Otoko Yuukaku

Otoko Yuukaku is the Vita port of Gyakuten Yoshiwara ~Kikuya~ but with added voices, and 1 new character route. I know the original mobile game has been translated into english and is available on mobile/pc/switch, the Vita version /has/ voices and I generally prefer a game with voices. That said, the plot is exactly the same, with the island being a place where men are barely born, so most women go to Yoshiwara to produce children. Our heroine Misao runs into Kikuya while she’s making a delivery, and is offered a night there, plunging her into the world of the red light district. What will happen from here on?

Takao (CV: Morikubo Showtaro)

Takao’s the oresama of the bunch who really just has to go around flexing on Misao no matter what route you’re in telling her he’s the hottest shit at Kikuya. But in reality, he’s also the one who seems riddled with problems the most. Basically Tokiwa messes with Misao telling her that Takao can’t quit the oiran work cuz he has to support shitty parents, so Misao starts getting worried about him and tries to help him in any way /but/ refuses to tell him why. Anyway this leads to a confusing turn of events where Takao decides to make a move on Misao forcefully – in which she’s okay with I guess??? until he finds out and they resolve things together. The next bomb they drop is that Takao /might/ be Misao’s brother. Hearing about this from her mother Misao decides to not go see Takao anymore so he decides to sneak out and find her, in which they run off to the main island to confront his father about them being siblings. Turns out it’s all a misunderstanding! At the same time, Takao’s father also tells them he was sickly but he’s better now and doesn’t need him to work to support him, he can find his own work. At the same time, he’s been helping Takao to save up so they collectively go back to Kikuya to pay for Takao to quit the Oiran work.

Best End: The couple decides to get married and they spend their days helping Misao’s mother at work while visiting Takao’s father on the main island. Normal End: Takao gets bought out of Kikuya as well, and they decide to get married but the ending is just different in the aspect that they go back to the red light district to look at the sakuras together. Bad End: Misao decides not to see Takao ever again because he /might/ be her brother, and he calls her to Kikuya for him to look at her wares so they can continue meeting each other in private. Gonna be real, I was really excited for Takao until his route drama came piling in and that just made the route really tiring. My main beef is the fact that they made the siblings thing so dramatic – but it was then quickly swept under the rug. Nothing much came out of it. Takao’s also pretty stagnant throughout the story in terms of character growth, and the plot also felt it was going nowhere since the story concluded so conveniently. It was an ok route, but pretty forgettable.

Tokiwa (CV: Toriumi Kousuke)

Tokiwa’s apparently Takao’s assistant at the moment, but it turns out he’s a full-fledged oiran who got demoted to assistant due to stealing customers. He’s also the main shitstirrer of the available oirans and is often fighting with Takao due to his strong rivalry with him, which is unknown until you enter his route. Turns out he wants to be the Number 1 oiran in Kikuya! This comes with a little backstory though, Tokiwa’s half caucasian so when he was living on the main island as a child, he’d always be bullied and looked down upon by others. His father disappeared soon after his birth and his mother couldn’t handle the discrimination of raising a half blood kid so she sold him off to the red light district on the island. To Tokiwa, this is the only place which accepts his looks so he wants to prove that by becoming the number 1 oiran in town. His opportunity casually slips in when Takao gets injured by a slasher, so Takao is unable to show up to the Oiran Parade (its 花魁道中, look if up it you want a clearer definition) so Iroha asks Tokiwa to take on the job. He’s hesitant, but with Misao’s support he goes for it. Misao is very supportive of his dream to be the top Oiran so she decides to use the only funds she has to fund banquets to get Tokiwa’s name out. She has no money to see him after this, but she still sees him at the parade but runs away right after he appears.

Misao somehow runs into the slashers who turn out to be Kikuya’s business rivals, trying to get more business for themselves, and is eventually kidnapped, then saved by Tokiwa. The both of them inform Iroha about this and the matter is eventually settled. Best End: Misao admits she isnt from a rich family so she wont be able to pay to see Tokiwa anymore. However, for whatever convenient reason, Iroha tells her that Kikuya’s been receiving gifts from other people in the red light district after hearing that she helped to pay for the banquets to weed the slashers out. This allows her to have enough money to pay for Tokiwa, so they live together & help her mother out. Normal End: The exact same thing happens as the best end but instead they set up a shop in the red light district instead. Bad End: While running away from the slashers, Tokiwa gets killed while trying to protect Misao. Honestly I thought Tokiwa would be bad but he turned out to be a giant dork who needs a hug & someone to listen to his dreams, so it was a very cute story to me. He’s probably my favourite dude of the bunch.

Kagura (CV: Okiayu Ryoutaro)

Kagura’s the stoic one of the bunch, who’s a little stubborn but is in fact, the smartest in Kikuya. He’s been taking care of Kagerou as Kagerou’s still in training, and besides doing his oiran work he keeps up on gaining new knowledge while also training himself in his swordsmanship. Misao starts to take a liking to him when he tells her passionately abt his dutch studies which leads her to fall asleep when they spend time together, so she wants to try and help him. Kagura doesn’t have much problems, the only driving force for him to leave Kikuya is to want to gain more knowledge and use the knowledge to help someone. It just so happens Misao’s “uncle”, a rich businessman who has been supplying her family’s store with rare western items, is back in town and Misao asks him to find the books Kagura’s missing for him. Unfortunately this causes Misao to use up the money she got from the runaway couple to purchase the books, so she sees Kagura one last time as he sponsors a banquet for her to thank her for her help.

She avoids him until Kagerou is sent to her with some money to see Kagura again, and she admits she’s not from a rich family and she wont be able to see him again. The good news is, this route is about to end conveniently again and Misao’s “uncle” asks her for a favour. Best End: Misao’s “uncle” has been looking for someone who has the intelligence and skills to work in the government, and Kagura fits the bill. He pays for Kagura to leave Kikuya so the couple gets married going back and forth from the main island to the island where they came from. Normal End: Misao’s “uncle” is looking for a teacher for a school on the island, so he pays for Kagura. The couple gets married while they work towards setting up the school. Bad End: Misao decides to never see Kagura again and keeps him at the back of her mind, and eventually meets him 10 years later, when he’s earned enough to repay his debt. Kagura was okay, but I found his route to be a tad boring with not much development other than the progress of their love. The Bad end was a little cheating though, his bad end was definitely a better one.

Kagerou (CV: Nojima Kenji)

Kagerou’s the youngest of all the Oirans, and he’s technically still in training and officially becomes one in his route. Thanks to Kagura, whose technically the person who raised him & is his mentor, he’s been able to go to school and leave Yoshiwara for lessons. He starts falling in love with Misao due him dragging her to shop for books with him, and going to a festival together. Kagerou actually has a sister who he was forcefully separated from to be sold to Yoshiwara, and his sister married a foreigner so she’s able to get her husband to pay for him to leave even before he starts getting customers. However, Kagerou’s stubborn as fuck so he refuses her help, and wants to leave Yoshiwara using his own efforts despite knowing that Misao loves him and doesn’t want him to be bedding women every night. Kagura asks Misao to be Kagerou’s first customer on his first day of the job, so they spend 1 night together. Unfortunately, upon realising he’s gonna take other customers, Misao passes out.

Misao falls sick and doesn’t seem to be recovering, so the adults decide to get together and convince Kagerou that Misao’s got a terminal illness to trick him into saying okay to his sister’s offer, which makes him absolutely angry at all of them. Best End: Kagerou’s sister pays for him to leave Yoshiwara, and he basically goes to Misao’s house asking to marry her. They get married, and end up moving to the main island to work there, and they often travel back and forth. Normal End: Kagerou is helping his sister’s husband with his work, but one day pops by Misao’s house since they have a job for their shop, so he gets to stay there for a month or so. \o/ Bad End: Kagerou refuses any help from his sister, so Misao starts rationing the money she has to go meet him periodically until he can earn enough to leave. Kagerou was definitely cute, but the fact that the whole route was just him being stubborn when he had an answer to his problems was lowkey kind of frustrating to get through, but his character made up slightly for it I guess.

Iroha (CV: Kuroda Takaya)

Iroha is the manager of the shop, who basically just assigns customers to the oirans. He used to be an oiran too, but has paid his debt and is now working there since he’s indebted to the place. As you can expect from the main visual, Iroha is an oni. He’s actually a half-oni, but that alone is enough for him to be discriminated wherever he went, and thats why he feels indebted to Kikuya being the only place which accepted him for being one, even though it was for the wrong reasons. This time, Misao tries to choose him, but he explains that since now he’s the manager, he doesn’t take customers but decies to offer her “special services” where he teaches her how to be a customer since it’s her first time. Unfortunately, this causes Misao to like him further and she’s extremely stubborn about this – to the point she only goes to Kikuya to see him. After Misao sees him the first time when he turns into his Oni form, she’s scared, but tells him anyway that she’s fine with his Oni look. He apparently only transforms when he’s emotions spike – which is basically the game telling you he’s getting the big dokis when turns into oni form LMAO.

After a bunch of scuffles with the both of them, mainly Iroha not wanting to express his true feelings, they finally get together but the game goes on their usual trend of slapping some random drama on the last few chapters – in which for this one is Misao’s mother wanting her to marry someone else. Her mother doesn’t approve of her being together with someone from Yoshiwara, so she sets Misao up with someone. For the sake of her mother, Misao decides to not tell Iroha anything & leaves after they meet one last time. Best End: Iroha shows up at Misao’s house saying he’s quit Kikuya, asking for her hand in marriage. Misao’s mother isnt pleased but he asks her to give him a chance to prove that he’ll be a good son-in-law. Eventually, Misao’s mother approves of them after a few months and they decided to get married, spending their lives together. Normal End: Misao goes with her decision but is hesitant, until one day Iroha shows up and whisks her away to Kikuya. From then on she works at Kikuya together with him, and eventually is soon able to get her mother’s approval since Iroha’s been in contact with her mother. Bad End: Misao goes with the arranged marriage, but she still continues to have feelings for Iroha. Iroha was cute, definitely, when his tsundere points all came out it was extremely endearing. But this route really suffered from the padded soap opera of “no i cant love you” nonsense when the man has been clealy getting the dokis from Misao. The ending drama was slightly unnecessary too, honestly could have done without it but they just had to make something for the bad end to happen.

Itou Keiji (CV: Kakihara Tetsuya)

Keiji’s the new Oiran at Kikuya, and was apparently kicked out from his last shop for causing trouble. But guess what! Keiji has nothing to do with the Oirans, he’s a rich bocchama who snuck into the island to fulfill his goals! Basically Keiji has an aunt who fell in love with an oiran on this island, paid for him to leave and tried to conceive a child afterwards, to no success. The phenomenon of men not being born on the island is due to a curse on the island. A previous daimyo of the island used to have many male retainers serve her, sharing her affections with all of them, until one day one of the retainers in her man harem snapped and decided the daimyo IS HIS ONLY so he killed the daimyo. Since the death of the daimyo, there hasn’t been any men born on the island. Believing this is the main reason, Keiji snuck into the island & into Kikuya to investigate more. His butler Saeki, is also chasing after him trying to drag him home. Keiji’s other issues involve him being upset that he’s only used as a tool for the family to get further up the ranks, and that he has never accomplished anything himself. If he breaks the curse, he can finally achieve something – thats why he has an obsession with trying to break the curse of the island.

Through running around the island finding clues to break the curse and running from Saeki, the 2 fall in love. After getting the runaround where burning a bunch of stuff doesn’t work, they run into Saeki who just so happens to be conveniently possessed by the crazy retainer!! Keiji then realises that the curse on the island wasn’t placed by the daimyo, but that crazy retainer who killed her! At the same time – they also find out that Misao’s a descendant of the daimyo. Trying to find a way to stop the possession, Keiji realises Misao is holding an Obi from the daimyo, the item was passed to her earlier in the route by her mother. Keiji throws the damn thing into the fire, and Saeki is released from possession. After this incident, Keiji leaves the island, promising Misao he’ll come back after convincing his parents to let him marry her. Best End: Misao is accepted into the Itou family, they end up getting married & Misao gives birth to a baby boy. Normal End: Keiji is let go by his family and is free to do whatever he wants, so he moves in with Misao to help out around the house. Around the island, people are starting to give birth to boys so the curse is officially gone. Bad End: Same as the other endings, the curse is gone but Keiji wasn’t allowed to marry Misao, so the 2 can only discreetly meet once a year.

I’m pleasantly surprised by Keiji’s route, mainly on the fact that it actually covers content about the main plot of the game – men not being born on the island. This was a nice good insight on more about Misao & and the island in general, and it was nice to see that the setup written actually had some form of backstory behind it. That said, unfortunately didn’t bother to bloat this route in any way despite it being a new route for the port, choosing to stick with the same length of route, so I’d say this one lacked a lot in the romance department, anything about Keiji in general & rushed the main plot too fast.

~Final Thoughts~

My thoughts on this game – mediocre. Honestly I have no idea how to describe this one other than every form of how you can say “meh”, “okay” or “mediocre”. I fully understand that this was a mobile port just with voices, but for the price tag of the game esp if you bought it at full price + physical copy, the price tag is basically just for the voices. Since it’s a mobile port, the story is quite rushed through and a lot of things are conveniently placed, such as plot inconveniences and solutions to the character’s problems. You really can’t savour their problems since the route is basically rushing you towards a “major event” happening. Each route would take about 2 hours in-game time to finish – really not much content to savour at all. This was the exact reason it took me so long to finish – I felt nothing after each route but “meh” and I really had no motivation to go any further in the game because it was just a recycle of meet character > character reveals problem > drama 1 > solution > drama 2 > ending. There isn’t much to this game. Maybe I’m reviewing it too hard since it used to be a mobile port, but I kind of expect it to be longer when its a commercial game? There was extra content in the game like some short after stories – voiced as well but I was so happy to be done with this game that I really didn’t bother with them – just force skipping through to get the CGs. I’m also aware this game was kind of sensored for the Vita, the OG version (the steam/switch) is apparently more explicit so I guess if you want more descriptions of sexy times but without voice, that’s sufficient. The only takeaway from this game was the voice acting, but I gotta say that some of the recordings had the audio quality being extremely low quality for whatever reasons. Overall, would not reccommend this one. Unless you’re into some nice voices with borderline explicit scenes.