Otome Reviews

Era of Samurai: Code of Love – Soji Okita Route Review [SPOILERS]

Friends!! I HAVE A NEW STORY TO ADD TO MY FAVES. This is my second Shinsengumi-era otome route to date (the first was DtL’s Takasugi, which was kind of a disaster). And it is AMAZING. 🙂

As far as Voltage romance premises go, this one is pretty good. After ronin arbitrarily attack/burn down MC’s apothecary/house, the Shinsengumi, aka the shogunate’s police force/a group of hot guys, decide to house MC in exchange for her medicinal skills. Among these dudes is Okita, who is decidedly…creepy looking, to say the least (see above).

He’s also convinced that the whole thing’s a setup and that MC’s a spy, lol. Which is a bit of a problem for MC given his threatening “kill first, ask questions later” attitude, but a lame run-in MC has with ronin quickly convinces Okita that MC’s innocent (“Your astounding stupidity convinced me. Congratulations”). 😂That said, MC’s still terrified of Okita, and you really can’t blame the girl. Okita has a reputation for being a killing machine and doling out “divine punishments” in Kyoto. He’s rumored to drink the blood of his “prey” in demonic rituals. She encounters him, soaked in blood and super scary looking, one evening and he offers to teach her how to kill.

But as time passes, MC realizes that there’s another side to Okita. His room, rumored to host tons of dead bodies… is merely messy. He’s good with kids (and likes playing with them!). He has two pet goldfish that he can tell apart (also he’s reluctant to eat goldfish shaped candy, lol). And he is a total tease! His sexual innuendoes totally killed me, haha. Here’s an example: at some point in the story, Okita gets close to MC and demands she pay for sword training with her body. Problematic, right? …Except it turns out he simply wants her to clean the Shinsengumi compound via physical labor, lmfao.

On the surface, Okita shares a ton of personality traits with the scary, sexually aggressive bad-boy types in otome games, such as Kyohei from Scandal in the Spotlight, Leon from Star Crossed Myth or Eisuke from Kissed by the Baddest Bidder. But in reality, Okita is in a class of his own. Because he never even comes close to crossing the consent line with MC, his many sex jokes are pretty hilarious, imho. And although he comes across as demanding, it’s also pretty obvious from the get-go that he has the best interests of the Shinsengumi, and later, MC, in mind, and doesn’t just get off on being an asshole. Because these aspects of his personality were so clear, even early on, I felt like it was really easy to comfortably enjoy Okita’s aggressive personality (in contrast, I have some seriously conflicting feelings about Leon…).

In terms of plot, the bulk of Okita’s story revolves around the peace-loving MC and murder machine Okita struggling with reconciling their conflicting ideals, while the Shinsengumi try to uncover a malicious terrorist plan in the area. These two things intertwine with each other beautifully. There are several other excellent subplots, such as Okita teaching MC how to defend herself with a sword and fight for survival (my favorite!!), and Okita and MC struggling with the Shinsengumi’s bad reputation. Overall, the storytelling is very tight; there wasn’t anything I felt was unnecessary or didn’t thoroughly enjoy.

The same goes for Okita’s personality. I loved pretty much everything about his character presentation and evolution. Even the fact that he’s kind of scary looking/not traditional Voltage “pretty” enhances his character. Also, Okita is the only Love365 character I’ve read to date that actively tells MC it’s okay to go slow, both sexually and relationship wise, in the epilogue (“We don’t have to rush”)! Not something you’d expect from a guy who loves teasing MC, is it? 🙂

Overall, I absolutely loved this route. It was really touching, and I think Okita just might be my favorite Love365 character I’ve read to date! If you haven’t read his route yet, I highly recommend you give it a shot when you get the chance!

Choice quotes

To some ronin: “Ooh, that’s some mighty fine-looking equipment you’re packing there, big boy. Tell me, are you trying to compensate for something?”
“This is the first time you’ve slept with a man, isn’t it? Aren’t you glad your first time is with me?” (spoiler alert: it’s platonic)
“I won’t go closing my eyes. I know you’re only using that sword to protect me.” – MC ❤

Personality: 10/10. Okita is incredibly entertaining as an otome character. He’s also an awesome human being. His scary first impression just makes everything else even better. Also I love his snarky teasing and his innuendoes, haha.

(PS between Okita, Soryu, and Kenshin… I have a thing for murderous protective otome guys I guess…?!?! #noregrets)

Appearance: 4.5/10. First impressions: this guy has a super scary face. His CG’s are definitely a much more traditional otome handsome 9/10 though!

MC: 10/10. MC gets a pass on being a bit naively pacifist because she’s a freaking doctor. But I LOVED her growth throughout this route and her increased understanding of Okita. 💕

Plot/Payoff: 10/10. It might be short, but this is probably one of the best-paced Voltage plots I’ve ever read! Every subplot felt meaningful.

Personal enjoyment: 10/10. One of my new favorite routes of all time. Can’t wait to get my hands on his sequels 🙂

Masterlist

SLBP “Flirtatious Fascinations” Pt. 2 Review [SPOILERS]

I like the meta surrounding this latest event. Don’t have much time? The self-checkpoint for each story is only 4k points. Really want that frowning Ieyasu doll? It’s a bit of a grind, but not too difficult to pull off! Voltage is really generous 🙂 Anyway, here were my quick thoughts on the ES contents themselves, from least to most favorite:

Shingen gets possessed by a lust bunny one evening. Literally: the dude finds it very very difficult to keep his TB-infested hands off of MC. But this isn’t a problem that’s limited to just Shingen. Nearly the entire male population of the castle develops a hankering for carrots, and Yukimura ends up doing strange things like bunny hops and sword exercises to stave off his frustration! But the ninja population is immune, and eventually, Kansuke and MC work together to find the solution: they find and get a holy rock reinstalled, and all is well.

I don’t blame Shingen for what happened to him, but tbh I didn’t love this route! The nature of the curse was kind of disturbing. Lust-addled Shingen said some things which might be sexy under different circumstances, but ended up just being unsettling here (“With you right next to me, I can barely keep from bending your ankles behind your head”). Not to mention, he also said some things that were just straight up unpleasant to read (“I don’t want to break you with these hands of mine”). Again, I don’t blame him since he was cursed, but this story just wasn’t fun to read imho! Which is sad, because this guy is legit my favorite SLBP guy ever and I was looking forward to some great Shingen content. I guess there’s always next time. ^_^

(This route’s saving grace: Kansuke. 😍)

Personal enjoyment: 5/10

MC drags Mitsunari to a shrine (after bribing him with manju, lol), and after meeting a boy who tells them about a wish-granting kitsune, prays for Mitsunari to be more honest. Fair. Over the next day or so, every time Mitsunari lies, a tail pops out! His tails wag when he’s happy, and droop when he’s sad. To nobody’s shock, it turns out this contrarian is almost always saying things he doesn’t mean! Thankfully, the tails disappear after his ninth and final lie, because he was altruistic about it (tl;dr he wanted to hide the kitsune’s death from the boy), and everything returns to normal.

I love it so much when the characters with… more personality flaws, shall we say… get called out on it! So from that perspective, I totally loved this route! What made me a little sad is that unlike Ieyasu, who at least tried, Mitsunari didn’t seem to want to put in any effort into being more honest with MC by the end of the story (not including epilogue). Also, Mitsunari doesn’t like Sakon?! 😦 Still, overall, this was still a really fun route to read! Route highlights: M’s tail wagging over the prospect of eating MC’s manju, and MC bemoaning the fact that she never got to pet the tails after they disappear 😂

Personal enjoyment: 7/10

Kenshin touches a pretty white snake while on a forest stroll with MC one afternoon, and the next day, he’s…different. He’s uncharacteristically cold towards Tiny Dad/Kanetsugu (“Are we quite done? I’ll just be going then”). He’s possessive and jealous of MC, to an utterly insane degree. And when a retainer catches MC one day so she doesn’t slip, he tries to hide her away in his treasury (“Nobody will be able to find you in here, now will they”)…! But MC’s a stubborn cookie, and she drags his weird ass back to the snake, who, it turns out, just wanted a friend, and cursed Kenshin for fun. Of course.

So Kenshin was creepy as all fuck in this route, and I wouldn’t have enjoyed it at all, if it weren’t for one comment Kenshin makes after he’s all better: “Forced awareness of your nature is a very frightening thing, isn’t it.” Hooooly shit. So under all that fairy fluff, Kenshin really is secretly a super dark soul, eh? Love it. From a romantic/relationships perspective his behavior is terrible in this route, but his interestingness just shot wayyy up in my books. 😀

Personal enjoyment: 9/10

So those were my thoughts. What did y’all think of this event? I have a feeling opinions fall all over the place. ^_^ (PS Happy Halloween! 🎃)

SLBP “Flirtatious Fascinations” Pt. 1 Review [SPOILERS]

You think you’ve seen a dozen SLBP events and you’ve seen them all…not true, my friends. Not true at all. This latest myth-based event is cray, haha. Here are some of my thoughts on the first batch of stories, from least to most favorite. What were your thoughts? I’m curious to know! 🙂

Inuchiyo’s route features a malicious mermaid who’s in love with Inuchiyo (tl;dr he saved her from collapsing). She stalks Inuchiyo to Hideyoshi’s castle, steals his freaking voice, and, uh, doesn’t exactly make her intentions a secret. Girl sabotages MC and Inuchiyo’s date plans/schedules, and manages to worm her way into hanging out with Inuchiyo pretty much all the time. So voiceless Inuchiyo sucks at telling the mermaid no, but at the last moment he rejects her request to leave MC for him, and the mermaid gives up, returning his voice.

Yooo what the fuck! I’m still not sure if Inuchiyo developed a crush on the mermaid or not!? They did say that mermaids only steal the voices of those charmed by them, after all. In any case, I appreciate that the guy held strong at the end against the hot mermaid seduction but ffs Inuchiyo/the boys should’ve just kicked the mermaid out the second it became clear that a) Inuchiyo didn’t really know her, and b) she was there to cause trouble for our couple. asdfjkl;

Personal enjoyment: 3/10

Hideyoshi buys MC a pretty cloak from a mysterious^tm trader in his ES. Just one small problem: it’s a swan maiden’s feather cloak, and every guy who sees MC in her new cloak react as if they’ve taken a love potion. Mitsuhide, Mitsunari, Inuchiyo, Nobunaga, Sakon, Katsuiie… all of them fall victim to the power of the cloak. Eventually, the pretty swan maiden finds requests her garment back, and everything returns to normal, to MC and Hideyoshi’s relief.

I know that at least one of you was creeped out by the guys’ behavior in this route (looking at you, @casual-romantic!). I don’t necessarily disagree, per se, but here’s a slightly different perspective. This cloak makes dudes act like they’re in love with MC, right? So yeah, a lot of the retainers are super creepy/predatory about it, and that doesn’t bode so well for the women of the Sengoku era. On the other hand, the cloak showcases some really awesome behavior from some of the bros. Sakon and Mitsu are helpful sweethearts when they fall in love with MC, for example. And Hideyoshi? Homeboy doesn’t act any different, because he’s already utterly captivated by MC. Awww. ^_^ I think H’s love for MC was supposed to be the main takeaway from this event, and that’s the reason why, character stupidity aside, I enjoyed reading this story.

Personal enjoyment: 7/10

In Ieyasu’s ES, an injured tanuki who MC helps out causes all sorts of trouble among the resident retainers/MC, after he shows up in disguise as Ieyasu himself. Tanuki!Ieyasu praises everyone, gives them leaves (lol), and is adorably charmed by MC’s daifuku. And normal!Ieyasu is as bad with people as usual, which definitely confuses the heck out of people like MC, who bounce between each Ieyasu in quick succession. In the end, it turns out the tanuki has one simple, AWESOME reason for impersonating Ieyasu: he thinks the guy is too mean (“There is nothing kind about him!”). And calls him out on it to his face!

…Can we just kick out the real Ieyasu and replace him with tanuki!Ieyasu forever? I’m only half kidding, lmao #totallynotbiased. But seriously, this ES was super fun to read and definitely my favorite of the lot. And even if I’d take the tanuki over Ieyasu every day, props to the warlord for attempting to channel the tanuki’s sweetness in the end, haha. You tried, kiddo. You tried.

Personal enjoyment: 10/10

(PS fun fact: Tanukis are apparently known in folklore for…their giant testicles. You’re welcome. 😂)

Midnight Cinderella: “School Days” Event Review

What happens if you throw MC into a high school AU as the new scholarship student? …Well, let’s just say I was relieved that she wasn’t paired with Robert the homeroom teacher, haha. Anyway, here was my personal ranking, from least to most favorite!

#4: Nico

Boy is a freshman exchange student from Stein, and a full two years MC’s junior. This doesn’t stop all the girls from cooing over him, though! He has a bit of a reputation for being an opportunist and a faker (surprise!), but he’s nice to MC (although he does con her into making him lunch once, haha). MC comes to his defense at an unneeded moment and he confesses his love in a garden. Overall, I thought this story was very blah, but it might be my personal anti-Nico bias talking. Route highlight: “Does this mean you see me as a man?”

#3 Giles

Giles the senior/student body class president tricks MC into helping the student council collate data, after she accidentally stumbles into the forbidden student council room. Already, the guy has a reputation for being “strict,” but he’s fairly chill with MC. He confesses his love after the data stuff has long finished, when MC mistakenly assumes he has a girlfriend. So much second hand embarrassment, lmfao. Route highlight: smooth motherfucker kissing MC’s hand after she gets a paper cut. ^_^

#2 Alyn

Alyn the resident horse boy gets closer to MC after he convinces her to tutor him (they’re in the same homeroom). They share a mutual and growing respect, and despite being uninterested in dating in lieu of pursuing his knighthood, Alyn does in the end change his mind, just for MC! While it was a little harder to get a sense of Nico and Giles’ characters in their routes, it was very easy (and awesome) to see traces of grown-up Alyn in this ES 🙂 Route highlight: “I promise I’ll become a knight, and I’ll come back to you.” Worst/funniest moment: “Junior class president? What’s that?” MC PLEASE. Lmfao.

#1 Albert

I don’t know much about Albert except that he’s a massive asshole in pretty much everyone else’s route. …But not in this story!! High school Albert is a super shy nerd who’s finishing up his exchange program at MC’s school. He and MC “randomly” run into each other a lot over several days, and he helps MC quite a lot: with finding her way, catching a falling book, etc. And when they get accidentally locked in the library overnight, he comforts MC by hugging her all night! Ahhhhh 💕Just goes to show, you can’t write off a character based only on their cameos. I’m looking forward to tackling his main story soon 🙂

…Ngl, I thought I was going to completely hate this event, since the school thing didn’t really appeal to me. But I thought it was surprisingly good, and captured the awkwardness of teenage romance pretty well! Definitely one of MidCin’s stronger events, imho. What did y’all think? 🙂

IkeRev: “Say I Do” Suite 2 Event Review

I’m a total sucker for wedding events, and this one was no exception. TBH I enjoyed almost all these routes! But here is an attempt at a ranking from least to most favorite:

#4: Fenrir Godspeed

“This is an engagement ring from me to you. Will you accept it?”

Fenrir and MC agree to help model as the bride and groom in a fake wedding for his friend, who’s running a “Bridal Fair.” Cue insecurity and angst over it not being a real wedding on MC’s end. Luckily for her, Fenrir does in fact have plans to get engaged, and ends up proposing right before the “I Do’s” in the mock wedding! That’s cute and all…but imho MC has a bit of growing up to do before she should think about getting married, haha. Route highlight: F hiding their kiss from the crowd with his officer’s hat ^_^

#3: Sirius Oswald

“MC, I love you. And I will love you for the rest of my life.”

When MC is cursed by a Horcrux book with the maturity level of a 13 year old, a lot is on the line. If Sirius can’t give her “four somethings” in three days, her memories of him will disappear. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue… sounds familiar, eh? Sirius manages to get MC his grandma’s ring, a wedding dress, a borrowed veil, and blue shoes in time, but what the book really wants is… a proposal. At the last second he proposes a future proposal, which I guess is good enough, haha. Route highlight: “Guess if I’m forgotten, they’ll be lining up to take my place” (after Ray flirts).

#2: Edgar Bright

“I don’t want to let you go home tonight.”

Edgar’s route starts with him semi-tricking MC into helping him out, by masquerading as his wife at a married-couples-only party. Our resident Jack of Hearts is investigating the surprisingly hot party host for drug dealings. MC and Ed might not even be dating, but they are suspiciously good at fooling practically everyone present… 🙂 Too bad Edgar gets caught when he goes snooping around for drug evidence! The Premium End is gloriously and satisfyingly action packed, and I adored reading MC and Edgar work together as a team! Route highlight: MC taking down a goon with a MOP, lmfao.

#1: Lancelot Kingsley

“Just loving you isn’t enough. A lifetime isn’t enough. I want you to give me eternity.”

Lance starts his route by telling a shopkeeper “it’s a little early to be thinking about marriage” with MC. But after an adventure regarding an heirloom dress, he’s totally changed his tune (“For a hundred years. For a thousand years. For all time until the world stops turning—I want you to be known forever as the beloved of the King of Hearts, Lancelot Kingsley”). …Like. The guy basicallyyy proposes to MC in the Central Quarter garden. After taking her there on a WHITE HORSE. The day after giving her a hickey, Shingen-style, to prove that she’s good enough for him. Can he get any more extra?! I’ve been saving his main route for last (among the four starter routes), and I cannot freaking wait, lmfao.

Overall, I really hope Cybird decides to make a Suite 3 because this event was charming and awesome 🙂 What did you think of this event?

In Your Arms Tonight: Genji Higashiyama Review [SPOILERS]

otome-reviews:

“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

Genji’s route is free on Love365 until 10/23 JST, so I’m re-surfacing this review! 🙂

Now that I have a better sense of how pretty otome boys can get, I’d re-rate his handsomeness as a 7/10, but otherwise, this is still a super fun story that I highly recommend!

SLBP “The Ascension of the Divine Bride” Event: Mitsuhide, Saizo, Kojuro Review

Between SLBP and IkeRev, wedding bells are in the air, and I am loving it! Haha. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the second batch of SLBP wedding stories, from least to most favorite:

#3: Mitsuhide

Mitsuhide’s ES in a sentence: it’s been three ZERO events since Nobunaga was an asshole! Days before Mitsuhide and MC are gonna get married, N decides that M has to marry some other chick to appease a rebellion. Either that, or kill literally the entire province where the rebellion is located – men, woman, children alike. Nice guy, that Nobunaga. Anyway, after the world’s shortest breakup, Mitsuhides ends up using a loophole in Nobunaga’s orders to burn all the villages w/o actually killing anyone, and our happy couple finally gets married to each other with Nobunaga’s blessing.

It was really hard to empathize with this story tbh because I’m a selfish bitch who, if I were in MC’s place, would let the whole world province burn before ever agreeing to be replaced as a wife, haha. What I did enjoy reading: Hideyoshi and Inuchiyo being absolute bros to MC during the “breakup.”

Personal enjoyment: 5/10

#2: Saizo

There are two big things going on in Saizo’s ES: 1) Everyone wants MC and Saizo to get married, but ninjas aren’t really allowed to do that. 2) Saizo’s been assigned an impossible mission to kill Nobunaga (spoiler alert: it’s a trap). Despite our ninja boy trying to pull away from MC as the date of his suicide mission approaches, it’s MC’s strong desire to have him survive that saves him in the end. That, and Kiyohiro of all people (!!) showing him a secret route to run away from Ieyasu’s deadly trap. The route ends with all the bells/whistles of a wedding but no visit to the courthouse (or whatever the Sengoku equivalent is).

Overall, I didn’t love the whole angst part of the event (MC self monologues a lot), but it was so fun reading Saizo’s action packed ninja mission and subsequent escape! I really wish that took up a larger part of the story ^_^

Personal enjoyment: 6.5/10

#1: Kojuro

There are a lot of things going on in Kojuro’s event. First, Masamune has him and MC, his fiancée, move into a new castle to help bolster the Date clan defenses. Second (and most importantly), the Oda clan’s been sniffing around for an alliance, which has the Date’s on edge b/c Nobunaga’s not exactly known to be a team player. When Mitsuhide arrives demanding an answer to the alliance request (alongside a small army – very peaceful), Kojuro diffuses the situation temporarily with some clever diplomacy, and his and MC’s wedding proceeds no problem, if somewhat delayed.

It’s kind of hilarious how Kojuro was able to calm down the situation with just one sentence, lol. But I did like this ES’ political setup. Also, this quote: “I vow here to give you the life you deserve, and to protect all of our future children.” Is everyone’s favorite SLBP daddy thinking of actually becoming a father!??! 🙂

Personal enjoyment: 8/10

I swear, Voltage always releases the best stories of an event in the first batch on purpose! But I can’t complain when they gave us so many amazing Samurai Street Fair stories for free ^_^. Anyway, what did y’all think of this event? 🙂

IkeSen: How to Raise a Child Event Review

It’s a total romance trope: what happens when MC and her warlord have to take care of a kid for a few days? Here is my personal ranking of the stories, from least to most favorite:

#3 Ieyasu

Nobunaga needs a babysitter for Kikumaru, a little boy, and Ieyasu is voluntold to tutor him. Just one small problem: Ieyasu is terrible with kids. It’s not too surprising, considering how childish he acts himself. Certainly doesn’t help that Kikumaru’s got the hots for MC, to a degree that is honestly kind of disconcerting (“We are no longer teacher and student. We are rivals in love”). Who’s been raising this kid?! Lol. It was cute how Kikumaru is pretty much a baby version of Ieyasu, but I didn’t especially love this ES. Ieyasu shouldn’t ever be allowed to deal with children, lol. Route highlight: “MC isn’t a thing that can be given and taken away.”

#2: Nobunaga

An ally daimyo sends his young daughter Ai to Azuchi for a few days to scope out future marriage prospects (says Mitsuhide the troll), and Nobunaga asks MC to take care of her in the meanwhile. The kid is a total proper lady, until MC and Nobunaga convince her to let loose during her stay. This route features:

Nobunaga dancing with an iron fan (!!!!)
Nobunaga roping Ai and MC into stealing konpeito with him. Of course.
“I thought we could have a tickle fight.” “Only if you want to die.” lmao

I enjoyed the premium ending quite a bit, but the sweet ending features an aggressive kid crush that’s only slightly less creepy than Kikumaru’s in Ieyasu’s route (“When I grow up I’ll become even more beautiful than you. And then I’ll come back and tell Lord Nobunaga how I feel about him”). Her kid crush is way more adorable in the premium ending, haha.

#1: Yukimura

MC and Yuki catch Aoi, a little girl-thief who’s been ditched by both her parents (!!). After meeting Sasuke, she gets ninja aspirations. Adorable. Girl proceeds to play the “precocious child role” in ever rom-com ever made, and manages to get Yuki and MC to be a little more honest with each other about their feelings! …Just a little. Haha. Other highlights:

Yuki the hair stylist!
KENSHIN BEING BETTER WITH KIDS THAN SHINGEN lmfao
“If I’m going to have a family, it’ll have to be with you. My mind is made up.” 😍

Even if Yukimura was a total unnecessary shy boy again in this route, I did enjoy it. Those Sasuke/Kenshin/Shingen cameos were glorious!

Overall, maybe it’s because I’m too young to think about kids, but this event wasn’t all that compelling to me tbh. What did you think? 🙂

SLBP “The Ascension of the Divine Bride” Event: Nobunaga, Yukimura, Masamune Review

OMG. TIME TO PACK UP, FRIENDS. WE HAVE REACHED PEAK SLBP. Don’t think it can get better than this latest trio of stories from Voltage 😍

Nobunaga’s ES is basically an extremely creative interpretation of the Battles of Kizugawaguchi, with a wedding thrown in! MC and Nobunaga are literally seconds away from getting married when an emergency battle gets in the way! The Oda clan faces off against Kennyo, the Mori Clan, and some other enemies…and faces a crushing defeat. And to make things worse, the Mori clan wants an Oda bride (aka MC) as hostage in exchange for standing down! Nobunaga unsurprisingly tries to call off the wedding to protect MC in classic Nobunaga fashion (lol), but MC is a true badass who finds things out for herself and convinces N that the sacrifice would be worth it. At the last second, an offhand comment allows Nobunaga to invent the world’s first ironclad, defeat his enemies definitively, and marry his love in a super cute scene. ❤️

There were just too many things about this route that were awesome:

“You shall have a kitchen that not even the Gods have seen.” 😂
Nobunaga’s extremely Genghis Khan-like imperialistic ambitions. Didn’t see that one coming, haha.
“Once I am finally done wedding you, my bedding you will make it difficult for you to make it to the kitchen for quite some time.”
“And so the brazen girl has become an exceedingly ambitious woman.”

But most awesome of all: MC, who became certain in her ability to be a brave and badass “Peerless Lady.” I loved her growth, and her willingness to make plans for Nobunaga’s sake! Even at his best, Nobunaga has his flaws, but this ES’ MC seems uniquely suited for the guy and the story was a fantastic read.

Personal enjoyment: 10/10

Nobunaga’s route is just one more in a long series of routes with hostage talk but no actual hostages. …And then there’s Yukimura’s ES. In this route, the Sanada clan has decided to break off its longstanding alliance with Shingen in lieu of an alliance with Kenshin (💔!!), and Yuki’s the designated hostage. He’s pissed, but he does it anyway, after MC insists on joining him. And they actually become hostages!! The Uesugi clan isn’t exactly super welcoming to the guy they view as a betrayer (esp. Kageie – wonder what’s the story there?!), but as time passes, both MC and Yukimura prove their worth. In the end, with a push from MC, Yukimura decides to help Kenshin in a battle, proving the Sanada clan’s loyalty, and Kenshin releases them from their hostage duties, allowing them to finally get properly married. ^_^

So the hostage situation already had my jaw dropping in shock and awe because that literally never happens in these stories! That alone was amazing, but this event also brings us:

Yuki’s glorious if temporary reaction to the alliance change (“I will no longer stand under the name Sanada!”)
Horny Yuki (He takes me again and again, seeking me out as if he could devour all of me and never want for it ever again)
Embarrassed Yuki, after seeing MC in her wedding outfit ^_^

Personal enjoyment: 10/10

Poor Masamune’s ES is super heartbreaking! The story starts out happily, with MC and Masamune in the midst of prepping for their wedding (together ^_^). But Masamune’s mega-bitch of a mom is busy causing trouble. After refusing to attend their wedding (or allow M’s little brother Kojirou to attend), she arranges for young Kojirou to be adopted by the Ashina, a frenemy clan, so that Kojirou can become heir of that clan. And Masamune’s future enemy, basically. Ugh. But all her scheming is for naught, because the two-timing Ashina also adopt another rival clan’s son (he’s an arrogant prick), with the intention of having Kojirou and this other dude to duke it out. Masamune’s stuck between a rock and a hard place: avoiding war on two fronts, or saving his little bro. MC convinces him that Kojirou’s worth it, the Date clan wins the battle, and Masamune finally earns his horrible mom’s gratitude (and gets married)!

I’m a little sad that Masamune’s mom never got her comeuppance, but that didn’t stop me from thoroughly loving this story! The Ashina clan’s plots were fun to read, ridiculous as they were. Kojirou was adorable. But my absolute #1 favorite part of this story was MC and Masamune working together, as a team. First to master their complicated wedding rituals, and then to decide what to do about the whole Ashina situation. MC and shy boy are #relationshipgoals and I can’t freaking wait to go back and finally finish up Masa’s MS for good 💕Favorite quote: “Whatever happens, I want us to face it together.”

Personal enjoyment: 10/10

… Yeah that’s right. I LOVED ALL THESE ES’s. What really made them stand out, imho, was MC, who was consistently amazing. Also, the samurai era military plots. Can’t wait for the second batch of stories!

IkeRev: Edgar Bright Route Review [SPOILERS]

“Spending time with you has become—addictive.”

Okay. No matter what you might think of Mr. Jack of Hearts, can we all agree that he had one of the best pre-route promotions ever? That surprise IkeSen appearance was hilarious. 🙂

Anyways. This route starts out with a bang, after MC’s things from Earth (aka her ticket back to London) get stolen by a group of shady thieves in Red territory. After a serendipitous encounter with Ed in the forest, he offers to have her stay at Red HQ, while he investigates the crime. The Black Army agrees that this is a good idea, and so MC’s life with the Red Army begins.

The story spends a lot of the time fleshing out every single Red character. Jonah is a clear standout (“I see Alice is here, too. With an impertinent look on her face, as usual”). In what is probably my favorite scene in the first half of the story, Ed and MC spend an entire episode searching for poor Jonah’s sleepy hamster! But this is Ed’s route, so let’s focus on him for a second. He’s a super busy dude, but always seems find time to hang out with MC. We learn that he’s a huge candy and animal lover, and kind of flirty, to boot. MC digs it.

But there’s definitely something shady about Edgar. His soldiers are terrified him. Zero, his protege, doesn’t trust him at all. MC ignores all the ominous warning signs (the game foreshadows like nobody’s business), and even starts up a bit of a romance with the dude! But one day, an anonymous letter leads MC to Edgar’s safe, where she discovers a whole stack of unopened letters from the frantic Black Army. Turns out they never okay’d MC’s stay at Red HQ, after all (Ed forged a letter). This entire time, he’s been trying to lure her over to the dark Red side with kindness.

MC runs away, and from here on out, everything is a glorious, cheesy drama/adventure. Between kidnappings, attempted coups, attempted murders (!!), and plots within plots, for the very first time, I actually felt a sense of danger and risk in the IkeRev world. It shouldn’t take this review to tell you that there’s a happy ending, but regardless, the journey there was pretty great.

To be honest, I thought the romance aspect of this route was a little lackluster. Don’t get me wrong, Edgar’s gentle flirtatiousness was super fun to read, but beyond that, I didn’t really get a good sense of his personality. It certainly doesn’t help that the writers definitely did more telling than showing in terms of revealing Ed’s dark backstory as Jack of Hearts. Also, Jonah pretty much stole the spotlight every time he made an appearance (which was a lot!). ^_^

Criticisms aside, if you like the IkeRev world, I’d still definitely recommend this route! It has a strong non-romantic plot. There’s tons of lore and backstory, and we get to see Almond Amon’s face for the first time (that alone made the entire route worth, lmao). And hey, if you like Edgar more than I do, more power to you! You’ll be able to enjoy this route even more. 🙂

Choice quotes:

“When MC finds out about your plans, do you still think you’ll be able to smile?” – Zero, my new 2nd fave Red Army character

“It’s a perfect night for betrayal. Wouldn’t you agree?” – a character

Personality: 6/10. I think Edgar has a ton of potential (who doesn’t like suspicious characters!? See: IkeSen Mitsuhide, SLBP Hanzo). But due to writing issues or something, he ended up being less compelling than he could’ve been! I know Cybird can do better (and they do, even with him, because his birthday event was amazing).

Appearance: 3/10. The middle part of his hair somehow lies underneath his two bangs awkwardly, and I don’t get it at all. Lmao.

MC: 6.5/10. Poor MC’s kind of too gullible/trusting in this route. I did thoroughly enjoy her reaction post Ed-is-shady reveal though.

Plot/Payoff: 9/10. If you like cheesy drama and adventure as much as I do, you’re going to love this plot. The last third of the story is thrilling.

Personal enjoyment: 7.5/10. I didn’t love the romance trajectory in this route, but the story itself was a good read!

Masterlist