Blasphemous as it may be to deem this ‘better’ than the prequel (in the absence of Luna), Risona is no slouch.
This review was originally written on 1/31/2016. May contain mild structural/conceptual spoilers.
Otome Riron to Sono Shuuhen (Ω) comparative to its predecessor, Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou (tsuriotso), might just be the better work. Set in Paris, the protagonist attends the girls-only fashion school, École de Philia. The work follows the bad end of the prequel, tsuriotso. Like its prequel, Ω follows the misadventures of the protagonist, Ookura Yuusei (Kokura Asahi). On the surface, Ω might be misconstrued as an inferior clone of the prequel. After all, the scenario is for the most part the same — a cross-dressing protagonist assumes the role of maid, and is surrounded by a cast of heroines in a school for the fashion-orientated. To make matters worse, the fan favorite from the prequel, Luna, plays only a minor role. Granted that the prequel tsuriotsu was regarded as a premier game, first-and-foremost, for its memorable, unique cast, for Ω to be a ‘better’ work, then certainly, it would need to present an even more alluring cast, right? Conventional logic might suggest that. But, Ω takes the unconventional route — rather than accentuate its proven strengths (i.e. excellence from lively, memorable heroines), it reduces its ‘effective’ focus to just one heroine. Nonetheless, strange as it may be, Ω succeeds in taking the unconventional route.
To begin, Ω is a work focused almost entirely on Risona. While its demo seems to suggest that the work accommodates five heroines, the work itself only actually has four heroine endings, two of which, with actual plot (the other two endings are constituted mostly of a shared common route progression to the ‘non-true’ routes). Of the two heroine routes presented, I only regard one of them, Risona’s, as being good (i.e. comparable, if not, better than Luna’s route from tsuriotso). But, because Ω focuses so intently on one route, devoting nearly the entirety of the common route progression to her character, it manages to craft a very potent, meaningful plot. Indeed, Ω, comparative to tsuriotsu, has a far more meaningful, exciting, and interesting central plot. Constituent of interwoven themes, a mélange of family and school politics, and a quest of growth and maturity, the central plot in my opinion, holds its own comparative to dramatic works that base their design off of the plot. Were we to compare the plot of Ω with the plot obtained from tsuriotsu’s ‘best routes,’ then without contest, Ω would be the superior work. Nonetheless, it hardly seems fair to compare the two works in virtue of an element which only one pursued actively.
After all, tsuriotsu was a work with incidental good plot (in some of its routes), but it based much of its success off of an eccentric, unique character cast. As a character game, tsuriotsu was impressive as it managed to craft a cast of very memorable characters, in a genre (charage) dense with ‘similarly affable’ characters. In contrast, Ω, has at its forefront, Risona, which I think, is as comparatively ‘alluring’ as Luna. Nonetheless, the rest of the heroines of Ω are fairly unremarkable. They’re not necessarily trite or not-likable. or even unmemorable. Instead, the same air of ‘camaraderie,’ which had pervaded tsuriotsu, was nowhere to be found (note: given my praise of the prequel, it should be noted that I view the cast as a whole more positively than I do any individual heroine within their respective routes). In likelihood, this lack of ‘connection’ was a result of Ω’s focus — it simply failed to develop the other heroines to as meaningful an extent as the prequel had (as discussed, aside from Risona’s route, there’s literally one other meaningful heroine route). While some might not view this to be as large a flaw as I’m making it out to be (as a good plot justifies an underwhelming full cast), I enjoyed tsuriotsu because it had hammered in the details. Nonetheless, Ω manages to make up for this in some respects with its particularly interesting side character cast.
In any instance, of the characters which Ω does develop, it develops them excellently. In my tsuriotso review, I had called Aeon the brother of the protagonist, a polarizing character. In Ω, he gets significant focus and development. Indeed, whereas I had entered the work cautious of his extremist (and my sometime coinciding) beliefs, I’m exiting the work, appreciative of the constitution of his character. He shines as much as Risona within this work — throughout the span of Ω, the reader will find themselves liking, disliking, hating, and loving Aeon’s character. I found this to be ironically poetic as it mirrored a realistic sibling relationship. For siblings constantly bicker, disagree, and avow the most passionate of vitriol towards one another; nonetheless, briefly after, all is forgiven and forgotten, like early-onset Alzheimer’s. So, the protagonist is effectively a sis-con and a bro-con — throughout the span of the work, it was easy to see why it was that he had fawned over his sister, but his appreciation towards his brother seemed like a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome. Nonetheless, be it Aeon’s reckless abandon, his resolution, or his dashing good looks, like the protagonist, I grew to appreciate his character greatly by the end.
Further, Risona, as discussed, is a wonderfully-crafted character. We get to see her develop from a hikikomori without many dreams and aspirations to someone with a dream, and a means to realize that dream. Comparative to Luna, who I feel is more intrinsically-appealing (whatever this may mean — perhaps we’re all ‘M’ on the inside), Risona worked for her charm. Indeed, we see two general sides of her, the honest side of her who wishes for a loving family and open with her affection for her brother, along with a more ‘facade’ type of side, being grounded, apathetic, and rational. Even though I feel that Ω provided an excellent story, with Risona, the central heroine on the forefront, Luna still won the Getchu poll for character of the year. While I have reason to contest this, her appearance or involvement with Ω, is transient, but nonetheless, profoundly memorable. Whereas Yuusei, the protagonist, consistently extols Luna as being a divine figure, for a moment in Ω, she had truly seemed like one.
In any instance, I really enjoyed Ω. Whereas it pales in some areas to its predecessor, it excels in a variety of areas too. One of my pet peeves with the work was in its setting — despite being set in France, Risona’s classmates acted ridiculously Japanese. Being heiresses to whichever company, they had ended their sentences with the name of company that they represented. I cannot envision this as being an accurate, or feasible representation of the ‘Western’ world. Further, some of the characters were particularly irking in being flat and repetitive with their choice of words. Nonetheless, this too, was surprisingly done for a reason. Indeed, Ω and tsuriotsu, while being works with separate focuses, nonetheless, excel at writing ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters. Everything written is written for a reason, and all ends are tied up. The rating below includes only the content related to Risona; were the other elements to be added, the rating would fall by half a grade at the least.
