Okay, so honestly, I am probably older than about 85% of all the otome heroes I’ve read about.
And, yes, I have read Pub Encounter…
So, for me, it was a real treat to read about a love interest who is still a good decade older than me!
Like, what did I do to deserve this?
Usui is swoon-worthy! I found myself giggling, blushing, and smiling my way through Usui’s route! He is so charming and smooth, yet insecure and I was damn invested in that combination!
And while I found the endings to be disappointingly rushed, I can’t deny that I thoroughly enjoyed 95% of Usui’s route!
As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut!
Before I really get into the article, I have to sing the praises of voice actor, Yuuya Uchida! This is my absolute favorite type of voice acting performance! You could hear when Usui was secretly happy, surprised, losing his patience, and trying desperately to hold back. And that is the magic of this character! Usui is a man who has his sense of propriety but is, at the same time, a deeply passionate person. So, despondent restraint was a hallmark of this route. And Uchida nailed it! So, so good!
Now to my thoughts and analysis!
Something about the ending of this route did not feel right.
I, personally, feel like the route was missing a chapter or two. And I don’t believe my hunch is misplaced.
There are two “secret” routes in Sympathy Kiss and both these routes are four chapters long instead of the standard six chapters for the main Love Interests of the game. Which okay. That’s fine. They are secret routes to begin with, meaning they are supposed to be fun surprises for the reader. They are bonuses to be stumbled upon.
However, Usui’s route ending at four chapters is curious. Usui is not a “secret” route. From all the promotional material, he is front and center with the other five “main” Love Interests. In the beginning of the common route, every reader knows that at some point you will read Usui’s route.
So, if Usui is one of the “main” six, why is his route two chapters shorter than the other main guys?
I don’t know why.
But from how the route played out, I think, the writers must have run into some problems during Sympathy Kiss’s development that forced the rush ending (like losing two chapters) of Usui’s route.
Because how the main core of the route ends is bizarre.
The whole route centers around the growing romantic dynamic between Usui and Akari in spite of the differences that separate them. Usui, while being attracted to Akari, believes that since he’s 20+ years her senior, he is too old for her. Akari couldn’t care less about the age gap. She knows a good man when she sees one! And since, Usui keeps sending her mixed signals, Akari decides to pursue this reluctant man to the ends of the Earth.
And who can blame her?
However, it was her constant pursuit of Usui throughout the route that made the whiplash of the endings so severe.
Up to the endings, the route was about two people at different stages in their lives fighting to be together. Usui had insecurity about their age gap and spent the route fighting against his heart and desire for a life with Akari. Akari had to fight against Usui’s gentlemanly desire for her to find someone, he thinks, she deserves and someone her own age.
The secondary plotline of the route revolved around Usui’s love for his family’s inn and his true desire to return home and run the inn after his parents retire. Which he finds improbable after a falling out with his parents after his older sister’s untimely death.
And, I guess, you can argue that Akari has a secondary plotline of coming-into-her-own at her job and finding fulfillment in what she is doing? However, this was very minor compared to her near constant pursuit of Usui.
Which made the three endings all the more puzzling.
The route ends with the two of them going on a great date (after they had confessed their feelings to each other) and recognizing that they needed to figure out what they wanted professionally from their lives. Usui and his father had reconciled and his father offered to give the inn to Usui.
So, Usui has a decision to make. Stay in Tokyo and continue to run Evergreen and date Akari. Or go back to his family’s inn and take over running it, which is where his heart truly is.
Usui and Akari share this extremely awkward non-kiss. Like he pins her against the door, and covers her mouth with his hand so he’s actually kissing his hand and not her…who does this?
Apparently, Usui wants Akari but if he actually kisses her, it wouldn’t be right! And, of course, Akari has the feelings too! I get the intent, but, to me, this kiss and CG were totally awkward. Like if you are telling me good-bye when we passionately love each other…I want a passionate kiss, darn it!
Then, literally, the route ends.
Umm, okay…?
This is how the writers ended the main core of the route?
This story doesn’t feel ready for the conclusion…but, here we are.
Work Ending
Honestly, the Work Ending makes the most realistic sense, but doesn’t fit with the narrative of the route.
We go from two people passionately and desperately fighting to be together to both of them calmly and rather dispassionately agreeing to break-up.
Which, okay. People break-up for work every day, all-around the world.
HOWEVER.
At no point in the route, did Akari ever seem more passionate about work than pursuing a relationship with Usui. I mean, Akari spends this route hotly pursuing our charming barkeeper. There is no other priority!
And, again, who can blame her?
Yet, we go from the weird, forlornly passionate hand non-kiss, with Usui admitting that he really wanted to kiss her, to them both easily agreeing that their professional careers come first.
This is total whiplash!
The ending could have worked, if the writers had taken the time, after the hand non-kiss scene, to develop Akari’s professional work storyline. We needed to see her struggle with the change from wanting nothing more than being with Usui to making her career top priority. But, the reader, doesn’t get any of this.
All we know, is that for four chapters Akari is leaving her office regularly to go work with Usui at Evergreen. The reason she was enjoying her job was because she was writing an article and spending most of her time at Evergreen doing research. That was when her job became more fulfilling for her. It was because of working with Uusi!
Yet, the writers needed a work themed ending. And this is what we got. A slap-dash tag on, that doesn’t fit with the first four chapters of the route.
We are missing the two (*cough*) chapters that show our love birds drifting apart which could lead to their break-up and culminate in a work themed ending.
And this leads us to the….
…Perfect Ending
This ending was strange.
Once again, this ending happens directly after the hand non-kiss scene and shows that our two love birds have chosen work over a relationship.
So, the whole Akari-not-caring-about-her-career-as-much-as-for-Usui-during-the-four-chapters-of-the-route problem still applies with this ending as it does with the Work Ending.
Only this time, Akari tells our 45-year-old hero that she needs a bit more time in Tokyo working at Estario, with the thought that she’d join him at the inn, when the time was right.
Which okay. People take time working away from their families and loved ones. And this can work in situations where people have set time limits for how long they will be apart and for when they will reunite.
So, at first glance this ending doesn’t seem all that out there.
HOWEVER.
To me, this ending implied that Usui and Akari hadn’t spent much time together since he left for his family’s inn. Usui is at the beach lamenting how much he misses Akari and how the hole she left in his heart gets bigger day-by-day. He, apparently, spends his days off alone, wandering the beach, thinking of her.
Um, okay…
Usui, why don’t you leave the inn in the hands of a trusted employee and catch a train to spend the weekend with Akari? And if you can’t leave the inn (which seems odd to me that Usui hasn’t left someone else in charge of the inn for four years…like how is that even possible?), invite Akari to come see you at the inn for a weekend. The reader KNOWS Akari gets days off.
This heartache that Usui seems to be struggling with seemed so contrived to me. This isn’t the Sengoku period. You can FaceTime, take a train, take a plane, talk on the phone. Usui’s response to being apart from Akari felt so over the top and over dramatic.
And these feelings were exacerbated when Akari showed up with a suitcase telling Usui that her time in Tokyo was over and she was ready to move to the inn to be with him.
AND, SOMEHOW, USUI DIDN’T KNOW SHE WAS COMING?
They have technically been in love for four years, but Usui didn’t know that Akari was winding down her work at Estario and was planning to make the move to the inn?
Akari, you didn’t inform this man that you planned on moving to the inn and living with him?
Have you two talked in four years?
This is so dumb.
They go from passionately embracing to not talking about anything (?) major life decisions for four years?
Even if, you are deciding to put your relationship on hold, that doesn’t mean you stop communicating with each other. Where is the commitment? Or the desire to remain in each other’s lives? You can continue to support and encourage and, well I don’t know, TALK even if you are putting your romantic relationship on hold!
IT’S CALLED BUILDING A FRIENDSHIP!
The way the writers wrote this ending, makes me seriously question whether or not these two characters ever communicated in their four years apart. Which I can’t say makes sense narratively!
Usui and Akari should have been communicating and visiting each other for the four years they were apart. Usui should have visited Akari in Tokyo. Akari should have visited Usui at the inn. Usui should have known that Akari was coming to live with him at the inn. Akari should have kept Usui in the loop in regards to what her future plans were, especially if those plans involved moving in with him!
THESE ARE NORMAL ACTIONS FOR PEOPLE IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER!
This ending was just so bizarre.
Love Ending
In this ending, Akari decides to stay at Estario, and Usui decides to stay in Tokyo and continues to run Evergreen. This means he turns down his father’s offer to take over the inn.
Which okay…I guess means, love conquers all.
This ending could have made sense…except…the writers had Akari quit her job at Estario and start working at the bar with Usui.
Which okay…
I guess Akari changed her mind about what she wanted after Usui had already rejected his father’s offer? Personally, I found this to be a very selfish decision by Akari. The man gave up his dream for yours, and then you just quit Estario to work at Evergreen with him as a way to show your appreciation for the sacrifice he made for you?
Who does this make sense to?
Well, that said, this shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Usui can just contact his father and tell him he changed his mind! Nothing to it, right?
Except…he doesn’t.
No, in fact, even after Akari acknowledges that this decision hadn’t been easy for Usui and Usui admits that he would always have regrets…they decide to stay at Evergreen even after Akari quit her job.
Um, okay…
THEIR ONLY REASON TO STAY IN TOKYO WAS FOR AKARI’S JOB!
So, with Akari deciding her top priority is to be with Usui, why aren’t they going to work and live at the inn, which is Usui’s dream job?
…. Am I the only one seeing the problem?
This doesn’t make any sense.
Now. The writers could have fixed this entire situation with two sentences:
Usui had missed his chance at running the inn. After Usui’s rejection of the offer, his father had sold the inn to an interested buyer.
But. They didn’t.
No.
I mean it’s only been two months in game world time! We have no logical reason as to why Usui doesn’t go back home and run the family inn. Instead, we have this nonsensical ending where Usui has the opportunity to have his girl and his dream job, but he doesn’t seize it.
WHY?
The other way the writers could have had this ending make sense is to not have Akari quit her job at Estario. This would have logically maintained the status quo and kept Usui and Akari in Tokyo.
All the writers had to do for this ending to make sense was keep Akari working at Estario.
But. No.
The reader gets this nonsensical ending. All because the writers had to have three distinct endings to the game. And since Usui got the family inn in the Work Ending and the Perfect Ending, apparently, he couldn’t also get the family inn in the Love Ending, too.
Oh well.
-Final Thoughts-
I really liked Usui! He is a good hero for me! Usually with the I’m-not-the-right-one-for-you type heroes, I get really annoyed. Typically, the hero, who has flawless restraint, just continually pushes the heroine away. Where is the fun in that? Thankfully this wasn’t the case with Usui! This man means well, but he just can’t hold his emotions back, which means the reader gets sweet and passionate moments between him and Akari throughout the route! Usui doesn’t have flawless restraint and, for me, this made the route a hundred times more enjoyable! This man is incredibly charming and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about a mature hero who has his life together! More of this please!
Overall, I liked this route. However, the rushed and poorly written endings kept this from being a great route for me. So, while not perfect, this is still a good route for me! I thoroughly enjoyed chapters one through four, minus the end of Chapter 4 with that weird hand non-kiss. The fact the main core of the story ended at this point was bizarre. And the endings were just nonsensical, with very little to recommend about them.
But. Oh well.
Usui is a good guy and, overall, this was a fun and pleasant read!
Otomes as Novels 