「ひと夏の冒険をしてしまった…」 (Hito Natsu no Bouken o Shite Shimatta)
“I Had a Summer Adventure…”

From the depths of failed conspiracies to, well, slightly shallower horrors of the void, leave it to Hamefura to tease for yet another week. While further reminiscing is never to be frowned upon when you’re sporting the highest quality of dumb this isekai side of Aqua, given the large amount of potential directions to head, Hamefura arguably has its story work cut out for it.

Given how much of Hamefura’s first season was spent in Katarina’s rambunctious youth, it’s kind of surprising to see another whole episode effectively devoted to further fleshing it out. For all the fun of monkey see monkey do being back on the menu and the harem shenanigans once again showing how broad the horizon of potential material goes, it’s hard not feeling as though this is somewhat unnecessary backtracking. Yes, Katarina is the grand unifier and has brought together an eclectic crew of very disparate individuals in holy (read: hilarious) matrimony. Does it really need a second showing mostly to reinforce that Maria is the newcomer and that Katarina’s childhood is a bottomless pit of comedy? Eh I don’t think so. At this stage (outside of any new harem additions) it’s all about the here and now for all involved.

Case in point on that front is the Geordo situation – yes, no more Bakarina amnesia courtesy of a good night’s sleep. While this season won’t be offering any tangible resolution romance-wise, there’s quite a bit of potential now on tap: how does Katarina decide on her future? Does she decide to postpone an inevitable decision by running off to Hamefura’s version of postgrad? Or does she bite the bullet and accept that the present can last forever? And if she chooses the latter, does she deign to stick with Geordo or go her own way and explore her options? There’s a surprising amount of real world relatable gristle for the romance mill here, and of a variety you don’t usually find in these sorts of shows. Katarina after all is worrying too much that she’ll have to give up things like farming (if Mamarina cannot end that, Geordo sure as hell cannot), but she is right that things will inevitably change as age, duties, and responsibilities grow and increase. How she handles it and decides on her path will be interesting to see in the weeks ahead, as well as how the rest of her harem comes to accept the decisions made.

Or, you know, how hard they have to rationalize dropping everything to keep the baka in their lives.

6 Comments

  1. Although I ended up wrong about Jeffrey being the mastermind behind the kidnapping, I still think this season is leading to Catarina finding out that Sophia is Atsuko reincarnated. There had to be a reason the show focused on Sophia trying to play matchmaker for Catarina and Nicol in the first 2 episodes and showed a glimpse of Atsuko in Episode 5. Even the OP shows Atsuko in it, and the logical conclusion is that there is more development coming for Catarina and Sophia. It would be great that Atsuko, who wished that she could be friends with Catarina in her next life, could regain her memories much like Catarina did and celebrate their reunion as 2 isekai’d girls.

    Vance
    1. I hope that comes up eventually because it would be very interesting to see how Katarina handles it. It’s a perfect compliment to how she’s developing and would mesh nicely with her current struggles in determining her future. Having a cross-world friend would likely assuage many of the fears and concerns she’s currently experiencing.

  2. Katarina has a lot to think about, since marrying into royalty would or cold tie her down and she won’t be the same.

    With that said, what would Hamefura be like if Katarina no longer has this wild personality and instead acts more like a women with money.

    let’s also say if Katarina does marry into royalty and Geordo says “Katarina continue to be you and never change.” What will happen to the series? I would imagine Hamefura would go stale like SAO.

    RenaSayers
    1. Simply put it wouldn’t be Hamefura anymore. This series is predicated on Bakarina being overly baka; take that away and you’re left with a run of the mill romance. It’s not limited to Hamefura either, these types of series always lose their impact once they settle on an outcome so you wind up with the harem merry-go-round that is currently being set up here.

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