Not a review post, but a couple of days ago I thought about this in the bath regarding how I continue to play and support 2 overmilked series, namingly Utapri & Dialovers. I’m sure people out there do wonder why I’m such a stupid fangirl to continue to support these series instead of continuously trying new games out there. Here’s a more personal post about myself, and why I’m still obsessed with this series so badly. I’ll be talking about a few reasons why, at the same time the bad things about them. It doesn’t mean that when I’m obsessed with both series, I’m blind to everything bad about it! At the same time, this is a post filled with my personal opinions and any complaints with unconstructive criticism of Dialovers will be deleted depending so yeah. So let’s get on with this post!
First, I’ll be starting off with my uh, the strongest reason on why I’m still obsessed.
My /STRONG/ obsession with seiyuu Suzuki Tatsuhisa
If you’ve noticed, I’ve been obsessed with Tatsun since about 2 years ago, and I think it started in super late 2014 after the 3rd Stage of utapri came out. Back then I wasn’t that hardcore yet, but I enjoyed seiyuu content and the series so it happened. Kinda like….the photoshoots for the pamphlet killed me. And that begin my descent into seiyuu hell for Tatsun. If you do follow me on twitter, I end up talking about him 60% of the time or talk about the OLDCODEX things I’ve been getting because him. Heck, my biased even changed drastically from Masato to Ranmaru in Utapri because of this! (of course, I still love Masato & Ren just not so much //cries) An sadly, Tatsun’s also in Dialovers which is double the hell because Yuma just so happens to be my favourite vamp along with the precious Mukamis. I really can’t help it, in all honesty. I really love the guy as a seiyuu I can’t get over it. I even like bowl-cut Roen from Dance with Devils because of that! It’s the main reason why I can’t get out of these two hells. Yep, not getting out anytime because this damn seiyuu. *points to cd collection and cd preorders* I don’t really want to go into details as to why I like him as a seiyuu, as that’ll get kinda even more personal. But yeah, that’s the gist of it. You can look at my itabag for Tatsun and my CD collection with only him if you need evidence.
My itabag. I carry it on weekends out so if you see a girl with this its probably me.
A small portion of my CD collection. Still expanding.
I’ve explained the main cause. Time to break down the 2 games now.
Uta no Prince-sama
+ Amazing Music & Characters who keep pulling me back
I’l be honest. I really love Utapri music. No matter how much I fly away from the series, it will still get be back whenever there’s a new single. This goes along with the characters. What keeps me coming back fro them is their distinct personalities and how they grow. I mean, I was certainly surprised their growth in ASAS, especially for Starish because we’ve been seeing them since the very first game where Ren was a whiny bitch, Masato being stubborn, the list goes on about all of them. It’s like seeing them grow up as teens. I may be still a teen too, but seeing characters grow over series actually makes me happy. The music is the same for utapri. The music just keeps improving and it doesn’t sound that ripoff (I hope I’m not wrong about this tbh) I really think that the music’s still keeping it’s quality after all these years. If i were to list my favourite songs, it would be Kishi no Kiss wa Yuki yori Yasashiku, Still Still Still, Yumeoibito e no Symphony, Marriage, Original Resonance….the list is too long. A couple of songs really helped me on the days where I was feeling like real trash, and that’s why I still stick with it.
+ Too many pretty visuals.
I know Chinatsu ain’t doing the art for Utapri games. But the art is still great and consistent unlike some other games who use their copycat artists and continue to lie, at least they’re honest that Chinatsu did the original character design, and some visuals mainly for the special drama cds & covers for the games, but not the in-game art. But that’s good enough for me anyway. It keeps it’s consistency and they’re pretty honest about the fact that Kogado Studio is doing the rest of the art. In fact, Chinatsu’s releasing an artbook with only her works for the series! But you know, the amount of cute and nice visuals from merchandise, it’s all too tempting for me. And that brings me to my very important negative next point.
– Broccoli being greedy moneymilking bastards
Damn look at all that limited merch. I still have more.
This is my main problem with this damn series as a whole. The story’s decent, the visuals are pretty, the music’s great, the character’s are great…..but you know, when you’ve got great characters loved by people all around the world. YOU’VE GOTTA MAKE MERCH! The merchandise of this damn series is the reason why I’m dying from this. Broccoli loves to milk the money out of their fangirls by continuously releasing tons of merchandise for their characters, especially their Broccoli Limited Merchandise. From merchandise since 2012 for every single year, its pretty darn hellish. This is followed by their Prince Summer series since 2013 continuing to 2015 so far, also their yearly /LIMITED/ AGF concepts which I’m not gonna continue linking or I’ll die. Oh, don’t forget their apparel too! From T-shirts to parkas, headphones to more T-shirts. As well as their random limited merchandise like MUGS and ACCESSORY CASES! Wait wait, their SHINING STORE as well! Don’t forget their recent merch promotion for Girls & Teachers! I mean, LOOK AT ALL THAT PRETTY STUFF THAT I NEED TO SPEND MY MONEY ON! They’re already making merch out of their CDs and official merch, and we still need more because we can never get enough! Fangirls continue to spend their money over those things. Thanks to the fact that I had a budget restraint due to my seiyuu obsession, I retreated from some of these things but I still fall prey to them anyway. Some things in the list are really ridiculous too anyway, for example the crown cases, mugs & the 2015 birthday accessory because WE NEED A RIBBON FOR THEIR BIRTHDAYS! THAT IS TOTALLY USEFUL OTHER THAN BEING AESTHETICALLY PRETTY! Broccoli’s a pretty greedy bastard with the onslaught of merch, which I hate the most.
What did I hear? THEY’RE WORKING WITH KLAB TO MAKE A MUSIC GAME?! THEY’RE GETTING MORE GREEDY AREN’T THEY! Broccoli’s been getting more and more greedy to earn money from their idols that they’re desperately holding on to mainly because everything else they’re making ain’t selling that well anyway, and also probably because they’re losing the popular seiyuu Aoi Shouta from their B-green CD label to King Records. After Klab’s success with LLSIF, I’m pretty sure Broccoli went to them and consulted them how to milk more $$$$ out of them with a mobile, and well, OFF THE IDOL HELL TRAIN WE GO! IDOL BOYS ARE ARRIVING IN IDOL HELL! Broccoli’s getting hella greedy with all their merch this year, which is the main reason why they’re so shitty. I’ll be honest, I’d like to complain with their mediocre story to milk off $$$ from fangirls from their previous game, but that’s been covered in my review of it, so just look at the final thoughts. All in all, they’re just being greedy as fuck to earn as much money as they can from Utapri, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth although I still buy some things, so yeah.
Diabolik Lovers
Diabolik Lovers. The most infamous otome game sparking off many people, dividing people on their opinions about this game. I really like it, story and all, but i’ll be talking about the main points that I hate about it. I’m pretty sure this is where the flamatory comments will go to, but anything offensive to me will be deleted anyway.
+ Great Development in Story & Characters
Excluding More, Blood which was a fucking trainwreck, Dialovers has a good story. I haven’t played their filler games which seem irrelevant to this post, but Dark Fate killed me over because of the character development and the story. I really love how all of the grew from their shitty selves to be have more emotion than before. I’m gonna spoil this before my review but Ayato actually said that he wasn’t going to abuse Yui because of stupid reasons and I was like ;w; Ayato you have grown my child. WHAT IS THIS DEVELOPMENT I DIDNT EXPECT. A lot of people grew like Shu who decided to not run away from his responsibilities finally, Subaru coming to terms with his mom, did I tell you REIJI HAD ENOUGH OF HIS REVENGE?? Oh yes and I can’t forget the other 2 triplets where KANATO STOPPED YELLING. LAITO ISN’T A CONSTANT SEX FIEND. Dark fate blew me away from all of this. The development in the Sakamakis was so great I loved to game. Of course Mukamis had their share in development, where Ruki STOPPED LICKING KARL’S ASS, Kou learns to stop being a dick, Yuma as well. Azusa got his share too by learning what’s strength ;w; The development was crazy in this game that I don’t believe it. Mukamis got the lesser devlopments, but they were all so cute I just died anyway.
But Shu, all of them Vampire bastards are abusive!
I’ve never approved of them being abusive is right. What I like about these characters is that they grow to become understanding and they learn human emotions, realise what they’re doing is wrong and loves Yui for who she is instead of treating her like their tasty lunch box that they all can’t resist. I’m just sold by their growth through the games. I learn that they can be all normal good and sweet dudes that we all want in Otome games. I love the characters. The story isn’t the best of the best anyway, but the character development is great and something that I’m looking for.
+ Dummy Head Mic and Smexy Content
Yes, even after so long, the dummy head mic charm still wins anyway to me. Along with the smexy times. I can’t resist some of the seiyuu’s in Dialovers’ voices, so I end up listening to their smexy drama cds anyway. The content’s pretty decent for their drama cds anyway, and I end up liking them. My main love is really more with the characters as said above, so the drama cds just end up becoming really nice to listen to. Also, the drama cds are to calm my raging 彼氏いない problem so yeah. That’s about it.
– Art. The Derpy Art.
Sadly, this is a problem with the companies handling the series. I played the game initially for Satoi’s beautiful art, but after Dark Fate everything’s changed and she now ain’t doing art for Dialovers anymore. Heck, look at their shitting new Lost Eden! LOOK AT DEM NEW ART! IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL RIGHT? The fact that they’re using Satoi’s name for that art really pisses me off so bad okay. They could have at least listed her as “original character designer” instead of “character designer” making people who don’t know think that shit is hers. Oh, they’re doing that for the More Blood anime special slip cases too, where Azusa’s face is most likely(?) not done by Satoi anyway. But they still list it as her which leaves me really disgusted by them. I’ve also heard reports of art from Lunatic Parade to be terrible as fuck, which is pretty true seeing how their new copycat artists have like 43848290 promotional artworks, cd covers, game covers, game cgs to deal with anyway. I just used plural for artist btw, because we don’t know if it’s a group of people or one person doing the copying anyway.
– IRRELEVANT, OBVIOUSLY MILKED CONTENT
I’ll start with the amount of CDs Rejet is releasing for this damn series. All the drama cds are actually damn fine, but what pisses me off the most if the irrelevant CHARACTER SONGS THEY MAKE! Iwasaki, Rejet’s CEO is apparently high on lyrics writing after trying it out for the first time so its probably the reason why they have like 2734892374 new idol series for him to write lyrics for anyway. The songs don’t make any sense either because 90% of the time they’re like “WE’RE THIRSTY FOR YOUR BLOOD” *inserts muffled rap music in the background* This is followed by their irrelevant new series, Lost Eden where WE ADD IN ONE MORE VAMPIRE TO THE MIX! Just when I thought Dark Fate was a good closure to the series since it properly concludes their stories, but NOPE WE’RE GONNA TIMESKIP BACK BEFORE DARK FATE ENDS TO PULL OUT NEW SHIT FROM OUR ASSES! Yeah, Karl Heinz and his 73492084 new sons that he continues to produce with all the women he’s accidentally banged in his life. Even I’m questioning the existence of Lost Eden to not be an interesting expansion, but just some more milk from an almost-dying cow. Well, I’m planning on buying it when it comes out and I’m crossing my fingers that it’s gonna be good, although I have a slight feeling that it’s going to be utter bullshit. I’ll be honest, but if Rejet’s gonna keep pulling out bullshit from their asses, there’s a high chance that I’m going to quit this fandom, but currently I won’t be because I’m in love with the Mukamis & Tsukinamis.
P.S: I’m not going to talk about the gross Dialovers fanbase on tumblr which I met with and left Tumblr a while after that. The fans are one thing I don’t want to talk about too much but yes, it’s kinda a thing which makes me dislike the series.
And there you are! A couple of honest reasons as to why I love the series! These were kinda thought off the top of my head last night when I was writing this. Whether I’m still dying in them, the above gif explains everything. If you do have any opinions though, feel free to discuss them here!
未来へ向こう 
this is really interesting I should read it completely tomorrow
but yeah judging from your twitter I can see you’re pretty obsessed with tatsun! also didn’t know the one that’s planning to make utapri music game was the one who made SIF. this is actually gonna drag them fangirl. and yea shouta aoi’s changing label might be related to it.
Thank you for a very honest and detailed insight! It was a very interesting read. This might be closer to the mentality of more fans of greedy milking series than I may have initially thought.
I find it particularly fascinating, because we’re so different in our approach to otome gaming: The concept of brand/game loyalty is near-nonexistent to me, I don’t give a toss about merchandise or special editions, I don’t really have a favourite seiyuu (definitely not to an extent I’d insta-buy anything with them in it), I don’t strongly connect with fictional characters in general, I get bored of things fairly quickly and I’m highly critical of any milking to the extent of losing interest in a franchise or refusing to support the practice (I’m on the fence with sequels/fandiscs/ports, but I’m generally OK with it as long as it’s not Diabolik Lovers, Hakuouki, Starry Sky etc. levels of pointlessness).
Furthermore, I will never like nor support a game with a boring/crappy/archetypical story and characters no matter how good everything else is (with respect to the fact that this is largely subjective). If a visual *novel* doesn’t have an at least passable story and characters, it’s absolutely worthless to me. I understand that I’m in the minority, and sometimes wonder if I’m the weirdo or am missing a key piece of the otome fandom puzzle.
To be perfectly honest, I highly resent how seiyuu and “archetype fangirls” (e.g. tsundere, do-S, idols) are the reason why otome companies stick to lazy business practices; preferring to just appeal to seiyuu fangirls, using moe tropes, sticking to fads as well as greedily make pointless sequels, ports, fandiscs and merch… Worse, most don’t do anything interesting with the derivative concepts- zero effort, zero creativity and zero soul. I mean, where is everyone’s pride? I would find it insulting to be blatantly treated like a one-track-minded fangirling piggybank.
But at the same time, fans like you are the ones actually casting the most significant dollar vote, so it’s fair to expect the content you want and it’s understandable from a business standpoint that companies appeal to consumers like you, especially in a niche market. There’s nothing wrong with supporting what you love but because some fans do it so passionately, the exploitative milking starts and cynics like me are left to roll our eyes at Pointless Blatant Milk Game #840.
Thanks again for a very interesting and personal insight.
I can totally feel you in some aspects, tbh. Despite me insta-buying a lot of games with my favourite seiyuu in it, when the story ends up being crappy I get a little pissed inside but try to write it off as fine because of my favourite seiyuus. And well, I guess it’s just me and my emotional attachments to characters who continue to grow as the games continue despite how milky it is.
My order of game buying priority would be seiyuu > maker (rejet), and right after that story because I’m not really a fan of crap story. But well, thanks to my choice in priority, I tend to stumble on the shittier games and miss out on the good ones in the end! Such is the life of a seiyuu fangirl. :’D
Hello,
Can I ask which brand your Itabag is and where you bought it?
My itabag is the official Utapri one which was produced in all the Utapri guys’ image colours, and it’s currently not available to order anywhere as online orders have closed last year.
I see >u< Do you perhaps know any Itabag brands or where you can buy plain ones ?
So you’re more of a seiyuu fan that buys what games they’re in? That’s really cool! I haven’t been able to do that unfortunately because as much as I love Hirakawa Daisuke and Kaji Yuuki I can’t justify buying a single game for their parts.
Though, I can understand your love and enthusiasm toward their works, and I actually just bought my first character CD too! XD (Saint Germain rofl) so in some ways, I can understand the appeal, but in others, I’m hardpressed to buy one huge expensive item for a single seiyuu. And I also kind of binged on a ton of Saint merch because I just love the guy…dammit, I told myself I wouldn’t go down this hellhole….
I set up a poll on twitter, so I think I’ll be playing Diabolik Lovers if things go that way tomorrow 😛 I hear the first game is pretty decent so I’m trying to prepare an openminded view to the game before I dive in. Though the fans also terrify me…which is one of the reasons I’m practically nonexistant on tumblr now cuz I can’t deal with their shit rofl.
This is going to be such a noob question so sorry in advance: How did you put that ‘Now Playing’ and the banner for the otome game on the side of your blog?
Awesome post and I can’t wait to see what else you have in store ^^ (And hopefully we won’t drown in merch…)
Well, not all the time I auto-buy a game when Tatsun in it. I try to justify it with the other seiyuus, art, and the story reliability, and Tatsun hasn’t been appearing often, so it’s chill in games for me. But not for merch because the merch hellhole is deep and hard to get out of oh well. My suggestions is to prioritise which is important. Do you really need that shiny keychain that is just another addition to those 10 keychains on your bag already? Ask yourself that as I do that to stop myself.
For Dialovers, just keep an open mind. The guys may really piss you off though, and some of their actions will not be right so yeah. I quit the fandom on tumblr after a while and I’m nonexistant on tumblr now so yeah.
Lastly, I use the image widget on my sidebar for the banner! Just head to the official websites of the games, to the “special” tab for the images. Copy the image link for whoever you want and put in, and also link it to the website using the widget. If you’re asking how I got the long ones even though they’re gone from the site, I opened the smaller ones in a new tab and did some link tweaking with the change of dimensions on the smaller one. For ref, the long banner dimensions are 160 x 600.
Haha I see. But omg the merch is what’s starting to kill me too!!
Yeah….gonna def try and just be openminded to DL cuz today’s the day I start it 😛 if the poll turns out that way.
And omg thank you sooooooooo much!!! *hugs*
😆”The songs don’t make any sense either because 90% of the time they’re like “WE’RE THIRSTY FOR YOUR BLOOD” *inserts muffled rap music in the background*” Muhahahaha well the last thing than i can say it’s than you’re confessional post just make my day has it sums pretty much my feeling over the Dialovers series. Though my dear you have a lot of guts in contrary of me because at the difference, i don’t plan at all to buy Lost Eden i’ve had enough with Lunatic Parade to get over an another game witch the art is pretty hideous, at this point it’s become rather indecent even Shuu don’t have arms anymore like whut??? not even the story have sense in my eyes and i’m sure than it be bad because REJET just throw at the window the time lapse excuse already. Besides Lost Eden for talk about what? it’s like watching Naruto fillers means bad writing, useless characters with “Noboby understand how buttmad i am to not be a canonical character complex” and a art than was throw on slut street Jesus. You doing well to quit the fanbase it’s become a paradise for ultimate rabid faschist fans, art and fanfic thief anyway you don’t miss that much and same i don’t recommend you to ever come back, i quit it since last year now i’m gotten recently into Hana Awase a tag empty of shit 👌 witch is perfect but Tumblr is dying for good.
I wish you a good continuation for your blog has now your mainly active there i will follow you too because you’re review are very funny.
P.S Me too i have found the developpment amazing though only Ayato, Reiji and the Tsukinamis have the save the grace 😭.
Props to you for getting out of that fandom! It’s been a while since I quit but it’s still cancerous as ever I see. About the issue of Lost Eden, I plan on getting it and see whether if it’s worth continuing or not on with their bullshit. I would have probably quit Dialovers completely if weren’t for my favourite seiyuu voicing one of the characters.