“I want to see a united world, with you. Stay with me, forever.”
You have no idea how freaking excited I was when Sasuke’s route was released. Kickass MC? Handsome Robin-Hood-esque ninja who takes after his distractingly handsome boss Shingen? Sign me the eff up! …Right? Well…
Let’s rewind a bit. Ninja!MC is a member of the Mitsuba’s, a small band of ninjas on the run from their former amoral ninja town. She’s also The Chosen One the last remaining person in her clan capable of creating a secret panacea that all the warlords and their impossibly good-looking ninja bros are after. So when her village is attacked and doubts concerning Nobunaga (their current employer) and his willingness/ability to protect arise, the task of finding a potential new warlord to serve falls to none other than MC. No pressure.
Enter Sasuke, an affable and kindly ninja who MC’s been pining after ever since he rescued her when she was a child. Sasuke’s on a headhunting mission for MC on behalf of his employer, Shingen. MC and Shingen both decide on a bit of a trial run (there’s no reason for sex-on-legs to trust MC and vice versa, after all), and MC’s new life begins. She spends her days learning medicine under Kansuke (<3), hanging out with kid!Sasuke (adult!Sasuke’s adopted son), and, when the rare opportunity presents itself, getting to know the love interest himself. MC learns that Sasuke, unlike other ninjas, is generally happy to interact with/help out the plebes, but he also happens to be obsessively devoted to Shingen (“For him and only him I will be a shadow”).
At some point, MC, Sasuke Jr, and Sasuke Sr are all tasked with living incognito as a fake family in a village on Ieyasu’s turf, to gather information (“Be my woman, MC”). For a brief period of time, MC revels in living out her childhood fantasies (or at least, pretending to). But everything changes when MC and Sasuke are kidnapped by the stupidly pretty (if kinda shady looking) “Hattori Hanzo.” In short, MC’s getting force-recruited into the Tokugawa clan. Sasuke tells MC that their only chance of escape is to kill Ieyasu…which turns out to be patently false, since Sasuke literally *punches out a wall* to gtfo…! But in any case, pacifist MC doesn’t want to become a murderer, and Sasuke gets unreasonably pissy about it. Even though killing Ieyasu wasn’t even part of his orders (he just wanted to make Shingen’s life easier…)
Our two leads eventually kind of patch things up after returning to Kai, but new problems arise when the castle learns that Nobunaga and his army’s on the march, and Shingen falls ill. Sasuke gets all pissy at MC again (“If you’d killed Ieyasu back then…none of this would’ve happened”). Meanwhile MC’s been slaving away day and night to make a healing elixir for Shingen. And when homegirl finally pulls it off? Sasuke’s super shitty. Again (“You’re using the medicine as a bargaining point with the Takeda, aren’t you?”). Ugh.
In any case, the war problem kind of solves itself when Sasuke decides to suicidally run into battle, as *Shingen’s body double* (!!). But don’t worry, this story has a happy ending. MC saves the day while also simultaneously ruining it (long story), MC and Sasuke have some lovey dovey moments back in Shingen’s castle, the Mitsubas are welcomed into the Takeda clan, and they all live together happily ever after. Until Shingen’s main route happens, presumably.
So in case it wasn’t supremely obvious: no, I wasn’t a fan of Walmart Shingen Sasuke. I can’t forgive his assholery after the whole Ieyasu thing. The dumbest part is, the Ieyasu he’d wanted her to kill was a body double anyways, so his murder would’ve been useless! And don’t even get me started on the romance in this route. It really came out of nowhere in the final episode or two. So, TL;DR, Sasuke has his great moments, for sure (see: stint as Shingen’s body double) but overall, he’s just an old and cold bastard who doesn’t deserve MC.
…at least he’s pretty.
Personality: 3/10. Sasuke starts out super strong as a romantic candidate, but his suicidal angstiness and general assholery fix that notion super fast.
Appearance: 8/10. Look. This guy is a body double for Shingen. He’s not gonna be ugly. His hair, however, only looks good when in a ponytail where I don’t have to look at it.
MC: 5/10. MC has a lot of promise, especially with that amazing backstory. But I can’t believe she took all that turd Sasuke flung at her lying down! I know, I know. She has to; it’s his route, after all. But I can still judge.
Plot/Payoff: 7/10. Okay, the romance sucked. But for all the flaws in this route, the plot was decent enough. I appreciated how the route didn’t necessarily end with everything all sunshine and roses…esp. because we all know how this whole story plays out IRL…
Personal enjoyment: 3/10. …I liked the Shingen/Kansuke cameos?
Otome Reviews 