So, this started off normally enough. I was going to do a regular character and plot thoughts article, centering around Takao’s route in Otoko Yuukaku.
But as I wrote, I realized I had a lot to say about Misao’s character. I had written seven pages just about her, and if I continued at that current pace, this article would have been well over ten, maybe 15, pages long. So, I decided to break the article up!
This article will solely be about Otoko Yuukaku’s heroine: Misao!
Yeah. I’m surprised, too.
As always, character analysis and spoilers after the cut! There will also be spoilers for Takao’s route.
Otoko Yuukaku is the PSVita version of the English localized mobile/Steam/Switch version of The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya. And while the setting and plot are the same, there are some differences between the PSVita and mobile/Steam/Switch versions.
First the Vita version has voice acting, which is fantastic! There is Vita exclusive route, which I’ve heard explains some of the fantasy elements of the story (though, I have not read this route yet, so I can’t confirm). And the Vita version is also censored, compared to the mobile and Steam versions which are more sexually explicit during the intimate scenes.
Otoko Yuukaku follows the story of Misao Hidetomi, who is a soft-spoken, polite, and kind young woman. She works at her family’s wholesale store, that deals in items from the mainland. She lives with her mother on an island where few baby boys are born and all young men are restricted to Yoshiwara, the island’s red-light district. Women looking for a love affair or to become pregnant with a child come to Yoshiwara to buy a man’s services.
This is in stark contrast to the mainland where men and women are equals and where (what we would consider “normal”) modern cultural beliefs are the norm. The mainland and island are connected by shipping lines that allow trade and travel between the two places. There seems to be an amicable relationship between the two places, even with the strong cultural divide.
Now, don’t ask me why women who seek love or a child don’t just go to the mainland to find a husband. Because honestly that is what I would do, if I had been born on this island. I would have been moving to the mainland, and leaving this island world behind! I don’t know why women like Misao stay on the island. All I can say is that this is the established premise of the game, and this is the world the story takes place in. And since I read fiction to lose myself in worlds other than my own, I just had at accept that this is the world Misao inhabits.
Well, Misao is sent by her mother to make a delivery to the famous brothel Kikuya in Yoshiwara. On her way to Kikuya, Misao runs into a young couple who are trying to escape Yoshiwara to the mainland so they can be together. There are strict punishments for male courtesans who run away and for island civilians who help the courtesans escape to the mainland. Well, Misao bravely decides to help the young couple, in spite of the danger posed to her as an accomplice. In sincere gratitude the young couple give Misao an expensive kimono and a large sum of money.
With the kimono and money with her, Misao has to complete her delivery to Kikuya. From what I can tell, this is Misao’s first time in Yoshiwara and she is intrigued with the lively, tawdry night life. Also, when Misao arrives in Yoshiwara she sees young men for probably the first time in her life. Since all men are relegated to the red-light district (and she hasn’t been to the mainland), it stands to reason that Misao has grown up never being around men her own age. And to top it off, the men at Yoshiwara are supposed to be the most handsome and attractive men on the planet. So, it makes sense that Misao is mesmerized by Yoshiwara and the courtesans. She has never experience any of this before.
It’s supposed to be like Moulin Rouge! when Christian experiences the Moulin Rouge for the first time. Christian is a writer who has never set foot in a brothel, let alone in one as glamorous as the Moulin Rouge. Christian’s adrenaline takes over and he is swept up in the spectacle and tawdriness of the Moulin Rouge. The viewer’s first experience of the Moulin Rouge is from Christian’s perspective and the viewer is supposed to feel all the frenetic energy of the brothel. Because this is the energy that Christian is experiencing.
Misao arrives at Kikuya with the delivery and the manager Iroha mistakes Misao as the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Iroha assumes she is a wealthy young woman and rolls out the red carpet for her. A couple of times, Misao tries to tell Iroha that she’s not wealthy, but Iroha brushes her comments aside as “humility.” Iroha steam rolls ahead and asks her to pick a courtesan for the evening. Misao timidly picks Takao, the most popular courtesan in Kikuya and possibly in Yoshiwara, and her first taste of Kikuya begins.
She gets swept away by the glitz and glamorous veneer of Yoshiwara. Like a well-trained courtesan, Takao tries different methods to seduce Misao, because he thinks she’s at Kikuya for sex…like every other woman who visits the brothel. From giving her a fancy kimono to wear to putting lipstick on her lips with his finger to giving her sake to mellow her out, Takao is gentle but also calculating. Well, eventually Misao gets accidentally drunk off the sake and Takao stops trying to seduce and gets her to bed to sleep off the sake. And while Misao did respond to some of Takao’s seductions, she never thought to herself that she was going to have sex with him that night. She wasn’t there to have sex with anyone. She was swept up by Takao and the ambiance of Kikuya, but she never lost her head over the experience.
This “misunderstanding” trope happens in Moulin Rouge! as well. Satine, the most popular courtesan at the Moulin Rouge, believes Christian to be a duke who could finance a play that would legitimize the Moulin Rouge as a theater and not simply a high-class brothel.
Just like Misao, Christian gets an evening with the best courtesan at the brothel because of a misunderstanding. And both misunderstandings hinge on the supposed social standing and wealth of Misao and Christian.
Misao, also, reminds me of the heroine of one of my favorite movies: While You Were Sleeping. It’s another example of the use of the “misunderstanding” trope. In this 1990’s romantic comedy, Sandra Bullock’s Lucy is a lonely woman working in Chicago as a toll taker for the subway. Lucy has friends and coworkers, but after her father died of cancer, she was all alone. But, after saving a man’s life on the subway tracks, she gets mistaken as the man’s fiancé.
Lucy is soft-spoken, polite, and very kind, and when the man’s boisterous family meets her, they hardly give her a chance to clear up the misunderstanding. And after a few failed attempts to clear up the misunderstanding, Lucy found herself not wanting to say anything because she was falling in love with the man’s family. She gets swept up into the family’s abundant, life-giving energy.
So clearly, the “misunderstanding” trope and being swept up in the moment is not special to Otoko Yuukaku. However, the writers run into problems with Misao’s character development after the first night in the red-light district is over.
Both Christian and Lucy have a reason, early in the story, to return to their respective places. Christian is a writer who is hired by the Moulin Rouge to write a play and become the “Voice of the Bohemian Revolution.” He has to return to the Moulin Rouge for his job. For Lucy, she knew lying to the family was wrong, but she was desperate to feel loved and cherished by a family. And being with the family filled a deep emotional need that was foundational to her existence as a human.
So, what is Misao’s reason to return to Kikuya after the first night?
Part of the reason Takao falls in love with Misao is because she’s different from other women who have come to Kikuya. And what are the reasons for women to go to Kikuya? To have a love affair or to get pregnant. And since, the entire construct of Misao’s character is that she’s not like these other women, the writers couldn’t give her these reasons to go back to Kikuya. So, she can’t go back because she’s in infatuated with Takao. And she can’t go back because she wants to have a baby. So, what do the writers choose to do?
The writers choose to make Misao go back to Kikuya because she is…curious.
Yes. Curious.
All of Misao’s motivation in the early chapters is based on curiosity. And it’s not curiosity of falling love (because that would make her like other women), it’s curiosity of Kikuya and Takao. Misao doesn’t continue to go back to Kikuya and see Takao because she wants anything from him, she goes back simply to be there.
So, if her motivations seem flimsy in the first few chapters, that’s because they are. And it’s the writers’ fault. The story would have been more organic if Misao kept returning to Kikuya for deliveries and struck up a relationship with Takao over time. But the writers chose not to do that. They chose for her to return to Kikuya to satiate her curiosity and her vague need to be there.
And because Misao’s curiosity and her vague need to be there is so strong, she still goes back to Kikuya after she is sexually assaulted by Tokiwa (another courtesan who has a fierce rivalry with Takao). Takao comes to her rescue and throws Tokiwa out of the room. Takao warns her that the times when he is with another client and Misao chooses waits for him, Iroha might send a different courtesan to her with the intent of seducing her so she becomes the other courtesan’s client. While, ruthless, it’s a way that Iroha (the manager of the brothel) can spread around clients to all the different courtesans and take some of the customer demand of Takao, who is the most popular. Now, Tokiwa did get into trouble with Iroha for his technique with Misao. But the fact remains, that Iroha sees Misao as money, and he’s going to use almost any trick in the book to get her attached to a courtesan. The question of her physical safety is not a serious enough deterrent to stop her from going to Kikuya to satiate that curiosity.
Um, Misao, your curiosity and your vague desires to be there are not compelling enough motivations to risk sexual assault from opportunistic courtesans and their calculating manager!
Now, Misao does visit Takao with an interest in seeing him. But once again, the reason is vague and certainly not because she wants to have sex with him. No. No. Misao is not like those kinds of women.
This once again seems strange. Misao is actively visiting a brothel and paying for the time of the most popular courtesan to NOT have sex with him. She simply likes being with him. Because for her to desire an intimate relationship with Takao at this point is to make her like the “other women,” and the writers can’t have that. But this dynamic doesn’t help Misao’s appearance of intelligence.
Multiple times in the route, you have Misao exclaiming that she just “doesn’t understand.” And let me say, that I don’t think this character quirk is out of the question. It makes sense that Misao can’t make sense of what is going on around her or what is happening to her all the time. She has never experienced anything like this before. She’s never been to the red-light district. She’s never spent time in a brothel. She’s never become friends with a courtesan. I don’t question her complete lack of understanding.
In Moulin Rouge! Christian has his “Band of Merry Bohemian Men,” to help him navigate Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge. In While You Were Sleeping, Lucy has Saul, who is an old friend of the family, to encourage her. Saul learns the truth and tells her that the family is good for her and she’s good for the family. Saul sees that the family and Lucy need each other. And this is turn, helps Lucy’s actions not seem so heinous to the audience. Misao doesn’t have anybody like this. She is navigating the red-light district all on her own. She is navigating this foreign-to-her culture the best she can.
The problem is that when you pair her lack of “red-light social mores” knowledge with the fact, she has a weak motivation to be there, she comes across as stupid, hapless, and mind-numbingly naive. She doesn’t understand why the people around her think she’s kind of strange for wanting to go to a brothel and not have sex with the courtesan. She doesn’t understand why her actions are seen as strange, or why she comes across as different.
Later in the route, Takao passionately and desperately tries to have sex with her so she will officially become his client, because Takao becomes insecure about possibly losing her to Tokiwa. Misao is not comfortable with Takao’s physical advances because they are coming from a place of fear and insecurity and she’s not sure whether she wants to have sex. She doesn’t respond emotionally and when asked if she’s feeling good, Misao answers with a resounding, “I don’t know!” And after hearing Misao’s reply, Takao stops trying to seduce her. He realizes he’s trying to force an unwilling woman, and he doesn’t want to do that. The following morning, Takao is completely resigned to losing Misao. He’s not his usual peppy self, but I didn’t feel like he was mean or cruel to Misao. He just seemed sad and disappointed to me over the fact he wasn’t going to be spending time with Misao anymore. And when she leaves, he thinks their relationship (which at this point is friendship) is over.
Misao knows something is amiss with Takao and questions why he is being so “cold” towards her. But in Misao fashion, she doesn’t understand “why” Takao is acting the way he is. She thinks that maybe it’s because she’s a nuisance to Takao (an idea planted by Tokiwa and not remotely true). And because Misao doesn’t understand the social mores of the red-light district, she doesn’t understand what her flat-out denial of Takao’s seduction means to him. In his mind, if she refuses him, she must not like him.
This whole misunderstanding hinges upon the fact that neither Takao or Misao truly understands each other or each other’s world. Takao’s world completely revolves around money and sex. He is a courtesan. And throughout the route, Misao seems to have a hard time understanding the red-light district is all physical attraction and sex. She understands the roll money plays in the Yoshiwara, but she never seems to grasp the meaning behind the sexual act.
So, of course, Takao is surprised with he sees Misao has come back to him at Kikuya, because he believed she wanted nothing to do with him after she rejected his physical advances!
Take a minute and let that sink in.
EVEN THE COURTESAN THAT HAS SPENT THE MOST TIME WITH MISAO DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHY SHE IS THERE!
The hero of the route, by Chapter 7, doesn’t know why the heroine came back.
She’s not after sex with Takao. She doesn’t want a baby.
So, Takao is correctly questioning: WHY IS SHE HERE?????????????????
Well, Takao, darling, she came back because she’s not like other women! She doesn’t visit you for those pedestrian reasons, mentioned above. She visits you because she likes simply being there with you. It’s why you fell in love with her, Silly Man!
Misao comes back, after the apparent rejection, because she values her friendship with Takao, doesn’t want to stop seeing him, and has budding romantic feelings towards him. And at this point, Takao realizes that Misao is special, and not like those other women! Takao obviously has feelings towards Misao, otherwise why was he so resigned when he thought their relationship was over? He begins to fully open his heart and embrace those feelings.
We’ve finally reached the point in the route, where the two love birds are in love. And the writers no longer have to contrive a reason for Takao and Misao to see each other, that doesn’t involve sexual attraction or making a baby. Takao now knows and trusts that Misao is different. She’s won his heart, and he won hers.
Which actually helps Misao’s character because she finally has compelling motivations to visit Kikuya. She’s in love with Takao, and wants to help and protect him. She gives Iroha all the money the runaway couple gave to her, to go towards Takao’s contract. It’s not enough to pay off the contract, but every little bit helps. Misao still has a difficult time accepting and understanding all the red-light district social mores, but now, at least all her actions are motivated by her love for Takao, which makes sense. She has reasons for remaining with Takao, even if the situation is hard and/or dangerous for her.
Of course, our love birds have a few other obstacles to overcome. Like disapproval and pressure to stop seeing each other from Iroha. And Misao’s mother having her Mamma Mia! moment, and telling Misao that Takao might be her half-brother.
Don’t worry. They are not related.
But unlike earlier in the story, when Misao did not have a compelling motivation to continue coming back to Takao, she now has their mutual love to continue fighting for the relationship. She is fighting for something that gives her a reason to come back to Yoshiwara. When she stops seeing Takao because Iroha convinced her that she will ruin Takao’s job prospects and she believes they could be siblings, Misao is motivated by her love for Takao and her desire to protect him. And finally, her love for Takao motivates her to join him as he runs away from Kikuya to search for this dad on the mainland. This motivation gives a grounding to some of her naïve, questionable or reckless decision-making.
She’s willing to give it all for Takao, because they love each other.
And in the end, they get their happy ending.
-Final Thoughts-
Misao is not a bad heroine. She’s a sheltered young woman who has her first taste of the red-light district and has to navigate this new tawdry world all on her own. Her naivety and innocence make sense in context. It would be more jarring for her character if she was forward and comfortable with the courtesans in Kikuya. It wouldn’t fit her character to be confident in the bedroom and know what to do to when a well-trained courtesan was attempting to seduce her. I honestly don’t think her lack of knowledge about the red-light district is the problem.
The problem is her lack of a compelling motivation to be in the red-light district after the first night. The writers don’t give her a good reason to be there, especially after she is sexually assaulted by Tokiwa during her second visit to the brothel. To top it off, Takao warns her something like this could happen again. And her complete lack of valuing her own safety is mind-boggling. What good reason do you have to be there, when the next time you come, you could be sexual assaulted?
And that’s the problem.
She doesn’t have a compelling reason to continue visiting Kikuya. Her motivations for being in the red-light district are flimsy at best. She doesn’t want to have love affair. She doesn’t want to make a baby. She isn’t there for sex. She has no reason to be at Kikuya with a courtesan in his room, because she doesn’t want anything that a courtesan is there to offer. So, while her naivety is understandable when coupled with her total lack of a reason to be there, Misao comes off as dumb, completely lacking any understanding or dangers of the environment she is in.
I think Misao’s character had a lot of potential. I like stories were two opposite characters rub off on each other and positively change each other’s lives. I like stories where world-weary characters have their lives changed by the love and compassion of someone who doesn’t conform to societal standards. And ultimately this is what happens in Takao’s route. And I was glad for Takao and Misao once they reached their happy ending. I just wish that Misao’s character was written better, and the shame is, she could have been. She could have had a compelling reason to continue going to Kikuya, but the writers chose not give that to her.
And that’s just too bad.
Otomes as Novels 