BEST AVG of 2013, no kidding
Story: ★★★★★ plus a 6th ★!
Art: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Music/ BGM: ★★★★★
Summary:
Nao is a normal highschool girl who lives in the present world. When she is at a summer festival one day, her precious hairpin is stolen by a beautiful black bird. Nao chases the bird in hope to get her hairpin back, but instead, a white light surrounds her and she time slips back to the Edo Period. With her peculiar outfit (just school uniform actually) the Edo Japanese freak out when they see her and some men actually begin to chase her down with swords. However, Nao runs into a dead corner (don’t we always) and she finds herself surrounded by menacing men with real katana swords. Just then, a man named Kuruma appear and persuade the men that Nao is actually an acquaintance of his.
With no place to turn to, Kuruma leads Nao to a brothel named “Manju-ya” (a name that sounds suspiciously to steamed buns in Japanese…) and convinces the manager Wasuke to let Nao stay and help out at the brothel. However, Nao finds that Manju-ya is not an ordinary flesh-selling brothel, and the people at this brothel are not what they appear to be…
First things first:
5pb really outdone themselves, the OP is amazing and the collection of bgm is very nice too.
This game is big on mystery and history, and it did very well on both.
The intro is very looooooooooooong. The whole one-round gamplay took me 12 hours = =.
A little about the heroine:
Nao is one of the best heroines I have seen in otome games. Yeah she is clueless and maybe a little bit too innocent, but that’s the basic setting of otome gams. She doesn’t whine, she is strong, and she is capable (really important trait in my opinion). In the present world, she is an orphan and she was raised by a grandpa. The grandpa told her that that hairpin was with Nao when he found her, and the hairpin was burnt and old-fashioned (mystery, mystery). When Nao becomes a geisha at Manju-ya, she takes on the name “Asaki”.
~~~spoilers up ahead~~~
1. The story takes place at a time of political unrest (overthrowning the Bakufu), and Manju-ya is actually a place for the Resistance to gather information by receiving guests of high power at the government. (Manju-ya is not a pleasure house like other ordinary brothels in the Edo period)
2. If you have played Hakuouki prior to this game, you will be able to guess who these characters really are faster than anyone else who has not been exposed to the Japanese history of that time.
Character Reviews (with spoilers):
Tani Wasuke CV: Suzumura Kenichi
The manager of Manju-ya. When Kuruma brings Nao to him, he is very hesitant about taking her in. My first impression of him was how short he was compared to other characters, which turned out to be the major clue on his real identity!! I innocently thought Wasuke was just an ordinary manager at Manju-ya, but later in the game he revealed his real identity to Nao: Takasugi Shinsaku! (wiki him if you don’t know him from other games/animes) Wasuke’s route was bittersweet. At first, because of his goal to overthrow the government, he doesn’t want to get involved with Nao romantically even though he likes her too. Wasuke loves to tease the heroine, and his route is slightly ecchi. There was even a small H scene after Nao finds out that Wasuke has tuberculosis (ughh he shares the same fate with Souji).
(this CG looks really weird for some reason…)
HE: Wasuke wins the battle against the government. To treat his illness, Kuruma sacrifices himself to bring Nao and him back to the present time.
NE: Wasuke wins the battle but still passes away due to his illness. Nao is pregnant with his child and she stays at Manju-ya with everyone else.
Haku CV: Sakurai Takahiro (YEAH)
It’s not a she, it’s a he. Haku is one of the two lead geishas at Manju-ya. He is cold towards Nao first, but as time goes on, he begins to tease her a lot more and often calls her very interesting. He is super obsessive and a major clean-freak. He also has a secret identity, and that’s Katsura Kogoro (wiki him). Katsura is another significant figure that participated in overthrowing the government. He disguises as Haku to obtain information from mostly female guests.
My favourite part of his route was his showdown encounter with the Shinsengumi at the Ikedaya Incident (the one where Souji pukes up blood in Hakuouki). In order to stop Haku from going to save his comrades at the inn, Nao confesses that she is from the future and she knows how this event would turn out (I didn’t want to see Haku fighting the Shisengumi either! leftover Hakuouki-trauma). Haku’s route was quite sweet compared to Wasuke’s.
(mine!)
(
HE: Nao quits being a geisha (cuz Haku gets jealous) and they get marry. They live happily ever after but Wasuke’s dies in this ending.
NE: I personally like this end the best out of all the endings in this game!! During the peak of rebellion things were getting really dangerous at the Manju-ya and Nao actually got hurt while attending a guest. Haku convinces Kuruma to send her back to the future. Nao didn’t want to leave Haku but they didn’t give her the chance to choose. When Nao gets back to the future, she finds out that time has not passed at all in the present world. Nao goes to school and she bumps into a lower-year guy who looks exactly like HAKU / Katsura! She starts crying on the spot and asks the guy what his name is, and he replies, “Katsu”!!!! (the guy is not the actual Haku though) Such an seemingly impossible but sweet ending!!
Kuruma CV: Namikawa Daisuke
Kuruma is a merchant that often visits Manju-ya. He cares very (too) much about Nao and Wasuke always asks him if Kuruma is actually Nao’s dad. One scene of his was really sad. It was when Nao confesses her feelings to Kuruma. Kuruma has his back towards her and he replies her feelings by saying “you can’t choose me, you can choose anybody else who can give you a good life, but you can’t choose me, and you won’t be happy with me”. Later in the story Kuruma tells Nao that he is actually not a human and he is actually a scared being that safeguards and protects the shrine that Nao visited at the start of the story. Kuruma was actually the one that brought Nao to the Edo period. It was later revealed that Nao was actually born in the Edo period; her mother was a a famous geisha who died in a fire and her father is the owner of Manju-ya. His route ends at when Manju-ya is set on fire, and Kuruma uses up his ability to reverse time back a few hours in order to save everyone.
HE: When Nao sees Kuruma again after preventing the fire from happening, he is trapped at the shrine and cannot leave anymore because he has exhausted all his power. He insists on sending Nao back to the future using his last life source, and he tells her “thank you for loving me, i love you too”. Nao continues her life in the present world. One day when she is at that shrine, she suddenly hears Kuruma’s voice and turns around to find Kuruma standing behind her. Kuruma tells her that he has fulfilled his duty of protecting the shrine and he was somehow granted a new life as a human. In this ending, they live happily ever after in the present world.
Final Thoughts:
I am really glad I put down at least 24 hours to play this game. Hanasaku Manimani was seriously the best game of the year. However, you could probably see I neglected the two other routes (so I didn’t actually finish the game…). My liking for the characters are prob: Haku> Wasuke=Kuruma. After Hanasaku Manimani, I will be expecting great otome games from 5pb!!!
Finally, great shout-out to Mamo’s guest appearance in this game as a hilarious as hell and hot-blood samurai!
Rock on Mamo!
Otome's Log 