Kurumi believes there is a blue rose somewhere in the world. One day, when she is on her way home from school, she is suddenly surrounded by a flash of light and loses her consciousness. When she regains her consciousness, she finds herself lying deep in the forest. She finds a man, Ryuka, and asks for help, but he captures her. Recalling my previous playthrough Way back 2015, I read the routes of Eins and of Evans from Ijiwaru My Master. What I wrote for it was kinda short, and was more of a rant about Eins being a jerk. Evans was okay, but what ruined the whole thing was the protagonist Kurumi who I couldn’t stand the entire time while I was reading the VN.
Beware that this post gives away what happens to the early parts of this guy’s route, which may count as a minor spoiler. Major spoilers are hidden as usual, though.
Recalling my previous playthrough…
Way back 2015, I read the routes of Eins and of Evans from Ijiwaru My Master. What I wrote for it was kinda short, and was more of a rant about Eins being a jerk. Evans was okay, but what ruined the whole thing was the protagonist Kurumi who I couldn’t stand the entire time while I was reading the VN. My opinion of her didn’t improve while reading the routes of Lucas and of Leon, so the VN ended up being tagged as “dropped” in my list.
Recently, I was thinking of giving some stalled and dropped VNs a reread. In this VN’s case, I thought that it was best to start over with the guy who didn’t seem to be connected to all of the previous routes that I have read.
The end of dream
Homura’s route was locked behind a story/normal ending called “夢の終わり” (“the end of dream”). The aforementioned ending can be described as an early bad ending for Lucas’ route.
Ijiwaru My Master Review
Gee, this made me remember how I couldn’t stand Kurumi (the protagonist) during the entire VN. See a snippet of her thoughts below:
リュカのこと好きなわけじゃないの。
ここに来てから、まともに話をした相手がリュカだけで、そのリュカがとても優しいから、勘違いしてるの。
……やっぱり私、人間界に帰らないと。
もっと勘違いしちゃう前に、リュカの傍を離れないと。
リュカは私のことなんて、異性として好きなんて思ってくれてないのは見ていればわかる。
このまま私の勘違いが進んで、本当に好きって思い込んでしまったら、傷つくのは私自身。
It’s not like I’m in love with Lucas.
It’s just that he’s the only one who I could talk to ever since I came here.
Since he’s kind, I’m getting the wrong idea.
… I better return to the human world as soon as possible.
Before I further mistake his kindness as something else, I better stay away from him as soon as possible.
I mean, I could tell that Lucas doesn’t like me as a woman.
If I keep getting the wrong idea, making me fall in love with him, I would only be hurt.
She sounded reasonable there, but shortly after she admitted that she likes him anyway. She then became upset despite (morning) Lucas being an overall nice guy, because he didn’t seem to be showing romantic interest in her. Lucas even told her previously that it’s part of his nature as an incubus that he doesn’t show interest in women except in the evening.
Well, I did go for a bad ending so it’s expected that it takes making the protagonist do dumb things. Still, the relationship “build up” (which took a week or less since they first met) made me want to do a head desk.
Route synopsis
Homura was Kurumi’s kouhai who’s considerably popular among girls, especially with his physical features (he has heterochromia), pleasing personality, and outstanding performance in school. Kurumi didn’t pay attention to him until he decided to approach her. She didn’t think too much about his friendly gestures until he reveals in the beginning of the story that he actually wanted to go out with her.
This time around, Kurumi was able to stop Homura before he leaves after his confession, so both of them were taken by a mysterious whirlwind to the underworld. However, Homura was nowhere to be found when Kurumi woke up in the forest. Just like in the other routes, Lucas captured her and attempted to sell her. Eins and Evans were interested in buying Kurumi but she refused to be bought by either of the two. Lucas then let her go, but she followed him on his way home to ask for help.
Lucas then brought her to the place of his “friend” named Franz. Franz was a splitting image of Homura, except that unlike Homura who was kind and gentle, Franz was rude and violent. Franz asked Kurumi to leave and to help herself in her own predicament. Kurumi, having nowhere to go to, begged Franz to let her stay, telling him that she’ll do whatever he asks from her.
Franz: “Even if you pay me with your body, you won’t get anything from me aside from food. You could’ve gone somewhere else with a guy who not only will feed you, but will also buy you clothes and jewelry.”
Route impressions
The good:
- Good world building.
The bad:
- Nothing to see here if you already read spoilers about who Franz is.
- Relatively short.
Since both Homura and Kurumi are humans, the supernatural events have to be explained by giving details about the underworld and its phenomena. I thought that the writer did this successfully. There’s still one lingering question in my mind, though: Did the blue rose necklace have something to do with Kurumi being sent to another world? (Don’t answer; I wrote that question to keep it in mind when I do read the other routes.)
I think that the hairiest part of the plot would be the time slip, which made what appeared to be years in Homura’s perspective to be just a couple of days in the perspective of the protagonist Kurumi and the reader. I would have preferred a “show don’t tell” approach here, i.e. I’d rather have actual flashback scenes showing what actually happened instead of just having the characters narrate their past.
Homura’s route had two branches: one where we focus on dealing with Franz (which leads to endings 1-2) and another where we focus on finding Homura (which leads to endings 3-4). Ending 3-4 branch reveals more about what actually happened to Homura when he and Kurumi were taken to the underworld and it is highly recommended to do the Ending 1-2 branch first.
あれからフランツは、毎日のように私を抱いた。
スープがぬるいのが気に入らないから、昼寝している横を、足音を立てて歩いたから、フランツの嫌いな花を、花瓶に活けたから……。
……ああ、だけど、唯一嬉しかったことがあった。
思い切って、欲しい物があるってねだってみたら、ちゃんと町まで買いに連れ出してくれたこと。
Since then, Franz slept with me almost everyday.
It’s when he didn’t like how tepid the soup was, or when my footsteps were too loud while he’s taking a nap, or when he didn’t like the flowers that I placed in the vase…
… Oh, but there’s one thing that made me happy.
When I took the plunge and asked him for something, he even took me out to the town to buy it.
Franz may be considered as a tsundere, but it doesn’t change the fact that his mood swings were pretty bad (and came from the most trivial of reasons, see above line) and almost half of his screentime was from him acting like a prick. He once told her to sell her body during the earlier parts of the story, but later on he became furious at the thought of Kurumi probably using her body to get things from Lucas whenever the latter visits her. However, there’s that part of me that was finding all of the mess entertaining because I didn’t like Kurumi to begin with.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. I liked how Kurumi continuously thought about Homura while she’s being subject to hardships by Franz. While she had the thought that she’ll someday meet Homura when had her life in the underworld in order, she also prepared herself in accepting the possibility that Franz and Homura were indeed the same person.
Ending 1-2 branch
Some reviews call this the Franz route. In this branch, Franz revealed that he’s human and that he has given up his former identity. While Kurumi (and us, the reader) had a hunch that Franz and Homura were the same person, the person in question refused to acknowledge it.
There wasn’t closure here on what actually happened to Homura and on the reason behind Franz’s attitude toward Kurumi, so this had the feel of the other routes where it looked like they’re exchanging words of affection because the girl was able to stand the guy’s bullshit.
【くるみ】「許すもなにも……最初から怒ってないよ……。フランツは……まだ私が……憎い？」
Kurumi: “There’s nothing to forgive… since I wasn’t angry to begin with. Franz, how about you…? Do you still hate me?”
The mini wedding ceremony from Ending 1 was cute, I admit.
Ending 3-4 branch
Some reviews call this the (actual) Homura route. In this branch, Kurumi insisted Franz to acknowledge that he’s Homura, or at least someone related to him. In the end, Franz eventually revealed that he’s indeed Homura. In addition, it was revealed why Homura was interested in Kurumi back when they’re in the human world, and why he became harsh toward her when they reunited in the underworld.
【くるみ】「ほ、焔君は……昔の男とか……そんなんじゃない……」
服の下につけた青薔薇のネックレスをそっと取り出す。
【くるみ】「焔君は……もっと……大事な……私にとって、大事な……」
Kurumi: “H-Homura-kun… is not just some old flame…”
I gently take out the blue rose necklace that I wore under my clothes.
Kurumi: “Homura is someone more important… he’s my important…”
Kurumi revealing to Franz that she loves Homura was terribly satisfying. Overall, she had a lot of good lines so I found her likable in this branch.
Kurumi: “Still, you’re not alone… I’m right next to you. That’s one thing I don’t want you to forget, okay?”
(Click image to see uncropped version. Image contains spoilers.)
Other comments
The VN showed its age through its CGs. I found the HCGs more cute than sexy, which wasn’t bad as I’m a fan of ero kawaii. There were 4 H-scenes in total, 2 of which were non-consensual (one came with a “reveal” which helped advance the plot *cough*), while the the other two were the usual vanilla stuff distributed among the two branches of the route. I found it a travesty that there’s no H scene of Homura when he and Kurumi went back to the human world.
The huge difference in the tone and the way of speech between Homura and Franz was impressive considering that they’re voiced by the same guy (Hirakawa Daisuke). There weren’t even split personalities going on here, so it’s weird how Homura easily switches between his two speaking styles. I still preferred Homura who uses keigo and calls the protagonist ‘senpai‘, though.
BGM remains to be one of the aspects of this brand does well. For this VN, 涙の形 (“the shape of tears”) was my favorite.
Final words
Verdict: Recommended if you liked the love-hate routes of Under the Moon/10 (7/10).
Homura: “This is for [us] who seek one more miracle…”
(Click image to see uncropped version. Image contains spoilers.)
Homura’s route, unlike the other routes I read so far, had the same feel as most of the routes of Under the Moon which had the whole love-hate relationship premise. The other routes of Ijiwaru My Master had less depiction of “hate” and more of characters doubting whether or not there’s love in the first place… at least that’s what it looked like to me, especially with the “Do you love me?” quote from the OP movie.
I’d agree with that one review mentioning that the VN is more “beginner-friendly” than UTM. In Homura’s route in particular, there were no antagonists and most of the drama was between the protagonist and her love interest. In addition, the best endings were happy instead of bittersweet.
While I had fun reading Homura’s route and I liked the guy in question, Ijiwaru My Master (which I initially gave a rating of 5/10) will probably remain my least favorite work by Hiyo (who is behind the scenario). I liked the fairy tale-like setting usually done by this writer, but it just doesn’t do anything if I’m having a hard time liking the majority of the main characters. Too bad…
Anon with engineering background who writes about completely unrelated stuff
Posted in Otome game, Visual novels
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