Content Warning: This is an essay about DoHna DoHna, an R18 game featuring kidnapping, sex trafficking, and assault. Moreover, please keep in mind that this is not a game review, so this is not a list of trigger warnings for DoHna DoHna itself. This essay also contains spoilers for one of the major themes of DoHna DoHna’s story, and minor spoilers regarding the game’s endings.

DoHna DoHna -let’s do bad things together– was the very first Alicesoft game I played. And while I had high expectations for it, it surpassed them and became the best game I played in 2021. The biggest reason was its characters and how I grew attached to them. Melrose-Place-levels of sex – were quite similar to some of my best student-related memories.

While DoHna DoHna was the first time I actually played an Alicesoft game, I was already familiar with the studio for years now, most notably since the English fan translation of Sengoku Rance. That patch’s release in the late 2000s was a revolution. In the months and even years that followed, “Sengoku Tennis” (as a friend of mine nicknames it due to the game’s title screen) would regularly come up in the various IRC channels and anime blogs, most notably the now-defunct Hongfire and Calamitous Intents. The first VN I played – while barely understanding anything – was Symphonic Rain sometime in the mid 2000s, and I haven’t played many since. My Japanese reading comprehension has improved greatly now, and while it is still far from perfect (which is why I prefer fully-voiced games, and why I wish protagonists were always voiced), one of my goals is to play all these old Japanese games I always wanted to try out.

At the end of the day, all of this means that I never had any negative biases against Alicesoft or eroge as a whole. So I was closely following Alicesoft news for DoHna DoHna after getting a glance at the game’s cool animations, and was really hyped when it finally had a 2020 release announced. And when the game surprisingly got an English localization announced, it made me try it right away.

Before the game’s release, Alicesoft shared several details on DoHna DoHna: How the game would put players in the role of Kuma, one of the members of Nayuta, a group of young outlaws fighting against Asougi, a megacorp controlling the city the game takes place in. Alicesoft also explained that in order for Kuma and his “Anti-Aso” gang to obtain revenue, they kidnap – or “Dona Dona” – women to force them into prostitution. And how your own party members can also end up captured at some points, which will lead to Humiliation H scenes if you fail to save them fast enough.

Last but not least, Alicesoft had also mentioned that DoHna DoHna would feature not only RPG elements but also a sex workers management simulation. This makes sense seeing the game shares staff with Haru Urare, a game where you had to manage a group of sex workers’ mental and physical health, schedule, and match them with customers. (A copy of Haru Urare was also included in the deluxe limited edition of DoHna DoHna).

Despite all this, I never expected the game to be extremely dark, seeing the colorful PR screenshots and psychedelic art direction of the trailer/opening movie. But I never expected to relate so much to the main cast either.

First off, DoHna DoHna is against all odds not that much of a dark game. The darkest content is contained in the optional Humiliation H scenes and the bad endings -with character deaths-when getting a party wipe in certain dungeons.

Next, you have the characters themselves. Kuma is a surprising protagonist in how the game never tries to justify his actions as right. He and the rest of Nayuta are already long past the point of asking themselves this question. However, the game also makes it crystal clear that what pushed Nayuta to the deep end -treating women like cattle- is Asougi’s violence, which does not treat its citizens as human beings either. Nayuta’s goal isn’t to save but to completely burn to the ground the corrupt society Asougi has built, and sex trafficking heavily harms society while simultaneously getting them the funds needed.

Kuma’s actions and thoughts, explained through the main story and sidequests, all reflect this. Kuma is constantly alternating between having to act emotionlessly to manage the brothel and taking care of his Nayuta friends.

Nayuta is full of mood makers in contrast to Kuma’s business-only attitude. DoHna DoHna features side events not only with female party members (which can lead to H scenes) but also all male party members. This means Kuma can hang out with Nayuta’s boss Zappa to try out his latest battle-maniac-fueled idea to start a big brawl with Asougi, and later go get something to eat with Kirakira and Torataro, all while Porno teasingly calls him a lolicon.

All of these scenes really bring up the feeling of hanging out with your best friends and having a great time. Ironically, I’ve liked these events so much that I haven’t completed them all yet. I feel like if I do so I’ll truly have to say goodbye to the characters.

In fact, one of the sole things I didn’t like about the game narratively, is how it follows the typical pattern of bishoujo games. Each main Heroine has her own ending, with Kuma hooking up with her. Instead, I would have loved to see a True Ending where Kuma picks no one and everyone stays together.

Another important fact is that the game barely has any narration and is only told through dialogue. Moreover, DoHna2 is fully voiced, except for protagonist Kuma. Meaning you can always feel the characters’ personalities and emotions. The cast’s performance is really amazing and only strengthens the regular banter between Nayuta’s members.

Last but not least, DoHna2 is at its core a story of rebellion against a society corrupted by capitalism. This is exaggerated and crystallized in the form of Asougi, but many of the scenes are typical scenes you could see happen anywhere IRL. The game is very clear with its social commentary and will make you live through a great fantasy: managing to organize with your oomfies to turn despair into power and strike back. Especially if you’re a minority dealing with systemic discrimination from your government and law enforcement forces on a daily basis.

You should definitely try out DoHna DoHna unless you really can’t stand some of the game’s content. And even so, it doesn’t have many mandatory H scenes in its main story, and you could always use the in-game H scene skipping function, though it also skips the scenes’ intros or outros dialogues, which can be important. A short summary display would have solved that. The game will definitely resonate with you in ways you wouldn’t expect.

Once you decide to include explicit content in a game, it also means you can be as unhinged as possible in the game’s story. This is why these games go this far in terms of societal commentary, criticizing capitalism unlike anywhere else. Sadly, with the decline of the PC eroge market and the rise of mobile since the early 2010s, the Japanese side of R18 games is definitely losing steam.

It’s unlikely there will be a sequel to DoHna DoHna, as Alicesoft is now focusing on smaller projects and its sociage Escalation Heroines. With that said, DoHna DoHna’s main artist/animator Gyokai mentioned he’d definitely work with Alicesoft on a sequel if it happened. (I swear I saw him tweet that in the replies of his freelance announcement, but I can’t find it anymore). Moreover, Eroge itself isn’t disappearing, as there are more and more R18 games with gacha elements (and of varying quality) on platforms such as DMM Games. Some of these sociage are even spiritual sequels of PC visual novels, like the recent Twinkle Star Knights.

However, times have definitely changed, and we’ve witnessed the end of an era these last few months with traditional eroge brands like Giga (Jinki and Baldr series) and Illusion (Koikatsu) going out of business. (Editor’s Note: Since this essay was written, it appears that some number of former Illusion developers have formed a new studio, IllGames). Playing DoHna DoHna made me fully understand the possibilities of R18 games and how important they are to discuss in our capitalist, imperialism-driven world, instead of categorically condemning them for their obscene content. I hope more people will open their minds in a similar way.

Iyane Agossah – “I’m Iyane Agossah (He/Him), a Paris-based freelance writer specializing in Japanese media. You can find me on Twitter, Cohost, Youtube, hopefully soon on Misskey, and read my past work on Authory. I also have a newly made Substack where I plan to write about a lot of stuff including localization, the games journalist industry, satire, and cover livestreams. I also want to write about my favorite games such as Heaven Burns Red and Super Robot Wars.”

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