I can’t believe I’m enjoying Otoboku (a review?)

It’s one day before school starts, and here I am, playing through Otoboku. After completing Takako and Sion then failing to get Mariya 2 times in a row, I’ve decided to stop playing, but here’s a review (of sorts) for the game.

I went into this not expecting anything at all, because I’ve only heard people love the characters and no one talking about plot (the last time that happened it was with Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na, which was a major disappointment). However, this title managed to impress me, with its high production values and its hilarity.

Chances are, you know about the gist of the story already: a guy’s rich grandfather died, and in order to get the inheritance, he has to go to a all girl’s catholic school for a year. Because his grandfather’s weird like that. At that school, he meets various beautiful maidens and stuff happens.

Technical info:

Japanese name: 処女はお姉さまに恋してる

English name: Too long, people just call it Otoboku.

Released: By Caramel Box in 2005.

The art is okay. I’m not a huge fan of the character designer (mostly because of that horrendous anatomy and the body parts that defy the law of physics), but the colors and the backgrounds are nice. I wish the character designer had a better sense of fashion too, but that’s something you really have to work at.  The music is your average eroge stuff. You’re not really going to get tired of it, but I won’t spend money on the soundtrack either. But, I have to give special mention to Sakakibara Yui’s 2 insert songs, as they’re really nice.

The programming’s quite interesting. There are many special effects,the vast majority of them comedic. For instance, if you did something that earned you a love point (or flag, or whatever you want to call it), a little heart will pop up in the conversation. Some characters have really exaggerated animated blushing (steam and all), and of course, you can’t forget the flowers and sparkles. For some odd reason, I really like the way that they did snow and rain. And the menu is really ultra girly well designed too.

None of the characters are particularly deep, but they are all amusing and lovable. There’s the hyperactive ghost, the sadistic childhood friend, the sickly older girl, the clumsy loli, and the other not so clumsy loli. My favorite is the silent girl played by Kugimiya Rie (at least, I THINK it was her, the PC seiyuus all used aliases). The writers didn’t take things seriously, and while the drama was a blah, the comedy was excellent and I cracked up when the above scene was playing. The main story’s pretty long, and overall I wished that the story was wrapped up a bit tighter and not so long. In completing some stories, you can unlock a omake scenario. Using a save file, I’ve realized that the 4th scenario is a hilarious piece of work that breaks the 4th wall. Make sure you get all the endings for it!

The main character is actually a really girly guy, and the writers use that to its fullest. He’d get wrapped up around the things he’s doing, and then he’d realize that he just said something like “Ara, that child is so cute” or just kissed a little girl to calm her down and then collapse, muttering things like “I’m broken, I’m totally broken” or “Sob…I can’t go back to society anymore…”. He’s so womanly that it’s scary. He practically radiates a mother Teresa aura.  He’s incredibly popular with the girls. He is the enemy of all women. And he is HILARIOUS.

This is really a guilty pleasure kind of game, especially if you’re a guy and you think Mizuho is hot. There’s plenty of moe, plenty of lulz, and if you don’t take things seriously, this is a very entertaining title. I’m not going to finish the rest of because I just can’t seem to get to Mariya’s ending, but I’d recommend that if any of you are interested to play this game.

First, Maria Holic, then this. I think I’ll start on H2O next, just so I can continue the trap marathon…