[Recommendation] Hottest Anime of The Year! "My Next Life as a Vilainess: All Routes Lead to Doom"

Hi.

It's me again.

Since we are all staying at home and nothing to do to amuse myself, I decided to be active in blogging. Well, to say that I have "nothing-to-do" may be wrong, because I have a lot of work and deadlines, but hey, WORK LIFE BALANCE, please! So I tried to get away from my work related as best I can do during weekends.

This time, unusually, I wanted to recommend an anime that I recently watched. I am writing this recommendation while waiting for the new episode coming up. So, I don't want to miss the moment to happily review it to you all.

My Next Life as a Vilainess: All Routes Lead to Doom or in japanese is Otome Game no Hametsu Furagu Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shitteshimatta, but please call it simply as Hamefura, is an ongoing anime that I watched the trailer on Animax first then got captivated easily after. It is an isekai anime with hillarious scene and adding a reverse harem! Hell yeah! Why should I miss this gem?

Quoted from myanimelist website, the synopsis is as below,

Most people would prefer being the protagonist of a world full of adventure, be it in a game or in another world. But, unfortunately, a certain girl is not so lucky. Regaining the memories of her past life, she realizes that she was reborn in the world of Fortune Lover—one of the games she used to play.

Unfortunately, the character she was reincarnated into—Katarina Claes—is the game's main antagonist, who faces utter doom in every ending. Using her extensive knowledge of the game, she takes it upon herself to escape from the chains of this accursed destiny.

However, this will not be an easy feat, especially since she needs to be cautious as to not set off death flags that may speed up the impending doom she is trying to avoid. Even so, to make a change that will affect the lives of everyone around her, she strives—not as the heroine—but as the villainess.

Now let's take a look at the promotional poster!

I was actually surprised to myself, thinking that I might be away from a romance story (other than BL) for quite a long time, but realized that I got hooked on this anime even from its 1st episode! My number one Isekai favorite is Scum Villain's Self Saving System (Hell yeah BingQiu!) and I am indeed interested to this kind of genre. But still, you will notice the repetitive plot from some Isekai story then get tired of it. So, what you need to look for an Isekai story is the lovable characters and how the plot is developed.

Hamefura is a complete package for me. As a girl, it must be very lovely to watch a reverse harem, where all ikemens are in love with the main cast. Although, reverse harem can be super boring, like Diabolik Lovers, but please don't talk about it, let's put that only as a bad example. I was not really a fan of it and already took down on the first episode.

So what went wrong in Diabolik Lovers is the female lead and how all ikemens are surrounding her without any effort. Nope, not my ideal.

But Catarina Claes, the female heroine of Hamefura is very lovable. She is active, persistent, and super dense. Since she was the antagonist of the game and in order to survive, she would do anything to prevent herself to the doom. So she approached other main characters in her own way, and also catched their hearts without her knowing. But the adding points of Hamefura is when the female characters are also hooked on the main cast. She really created her own harem!

Now let's review each point!

Best Wishes & Prayers From Me!

Hi,

I know, 2020 is really not a good year for most of us. When I wrote the new year post, I didn't imagine that this year would be this bad. But, let's be positive and make all of these as a time to contemplate more about our life.

At least, to me, it may be bad but it's not really that bad as I thought. I got to work from home, which was weird at first but now I am very used to it and even being too comfortable. I spent most of times with families, put all of my focus on food more, and also, in this Ramadhan, I could pray more which was better than last year.

I may become a quite different person in both personal and professional life. I could even manage my stress better now. Since there are less things to focus on during this WFH time, thus I worried less.

I once targeted myself to travel to Shanghai this year. But as you all know, due to this Corona Virus, it is almost impossible for me to go even until end of 2020, and it is applied also to any place I ever wished to go. But then again, I took my time to contemplate, maybe there is a reason why this all happened. To me, traveling is kind of a hunger to satisfy, so I impetuously decided to travel most of the time. But this time, I want to ensure that I have a plan and kind of goal to accomplish, to make sure that I spend the effort and money well. I think the virus and what happened to the world right now are an eye opener to me, to be more focus on my own priority.

Well, look how positive I become due to 3 months of staying at home!

And also, if you know me in real life, I am not that type of person who actively engage in a group of people or community. I also never send greetings for any big occasion, to anyone. The funny part is, I always created many greetings for some families to send to their relatives. But this time, I did it for the first time, for myself, and sending it to my own relative. I just thought that we all really need to pray hard and be kind to everyone to fight for this event.

Please take a look for my greetings and once again, Happy Eid Al-Fitr everyone!

I wish you all the strength to overcome this pandemic!

[One Shot] A Piece of Petal from the Withered Flower

Spring has come.

Aku berjalan dengan payung hitam yang kubawa dari rumah. Hujan deras sekali dan berangin. Benar-benar pagi yang buruk untuk memulai hari baru.

My spring has come.

Seseorang berjalan di depanku menghiraukan air hujan yang terus membasahi seragamnya. Dia memeluk diri sendiri karena kedinginan. Kepalanya tertunduk karena air dan angin menghalangi pandangannya.

Now I wonder, how about your spring?

"Bad day, huh?" Aku berbagi payungku dengannya, gadis itu. Dia memandangiku. Wajah yang sama sekali tidak kukenal. Hanya seragamnya yang bisa kuketahui. Setidaknya aku tahu tujuan kami pasti sama.

Dia tersenyum lirih. Aku yakin dia berkata terima kasih namun suaranya terhalang oleh derasnya hujan dan deruman mobil di jalanan.

Bulan ini sudah memasuki musim semi, namun mengapa hujan deras merusak musim yang indah ini?

Aku dan gadis itu berpisah di sebuah koridor. Baju gadis itu sudah terlanjur basah. Tasnya juga tidak tahan air dan aku yakin seluruh isinya kebasahan.

"Hei," panggilku saat dia baru beberapa langkah pergi. "Pakai ini," aku melempar baju olahragaku. Hari ini hujan deras, tidak mungkin di pelajaran olahraga nanti aku masih harus bersalin. "Kalau kau sudah selesai pakai, tidak usah dicuci, kembalikan saja ke kelas 11-2,"

"Ah, namaku Karl, kalau kau mau tahu," ucapku sambil pergi meninggalkannya lebih dahulu. 

Esok hari, gadis itu berdiri di depan pintu kelasku dan menyerahkan seragam olahragaku. Tentu saja dia sudah mencucinya walaupun aku berkata tidak usah. Wangi deterjen dan pewanginya melekat di seragamku. Aku berterima kasih sudah mengembalikan milikku.

"Hei," aku memanggilnya yang melangkah pergi. "Kau belum memberitahu nama dan kelasmu," ucapku. Bukannya aku sangat memaksa, namun aneh saja kalau nanti kami bertemu dan tidak tahu namanya.

Dia hanya tersenyum dan tidak berkata apa-apa. Aku hanya berpikir mungkin ini akan menjadi kali terakhir kami bertemu sehingga dia tidak merasa perlu memberitahu namanya.

And that's how I finally met my own spring...

******

Senyumanku merekah lebar.

Aku bertemu dengannya lagi di sebuah halte bus. Karena harus mengerjakan beberapa persiapan untuk acara tahunan, aku sengaja berangkat pagi dari biasanya. Rupanya gadis itu juga menaiki bus yang sama sepertiku.

Pagi itu, aku merasa matahari sudah terbit dengan cerahnya meski langit begitu gelap.

Dia melihatku di balik kerumunan orang yang menunggu. Mungkin dia menyadari sedang diperhatikan. Saat mata kami bertemu, dia hanya tersenyum sebentar. Setelah itu, dia menundukkan kepalanya sedikit dan kembali fokus ke jalanan.

Aku tidak tahu apa yang harus kulakukan. Selang beberapa menit, bus kami datang. Aku duduk di paling belakang sedangkan dia berada di depan. Meski tahu bahwa ada aku, dia tidak berusaha menyapa sama sekali.

Kami turun di halte yang sama dan berjalan ke arah yang sama. Karena masih sangat pagi, jalanan masih begitu sepi. Aku bertanya-tanya apakah dia juga menjadi panitia acara, tetapi kalau iya tidak mungkin aku tidak menyadari keberadaannya selama ini.

Saat sudah memasuki area sekolah, aku ingin sekali mencari tahu letak kelasnya. Namun hanya ada kami berdua dan dia berjalan ke arah yang berbeda dengan kelasku, sehingga aku mengurungkan niat. Aku tidak mau dianggap seperti stalker nantinya.

Tugasku hari ini banyak sekali. Saat waktu istirahat tiba, aku langsung menyambar kantin untuk membeli makan siang dan lanjut ke kelas. Aku cukup terkejut saat melihat ada gadis itu lagi di depan kelasku. Dia sedang berbicara dengan salah satu teman sekelasku. Dari caranya memandang, dia nampak menikmati pembicaraan mereka.

Mengapa dia berada di depan kelasku? Mengapa dia berbicara dengan temanku dengan santainya? Apa yang dia lakukan tadi? Mengapa dia nampak tidak terganggu dengan keberadaanku?

Meski aku mencoba menahan diri untuk tidak memperhatikan lebih lama lagi, makan siangku terasa tidak fokus. Berbagai pertanyaan di dalam pikiranku memaksa untuk dijawab. Saat temanku, Walter sudah kembali ke tempatnya, aku masih tidak berani bertanya perihal gadis itu,

"Siapa tadi?" tanya salah satu temannya yang ikut memperhatikan mereka.

Walter hanya tersenyum. Dia tidak berbicara banyak dan hanya mengambil beberapa buku lalu kembali pergi keluar. Sialan, dia meninggalkan sebuah bias. Kini seluruh temannya menganggap kalau gadis itu adalah pacar Walter.

Her hidden smile that she showed was punctured deeply inside me.

One thing for sure,

I still didn't know her name till now.