This is eleventh of fifteen essays contained within the fourth issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, a collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. If you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!
Written By: Talon T
I picked up my first otome game at Cybird’s booth at Anime Expo 2015. Before this, I was already into anime and its horny fandoms, so I was excited for this opportunity to gameify my thirst for 2D characters. I would have been perfectly content with indulgent trashy tropes – little did I know, Ikemen Sengoku would immediately set a high standard for me for otome. Unbelievably, it reconnected me with my sexual and romantic needs, leading me to finally leave my dirtbag ex. It would reconnect me with tumblr communities, where we continued to be able to explore responsive desire and erotica in written form, even long after tumblr’s nsfw ban.
The story of Ikemen Sengoku is an isekai where the MC (main character) falls through a wormhole during a thunderstorm and suddenly finds herself 500 years in the past during Japan’s Sengoku Period (or Warring States Period), where she meets various generals and warlords. There are also monthly seasonal events you could pay for that allow you to see your faves in new scenarios. For example, you could experience a normally-cozy character pitied in an intense bet for your love against other love interests, or enjoy a normally-intense character doing something rare and sweet at an autumn festival. Because of this, the bonus content pairs well with the way the fandom also creates its own expanded content. Sometimes character routes weren’t released yet, but you’d see them as supporting characters, and so fandom was a way to extrapolate on what their romance and sexual dynamic might be like.
For example, Mitsuhide’s route was hotly anticipated. He is a tease in how he speaks to you and likened to a kitsune for how elusive he is. He was the perfect character for fans to interpret for kinks of tease and denial, blackmail, blindfolding, and interrogation. Erotic fanworks were enhanced by both the continuous stream of additional content in-game and active fandom participation. Both contributed to sustained anticipation and attraction. Having to write as the characters means getting into their heads and relating to them on a more intimate level. It increases our sense of connection. With each fan depiction of a character, it’s fun to see which character traits each author highlights and finds most resonant or fascinating, and we get to enjoy speculation about the kinds of sexual and romantic activities that would feel most in-character according to each author. Pondering each character’s values, struggles, and aesthetic are intrinsic to their erotic appeal. Psychologist Emily Nagoski transformed the field of sexology with her concept of responsive desire, which is desire that “thrives in the right conditions—when stress is managed, when a person feels connected and safe, and when they allow themselves to be present rather than waiting for desire to magically appear.” These games cater to responsive desire; context is provided first, which then culminates in the reward of romantic and sexual union. The reward’s entire appeal to otome fans is due to the buildup.
I’ve always loved the way being part of a fandom results in so many creative and meaningful exchanges as the result of fans bouncing off of each other’s enthusiasm. Fanart could spark someone to create fanfiction about it, or deep analysis could inspire someone else to create a meme or dive into their own introspection. However, my favorite community event that came out of this was for Valentine’s Day. A few of the writers had offered to write letters “from your love interest” to various other members of the fandom. The letters were incredibly true to the character voices, and they even added a graphic touch to stylize it like the games would.
Even though explicit images were banned on tumblr, erotic writing was not, and so remained the stealth sexuality of fandoms. On tumblr, you would search by character rather than kink because writing a specific kink would expose you to anyone discussing the kink generally, whereas searching the character would expose you to many interpretations, and you could then narrow in on SFW or NSFW works. The list of tropes are often provided in the summary of fanfiction in similar format as AO3 where you could search by both media and specific kinks or tropes. Fanartists had to censor art on tumblr, but you could join community discords for uncensored art and unedited personal rambles. For media that is lightly explicit or cannot be sexually explicit, fandom becomes an outlet to engage many possibilities that the canon might never cover and doesn’t need to.
Another interesting aspect of the game itself was the actual historical context it was set in. One of the most striking details were the titles of each of the generals that appear on their character sheets during menu selection. Nobunaga Oda, the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. Masamune Date, the One-Eyed Dragon. Shingen Takeda, the Tiger of Kai. These references are common knowledge for Japanese audiences, but for global audiences, it invites us to learn and uncover these historical easter eggs. Of course he looks nothing like this in the history books, but learning history is more interesting when I get to picture IkeSen’s Nobunaga with his layered armor and dramatic black, gold and red colors. The female gaze is doing a Wikipedia deep dive about the history of the Sengoku period in order to know everything about your 2D warlord boyfriend. The way historical details get folded into their romantic style rewards you for knowing history, which then humanizes and sexualizes it.
Some of these love interests would remind me of the creativity I used to pour into my own BDSM scenes and the ways I would craft sexual buildup in order to intensify even the smallest sensations. One example, the courtship in Nobunaga’s route revolves around several games of Go. Nobunaga views everything through the lens of war and war-games, so they narrate him with the kind of gaze that pulls you apart and works out the mechanisms of you. He challenges you to a bet and raises the stakes by saying you can’t go home to the wormhole in three months unless you beat him at least once. For the fantasy, the dynamic is satisfying for being a mixture of strategic competition and slow peeling back of layers. Your character gets progressively better each time, but it’s a win either way because as you improve, you gain his praise and increasingly become someone who is his equal. When you lose in between all those attempts, he gains access to touch or kiss a new piece of your body progressively each time. He does not go straight for the obvious erogenous parts, instead making something as ordinary as your fingertips feel sexually-charged. With each subsequent game, you feel the contrast between the parts of your body that are still safe but neglected, and the parts of your body that are subjected to touch and can’t escape his attention. It is the restraint that creates the anticipation and escalation that leads to a more dramatically-earned union. He claims more of your body, and you also persist in getting to know him and questioning the inner workings of his mind and growing affection for you. In the MC’s words, she never expected anything more of him than “warlord with benefits,” but each encounter leads to more.
Masamune Date’s character was especially healing for me due to his mixture of daring and reassurance. His principles encouraged boldness and levity, especially in stressful situations, which gave me an alternative to the anxiety and hesitation I often felt. The MC confides that she feels useless and defenseless because she is from the future with none of the skills needed to survive this time period. Masamune promptly seeks to empower her by getting two other warlords to give her gun and sword lessons. His romantic arc features fundamental disagreement in worldviews, but it goes against his beliefs to betray your own truth, so he goes out of his way to try to understand you and reconcile your worldviews. As you grow, you begin to express your personality with more forcefulness, and each instance turns him on. It was this simultaneous admiration and horniness that reminded me of better sexual partners I’ve had. He affirmed your personhood as he sexed you up.
Behind his wildness is the moral imperative to live life fully. Instead of restraint or repression, his dynamic explores abundance and impulse. He flirts with you and makes his sexual intentions known from the start and his nickname for you is “kitten.” He could have merely been the reckless bad boy trope, but the game gives him the extra dimension of being an attentive chef. He feeds the MC, his army, and he tries to come up with meals for his fellow warlords, even the difficult ones who lack interest in food. In history, he was known for his cooking and governance. He had this saying: “People with no understanding of food are the owners of narrow minds.” His equivalent line in the game is, “You have to eat to live, so the food better be tasty!” For a romantic interpretation, the game depicts his thoughtfulness as joyous and insistent. As adult responsibilities set in, I definitely fell into the common experience of being worn down by domestic and professional monotony and deprioritizing my needs. Masamune is sexy because he cooks for you, remembers the little things, and reminds you to have fun. Masamune frames pleasure as vital for fuel and flavor in all things. Masamune’s sex scenes and food scenes express replenishment and sensuality.
Eroticism showcases the whole spectrum of relating. It’s not enough to portray the naked body; it must be framed and buoyed on a compelling relationship where sex and style are extensions of the personalities involved. The culture of desire enjoys a self-perpetuating erotic ecosystem. When the connection is good, there’s something to talk about with our friends, which reinforces interest for sex in game, in fanfiction, and in real life. We joke about dating games having unreasonable standards, but the sex is truly good when you feel desired and supported simultaneously.
Talon T has been part of fandom and roleplay spaces since myspace and early tumblr. The internet aint what it used to be, so now they reside mostly on discord, privately infodumping with friends. You can find their past ramblings and otome reblogs on their tumblr at mitsuhidethesnek. The other fandoms they love on tumblr are Yugioh and Persona 5. They also sometimes share tarot spreads on instagram at @summon.your.eyes.tarot.
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