Otome Reviews

Midnight Cinderella: “Be My Valentine” Review [SPOILERS]

It was a quiet and peaceful day. I was in Wysteria, running an errand for my boss, who I’ve been in love with for [time period]. Suddenly, I heard a manly voice behind me, and I turned around to face none other than bossman himself, who had finished his work early and come to find me.

As I gazed into his [eye color] eyes, I was reminded of the first time we met, when we were children. It was [time period ago], and I was [lost/searching for something/starting my new job]. He helped me [solve the problem]. It’s a special memory, and I’ve been in love with him ever since. He may not always appear like it, but after working under him, I can definitely say that he really is such a kindhearted man.

We are currently preparing for [insert upcoming event here], and I’ve been helping [love interest]. We share some special moments together – but I don’t know how he feels about me. I purchased a box of chocolates while in Wysteria – should I give it to him for Valentine’s Day? Maybe not. He’s a [fancy title], after all, and I’m just his maid.

It’s evening, and I’ve been asked to go to his office for [errand]. Hmm, maybe now would be a good time to give him the chocolates, after all. But he [senses something is amiss/catches me trying to sneak him chocolates]. I strengthen my resolve. “[Dude name], I’m in love with you. Ever since [childhood memory].” My heart is beating so fast. He’s smiling so gently. “I love you too, MC. That memory is very special to me as well.” We kiss. I am so happy. Happiness fills me. I never knew I could feel so happy, or how many ways the word happy could be used in a sentence.

So, uh, yeah. That’s 80% of MidCin’s “Be My Valentine” story event, in a nutshell! This was…not my favorite event, haha. I was mostly in it for the 3 closet storage spaces after completing 5 endings, tbh. TL;DR MC’s a maid, and secretly in love with her boss, namely Sid, Rayvis, Louis, Byron, or Nico, who is also in love with her. This whole power difference thing isn’t really my cup of tea. Cybird sidesteps any potentially squicky situations by having the MC confess her love first in everyone except Louis’ route. But that, er, also isn’t my favorite thing to read, truth be told. I’m all for women making the first move in real life and all, but this is fantasy! Having the MC be romamced proactively is a little more fun to read, ngl. There’s also the novelty factor to consider – I would have loved it in 1-2 routes max, but as is, it was simply repetitive.

So with that said, of all routes, Louis was my favorite, by a long shot, by virtue of his making the first move (and by the neat “twist” in which MC wasn’t sure if the boy in her memories was him or not). A more specific personal ordering, from top to bottom: Louis, Byron, ~~Baevis~~ Rayvis, Nico, Sid. But in any case, the prizes in this event are nice, and there were still some delicious quotes to enjoy! 🙂

Event highlights

Louis: Suddenly, Louis wrapped his arms around me from behind. “I remember.”

Byron: That moment when he takes off his gloves and puts them on the MC to keep her hands warm outside. Very smooth, king dude. Very smooth.

Also this:

His gaze held mine, intense and smoldering. …. “I am completely captivated by you. In particular, by your kindness.”

Rayvis: “It doesn’t matter if you’re my maid, or if I’m your master.”

“I thought you didn’t like sweets.” “I don’t. But this is different. This is a gift from you.”

Rayvis pulled me closer, sliding his fingers under my chin and gently tilting my face closer toward him. [He] nipped gently at my earlobe with his teeth, and the strange, alluring sensation sent a shiver through me.

Overall enjoyment: 5/10

In Your Arms Tonight: Genji Higashiyama Review [SPOILERS]

“I made a lot of detours to get to where I am today. But it was those detours that showed me how important Genji was to me. I want to treasure the happiness I have now.”

With February comes a new pair of free stories to enjoy in Voltage’s Love365 app! One of these stories was Genji’s Higashiyama’s route in In Your Arms Tonight, an intriguing romance the likes of which I haven’t really seen much of, before.

The story starts out with an MC who’s a married (!) woman. To be more specific:

Très romantique, no? Sigh. MC was set up by her father, so this is essentially the Japanese equivalent of an arranged marriage. Things go down about as well as one might expect: the husband is cold, they haven’t even slept together after 3 months of marriage, and MC realizes walking home one day that the husband has been cheating on her with another woman. Ouch.

So, unsurprisingly, MC dumps his ass and moves back home with her parents (living with parents unless married is common in Japanese culture, I hear). She starts kicking ass at work (where she’s an interior designer), and, in classic otome fashion, quickly finds herself surrounded by hot and available men: her kind coworker, her stern manager, a young bartender with a thing for MILFS, … and Genji, her high school ex-boyfriend turned Japanese soccer star with World Cup aspirations. Genji’s a little different from how she remembered him in high school:

Age and fame has changed him, and now he’s confident, flirtatious, has a ton of young groupies, and is honestly, kind of a brat. But one thing has remained constant: he’s still in love with the MC, and isn’t shy to show it. In fact, the only reason why they reunited (at a high school reunion) was because he’d called to organizer to confirm the MC’s attendance.

Genji’s capricious nature cannot be understated. At some point, he drags the MC last minute to a soccer-related party (thus unknowingly ruining her housing search), has her undergo an entire makeover, and gets pissy when she doesn’t want him to buy her any accessories (jewelry?). He gets incredibly jealous (almost to the point of blows) over her coworker Shohei Aiba, who, to be fair, has the hots for the MC and frequently invites her out to drinks at the local bar. And he’s constantly being approached by young female fans, which seems like a bit of a pain for any girl to deal with in the long run.

But Genji is super freaking supportive to the MC, when it counts, and it’s crazy attractive. Regarding her ex-husband, after a painful run-in at a restaurant: “Any man whose eyes roam to other women that quickly isn’t a man at all.” Regarding MC’s career: “If you don’t grab every chance you get, you’ll never go any higher. And when a shipment MC’s handling for work ends up in the wrong city, Genji borrows his soccer team’s truck and pulls an all-nighter to drive her to the warehouse to pick up the shipment. Swoon.

Genji and MC have their fights. He even pushes her away after getting injured, but the plot line there is resolved maturely and understandably. At the end of the day, it’s clear that Genji is super fond of MC, and that he’s always been. He makes mistakes, she makes mistakes, but despite the fantastical premise, the two of them seem like real human beings who are really in love. It’s incredibly nice to read.

Personality: 8/10. Genji can be quite the egotistical brat, and reacts poorly to jealousy. But he goes out of his way to help the MC out, and never wavers in his affection for her.

Appearance: 9/10. The drawing here is A+, but he’s surrounded by some pretty stiff competition in this story!

MC: 7/10. MC is a really bad communicator, both with her parents as well as with Genji (she didn’t even tell her parents why she divorced, for starters!). But I really like the setup for MC’s story, and she came across as relatable and likable.

Personal enjoyment: 9/10. There was a fair amount of sexism that I think may be cultural, but I enjoyed reading the story, and I love the value that this particular romance can potentially provide to older women/women with relationship struggles of their own. And the side characters are great!

Masterlist

Enchanted in the Moonlight: Miyabi Route Review [SPOILERS]

Disclaimer: I read this off of @officialvoltageotome ’s Love365 app (Miyabi’s route is one of the three free stories of the month) before figuring out how to read the prologue, so things were a little confusing for a bit.

But anyways, Enchanted in the Moonlight…Miyabi…where do I begin? Long story short, Enchanted in the Moonlight features an MC who one day unexpectedly becomes the Chosen One™; her blood is catnip to ayakashis (i.e. monsters/demons), and any child she births with an ayakashi will be particularly strong. Naturally, a group of ayakashis goes over to her place, promising their protection against other, more nefarious ayakashis, in exchange for…well…her body. And her future child.

So, the world building is a little hand waved, but that’s not why we play these games. In any case, the MC reluctantly picks Miyabi, a flirtatious fox spirit whose claims to fame are being super handsome and really, ridiculously, good in bed (seriously. It’s baked into the plot.) And so Miyabi and co. move in, MC learns more about Miyabi and his semi-tragic backstory (tl;dr he’s only half ayakashi, which is basically like being the only half-blood in a room full of Slytherins), and the gang eventually successfully fights off the main antagonist of the story, whose identity was pretty easy to suss out starting Episode 2 (but again, nobody’s reading this for the plot).

I mean, Miyabi was cute. His quirks were funny. But why did I spend most of this route really, really angry at him? Let’s take a look at Exhibit A, which takes place one evening after Miyabi’s started making the moves on MC and MC tells him to stop:

UGHHASDFKWQF. Miyabi pulls the “her mouth says no, but her body says yes” excuse multiple times during his route. … I mean, look. To be honest, I think always practicing enthusiastic consent with a long-term partner is boring, and I love my dub-con fantasies just as much as the next person (esp. of the “tell you want me to stop, and I’ll stop” *other character is too turned on to stop things despite mental angst* variety). But this…this is straight up sexual assault, plain and simple. MC tells Miyabi to stop, repeatedly. He doesn’t. It’s a problem.

So this is a romance, which means eventually MC ~~develops Stockholm Syndrome~~ reaches a point where she probably wouldn’t exactly push Miyabi out of his bed any more, and then in the last episode, he pulls this shit before they have sex:

I KNOW, MIYABI. It’s not like you took no for an answer, earlier. Ugh. ._.

So unfortunately, this whole thing soured what would have been otherwise probably been a fairly entertaining route. And I know Voltage is capable of producing characters that know better. Ah, well. 😦

In other news, I think Miyabi might be into some kinky fuckery. Maybe. Just a hunch.

Personality: 1/10. Boy needs to read up on consent and “no means no”

Appearance: 7/10. Nice face, not a huge fan of the Bieber hair (although it’s quite nice when it’s longer).

MC: 7/10. I like her initial WTF reaction to the situation, and her hilarious attempts to flirt with her boss (who she was crushing on) instead of Miyabi. But, c’mon, girl. Resist more!

Personal enjoyment: 1/10. I spent almost all of the route being mad about the consent thing. That aside, I guess I’d give it a 5/10 for the eye candy and the wild plot. Points off for Miyabi being a wishy washy asshole though.

Payoff: 6/10. The epilogue is pretty satisfying, not gonna lie.

Overall: 1/10

Masterlist