Weekly what are you playing post! Post about the otome games you have been playing!
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I’ve been playing Jack Jeanne, the otome game by Tokyo Ghoul author Sui Ishida! I’m in the middle of Suzu’s route and really enjoying it so far~
I saw a few Mastodon posts you made about it, I’m glad you are having fun! What do you like about it so far?
Several things! I like how it’s focused more on the drama school plot and the MC’s personal development as an actress than on romance. There still is gradual and consistent development with your chosen LI, but it’s all in the context of the greater plot.
The whole setup is also very interesting since the protagonist is a girl pretending to be a boy at an all boys drama school where they play both the female and male roles. So there’s just so much cross-dressing going on all around 🤭 It’s not only that the characters are all playing around with gender-presentation as part of their training (and just for fun), but also that MC is essentially putting her LI’s in a General Shang situation (if you’ve seen Mulan).
Also I’m just a fan of Ishida’s art style and rythm games 😊
The only thing that I’d criticize so far is that the rival classes aren’t really getting enough focus. You aren’t even told what their plays are about :/ You just get pretty CGs in the first round of plays and that’s it
I think I’m noticing a pattern where we tend to have pretty different interests, where you play games for the same reason I avoid them :P This is a good thing especially since you and I are basically the only posters—so we have more likes and dislikes represented than just that of the mod (me). I do try to post all otome regardless of my personal enjoyment, but I’m way more likely to know of ones I would enjoy, so…
I’m not playing this game because the rhythm game would drive me nuts (ironically I’m a musician). And although I’m on board with crossdressing in real life, the “MC pretends to be a guy” makes me instantly reject the game. My guess is because I usually try to self-insert to some degree and I feel my gender very strongly—being perceived as a dude is very much not something I am comfortable with, except online when you cannot see the human face, only the text. Or because if MC does not crossdress as a hobby of hers, as an active choice because she enjoys it, it usually promises some “girls are not allowed here” plot that has something to do with sexism and I don’t want that to be a plot element at all, even if the story is about overcoming sexism and breaking barriers. I’d probably be fine playing a crossdressing MC if it was only from a place of her personally enjoying it, and not from a place of having to do it to overcome some gender restriction.
It is a shame because I’m a huge theatre kid at heart. I am literally typing this to you the day after closing night of a play I was in. Drama school and the plot focusing on improving as an actor sounds very appealing to me.
So that means that if you find a game you don’t like, you should send it my way…? 😆
I personally just really like if the protagonist’s gender doesn’t really matter and they’re treated as an equal. I’ve stopped playing otome games just because I couldn’t deal with how the LIs tended to treat the protag. I also learned that I absolutely despise games where the MC is a complete blank-slate for self-insertion purposes (looking at you, Amnesia). Otomes don’t seem to have fleshed-out MCs that often, so I often get my fix from BL games instead :/
In the case of Jack Jeanne, I’m also ok with the cross-dressing, since the setting is very clearly inspired by the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theatre troupe. (I had actually played a Yuri-VN that was heavily inspired by Takarazuka before.) The protagonist plays both female and male roles and really grows through that, so I think she doesn’t really care about being perceived as a girl or not, I think.
At no point, female roles are treated as less desirable than male roles, and actors who can convincingly play a female role enjoy lots of admiration from their peers, which I find pretty neat. The plot hasn’t really addressed how the MC feels about privately cross-dressing though 🤔 It doesn’t get brought up unless there’s a situation where she might get found out.
I can totally understand if the cross-dressing is a dealbreaker for you, though^^
I have found some OELVN otome that have MC actually treated decently! I also prefer people to be treated equally regardless of gender both in real life and in-game.
I actually often struggle to insert on blank slates because they act wildly different from me. Heroines with personality and a similar trait to one of mine are easier to insert on. I wonder if anyone else feels the same way about self-inserting or if blank slates are successful self-inserts for most people and I just have a really weird personality.
Heard of the Takarazuka Revue before, did not know it was all female. Maybe I should check it out. Especially since my favorite type of theatre is musical theatre!
