“Without a doubt…he was the greatest samurai in all Japan.”
I love me a good tragedy. Many a mediocre plotline can be redeemed via main character death (see: a good fraction of the Final Fantasy series). So, knowing Yukimura was pretty screwed after the events of his Act 1 arc, I entered Act 2 with very high expectations. Maybe too high…
I’ll give credit where credit’s due. The scene setting in the beginning few chapters of Yuki’s route is fantastic. Amidst MC and Yuki’s adorable romance, we very quickly learn that the political/military landscape has gone haywire since the end of Act 1. Shingen is dead. Nobunaga is dead. Pretty much all prior alliances and enmities have been thrown into question. And to take advantage of the chaos, Masayuki, aka Yukimura’s father, has made overtures to both the Tokugawa and the Uesugi clans for alliances. Both clans have demands that are far too costly, and to complicate matters even further, MC discovers that she’s pregnant…!
So you could say tensions are high. There’s a lot of discussion of Yukimura acting as a hostage, of MC fleeing to Kyoto to hide, etc., but eventually, the Uesugi come to the Sanada clan without any crazy demands at all. They want to face off against Ieyasu, and are seeking any allies they can get. In the end, the Sanadas decide to hedge their bets: Yuki and his father fight for Kenhsin, and Nobuyuki and MC (alongside Momo, their newborn child!) head over to Ieyasu’s territory. I’m no military expert, but the whole thing struck me as rather strange? MC’s masquerading as Nobuyuki’s wife, but still, Yuki’s at massive risk of being compromised with MC under Tokugawa’s domain. All it’d take to force him to turn would be to threaten to kill MC, right?!
Good thing I’m not the one writing this story, because apart from threatening MC (she horrifies Ieyasu with her idealism) and trying/failing to kill her and Momo in their sleep once, Ieyasu doesn’t actually pull any shenanigans. He doesn’t need to: his side wins, anyways. Yukimura’s forced to flee to a village in the mountainside and give up his spear for provisions (despite def. being strong enough to earn his keep, but let’s ignore the plot holes for now or we’ll be here all day). And although Momo had been barely born when MC and Yuki separated, by the time MC rejoins Yuki for a bittersweet reunion, Momo’s already a crawling, smiling little toddler. In what is probably the single most heartbreaking scene in the entire route, Yuki asks cautiously to hold his own child, after revealing that he’s been practicing with a doll… </3
It feels like MC and Yuki have barely any time to get settled into life as peaceful villagers before war comes knocking on their doorstep again. To my surprise, Ieyasu isn’t the provocateur. In fact, when he visits, he explicitly asks Yuki not to fight, after witnessing how domestic their little family is. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi’s been gathering up men for a last stand against the Tokugawa menace – but they know full well that they have no chance of winning. So… literally the very day after Yuki decides to get married to MC, the friggin’ idiot takes back his spear (from Saizo, who got it…somehow), and leaves to fight against Ieyasu once final, fatal time. And I’m definitely not using idiot in an endearing way here.
Seriously. The guy’s been given a chance to live a peaceful life protecting and enjoying the company of his wife and young child, and what does he decide to do instead? Run off on a suicide mission. And…for what? To avenge Shingen’s death? Hideyoshi was as much Nobunaga’s goon as Ieyasu was. To live and die as a samurai? That’s unbelievably idiotic, given the fact that now his child’s gonna grow up without ever knowing her own dad.
Given the character development that Yukimura was supposed to experience in his first Act (namely dropping the suicidal samurai tendencies), I have no clue what possessed Yukimura to think this was a good idea. The guy says he’s okay with dying because MC’s sworn to love him in the next life, but wtf kind of crap reasoning is that?! And even in the heat of battle, after Yuki’s been repeatedly given the opportunity to flee, he does the very opposite, demanding his own death from Ieyasu. I don’t get it. Like…does Yukimura understand what priorities are?! Is he really, truly, only good at fighting and dying?
Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of this godforsaken route was Ieyasu. I dislike him as a romantic prospect and still do, but he definitely wasn’t the evil cartoon villain/murderer I was expecting him to be. As a character, he was nuanced, interesting, and experienced evolution – the same, unfortunately, cannot be said for Yuki. Honestly, it’s sad to think about how much potential this route had. Because the pacing and interleaving of tragedy with comedy was fantastic. The side characters were generally great. The writing was pretty solid, and the post-story epilogue was suitably hilarious.
But… I just can’t get past Yukimura’s selfish actions. IMHO, it’s the struggle for survival, the tenacity of human will, that brings beauty to a tragedy. And there was none of that here, what with Yukimura actively chasing after his own death. So by the end, I was just left with a hollow, angry feeling towards this route. 😦
Choice quotes:
“You could have been set upon by a band of evil bandits, set upon taking you to their sex-crazed leader, filled with lust at your beauty!”
“No, I’m not dying here. Because…I did not come here as a samurai. I came here as a father.” *proceeds to die*
“I fondled her! I had her…her…in my hands and I squeezed…!!”
Personality: 4/10. WTF happened to all of this kid’s character development?! All the cuteness in the world doesn’t make Yukimura’s actions any less selfish.
MC: 10/10. You can’t fault MC for not trying. From facing Ieyasu head on to cleverly using food as a diplomatic device, we really got a good look at how strong and badass MC can be. Fighting isn’t everything.
Plot/Payoff: 5/10. Excellent pacing, interesting characters, interesting side arcs (e.g. baby). Pointless main character arc.
Personal enjoyment: 4/10. Reading this was extra disappointing, after Yukimura’s incredible Act One. 😦
Otome Reviews 