My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom is largely cozy isekai fantasy. Protagonist, a geeky gamer high schooler, dies/wakes up in the body of the antagonist of her favorite romance video game, and she has to avoid the bad outcomes for herself. Which she does mostly by being nice to everyone, and also clueless about the romance part. As in, noticing who is actually in love with whom. This almost active refusal to see what’s in front of her get annoying, not only to me but also to other characters in the game who openly comment on Katarina’s being dense. But. Finally, in volume 11 of the light novel version (there’s a manga too, also I think an anime), Katarina actually has a little bit of character development. This is practically the first and so far only bit of visible real growth for this character who up until now has been the comic relief, even though she’s the main character.
Now if only the story would do something with this growth. It’s pretty early in the volume where Katarina has a talk with Jeord her princely fiancée, and she finally admits that she has been ignoring/running away from his advances because she’s actually afraid of falling in love. But, just when you think she might actually be maturing, Katarina then goes and has a similar conversation with her adopted brother Keith (who also has romantic feelings for her, and has said so). Problem is that she promises to “take her feelings and his into her own hands” soon, and it’s pretty darn obvious that she’s probably thinking platonic in at least one case, and neither guy seems to realize that. And that’s it. The rest of the story goes off into developing the dark magic threat and some mis/adventures. Maria also gets some narrative development (like what’s been going on with her missing/estranged father), and there’s a really nice bit with Larna and Jeffrey near the end. I hope, but am definitely not holding my breath, that something comes of any of these growth/developments. Either way, it’s still cute entertainment.