Otoko Yuukaku – Kagerou ~ Plot & Character Analysis

I honestly delayed coming back and playing Otoko Yuukaku for ten months because Kagerou’s personality was so off-putting to me. And yet, somehow, this arrogant, cynical teenager won me over…mostly.

Kagerou’s character arc centers around his stubborn pride, which makes sense for a young man struggling to assert himself. But, unfortunately, what could have been a compelling coming of age story was undercut by writing decisions that ultimately hindered Kagerou from developing the personal autonomy needed for character growth.

All that said, in the end, I enjoyed this route…mostly.  

As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut!

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Top 10 Otome Love Interests ~ Year 1

Well, I’ve been officially blogging for a year! To commemorate my one-year anniversary, I thought it would be fun to make a Top 10 favorite Love Interest ranking with my “Final Thoughts” paragraphs for each guy! Mostly, this allowed me to go back and revisit my favorite heroes from this past year!

Every one of these Love Interests was in my “Great” ranking, of which I had exactly ten for the year! I omitted all the guys from Hakuouki; SSL. The game was so short and my love for them all was established in the games Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms, which I did not play this year.

This is all meant in good fun, and obviously just my personal favorites!

Okay! Here we go!

Character and plot spoilers after the cut!

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Otoko Yuukaku – Tokiwa ~ Plot & Character Analysis

Remember those teenage boy characters from the ‘80s and ’90s teen shows? You know. The ones that are mischievous and reckless but with a good heart? The ones that pull “harmless” pranks on the principal (or other authority figures), with no thought to the consequences. Yet somehow, they seem to avoid the worst possible consequence due to their charming personality.

I could go as far as to label this troupe the “bad boy with a heart of gold.” Only, the boys I’m talking about aren’t necessarily committing serious crimes. These boys have an itch to make mischief and are reckless enough they don’t think about the consequences. Yet, they don’t have a malicious bone in their body.  They just do stupid stuff because it seems like a good idea at the time.  

These boys make you scratch your head and say, “Really? That’s the solution you’re going to go with?” You question how they’ve made it this far in life, and why things just seem to work out for them. And while you find their immaturity unattractive, you can’t deny that these boys are never boring!

As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut!

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Otoko Yuukaku – Kagura ~ Plot & Character Analysis

As an introvert, I do feel a love and a fondness for a good kuudere. Heroes like Akaza from Olympia Soiree, Dante from Piofiore, Axel from OZMAFIA!!, and Yoritomo from Birushana are some of my top favorite otome love interests.

But I am coming to begrudgingly recognize that there is a subset of kuuderes who take their stoicism to a higher level. And when this higher level of stoicism is combined with a lack of people skills, these heroes cross the line from being endearing kuuderes to just plain…boring.

Now let me say, Kagura isn’t a bad character. He just didn’t appeal to me.

And that’s okay.

As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut!

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Otoko Yuukaku – Takao ~ Plot & Character Analysis

To be honest, sometimes I don’t want to sit through hours of plot. Sometimes I want an otome game that focuses solely on the romantic development between the hero and heroine. I want to focus on the emotional connection between two characters, and witness how this romantic relationship changes these characters. I want something character and (most importantly) romance driven.

And while I definitely swoon over chaste love stories with awkward hand-holding and nothing more than a chaste kiss at the end, sometimes I want more. Sometimes, I want an abundance of hugs, kisses, and (gasp!) the steamy times that can accompany all the aforementioned kissing. Because I love physical romance driven stories, too…of the Cero D or “M” rating variety (I’m not into explicit R-18 otome games).   

And is spite of how melodramatic and contrived Takao’s route in Otoko Yuukaku is, I shamelessly enjoyed it!

As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut!

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Otoko Yuukaku – Misao Hidetomi ~ Heroine Character Analysis

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.

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