Furushoten Gai No Hashi Hime Koshiki Visual Fan Book Taisho Hyaku Kei Concept art translation
All rights to the transulation belongs to kimidaketranslations Whitch did lovely work the book and art belong to the original owners the scans are done by me do not reblog without crediting the original owners of this book.
Alright let me break this literal shitfest down for you. You’ll have to forgive me. I played Sweet Pool when it was first released and haven’t touched it since, so my synopsis might be a tad inaccurate.
See this pretty motherfucker right here? His name is Youji and although he may look 35, he’s actually a high school student who has trouble fitting in with the crowd. It could be because he’s quiet, socially withdrawn, and constantly getting sick. Or, you know, it could be bECAUSE HE IS THE HOST BODY OF AN ALIEN. AND NOT JUST ANY ALIEN, MIND YOU, NO, A FEMALE ALIEN WHO GIVES BIRTH TO SENTIENT MEAT MONSTERS OUT OF HIS ANUS ON A REGULAR BASIS
I shit you not, that is the overarching plot point for this game: Youji shits alien meat babies.
His ‘seme’ in most endings and the main love interest for Youji is this blonde brick wall who is essentially as interesting as one including maybe a bag of rocks, if I’m being generous.
His name is Tetsuo and yeah he looks like delicious man candy, but if you’re normal, you won’t think so after he rapes Youji multiple times. He’s the “ultimate male” of whatever these weird aliens are and because of that, when ever he shows up in Youji’s life, he makes Youji’s hormones do crazy backflips, causing him to jerk off in the middle of the science lab and in a bathtub full of blood and other such nonsense.
He’s who Youji ends up with in 4/6 of the endings. And may I also say that this game HAS NO GOOD ENDINGS AND NO ROUTE THAT DOES NOT FEATURE SOME SORT OF FORCIBLE RAPE.
Speaking of horrible things, enter the character that literally gave me nightmares
This awful fucker is Zenya and he is cRAZY PSYCHO BONKERS AND ALSO SUPPOSEDLY IN HIGH SCHOOL. He has some butler/servant who is also his lover I guess but I didn’t pay much attention so yeah. I think they both die in most of the endings. Zenya is constantly trying to rape Youji and gets really fucking obsessed with him to a point where it freaked me the fuck out let me tell you. He kidnaps both Youji and Tetsuo and tries to force them to rape each other or something so he can have a purebred meat monster or something. He’s also a “male” of these aliens, but he sucks at it or something idk.
Speaking of obsessions, here’s Nitro’s typical “friendzone” character
This is Makoto— he’s Youji’s….”friend” that later realizes how incredibly gay he is for Youji. So gay, in fact, that he gets really super jealous of Tetsuo to a point where he threatens to slit Youji’s neck with a box cutter if he refuses to put out for him. Turns out that Youji shitting meat monsters means he’s in heat or something, and when that happens, he gives off these pheromones that brings all the boys to the yard. Makoto falls victim to the booty and in one ending actually fucking EATS YOUJI ALIVE OH NOOO.
There are only 3 men that Youji can end up with and they all rape him (or worse) at some point or another. Turns out the meat monsters are the “lost souls of people who didn’t believe in god” or some shit and are the central focus of this doomsday cult lead by Zenya’s dad who want to appease the big Master Meat God by making the “ultimate female” and “ultimate male” (ie, Youji and Tetsuo) fuck so they can make a purebred meat baby.
ITS RIDICULOUS, GROSS, AND SAD AS ALL HELL AND SOMEHOW STILL GOOD BECAUSE NITRO DID IT AND NITRO IS REALLY GOOD AT STORY-TELLING EVEN IF IT’S ABOUT THE WORST SHIT EVER.
And I will leave you with the official collector’s figure released for Sweet Pool of Youji shitting meat in the most flattering position ever. Because it’s a thing that sadly does not get talked about enough.
So, thank you, for not only degrading Sweet Pool to tropes and laughable material, but for completely missing the point of the game and now convincing everyone it’s about aliens. Thank you. Seriously.
Now, onto your points.
1. Youji actually had a traumatic past experience, currently lives alone in an apartment with his sister and her husband taking care of his basic necessities. Youji has been incredibly ill all his life and as such couldn’t really “keep up with the crowd” as he was in and out of hospital a lot. Even after the big reveal (thank you for spoiling people) it’s a) not aliens but a cult devoted to god and b) he still isn’t even aware of what it is entirely.
2. The overarching plot point of the game: love and acceptance. Hard to understand I know, considering what is going on. But, each character has a certain need for those two things and well, just because they don’t say the word “love” doesn’t mean it’s there.
For instance:
Youji only knows the love of his sister. He’s never had friends due to hospital trips so he’s isolated. Youji is familiar with familial love.
Makoto has a deep love for food and unfortunately that stems to eating what he loves.
Zenya wants to be loved and accepted for being a failure (which he is entirely aware of by the way).
Tetsuo wants to love but is unable to comprehend that emotion in its entirety.
3. Tetsuo isn’t a “blond brick wall”. And he, like Makoto and Zenya and Kitani and Kouhei and the rest of the cast, are terribly interesting. He rapes Youji once. He does however sexually assault him a number of other times. Youji’s pheromones are drawing out Tetsuo’s behaviour actually (NOT THAT THAT IN ANYWAY IS SAYING ITS ACCEPTABLE). And Youji’s hormones are making Youji do things. Just to clear that up. Youji is the Mesu (“female”) and Tetsuo is the Osu (“male”) according to the terminology used by the cult.
4. Zenya is a tragic character due to his father’s raising of him. Kitani deeply cares for Zenya and is concerned as to how he’s become the way he is. Zenya is reacting to the Mesu (Youji) as one would expect if you consider the storyline and the cult behaviour. He’s obsessed with Youji because he believes if he’s able to successfully produce a Purebred then his father will accept him the way he is. He kidnaps them in a way to see if they are more compatible (and they are).
5. First of all, Makoto wasn’t “friendzoned”. Secondly, Youji actually acknowledges that Makoto was his first real friend. Due to the pheromones Makoto’s baser needs and jealousy are drawn out - not that anyone can help the pheromones as no one actually knows about them.
6. Yeah, unfortunately Youji draws the short end of the stick. It’s a cult, by the way, and it’s not lead by Zenya’s dad he’s trying to work his way up the cult hierarchy and you can see the outcome of it in Zenya. The purpose of the cult is to produce a purebred leader.
7. They are called flesh sacks, actually and are people’s cursed souls.
8. That figure is of one of the most painful experiences of Youji’s life.
So, hopefully that clears things up OP. I mean, yeah, it’s a interesting way of approaching love but hey, it’s N+C right?
I finished the second part of Ooe which was finally released last week! I have so many things I want to talk about as I loved the game, so I think it's going to be impossible without mentioning any spoilers. If you want to read a completely spoiler-free post about the game, I've summarized most of the common route in my review of part 1. I also made a general post about the plot of the game and the characters which you can find here, though I wrote it some time ago, so some of the speculations might be a bit outdated now (I do try to keep it up to date, but I don't want to change everything as it's fun to look back at later).
I'll of course put a warning when I'll be talking about any big spoilers, but I will mention the route order and which characters have 18+ content, so if you want to avoid that, it's better to read this later.
The update + recommended route order
After the update on the 19th, all versions of the game were updated to the "complete edition", so if you already own the game, you can just redownload this for free. It's possible to transfer save files to skip the first routes (a guide how to do this is included in the game files), but it also doesn't take too long to just skip through the first 3 routes. Just like part 1, most of the routes only unlock after playing some other routes first, so usually you can just start a new game after finishing one ending and see if a new choice pops up somewhere in the game. The route order for the first 3 routes is Ariake (who has two endings) > Shimbashi > Aomi, and afterwards you can either play Shiodome ending B or Takeshiba's route. After this the route order is Shijoumae > Shiodome ending A > Toyosu > Hinode > Funeno > Daiba. If you want to enter a route, you should select the choice on the right side of the screen. Some choices don't have a silhouette of the character, but the choice to enter their route will still be on the right side. Just like part 1, you might get some other choices in some routes, but most of these don't matter and you can try out all dialogue options. If you're unsure if you missed an ending, you can check the status screen by pressing the camera roll button next to 再開 in the main menu screen. Occasionally an ending wouldn't register for me and I had to go back to replay it once more.
The story of part 2
While part 1 seemed to focus more on the mystery who committed the murders on the island and Oosaki's own backstory, part 2 focuses on the characters who didn't have their own routes in part 1. In most of the new routes you don't really try to find the culprit for any new crimes anymore, as we already saw that in part 1, but I think it's more about trying to understand the characters better, and of course finding out the real reason why they gathered on the island. Almost all of the new routes have 18+ scenes, though Hinode and Toyosu don’t have one. Like mentioned in the initial setting & data collection book, Shiodome has 2 separate routes, which is why the new update mentions it added 8 routes rather than 7 (no secret Shinkiba or Shinagawa route lol). Part 2 also has a new ending song which is really good, so I can’t wait for it to be officially released on Adelta’s Booth page (which is soon I think!). I really liked Takeshiba's route and also Daiba, who does in fact have a route (he used to be promoted as a side-character, though I think this was done on purpose to mess with us lol). There is some information in the game that you'll only learn about through the letters you unlock in-game after finishing every route, but generally I think the plot and the mysteries of the game are not too difficult to understand. One of the latest blog updates also mentions that this isn't a difficult game in which you have to guess the culprit, but a game in which you can find ''various forms of love'' which you definitely do…
Review of each route (beware of spoilers!)
From now on I'll be talking about spoilers for each route! I'm not going to describe everything that happens of course, but it will include some pretty important plot elements. The first route I played was Shiodome's B route, but I didn't know that his other ending was locked, so maybe starting with Takeshiba is a better option!? I really liked how the color green was used in the CGs in this route, and how even the main menu screen temporarily changed after finishing it. The theme of cannibalism returns, as Shiodome ends up eating one of Oosaki's eyes and ears… and Shinagawa and Shinkiba aren't happy at all that Oosaki decides to stay with someone like this. There are a few Kotou no Oni references in this route too which I liked, such as Oosaki's hair partially turning white. Ending A is locked until you finish Takeshiba's and Shijoumae's routes, but ending A is the complete opposite and actually has a much happier ending. I liked how cute Shiodome was in this, wanting to be Oosaki's wife… Two completely different sides of one character.
Takeshiba's route ended up becoming one of my favorites as he's ??? so cute ???. The extra pamplet that comes with the game doesn't rate his appearance very high but I disagree! One of the reasons I was pretty surprised by this route is that he was very violent in most of the first routes, but this doesn't really happen in the new routes. He does try though... but he's not strong enough to attack Oosaki and he gives up... What a clown, I love him. His backstory (the circus, and his mother being a snake lady) reminded me of Suehiro Maruo's Shoujo Tsubaki, which is a reference many other fans have noticed as well, and one of the new illustrations also shows him wearing a shirt which matches the pattern of the dress protagonist Midori wears, so I'm sure that's all on purpose. It also references Dazai's No Longer Human too, as his first name Youzou is the same as the main character in the novel, but he also has a (non blood related) daughter called Shigeko who he tried to care for. I think his character profile mentions that she was eventually adopted by another family, but I hope they'll meet again, as he even learned sign language to communicate with her. I'm not sure if he would be a great father, but it's really sweet to see him try... I loved his scenes with Oosaki in the ending too and I'd love to see more of this pairing!
I was very curious about Shijoumae's route as he usually pairs up with the murderers in other routes and will immediately betray others and lie, which... doesn't stop in his own route! And I love that for him. This route sometimes references a short story called Kaika no Satsujin where Shijoumae's first name also comes from. Shijoumae has a wife called Akiko who is also mentioned in this short story, though in the original story he never marries her and she ends up with another guy called Mitsumura (whose name also returns in the game, but in Ooe he's the psychologist Shijoumae talked to). Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's novel Kappa is also referenced in this route by Shijoumae himself. I really like the dynamic between Shijoumae and his wife Akiko... I think they go long periods without seeing each other and I don't think their marriage is anything romantic, but she still cares about him and sends assassins after those who wish him harm lol. I wonder if that's how he survived all this time because he's such a bad liar. She used to be a war painter, which back then were used by the Japanese government to spread propaganda, so I think she's a good match for Shijoumae, who has also done countless of bad things during the war. This route branches off where you'd normally already be in Ariake's route, so Shijoumae kills him and Oosaki's in despair once again. By the way, Shijoumae's character profile mentions that he will outlive Oosaki and will even watch his final moments, so I'm not sure if he will truly get his justice lol.
The next route is Toyosu's route, which doesn't have an 18+ scene liked I mentioned before, but the writing of this route was really good and it helped me understand the motives he had! This is also the first route in which Oosaki smiles... his smile is beautiful. It's confirmed that Toyosu passes away shortly after his ending so I don't think Oosaki will be spending a lot of time with him anymore, but the moments they had were beautiful. In this route Oosaki's first name "Hiiro" is also revealed, which literally translates to scarlet and has actually been in the first ending song dying breath all this time.
Toyosu's route unlocks Hinode's route, which explains that it was Hinode who kind of hijacked Toyosu's plan to make everyone come to the island, as he's looking for the person who killed Ooe An, who used to work together with his mother. Even thought there's not really any romance in this route, his character profile mentions that he develops feelings for Oosaki later when he's an adult, so I would love to see that some day. I think Hinode never learned who the real killer of Ooe An was, so I wonder if they will tell him the truth one day. The final letter you receive in-game is his mother's letter, which implies she killed An, and then ended her own life afterwards. In a previous blog post I discussed the first names and their references, but I honestly have no idea if Hinode's name ''Riichi'' and his mother's name ''Riko'' are references to anything yet, as they are both pretty common names. I will add this information if I ever find it!
Funeno's route was definitely very different than all the previous routes lol. Some extra information about his was posted on Bluesky, but I also thought it was intentionally designed to make the player a bit uncomfortable and confused. Funeno gets humiliated a lot, and it's also kind of a harem ending which could be a reference to the Anatahan Incident in which all men fight over one woman, though in this case they're not really fighting and they all just share Oosaki lol. Oosaki does get an 18+ scene with Funeno later at least! This route also kind of felt like a comedy route to me because some things that happened were so absurd. I've seen a lot of mixed reactions to this route specifically, but I did enjoy parts of it. Both Funeno's first name and the way he brutally killed his fiance Momoko are references to Dogra Magra, which I've written a bit about in my previous blog post about the character names and their references which I also linked above.
After every ending you finish, you unlock a new letter, of which most seem to be written by Ooe An. I don't really want to spoil every detail of the letters and Daiba's route, but I did enjoy the twist how you shouldn't just believe everything characters say in this game. The final letter also reveals some more information about Hinode's mother (who was the person who turned Ooe An into an actress), and that she tried to do what's best for Hinode. An is usually described in the game as a girl who manipulates men and who lies, so I also don't know which of her letters in the game are true, but Shijoumae wasn't lying (for once) when he said her death was never a suicide at all. Daiba as a route character was really good too and I liked seeing his interactions with Oosaki. I remember reading that everyone in this game was a virgin or at least hasn't slept with a man before, but the 18+ scene with Daiba made it look like this was not his first time with a man at all lol, he was covered in hickeys. I do love it when Oosaki gets jealous though, so this scene was really great.
The title of the game also changes when you finish this route. Normally it's written with the kanji for impurity/filth (穢), but when you finish it, it changes to ''江'' again which means bay and a common kanji used in names for islands. I wonder if it's supposed to symbolize something like Oosaki moving on from his past, or perhaps because the characters admitted their own sins. In the end, most of the characters are still murderers and they might never change, but I did enjoy seeing the different types of relationships Oosaki had with all of these characters, and I'd love to see what kind of content Adelta releases in the future. The after-stories are already confirmed, so I can't wait until these get uploaded.
List of ending names and their meanings
This isn't about the titles of the songs which I've discussed in the part 1 review, but about the titles you can see in the status menu in-game (the little movie scroll icon). I had to look up some of these terms as I’m not familiar with all of them, but I thought it would be fun to write a little bit about this too and I'm curious how this will be translated in the English version.
Ariake's B ending which you unlock first is called 送火 Okuribi, which literally translates to the ''farewell fire''. This is a ceremony held on the last day of Obon to send the returning spirits of ancestors off to the afterlife. I think this could also be a reference to Oosaki killing some of the other attendees before someone burns down the inn. Ariake's other ending, ending A is called 迎火 Mukaebi, which is the complete opposite and translates to ‘’welcome fire’’. This is the ceremony that is held on the first day of Obon to welcome the spirits.
Shimbashi's ending is called 冥界 Meikai which literally translates to ''underworld'', but I think it's also a reference to Shimbashi himself, as the kanji for his first name ''Mei'' is in it. ''Pluto'', the name which he uses for his theater company, is also the god of the underworld in Roman mythology. Aomi's ending is called 挽歌 Banka which is a song or poem written to mourn the death of a person, which might be referencing the death of Aomi's father and his occupation as a music teacher.
Shiodome also has two endings, with the B ending being called 抱擁 Houyou, which means ''embrace''. I'm not sure if this references anything specific, but it is the only ending in which Shiodome tells Oosaki what his grandmother really thought about him (of course we don't know if this was really true, but it is something Oosaki has been looking for). The title for his A ending is 大祓 Ooharai, a Shinto ritual to cleanse people of their sins and impurities. In Shiodome’s case he paid for his sins by going to prison, so I think it could possibly be a reference to that too.
Takeshiba's ending is called 福音 Fukuin which translates to gospel, or the teachings of Christ. This of course references that he at some point turned to Christianity. Shijoumae's ending name on the other hand was a bit more difficult to analyze, as it's called 彼岸 Higan, which can refer to multiple things. The literal meaning is ''the opposite side of a shore of a river or ocean'', so it could be referencing how different Oosaki and Shijoumae's ideologies are, though it can also mean ''reaching nirvana''.
The title of Toyosu's ending is 正体 Shoutai which means ''one's true identity'', of course referencing Toyosu's role in the story, as he is the one who made the plan to gather all of them on the island. Hinode's ending is called 蠱毒 Kodoku which I did have to look up, but it's really interesting! This seems to be some type of ritual in which a large number of venomous insects are put into a jar and made to cannibalize each other, which in some way, is what Hinode has been doing on the island. In almost all of the routes he doesn't directly try to attack anyone, and instead he waits for the other attendees to kill each other.
Funeno's ending is called 習合 Shuugou, another term I had to look up because I haven't seen it before. It seems to be the fusion of different things such as religion, culture etc. and is also used to refer to the fusion of Shinto and Buddhist beliefs. I don't know if I should look too much into this, as Funeno's route is not the most serious, but I'm wondering if could mean that he still stays with Oosaki despite everything Oosaki has been doing with the other attendees (?). Lastly, Daiba's (or Shizuma')s ending is called 椿事 Chinji, which translates to ''an important, yet unexpected event''. This route is of course a lot different than the other routes because Oosaki never ends up going to Ooejima, as he notices Daiba is lying to him and doesn't accept his request, unlike all of the other routes.
I might add some more information later but like always, this post is getting long, so I hoped it was interesting to read!
Ever since posting my spoiler-free review, I've received some questions about my theories for part 2, so in this review I will be talking about that! That also means that this review will discuss topics that many would consider a spoiler, so make sure to play part 1 first. According to the latest update from the official account, part 2 will be released somewhere early next year, therefore there's still plenty of time to play part 1! If you're waiting to play the game in English, it has been confirmed that they intend to release it in other languages, though details about this are still unknown.
Ever since playing Hashihime, I've become really interested in all of the novels referenced in Adelta's games, and I love analyzing the similarities between them. I'm not sure how interesting this is to others, but I tried to add some short summaries of what each novel that's (possibly) referenced in the game is about. Of course these are just theories and we don't have an official list or anything yet. I might update this in the future when part 2 is released!
Edit: Fixed some typos and info about Shijoumae's first name because I read the kanji wrong!
When this game was announced, it was mentioned that all 9 main characters are named after train stations on the Yurikamome line in Tokyo (the train line most people take if you go to events like Comiket). Other names Oosaki, Shinagawa and Shinkiba are train stations on the Rinkai line, which was not officially confirmed, but very easy to find because both train lines are located in the same area. So far the names of all of the side characters in the game also followed this pattern, so there's not much I can add to this. However, their first names is where things start getting a bit more interesting. When the first names of Funeno and Shiodome were released, fans immediately recognized that their names were references to characters in existing novels. Then while playing part 1, this theory proved to be correct, as some of the other first names could also be linked to existing literature. I created this list while playing the game, but I've seen similar theories on social media such as Twitter (or well, X now) and Weibo too, therefore I think a lot of these could be correct. Right now we don't know the first names of Oosaki and Hinode, so I will be leaving these out. I will also include the Japanese titles of these works to make it a bit easier to look them up yourself. Of course I don't always remember every detail that happened in these novels, and some I only read very recently, so please correct me if anything is wrong! I'm always happy to learn more.
Ariake Shoutarou (有明 勝太郎)
Ariake's first name "Shoutarou" is most likely a reference to Junichiro Tanizaki's "Tojo" (途上). The protagonist is actually called "Katsutarou", which is another way of reading the kanji used to write Ariake's first name. This character has an ex-wife and a current wife, whose names are Fudeko and Kumako. This is only briefly mentioned at the end of Ariake's route, but his wives have the same names. In this novel, Katsutarou tries to kill his first wife Fudeko by purposely exposing her to dangerous situations that negatively impact her health, but he won't directly harm her to make her death look like an accident. The motive and the way he tries to kill her is different than what happens in Ooe, but I think it's definitely the inspiration behind this route. Another connection to Junichiro Tanizaki's works is the name of Ariake’s sister, who's called Naomi (奈緒美) which is a name that appears in “Chijin no Ai” (痴人の愛). Around this time the concept of “Naomiism” was born, which was used to describe a free-spirited devilish, beautiful girl. Sometimes it looks like this term was also used for girls who manipulate men, but it wasn't always used in a negative context. I'm curious if this concept was also used to create Ariake's character, as in of the official blog posts he's described as a "male femme fatale". I'm not sure if this is plot-related or not, but Ariake's ending song also has an audio clip from the play "Cyrano de Bergerac", which doesn't exactly have a happy ending either and both of the characters lose their lives.
Shimbashi Mei (新橋 冥)
When I looked for novels which focused on a character called "Mei", I couldn't find much initially, until I realized the kanji used to write his name is also the first kanji in the Japanese word for Pluto (冥王星), which is also the name of the theater company he works for. In his ending, Shinagawa even tells Oosaki that Shimbashi is Pluto, so it might also be his pseudonym. Pluto is also the cat that appears in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and even though the story isn't identical to what happened in his past, there are similar elements. For example, the cat in this story Pluto only has one eye, and while Shimbashi does have another eye, he usually hides it with an eyepatch. The unnamed protagonist also ends up killing the cat by hanging it, which is similar to how Shimbashi's brother used to kill animals. Later in the story, the protagonist adopts another cat who resembles Pluto, but because the new cat keeps reminding him of how he killed Pluto, he eventually loses his sanity and tries to kill the new cat as well, but ends up killing his own wife instead who tried to protect the cat. Despite the protagonist trying to hide her body, the police eventually finds her because the cat was trapped in the same wall where the protagonist tried to hide her body, and the sound of the animal scratching the wall gained their attention. Even though the story is a bit different, Shimbashi also got his revenge by murdering his brother, which he doesn't seem to regret much. Shimbashi's ending song is called ルドン (rudon) which is how you would write the name of French painter Odilon Redon in Japanese. The song also mentions his mentor Armand Clavaud, who was a botanist. Clavaud taught Redon many things about flowers, but also introduced him to Buddhism, which shows in Redon's later paintings too. The flowers are an important element in this route as Shimbashi's the person who was leaving flowers on the grave of Oosaki's grandmother, so maybe all of that is also intentional.
Aomi Kaede (青海 楓)
This is not necessarily about the name Kaede, but about Takuichi (卓一), Aomi's father who he's impersonating on the island. Takuichi is also the name of the protagonist of Koga Saburo's "Aofuku no Otoko" (青服の男) and his cousin is called Shinzo, who shares the same name as the student who committed suicide in the game, Shinonome Shinzo. In the novel the two of them schedule a meet-up to discuss money Takuichi wanted to borrow, but when he doesn't show up to the meeting, Shinzo later confronts him. In the middle of the confrontation however, Shinzo suffers from a heart attack and passes away. In Ooe their relationship is a bit different, as Takuichi and Shinzo are teacher and student, and Aomi's father passed away shortly after receiving the invitation letter. In the novel Takuichi is alive and impersonates Shinzo in order to get his own inheritance money, though the theme of impersonation is relevant in Ooe too as Aomi pretends to be his father. There's nobody called Kaede in this story, but in the game Aomi mentions his father called him Kaede because he thought his hands resembled a frog's webbed feet (kaeru = frog) so currently I'm unsure if there's any further connections. Aomi's ending song is called Taichourou (対潮楼) which is actually the name of a temple in Fukuyama, a city located in Hiroshima prefecture. I'm not sure if there's any specific reason for this, but it's not too far away from Ookunoshima (also known as bunny island because of its many rabbits), which is one of the locations that was used as inspiration for some of the background art in-game.
Funeno Kureichirou (船野呉一郎)
Hashihime fans might recognize this one as Kureichirou is also the name of one of the most important characters in Yumeno Kyuusaku's "Dogra Magra". Dogra Magra is not one of the easiest stories to understand, as the protagonist's memory is hazy and you never know if the researchers are telling him the truth either, but generally we know that Kureichirou seems to have murdered his cousin (who was also his fiancé). Funeno's crime is revealed at the end of the trial version of Ooe and he killed his sister. So far we haven't really seen much of Funeno in part 1 because he immediately acts strange when he sees Oosaki, probably because he has Daiba's letter and Oosaki introduced himself as "Daiba", so it's a bit hard to analyze his character yet or compare him to Dogra Magra's Kureichirou in my opinion.
Shiodome Michio (汐留 道雄)
Just like Funeno, Shiodome's first name was also revealed a long time before the trial version and part 1 of Ooe were released. It references Edogawa Ranpo's "Kotou no Oni" (孤島の鬼) which is not really a secret as it's one of the novels that was mentioned in one of the first blog posts about Ooe and its inspirations. Michio is one of the main characters, who's a gay man who falls in love with the main character Minoura. So far their personalities do not seem that similar, but Kotou no Oni's Michio is adopted by a man called Jogoro, which is also the first name of Shiodome's professor (Tsukishima Jogoro).
Takeshiba Yozo (竹芝 葉蔵)
This is one of the new names we learned about in part 1, but since Yozo isn't the most common name ever it's probably referencing Dazai Osamu's "No Longer Human/Ningen Shikkaku” (人間失格). Yozo (or ''Youzou'', it's hard to keep romanization consistent...) is the name of the protagonist. He's a troubled individual who can't relate to other human beings and doesn't understand them. At first he tries to hide these emotions by playing the clown so people laugh at him, but eventually he turns to alcohol and drugs. Takeshiba is a magician who quickly tries to change the topic when things get serious, which matches the theme of playing the clown, but we also know he gets nervous fast and he's also the character who committed some of the most brutal murders in the game so far. I think the story won't be exactly the same, but he definitely seems to share certain personality traits with the main character. He's accused of murdering his family by setting their family home on fire, though in the first part of the game he makes it seem like someone else did it, or if it was some kind of accident.
Shijoumae Giichirou (市場前 義一郎)
Maybe a bit of a wild guess because we don't really know the names of side characters that are related to Shijoumae's story yet, but his first name could be a reference to Akutagawa Ryunosuke's "Kaika no Satsujin" (開化の殺人) of which the protagonist shares the same name as him. This is a rather strange short story that focuses on a number of suicide notes, written by a doctor who's called Kitabatake Giichirou. He's often described as a man with a rather 'western' appearance because of his beard/moustache, which matches Shijoumae's character design. He was in love with his cousin Akiko (which I guess was not uncommon during this time period) and wanted to marry her, but she married another man called Mitsumura. In the book, Kitabatake was incredibly jealous of him and poisoned him. However, even after this first murder, his cousin started getting close to another man called Honda, who Kitabatake was also jealous of. Initially, he planned to poison him too, but in the end he decided against this and took his own life instead. We know that Shijoumae has a wife, but as we've seen in these previous novel references, the connections between the characters in the original novels often aren't identical to what happens in Ooe's story, which also makes it hard to predict what will happen in this route. Update after playing part 2 without spoiling anything: This is indeed correct! There's multiple other characters who are mentioned in part 2, such as his wife Akiko (who the character in the novel never ends up marrying).
Toyosu Rouren (豊洲 浪蓮)
I was a bit confused when I heard the pronunciation of his name in-game, as it sounded a bit unusual to me, though many fans so far have pointed out that the name sounds similar to ''Lawrence/ローレンス'' who's the antagonist in Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" which is the novel that gets mentioned in-game too. In the novel Lawrence fakes his own death, which reminds me of the boat scene in Ariake's route in which Toyosu drowned, but the whole scene seemed rather sudden to me. For example, he tries to convince the others that nobody else should join him, and the food at the inn also disappeared around this time. After finishing Aomi's route, we know he's lying about his real identity too because no matter what temple they visit, there's no monk with his name, and other characters also suspect him of being the client. In the common route he's also the character who the client supposedly sent to the island to hold the ceremony on their behalf, if I remember correctly.
Daiba Shizuma (台場 静馬)
Another name we've known for a long time is Daiba's first name Shizuma, which is a reference to Yokomizo Seishi's "The Inugami Family/Inugami-ke no Ichizoku" (犬神家の一族). This is another story about impersonation which fits the main theme of Oosaki pretending to be Daiba on the island. There are actually multiple characters in this novel who share the same names as some of the Ooe characters, such as Sukekiyo (佐清) the name of Daiba’s brother who passed away in the boat accident, and Sahei (佐兵衛), Daiba's father Oosaki meets in the common route. The connections between characters in this story get very complicated, but Sahei is the head of the Inugami family who has an illegitimate son called Shizuma, who went missing. He also has a grandson called Sukekiyo, who was disfigured on the battlefield. Similar to Ooe, the story starts with Sahei's death, though in the novel he leaves a suicide note and in Ooe he seems to die rather suddenly after talking to Oosaki (if he wasn't dead already, that whole scene is strange…). In the novel, it's revealed that Sukekiyo actually passed away some time ago and Shizuma has been pretending to be him. There are also some other shared elements, such as the Shizuma in the novel trying to take revenge for what happened to his mother, and in the game Daiba takes his mother's last name "Hama", and expresses that he doesn't like the Daiba family.
Side characters
I haven't looked much into the side characters, but I assume their first names are also references to something. The names of Shinkiba and Shinagawa (Jinza 甚三 and Zakuro 柘榴 ) could be referring to some of the side characters from some of Edogawa Ranpo's works, as there's a short story called ''Zakuro'' (石榴) and there's also a "Jinza" in the novel Ghost Tower (幽霊塔), but I can't exactly find any connections between them and the Ooe characters. For Oosaki I'm guessing his name could also be something related to the Inugami Family too because it is a bit suspicious that he looks almost identical to Daiba, I think they have to be related to each other in some way.
Other literature references
In a previous blog post I wrote in 2022, I mentioned that when Ooe was announced, one of the official blog posts also mentioned works that inspired them to create Ooe. I will include those in this blog post again as the previous one is a bit outdated now.
Of course the main inspiration is Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, as it follows a similar closed-circle murder mystery story on an island. In Ariake's first ending, Oosaki even compares some of the characters in the novel to characters in the game, calling himself Vera for example who murdered for love. Another important connection is that the owner of the island in this novel calls themselves "U.N. Owen", a fake name which basically just stands for ''unknown''. This of course sounds very similar to "Ooe" and the game's official alias is also "Owen" according to the official website. The actress who passed away is called "An Ooe", which also sounds a bit similar to "unknown".
Previously, I mentioned that Shiodome's first name Michio is a reference to Edogawa Ranpo's "Kotou no Oni", another novel that focuses on a murder mystery story, this time about the death of the protagonist's fiancé. As the title of the novel suggests (which translates to "Demon of the Lonely Isle") they also travel to an island, though this one is inhabited by people who all have some kind of deformity. Of course most of the characters in Ooe look pretty normal, but if you've played part 1 you've probably noticed how many characters either suffer from an illness or were born with some kind of physical abnormality, although sometimes it's not really severe. Ariake's has a thyroid disease (Grave's Disease according to his character profile in-game), Shimbashi has strabismus (misalignment of his eyes) and Aomi has webbed fingers which his father made fun of. If we look at the other characters, there is of course Hinode who won't talk and also seems to have difficulty walking, though the reason for this has not been explained yet in-detail. In the full body art, Shijoumae is also drawn with a cane, which might also be linked to something related to his health, but I'm not completely sure about some of the other characters yet.
The same blog post also mentions three incidents which happened in real life, but which all have novel adaptations as well, with the first one being the "Anatahan Incident", or also called the "Queen of Anatahan Incident" (アナタハンの女王事件). This incident focuses on a number of deaths that happened on Anatahan Island, located in the Pacific Ocean. The island became Japanese territory after the First World War and Japanese settlers began living on the island together with natives. Years later near the end of the Second World War, most locals fled after the American military called for Japan's surrender during the war. During this time, some refused to surrender and stayed on the island. Initially, the Japanese people who refused to leave the island were left alone, but things changed when a U.S. Boeing crashed into the island and guns were found inside of the wreckage. Afterwards, these guns became a symbol of power among men on the island, and some of them would kill each over the only woman on the island, Kazuko. After this, it was reported that more men died under "mysterious circumstances", and eventually Kazuko surrendered herself to the U.S. military, as she felt like she was the root of all the problems on the island. Writer Iwasaki Sakae also released a novel based on these incidents, which is just called "Anatahan".
The second incident mentioned is the "Hikarigoke Incident" (ひかりごけ事件), and translates to "Luminous Moss Incident", though the name comes from Takeda Taijun's short story which is based on this incident. The short story is actually just based on rumors rather than factual reports, so there are some differences. The real incident is rather graphic and took place in 1944 in Hokkaido. It was reported that after ending up in a shipwreck, the captain of the ship survived by eating the corpses of his own crew. The captain was later arrested on charges of corpse mutilation, corpse abandonment and murder. Even though he said he didn't kill them, he did admit eating them. This case stood out back then because even though cannibalism had undoubtedly happened before in Japanese history, it was the first time such a case was reported by the newspapers. If we want to link this to what happened in the game, there's of course Shiodome who was accused of corpse mutilation. He also took Funeno's head in the first route, and in this case the captain admitted that he ate the brains of one of the crew members (... as well as their genitalia, so do with that information what you want).
The final incident mentioned in this blog post was the "Mount Hakkoda Disaster" or "Mount Hakkoda Snow Disaster" (八甲田雪中行軍遭難事件) which happened in 1902 when a group of Japanese Imperial Army soldiers got lost in a blizzard on Hakkoda Mountain, located in Aomori. This incident is considered one of the most lethal disasters in history and 199 people lost their lives. After getting stuck in the blizzard, during the next days many soldiers would freeze to death, while others fell down the cliffs during their ascent. This incident also has a novel which translates to "Death Wanderings on Mt. Hakkoda" (八甲田山死の彷徨) by Nitta Jiro, which was also made into a movie "Hakkoda Mountain". Of course, Ooe's story is about an island and not a mountain, but I do understand the similarities about getting stuck somewhere and being unable to leave.
Final theories and thoughts
Right now I am mostly curious about Daiba because I want to know why exactly he made Oosaki travel to the island. At the end of the game, you also unlock a teaser for part 2 which includes a preview of Daiba, so he has to be the final route right? There's of course some other things I'm curious about, like how many characters have the same blood type, share similar physical traits, and how many of them have family members who are originally from Ooejima, so I think there's definitely some shared past they have yet to discover. I've also been wondering why the side characters all have black eyes and the main characters have red eyes, as eye color was a pretty important theme in Hashihime and Uuultra C. Maybe it has something to do with their connections to Ooejima? I think they definitely have some shared past we don't know much about.
At some point BL game magazine Cool-B also published a so called "madness scale" which ranked the characters from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the worst) which could give us some hints about what these characters will be like in their own routes. Aomi and Toyosu are ranked 1, Shimbashi and Funeno 2, Hinode is the only one who's a 3, Takeshiba is 4, and Ariake, Shiodome and Shijoumae all got a 5. If Toyosu really is the mastermind then maybe he didn't ''technically'' kill anyone like Aomi, but I'm not sure if that's the real plot twist because maybe it would be too easy to guess. I also wonder how Takeshiba is a 4 and not a 5, because we know he committed most of the murders in the game so far, and they were pretty brutal. Oosaki and Daiba both aren't included in this list, so I can't say much about them.
Lastly, the letters you unlock in-game are also really interesting to me, I wonder if it was Ooe An who wrote some of these? One of the letters mentions a sister, a lake villa and a boat, so could it be that her sister married into the Daiba family? I think there will definitely be some kind of connection between the characters, though we know so little about her there's not much else I can think of right now. I'm really looking forward to part 2, and it's also interesting to read everyone else's theories about the game so far! I can't believe I've been writing about this game for about 3 years now and slowly we're finally learning more about the story and its characters.
Here's a list of my previous blog posts about Ooe! Though I haven't looked at these for some time now so some might be outdated...
Translation of Adelta Interview with Chiru Chiru [No Spoilers]
The first part introduction part is omitted, only translated second part Link
There might be mistranslation, typo or any mistakes.
Feel free to point out any mistake or ask any question if unclear
The article says it is interview with "Adelta", but I'd be using both plural and singular pronoun to what is fitting imo
[START]
Q. What has inspired you to create this work?
A. We have always enjoyed mystery theme and even in our previous works, uncovering the mystery has always been a part of it. Player's message toward the culprits were surprisingly gentle, making us convinced about the compatibility of mystery game and romance game.
This series' romance options are all culprit. "How to face your loved one's sin" is a question toward players and in a broad sense a mystery as well.
Q. Due to everyone being the culprit, all the romance options are all very unique. It seems quite difficult to create a story involving everyone. Was there a character who was the axis?
A. Romance option, Ariake's profile was used as the center in making the story as we build the world.
Q. So it was not protagonist Oosaki but Ariake. By knowing that seems to create a perspective to enjoy the story.
A. Ariake is good-natured assistant but his crime should the most relatable and close by, so it is a sensitive topic. Please go through the 12 routes and observe Ariake from different point of view, going from lovers, victim, friend and even as a stranger.
Q. Ariake is in the center of the plot but in the end the protagonist is Oosaki. And the story will be proceeding with him as "sou-seme", is there any thoughts put into it?
A. The differences between the seme and uke is the right to make the final decision. A nobody who was hiding in his shell, eventually starts yearning for people impulsively. Please sense his love seeing how he switch to dominant side.
Q. While it was the romance options who became the trigger for him to change, it was Oosaki himself who chose to change. In a sense, the result of changes that occurred from couple's first task together (1) definitely shows love.
A. Since the game is in first person perspective, we'd like players to focus on the differences in the text; the changes in the writing for his feelings and sceneries after he started falling for someone.
(1) T/n: 共同作業 is used here, which means the joint work literally but it is used referred to the cake cutting during the wedding ceremony
Q. The world written in Oosaki's perspective contains of retro Showa atmosphere and sentimental summer atmosphere mixing together, which is extremely charming. When creating this world view, what point did you put into attention?
A. The experience to walk alone under the scorching summer heat. The experience of staring blankly at the hot asphalt ground. The experience of coming up with a poem when hearing the cicadas chirring in unison. Things that were most likely experienced by majority of the people were outlined to encourage synchronicity toward protagonist, Oosaki.
Q. Synchronicity, I think I can understand. Starting from the train scene was like taking us to the world of this series, making me feel excited. In my opinion, one of the charm of this series "Thrilling Scenario", was enhanced in the same way.
A. Scenario is to merge the player into the main character, then eventually detachment between the two was the objective.
Players after completing a route will see the motive behind each character and will be able to imagine the next move. However, of course the main character will not notice those intentions. Watching the main character jumping into the danger should be terrifying for the player, which is the intention.
Q. So the ominous feeling I sensed while playing the game was resulted from in return of knowing everything.
A. When you are on a stroll with a big dog on leash but it strayed from the correct walking route. That kind of exhaustion.
Q. Is there any other point where you'd go "Please focus on this part!"?
A. I was very particular in depiction of every character's emotions. Filthy sides that wouldn't normally be part of romance game were also thoroughly included, will the players be able to love them after seeing those side?
Words that slipped out of their mouth due to being pushed to extreme conditions and the black humors are the character's true value. I think if one is to find charm in them and love them wholeheartedly, then they are truly fortunate to encounter such players.
Q. Last question, there is a lot of theories regarding the title, "Ooe". What was the meaning behind choosing this name?
A. I took inspiration from various masterpiece, and aimed to convey that it is a horror series simply by words alone. There is a lot of words to can relate to "穢", and how people feels would vary as well.
Rather than pointing toward something specifically, I aimed to create a title that stimulates the painful sense of guilt, immorality, disgust and regret that each individual would feel. For those who felt a tingle, I'd want them to come across the game.
Akira goes through a lot of character development. He starts off as cold and apathetic throughout the game, and he transforms from an uncaring loner to an actual human being.
Akira’s character development mirrors Nano in the game, Nano starts off at emotionless and apathetic but transforms into a human being thanks to Akira.
One thing that Akira’s character development point out its that their foils not in blood, character design (both designed with transparency in mind by the artist) but also in character development.
Keisuke is the catalyst for Akira’s growth, even when you pursues other LI. Keisuke is the driving force behind Akira’s character development. Losing Keisuke is what sparks Akira’s change of heart, whether that is for better or worse, and his desire to save him is what drives his actions
Akira goes through a lot of character development. He starts off as cold and apathetic throughout the game, and he transforms from an uncaring loner to an actual human being.
I’m currently writing a Nano/Akira fic and it occurs to me that I need to explain to everyone what’s really going on with Nano’s knife and its mysterious inscription that appears on so much iconic TnC merch. I was planning to write a brief summary in the author’s notes, but I wanted to go into a little more detail here, since I thought some of you might be curious.
4 years after its announcement Ooe has finally been released. Having played all of Adelta’s a previous works, I have been following and waiting for the game since day 1. Closed murder detective stories are one of my favourite things, sprinkle a bit of horror into it and you will have me on the edge. From all the Adelta work this one has intrigued me the most. So finally, after so long we are presented: Ooe
Warning: 18+ Spoiler, CG Spoiler and more Spoiler
Description
A commemoration for the second anniversary of an actress’s death is being held on Ooejima, a remote island beyond Hachijoujima, south of Tokyo. Oosaki, a detective, receives a request to attend the ceremony on someone’s behalf.
However, the ship meant to bring them back fails to show up at the appointed hour, no one has heard a thing from the coordinator of the event, and there seems to be an inexplicable fear and hatred between all of the attendees.
Stranded on an ominous island, ten people try to unravel the mystery of the threads weaving their past and the death of the actress named An Ooe.
An unconventional mystery set in the Showa era with a Japanese twist on the classic closed circle literary device.
It is the year 1955, mid-showa period. An era characterised by chaotic sentiments, with traces of war still visible. The attendees, accompanied by doubts and their devotion to An Ooe, come to the memorial service in an abandoned village. They manage to overcome the barriers of status and spend their time in harmony. However, the situation changes when the servant who helped them until then is found dead. Driven by extreme suspicion, they start to search for the murderer, but this is followed by a second and third crime...
Story
I’m extremely impressed with the game. The story isn’t dropped at you at once but slowly reveals itself to you as you pass through the routes. I was worried that everything would be revealed in the first route like in hashihime (which I didn’t like) or that would be too rushed and confussing (like in uuultraC), but here the pacing of the game is slow, and you learn more and more about the game and its characters. Even if some routes were shorter than others, I never had the feeling that the pacing was off, it always felt well developed. There is also no “true ending” in this game, instead you find out the mystery behind the client and their motives as well as the death of the actress, through the different routes.
The “climax” of the story, in my opinion is a few routes before the end, but the routes after it didn’t feel like they were useless, instead they were there to bind the last loose threads to the story. Which led me to have a satisfying feeling once I finished the game.
The game has 10 routes with one character having two endings and one character having two routes, so technically 12 routes? I think Kurosawa did extremely well with the writing this time, which really surprised me. (I’m critical of her because even if her writing style is beautiful her content is sometimes questionable, to say the least) Another point I really liked is how different each route was, completely different, some routes were going more into the classic detective way, some were straight up comedy, some were really emotional and some were just straight up crack, it kept me really engaged and always made me look forward to the next. The extras in this game also are important since one story line will only get solved in them and you will learn more information about all the murder and other incidence that happened in the game in them. Another thing I really liked is how, although the story is told from Oosaki’s pov, the writing is very neutral, and doesn’t make a lot of judgement, this made it feel like a third-person pov in a way, and let you have a more open-minded approach on the game.
Story
I’m extremely impressed with the game. The story isn’t dropped at you at once but slowly reveals itself to you as you pass through the routes. I was worried that everything would be revealed in the first route like in hashihime (which I didn’t like) or that would be too rushed and confussing (like in uuultraC), but here the pacing of the game is slow, and you learn more and more about the game and its characters. Even if some routes were shorter than others, I never had the feeling that the pacing was off, it always felt well developed. There is also no “true ending” in this game, instead you find out the mystery behind the client and their motives as well as the death of the actress, through the different routes.
The “climax” of the story, in my opinion is a few routes before the end, but the routes after it didn’t feel like they were useless, instead they were there to bind the last loose threads to the story. Which led me to have a satisfying feeling once I finished the game.
The game has 10 routes with one character having two endings and one character having two routes, so technically 12 routes? I think Kurosawa did extremely well with the writing this time, which really surprised me. (I’m critical of her because even if her writing style is beautiful her content is sometimes questionable, to say the least) Another point I really liked is how different each route was, completely different, some routes were going more into the classic detective way, some were straight up comedy, some were really emotional and some were just straight up crack, it kept me really engaged and always made me look forward to the next. The extras in this game also are important since one story line will only get solved in them and you will learn more information about all the murder and other incidence that happened in the game in them. Another thing I really liked is how, although the story is told from Oosaki’s pov, the writing is very neutral, and doesn’t make a lot of judgement, this made it feel like a third-person pov in a way.
Character
Ariake
Let’s talk about the worst part about this game. I fucking hated everything about Ariake, he is annoying, his wanna be cute attitude was shit, he only gave a shit about himself and Oosaki, but only if Oosaki was paying him attention. When the characters were first released back in 2021 I experienced something called “hate at first sight” with Ariake. Something about his face pissed me off so I never was a fan, but usually I try to be open-minded when going into a game, I went in without any expectations….and got the worst. From the beginning Oosaki is falling for Ariakes fake play, and thinking Ariake is the weak and he had to protect him, when in reality Ariake had being pretending the whole time, manipulating Oosaki to break him. Which ends in total disaster for Oosaki’s mental health and ends with him becoming a killer and a terrible person himself. From the beginning on I knew Ariake was fake, I knew his arm wasn’t broken and I knew he killed his wife, but because of my kindly opened minded nature I put all my hate biased to the side, but I’M AN IDIOT I SHOULD HAVE BELIEVE IN MY GUT FEELING. Fuuuuu- I hated everything about him and his stupid ass ending. Manipulative bastard with no charm. What made me even more annoying is how Oosaki (stupid idiot) always fell for his fake play even in other routes, uuugh. I played the whole game with a friend and when we finished the first the route we both wanted to jump out the window, honestly a first route impression that couldn’t have been worse. The H-scene was the most uncomfortable experience of my game career, the whole “Ariake is fake” reveal, right before it made me want to end myself. Don’t think I have ever thrown so many insults at a love interest and Kurosawa…. And her obvious bias towards him isn’t helping AAAAAAHHHHH I HATE THIS. BUT at least he was the first route so I moved on fast and enjoyed the rest of the game, though tbh after this route I had to take a mental break from this game.
And now let’s talk about my unbiased opinion. Generally, I thought the routes was the weakest, it takes a pretty long while until you get out the common route and then it just drags on with not a lot of things happening, beside a bit Oosaki lore before it escalated with this ass ending. This ending itself also did a great harm on my liking for Oosaki who I really enjoyed until till then, but suddenly he became a cold killer, murdering innocent people because of a stupid lie and in my eyes, he became the type of cold seme I hated.
If you see the route as a what it is, a disturbing psychological horror, it’s not bad but I still wouldn’t say it was good, it’s giving edgy twitter user energy. Also, the A end? Stupid fake pretentious happy ending. From the extra you learn that they even try to commit suicide together in this end, so basically the route, no matter if A or B end has no happy end. Oosaki just wants to die, and it hurt my heart seeing him be so miserable and even more broken than in the beginning. Idk why I even should care or like this pairing??? The worst impression you can even get from the first route. Lmao eww. Ariake worst Adelta character for real.
Shinbashi
After the shit that went down in the first route I was almost too scared to continue but lucky the following route went way better. The first routes sucks, because it makes you think Shinbashi is an asshole (well he kinda is lmao) and the enemy, but in reality he has been telling the truth all along. This route had me packed from the beginning, once the choice for his route shows up your start spending all the time with Shinbashi, and boy this man is hilarious. I thought his weird way of speaking keigo is fake but apparently it’s how he really speaks. If you can understand even a bit of Japanese you will notice how he mixes keigo (super polite language) with insulting words, creating this completely sassy language, with banger lines.
Shinbashi has serious trust issues, so it was nice seeing him slowly beginning to trust Oosaki (kinda) to the point of even saving him from drowning. Non- pairing related things I liked about this route, Aomi and Takeshiba play hide and seek ghost version lmao (I saw right through it) , Takeshiba stabbing Shijoumae (hell yeah go my boy), and Hinode jumping into the sea had my mouth on the floor. I’m generally a fan of brutal murder so I had a good time with this route lmao. I thought the final scene was sooo good with Oosaki exposing Shinbashi as a murder and then going straight to the confession, omg my heart, the emotion hit so good (especially after the last route). I fully expected Shinbashi to be homophobic but nope, man literally took Oosaki’s confession as a marriage proposal LMAO, in fact there is not even a hint of homophobia in this game and I’m living for it. The fact that Shinbashi was inspired by a cat and is a cat freak is so funny, he is literally a meow meow. (Also, the fact that he killed his brother because he killed his cat? Relatable, fully acceptable would have done the same sir, my honor he is innocent). So yeah, I enjoyed his route very much, the only bad thing about this route is that Ariake is still alive.
Aomi
The purest, holiest character in this game. A tragic character who absolutely did nothing wrong and is blaming himself for some reason. Aomi is one of my absolute favourite characters, it’s a pleasure (especially for the eyes) every time he is on screen, I really love the soft gentle way he speaks. Even if he only says the most necessary, you can easily tell how much he cares. His route is very bittersweet and very emotional, and the final scene really reflected that, with his Hscene being very emotion driven.
Compared two the first routes, where Oosaki takes on the detective role, in this one he takes on the role of the apparent killer, which was a nice twist, but also leads to the most unfortunate incident and one of few “whoops” moments of Oosaki: The rape scene. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised since we already saw that he could do terrible things previous route, so I didn’t think it was OOC of him but that didn’t make it any better. Especially since he is attacking an innocent person, but I’m at least glad that A. its wasn’t shown in CG (which would have made it very sexualized) and B. that he seems to truly regret it, judging by his immediate after-reaction and thoughts during the hscene.
This is one of the routes that left me longing for more. I want to see how these two will grow together and if Oosaki can help Aomi to overcome his self-blaming. To be honest, I do like, that Oosaki has to work for Aomi’s love after all the things that happened, I feel like he should work more for it but in the end, I wish both of them happiness.
Shiodome
A killer, a psycho and a cannibal, and yet I fell for his charm. You can see the madness in Shiodome’s face but something about him just makes you like him. Who am I kidding he is CUTE as hell. Despite him being crazy and kind of scary, scenes with him were the most fun, since he acts extremely unpredictable, it’s hard to tell what he will do next. Despite everything else he is a very smart kid, and I could sit all day and listen to him talk. He is loud, can’t sit quietly and makes chaos, but he is like a cute pet monkey you can’t help but want to pet. There are also some scenes where he is very supportive of other characters, and I really liked that.
He had a very sad childhood so I can understand where his personality comes from, that’s why I think he just needs more love. He has two routes: A and B.
You have to play B first and that route is terrifying to say the least. It jumps into completely madness (which is not surprised consider how he is a 5 on the madness scale) with everyone going crazy and killing each other beside Oosaki and Shiodome, who actually eats his eye and and ear…..k. Oosaki also completely cuts off his family and job in this end, which was painful to see at and tries to fill his loneliness with Shiodomes. This end has the same psychological horror aspect as Ariake’s route and has no real happy end. It was just as uncomfortable, and I seriously felt like vomiting. You can’t even enjoy the H-scene because it keeps showing you a flashback of Oosaki fighting his cute kohai and his dad. From a romance perspective shit as hell, from a horror perspective a masterpiece. Not sure if you’re even supposed to ship this pairing because everything is trying to make your experience as uncomfortable as possible. But unlike Ariakes route, Shiodome and Oosaki felt both like victims of their own delusions here so despite this outcome I have no hate for them as characters. That beside emo white hair Oosaki looked horrendous, and I cringed every time he was shown on screen. Also, Ariake died so 10/10 route. 👍
Ending A. Is a rather short route and starts right after Funeno’s death. With Oosaki trying to repair the phone and taking Shiodome with him to keep him awake during the night. There isn’t much going on beside Shiodome trying to escape and Oosaki catching him again in 0.1 seconds and then spending the rest of the time sitting ON him so he can’t escape again lol, stupid whore Ariake joining in for a few minutes, and then the reveal with Toyosu (which was a good transition for his own route). Shiodome being crazy enough to get stabbed to save Oosaki (unexpected but I take it). Shiodome gets jailed for 3 years because he still killed Funeno in this route (I’m surprised it was only 3 years?) I had games before where the LI was put in a mental hospital but jail is new lmao. I’m super biased towards Shiodome so I’m happy that he was released only after 3 years, and my god is the ending CUTE. Oosaki buying them a house?? BEST LOVER Shinagawa being super pissed but Shiodome still trying to make friends with him was so funny. And Shiodome asking if Oosaki can accept him the way he is and if he can be a good wife?? ADORABLE I NEED 10 OF THOSE The only sad thing is that they didn’t have a good end H-scene but *cough I’m hoping for continuation cough* Also Shiodome is the only 5 who got a real happy end, and I appreciate that, he may be crazy, but he really deserves it. ❤️
Takeshiba
Obviously, I have been biased towards Takeshiba from the start because A. Kansai-ben and B. sexy hair. The japanese fandom says he is the “ichiban eroi” (most erotic) and I have to agree with that lol. With Takeshiba being a 4 (that 1 missing point keeping him from a 5 is keeping him sane) I thought his route would also go the madness way, but surprisingly we got a comedy route in the first part of it, with the whole gang (except Funeno who is dead and Shiodome who is in bath jail again) playing silly games. Seeing adult man fight over a stupid card game and playing the rock-paper-scissors game: newspaper edition was hilarious. Oosaki’s dialogue was so smooth during the game, I’m sure he made several men fall for him (judging by shinbashis blush lmao). Seeing Ariake suffering was good for my soul. How much of a piece of shit do you have to be to call someone a pedo for holding onto a child during a simple game? I hope he drowns. But at least he fucked off later when Oosaki asked him for his cooperation. Back to Takeshiba, the scene on the boat was my fav when Takeshiba revealed his evil intentions and tried to stab Oosaki but instead got pinned down in seconds LMAO what a stupid and pathetic man (I’m so in love with him). There were so many cute cgs in this route (Takeshiba on the boat, him hugging Hinode, Oosaki carrying Takeshiba piggyback style). Takeshiba having a child reveal was very unexpected, but fucking cute? We need more LI with children in my opinon (too bad he couldn’t keep her in the end😭 ) The whole end scene with them having dinner together, Takeshiba getting drunk and Oosaki carrying him while Takeshiba tells him basically his whole life story and then later at the love hotel-inn was super cute and super hot??? Hello? Damn Kurosawa improved on those H-scenes. I honestly didn’t expect Takeshiba to be so lewd (and I’m sure not complaining), the Oosaki dick lore was too much for my taste though lmao. I can’t believe the whole route can be summarised with Takeshiba looking at Oosaki’s dick and thinking “This can fix me” LMAO.
No, no I’m joking but for real, it was unexpected. Takeshiba is so mean playing with Oosaki’s feeling, but come one man, you aren’t old stop talking like Oosaki is having sexual intercourse with an old geezer, this ain’t Shijoumae. Despite that, (I’m usually not into the jealous type), but Oosaki being jealous is surely a treat. It felt like Takeshiba couldn’t even imagine Oosaki liking a pathetic middle-aged man, and I want to see what will happen if Oosaki were to confess to him, I can imagine them actually becoming a couple (wishful thinking, but come on this is BL after all I don’t need women in this) I also hope to see a continuation of their story, because Takeshiba deserves the love.
The whole end was so cute I watched it like a teenage girl reading a romance novel. This route was my unbiased favourite one, and they are definitely one of my favourite pairings of the game, which I didn’t expect at all but it was just so good, and as much as I enjoy madness, wholesome and funny endings will always be my favourite. And honestly after reading the extras I think Takeshiba did the right thing by killing his family, he even blocked all escape routes, truly vile (I just love him so much) and that he deep down is a good boy ❤️. Also, the fact that he is a christian was the second biggest shock for me in this game.
Shijoumae
Never liked Shijoumae and even after finishing the game I can’t say I do now, I don’t hate him, he had some funny scenes but he is totally not my taste. I’m glad he is not a real LI but just an ending. I’m fully supporting him killing Ariake but Hinode? A CHILD???? How heartless can you be? And it pisses me off that he didn’t get a punishment for all the murder he committed so I fully support Oosaki raping him, he deserved it. (Destroying his pride but not staining his hand with murder, still better than Ariake’s end) Oosaki was so pitiful in this route, he tried to commit suicide twice…. Only to be saved by Shizuma the second time 😭 (More about this later). What pissed me off the most in this route is that he apparently OUTLIVES OOSAKI WHAT, HE IS 62 HOW? Also, man has the hottest wife in the universe, and he doesn’t lay his hand on her???? What a fucking loser. I hope his wife has her own personal harem. But once again, the writing was impressive, and Ariake died so 10/10 immediately.
Toyosu
Toyusu is my other non-biased favourite route. He is one of the two non-romance route and I’m honestly glad he is not romanceable (his hips wouldn’t survive Oosaki’s giant dick). His route starts with Hinode dying? What? Yeah, actually I noticed very fast something was off there because usually when characters die in this game their corpses are shown as a silhouette, which wasn’t the case here. Later Toyosu also “dies” in his own route lol. Obviously, he isn’t dead, and he was just pretending to be killed just like Hinode because he has been the client all along (and not only him), at this point I wasn’t surprised since it was already more or less clear from Shiodome’s A ending (He knew Aomi’s real first name) Toyosu was actually just pretending to be a monk, in reality he was a doctor. But I honestly thought the reveal was done well and even if I didn’t like Toyosu in the beginning I did end up liking him a lot. He is really sweet after all and how can I hate someone who took care of a child. This is the route we finally learn about Oosaki’s first name, and the reveal was done so well. Even if there was no pairing in this route, I thought the scene in the end with Oosaki visiting Toyosu, the scene with the fireworks and the Oosaki asking him not to die was so beautiful and emotional, and most important OOSAKI SMILED FOR THE FIRST TIME. The last scene with Oosaki calling his dad in the end and telling him he loves him had me in tears (If you play this with MTL you won’t notice but when his dad tells him he loves him and Oosaki says it back, his name tag changes to “Hiiro”, such a small but cute detail). Nothing in this game could make me cry, but the moment Oosaki’s dad shows up, I’m in tears. The relationship between them is just so cute, it left me emotional every single time. I’m really sad Toyosu dies a few months after the story but not like you can do anything about it since he is already at the end of his life.
Hinode
Three word. Too. Much. Ariake. FUCK. The first 2h of this game could be called Ariake route part 2 for real. And I don’t even know what the point of him being there was because in the end it didn’t even connect to anything and was just useless time spending. Kurosawa forcing her favourite whore into our faces again (kill me). We played this route with four people and there was constant groaning every time Ariake showed up. Anyway, I felt like the route needed more Hinode…. Yeah, in the first few hours Oosaki doesn’t even spend time with him. And once he does the route suddenly ends….uhm okay.
Technically Hinode is not a Love Interest, and he has no H-scene OBVISOULY HE IS 14, please. I was so worried over it, but I’m glad Kurosawa stayed sane here hahaha. So, in this route we learn that Hinode is also part of the ”client” and that he came to the island to revenge his mother who vanished and apparently An Ooe’s murderer is one of the attendees, and that the whole murder of this An is the reason why his mother vanished or something. Ariake, being the human waste, he is set Hinode up against Shiodome for some reason and Oosaki rushes to save them only to find Hinode having shot Shiodome (I swear despite Shiodome being a 5 he is constantly a victim, he even dies accidently in Toyosu’s route, give this child a break please).
And then he tries to shot Oosaki too, but right on time SHIZUMA SHOWS UP AND SAVE HIM 😭😭 He also takes Shiodome to the Hachijoujima per boat so he can get treated. Once they all back again there is also a show down with Shizuma and Hinode who tells Hinode he played around with An and dumped her, so she killed herself (which is obviously a lie) but it’s enough to direct all of Hinode’s anger at himself. Anywayyyy.. The routes end with Oosaki suddenly becoming a dad- as in he takes over as Hinode’s caretaker, since he used to live with Toyosu and Toyosu is now in jail. And so, the days of dad Oosaki, his angry son Hinode and his deeply hatred for Shizuma begins. Hinode even writes a plan on the many ways he tries to kill Shizuma HAHAHAHA look at this small baby killer, oh he is so cute.
Also to never miss a chance on hating more on Ariake 👆 Oosaki asks Ariake to help him to buy some clothes for Hinode because he has no idea how to and ARIAKE JUST DUMPS HIM AND FUCKS OFF, HOW CAN YOU BE SUCH A BITCH TOWARDS A CHILD I’M- I don’t even know I hated him already before but after this scene I was just done forever with him. How can such a shitty as character even exist??? Like EVER OTHER CHARACTER HAS THEIR CHARM POINT only Ariake is human waste beyond return. I’m burning with hatred.
Anyways, yes Hinode. I thought Hinode was super cute (maybe because I love children), he was surprisingly strong minded and competitive, and I really liked that about him. He acted accordingly for his age but not like a brat or anything. In the beginning I was worried over his anger but it turned out to be such a minor thing so I don’t mind. Rather I think it makes him even cuter hahaha. His mom was some psycho who raised him like a girl, for some reason and he doesn’t speak, like at all, due to trauma. I’m sad we never got to hear him speak in the end but I hope he learns to speak again (and we get to hear it someday) And talking about the future, despite Hinode not being a LI in the route, if you read the extras you will learn that once Hinode turns 22 he and Oosaki will actually start dating, so he is basically a future LI for Oosaki. Not sure how I feel about it since Oosaki is basically a father figure for him now, but I’m open minded so I wouldn’t mind listening to this story, Kurosawa. 🙏
Funeno
Funeno’s route was-
It felt like a fucking fever dream. AND IT STARTED OUT SO NORMAL. Obviously Funeno doesn’t die here. Everything goes well after the ceremony they have dinner and the next day they go back to the port, where the boat doesn’t show up obviously but this time Funeno is here and he actually remembers the boat he has and carries it over to the beach so they can escape. They decide that Funeno and Takeshiba should make the ride back, but obviously the plan doesn’t work out and they start fight on the boat causing it to sink and for them being washed up on Ooejima again. Oh, and I also forgot to mention that Shiodome went missing the day before. Now, their next plan is to use the phone, but it turns out the phone had been broken, and all eyes immediately land on Funeno, because he was the last one to go back to get the boat. So, they basically tie him up and take on the job to torture him (like wtf) Takeshiba is a pretty much an ass to Funeno and Ariake also shows his true colours, shocking Oosaki (seriously my boy, it’s so obvious how can you be so blind?), they also look for Shiodome but can’t find him. After they basically strip Funeno (what kind of torture is this?), Funeno confesses that he killed Shiodome accidently after Shiodome tried to threaten him with the red letter and left his corpse in the forest. Oosaki, who is the only one believing in Funeno is innocence, smells that something isn’t right and goes to investigate with Ariake tagging along (ugh). They end up in the warehouse where, apparently Shiodomes things are being stored at, but suddenly they get locked up and a hand reaches from the upper window and set the warehouse on fire. So as they are about to turn crispy, Oosaki remembers that they can survive buy throwing all the burning things into one corner (I think the warehouse is made out of stone? But idk if this would actually work in real life lmao.)
Anyway, the plan works put and they don’t burn to crisp but still get injured, and the next morning they get freed. Oosaki is badly wounded and Shijoumae treats his injury, but due to them he basically has to walk around shirtless and only has his jacked draped over his shoulders AND THIS IS WHEN HELL BREAKS LOSE. It all starts as Oosaki walking along the inn and meeting Ariake. Suddenly Ariake gets extra flirty and first basically hugs Oosaki and then HE PULLS DOWN HIS PANTS AND GIVES HIM A BJ WHAT (we were pretty annoyed to be honest because it was going into another Ariake route 2 way) Oosaki is super confused too and just tires to escape lmao, so then he meets Shinbashi and tries to talk to him about the Funeno thing and how they need to find the true culprit since Funeno wasn’t the one, who tried to burn them to crisp and while he does so Shinbashi just keep blushing for some reason, and you may thing he is blushing because Oosaki is standing in front of him shirtless and yes he does look hot
(👀)
but then then Shinbashi calls him a weirdo and a pervert and we learn what the actual problem is Oosaki’s little Oosaki has developed his own life, yes he has an erection. Shinbashi completely freaks out, Oosaki on the other hand is calm and says that it’s just a physical reaction and he should ignore that (Oosaki is the only man who doesn’t think with his dick and has full control over his desire, really impressive). Shinbashi of course doesn’t do that, instead he misunderstands when Oosaki say they should call Aomi, which they do. Shinbashi then say to Aomi that he wants to “match roads” with him, which of course is just a big misunderstanding. Oosaki just wants to talk to Aomi because he thinks Aomi would listen to him which he does, but Shinbashi just constantly exposes Oosakis dick (Shinbashi is a pervert himself tbh he just pretends he isn’t, in the extras you can see that his sexual desire is a 4/4 man is horny on main), then also Ariake joins the chaos and they begin to fight over Oosaki’s dick and grabbing it at some point even Aomi joins???? (What the hell was Kurosawa even smoking?) Anyway, Oosaki manages to escape….but not before running into Toyosu…with his dick still exposed….Even Toyosu was fucking blushing. Of course, right after there is more drama because Takeshiba comes in running saying Funeno has escape and is now running on the island naked…great more chaos. Here we also learn that apparently everyone suddenly got horny for Oosaki because of some toxins, that got stuck on him when he walked around the forest because they used the island for who knows what during WW2. Is that really true though? Idk never really gets explained. Anyway, after more wtf dialogue and Takeshiba trying to push Oosaki down (which actually leads to Oosaki blushing lmao), Oosaki escapes and goes searching for Funeno and finds him in the burned warehouse and because he is naked, he gives him his underwear? Okay. Oosaki asks him if he is really sure if Shiodome died during the conflict because Oosaki thinks that he actually survived, so after their short meet up he goes back to the forest where he find Shiodome, alive, talking to the phone he broke with a bloody face… on a tree…. I know Shiodome was never sane but man really lost the last of his working brain cells. Shiodome tries to shot him with a gun (I forgot where he got it from) but doesn’t hit him and then tells him he doesn’t want to kill him but just dance the mambo with him? Lmao. He then tries to shot him again but Funeno comes suddenly running out the forest and disarms him. So, they drag Shiodome back to the inn and back to bathroom jail.
Now that the true culprit has been found they finally fix the phone and try to get out- but not before everyone starts to get horny for Oosaki again, Oosaki just wants to call for help and get out but the horny group (Ariake, Shinbashi, EVEN AOMI, Takeshiba, Shijoumae why?) basically go horny animal on him and straight up jump him. (Toyosu and Hinode as well as Funeno excuses themselves out before the shit show begins though) And this is where the scene cuts off. The game jumps right to the summary of the island event and then to Oosaki meeting up with Shizuma to deliver him his report and information of the attendees he collected, Funeno also joined because of the whole him being scared of Shizuma thing and him thinking Oosaki is Shizuma. So, its starts out normally but then as Oosaki is talking about the information he collected about the first attendee (Ariake) the game just SHOWS A HSCENE CG IN YOUR FACE with one character after another LMAOOOO. Oosaki just keeps talking about how he often he “interacted” with the people and Shizuma is all like “Is this about sex???? This is about sex, isn’t it????” So yes, after the cut Oosaki HAD SEX WITH ALL THE CHARACTERS, EVEN AOMI lmaoooo and not once but SEVEVERAL ROUNDS (I was dying from laughing). Sure, a way to lose your virginity, man had like 15 rounds of sex lmao. Even with Shiodome who joined in the end lol (Funeno, Toyosu and Hinode were of course not part of it) Man told this all to Shizuma with a calm attitude and even Shizuma was like “Why did you had sex with them???” So yeah interesting route LMAO
Now back to Funeno who is supposed to be the LI of this route. Oosaki visits him one day at his home on Hachijoujima, where Funeno greets him in the cutest Yukata, then they have dinner and Oosaki also gets a cute yukata that matches Funenos. Funeno plays the Koto for him, which is super cute. At bed time Funeno for some reason thought Oosaki would enjoy the presence of a prostitute?? (Man heard him talk about how he fucked 6 dudes, how did he came to this conclusion that Ooaki is straight?) Oosaki of course tells him he doesn’t want that and that he is rather interested in Funeno, and gets all flirty with him, then kisses him and invites him to sleep with him (in the not innocent way) so they go for it lol. I would like to say thank you to Kurosawa to giving me small seme Oosaki after she chickened out last time. The next day Oosaki goes back home but before he leaves he tells Funeno that he wants him to call him by his first name “Hiiro” ❤️ Despite the route being chaotic and horny af the ending is sugar sweet. Also, according to the extras, sugar daddy Shizuma helps to turn Ooejima into a resort where Funeno works and takes care of the vegetation. And Oosaki visits it as Shizuma’s “double” as an excuse to see Funeno lmao what an end.
As for Funeno, he was super adorable, I feel bad for him dying almost every route, he didn’t deserve it. But my biggest personal shock in this game was his age HE IS 20 YEARS OLD WHAT I though he is like 40???? WHAT YOU MEAN HE IS A BABY OMG. Also Funeno is canonly gay, nice. Kurosawa mentioned when the game was announced that every character will be straight but apparently, she didn’t stick to it, no way these people are straight.
Oh, one thing that did make me kinda mad in this route, even with the relationship, apparently Oosaki will keep the harem because his side bitches are toxic and wont give in easily 😐 no please don’t do that Kurosawa not cool. I really don’t mind the shit that went down before but not in a serious relationship…..not cool at all.
Shizuma
(and now please excuse the following simping)
If you haven’t guessed it from the lines above already, Shizuma is my favourite character in this game. In fact, he has been my favourite, way before the release of it. Let’s go back 3 ½ year. When Ooe was first announced in 2021, the characters were slowly introduced along the way, and when the first artwork of Shizuma dropped I fell in love on first sight. He was completely my taste (funny to say that when everyone has the same eye and hair colour) and I just wanted to have this man. But obviously I knew that he was a side character. So, the following years were spent on me praying that this hot man has a route. I wanted him SO BAD. The constant teasing art of him didn’t help. I didn’t care if he was evil or the mastermind or whatever I just wanted this man. So, when Kurosawa announced that there will be a 10th secret route I was hoping that maybe he was the last route? But at the same time, I was also scared because the last adelta route is cursed and always sucks, disappointing me in every way possible. So, I delulued myself into not believing that he is a route to not get disappointed lmao and boy I was so into him, it wasn’t even funny.
Since up to the release we didn’t knew what the last route was, and once the game dropped I basically cut all connection to the outside world to avoid spoiler. That’s why up to the point we finished Funeno I had no idea if he is and route or not and behold HE WAS A ROUTE AFTER ALL YESSSSSS VICTORY 🙌
Not only that it didn’t suck (god I’m so happy) even now I’m still not 100% believe this is reality because my delusion were so strong lol. (Try living in denial for 3 years and you will understand)
It's always risky to like a character before you actually experience his story but I was far, far too gone already. When the demo of the game first dropped I wasn’t actually that trilled with Shizuma, he was kinda cringe and obviously shady (though that didn’t bother me much, he had always been shady), but after playing the first route when the first part of the game came out I fell even harder for him. I know this is super ridiculous to say but when he showed up in the end of Ariakes route, after all the shit that went down and me with my dislike for both MC and LI in that moment Shizuma felt like the most sane character in this game, so I was completely gone once again (Also his cute look helped too) and went back to being a Shizuma simp again, but harder this time. After the first part I had a very good impression of him. He was the funny, chill character, the only one to use casually speech (a part I really like about him) a bit extreme horny (but this was also announced pre game, I mean the first art of him has him showing his nipple standing butt naked behind Oosaki lol), but oh boy I wasn’t ready for what part 2 had to deliver. Right from the first route Shizuma felt different, more serious way more affectionate. Since he gives off a shady atmosphere you expect him to be sly, but he wasn’t at all. Instead, he was worried over Oosaki and regretted some of his choices. It broke my heart when in Shiodomes end B Shiodome mentioned that Shizuma liked Oosaki. And in the following routes he didn’t save Oosaki’s life once but even twice. Stopping him from committing suicide after all the shit that went down with Shijoumae. The lines were my favourite I was almost crying in this scene, the way he was just hugging Oosaki from behind was just so loving. 😭
(literally kill me please)
From this point on I doubt that he was actually a killer (since he was supposed to have killed his brother) and I thought that he must have been a good person all along because no way can you be so kind and still be evil in some way, his words felt too honest for it to be an act. Even in Hinode’s when he said that he was just playing around it felt like a big lie, Oosaki also agreed, it was like he deliberately wanted to be hated. And as expected when you play his route you learn he has been a good person all along. This route is completely different since he is the one going to Ooejima and not Oosaki, instead Oosaki stays behind at his summer house and awaits his calls. In the beginning he acts like always but slowly Oosaki notices what is going behind all of this. Shizuma isn’t Shizuma but his own brother Sukekiyo who is only pretending to be Shizuma because he wants to take over the sins of his brother, who was the one who actually committed suicide (Also I read the book “the inugami family” Kurosawa based the daiba family on where Shizuma and Sukekiyo also switch roles, so it was an easy guess). His brother was apparently really shitty and was the one who played around with An leading to all of this. Shizuma himself (I’m going to continue calling Sukekiyo Shizuma like the game does) is super kind, which is also why he was actually staying secretly at Hachijoujima the whole time, worried about Oosaki and why he could show up on time to save him. Since making sure Oosaki was safe was his priority. Oh, and he was actually married but after the whole incident his marriage also shattered (and to be honest I may be a heartless person for saying this but this is BL so I can’t give less of a shit about his ex-wife, I always disliked putting any girlfriend/wife/children topics in BL).
The reason he wanted to be brothers with Oosaki, was because Oosaki reminded him of his brother and all this man wanted in his life was to have a happy family but instead his whole family died, and he was left alone and now has serious commitment issues….Wow this is a lot of baggage I didn’t expect from his character. Not only that but he actually asked Oosaki to kill him, which lead to Oosaki crying his eyes out (damn this was a lot to take in, especially since Shizuma was always such a fun character, but turns out he had been a sad boy all along). Why are all the good boys in this game blaming themselves? Shizuma, Aomi, Oosaki. The game makes you think Shizuma is the mastermind because he himself wants you believe it, which is honestly just sad. In the end I’m actually really glad that Shizuma turned out to be so kind, not that I wouldn’t have taken him in another way, but I love the good boys, so I’ll gladly take him as my son. I just hope he learns to love again and stops to take the blame. He is really bad at showing his emotion so it’s always hard to tell when he is lying. It says that after he met Oosaki his life improved and I really hope Oosaki will help him to love again so I wish him all the best. ❤️
And now back to the simping part lol. Anyway once the whole island part is over and Shizuma nearly dies being stabbed, Oosaki finds him at the graveyard one day and Shizuma invites him over to visit his atelier (finally Ive been waiting for this lol). And already on the way Oosaki’s true intentions beginning to show because he gets jealous with everyone Shizuma interacts with LMAO, once they at the atelier they talk about art and about Shizuma’s ex-wife, who Oosaki actually meet during his stay and Oosaki then ask if Shizuma still likes his ex-wife and after that straight up confesses LMAO what a timing. Shizuma as sly as always pulls the whole “I just want to be brothers” thing (to be honest it’s impossible to tell if he is telling the true or not), but tries to be super suggestive when doing so and Oosaki just gets pissed and pushes him onto the bed lol.
Shizuma tries to pull some onii-san fantasy kink lmao (no they are in fact not related, and jesus I’m so happy when this was finally clear, since it could have been a possibility), but then it turns into some paint kink?? (I don’t even know). Oosaki tries to kiss him but gets rejected because, Shizuma who is allergic to wheat can’t kiss anyone who eat any wheat products, but Oosaki says he hadn’t eaten anything and has no problem cutting things out of his diet, since he has no preference lol (man heard Shizuma is allergic to wheat and said goodbye to wheat forever, true love). Then they finally do kiss and strip off their clothes and we get this beautiful cg of Shizuma lying naked in bed making the lewd hands signs he always does in artworks and what does Oosaki do? HE LEAVE THE FUCKING ROOM TO TAKE A SHOWER (virgin reveal) boy…… Honestly, he can be happy Shizuma didn’t run away but I seriously wonder how much of an act Shizuma is actually pulling because I’m sure most things he was saying was just to piss off Oosaki and boy did it work. Anyway, once Oosaki returns we finally get to see Shizuma’s true power bottom potentials YES FINALLY, to be honest when I saw him the first time I was hoping to see him power bottom AND KUROSAWA DELIVERED 🙏 I am so grateful I will never insult you again, Kurosawa🙏 . Shizuma absolutely destroyed Oosaki in bed LMAO Oosaki was the one moaning, he even called him “virgin boy” AHAHAHA. Yeah, obviously Shizuma has experience (I’m not even surprised) and always bottoms according to him. Oosaki of course didn’t let this shame stay on him and tried to pull the reverse card lol. This turned into serious competition sex, also didn’t help that Shizuma had hickeys on him from his last partner and was talking about how Oosaki is his 108 person (if you didn’t know in Japan they let the new year’s bell ring 108 times to free yourself from your 108 worldly desires), making Oosaki even more jealous, so he fought back and said he won’t stop until Oosaki will become his only one (yes go on son fight for your lover), then Oosaki completely went feral on Shizuma lmao this poor man. I’m honestly impressed of Oosaki’s stamia, even as a virgin he can do several rounds, very impressive.
So yes I’m very biased for Shizuma so of course he is my favourite route, he is the route that only true Shizuma simps can enjoy. Like me lmao
Once again I would like to thank Kurosawa for giving me the most perfect Shizuma power bottom CG I will never forget it, all my dreams came true in that moment, I am truly blessed.
Oosaki
Adelta’s first seme protagonist. When he was first announced I thought he was going to be the stone type but it turned out despite Oosaki’s face, he is actually pretty emotional. His voice also doesn’t feel cold, and you can tell he truly means what he says. I went a whole circle with Oosaki as a character. My first impression was very neutral, when I played the demo, he was the one I was most interested in. He was a very depressed boy so I wanted him to get better. After the first route I honestly just disliked him, he had turned into the cold seme type I hated. And even after the second and third route my affection for him hadn’t been restored to the one I had in the beginning, so I was really worried because I didn’t want to dislike him. Luckily his terrible transformation in the first route and the rape in the second route were the biggest “whoopsies” about him and the rest of the game went smoothly, so in the end I can say that I ended up really liking him. He is cute, surprisingly emotional and honestly a very adorable lover and he treats his partners well (if he isn’t burning from jealousy lmao, I’m totally lying I was slurping that shit up) It’s a bit confusing to understand at first why he is falling for the LI but I come to the conclusion that there are two ways that will make Oosaki fall in love. Number one is when someone proofs him his life is worth by either telling him that or saving his life, like with Shinbashi, Ariake or Shiodome (A). The other way is when LI is a weak man, he wants to save and protect. Man really said “pathetic loser are my taste “(kinda understandable though). Also, I don’t care what Kurosawa says I will headcanon this man as gay, because nothing in this game has ever hinted at him being into woman ever, even his first love was a boy (the only good thing to come out of the cursed first route).
My boy has deep hatred for himself because he was born out of incest, which he can’t even do anything about??? Like my boy it’s not your fault stopping blaming yourself over it. And also, over the fact that he is responsible for the death of his grandma, who set herself on fire after she found out he beat up a child. Honestly, Oosaki himself was still a stupid child back then and children do stupid shit, so his grandma’s reaction was a bit…. extreme. And now he is scarred (literally on his hands) for life. I was kinda expecting a route to show how Oosaki gets over his past and forgives himself (even if there is nothing to forgive in my opinion), but that never happened sadly, though in the extras it says that he will learn to forgive in the end so I’m glad it will happen at some point at least. I also love how in the future he will help ex-criminals to make a fresh start.
His happiness always depends on the ending, since some of the endings lead to even more misery for him, but I feel really sorry for him so I want him to have bright future and a loving partner.
Artwork & Musik
The art in the game is phenomenal. All CGs including the background are drawn by Kurosawa and damn she improved so much since her last game. I’m biased once again since her style is my absolute favourite, the way she shades just looks so good, the skin of the characters looks so juicy- okay I’m going into the simping again but damn, all character looked so HOT especially Aomi, no matter what he did, even when he was being chocked, a pleasure for the eye. I feel like some scene could have more Cgs and once again total lack of Kiss CGs, only Ariake and Shinbashi got one, KUROSAWA IF YOU’RE READING THIS I NEED MORE KISS CGS ONEGAIITASHIMASU. Even the background Cgs looked sexy, you will never see such good-looking furniture ever again. A visual masterpiece.
As for the music in the game, sadly there is no opening song which sucks, and according to Kurosawa it has no because the game is supposed to be serious but? Idk what this has to do with OP, plenty serious games have an opening theme, it just has to match the vibe so yeah I wish the game had one. As for the ending songs, they are bangers like always, 4 ending songs, with most ending songs being shared between characters, except Shinbashi who has his own ending song. I fucking hate that Shizuma shares an ending song with Ariake?? Also why is this stupid bitch the only one that got an extra music video? Kurosawa your favourism is seriously annoying and all it does is make me hate the character even more. At least don’t make it so obvious, your taste is terrible. I feel like Aomi’s/Funeno’s ending song is the most unique song out of those four. The Ost is also great, it always matched the game very well and has some banger tracks like always.
As for general sounds I feel like some sounds were weird and didn’t sound like what they are supposed to, and also this time we had sex sfw and no just no, I didn’t not like them at all, once I found out you can turn them off I have never turned them on again, my poor ears have been violated and my poor eyes abused from the first hscene enough.
Conclusion
A masterpiece? Obviously, I had minor complaints (Ariake) and some criticism (Ariake), but apart from them, I had such a good time playing this game. The story, the pacing, the characters, everything was so good. Kurosawa improved a lot since her last game, this game felt way more balanced than her others and I’m glad she took her time to write it because it surely paid off. I played in a time span of a week and it was the craziest week of my game life. Since every route is different from another one, it felt like a wild roller coaster ride, where you don’t know what’s coming next. The emotions were all over the place, but I could finally finish an Adelta game without feeling mad or angry and just feel fulfilled. Also, I hope we get to see more content for this game. I’m really looking forward to the after stories and hopefully more SS in the future.
Of course, I fully recommend this game to everyone wanting to play some mystery, detective, full on madness game, and everyone who just wants to see pretty boys’ kiss.
Idk if it was ever mentioned anywhere but do you have any idea why Nano r'd Akira in his route? It was so random and out of nowhere. Would've been nice if they at least had a consensual scene later during the route.
I cannot provide a proper in-depth analysis of that scene since I didn’t look into it too much, but I can make a guess based on what I read between the lines of the text.
The r&*pe seemed like animal instant, but all Nano wanted was to get closer to Akira, but didn’t know how. Nano spent most of his childhood locked in a lab to be experimented on to suppress his emotions, so these feelings were new to him; he didn't have any idea how to get closer to others. So he followed his instincts, and it led to that.
I think that scene is supposed to highlight Nano's childlike vulnerability and how he did not know how to initiate intimacy at first, since his sense was messed up.
I'm gonna sound dumb but was it ever mentioned what happened to Akira's (or any of the other orphans's) parents in Togainu no Chi or am I just misremembering?
Akira, along with the other orphans, was forcefully separated from their parents and taken to the orphanage to be trained as soldiers.
am I the only one who likes the nitro chitral bad ends because of how dark they are?
I feel this is something that Nitro excels at by making us watch what the character has been through in the novel by telling us this is what happens if we make the wrong choice.
The Nitro bad ends never shy away from how quickly the story has gone dark which is seen in the bad ends it does not hesitate to go all out by showing us what these characters experienced is far worse than death.
visual novels are all about picking different options, nitro citral explores how choosing those wrong options can lead to the characters suffering.
how they punish us is by making us watch what they went through and be powerless to watch as the character suffers until we reach the end making us show the consequences of picking the wrong dialogue options but also that you are the one that brought about their suffering.
giving players the answer by saying, that each option has the power to affect the character's life and if the character is suffering this happened because of you.
*SEVERAL SPOILERS WARNING*
Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino Supplementary Book by HaccaWorks*
Character Data 1: Yue
Everything scanned and translated by me, please do not post elsewhere.
*Lots of Spoilers Warning*
Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino Supplementary Book by HaccaWorks*
Character Data 3: Tougo Tsubaki
Everything scanned and translated by me, please do not post elsewhere.
