I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss is an isekai anime title of the Fall 2022 season, and in many ways, it takes after My Next Life as a Villainess. These are both otome game isekai series where the protagonist got reborn in her favorite dating sim not as the protagonist but as the noxious villainess instead. Then, these bad girls reinvented themselves as altruistic and kind ladies that any anime fan could root for.
Katarina Claes is better established in the anime community as everyone’s favorite “Bakarina” — a dense, snack-loving isekai character with a co-ed harem and a carefree disposition. However, now she’s got some competition in Aileen d’Autriche, and Aileen compares well to Katarina Claes in most regards. She might even unseat Katarina as Best Girl in otome anime.
The Charming Appeal of the Ultra-Dense Katarina Claes
Katarina Claes burst onto the isekai scene in Season 1 of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, a refreshing take on the isekai genre where the protagonist got reborn as an evildoer with zero plot armor. The reborn Katarina knew that her character would be doomed when the dandere protagonist Maria Campbell found true love, and all of Maria’s love routes would lead to that inevitable conclusion. Katarina put her meta-knowledge to good use, spending years reshaping everyone’s relationships in the Fortune Lover game world so the characters would be good friends and not need romance to cheer themselves up. Katarina’s patient strategy paid off, and Maria Campbell embraced everyone as friends while not choosing a lover, despite being surrounded by eligible bachelors.
Katarina, meanwhile, succeeded too hard and convinced everyone, boys and girls alike, to love her instead. She unwittingly created a co-ed harem of admirers, and most amusingly, Katarina was too dense to realize it. She thought everyone was merely her friend, totally missing their obvious signs of romantic love for her. Even the borderline yandere Mary Hunt couldn’t make “Bakarina” aware of her intense feelings, and Katarina was shocked when her adoring foster brother Keither announced his love for her. Katrina hoped to create an open-ended story where true love was unnecessary, only to become everyone’s romantic goal after all.
The Crafty Plots of Aileen D’Autriche
Aileen Lauren d’Autriche was set up to be the next Katarina Claes — an isekai protagonist reborn in her favorite otome game as the bad girl. Like Katarina, Aileen had full meta-knowledge and knew that her thin plot armor wouldn’t protect her from the carnage of demon king Claude’s rampage later in the story. To avoid becoming collateral damage, Aileen mutually broke things off with Prince Cedric and chased after Cedric’s half-brother Claude who, rather than being an evil tyrant, is actually a misunderstood kuudere. Claude was a lonely and good-hearted demon king who gladly welcomed Aileen into his life, and they soon got engaged. Then they faced the wrath of Cedric and Lilia and triumphed, all while keeping Claude’s monster side under control. It looked like Aileen had won.
Then, the game’s sequel launched, and Aileen once again sought to tame a demon lord to ensure her survival. Aileen used all her suave social skills, meta-knowledge, and even disguises and crafty investigations to foil her enemies’ plots to save herself and Claude. She averted disaster with the half-demon James Charles and even vanquished the corrupt Church, only for Lilia Rainworth to reveal herself as a second isekai guest with meta-knowledge. Now Aileen must face her true equal, and that challenge will bring out the best in her. Aileen is fighting not just for survival but also to protect her genuine love for Claude and find her own happiness in this new world.
Aileen vs. Katrina – Who’s the Better Isekai Villainess?
Aileen d’Autriche stands as the best isekai villainess, all things considered. On one hand, Katarina Claes has a bigger variety of colorful gowns and is much funnier as the ultra-dense Bakarina, but comedy can’t make up for substance. Both villainess characters have the same basic premise, but Aileen d’Autriche makes the most of it while Katarina does not. Katarina’s character arc ended rather early since derailing Fortune Lover’s main romances was her only goal. Now Katarina’s story is going in circles, and she almost feels irrelevant to her own story. Put another way, she ran out of things to do much too soon. That’s the problem with having an open-ended goal like “change the story to avoid my doom.”
Meanwhile, Aileen had goals beyond avoiding her doom as the villainess. That was just the first step because Aileen’s main strategy — getting together with Claude — became a goal in its own right. Getting engaged to Claude first served as plot armor, then as Aileen’s source of true happiness and something she wishes to protect. Aileen’s character arc thus evolved and went in new directions, and with remarkable speed. It took less than one anime season for Claude to go from Aileen’s plot armor to true lover, and Aileen and Claude are now “relationship goals” with a strong romance that’s worth fighting for.
Aileen also has superior investigation and planning skills compared to Katrina on top of her social graces, making her more compelling with a wide variety of skills to show how competent she is. Moreover, Aileen has a substantial romance to pursue, while Katarina’s entire goal is to avoid romance to avoid her doom. That gives Aileen’s story far more cohesion and more palpable stakes to fight for, making her the true Best Villainess.
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