the comedy and characters from the first season and their united pining for Catarina will probably enjoy season two, with clearer romantic beats. Those looking for a renewed focus from season two or a deeper dive into the "escape from an otome game fate" storyline from the first season may be left wanting more. In that respect, Hamefura X feels more like an extended bridge between the first season and a possible third entry in the series rather than a complete work unto itself.

I loved the first season. Never before had I seen such a carefree, bisexual, romantic comedy. Every element was done so well. This is, in large part, a worth sequel. In many ways it's an absolute catastrophe though. I'll just focus on what it screws up, as if you liked the first season you'll like this one (outside of stuff I mention)

First up let's talk about Geordo. He was just another suitor in the first season with his own motivations. His character gets more context in this season but all character depth is removed, he becomes someone who, on multiple occasions, forces himself on Katarina ... and the rest of the time demands that he owns her, that she's nothing more than a possession of his. He actually gets into an argument at one stage with the others where they're saying she's her own woman and he's saying no, she's my possession. The fact that in this otherwise progressive comedy this is acceptable is insulting. By the way, he's not painted as a bad guy in all this, it's her fault for being oblivious and wanting friends.

Second is dark magic. It goes from being a malevolent force to just 'Because dark magic. Something bad happen? Dark magic. Drop your coffee? Dark magic. It's absurd. When they try and raise the tension and tell a story arc it's obvious it's going to be 'because dark magic'. This'd be fine if they didn't dedicate half the season to these idiotic arcs. One dimensional bad guys are another issue, but let's be honest here that's a real issue in anime in general.

The second season takes time away from the fun characters and replaces it with fake arcs and one line jokes and a deeply flawed obsession with Geordo. It feels more like The Matrix 2 and Aliens, in movie terms.

Katarina remains a fun and powerful protagonist and at times the writing is better than S1, but for the most part it really feels like the writing/author has no-where to go and is desperately out of ideas.




SPOILER(ISH)
This last point is most obvious in the set up for the movie/next season. It's clear they're just repeating Season 1 with new characters in the Dept of Magic.

Villainess X is a decent, though somewhat unnecessary sequel that builds off what was set up in the first season. While the characters are enjoyable and offer some good chemistry when on screen together, the main issue here is that the focal point of the series no longer exists. Catarina Claes is no longer in danger based on the rules of the game world is based on. This lends itself to both a positive and negative point about this season. The Positive is that this season holds what made the first season enjoyable, but the negative is that a significant portion of this season (I'd ... say almost a third of it) can feel like a waste of time as the season can come off as padding time in order to hit that 12 episode mark.

The main takeaway here is that if you really liked the first season, then you probably will like this season as well. If you did not like the first season or considered it to be ok but nothing special, you may want to skip this one as it does not offer much to improve your opinion of the series.

Did Like / Would Not Recommend

Imma be honest, I didn't enjoy this season as much as the first. The harem got to big, Caterina even got dumber and more oblivious, and the episodes just seemed random and like filler. Caterina is also too forgiving and has zero sense of danger even when being kidnapped. She honestly has become an annoying character to me. They also kept using the same kidnapping plot over and over again which got annoying as well. I honestly think they should've focused on Caterina's relationships more and give hints on who she is falling in love with instead of her being taking advantage of all the ... time by three specific characters . Like the anime/manga Kiss Him Not Me did an excellent job at making a harem but also making the mc slowly understand who she likes the most and picking someone and it making sense. I know a big point of harems are the ship wars but in this series it seems like no one has a chance unless the literally forced themselves on Caterina which shouldn't be the case for a MC who mentally is in her 20s. I really hope next season is better because this was disappointing.

Remember near the end of the first season when a character was kidnapped by someone using dark magic? Ready to see that plot reused twice for 5 episodes total?

While the show is still enjoyable, it's mostly fluff and does very little to grow the characters or advance the status quo. Notably, some people may be frustrated with Katarina's obliviousness to everyone's feelings towards her, now without the excuse of focusing on avoiding the doom flags to distract her from everyone's obvious affections. Additionally, with how the first season ended resolving Katarina successfully avoiding her doom flags, there's little to drive the overarching plot this season. ... The final episode does add a sequel hook, but how many more accidental romantic conquests does she need?

well first of all i just want to say that this anime had a nice story, but only for 1st season...the futher i watching season 2 its getting more generic and nothing special.

*character*

okay here we got to see that catarina was a simply a character that meet the catagory of how isekai mc should be. but, what is getting in my nerve is that in season 1 shes most likely more inteligent than the current catarina. I know that isekai mc are dense and stupid, but catarina is on another level of stupid and dense.

second, is that the side character in this season is having ... a great development, while catarina the mc is most likely getting reverse development from an average intelligent to be a character with no brain. well what can i expect from a kid that never end middle school and get isekaied.

*story*

the story was a bit cringy when it come to this one episode...it can be a bit of fight scene even its a comedy, i mean, just show some resistance toward your enemy will you?? how can you just let the enemy go just like that without any action required?? is seeing the mc face make you fall straight for them without reason??and the author doesnt even explained the origin of the pendant where its got selled for cheap.

*enjoyment*

im not enjoying this season that much...its cringy for me. even ive watch many shit isekai world, this anime is half of em...just i find it interesting on how people hate generic men mc for being able to make people fall in love easily, stupid and dense like catarina while they love catarina for being the same as the other isekai mc.

sound and art was the only deserve mentioned in this season

Season 2.

The novelty of the show has worn off at this point so this season just seems unnecessary.

It follows the same formula as season one where Katarina "conquers" a character each episode by the power of backstory flashbacks and them all but following her around with hearts in their eyes.

Only here the harem is already full so you end up with quite a few meaningless filler episodes and side conquests that mean nothing. Also to maintain the status quo of the harem everyone's intelligence is brought down to that of a rock.

Because of how formulaic the show is the stagnation is more ... apparent as now Katarina goes out of her way to disassociate with the world and people in it. If she was any denser we'd have to classify her as a blackhole!

Sadly there is a drop in the art quality and animation mid season. The characters aren't as expressive and their movements a bit jerky.

This show was fun but the story is over. It didn't need a second season and it's obvious they had nothing to add!

This season was a bit of let down to me, especially after how much I liked the first season.

First of all, the show managed to make two generally likable characters (keith and geordo) absolutely insufferable, especially the later. With Keith it's just kind of creepy cause she clearly sees him as a brother and nothing else, but not only does Geordo have no sense of boundaries, his character is so bland and two dimensional he makes Nicol seem interesting. The way he kept kissing her without her consent was just gross.

I knew from the very first ep based on the intro that the season would ... take this route but I honestly didn't think it'd be as bad as it was. I wish Maria had gotten even 1/4th of that screentime, as she was the most appealing love interest imo and unlike all the others, she seemed to respect Catarina's pace a lot more instead of forcing herself onto her like everyone else did. At least with Mary it was played up as comedy but they really expected us to swoon with Geordo's bullshit and i was NOT having it.

The comedy in general wasn't as funny as the previous season's either BUT the ending was extremely funny, so i'll give them that.

****Some Small Spoilers***

So first off I would like to start by saying I absolutely loved season 1 of this show. I actually binged it in about a day or so and thought it was a really fun new anime. It was almost therapeutic in a way how things moved along in a fun happy go lucky type of way.

That being said, this new season has been a pretty big unfortunate let down. After Catarina effectively stops her doom in the first season, the second season picks up with little direction. Everyone is still infatuated with Catarina to the point where, it's kinda weird ... now, and it consumes them almost completely.

There are a few fun episodes, the play they put on comes to mind, however this time around the show seems to have trouble re-establishing its footing. It takes way to long for this season to re-establish where it was trying to go, and by the time it gets there, it feels like its over.

I am getting kinda tired of the villains present in the show too, very quickly confrontations are completely thwarted because the villain cant help but admire Catarina so much that they become good, and no repercussion follows as Catarina just forgives them cause that's what she does. It makes these conflicts feel like they carry little to no weight.

If you liked the first season, you will probably ultimately like the second, however don't expect a whole lot going into this season. Without the doom time line and the overarching story, we get a very messy follow up that takes too long to find its ultimate footing.

TLDR: 6/10 - Still a fun time with the characters if you love them, while also introducing more colorful cast members part of the harem or otherwise. Unfortunately, the lack of progression in story and character relationships make me doubt this season is worth watching unless we have a solid story continuation in a season 3 (or the movie).

STORY (6): There just wasn't much of a sense of progression this season. Relationships looked like they were beginning to change, but they kind of fell back to where they were before instead of developing the cast. The beginning and last couple of episodes had story arcs. ... I think the second story arc was weakened by slow pacing, not much active action by the characters present, and a lack of detail in the mystery set-up.

Outside the two arcs were standalone episodes of varying quality. There was an episode that just felt like a repeat of one of the fillers from the first season, so that just felt reused, and some episodes didn't feel particularly memorable.Filler isn't necessarily bad: there was filler that delved into Geordo and Nicol as individuals that was excellent character building, and I found those bits more interesting than the actual final arc of the season. The last episode's stinger holds promise, and I hope that potential follows through.

CHARACTER (7): Catarina, while still charming, is beginning to incite some frustration because she doesn't seem to grow as a character. I think members of the harem are beginning to outshine her. Catarina's status as a reincarnation also isn't quite touched upon or plays a strong role in the story, especially compared to when her reincarnated identity is what fueled the plot for season 1.

It was great to see some characters take more action, especially in regards to the harem. Unfortunately, some cast favorites may have been sidelined in favor for the new characters. The new cast members do add a lot to the world of Socier, especially people at the Ministry of Magic and even some characters from foreign lands. They each have personality and some even complete small character arcs that solidify them as characters that can stand independent of the harem.

PRESENTATION (8): The animation feels a little more stiff than the first season, but perhaps that's because quality bumps were saved for some serious magic effects. Still, some shots were absolutely stunning, and the characters are as colorful as ever. The soundtrack choices served the atmosphere and time period well. The OP and ED took some time to grow on me, but I ended up loving them and their visuals just as much as the first season's.

ENJOYMENT (7): I still looked forward to watching each new episode, even if sometimes I wondered what the purpose of an episode was. There were some heartwarming bonding moments, but I was waiting for something to hit me with the emotional weight of the finale of the first season and never got it. I understand it's a harem anime, but the first season set the bar and I just kept holding out hope that the second season would uphold that standard.

CONCLUSION: A decent season that never quite reaches its potential, but if you enjoyed the first season for its character interactions and the squad just being the squad, then this season still has those fun character interactions. I suspect this season would be better if you set your story progression bars low and just enjoy it as a slice-of-life.

They probably should've let this anime on the season one as I was completely satisfied after watching season one. I did not feel there were any new plot holes or loopholes that need to be addressed nor did I feel the need for a season two. I feel like season two however was kind of bland with not much progression going on and nothing new brought to the table over season one. While the character story arcs and potholes were not really new to me and I did not feel any source and the danger for the main character. I would recommend people to watch ... season one and maybe hold off on season two.

tl;dr Season 1 repeat but worse.

Call it the curse of sequels, but Hamefura II doesn't hit like Hamefura I did. The first season was honestly a really unique premise and executed very well. A unique main character creating unique situations, with a VN feel to the plot with an only slightly expected plot twist at the end.

At the end of season one I didn't expect there to be a sequel simply because I didn't know how the creators were going to make content different enough for a second season. I wasn't wrong. Unfortunately, the same tropes that made S1 so funny have started to become ... stale in S2, and the majority of the season doesn't feel nearly as innocent as S1. The plot itself is almost a repeat, with the same touch of dark magic at the end.

I guess it's simply unbelievable to keep Caterina so clueless for another season, and instead of a having a clear objective of avoiding doom flags, this season is focused on the harem. Sure I liked the development that the side characters got this season, but I hated the lack of direction more.

Overall, it's not too bad. It certainly is funny and engaging at times, but unfortunately it's nothing near as good as the first season. It looks like they're trying to make it a series, and while I might go watch the next season, I hold no high hopes for that either.

This feels like it suffers from a sort of second season curse. The interesting part of the story ended with season one and all season two does is turn the series into a sitcom. There doesn't feel to be any direction, just hijinks. The first season was well-rounded, even if I don't care for harem anime. Though I will admit, with harem anime, there is an expectation from me that the potential love interests to start being narrowed down and a deeper, cuter romance start to blossom. This feels like it just tries to add on more love interests because how wacky would that be, ... right? Well... the story is starting to feel more shallow as a result.

In fact, certain scenes - like a play they put on - start to feel absolutely cringey. Like cringe to the point of getting physically uncomfortable.

The main narrative journey was completed in season one, and while there was potential for season two... the second season feels aimless and unguided. They have taken the show's premise to its completion, and now all you have left is a sitcom seemingly devoid of narrative structure, with random happenings sprinkled here and there.