Here is my long overdue review grievance with Yosuke’s finale. Compared to the other 4 guys, I may have enjoyed his story the most however that doesn't mean that it didn't have its faults.
I'd also like to preface this by saying that I do not hate Taki. My problem is that I don't like what the writers did with his character in Yosuke's route. And instead of having Yosuke worry about Taki's looming shadow over his relationship for 3 seasons (4, if you count One Night in Purgatory), I think they should have spent more of their word count fleshing out the Amatsuka family better, especially since Sakuto/Blood Moon's route got cancelled. I do have some things to say about Jekyll and Hyde over here as well but that's for another day.
Season 6: Married in Paradise (Episode 7)
I found this entire scene so aggravating to read through. Taki offers her a job opportunity. Okay, he also threatens to destroy Amatsuka Holdings if she doesn't choose him and then tries to force the MC to wear the ring he brought her when she turns him down for nth time.
The MC couldn't have said it any better with "Why would Taki be the only one capable of fulfilling my dreams?" All I could think here was "You know who else disregarded the MC's feelings and started deciding things for her by themselves? Her ex-husband."
After reading Taki's finale, I couldn't help but side-eye Taki even more in the scene above. He says that because of Yosuke's position, the MC would have to carry on being a housewife.
But Taki is also in a high-level position. And contrary to what is said here, at the end of Taki's story, the MC isn't restricted to being a housewife. She becomes a famous chef; She's on TV, she publishes her own cookbooks and helping other ladies learn how to cook. The third thing is almost like what she was doing alongside Sakuto in Yosuke's Season 4.5 and 5.
And obviously this is wonderful for the MC, especially after everything she’s endured. But what sort of restrictions does Yosuke have here that Taki doesn't have and since when was Yosuke ever the type to let anything stop him?
They're both CEOs, they're ultra-wealthy and well connected. More importantly both of these guys encourage the MC to be greedy and they would have no problem helping the MC achieve her dreams.
Season 6: Married in Paradise (Hearts in Paradise Ending)
Yosuke's family wanted him to inherit the company and live as Yosuke Amatsuka. But he continues using the surname Sagara after this. And nothing ends up happening to him and the MC. Throughout Yosuke's route, things have always worked out in their favour even if it was difficult. So there is no proper explanation given for why getting married to Yosuke would be more restrictive than marrying Taki.
Season 4: Live-in Lover (Episode 6)
And this is where I believe there was a missed opportunity to delve deeper into the Amatsuka family. If this family really is complicated and poses a threat to their relationship, show us!
What sort of obstacles would the rest of the family have created considering Yosuke's past, lineage and his role as the eldest, or does Yosuke face any repercussions for his bride-brokering business?
And don't even get me started on how his childhood has been handled.
Season 3 was, "Your life long trauma around home-cooked food was all because you never tried to communicate with your step-mother about your preferences."
Here it's, "Well you're the eldest so we needed to be strict with you to prepare you for inheriting the company! But let's ignore the fact that your little brother was clearly treated differently.”
Married in Paradise (Episode 5)
Yosuke may have misinterpreted his situation as a child but that nor does his step-mother’s response, excuse the following:
Special Stories: A Beautiful Birthday Song (Episode 5) and Cruel Delights (His POV 1)
You're really telling me that his role as the eldest son justified this treatment or the loneliness he felt? Yosuke's father, who was supposedly overjoyed about his birth and loved his biological mother enough for her to write an entire page about their romance in her final letter, went on to ignore him just like that?
Of course Sumire couldn't force Yosuke to accept her as a new mother and I understand that after his father and her first son pass away she's dealing with her own grief and managing the company but I hate how all of this was framed as a failure to connect mainly on Yosuke's end when he was a child and she was the adult.
I wish the writers had leaned more into addressing this properly and given him the opportunity to tackle other aspects of his childhood like his grief over losing both of his parents, how he was treated by other family members (he makes a very brief mention of his grandfather in his Season 5 POV). But no Yosuke, let's spend several episodes across Seasons 4, 5 and 6 fretting about Taki coming to steal your girl...
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If you got this far, you might be wondering "If you like this character so much then why would you say this about his route? Why are you always ranting and overanalysing this game?" Because there is so much wasted potential here and I believe you can have media that you love and still be able to criticise it. I’m sooo fun at parties, can you believe it And also because when I still had the motivation to write fanfic I found myself getting frustrated over these things.
I know there are still a couple of VIP stories and one More story that have yet to be released (which I will probably gush about once those are out) but aside from that, I'm not really sure what my future plan is for this blog at the moment. There's a couple of fanfics that I wrote 2-4 years ago which I would like to rework so maybe I’ll share those one day.
Anyways I am glad that we finally got some closure and unless Voltage has other plans for this title, which is highly unlikely, this will be the last time you see me complaining. I will get around to my speculations about Blood Moon soon, but thanks for reading this.
There was one aspect of Taki's finale which irks me so bad that I need to get it out of my system and hopefully I can get a second opinion on here. There's still a couple of special stories that I haven't read so there's a chance that I've missed some crucial information, please correct me if I have. I'm trying to come up with my own explanations for it but I can’t help but think it was executed poorly for the sake of wrapping things up.
In the 2nd ending set for Taki's Season 5, Yosuke reveals to Kasatsubaki that Taki’s father is sick. Taki is not aware of this.
Then in today’s story: When the MC gets rightfully angry about this last minute revelation at the hospital, Yosuke’s response is “Well me and Dr. Tsubaki tried to tell you, but both of you kept ignoring us!”
Then Taki's father dies before Taki can get a chance to speak to him.
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Regardless of Yosuke’s misjudgement about Ryuta’s condition, my initial thought was that it felt uncharacteristic for Yosuke to withhold this information from Taki.
Since when did Yosuke let being ignored, stop him from sharing news? This is the same man who spent a decade monitoring the MC’s life and had no problem letting Taki know that his ex-girlfriend at the time moved on and got married. Even when Ryuta went missing again, Yosuke managed to track him down.
Yosuke has always inserted himself into other people’s affairs and he’s never shied away from telling people things that they may find difficult to hear. Not to mention, he was the one who was pressuring Taki to reconcile with his father back in Season 3. If he says he does things for a good reason, then what could Yosuke have possibly hoped to achieve out of keeping this a secret?
What was stopping Taki from learning about his father’s illness himself?
I also find it hard to believe that despite the resources and connections available to him, Taki didn’t bother to keep tabs on his father once Yosuke initially located him. Sure, he’s busy running his company and executing his revenge on the person who ruined his life but what was the point of partnering with Mr. Ashiba who’s supposedly well connected in Taiwan if you weren’t going to use him?
There’s a triset event going on at moment on 100Koi and you know I had to get Yosuke’s 😖 Dunno if this was an error but his bromide version from last year has him labelled as the “cool/cold-hearted type” (I’m going off of translation apps/dictionaries so don’t take my word for gospel) but then the app version is the “attention-seeking type” (?)
We’re on Season 2 now!! It’s a shame they cut the opening scene with the gang at Pandora 😞 I hate seeing Tomohiro and Kozue again I wonder if they’re going to cover all 6 seasons now that the title is over.
Once again, Love 365’s filters wouldn’t let me write what I really wanted to say about Kaisei’s story but I think my original review was a lot more scathing or maybe I was a bit groggy because it was still morning. Anyways, I can’t help but be reminded of Abby Lee Miller going “Boring, yawning, sloppy, LAZY” and think how that’s the best way to describe these stories so far.
Today’s recycled sprite is from Destind, to be fair I do like their art style and it doesn’t look nearly as inconsistent as the sprites for Kana or Sumire but production couldn’t be bothered to pay the artist to draw a few more characters?
Great, now I want an Office AU… If I wasn’t busy with uni, I’d definitely come up with something 😖 How much do you want to bet Yosuke is still wearing those damn deck shoes
I got impatient and decided to get Yosuke’s story with the coins I had slowly hoarded on 100Koi, just for the CG (hidden under the cut for anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled) because I can’t read Japanese 🌻 Despite the language barrier, I’m pretty sure Sumire’s sprite is also recycled from an old title and aside from Taki, none of the other guys or Sydney showed up…
Okay fun’s over now guys I’ll see you again in January, or whenever this story drops on Love 365 for my next rant review
Inconsistency alert: I know Hikari never met Kaisei or Sydney, but here she is being introduced to the rest of the Paradiso gang when they already spent time together in the Season 4 epilogue.
I tried to leave a review on the app but I kept getting flagged for random words (what’s new) so I’m going to air my thoughts out on here instead. I’m sure I’ll have other things to say about this story as time passes but the only way I can describe this right now is that it felt mediocre. The pacing is a mess. To be fair, it always has been - I remember 5 years ago complaining about pace to my friends in this community when Voltage first introduced the 2 part format so I understand if I appear fickle.
It starts off with a time skip and a brief explanation that Kiyo’s old agency has been struggling it, we meet his grandma, whose sprite is clearly recycled from an older title (which already feels like foreshadowing for how this story will go). They finally achieve their goal, only for it to be snatched away almost immediately because Kiyo gets affected by his old agency's prostitution scandal. Then they have to meet the MC’s parents to convince them that the MC won’t get hurt again and before you know it, it’s wedding day and that’s it.
Speaking of the wedding day, it’s just a montage of his old CGs while the other characters talk amongst themselves before the screen cuts to the new CG. You don’t even get to see all of Kiyo’s outfit for the wedding because they didn’t create a new sprite.
You skip ahead again to a few years in the ending set when the siblings finally get onto that billboard in New York, MC tells Kiyo she's pregnant, cut to her struggling during the first trimester so Kiyo decides he's taking a break and then MC gives birth to their daughter who you don't get to see. His mother never appears at any point throughout this story and I feel a little disappointed by that because Kiyo once said the MC and his mother weren’t alike despite both being divorced so I thought it would have been an interesting interaction.
The pregnancy could’ve been a story on its own. Keep the time skip and show Kiyo and Hikari doing well when the MC discovers she’s pregnant. Rather than having Kiyo announce a hiatus and skipping straight to the baby’s birth, they could have explored the tension of this period further:
Kiyo becomes too busy to notice how much MC is struggling, while she tries to quietly deal with the symptoms on her own. Maybe she tries to prove that she can handle managing his and Hikari’s careers because she’s afraid of holding them back when their careers are thriving. Her parents could’ve reappeared to say “we warned you this would happen,” pushing that emotional conflict even further.
In the unlikely event that Voltage is reading this, they’re probably thinking “Damned if we do, damned if we don’t 🙄”. But they’ve had three years to put something together and THIS is what they came up with. You can tell that Voltage just wanted to get this title done and over with.
I’m just baffled how the writers managed to miss the mark with Kiyohito here. I said in my post from around New Year’s that I thought Kiyo was going to be the easiest character to wrap up. I’m guessing that the stories for the other 4 characters will be going in a similar direction.
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