Kissed By the Baddest Bidder [ Eisuke Ichinomiya Route ]

Periodically I tend to spend some of my time doing things that means I have to sit still for a few hours. Normally this entails a steady amount of boredom, but recently my iPhone has been restored and I got the chance to return to one of my favorite activities: Playing Voltage Inc games was pretty much the reason I got an iPhone, as I’ve always felt the otome industry was incredibly under represented in America. As soon as I heard the premise of ‘being sold’ to a guy in this game I knew the darker premise would be well handled. Voltage has a reputation for having genuine types of romances that appeal to girls, and I was extremely excited. Of course at the time, who was available but only the main options? So, I chose the one I found to be. . . okay, I won’t lie, I picked the hottest one. EISUKE ICHINOMIYA EVERYBODY!

I think the reason I’m drawn to Eisuke, other than his looks, is the same thing that originally drew me to Keith in Be My Princess. There’s something alluring about a total douchebag who seems to be completely disinterested in me as a woman. Hah, I’ll show you Eisuke! Just watch, I give it five chapters before small aspects of my life seem to make you drawn to me. Don’t mind me, I’m definitely not toiling my hands like the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz!

His main shtick is, get this, very much in the style of My Forged Wedding. He needs you to be his pretend girlfriend to casually trepse along an issue of an italian mafiosos business. One of my favorite parts of this story HANDS DOWN is that Eisuke isn’t ashamed of all of this. He has his reasons but he doesn’t mind the money or the people that he is associated with! He looks at you and gives you an ‘i dont give a fuck if you approve’ look and does what he wants. Probably more than any other Vantage guy Eisuke does NOT change for you, he falls in love with you. If you’re looking for a sexy bad boy guy who falls for you without a single change in his behavior, you won’t find better than Voltage Incs Eisuke Ichinomiya.

The Mafiosa’s daughter is in love with Eisuke, and at first she’s your typical trash talking love interest. The difference is one major factor- Carolina is incredibly hilarious. I was donating blood platelets and had people looking over at me awkwardly as I laughed my ass off at how stupid she is. She’s rich, a daddy’s girl, and has a buxom and overweight figure that just simply SUGGESTS she is beyond italian. The writers of Voltage need to keep in mind that traditionally Italian women have dark hair, not the blonde blue eyed look popular in America, and are proud of their Italian heritage. You won’t hear me complain however, because Carolina is hard to take seriously as a villain when her entire shtick is her flighty affections and her absurdly out there speech patterns. SHE CALLS YOU A BITCH IN THE FIRST 15 MINUTES OF KNOWING YOU!

But once that whole Mafioso business is settled, you realize you aren’t sure if you want to be away from Eisuke. He hasn’t done more than inconvenience you and even though there is someone else interested in you in this route, you think about him a lot. Eisuke has a lot of chances to pass that border of creepy and bad boy with a jerk attitude, and he never does. But the best part of this route is when he pushes you away. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. . .I love angst so much. When he says he’s done with you ….my heart fluttered. MY PHONE STARTED DYING AND I WENT “NO, NO, I WILL SEE MY CHARACTER BE A TSUNDERE AND REACT TO THIS AS IF IT DOESNT MATTER TO HER” I LOVE these types of plot elements. I KNOW YOU THINK YOU CAN REJECT ME EISUKE BUT YOU LURVE MEEEEEEE!!!!!

Before hand, you do find out Eisuke is kind of a nice guy. Kind of. He has his own motives but he is willing to do what it takes without regret. One of his motivations is to find his sister who has disappeared after they were separated as kids, and to find the people who ruined his parent’s corporation. What ends up happening? When you’re separated you end up being taken captive because – get this – someone claims to have seen his sister. You kind of mention a detail he didn’t and it’s a derp moment for the main character, but it’s forgiveable. Eisuke comes to save you, in his typical ‘I dont care about you fashion’ and along with his buddies takes down his top competitor and becomes even more powerful. SWOON. You be a jerk that pretends not to care about me!

My biggest problem with the game is more than likely that I feel the reveal, even in the ‘good’ end, isn’t as climactic. Namely because they took the emphasis off of Eisuke and showed this guy you’ve kinda had feelings for? I feel like that was a weak line. He’s kind of shown as the ‘normal’ and ‘safe’ option…hey fuck you game! The normal guy is really sweet and I would’ve dated him too. MAKE TAKAHIRO A ROUTE! But. . .I have no complaints about the saucy ending of him ‘educating’ you on how to be his actual girlfriend . . . hehe…he’s hot. . .

So my thoughts? Eisuke is incredibly interesting. He is who he is and that is a guy who loves you, is high and mighty, and really cool. his smile is entrancing and this route actually made me most fond of. . .Mamoru the smartass detective?! all his friends are interesting!   I couldn’t help but feel there was something missing. So. . .I bought the Epilogue! I found it funny you don’t start living with him since he declares you can’t leave the bedroom without asking LOL. Even the main character is a little lonely you aren’t sleeping there anymore. You end up promoted to the Penthouse cleaning and well…okay with me, though I’m sure Eisuke will ride you hard about it. . .wait that’s a double meaning. .

…douche…but when he says the misleading quote of the opening, he then turns into a sexy boyfriend type who makes out with me. DAMMIT EISUKE, I JUST DON’T KNOW HOW TO QUIT YOU!!!! The game brings to attention that he never said he loved you, so I’m hoping he’ll do that? Hnghghghghhh. . . The best part now is when people hit on Eisuke and insult you he gets pissed and leaves, and tells them to fuck off. AW HE LOVES ME now have sex with me. I mean what?

..RIGHT AS I SAID THAT I GOT COCKBLOCKED! I SHIT YOU NOT, THIS GAME THEN WENT “NAH I GOTTA BE RESPONSIBLE AND SHIT” AND GO TO WORK. FUCK. WORK? THE FUCK. I JUST WANTED TO GET IT ON WITH MY IMAGINARY BOYFRIEND SON OF A on a sidenote I kind of ship Chisato and Baba. ..

The game deals a lot with MC (who I named Michiru, by the way) feeling she might not be his only girl because he won’t admit he loves her. GIVE IT TO ME EISUKE. GIVE ME YOUR LOVE!!!!!

My wishes got granted in the end as Eisuke dragged me to my room, confessed, and then we totally did it. EXCELLENT. Perfect ending. If you buy the main route BUY THE EPILOGUE. IT’S PERFECT.

On a final note, there was an art contest. I was so busy with school starting I had no time to draw, but now I have! I figured in tribute to the games Flash Sale, I’d make a nice fanart for Eisuke.

 

If Voltage games are too expensive for you, this weekend’s got a great deal. I’d recommend trying Eisuke for 50% off (until Monday 9/15) or Ota…or Mamoru…so many great choices. Personally I’m not really interested in Baba, but I will step in and defend the prices since a normal manga takes me thirty minutes to read, and is twice the cost, but a Voltage sim takes me usually two hours to read. For an under represented market, I think it’s important we otome fans take advantage of sales to represent ourselves and let the market know we’re here, so we can enjoy more fun games like this. Go for the sales, go go go! (and if you can’t, let me know your favorite route here so I can make sure you keep up with your favorite until you have money) If we’re lucky we might see a major spike in games and get to see even more varieties. But for now. . .this sexy guy and his tsundere ways pleases me. . . even if he can be a douche . . . douche.

Oki