In Nancy Meyers’s The Holiday, Eli Wallach’s Arthur gives Kate Winslet’s Iris a much-needed pep talk.
For years, Iris had struggled through an on-and-off again romantic relationship with a co-worker. Well, the co-worker had recently announced his engagement to another woman, yet still wanted to keep in contact with Iris. Understandably, Iris had a difficult time coming to terms with what it meant to say good-bye to this selfish, entitled co-worker for good.
One evening during a lovely dinner, Arthur, a retired Hollywood screenwriter, tells Iris that in movies there are the leading ladies and there are the best friends. He tells Iris that she is a leading lady, but is behaving like the best friend.
Having an epiphany, Iris realizes that Arthur was right! You’re supposed to be the leading lady of your own life!
The same goes for otome games and our heroes.
A hero is supposed to be the leading man of his own route.
However, poor Yoji was relegated to the role of best friend in his route.
As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut!
Yoji (VA: Kazuyuki Okitsu) is hiding a secret.
When he was a teenager, a friend of his was riding his motorcycle and severely injured a pedestrian. Well, to bail his friend, Satake, out of the situation, Yoji decided to tell the authorities that he was the one who hurt the pedestrian.
And that one decision changed Yoji’s life.
He was sent to juvenile detention for some time and afterwards had a difficult time finding a job. The victim, Murata, was paralyzed for life, something for which Yoji always felt guilty for.
I honestly don’t understand this assumed guilt that Yoji took on. It’s not like the accident was his fault. Compassion for Murata, yes, I understand. Guilt? I do not.
The worst part, for Yoji, was that Murata’s sister, Momoko became very bitter and when she found out where Yoji worked, she harassed Yoji and the company he worked for, Estario. She assumed his life was perfect, while her brother continued to suffer, which she found unconscionable. So, she set out to ruin Yoji’s life.
Now. There is a fine line here:
I have compassion for how Murata and Momoko’s lives changed after the accident. I know I would have a very hard time if something of his magnitude happened to my husband and daughter. However, Momoko’s suffering does not give her license to ruin Yoji’s life and the work of his team. And Yoji giving her actions a pass felt like a stretch to me. No matter what happened in the past, her actions were unacceptable.
Okay. Back to Yoji.
Yoji is nothing but loyal, brave, and true. He truly is the definition of having a noble character. And, once he made the decision to take Satake’s place, he was prepared to take the truth to his grave.
No matter the cost to him.
Yoji believed this was Satake’s secret and truth to reveal, so Yoji bound his life to the decisions of Satake.
Now.
No matter one’s feelings about Yoji’s compassionate-yet-questionable teenage decision, the writers’ decision to bind Yoji to the decision making of Satake had serious narrative consequences.
Because of this dynamic between Yoji and Satake, the writers took Yoji, the most passionate, self-assured, hard-working, driven, goal-oriented hero of the game, and had him do nothing to meaningfully engage the conflict or move the plot along for three chapters!
THAT’S HALF THE ROUTE!
Yoji abdicated the role of leading man in his route because he was not in charge of revealing truths that affected his own life. He was not driving the plot forward or solving the conflict. Instead, it fell to Akari and the Estarci team to push the plot forward, with Satake as the only one who had the power to solve Yoji’s problems and end the conflict.
Multiple times, Yoji simply asks Akari and Estarci team to do nothing in pursuing the truth of what happened with Satake and not take legal action against Momoko whose actions towards Estario were way out of line.
Yoji is an unmovable rock who refuses to pursue the truth because of his belief that the truth is only for Satake to reveal. Yoji even refuses to contact Satake to let him know that Momoko is targeting him (Yoji) and Estario. All because he doesn’t want to put this burden on Satake.
And the reason, Yoji refuses to take any legal action against Momoko is because he believes she has suffered enough with what happened that night. This means, at work he is actually a hindrance to the safety of his team and the survival of the Estarci app.
Yoji becomes a stagnant character, trapped within his own conscience.
Satake is actually the one who undergoes character development and maturity. Technically, he is in the role of leading man in this route. When we meet him, he is a wimp who is terrified of the consequences of his actions and has lied to his wife for as long as he has known her. He has relied on the kindness and compassion of Yoji’s noble character to live a, rather sad, life of fear and dishonesty.
By the end of the route, Satake comes clean to Murata and takes responsibility for what he did, which clears Yoji’s name to Momoko. Satake can finally live his life in integrity. And, due to Murata telling his sister to stop the harassment and that she is lucky to not be in legal trouble, Momoko stops harassing Yoji and Estario. Satake and Murata solve the conflict of the route.
Yoji is the supportive best friend, helping and covering for the leading man, sacrificing his character development and maturity in the process.
Not only is Yoji robbed of the ability to move the plot forward and solve the conflict, he is robbed of important character development. He never takes responsibility for living his life in dishonesty, because he was content to live his life under the guise of lies to protect his friend. There was no lesson learned about how living a life of lies was not fulfilling and was actually hindering Yoji from living the life he wanted. He did not make an internal decision to become a more honest person. Yoji’s freedom from living in lies to living in honesty was decided for and given to him by Satake.
All this makes Yoji very passive. He has no agency, in regards to his future, in his own route!
So, with Yoji refusing to take any steps to save his integrity, reputation or his career (because those decisions are up to Satake), all of Yoji’s passion and drive turns to pursuing a romantic and sexual relationship with Akari. Which, I’m not going to lie, was a bit jarring.
Yoji’s professional life is falling apart, with him being resigned about the situation and not showing any initiative in taking the steps to fix it, yet he has the drive to make love to Akari?
In this route, Yoji is saying: “Well, Akari, my professional life is an absolute disaster and there are parts of my life that will remain hidden until I have permission from someone else to tell the truth, but at the very least I have you to make love to me!”
Uh, huh…
YOJI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
There are larger decisions, other than your sex life, that need your attention!
And maybe the writers meant for Yoji and Akari’s sexual relationship to be a coping mechanism for Yoji. But seeing him care about sex, yet being c’est la vie with his future was, to me, an unbalanced dynamic.
Another disappointment was how Yoji’s passion and drive took the form of one non-consensual physical act towards Akari in the first half of the route.
After they start living together, Akari goes to wake Yoji up. Of course, a-still-sleeping Yoji pulls Akari in to bed with him (cue *eyeroll*) and pins her under his arm. She doesn’t want to wake him, so she decides to lay next to him and then falls asleep.
Anyways, Yoji wakes up, surprised to find Akari in his bed. Well, our hormonally suppressed hero starts caressing Akari’s sleeping body. To his credit, when Yoji snaps out of it and realizes what he is doing, he immediately stops and leaves his room. He leaves a sleeping Akari alone on his bed.
Yoji was a big proponent of the whole, “You know I’m a man,” sentiment. To which my response always is, “Yeah, well you still need to practice self-control.”
I really don’t like the all men are wolves trope. It’s like, I don’t care if you are a man. You are still a human being and you need to exercise self-control when with a woman.
I felt like these kinds of actions from Yoji were a way for the writers to maintain his self-assured, passionate, driven personality, while not applying these traits to engaging with the conflict or moving the plot along.
Because let’s be honest.
Engaging with the conflict and moving the plot along is something that someone with his personality would definitely do!
Passionate, self-assured, driven, goal-oriented, CEO-type characters are problem solvers! They don’t sit back and let somebody else take charge. They assess the situation, plan a course of action and execute! This is what they do! And this is why we love them!
These types of characters are primed to be a leading man. This is what they are meant for! To be in charge. To be leaders. To be passionate lovers. To be problem solvers. To be heroes of their own story.
Yet, Yoji was restrained in so many ways.
I’m so sorry, Yoji. You deserved better.
-Final Thoughts-
I love Yoji. He’s a good hero for me! I just really felt he was done dirty by the writers in his route. I mean, I can appreciate the attempt to make Yoji the most compassionate man on the planet, but this compassion came at the expense of Yoji being engaged in the conflict and the plot of his own route. Which, to me, was not worth it. I just wish Yoji had been allowed to shine in his own route like, I felt, he had in Rokuro, Mitsuki, and Nori’s routes. Such a disappointment.
I found this route annoying. Besides Chapter 2 and the Perfect Love Ending, I didn’t really enjoy anything else in the route. I don’t have much more to say that I haven’t already said. So, I’ll end this here: I was just so disappointed in this route.
Otomes as Novels 