Now, one of the simplest ways if you’re ok with asking people directions (and they either don’t know, or you’re shy about asking where Otome Road or animate is), is to ask how to get to Tokyu Hands. The Tokyu Hands store is a hop skip and a jump away from Otome Road, just on the near side of the highway overpass.

If you’d rather find it yourself, here’s a guide.

First, a linkie to a Google Map of walking to the Ikebukuro Animate. If this is enough, fantastic. However, when I went, I had the Otome Shopping Guide with a diagram that looked pretty similar to this, and I TOTALLY got lost. Partly my own fault for thinking I could wander around and find it.

Anyways, start off in Ikebukuro station. Depending on which train/subway line you take it will be different places, but once you exit you’ll likely be underground. Now, if you can, use exit 35. This is the closest to the street you need to go down to get to Otome Road. It may feel like you’re walking underground forever, but it makes things easier!

Exit 35.
If you can’t, you may end up going out the main entrance. You want to cross the big road in front of you, and start going the road that looks like this.

The red box is the Exit 35, you want to be on that side of the road. Notice on top of the building above it, the red cube with the Bic Camera (in Japanese) on it.

Now,once you get to exit 35, turn around and look back, you should see something like this:

Tuen back around and continue going down this street, but not far. There will be a crosswalk, and two roads going off to the left. Don’t go down the first one, but the second – the Lotteria should be on your left.

Leading up to the turnoff.

See the red box? That’s the Lotteria, you should go on the road to the right of it.
 
Now if you see this before you, you’re practically there!

Lotteria on the left, Sanrio on the right. Now just keep walking down this road, past a Denny’s:

Past KFC…

Past Book Off (it took me a while to find this as well, since in addition to being recessed the sign is orange instead of yellow!):

Actually if you have time check the Book Off out, it`s pretty good.

And finally you`ll get to Tokyu Hands – almost there!

Now, see the overpass? You’re going to go under that, and get to that glass building, the Toyota Amlux building..

(This pic is shown from where you end up across the street.) Admire the cars inside – just kidding, we have otome shopping to do! Now at this point, you can either go straight from the crosswalk, or you can turn right. Both choices are good, but I’m going to go right. Just ‘cuz. So follow those mini trucks!

Hmm, what’s this 7 story building? It’s Animate! You have now arrived at Otome Road, dance, jump for joy, whatever you feel like!
Now, Otome Road can both feel small and big. When you first see it, it seems small. Yay an animate, yay a K Books. But don’t be fooled. Let’s take a tour of all the otome shops (or at least the ones I went to).
Once you’re done with Animate, keep going down the same road. Two doors down past a ramen shop, there’s Lashinbang:

If you find out what the deal is with the name, please tell me. This has games, DVDs and CDs, and I’m not even sure what they have on the second floor.
And look what’s right beside it! K-Books Anime. Enjoy this as well.
You may be thinking, “Is this it? Is this all of Otome Road Lijaka?” NO. NOT AT ALL.
Continue down the road.

I didn’t go into this K Books, because I think it’s mostly cosplay and I was on a serious game mission. But I’d love to go and explore. And hmm, I see a red sign on the right, what could that be?

Hm still can’t see very well.

Oh yes, the holy of holies for doujinshi, Mandarake. This may not be the multi-story monstrosity in Akihabara, but it is almost ALL for women. Rock on.
You may feel an urge to stop here. Animate, Lashinbang, K Books Anime and Premium, and Mandarake can take quite a bit of time. It seems like this might be the end. But I think we should keep going. Don’t turn around (in fact I would save Mandarake for later to browse at leisure), but keep going down the same road.

Focus on the red box. Let’s get closer…

K Books Doujin. This is the ONLY place I found doujin otome games. They had one small shelf upstairs for games, and I found them there. If I could go back right now, that’s one of the first places I’d go.
Surely, you’re thinking, that must be it? But don’t you feel like something’s missing? I can’t quite place it, so let’s go down just a little further.

K Books Comic. Just in case you haven’t gotten enough otome stuff, this can probably fill some empty spots in your bag (and empty some of your wallet). They had back issues of otome gaming mags here…very tempting.

So those are the stores that I found on Otome Road. Mandarake and K Books Doujin alone took hours of my time, and I think I ended up visiting Otome Road three or four times (in four days, I was getting a little embarrassed by the end because they recognized me).

If anyone is heading to Tokyo, I hope they find this useful – I wasted hours looking for Otome Road, but once you figure out the basics it’s very close to the station, and oh, such awesome shopping!

I did find THIS: Japan Otome Festival 2, happening late February.

Old-school Angelique!

I know there are lots of events for otome games in Japan, though I’ve never been to one. This one though, is a collaboration between Neoromance and Otomate and B’s Log, so it’s pretty big. It’s basically a two-day stage show, with a HUGE number of seiyuu doing live sketches in character, songs, and some discussion (in their own personas).

Here’s the list of seiyuu (and the characters they’ll be performing as underneath):

伊藤健太郎 Kentaro Ito
土浦梁太郎（金色のコルダ）

井上和彦 Kazuhiko Inoue
橘 友雅（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 梶原景時（遙かなる時空の中で３）

岡野浩介 Kousuke Okano
鴉取真弘（緋色の欠片）

置鮎龍太郎 Ryotaro Okiayu
アクラム（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 白龍（遙かなる時空の中で３）

下野 紘 Hiro Shimono
桐生 祟（遙かなる時空の中で５）/ ルシア（猛獣使いと王子様）

関 智一 Tomokazu Seki
森村天真（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 源九郎義経（遙かなる時空の中で３）

高橋直純 Naozumi Takahashi
イノリ（遙かなる時空の中で）/ ヒノエ（遙かなる時空の中で３）

高橋広樹 Hiroki Takahashi
レイン（ネオ アンジェリーク）

津田健次郎 Kenjiro Tsuda
風間千景（薄桜鬼）/ 無責任番長（ビーズログTV 恋愛番長）

寺島拓篤 Takuma Terashima
桐生 瞬（遙かなる時空の中で５）/ シルビオ（猛獣使いと王子様）/ ヤス（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）/ 貴樹（闇の皇太子）

鳥海浩輔 Kohsuke Toriumi
藤原泰衡（遙かなる時空の中で３）/ 英 円／ビショップ（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）/ 斎藤 一（薄桜鬼）/ セクシー番長（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）

浪川大輔 Daisuke Namikawa
海棠鷹斗／神賀旭（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）

成田 剣 Ken Narita
アリオス（アンジェリーク）/ レヴィアス（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）

野宮一範 Kazunori Nomiya
狗谷 遼（緋色の欠片）

平川大輔 Daisuke Hirakawa
ベルナール（ネオ アンジェリーク）/ 大蛇 卓（緋色の欠片）

堀内賢雄 Kenyu Horiuchi
オスカー（アンジェリーク）/ 闇皇<御門>（闇の皇太子）

前野智昭 Tomoaki Maeno
不動翔麻（100万人の金色のコルダ）/ ヨハネ（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ 加納理一郎／放浪者（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）

森川智之 Toshiyuki Morikawa
エルンスト（アンジェリーク）/ カイン（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ ホスト番長（恋愛番長２ MidnightLesson!!!）/ 安倍晴明（闇の皇太子）

森久保祥太郎 Showtaro Morikubo
沖田総司（薄桜鬼）/ ジョヴァンニ（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ 恋愛番長（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）

森田成一 Masakazu Morita
火原和樹（100万人の金色のコルダ）

吉野裕行 Hiroyuki Yoshino
藤堂平助（薄桜鬼）/ ヤンキー番長（恋愛番長２ MidnightLesson!!!）

代永 翼 Tsubasa Yonaga
天神 后（闇の皇太子）

Huge, right? For this event, they do 4 shows, 2 each day, and each one focuses on different titles. Tickets range from Y4800 to Y8800, holy expensive! But I guess for something that’s so rare, maybe it’s worth it. I’ve seen DVDs of these events as well, I wish I’d gotten them when I saw them. I wonder if they sometimes use the sketches later in drama CDs or something – it seems like a waste not to.

Anyways, I just saw this while I was lamenting the delay of B’s Log and thought I’d introduce one more thing we miss out on outside of Japan

Silvio from Beastmaster (CV: Terajima Takuma)

Basic overview of the time period is that it’s the end of the Han Dynasty, a 400-year reign of awesome like the Roman Empire, and eunuchs and warlords have taken too much power from the throne, leaving the masses to be oppressed. The droughts and famines really aren’t helping. Suffering peasants join a former-official-turned-religious-zealot named Zhang Jue (often romanized as Zhang Jiao for some reason) and form the Yellow Turban Rebellion to take down the Han. Warlords assemble to repulse the movement, several (Cao Cao and Liu Bei are among the most important later) proving themselves capable and gaining official positions as rewards. The warlord Dong Zhuo is a jerk and decides to take the last Han Emperor and make him into a puppet ruler. The other generals assemble once again and try to take him down while carving out their own spheres of influence. Dong Zhuo eventually gets assassinated by Lu Bu, but the power of the dynasty has been irrevocably lost, and the empire devolves into a bunch of states ruled by warlords beating the crap out of each other, with three kingdoms eventually becoming the main contenders for the imperial throne.

Anyway, quick rundown of major players in otome games (there’s a ton of stuff so don’t worry too much about unfamiliar names and such; I am always willing to sperg more about the Three Kingdoms):

Okay, to fix any confusion, Sangokuren used the style names of all the characters (excepting the women, who probably had them but generally weren’t recorded). Style names (generally designated with 字, read azana) were given to adults when they came of age in China (not unlike something the Romans did, I think)(Ed. also the Japanese, after guys came of age (genpuku) they got a different name e.g. Oda Nobunaga’s childhood name was Kippoushi) and were used in public settings as signs of respect. Japan is weird about style names in their Sanguo stuff; when used in manga and games, they often take on a more private/affectionate nuance, so I’m not 100% sure about this. Buuut it’s not like historiocity is a big concern for this stuff…

Cao Cao, styled Mengde (Moutoku) is the big badass of the Sanguo period. He was a brilliant politician, cunning strategist and gifted poet who knew how to surround himself with the best men available. He eventually gained and held sway over most of Northern Imperial China (much smaller than modern China but still pretty huge) as the leader of the kingdom of Wei. He was also kind of a huge jerk (for pragmatic reasons, but still), which gets played up in just about every media representation of him ever. (He is one of my very favorites. Even though I have like 20 favorites in the Sanguo period alone.)

Generals operating under him include his cousin Xiahou Dun, styled Yuanrang (Genjou, aka the guy they’re actually adding a “route” for in the PSP version because he is so awesome), best known for eating his own eye out of filial piety in operas/the novel, Xiahou Yuan (Dun’s agile archer cousin, featured in Jyuuzaengi), Xun Yu Wenruo (Bunjaku, who was one of Cao Cao’s most loyal and able administrators and secretly Miles Edgeworth if Sangokuren is to be believed [don't ask]), Zhang Liao Wenyuan (don’t think you’ll have to know it, but Bun’en), who almost captured Sun Quan singlehandedly at the battle of Hefei, and many, many more. The eventual patriarch of the victorious Sima clan, Sima Yi, worked under him and eventually usurped the throne from his descendents (who themselves had stolen it from the last of the Han).

Liu Bei Xuande (Gentoku) kind of came out of nowhere as the leader of a volunteer army against the Yellow Turban rebels. He claimed to be a descendent of a Former Han prince, and thus tried to restore the Han throne, eventually founding the southwestern empire of Shu-Han around what is now Sichuan. His particularly Chinese sense of honor and humanity (meaning these virtues don’t necessarily match up with modern Western interpretations of the words) are played up in media to contrast with the “wicked” Cao Cao. (One of his most popular scenes is when he actually takes his people with him by their request while being chased out of his domain by Cao Cao.) He’s also often presented as kind of a naïve dweeby coward, but historically was pretty damn savvy. He got married off to Sun Ren (aka Sun Shang Xiang) as part of a political ploy, but they split up when tensions between Wu and Shu got too strong.

In operas and the in novel, Liu Bei swore brotherhood with Guan Yu Yunchang (Unchou) and Zhang Fei Yide (Yokutoku), both of whom were supposedly warriors worth a thousand men. Guan Yu was known for his long, beautiful beard (Cao Cao seriously gives him a beard bag in the novel) and is often depicted with a guandao (the big blade-onna-stick) and the horse Red Hare. He actually ended up becoming by far the most popular of the brotherhood, and is now one of the most worshipped gods in China.

Zhang Fei got drunk a lot, was really strong, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. Oh, and in the novel, he held off thousands of soldiers at Changban Bridge so his brother could high-tail it away from Cao Cao. (I like him okay, but he was seriously as dumb as a brick at times.)(Ed. Figures he’s one of my favourites, I tend to love strong dumb guys in otome games)
Zhao Yun Zilong (Shiryuu) operated under both Yuan Shao (I think) and Gongsun Zan (both of whom were warlords eventually defeated before the three main kingdoms were established) before pledging himself to Liu Bei’s cause. He was pretty boss in both the novels and history, being both a scary competent tactician and an excellent warrior.

The most amazingly overpowered character in games tends to be Zhuge Liang Kongming (Koumei), who supposedly agreed to join Liu Bei after the latter visited him three times and turned Liu Bei into a viable contender. Great strategist (sadly a bit overrated in general) but where he really shone was in domestic administration. Also had a pretty awesome wife by all accounts (Lady Huang was so smart she apparently made cooking robots and stuff), so I like him a lot.

Wu is my least favorite kingdom, so I can’t give you much info on them that isn’t laced with “and I hate this guy so much because blah blah blah.” (For me, Shu will always be the best kingdom, followed closely by Wei, so Wu is my default bad guy.) The ruler Sun Quan Zhongmou (Chuubou) was the little brother of the man who actually founded Wu, and Zhou Yu Gongjin (Koukin) was a brilliant strategist who gets character-assassinated in the novel (which I find pretty hilarious but your mileage may vary). Zhou Yu is always popular because he was historically known to be very attractive, but he’s no Sima Yi or Kongming because he’s dead by age 35. Lu Su was the best character not named Lu Meng and I almost wish he had a real route.

Unaffiliated people you may see: Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu were warlords (either brothers or cousins) who wanted the imperial throne for themselves. Lu Bu Fengxian was a Zhang-Fei-esque asshole who betrayed everyone he ever served but was such a badass warrior that nobody could call him out on it. Dong Zhuo was a tyrant who was later betrayed by Lu Bu and totally deserved it. Diao Chan as far as we know didn’t actually exist, but in the novel managed to move Lu Bu to betray Dong Zhuo.

For what it’s worth: Guan Yu and Cao Cao have an interesting relationship (no not like that… okay maybe) in the novel, meaning that there is fodder galore there for Jyuuzaengi. Actually, they chose the capturables really well, since they all have some interaction with Guan Yu in the novel. (I’m especially looking forward to Zhang Liao’s route since he was a certified badass. Though maybe not as much now that I know he’s played by Yusa Kouji… D:)(Ed. Hey now, I love Yusa Kouji! Mostly because of Guido in Lucian Bee’s.)

Thanks so much Julia for this, it makes me love Sangoku even more, and I’m looking forward to Jyuuzaengi! Yay historical games!

and

Girl’s Style.

I’m missing a couple of each, you can see the backnumbers for B’s Log on their website, I’m missing an UtaPuri and a Hakuouki cover. The two Girl’s Style I’m missing are a Hakuouki and an Arcana Famiglia.

I actually thought Hakuouki took up a sizable amount of cover space, and it does, but really, not much more than Starry Sky or Uta no Prince-sama. Oh wait, now I’ve figured it out, it was 2010 that Hakuouki took all the cover space (half the B’s Logs sold in 2010 had Hakuouki covers). And Harutoki 5 took 4 covers, wow!

Now if we take a look at the popularity polls inside, an interesting shift took place. In the Jan 2010 issue of B’s Log (sold in December), the top otome characters looked like this:
10. Mikoshiba Kyousuke (Storm Lover)
9. Shitara Seiji (TokimemoGS 3)
8. Sakurai Kouichi (TokimemoGS 3)
7. Sakurai Ruka (TokimemoGS 3)
6. Kazama Chikage (Hakuouki)
5. Toudou Heisuke (Hakuouki)
4. Harada Sanosuke (Hakuouki)
3. Hijikata Toshizou (Hakuouki)
2. Okita Souji (Hakuouki)
1. Saitou Hajime (Hakuouki)

Take a look at that, willya? Aksys chose well But all the same, it was a little…monotonous. (By the way, if you had to pick your fave guy from Hakuouki who would it be? I’ve only played Hijikata, Saitou, and Chikage, but Chikage was my favourite of those. Saitou was also great. Hijikata I liked, but it had very little romance. Aaaanyways)

In the July issue, Hakuouki still had the top 5 spots, though poor Heisuke had fallen to 8th position.

Now here’s the top 10 from this year’s Jan issue:
10. Otoya (UtaPuri)
9. Sanosuke (Hakuouki)
8. Masato (UtaPuri)
7. Kazuki (Starry Sky)
6. Ryuutarou (Starry Sky)
5. Azusa (Starry Sky)
4. Souji (Hakuouki)
3. Tokiya (UtaPuri)
2. Shou (UtaPuri)
1. Saitou Hajime (Hakuouki)

Saitou is still on top, but the rest are much more spread out. The numbers are also much more even. But considering Hakuouki has been dominating for more than a year, that’s pretty good (seriously, the original game came out on the PS2 in Sep 2008. 2008!!!)

On a side note, the top three characters in Boys Love last year were Akira (Togainu no Chi), Giancarlo (Lucky Dog) and Gunji (Lucky Dog). This year they’re Giancarlo, Akira, and Bernard (Lucky Dog).

Now looking at the games released, I checked last year’s post – 20 originals and 10/11 fandisks last year. This year combining consoles and PC games there were 30 original games and 11 fandisks, and a bunch of adaptations and ports. So the commercial otome release list grew by almost a third this year, wow! That makes me really happy.

However, I can’t help but feel like there was less variety in gameplay this year. Last year Tokimemo GS3, WagaHana, Steelwood, Love Root Zero (with all its problems), UtaPuri, and Storm Lover all had significant gameplay. This year there was Mother Goose (with all ITS problems), and Harutoki 5, FabStyle, and I think Miss Princess? I’m hoping that some of the ones I didn’t get to like Arcana Famiglia also had some, but it seems like a lot less and I can’t think that’s a good thing. Maybe that trend will reverse in 2012.

Now all that’s left is to JUDGE (my favourite part). I’ll probably do that in a couple weeks, because honestly I’m still working on a bunch of new releases! I feel like I should play Arcana Famiglia before I decide, does anyone recommend it?

Also, the Love.101 website will be updated in December with content, and will continue to update at least monthly with teaser content, I hope you like it! All feedback and comments are welcome, I’d really like to hear what you think of what’s coming out for Love.101.

So right now, I’m in the middle of playing several games. Because I got so many at once, I would play a bit of one, then get excited about another and start that. So far I’ve started:

• Okashina Shima no Peter Pan – I actually finished one route, so played a fair bit
• Bunmei Kaika Aoiza – finished one route and liked it quite a bit
• Iza Shutsujin Koi Ikusa – I’m barely past the intro
• Amnesia – just a couple hours on this, I need to get into it more
• Gekka Ryouran Romance – I’m still on the intro
• Mother Goose no Himitsu no Yakata – played a while but honestly, it’s annoying if you don’t have access to cheats
• VitXtoZ – this was my “going to bed” game for a while, where I play a game that’s not so exciting and new that it will keep me awake
• Hotokenser – finished this one (really enjoyed it yay!)
• Tsundere S Otome – it’s better than I expected actually
• Dear My Sun – working on this, it’s a sim so it takes a while to finish
• Lucian Bee’s FD Justice Yellow and Evil Violet – finished Guido during the trip (it was one of my first buys I think) and Didier a while ago, haven’t tried Evil Violet yet
• Tokyo Yamanote Boys Honey Milk – not even halfway through one route but I’m plugging away right now on it
• Hanayaka Nari Waga Ichizoku – it’s in my PSP right now, the characters are really good and I love the whole setting, atmosphere, and art – but I think I’m barely halfway through my first route

That’s all for now…just looking at that list makes me tired! And I’m waiting for Angelique Maren no Rokukishi, and I haven’t even started Wand of Fortune 2, or Sangokuren Senki, or Bloody Call, or Death Connection…Phew.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone had a preference as to how I review these – I know lots of site do posts on one route, or parts of a game. Is that a good way, or would you rather I wait until I’ve finished most of a game before reviewing the whole thing in one long post? I’m not sure which way is better.

And if you want me to review a particular one first, let me know! I want to play them all, so anything that helps me pick from the list would be great.

Games:

A bunch of games from Bookoff, like the shounen ones, as well as Pandora and maybe Armen Noir? At animate I bought Wand of Fortune II, they only had the limited edition and it didn’t come with any store extras, too bad. And then at K Books I bought Clock Zero, Anniversary Alice, Grimm Director’s Cut, and Bloody Call. I found Takuyo Mix Box in a Bic Camera store, which was great as I had given up hope (Bic and Yodobashi Camera have enormous stores, they’re more like Best Buy than camera stores).
And I also spent some time frantically looking for Alice x Cross cards, since my friends and I want to try playing it. I had thought that I could find them easily at an animate, especially in Otome Road, but they actually only had one (ONE) booster pack, of Junjou Romantica, so I bought that (yay five cards!) I bought most of the following in the K Books Anime store on their second level, where they have all the cool furoku and special random merchandise. I spent at least half an hour standing there going through two boxes of cards (really only one because one was just Hakuouki), and ended up buying the following:

I actually did buy quite a few Hakuouki cards, since that was the only otome game-based series that was plentiful. I found a couple VitaminX cards which I bought up, and then as many Kichiku Megane ones as they had for my friend (BL uber fan) as well as a bunch of Togainu no Chi since they had a ton of those. A girl (junior high? high school maybe?) chatted to me about how cute Akira was, I wish I had been able to do more than just agree, since I’ve never played it.

Apart from that, my last shopping spree was at the airport, when I went a bit crazy after realizing I’d left all my manga in the checked luggage. I bought the new Jump, and a bunch of random volumes of shounen manga (they didn’t have much if any shoujo: Gintama 41, Hunter Hunter 29, Bakuman 14, Bleach 52, and Embalming 6. Well, they probably weren’t random, but since the only one I was familiar with was Gintama they felt that way. I only got through Gintama and some of Bleach.

Delayed: Today I wandered around some more, went back to the animate and also went to a store in between animate and K Books, Lashinbang. It had some bargain games out in a rack outside, and inside is pretty busy but has some good deals, all focusing on otome stuff of course. I got VitaminX Addiction Vol. 1 for only Y2500! I saw it before in a Mandarake, but it was still Y4900, which is just way too much for a 30-minute anime.
Also picked up Aoiza, which I had totally forgot about so it was lucky they had it, heh, Kaminaru Kimi, and the new Wizard and Master. I think that was the first time I saw the new version available, though some used places had had the old one (which is really old)!

I went to Mandarake again, but didn’t get much, just the newest Toraware Gokko and the Ayashino Miya comic. After reading a couple of the game-based comics, some of them are just rehashes of the game and don’t add much, so I might not bother bringing some back, but I just can’t help buying them.

And finally, I realized that there was another K Books store even further down the street that I hadn’t been to, K Doujin, so I went there. Of course they had tons of doujinshi, but I was almost out of time, so in browsing, I found the corner (really a small shelf) they had of doujin games!! I was hoping to find these in other places, since the shopping guide said that animate had some too, but uh…when I asked they seemed to only have guy-oriented ones (lots of hentai). I didn’t buy that many, though now I wish I had, because most of them were Hakuouki. I just bought the best-looking one of that, and the two Harutoki 3 games I found, and then one original game.

Only one (or was it two) days left to catalogue, I’ll do it all in post.

First I had to find it, which was harder than I thought. Strangely enough, there are no big signs saying “OTOME ROAD THIS WAY!!!” and even though I had the shopping guide, I picked one landmark that was wrong and went kinda far before finding the right way.

However, I soon realized my mistake (the turning point was when I was following people because I figured they would be going towards the station, and it turned out they were going towards a college of some kind) and started paying attention to addresses (you know Japan does addresses by blocks, not streets, right?) and eventually found my way to the entrance. Which, by the way, also does not scream out, “Here is Otome Road! You have found the Mecca of otome games!!”, but at least the animate has its sign fairly high up and large so it’s hard to miss.

Since I have to move all my stuff tomorrow, I wasn’t fussed about buying a lot, more scoping out what’s available, so I just went to the animate and the Mandarake. The animate was good but had almost no extra thingies left for games, which I guess makes sense if it’s the popular place to order otome games from. I did get Crimson Empire finally, and it came with both the preorder special and the animate special, so 2 cds and a washcloth, yay! And I bought a couple clearfiles, because they’re cheap and I haven’t seen much Desert Kingdom or Renai Banchou merchandise. Of course there was tons of merch for Hakuouki and Starry Sky, but that’s always the case.

The mandarake was great, and I again bought a bunch of CDs, and some doujinshi, as well as a few games (yay Bloody Call! I hadn’t seen it yet) they also had several of those huge boxes for the special Neoromance games (like the Treasure Box etc.), but without prices, so I was almost afraid to ask about them.