Love Transcends All (Geographical) Boundaries: the global lure of romance historical otome games and the Shinsengumi
This essay was originally written for and published in Digital Love: Romance and Sexuality in Games, CRC Press by Lucy Morris as an independent researcher. All data was taken at time of writing (April 2017).
A long-time staple of Japanese society, jidaigeki [period drama] media is typically set during the Edo period (1603 to 1868), taking the form of television series, films, theatre, manga, and with increasing frequency, video games. While these games have spanned many different genres, from strategy titles such as Total War: Shogun 2 (Sega, 2011) to action-adventure games like Onimusha: Warlords (Capcom, 2001), one of the most noticeable trends in recent jidaigeki game releases is that of being a romance-centric experience.
Usually in the format of a ren’ai [romance] visual novel or a ‘dating simulation’, these period drama romance games are also notable for the fact they are largely otome games. Otome titles are specifically created for a female target demographic, allowing the player to date from a cast of characters that are usually (but not always) male (Taylor, 2007). Originating from Japan, these romance games have gained popularity around the world on a large number of game platforms, seeing both original Japanese titles localised for an international audience and original games being developed outside of Japan entirely.
This globalisation of the otome genre has certainly allowed for diverse newcomers to the niche to produce their own romance stories for a dedicated audience — and interestingly, for a very specific group in Japanese history to shoot to digital boyfriend stardom.
THE INTERNATIONAL PROLIFERATION OF REN’AI AND OTOME GAMES
While plenty of scholarship exists on the emergence of otome games and their established market in the East [1], there is much less to be found on the upswing of consumption in these games for the Western audience. There are several signifiers to suggest otome games and visual novels are growing in popularity outside of Japan, if one is to look to both the game development and consumer spheres.
For example, NTT Solmare Corp. currently has 104 otome games largely available in English listed across both the App Store and Google Play (App Annie, 2017), while Voltage Inc. recently reported over 50 million players worldwide as of early 2016 and over 80 mobile titles available (Voltage, Inc., 2016).
Since 2012, Voltage Inc. has also maintained a subsidiary in San Francisco named Voltage Entertainment USA, which states its mission is to “provide interactive visual novels specifically tailored towards the US audience” (Voltage Entertainment USA, 2017). Such titles produced for a Western audience by the subsidiary include Astoria: Fate’s Kiss (Voltage Entertainment USA, 2015) and Castaway! Love’s Adventure (Voltage Entertainment USA, 2016), both otome games developed with the tastes of American women in mind. These titles still have a female as the protagonist, but may have slightly more Westernised graphics, locations and thematic content.
[1] — See: Kim, H. (2009). Women’s Games in Japan: Gendered Identity and Narrative Construction. Theory, Culture & Society, 26(2–3), 165–188.; Galbraith, P. W. (2011, May). Bishōjo Games: ‘Techno-Intimacy’ and the Virtually Human in Japan. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 11(2).
Looking more towards the independent game development sphere, Western visual novels and otome games have become so prevalent that the developer scene often uses a moniker just for these games — OELVN, or Original English Language Visual Novel. This term generally encompasses titles originally written in English rather than Japanese, such as Katawa Shoujo (Four Leaf Studios, 2012) and Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games, 2016). One of the first Western-based ren’ai game jams [1] “NaNoRenO” [2] has also grown exponentially, from six games made in the 2005 jam to a roughly 84 in 2016 (Lemma Soft Forums, 2017). While part of this growth could be attributed to the growing proliferation of easily accessible game development software (such as Ren’Py and Unity), the conclusion that romance games and visual novels are climbing in popularity for both developers and consumers outside of Japan is hard to argue.
As consumption of this niche genre rises worldwide, so does the translation and localisation of existing Japanese ren’ai titles for a Western audience — and in turn, jidaigeki romance games, specifically those dealing with the Edo era Shinsengumi police force, have spread remarkably through an international player base. To understand the popularity of romancing this very specific set of Japanese historical figures, we must first look to how this narrative came to be so frequently featured as game material, as well as how they operate within the boundaries of an otome game.
[1] — A game jam is an event where game developers are challenged to create a game within a certain time restriction and sometimes also a theme restriction.
[2] — ‘NaNoRenO’ is a play on the more famous writing event ‘NaNoWriMo’, or National Novel Writing Month. While NaNoRenO doesn’t expand properly as an acronym, the ‘Ren’ represents ren’ai, and the event does take place over one month every year (March).
THE EMERGENCE OF THE SHINSENGUMI INTO POPULAR MEDIA
Selected from the sword schools of Edo, the Shinsengumi (literally translated as ‘the new squad’) were a special police force initially tasked with countering anti-shogunate forces in Kyoto during the Bakumatsu period (Dougill, 2006). Emerging amongst great political tension from major imperialist players as the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate came to an end, the Shinsengumi were largely led by two notable figures whom strictly adhered to bushido (or ‘Code of the Samurai’), Kondō Isami and Hijikata Toshizō. The severity in which they ran the force together included the punishment of seppuku [1] for actions from deserting the Shinsengumi to raising funds for personal gain –even for failing to kill their opponent in the event of a fight (Hillsborough, 2011). Understandably, a reoccurring feature of the Shinsengumi’s reputation both in history and in popular fiction is their lethality and fatal skill with a sword. Other Shinsengumi members of note to mention are Okita Sōji, captain of the first unit; Saitō Hajime, captain of the third unit; Tōdō Heisuke, captain of the eighth unit; and Harada Sanosuke, captain of the tenth unit, all among the original members of the force, and coincidentally some of the characters that appear most frequently as romanceable partners in Shinsengumi otome games.
Although the Shinsengumi’s role in history spun only a brief few years, their apotheosis in death and sizable presence in Japanese pop culture is significant despite their perceived contributions. Unsurprisingly for continuously re-imagined historical figures immortalised in popular media, there is a range of opinion on the Shinsengumi’s impact and reputation. Lee (2011) argues that their “popularity is inverse to their historical relevance”, with little reason to elevate them to notoriety based simply on the few small victories they enjoyed before ultimately perishing along with the Bakufu [military government] when the shogunate fell. Certainly, the vast fame of the Shinsengumi dwarfs the few years the force was together, and it is apparent several other factors have contributed to their climb in popularity such as historical recounts of their tales in popular media. These include taishu bungaku [popular fiction] like Shiba Ryōtarō’s formative novel Moeyo ken (1972), a representation of the Shinsengumi so popular that it has been said those who create works on the force after the fact cannot help but to take note of Shiba’s characterisations (Lee, 2011).
The groundwork that Shiba laid in Moeyo ken can indeed be identified in some of the Shinsengumi inspired otome titles mentioned in this essay, and has certainly influenced even the most recent media romanticisations of the Shinsengumi narrative. Considering the progression of this popular jidaigeki narrative through books, television, films and comics, the bleed-over into games seems like a natural next step for the story of the apotheosised Shinsengumi to reach audiences eager to consume. However, the fact that these games have largely materialised as otome games and dating sims, packaged and created almost entirely with women and girls in mind as a target audience, is an interesting development.
[1] — Seppuku is a form of ritualised suicide by disembowelment, usually with a short blade.
THE SHINSENGUMI NARRATIVE AS AN OTOME EXPERIENCE
Manifestations of the Shinsengumi narrative in otome games have been appearing since almost a decade ago with the notable release of Hakuoki: Shinsengumi Kitan (2008) for the Playstation 2. Hakuoki went forth to forge the path of this niche, turning into a series spanning 28 titles in Japanese alone across platforms such as the Playstation Vita, Nintendo DS and more recently, Android and iOS. Since the initial splash of the Hakuoki series, otome visual novels and dating sim games based around the Shinsengumi have steadily begun to appear.
They are especially prevalent on the mobile platform where otome games are a growing market in general, and are played by no small audiences. For example, Cybird Co Ltd.’s mobile Shinsengumi otome title Ikemen Bakumatsu ◆ Unmei no Koi Shinsengumi (2013) projects between 500,00 to 1,000,000 downloads on the Google Play Store and over 9,000 reviews averaging a highly favourable score of 4.4 out of 5. Meanwhile, their localised English version Destined to Love (2015) is tracking between 100,000 to 500,000 downloads with a similar positive review score (4.3 over around 2,400 reviews). For what is essentially a niche within a niche — specifically the Shinsengumi narrative within an otome game — these figures of one title alone show an impressive level of engagement from both Japanese and international audiences.
What is also intriguing is how the Shinsengumi narrative itself adapts to being told through an otome game, which seems like an unlikely combination. Essentially a dichotomy of an intrinsically female-oriented medium and the historical narrative of the all-male Shinsengumi, which is “symbolically masculine and national in Japanese imagination” (Hasegawa, 2013), the way in which the Shinsengumi narrative manifests within a typical otome game is an understandably complex and interesting concept. A notable crux of an otome game’s popularity is the desirability or attractiveness of the ‘romanceable’ characters — so first, we will examine the common stereotypes or retellings that emerge from these reproductions of Shinsengumi members, and how they manifest within the game environment.
As previously noted, some Shinsengumi members appear more frequently as romance interests than others. A notable and recurring love interest is the vice-commander, Hijikata Toshizō, whom often appears as a more central character despite his historical rank in games such as Hakuoki: Shinsengumi Kitan (2008). Even in Voltage Inc.’s Shinsengumi ga aishita onna (2015) where the Shinsengumi’s leader, Kondō Isami, is a romance interest himself, Hijikata is the character primarily featured on promotional material and in the game’s own trailer. This can be read as a notable remnant of the aforementioned novel Moeyo Ken, in which Shiba Ryōtarō builds up Hijikata as the determined and heroic main protagonist in the Shinsengumi narrative — as well as crafting several other Shinsengumi personality archetypes such as Souji Okita’s (Hasegawa, 2013).
Interestingly, many otome titles seem to follow a similar set of stereotypes when describing the Shinsengumi members as love interests to potential players. For instance, having established that Hijikata was a strict follower of bushido, a severe leader, and in the case of Shiba’s characterisation, a resolute hero, we can look to the following descriptions of his dateable otome reimagining and see notable correlations to all conclusions:
“The men tend to call him the “The Demon,” and not always behind his back. To maintain order and unity among his ragtag group of warriors, he is very strict and deals out harsh punishments in accordance with The Code. Very few know his true nature or guess at his internal strife.”
— Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom (2012)“The other soldiers fear their demonic deputy general, Hijikata. Carrying out his merciless orders, you live each day in fear of his reproach. But when night falls, and you talk with him under the moonlight, your hearts become one… “Die here, or live with a demon. The choice is yours.””
— Era of Samurai: Code of Love (2016)“Vice Commander of the Shinsengumi who is called “Merciless”. His words and actions are always calm and collected. He is always on his guard. His appearance may be handsome, but he is iron-hearted as he deals with his enemies without mercy.”
— BAKUMATSU SHINSENGUMI (2015)
Era of Samurai: Code of Love’s (2016) promotional material also goes on to describe Hijikata as “merciless and cold” on the game’s store images, with the pull-quote;
“You’re quite the woman… making a “demon” like me fall for you.”
overlaid on his character. This is essentially pairing an aspect of Hijikata’s renowned ‘severe’ personality (‘a “demon” like me’) with a romantic hook to intrigue the player.
Similarly, another strong, recurring stereotype is that of Saitō Hajime’s character being reserved, extremely skilled with sword and sometimes the keeper of a secret:
“… He is so skilled with a sword that even Hijikata and Okita acknowledge his superiority. The truth he keeps hidden is even more surprising than you think.”
— Destined to Love (2015)“Saitō is known for being reserved, solitary, and loyal. Unlike most other swordsman, he fights with his left hand. He is a master of the art of iai, and his swordsmanship is top–tier even among the Shinsengumi.”
— Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom (2012)
Certainly, Saitō has been said to be one of the most skilled swordsmen in Kondo’s group and while the nature of his ‘secret’ seems to differ from game to game, it may hint at the historical records of Saitō reportedly killing a samurai in the Tokugawa shogun’s employ (a hatamoto) before fleeing Edo to join Kondo (Hillsborough, 2011). Shinsengumi ga aishita onna (2015)’s rendition of Saitō is that of an assassin, a sell-sword who routinely killed others for paying clientele before joining the Shinsengumi– and after the fact, sustaining amnesia and thus hiding this ‘secret’ for the player to uncover.
These marriages of historical fact and established archetype (namely Shiba’s) combined with the typical spins of romantic fiction are recurrent in Shinsengumi otome games, and could suggest the value of viewing these jidaigeki otome experiences through the lens of historical romance fiction.
JIDAIGEKI OTOME GAMES AS HISTORICAL ROMANCE FICTION
Can we consider jidaigeki otome games a form of historical romance fiction, namely a ‘Romantic Historical’? Generally defined as a story in which real historical characters and events are crucial to the plot and developments , Romantic Historicals provide the reader with accurate historical information, settings and critical events unlikely to occur at any other juncture in history but the one in question. The relationships developed in the text also take form according to real historical events that transpire in the time period (Ramsdell, 1999). As otome games and visual novels are largely the written word, it seems natural to apply similar literary theory to their construction.
Many Shinsengumi otome games take cues from events that historically transpired during the period the force was active, to varying degrees of accuracy. Almost every title mentions the Ikedaya Incident of 1864 in some form, one of the Shinsengumi’s few notable victories. Following information gained from rumours and interrogation, the Shinsengumi managed to halt a coup against the emperor being planned by the loyalist Choshu clan at Kyoto’s Ikedaya Inn (Turnbull, 2010). Storming the inn and catching the loyalists by surprise, the Shinsengumi’s intervention at Ikedaya has been said not only to be “one of the most savage swordfights to occur around the time of the Meiji Restoration” (Turnbull, 2010), but Hillsborough (2011) also argues that this particular aided the Shinsengumi in becoming historically one of Japan’s most feared police forces. In Destined to Love (2015), the player character ends up in the Bakumatsu period by falling through a ‘time slip’ while at the present-day Ikedaya Inn; in Era of Samurai: Code of Love (2016), many of the first season routes culminate in the Shinsengumi going to fight in the Ikedaya Incident in the later chapters; and in The Amazing Shinsengumi (2014), several aspects of the Ikedaya Incident are discussed — from the act of the Shinsengumi torturing prisoners, to the nature of the Choshu’s plan to burn Kyoto to the ground. Considering Ikedaya was so pivotal to the Shinsengumi’s reputation, it’s unsurprising that it is a common theme in otome games if we also examine them as Romantic Historicals.
As for other historical facts represented in-game, Era of Samurai: Code of Love (2016) does a particularly good job of attempting to stay strictly within historical record while cultivating a romance. Some cues are large, and others are less significant — but all add up to a more believable Romantic Historical. These range from the player character initially fearing the Shinsengumi’s reputation as ‘murderous wolves’ (a nickname they earned historically from intimidated locals in Mibu (Hillsborough, 2011)) to the larger detail of many romance options using an aspect of Shinsengumi history as an entire plot for a character’s romance to progress.
For instance, the second season of Okita Sōji’s romance in Era of Samurai: Code of Love (2016) follows the historical events of Yamanami Keisuke’s [1] objection to the Shinsengumi’s treatment of Buddhist monks after the force’s move to Nishi Honganji temple, and his subsequent desertion of the force. Okita was sent by Kondo to retrieve him (Hillsborough, 2011), which explains why this particular sequence of events was chosen to set a romance around Okita Sōji to. While a lot of these events did actually take place in history, a significant change is that historically, Yamanami was ordered to, and committed seppuku considering the significance of the crime to the code the Shinsengumi followed. In the game, the player character accompanies Okita on the mission to recover Yamanami and kill him on Kondo’s orders (rather than the historical order of seppuku) — but instead, Okita allows Yamanami to live, telling him to leave Kyoto and never return.
Hughes (1993) argues that in relation to making historical romance fiction immersive for the reader, that the “role of ‘history’ (in the form of selected historical facts) in helping to validate attitudes suggested by the text and making them seem applicable to the real world” may be an important aspect to consider. While there is obviously a personal and immediate frame of reference for a Japanese audience of jidaigeki otome games, it still leaves us to explain why the consumption of the Shinsengumi romantic narrative is relatively popular for those that lack that cultural connection to the history. In the past, and for a Japanese audience, tales about the Meiji Restoration proved relevant in the post-bubble economy of the 1990’s to those who may have felt lost — but essentially, Shinsengumi narratives still prove popular due to being timeless stories and taking place in familiar historical periods (Guerdan, 2012).
In the case of international otome consumers and the consumption of the Shinsengumi narrative, the structure of the stories as Romantic Historicals as well as the nature with which a player engages with otome games proves an interesting combination. In many of the games in this genre — including largely the ones referenced in this text — players are often prompted with the opportunity to choose their own first and last name (or simply a first name) which they are referred to as by the story’s characters for the rest of the game. As Hasegawa (2013) notes in their examination of Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan (2008), this moment of naming the character something personal (in this case, the female player character Chizuru) sets the stage for the fantasy of the player who then essentially becomes the story’s protagonist.
The way in which games in general can facilitate identification and immersion even by the simple act of changing the protagonist’s name to a personal creation within a script — something that books, movies, comics and manga lack the power to do — could go some way to explaining why jidaigeki games that the audience may not relate to on a cultural level are still able to be interesting and immersive. This customisation of the experience further enhances ways that historical romance fiction typically helps readers personalise with the setting, for instance providing cues or minor period details in the text that helps trigger some of the reader’s (or in this instance, player’s) knowledge of the past to aid them in recreating the scene and blend the alien nature of the past with their own present (Hughes, 1993).
As in traditional forms of fiction, the player is still only provided the information through the eyes of the (personalised) character with which they identify, and it provides an impression of the specific period of time with as little disruption as possible considering the relatively short ‘distance’ between the player and protagonist. This could be achieved regardless of cultural context, as the player is digesting the information given and feelings evoked through the eyes of the protagonist which helps protect the illusion. These tools could also only be emphasised by the player being able to further close the distance between themselves and the otome protagonist by customising features such as their name.
[1] — At this time, Yamanami Keisuke was a vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, along with Hijikata Toshizo.
SWEPT UP IN THE GLOBALISATION OF OTOME GAMES
This piece set out to understand the specific allure of the Shinsengumi as otome game subject material, as well as their growing popularity outside of their own national cultural context. There are several factors in play that have led to the expanding consumption of Shinsengumi romance games — the growing market and normalisation of romance games on a global scale; the continued apotheosis and elevation of the Shinsengumi in Japanese popular media; and the prevalence of Romantic Historical plot devices and archetypes often seen in romantic literature.
The prospect of romancing the Shinsengumi members can appeal to Japanese and international audiences in separate ways — for Japanese otome gamers, it gives a safe context to interact with their own past and sexuality (Hasegawa, 2013); while international otome gamers might be intrigued because of established interest in historical romantic fiction or desire for stories that fulfil certain historical romance archetypes.
In this unique form of intercultural communication born from the spread and subsequent localisation of Japanese otome titles for an international audience, the Shinsengumi have managed to infiltrate the next form of popular media — gaming. In a development slightly less expected, their legend now lives on through the phones — and the hearts — of their new audiences.
References:
App Annie. (2017, March 20). NTT Solmare | App Annie. Retrieved March 20, 2017, from App Annie: https://www.appannie.com/company/ntt-solmare/
Dougill, J. (2006). Kyoto: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press.
Guerdan, S. (2012). Fact and Fiction: Portrayals of the Meiji Restoration in Anime. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University.
Hasegawa, K. (2013). Falling in Love with History: Japanese Girls’ Otome Sexuality and Queering Historical Imagination. In M. W. Kapell, & A. B. Elliot, Playing with the Past: Digital Games and the Simulation of History (pp. 135–149). New York: Bloomsbury.
Hillsborough, R. (2011). Shinsengumi : the shōgun’s last samurai corps. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing.
Hughes, H. (1993). The Historial Romance. London: Routledge.
Lee, R. (2011). Romanticising Shinsengumi in Contemporary Japan. New Voices, 168–187.
Lee, R. (2014). Becoming-minor through Shinsengumi: A sociology of popular culture as a people’s culture. XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology. Yokohama.
Lemma Soft Forums. (2017, March 3). NaNoRenO Games List. Retrieved March 3, 2017, from Lemma Soft Forums: https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=28161
Ramsdell, K. (1999). Romance Fiction: A Guide to the Genre. Eaglewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited.
Taylor, E. (2007). Dating-Simulation Games: Leisure and Gaming of Japanese Youth Culture. Southeast Review of Asian Studies, 29, 192–208.
Turnbull, S. (2010). Katana: The Samurai Sword. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
Voltage Entertainment USA. (2017, March 11). Voltage Entertainment USA | About Us. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from Voltage Entertainment USA: https://www.voltage-ent.com/about
Voltage, Inc. (2016, December 2). Voltage’s Visual Romance Apps series is ranked #1 in 57 Countries. Retrieved March 17, 2017, from Voltage Inc.: http://www.voltage.co.jp/en/p-release/161202.html
Games Cited
Capcom. (2001) Onimusha: Warlords [PlayStation 2 game]. Osaka, Japan.
CYBIRD Co., Ltd. (2015) Destined to Love [Mobile game]. Tokyo, Japan.
CYBIRD Co., Ltd. (2013) Ikemen Bakumatsu ◆ Unmei no Koi Shinsengumi [Mobile game]. Tokyo, Japan.
D3 Publisher Inc. (2014) Forbidden Romance: The Amazing Shinsengumi [Mobile game]. Tokyo, Japan.
Four Leaf Studios. (2012) Katawa Shoujo [PC game].
Idea Factory. (2012). Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom [PlayStation Portable game]. Tokyo, Japan: Aksys Games.
Idea Factory. (2008). Hakouki: Shinsengumi Kitan [PlayStation 2 game]. Tokyo, Japan.
Love Conquers All Games. (2016). Ladykiller in a Bind [PC game]. Ontario, Canada.
SPACEOUT Inc. (2015) BAKUMATSU SHINSENGUMI [Mobile game]. Tokyo, Japan.
The Creative Assembly. (2011) Total War: Shogun 2 [PC game]. West Sussex, UK: Sega.
Voltage Entertainment USA. (2015) Astoria: Fate’s Kiss [Mobile game]. San Francisco, USA.
Voltage Entertainment USA. (2016) Castaway! Love’s Adventure [Mobile game]. San Francisco, USA.
Voltage, Inc. (2016). Era of Samurai: Code of Love [Mobile game]. Tokyo, Japan.
Voltage, Inc. (2015). Shinsengumi ga aishita onna [Mobile game]. Tokyo, Japan.
