Koezaru Wa Akai Hana Review
The story revolves around Yuriko Nomiya, the daughter of a noble family in the Taisho period (1912—1926). That said, her family isn’t particularly rich. Her spoilt mother has spent so much money that they now have a very big debt to pay back. Her gentle father did nothing to stop it, and now he wants to make sure Yuriko doesn’t have to suffer any longer.
On the night of her coming of age birthday, a magnificent party is set up with the purpose of finding her a good, rich husband. Some rouges attack, aiming to kill all nobility involved in politics, and her father is unjustly murdered.In an attempt to solve the mystery behind this murder and the bellflowers found at the scene, Yuriko will unveil the dark secrets her family has been keeping, and will realise the people she though she knew so well are not what they seem.
With someone trying to destroy everything she has, what is to become of Yuriko and her household? The game is written in 3rd person narrative perspective, which took a while to get used to, seeing as most VNs are written in 1st person, but eventually I felt it was a fresh detail and added to the novel’s charm. I really enjoyed the detailed writing, though because it's an epoch drama it has hefty amount of old words that are either out of use or unusual. Most of them have furigana, but it might be a tricky narration to get through if you're starting with the language or if you rely only on translators to play VNs. The style was very classy, adding to the setting's atmosphere. I also really liked that the heroin’s default name, Yuriko, was called out if you selected it as her name. I wasn’t too fond of Hideo’s character design before playing the game - I’m not too into megane characters.
Contrary to my expectations, this turned out to be one of my favourite routes. It's a real treat, incredibly satisfying. Friendly affection turns to love and they slowly warm up to each other, boy did my heart ached during this route. The writers were very smooth with this one, it was a big change from Shiba's route. They just fall in love naturally, their interaction felt less strained than relationships in other routes, and Hideo’s the only one that feels as though he saw Yuriko as an equal. Plus one of the bad endings had me in tears (yes I’d like 3 rolls of extra strung duct tape to stick my heart back together).
Fujita is the household’s steward. His father was British, and his skin pale as fuck his mysterious eyes and tall figure seem quite frightening to Yuriko. Fujita is a very polite man who isn’t very expressive. He loves sweets and is always carrying some on him. He is very attached to the Nomiyas, as he feels in debt to them, and wishes to serve them forever. Yuriko doesn’t know much about Fujita, but after the death of her parents he becomes her new source of hope.
The main struggle during his route is that Fujita can’t get over the fact that Yuriko is nobility, and he is just a servant. What to say about his route?
Well, I can’t really decide whether I enjoyed it or disliked it. Fujita was a bit too polite and uptight for my liking, though I really enjoyed how Yuriko was the one that had to drive their relationship he was too much of a coward to make a move on her. He’s sweet, loving and caring, but his personality didn’t pull me in too much. However what was most off-putting was his age.
Fujita is old enough to be Yuriko’s father he has literally been working for her family since she was tiny. Yuriko might be of legal age, but that doesn't change the fact that he's twice her age.
I did, however, like how throughout the game and in all other routes Fujita is Yuriko's one and only certain ally, and it was very sweet to watch that develop into a more profound sentiment. Other than his weird ass masochistic ending (boy was that ending wild.), he was a good character to play. He also has this one bad ending that has absolutely nothing to do with him that goes off on a completely different tangent that I absolutely loved. I need a whole new game out of that ending, and I need it urgently. Mizuhito is an artist and a poet—he is a sensitive guy. He wanted to study painting abroad but his parents wouldn’t allow him and he had to give up his dream. Ever since then, Mizuhito has enjoyed the company of the women that walk the re-light district, and Yuriko feels he is a lost cause.
Mizuhito doesn’t give a shit about their family reputation, and he dotes on Yuriko so much that sometimes it’s rather creepy, especially during the other routes. Needless to say, he’s never seen Yuriko as a sister. There was something about Mizuhito that just rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t have a problem with incest routes (they can be great if pulled off correctly, if!), and to begin with this technically isn’t one. But it’s just— his character. I couldn’t stand it.
Every time he talked it gave me the creeps. He was just so passive, he sounded like he’d pass out any moment. Their relationship kind of just ‘happens’ awkwardly, and he still refers to her as his ‘cute little sister’, which was weird seeing as he’s supposedly always seen her as a woman. The great majority of the CGs are angled so that you can’t really see anything, which is typical in otoges (I don’t know what makes them think we don’t want to see more bananas), and Yuriko’s boobs were proportional and of a size that made sense, thank you very much.
Koezaru Wa Akai Hana Reviews
The one thing I shall complain about is. The men’s nipples. Because they have none. And ladies, I don’t know about you, but I like my men with nipples.
I found this very distracting. What problem does Japan have with men and nipples? I fail to understand.
The H scenes where generally very good, I especially loved everything to do with Majima (GOD DAMN IT WHY DID HE ONLY HAVE TWO H SCENES). Most bad endings just turn the interaction between the datable character and Yuriko quite repulsive (obsessive, possessive, you chose the word). Some had Yuriko falling into depravity and ending up as a sort of prostitute, which was very fit as part of the series of misfortunes that befall on her family. More often than not R-18 Otome games tend to just head into the forest world of rape for no reason, ruining perfectly likeable characters for no justifiable reason. So congratulations Chou no Doku, for not ruining any characters for me. The arwork in this game is holy.
It was the main reason why I checked out this game in the first place. Illustrations and character designs are by the very talented Amano Chigiri, and I shall build a temple in her honour and pray that she illustrates more otoges, because her artwork makes my world go round. She’s a shoujo manga writer and light novel illustrator, and I can’t wait to get my paws on some of her works now that I know about her.
Fan.Plus the men are sexy. Mizuhito’s sprite looked nothing like how he appeared in the CGs, though. And Majima is just a godly creature. Bless his beautiful face (ﾉ･ｪ･)ﾉ. The Good:. The beautiful artwork.
Akai Hana Columbus
The amazing storyline. Characters don’t get ruined (too much) after bad endings. The heroin isn't excessively plain, and playing as her isn't a pain in the neck. Majima. Majima.
Majima. Did I mention Majima?The Bad:. Includes a lot of historical and cultural references - might be a bit confusing for those not too familiar with Japan. The protagonist doesn’t have a voice. Majima didn’t have enough H scenes. Majima didn’t have enough badass time.
There wasn’t enough Majima in this game.