ニル・アドミラリの天秤 クロユリ炎陽譚
Completion date: April 12, 2026
Base game review ↓↓↓
Quicklinks (my play order):
Shizuru > Shougo > Akira > Hayato > Hisui > Rui > Kuroyuri > Final Thoughts (spoiler-free)
(Includes spoilers to base game)
The sequel starts one year after Nabari’s event. Sasagoi is in jail for killing his and Shizuru’s teacher, Moritsune Saichou. A new character takes over Sasagoi’s shop – Yano Kirihiko. Kijitani (Shougo’s servant) was briefly put in jail but bailed out by Shougo and continues to stay in the apartment. Owase gets a demotion but remains in the imperial army. Akira’s cover is blown but he also gets to stay around without repercussions. Rui’s identity continues to be hidden and only known to the core members of Fukurou. Shouko reopens Nightingale as a club without the maremono auctions. Tsugumi continues to work at Fukurou, with Hitaki noting she hasn’t come home in a few months and seems to have gotten herself a boyfriend.
**Spoilers to sequel begin**
SHIZURU (CV: SUZUMURA KENICHI)
I hated Shizuru’s route most in the base game so wanted to get him out of the way first so I can actually enjoy the rest of the game. In general, I don’t do well with flirty “popular” LIs. This route didn’t do me any favours either so my finger was on the next button the entire route and skimmed the story & extra stories.
The main conflict of the story is that one of Shizuru’s old friends, Kugei, returns from France and wants to start a revolution in Japan against the current Ukai government and make Japan a communist nation, drawing inspiration of the events in France and Russia. He goes to extreme lengths to recruit Shizuru, who has become a bestselling novelist, to his cause as clout = followers. Shizuru, who is a rebel in his own sense by refusing to follow the road his family planned for him (to join the army and climb the ranks and instead ran away from home to be a writer), explains that the “freedom” he chases is personal freedom – to live the life he wants, with the person he loves – not a collective freedom from the oppressors. In the end, Kugei kidnaps both Shizuru and Tsugumi at gunpoint and says if they will not join him, then they will die for the “greater cause” as he plans to use their corpses to frame the army/Owase and cause the public to have sympathy for Shizuru who is assumed to be on the rebellion’s side, thanks to rumours that Kugei spread. The bad end is Tsugumi gets shot dead & Shizuru loses the will to live and follows suit. The good end is Tsugumi headbutting Kugei’s accomplice & Shizuru grabbing her gun and turning the situation around.
I also dislike how the writer dealt with the conflict proposed by Kugei that the lower class is currently getting oppressed by the upper class. In game, he tells Tsugumi that even though she is a lower aristocrat and her family is running out of money, her life is far more privileged than a lot of people in this world. The fact she even has servants in the house like Jiiya means she is the oppressor as well. Tsugumi’s response? She runs home and asks Jiiya “am I and Hitaki oppressing you?” Grandpa Jiiya says ojousama of course not I choose to serve you on my own volition, you treat me so kindly, it’s my honour to serve you! So she goes back to Kugei puffing her chest like “see! Jiiya said he isn’t being oppressed so what you said isn’t true! They chose to serve us & I deserve to get served and not feel guilty!” which just made me facepalm so hard… this is giving rich kids insisting they achieved where they are in life by their hard work and omitting their small gift of one million dollars from their parents… If we couldn’t find a mature enough response to this issue, maybe it’s best to not bring it up at all because it was so hard to not hate Tsugumi in this route after this.
Romance wise, the trope continues. Shizuru continues to be extremely popular among women of different classes: geisha, female students, random passerby’s, actresses… Conveniently, on multiple occasions he needs to deny his relationship with Tsugumi out of intention to protect her, such as when Kugei asked who the lovely young lady beside Shizuru was; as Shizuru didn’t want Tsugumi to be targeted by his plans (unfortunately she does anyway). Tsugumi also found a thank you note from a woman being carefully kept in one of Shizuru’s books, prompting him to tell her (right after they have sex) the story of how he briefly met and said forever farewell to his first love (as she died soon after they met), which made him realize the fleetingness of love and vowed to always voice his love and not let it slip away from his fingers again.
Shizuru would not decline the advance of any beautiful women (and there’s certainly never a shortage given his status), hides his relationship with Tsugumi, but would then tell her in private the sweetest vows and confessions, “I only have eyes for you” “I love you”, and gets jealous when Tsugumi interacts with other men normally at her work. Tsugumi eats all those sweet nothings up and interprets Shizuru’s jealousy and possessiveness (while he’s out there doing whatever the fuck he wants) as “love”, and lives on copium from beginning to end. The issue of Shizuru keeping a vague relationship with other women is never directly addressed. In the early game, Tsugumi would storm out not allowing herself to be disrespected like this, but then would quickly forgive Shizuru after he pretends to be hurt and sad (e.g. pretending to accidentally cut himself when cooking so Tsugumi would get very worried and rush to his side). Shizuru is also revealed to be able to cook but told Tsugumi he pretended he couldn’t so that she could make miso soup for him every morning because he found her very cute and adorable when she was moving around in the kitchen… okay I get this was a 2017 game and Tsugumi is a very traditionally feminine MC, but this rubbed me the wrong way so badly. Of course Tsugumi blushed and felt this was a romantic confession instead of weaponized incompetence & manipulation.
Shizuru’s trope is the “artist with a wandering eye” who constantly needs a muse to inspire him to write his romance novels. The good end CG literally acknowledges this with Shizuru calling Tsugumi his muse. The route ends there leading us to believe this will go on forever. However, I am skeptical and am frankly surprised it even lasted for a year. Shizuru explains that Tsugumi is so pure, sweet, and not like the other women he meets at the bathhouses, and upon knowing her better, she has a kind heart and is bold to express it and defend those in need… If anything I agree with what Tsugumi thought to herself at one point in the game, Shizuru’s ideal type is someone who is sophisticated, mature, someone who understands his various literary references and shares his taste in the arts, a femme fatale like instead of a Yamato Nadeshiko like her. In my eyes, the actress Ohara (one of the antagonists who was Kugei’s girlfriend) would have been a much better match. Tsugumi doesn’t really share the artistic depth with Shizuru, isn’t well-read enough to have those conversations with him beyond a superficial level, and really doesn’t share much in terms of spiritual connection with Shizuru other than feeding his goldfish and making him miso soup lol.
There is a little scare of Shizuru getting back into maremono again. However, it’s just him writing his newest novel which takes inspiration from his and Tsugumi’s relationship. Because he put so much love into it and loves Tsugumi so much, the book absorbed his feelings and became a harmless maremono (such as the one at the beginning in base game Rui’s route).
What’s worse is, after finding out that Tsugumi read his maremono & novel that is a love letter to Tsugumi, Shizuru who has been flirting with and making sexual references to her all game suddenly gets shy and doesn’t want to face his feelings anymore. Maybe it’s the writer trying to make Tsugumi a more forward and proactive character, Tsugumi pushes Shizuru on the bed and yells at him to face his feelings and become her lover under the sun. Okay girl have some respect for yourself… Reading this scene was cringey as hell I wish I could unread this whole route…
So yeah, 1/10. Shitty MC shitty LI the most enjoyable part was actually the plot. Managed to hit all my landmines.
SHOUGO (CV: KIMURA RYOUHEI)
Shougo’s route is, on the other hand, extremely well-done to the point it ended up being one of my favourites in the FD. He really matured from the little brat in the beginning of the first game but fortunately retained his tsundere/shyness which made for some very cute and romantic scenes.
This route also touched on some deeper societal themes. I enjoyed how Tsugumi stood by her autonomy and choices as a working woman in a changing era of Japan, as well as how Shougo supported her without hesitation. Though the overall tone was idealistic, the writer starts touching on some real struggles that Tsugumi and women face in general instead of purely writing romance.
Two major conflicts occur in this route, both linked to a kazoku woman – Kiriai Sumire, who bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous female actor that portrays male roles … more on that in Rui route. Sumire apparently has been betrothed to Shougo as decided by their families aka arranged marriage. Despite Shougo clearly telling her and later his own father that he loves Tsugumi and only wants to marry her, Shougo’s dad (the prime minister) tells Shougo to mature a bit and graduate university first; he isn’t sure if Tsugumi is just fling but appears open to the idea of her marrying Shougo if he still loves her after graduation. Kijitani (Shougo’s butler) roots for Tsugumi but tells her that major resistance will be put up by Shougo’s mother, who is a controlling woman that sounds like she belongs in r/justnomil. He also tells Tsugumi that to marry into a prominent family like his master’s, she is expected to not “show herself in society” meaning give up her job and take bridal lessons in order to devote her life to serving her husband and his family as a dutiful housewife. This is not what Tsugumi wants because she has grown to love her Fukurou family and feel she is making a difference by holding a job and contributing to society.
Just when I was dreading Shougo have another cliche conflict between his own family’s values vs. the woman he loves, the time he spent with Fukurou and actually touching grass instead of hiding in his ex-elite club meant something. He tells Tsugumi that he never wanted her to give up what she loves to become a housewife. He tells her that she should continue to work if that is what she wishes – and he will support her 100%. Wow Shougo is more forward-thinking than some guys in 2026. The cherry on top? Remember the cooking scene in the first game? Shougo also cooks for Tsugumi too. The perfect man really only exists in fiction.
The other conflict is a series of rape-murders of kazoku women. We know who it is because … why would the author introduce another major character in a route for no reason. Sasabe Tadakiyo is one of the “new nobles” aka he has money but no status (kind of like Shiba from Chou no Doku) who apparently pursued Sumire in the past and supposedly got rejected in a humiliating fashion.
However, talking to Sumire, she tells Tsugumi that Sasabe wouldn’t take no for an answer, and did not respect her as a person at all. He treated her like a noble womb who will elevate his family’s status. After repeatedly nicely telling him off, she finally had enough and tore his confession letter up in front of him, getting him off her tail for good. Wow doesn’t this hit close to home for many of us. “Nice guys” who won’t take no for an answer then turn on the women for rejecting them. In undergrad, I had a guy who wrote me graphic threats on how he would rape, murder, then dismember my body as well as track my family down, all because I didn’t want to go out with him… had to go to the police for that. Yet he is the “nice guy” whom women won’t give a chance. Many guys just don’t get it. Recently, the Tokyo Pokemon centre stabbing is another instance of stalker guys not letting go of a woman. Despite the woman going to the authorities, nothing was done and it ended up in a tragic killing-suicide.
The author also forcibly links Sasabe to Kugei and the resistance – so I’m guessing Kugei is the big boss like Shiginuma in the first game and he would have more screen time in Hayato’s route.
In the meantime, Tsugumi finds a maremono and seemingly gets possessed by the spirit in the maremono who happened to be her late friend from school who died of mysterious reasons, sharing her memories before death. As a kazoku girl, her family said she died of illness or something, but in reality, she was one of the first rape murder victims. The family just found that reason too shameful to disclose. Eventually, Tsugumi also catches on that Sasabe is sus (more like SUSabe) and offers to act as bait so the police can capture him. Shougo initially vehemently disagrees with this act that puts herself in danger, but after hearing Tsugumi’s resolve to find her ex-friend’s killer, he agrees and tells Tsugumi to be safe. He also literally follows her around with Kijitani like secret police but framing it as random encounters; it was cute lol but he actually bailed her out a couple of times from Sasabe.
Taking a detour from the plot, the romance was also very well-written. In addition to the cute confessions sprinkled throughout, I want to focus on the summer festival date. Tsugumi slips on her geta and falls on top of Shougo in public with bystanders joking that Tsugumi is very “forward” by falling on her man to get close to him lol.
Tsugumi cries and runs into the forest. Of course they make up and kiss surrounded by fireflies.
SHOUGO WITHOUT GLASSES???! Also Tsugumi is so flat here in some CGs she was busty and now she’s flat lol I guess it’s the yukata
Tsugumi tells Sumire sorry, she really respects her as a person, but she can’t just give up Shougo or her job, and that she will continue to fight alongside Shougo for their happiness. Eventually, Sasabe drops his pretence and drugs Tsugumi, who had a scary run and hide sequence because Sasabe also had people who kept Shougo occupied. Sasabe also rants about how the kazoku and the old ruling class need to be abolished for the revolution and the people. Whatever. Again, I am suspicious of the sincerity of his and Kugei’s motive as so far, I think they just want to overthrow the current ruling class (kazoku and prime minister) just so they can become the new oppressors; I am not convinced they actually care about the working class or farmers.
Shougo overpowers SUSabe’s lackeys and shows up with a handgun warning him it’s not for show. Sasabe is detained with Tsugumi and Shougo sharing an embrace.
In the end, after some preparation, they go to Shougo’s house together to convince his mother to allow them to marry. An open and hopeful ending.
In the alternative ending, Shougo shoots Sasabe dead because Tsugumi’s dead friend took over her and said through Tsugumi’s voice telling Shougo to kill him.
Overall, I’d say this route is 10/10. It has good plot that touches on actual conflicts with a hopeful resolution. It showcases how Shougo has matured into a man from a boy. It showcases Tsugumi’s resolve and how she matured from being a sheltered kazoku flower. The romance was excellent. Absolutely would recommend.
AKIRA (CV: OKAMOTO NOBUHIKO)
The main plot revolves around a mysterious piece of maremono written by a country girl Chitori. However, the book follows the writing style of famous writer and anarchist Karisaka who was incarcerated with Kugei back in the day, whose fate today is unknown. It is super dragged out because Chitori would continue to avoid and run away from Tsugumi/Akira and not be forthcoming about the backstory of the book and what her actual connection was with Karisaka, who had died prior to the beginning of this route. Karisaka was tortured by the previous government for writing anti-regime works to the point he could no longer hold a pen & also signed a contract with the government that he would never write anything in his life again. After his sentence, he stumbled into Chitori in the countryside. The two shared a special connection with Chitori learning how to write. Karisaka’s health was ruined in jail. Knowing he doesn’t have long, he begs Chitori to be his pen and transcribe his last work and only share it with the world when an era where people can speak their mind freely arrives, so that his final work can be read by everyone. Kugei goes sicko mode again in this route, kidnapping and threatening to kill Chitori if she doesn’t tell him the whereabouts of Karisaka. Tsugumi kicks some major ass in the route because mentions of shooting and martial arts lessons quietly set up for her overtaking Kugei by surprise in the end, seizing his gun and arresting him at gunpoint in the end. Bravo! But yeah, overall I didn’t really care for this story. The romance storyline was much better IMO.
Akira’s route somehow deprives you of CGs until quite a bit into the game. However, there is no shortage of fluffy doki-doki scenes in his route so Akira girlies are all in for a treat ^^ He is still his kuudere self who only loses his cool when Tsugumi tries to tough through things too much then he would get mad and take care of her aww.
At the summer festival Tsugumi’s geta didn’t fit her well so her foot got injured. She tried to hide it from him so he doesn’t worry. Of course someone as observant as Akira doesn’t let go of this detail and carries her home potato-sack style because she refused when he offered to piggyback her so he’s like alright potato-sack time it is, while scolding her for not telling him of her troubles. Yet, Tsugumi notes he acts everything is okay in their relationship, when it’s not.
Hitaki is against their relationship, saying Tsugumi needs to marry someone of higher social class than a commoner like Akira. He doesn’t accept him even after knowing he is a Shiginuma, because he is illegitimate. Tsugumi’s father is more open-minded about this (likely because he is seeing how the world is changing while working under the Yashiro company aka for Hayato’s dad) and asks Tsugumi to bring Akira home one day so the two can finally meet. Akira just kind of silently avoids this without discussing with Tsugumi his feelings or what their plan is moving forward with Hitaki throwing his tantrums.
Tsugumi defends Akira throughout and scolds Hitaki to respect her choice in partners and that she doesn’t require his approval. Akira’s attitude towards Tsugumi is a bit similar to Yoshikiri towards Koruri in Hayato’s route, basically kind of “I’m not good enough for you”. Eventually, Tsugumi just scolds Akira straight so Akira finally mans up and goes to Tsugumi’s house and declares his love for Tsugumi in front of his little brother and wins his acceptance with his resolve. At Tsugumi’s advice, he also forces himself to smile and act cheery when having dinner with Tsugumi’s dad; after the fact, he tells Tsugumi he’s smiled his “year’s share” at that one meal lmao.
The good ending concludes with a romantic kiss under the sunset:
Bad ending: Tsugumi gets trafficked by someone ??? to a brothel. Who is he?? Stay tuned for Hayato route…
Akira’s route gets an 8/10 from me. The romance storyline was really well written. We got many memorable scenes. The summer festival caramel scene was also sweet, as was the movie where they go back to their roots from the first game. The main plot is kind of forced but I enjoyed it purely because of the fact that Tsugumi kicked major ass and saved the day, for once.
HAYATO (CV: KAJI YUUKI)
First Kanato then Hayato, I swear the writers always give Kaji the WORST scenarios. I initially was so fooled by the opening scene thinking this was going to be a great rabu-rabu route filled with fanservice… Only goes downhill from here.
Hayato’s route like the base game, is quite plot heavy. He runs into Aisa who turns out to be the beautiful actress that he broke up with in the base game. Also, he never actually dated Aisa. She approached him in a bar when they were both in America and he just turned him down because she wasn’t his type I guess? Hayato keeps his distance from Aisa, who clearly was trying to get in his pants all game by batting her eyelashes at him for the sake of obtaining Mozuyama’s diary so that she can aid Kugei in his revolution. How this helps? No idea, the writer didn’t even bother elaborating.
We don’t learn Aisa’s past until the final truth route; even then, it is brief. She admits to Tsugumi that she monkey-branches from man to man and is attracted to success or those with the aura to “change the world”. Right now it’s Kugei. Her relationship with Kugei can also be interpreted differently depending on the reader. He could be just one of her many boyfriends. In fact, her real identity is a spy for the imperial army (so she and Owase are actually colleagues) and originally she seduces Kugei only as part of her job. However, she goes pretty far for him in the bad ending and tearfully says this is the only deal she worked out with the government to spare Kugei’s life. She also makes various cryptic statements to both Hayato and Tsugumi, things like “you guys belong under the sunlight while my life is so sad and I can only do shady things in the shadows” yet doesn’t really elaborate why. So I’m just like ???
A little preview on the real ikemen of this route “Kiriai Ren” who is good friends with Aisa on stage:
Honestly the romance plotline was mid this route so I’m skipping. Hitaki did an 180 from not allowing his sister to marry a commoner in the first game to fully supporting their relationship, even after learning they were sleeping together and having sleepovers before marriage. I guess Hayato’s dad paid Tsugumi’s dad well? lmao
Yoshikiri and Koruri’s side romance was also a massive snoozefest. Basically Yoshikiri kept running away from Koruri because he feels he’s not good enough for her status and finance-wise, but wouldn’t tell her straight up so she lays this case to rest. Koruri rage dates some random rich guys and threatens that she’s going to marry the next guy she meets. Yoshikiri loses his cool and sabotages the final date and takes Koruri to her parents basically Akira style. The two then go on a romantic “work trip” abroad in the resolution. I really don’t think those two would have a happy ending unless they both live off Koruri’s family’s money lol, what a mess. I’m just cynical and old..
The mysterious black-hair person in Akira bad ending is introduced to be Rei Sekka, who is a hafu Chinese/white hailing from Shanghai. Interesting side fact: Shanghai IRL actually does have the nickname 魔都 (“devil’s capital”). Wikipedia says this name is derogatory and originally coined by a Japanese writer in his popular book as Shanghai was the centre of crimes in early 20th century. Honestly, nowadays Chinese netizens themselves use 魔都 to reference Shanghai without any derogatory meaning. Anyways, Sekka is the young CEO of a large company that has business deals with the Japanese army and various companies. This is his surface identity. His real identity is the head of Shanghainese mafia (why is this giving me Chou no Doku vibes) so he deals opium, trafficks women, everything fucked up – you name it he does it.
THE ATTEMPTS AT SPEAKING CHINESE THOUGH… 💀💀 This poor seiyuu can’t catch a break. I couldn’t stop laughing every time he spoke Chinese because as a native speaker I had to listen multiple times and try so hard to decipher what he was even saying… Non-native speakers can’t get the intonation down and it shows. It was so hilarious this route ended up being a comedy in a way for me. XD
Shiginuma Shouko reopens Nightingale and invites Hayato/Tsugumi to attend her opening party, where she introduces Sekka to them. At the end of the base game, Shiginuma Takashi is incarcerated. The “maremono” he distributed (often fakes) are confiscated though some people lied to the police and kept their copies. Those people are now being extorted and threatened by Sekka’s gang. Sekka’s motives for being obsessed with maremono and coming to Japan in general are very far-fetched but we will talk about that later.
Sekka takes an immediate interest in Tsugumi and similar to SUSsabe in Shougo route he also stalks her and keeps asking her to hang out with him. Eventually, he kidnaps Tsugumi and forces her at knifepoint to have a high-end meal with him. He says he hates Fukurou and especially Hayato. Because Hayato acts all “just” and “righteous” and basically everything he’s not I guess, so he wants to make Hayato suffer by stealing his girl. Lol… Just why??? What??… How did Sekka even become the leader of the Chinese mafia with this level of maturity, after all that buildup in game on how he ruthlessly killed his way all the way to the top? He then gives his knife to Tsugumi and says if she kills him instead, she can leave untouched. He wants to taint Tsugumi by getting blood on her hands. Because this is an otome game, Tsugumi hasn’t heard of killing in self-defence so she can’t do it.
Just when you think the plot can’t get any wilder and like a drug-laced fever dream of Katagiri’s (because that’s what it feels like, no logic, no sense whatsoever), SHIGINUMA TAKASHI APPEARS IN THE RESTAURANT. HE’S BACK. Basically, he has a body double in jail and he gets to roam the streets of Tokyo free, as a “phantom”. He is pissed at Sekka for threatening his ex-clients so wants to help Tsugumi out. Wow what a great guy Takashi, caring so much about his customers to the point the first thing he does after escaping from his jail is customer service. If you want to live you better choose to leave with Takashi instead of staying behind with Sekka who is more unhinged at this point (let’s just forget that Takashi literally tried to get Tsugumi pregnant in the base game, I guess).
Tsugumi returns to Fukurou all traumatized. Hayato’s first priority isn’t to comfort her, but rather pinning her to the bed demanding to know how much Sekka did to or touched her??? WTF??? I don’t even care he apologizes to her later. What was the writer trying to achieve with this scene? I hate this so much? I actually groaned out loud when the plot developed into this? This is not the time to be possessive…
Sekka continues to harass Fukurou and people of the army in a self-destructive manner. He could have stayed behind the scenes and let his henchmen do the dirty work but he keeps putting himself out there on the frontlines. It’s almost like “he wants to get killed”…? I didn’t get why he was painted as the bad guy for killing the general, who literally open fired guns at Sekka in Ginza. Like I get this is in Japan and we wouldn’t take the Chinese guy’s side, but surely there’s gotta be some repercussions to firing at a prominent figure from another country in the open…? The plot is not the strong suit of this game in general.
Ultimately, everything ends in a big showdown at the warehouse. Kugei used to be backed by Sekka (who wants to sow unrest in Japan due to their invasion of China, wants to see the world burn basically) but betrayed him. Aisa’s loyalty with the army is revealed but Kugei replies he always knew she was a spy and loved her anyway. Sekka throws some knives at seems to have the scene under control, yet wouldn’t aim for Hayato’s heart. He wants to keep Hayato alive for some purpose.
Sekka reveals that he’s lived such a fucked up life that he basically… is tired of it all and wants to end himself. And he’d rather die on the hands of 正義の味方 (the friends of justice; which is a phrase that shows up over and over in this game) such as Hayato, the face of Fukurou. His obsession with maremono is basically: I’ve been forced to suppress my feelings all my life and live like an animal and killing machine; those books are supposedly magical and harbour the writers’ intense feelings, something I don’t have.
I’m sorry, I just couldn’t force myself to like this plot. For one, if Sekka really wanted to die, he could have just offed himself in so many ways. Two, Fukurou isn’t exactly the first people that come up to mind as “the friends of justice” and Sekka’s first choice. Three, how did Sekka even kill and backstab his way to the top if he was so mentally fragile or have a conscience at all; this doesn’t make sense. Sekka’s inner conflict is handled slightly better in Hisui’s route that I played next.
Hayato is like noo I will not kill you; come to the good guys’ side. Aisa jumps in and threatens to take Mozuyama’s diary but couldn’t bring herself to kill anyone (lol fail; Japan army facepalming so hard rn). In the end, Hayato entrusts Sekka to Takashi who thanks Hayato for “protecting Tokyo and Japan” because the latter’s logic is only I can cause havoc to this country and not some foreigner like him hmph! Takashi also makes a common that Sekka was raised a Christian because his mother was French. Okay, what was the point…? Surely he is the ultimate embodiment of Christian values.
Anyways, we get some nice CGs. The good ending concludes with Hayato confessing his love to Tsugumi in front of a church and looking forward to their eventual wedding.
Overall, Hayato’s route landed flat on me similarly to the first game. The romance was significantly overshadowed by the main story, which was not well-written or logical at all… I laughed at certain points because it became so comical. I just couldn’t take this route seriously whatsoever. I would much rather have taken a lovey dovey route without the attempt of writing substance into it. Sekka was not a convincing nor compelling antagonist. Nor was Aisa. The writer desperately needed some conflict in Hayato’s route and decided to just throw whatever childish bullshit in. 3/10.
Bad end: If Tsugumi chooses to not leave with Takashi and stay behind, she becomes broken by Rei Sekka through drugs and his personal pet.
HISUI (CV: OOSAKA RYOUTA)
Hisui’s route is one where the romance was meh but the plot was pretty interesting, at least in my opinion. In terms of personality, he doesn’t “mature” from the base game like Shougo despite being the youngest of the group. He remains the same polite, soft-spoken, and sensitive boy he is.
Sure, he has his moments of taking the lead and telling Tsugumi “I’m not a boy anymore”:
However, the overarching theme in terms of romance is Tsugumi quite literally mom-ing him. For this reason, I think this route would be polarizing. There is literally a scene where Tsugumi dries Hisui’s hair then cuddles him in bed. He tells Tsugumi (below) that hearing her heartbeat calms him down and makes him sleepy. He then asks Tsugumi to sing him a lullaby which she complies. Tsugumi gently encourages and supports Hisui throughout this route, getting angry at him if he apologizes for no reason out of habit. And that’s where things are left off to even in the good ending. Very oxytocin-filled.
The storyline of Hisui’s route is twofold. The main conflict is Hisui finally finding his birth father. The side conflict is Hisui’s run-in with Rei Sekka and the resolution of Sekka’s guilt towards all the deeds he’s done to survive.
For the majority of the route, Hisui was distracted by a red herring decoy who introduced himself as “Johann” claiming to be his birth father. “Johann” is some kind of official from the Netherlands and wants to take Hisui with him back there, which caused a bit of turmoil as Tsugumi isn’t sure if she should or can go with him, or have to be separated with Hisui for 3 years until he becomes of age (20). Hisui resents “Johann” for abandoning him and his mother & avoids the issue of reconciliation until “Johann” gets “kidnapped” by Sekka who then extorts Hisui for Mozuyama’s diary that is revealed to basically be like Epstein’s log aka would unravel Japan’s underworld dealings and is a big deal. The decoy works for Sekka so this is all an inside job to extort Fukurou. I especially like the reference to The Red Shoes when a pair of red shoes were sent by Sekka to the front door of Fukurou mocking Hisui for “doing nothing” about his “father”‘s kidnapping.
Sekka’s conflict is more delicately addressed in Hisui route. It helped tremendously that he and Hisui were both Wasian mixes with mothers who died young – hence they share an identity of some sort. However, they turned out very differently. Sekka is not only intrigued in Hisui because of his birth, but also his infamous ability to conjure fire, and muses what he can do with Hisui’s abilities if Hisui joins the dark side and becomes corrupted. Hisui withstands pressure and doesn’t give in. Eventually, he “kills” Sekka with fire but allows Sekka to secretly escape and live under a new identity. Sekka even sends Hisui/Tsugumi a postcard in the good ending and one of his “diaries” in the bonus content.
So who is Hisui’s real father? Almost at the beginning of every route, Hitaki would greet his sister in some basic English. His English teacher is someone called Hans, and only happens to show his face in Hisui and briefly in Rui’s route, and happens to have the same green eyes as Hisui… Hmm… 🤔 Hans’ seiyuu speaks pretty damn good English too (unlike the traumatizing experience that is Sekka speaking Chinese). I looked him up – he grew up in the USA hence sounds quite native. Now, let’s not get into why a German/Dutch guy speaks American English; I’m just grateful we are not dealing with an abomination of pronunciation…
Hitaki of course does not approve of Tsugumi dating Hisui. Hans encourages Hitaki to have an open mind – little did he know he wingman’ed for his boy before even meeting him lmao. Hans is the real “Johann” that the decoy tried to imposter. He almost got killed in some conspiracy against the Dutch government 17 years ago and had to lay low because his old identity was labelled a criminal. He thought about approaching Hiwa (Hisui’s mother) and Hisui. However, he didn’t want to disturb their peace by linking them to a criminal. He took on a new identity and stayed in Japan to work with the Yashiros.
In the end, father and son reconcile. Hans as promised, becomes Hitaki, Tsugumi, and Hisui’s English teacher. The ending where he yells at Hisui to serious up and study English was really funny haha.
The bad ending is basically Hitaki gets kidnapped by Sekka instead.
Overall, I’d give Hisui route 6.5/10. The plot was well-written, but the romance was forgettable. I also don’t think everyone will like the interactions that they had in this route. The writer stuck to Hisui’s identity of “the pretty boy” – he often got mistaken for a beautiful woman, is delicate, sensitive. Tsugumi takes on the nurturing “mother” role and becomes the safe place that Hisui can always return to after he wanders outside feeling lost.
RUI (CV: SAKURAI TAKAHIRO)
Fortunately, Rui managed to stay my favourite in the sequel as well. He remains the flirty, dramatic boy who definitely knows what he’s doing 🤭 and i continue to fall for him over and over again. When he puts his hand on his shoulder, you and I both know he’s about to make Tsugumi feel bad for him and give into his wants hehehe
Rui’s route centres two issues that are closely related to each other: his relationship with his birth mother, Shiginuma Shouko; and the gender identity of Kiriai Ren (born Kiriai Sumire) who is really a trans man but 100 years ago this was not a concept. I know this route got criticized by some prominent reviewers for “not portraying trans people properly” however, I think it did an good job to display the struggle that Ren was facing. I’m not quite sure what this reviewer wanted as it was fictional 1930s Japan – surely we can’t go around demanding everyone to respect his pronouns and wave the rainbow flag?? I will use “he” to address Ren but if I am talking about Sumire then I will use “she”.
As alluded to in previous routes, Kiriai Ren is a biologically female actress who portrays men on stage and has a massive female following. For the first half of the route, I thought of Ren more as a drag king who adopts a male persona on stage only. However, towards the end of the route the author made it very clear that Ren truly identifies as a man (not “just for my stage persona” as he felt uncomfortable fully admitting it outright and this was his way to soften the impact). He talks about how he is appalled with his feminine body, how he is disgusted when he bled from menses every month, and is viewed as a tool for marriage by his family and a vessel to carry children for some nobleman. He even inflicted burn wounds to his chest because he was horrified that his breasts became fuller as a part of puberty and biological female development. His family threatening to send him to an insane asylum and scolding him for bringing shame to the family name certainly is not helpful either.
Rui and Tsugumi handled this issue quite maturely with both of them accepting Ren’s gender identity and reassuring him that he is not a monster, with Rui mentioning some of the earlier cases of male to female transition surgery. I especially admired Rui’s monologue of how he likes to believe sometimes as God created humans, He accidentally put the wrong soul in an unintended body and hence, this is not blasphemy or any kind of unforgivable sin – it simply happens.
This was a secret that Ren could not share with anyone. His family turned a blind eye to his “eccentricity” but told him he had until 20 to mess around and then it is time to wed Ukai Shougo as Kiriai Sumire and secure the families’ collaboration through marriage. This caused deep despair within Ren to the point he could write maremono with the most beautiful aura that Tsugumi and Takashi have ever witnessed. If you read Takashi’s base game memoir/story, he is obsessed with all things beautiful, but especially those that emanate despair – this was what drew him to Shouko and remained obsessed with her even though she was unable to bear his children. Hence, Takashi has been tormenting Ren by getting him addicted to drugs and forcing him to write maremono for him. At one point he also tried to rape her in a similar fashion to him to Tsugumi so that she could bear his children.
“Kagutsuchi” was on the loose, taking women’s books in Tokyo again, but it couldn’t have been Rui – as during many of those occasions Rui was quite literally sleeping beside Tsugumi 😏😏 However, this started to disrupt Rui’s life as all sorts of people who knew about his ex-life as the leader of Kagutsuchi would get suspicious of him (as the assailant was described to be extremely handsome) going back to his old ways again and skirting the rules of law.
Eventually, Rui and Tsugumi wait outside Yano’s store where such incidents often happen. They find Ren to be dressed as Kagutsuchi and confront him to stop. He says he’s been doing this to draw the real Kagutsuchi out as he knew they faced Takashi one year ago. He asks Rui and Tsugumi to kill Takashi to end her torment, but was too scared to tell them what exactly she was despairing about until the very end.
Takashi does reappear in this route and jumps up and down mocking Tsugumi, Rui, and Ren. This also drives a rift between Ren and Shouko’s already fragile relationship because Shouko was not forthcoming to details regarding Takashi’s body double in jail and what he’s doing to Ren. Rui coldly refers to Shouko as “that woman” without addressing her as his mother. However, he admits that he empathizes with Shouko who was limited by the circumstances as the most beautiful “caged bird” of Takashi’s collection and wished he could do more for her.
At one point Rui starts hiding from Tsugumi because she would always confront him about Shouko. He also has a little emo phase about feeling ashamed for being so horny for Tsugumi 24/7 that it’s an “ugly desire”. (We love otome LIs caring too much and obsessing over the heroine, it can’t just be me!) But it’s okay because Tsugumi walks into the trap herself by obtaining the library key after closing time, thinking she’s cornered Rui in “if we don’t have a heart to heart and talk it out, you are locked here with me ALL NIGHT”. Rui is like don’t threaten me with a good time lmao 😂
Anyway, the final showdown happens on an abandoned stage among the four. Ren vows to kill Takashi with a knife and was stopped by Tsugumi and Rui, latter getting slashed in the arm in the process by accident. Takashi controls the situation until Shouko arrives. After all those years, she is with Takashi’s child.
You are someone who is helplessly drawn to despair.
I know you are in love with the despair that resides within my heart. However even someone as hopeless as myself… has begotten hope within.
They say that the last thing that is in Pandora’s Box, is hope.
Do you still only desire the despair that is within me? Or do you want to take my hand this time, and seek a new hope?
Shouko reminisces about her days when she was still the unwed maiden of Higashikouji. After she was raped by Mozuyama and gave birth to Rui, she was not allowed to have her baby boy after the initial embrace. She was made to be the villain even though she did nothing wrong. She was told to minimize appearances and lay low all in the name of “family honour”. This is so similar to what is happening to Kiriai Sumire who only wanted to live according to her true identity. She tells Takashi that now that she is with his child, she wants this child to be the embodiment of hope and freedom. She does not want this child to go through what she and Sumire did, to bear burdens due to no fault of their own. Honestly, Shouko and Takashi’s stories/extra content are very touching. I even translated Shouko’s entire monologue from the base game as it was so poetic with the usage of allegories and symbolism. Here, the author does it again.
Takashi agrees to give up pursuing Ren and focus on his family and child. I guess he just walks away free then? Talk about rich privilege lmao… Shouko and Takashi go abroad for vacation. Rui writes Shouko a long list of expecting mothers’ to-do’s and don’ts as a medical student and finally blurts out “mother” before Shouko leaves. Shouko is overcome with joy and asks him to call her mother over and over again.
Meanwhile, while passing by the same church that Hayato did in his ending, Rui and Tsugumi actually enter. Rui puts on a piece of veil that arrived from Europe onto Tsugumi and proposes to her.
After story: What can I say best boy eats good here
The bad ending though. Shouko falls off the stage and instantly loses her baby. As a result, Tsugumi has to bear Takashi’s child as repayment… However, she still remains Rui’s lover/wife and Rui tells her he accepts this; all of this will be over after she gives birth and hands over the child… WTF… now this is real despair.
Thoughts: 11/10!! What can I say, thank you Katagiri-sama 😭😭😭 I have no complaints about the romance or the story, or even the bad ending. Everything was so good and a real continuation of the base game. The CGs were drop-dead gorgeous. I’m so sad that I won’t have more official content of Rui after this game. I’m feeling so empty inside!!
KUROYURI (CV: MATSUOKA YOSHITSUGU)
The truth route done right this time IMO. This route felt longer than any of the LI routes including Hayato’s, and finally not a cheap branch off of his either. We get a loooot of CGs in this route, one of each LI but also with some of the major side characters too (kind of sad we didn’t get one from Tokimiya). No, we do not see Mashiko’s face behind the mask even in the end. I enjoyed this route a lot as even though the antagonists were not well-written in the LI routes, the writer finds a way to connect most of them together to highlight the final boss that is “Yano Kirihiko” aka the new bookstore owner that took over for Sasagoi. I mean, if you get Matsuoka to voice someone he likely is a big deal lol. Also, he’s the only one left that we haven’t explored. Such is the issue with otome games: only relevant characters get introduced so by deduction we know who is the bad guy and lose the surprise element.
This route is also harem-esque as Tsugumi ends up not being with any guy, so all of them have their separate scenes with her and vow for her attention. I omitted Akira and Hisui CGs because they were mid (Akira’s scene was very adorable though). Tsugumi decides to devote all her energy into her work at Fukurou. As a result she rejected Hayato’s proposal. Hayato is crestfallen, but smiles and says he accepts the rejection and will continue to support Tsugumi.
Rui and Hayato also have a silent yet not so subtle rivalry for Tsugumi’s attention. Towards the end of the route, they have an interesting conversation starting with Rui striking a chat with Tsugumi noting that she likes the nadeshiko flower.
H: Isn’t the flower season almost over?
R: There are also flowers that bloom well into autumn. However, my favourite type of nadeshiko is the one that blooms all year round. The type of nadeshiko that blooms in the sun, surrounded and protected by everyone. The type of flower that withstands the roughness of the rain and is surprisingly strong and resilient.
H: Haha, you better remember that then, student. Don’t pluck the flower without others’ permission.
R: Well, the flower doesn’t belong to anyone, so who are you to tell me that I can’t take it and raise it in my own chambers? I would water it every day, and make it bloom so beautifully like it’s never bloomed before.
H: Aren’t you a medical student? Shouldn’t you focus on studying medicine… instead of gardening?
R: You know what I mean, Hayato.
This is the type of symbolic writing that I don’t really see from other otome writers and probably what makes me such a Katagiri fan and forgive her for the sometimes shitty plot writing otherwise.
In the previous routes, a writer by the name of “Utsufune” is mentioned a lot. Utsufune is a popular writer that is popular among young men for writing thrilling topics, usually about a woman that gets raped, tortured, and finally killed for a higher purpose. Tsugumi becomes curious and buys the book, but could not bring herself to finish them due to how racy the topics are.
Murder-rapes start again in the shrine with the young kazoku female victims having a black lily (kuroyuri) in their mouth, almost paying homage to Sasagoi and his lilac killings. However, unlikely Takashi, Sasagoi is not privileged nor rich so he doesn’t get to have a body double sitting in jail for him. We know this is done by Sasabe to re-enact his “revenge” for Sumire rejecting him (lol talk about fragile male ego). However, Sasabe is revealed to work under a certain someone who eventually disposes of him as well.
This someone has various monologues of bringing “offerings of innocent souls” to a man (presumably the man in the photo, who is presumed to be dead).
Tsugumi visits Nabari who is also serving his life sentence. Nabari tells her that he regrets his past wrongdoings. In fact, he is no longer able to write maremono, perhaps as a result of his mentality changing. At the same time, Tsugumi goes to watch Kiriai Ren’s stage play, where he goes off script and seemingly commits suicide to his audience’s horror, citing Utsufune’s works and how life is meaningless and he would find salvation through “liberation of the soul”.
After Sasabe is killed, people start to commit suicide with black lilies in their mouth. At the same time, Utsufune releases his new work “The Black Lily’s Holy Maiden”. Utsufune has a cult following at the local universities and to investigate this more, Tsugumi asks Shizuru for help. Shizuru knows Utsufune’s publisher, who tells them that Utsufune actually never showed his face once. He doesn’t even want the earnings from the book sales, instead asking the publisher to forward his shares to a local orphanage. Rui becomes invited to join one of Utsufune’s fan meetings/cult gatherings and attends as a decoy. However, Utsufune shows up in a hood so nobody sees his face.
Tsugumi becomes kidnapped by Yano who reveals his identity as an actor by the name of Yonoda Takumi. His younger brother, Yonoda Arihiko, was framed by Nabari in the past, and killed himself by fire because Fukurou convicted him of writing/possessing maremono wrongfully. However, Yonoda doesn’t kill Tsugumi but tortures her a little then throws her in front of Fukurou headquarters as a warning to stop snooping.
Later on, Hitaki gets kidnapped too. However, due to trauma Hitaki awakens his ability to use telekinesis and throws the taxi off balance and escapes with Tsubameno all the way to Tsugumi’s apartment. Hitaki is afraid that he has turned into a monster; that Tsugumi wouldn’t love him the same way as she did before as she’s the most important person to him in this world. Hisui shares with Hitaki his ability and how he learned to come terms with his to offer encouragement.
Yonoda continues to threaten Fukurou, sending black lilies to Tsugumi’s apartment and shooting Rui in the arm outside as a warning to him snooping around at the cult meeting. Again, Rui’s scene was the best out of all LIs. Tsugumi nurses his wound with him teasing her that because his body has been seen by a woman, he can no longer marry anyone else and asks if Tsugumi wants to be his wife instead. “I’ll be a doctor and make a good living. I’m a pretty good cook too..” Tsugumi just say yes OMG…
As of now, there have been 21 victims of Yano/Yonoda/Utsufune. Tsugumi cannot help herself and starts crying. Shizuru takes her outside and wipes her tears with his handkerchief. He theorizes that Utsufune’s pen name comes from the Noh play Nue which is about a monster that was killed and sunk to the bottom of the waters. He also informs Tsugumi that Utsufune called his editor and says that The Black Lily’s Holy Maiden will be his final work. Yonoda is likely planning to die after his final killings.
Aisa and Ren (who is not dead after all, but likely used this opportunity to escape his family’s demands) appear at the apartment. Aisa wants to watch the world burn and has a self-destructive attitude to life because five years ago, her father was framed as an “anarchist” and killed. She and her mother were raped in front of her father’s body that hasn’t turned cold yet. Since then, she vowed against the Japanese government and army, using her only asset – her deadly beauty, playing various men to her tune. On the surface, she is Yonoda’s lover. However, she and Yonoda were friends and colleagues on stage long before all of this happened. She initially helped Yonoda a bit hoping he’d return to the stage after he’s gotten his little revenge against Fukurou. However, Yonoda spiralled too much for comfort and she is now realizing the gravity of his grief and decides to side with Fukurou to stop him.
Tsugumi gets kidnapped again (despite seeing through Yonoda’s disguise but couldn’t overpower him). He reveals the scars on his face. He tried to burn himself to death to follow his brother, but his will to live was strong and didn’t go through with it. (OK then maybe you should have some empathy and not kill others, SMH.) He asks Tsugumi that if she doesn’t want to die, which one of her precious friends she is willing to kill in exchange for her life. Tsugumi continues to refuse.
Instead of killing her, Yonoda uses Tsugumi’s life as a bargaining chip and got everyone to gather at an empty stage the same night. As an actor and writer, Yonoda announces that Tsugumi is in fact, the heroine of his final novel, where the holy maiden was raped then brutally killed in front of everyone. Hitaki arrives at everyone’s surprise and starts using his telekinetic powers to help Tsugumi, saying that Yonoda is unforgivable and deserves to die 100 times over, just like Nabari. He causes the lights to fall and almost kills Yanoda.
I mean the rest is talk-no-jutsu where Tsugumi forgives Yonoda and encourages him to see the light. The title of the chapter was also called “the white lily’s holy maiden”. So anyways, Yonoda also goes to jail and we reach our happy ending where the people of Fukurou stay together and continue working.
Bad ending: Other than the one where Hitaki accidentally drops the lights on Tsugumi instead, instantly killing her; the other way for Tsugumi to die is having a mouth-to-mouth with Yonoda but he feeds the poisoned wine to her, killing her earlier.
Thoughts: The ending was predictable, but I did enjoy the ride. I especially enjoyed the various interactions & dynamics between different characters as well as the symbolic writing. Much better than Nabari route and overall a good finale to the series.
FINAL THOUGHTS
After you clear Kuroyuri ending, the final CGs are in the special stories that unlock now featuring a short animation of the LIs in Alice in Wonderland AU:
Despite having a lot of choices in-game, this game felt much shorter than the base game. I averaged 3-4 hours per LI route which was not what I spent in the first game.
Plot wise, I was not satisfied with how the antagonists were written in the LI routes but they came together in the truth route, so somewhat forgiven. Perhaps the writer heard about the feedback re: the base game’s truth route and finally decided to separate it from an LI’s route. Tsugumi is a lot more proactive, possibly to demonstrate her growth after one year at Fukurou as an independent working woman. She really became the guys’ rock and kicked some major ass. It’s relieving to know that J-otome writers, even in 2017, can write strong heroines but often choose not to because of local audience, which is the only reason that comes to my mind. However, I don’t like the overuse of rape as the only plot device to inflict suffering on women. I don’t think Katagiri was trying to demonstrate any real-life statistic here… but women’s struggles can be diversified and doesn’t always need to be related to sex… hence why I liked Shougo route.
Because this is a sequel with a lot of groundwork laid out already, we had the luxury of seeing a lot more romantic scenes and CGs. The romance was generally well-done. There is also a lot of extra content that is fully voiced. Overall, this is a sequel that the production poured their hearts into. The quality of CGs was overall high but I was disappointed with the CGs for Hisui.
Is this game worth playing? Overall, the sequel was a major upgrade from the base game (which was already decent to good) in all aspects. I mean, if you play on Switch, the NS release is a 2-in-1 so I guess you pay the money of one game for two anyway…? The only situation where I wouldn’t recommend this game is if you have very high expectations for plot, in which case you probably shouldn’t or haven’t played the base game to begin with.
Route ranking: Rui > Shougo > Akira > Kuroyuri > Hisui > Hayato > Shizuru
Score: 8/10.
otome hitorigoto 