Yes there are mangas, animes and etc. with strong female MCs but as I said, mobile otome games are specifically targeted towards helpless women. I’m half Japanese, been living here half my life and all of my Japanese friends are like that in terms of personality, they prefer more dominant boyfriends (also why the most popular suitors are those types). They mostly prefer to have a gentle and “pure” image. Ikemen Sengoku might have that MC because of the setting
First of all, hi ❤️ good to see you here again, anon. Second of all, very interesting, I do enjoy hearing your first hand experience with the subject and I do resonate with it. As a Brazilian, someone who can be considered a latina, I'm no stranger to the cultural aspect of it: that our women are fiery and seductive, which.... Fair.
And while I don't deny that many pieces of media, otome games included, might present these characteristics for this reason (I'm looking at you, Shoujo heroines), I don't think it's the case for the subject of our debate: Ikemen Prince and Belle's autonomy in it. And I stand by my opinion that, in this game in particular, it stems from lousy writing.
I don't know how familiar you are with writing, if you partake or take interest in the craft, but there are a few rules to writing a consistent story. The two rules I'll be referring to are Chekhov's Gun and the Consistent Characterization.
"Chekhov's Gun" is a writing principle that says a writer mustn't add anything in that doesn't serve the narrative. If the narrator mentions a gun on the wall in the first act, said gun must be useful in a later act, otherwise it'd have been an useless information which Chekhov describes as "false promises" to the audience.
While Consistent Characterization means that the actions the characters perform throughout the story must be reasonable within their prior characterization. A character can't simply possess a convenient skill that was not priorly foreshadowed, the same you can't ignore something you've established without good reason. A character with no knowledge of street smarts can't suddenly know how to lockpick just because, while if a character had a known past as a thief and was suddenly faced with a lock to pick, you can't simply ignore that they would know how to pick it, instead giving a good explanation as to why in that moment, they weren't able to lockpick this specific door.
Why do I raise these two aspects of writing? Because that's exactly what I complain about Emma in Ikemen prince.
In Ikemen Sengoku's prologue, we get some insight on Mai: she loves fashion and is on her way to her dream job, finally. This little piece of information established that Mai was passionate and driven enough to chase what she wants. Characteristics that remain throughout the game in every route. Mai checks out both Chekhov's Gun, by making use of her skills throughout the narrative, as well as Consistent Characterization, by acting accordingly to how she was established to be in the beginning of the game: driven, passionate, and modern.
Mutsuki (ikemen vampire) and Alice (ikemen revolution) are other two main characters from cybird that, despite being very much the pure, gentle and innocent archetype and mostly lacking agency, they work because they act accordingly to how they were established to be: Mutsuki a simple woman with a love for writing and Alice a cheerful and friendly patisserie who's content with life. They both are thrown headfirst in situations in which they find themselves helpless, much like Mai, but while Mai faces it headfirst like the headstrong girl she is, Mitsuki and Alice are more mellow, which doesn't make them bad characters since that's how they've been made to be.
And that's exactly the problem with Emma. The prologue tells us that Emma is optimistic towards the world, has a strong sense of justice, as well as courage to do what she thinks is right. Though Chevalier is known as the "Brutal Beast" and strikes fear in the hearts of people due to his ruthlessness, Emma still jumped in and slapped the drunk man to make sure the prince wouldn't cut him down, even though she likely knew that his sword could just as easily have turned towards her. She wasn't so innocent as not to know that prince Chevalier WOULD cut the man down, and that's why she stepped in. And although it was said for giggles, Sariel did comment on Emma's slap when explaining his reasoning towards his choice for Belle. This prologue tells us Emma has a most fiery personality and won't hesitate to do something she judges correct, regardless of the possible consequences.
However, many routes strip her of the qualities given to her by the writers themselves, which makes Emma fail in both Consistent Characterization and Chekhov's Gun, seeing as she's both not acting accordingly to her previously established traits as well not using her previously established skills to advance or assist the plot.
That happens because they change Emma's personality depending on her suitor as to enhance him, which is why it's most noticeable in the suitors considered more "dominant" (really the most popular ones), because instead of doing the hard and difficult work of writing someone dominant and astounding enough for someone as fiery but kind as Emma to rely on and fall for, they do what? They make her act uncharacteristically in order to emphasize those traits on him, much too pure to enphisize how they're tainted or much too kind to enphisize their darker side, much too innocent to enphisize how they're mature/dominant, much too clueless to enphisize how they're smart, that's why sometimes it seems that the Emma we read in the prologue and the Emma we read within a route are completely different characters.
That's what bothers me, not her passiveness in itself, but the fact that it seems misplaced in someone like Emma given how she was originally characterized. Emma should not be a character only reacting to what the other characters do to her. Within the world of the game, she's a PERSON. Her experiences and personality should not fluctuate depending on the suitor she's pursuing.
And given that she was priorly written as a more fiery gal, we can somewhat discard the excuse of "cultural difference" because Cybird themselves wrote the prologue and cybird themselves gave Emma those characteristics. They're just failing at upholding it.
