Episode 12: The final event began …
Hamehura final chapter begins with the confrontation with Sirius. Despite the situation, Katarina still trusts the President and believes in his kindness, which reaches Sirius. In the midst of the climax, it is discovered that the user of dark magic is the one who manipulated Sirius’ memories. Plus he’s the one who really wanted revenge all this time. After Katarina calls the President by his real name, Rafael, everything is arranged.
But despite having gone through the most dangerous turning point, the most important one remains. It will be the graduation ceremony for the elderly where their fate will be decided. Regardless of the wait, the verdict of death or exile never came. Maria did not choose anyone, the “happy end” is for everyone as they fell on the “friends” route, the best ending for the villain Katarina. Rafael could not graduate but he will join the Faculty of magic, and also the Bakarina harem. The game is over, but the future that awaits Katarina remains to be seen.
“I cannot save you, but I can accompany you …”
Although the main genre of this anime is “Isekai”, in quotes, it is also part of the Shoujo demographic. The best way to demonstrate it is through the classic evangelizing turn. Although evangelization is not exclusive to the Shoujo, it does have strong roots in it. In short, the final battle was not a battle, it was simply a conciliation between Karina and Rafael. I won’t say I’m disappointed, because it was finally the most obvious situation to go through. There is not a single hint in this story that allows us to suppose that at some point there would be something similar to a confrontation. In the end everything was solved by the most peaceful way possible, that is, the dialogue.
Katarina is not your typical protagonist, and yet in fact she is. She does not recognize herself as the protagonist, for the reasons that we all know, and despite this she does not hesitate to act as a protagonist would. The only great difference between Katarina and the rest of the typical protagonists is the way in which she faces her role. When he approached Rafael, he showed this difference. She knows that it is the duty of a protagonist to save those who accompany her, but she cannot do that. That is not your role, however you can take on a different one. He may not give them salvation, but he offers them his company. And as we could see throughout this season, it is what everyone needed to be saved.
Without realizing it, Katarina has assumed the role of protagonist of this story, for the simple fact of giving everyone what they needed, a place to belong to. Rafael’s evangelization was not the first in this series, the difference is that this was completely blatant. Very different from the rest, that everything was handled in a more “subtle” way. But regardless of the method, what matters is the result and it is clear that everyone has become faithful to the cult of Bakarina.
Bakarina to the end
As I already said, Katarina does not see herself as a protagonist. In fact, until the end, he does not let go of the idea that she is the villain and has a certain destiny within the game. Including Rafael in his harem was only an obstacle before the grand finale of the game, the one where she would find her doom. According to the original script of the game, during graduation Maria would confess to the boy with whom she has the most affinity and based on this, the end of the villain Katarina would be decided. Obviously this was never going to happen. But it was not so evident to Bakarina that until the end she kept being silly and noticing that the entire script of the game had long since changed.
The thing is, Bakarina was never aware of the many and obvious changes that the original story had already undergone. So in order for the reality before her to fit her memories, she assumed they ended up in the friend finale. Only in something I agree with Katarina, as an Otome player the worst thing that could happen to you is to end up in that kind of final. But as reincarnated in the villain’s body, I suppose it was the most ideal. Although we all know that the end of friends is not exactly what happened. In short, that is not something that the Bakarina that we know can notice. She spent the entire anime escaping a doom, she was so focused on it that she never noticed that she was never on that path from the beginning.
In the end, what did Hamehura leave us?
After twelve weeks following this anime the only thing I can tell you is that this story is great in many ways. However, it is not a masterpiece, nor is it precisely the most innovative concept. There are two things that made me lean towards this story at first, the new type of Isekai and the mixed harem. I confirm that these things met my expectation, but did not exceed it. Before I mentioned that the concept was not exactly innovative, let me correct myself, the idea itself is. Reincarnating in an Otome game as a villain is quite original, however this is wasted by following the formula that our protagonist is a Mary Sue. That poor detail leaves the development of the story very badly stopped.
Whatever, Hamehura It is an anime that is undoubtedly the first step to over-exploit this new subgenre of Hime Isekai, it has the perfect formula for it. This anime is not exactly the jewel of the season, but more than one saved us from boredom in this quarantine. The story is not deep at all, the characters are quite predictable and only live for Bakarina. But leaving that aside, both comedy and subplots, quite rescue this anime. Ideally this is the story that anyone would like to hang out with, but do not look too deep because in addition to entertainment it does not offer more, at least this season.
Final comment
Hamehura The final chapter has been the perfect closing for this season. The episode itself served as a conclusion to two important moments in history, Rafael’s hidden route and the graduation that marks the end of the game that Katarina knows. It is a closed end and at the same time not. The future is uncertain for Bakarina, especially now that he no longer has the game guide. But all that is already a matter for the Bakarina of the future, or at least that’s how we are seen.
As you know a second season has already been announced, and although one might think that we will escape from the game that started it all, the reality is that this game is still a resource that we cannot let go. Whatever the case, that will already be a topic for the future, not mine, of course. Bakarina has already announced her return, but I will not continue her new adventures, at least not like until now. Since my journey with Bakarina ends here, I feel the need to give my final note to this its first season. I remind you that this score is personal, you may or may not agree. Anyway, for me this first season of Bakarina is 78/100. The comedy was incredible and there were very redeemable subplots but overall the pace of the series was bad, and frankly it can hardly be fully empathized with its characters.
Anyway this time we are closing this review here, tell me: What did you think of this episode? In general, did you like anime? Would you recommend it to more people? After meeting Bakarina I have read enough stories of the Hime Isekai, do you know other stories like that? What did you like the most about this series? What did you like the least?
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