Release Date: July 29, 2016
Developers: PIL-VAMP
Publishers: PIL-VAMP
Platforms: PC
Age Rating: 18+
Languages: Japanese
STORY
Karen Akazawa, in her final year of college, finds herself in the midst of a relentless job hunt, and miserably failing each one. One day, after another failed job interview, she breaks down in tears and retreats to her apartment room hugging her daikimura pillow, when suddenly the prince character (in her pillow) comes to life and gives her a magical pair of glasses that grants her the power to be her “ideal self”. The prince then tells her she can keep the glasses permanently under one condition: she must resolve the problems plaguing his fairytale world in return. Karen, (desperate to gain confidence for her job-hunting) agrees to his proposition and wholeheartedly accepts the prince’s terms, and thus sets foot into the prince’s mysterious fairytale world with her magic glasses in hand.
ART AND MUSIC
Usually, my main critiques with R18 otome games revolve around the art, which can often veer into the male gaze. But not for this one! I was very pleased; the H-scenes were beautifully drawn, so I didn’t really have any complaints in this department. Regarding the music, the OP was a pretty banger track, ngl, and I also enjoyed several of the game’s BGM tracks, especially the main menu music
| Illustrator/Artist: | Yoji Kotomi (Main), Ryuko Ooishi (assisting artist) |
| Scenario: | Yonesuke Kyan |
| OST: | Rekka Katakiri |
| BGM/Soundtrack: | SENTIVE |
Voice Acting
Yuki Akashi as “Karen Akazawa” – Juri Minase (Omega Labyrinth), Nosuri (Utawarerumono), Primm (Secret of Mana), Rasetsu (Senran Kagura Shinovi Master), Ao (Yona of the Dawn), Rika Jougasaki (The Idolmaster)
Manaka Sawa as “Ouji-sama” – Yakumo (NU: Carnival), Iseya (Yoshiwara Higanbana), Clear (DRAMAtical Murder), Tatsumi Kazehaya (Ensemble Stars!), Phil Carter (Orfleurs), Keiichi Moyira (Omega Vampire), Giancarlo Bourbon (Lucky Dog)
Isamu Kuroi as “Cidre” – Ramuda (Hypnosis Mic), Garu (NU: Carnival), Crow (Bustafellows), Eltcreed Valentine (Steam Prison), Watson (London Detective Mysteria), Ars (Period Cube), Usui Masumi (A3!), Miki Hiraizumi (Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome)
Noboru Yajima as “Doutei” – Jouhouya (Clock Zero), Isuperika (Tokyo Clanpool), Yodaka Ichizou (ALPHA Nighthawk series), Hirose Takuma (Sakura no Uta), Rick Addison (RANCE 03), Ukawa Chihiro (Grisaia: Phantom Trigger)
Midori Fukagawa as “Peach” – Eiden (NU: Carnival), Raul Ghirlandaio (Piofiore 1926), Azume (Paradise), Seiji Azumi (Room No.9), Orlando (Princess Britania)
MAIN CHARACTERS AND ROUTES
There are only three love interests: Cidre, Peach, and Doutei. The game’s pretty straightforward in letting you know which route you’ve landed on based on your choices during the common route. Basically, it’s the world where Karen, the heroine, decides to stay. Cidre is from the country of Shirayuki (Snow White), Doutei is from the land of Peter Pan, and Peach is from the country of Momotaro.
I don’t think this game had any predetermined route orders by the developers. However, I do believe that Cidre and Peach’s routes are somewhat connected, so I thought playing them back-to-back was optimal. Ideally, if you want to play this title from the least messed up bad endings to the most ridiculously foul bad ends, I suggest going with: Doutei → Cidre → Peach. Peach’s route also helps explain a few things about the game’s fantasy world, so playing his route last contributed positively to the overall flow of the story.
The main premise of Mashou Megane revolves around the protagonist Karen and her “magic glasses”. Whenever she puts them on, she transforms into her ideal confident self. It’s essentially her ‘dream personality’ which is the opposite of her original persona; shy, inferior, and lacking in self-esteem. However, the downside of this, is that while the glasses are on and she happens to touch or come into physical contact with someone, she turns into an aggressively massive horndog.😏
CIDRE
- 🦵 & ⚰️ fetish
- literally him💀
Cidre is the prince who reigns over the snowy domain/country known as “Snow White.” His attitude and demeanor are as icy as the land he resides in – a land rumored to be the “realm of death”, from which no traveler who visits, comes back alive. Cidre is cold, aloof, and very sarcastic. He exudes an aura that basically keeps people at arm’s length. He has a very unsettling macabre aesthetic and obsession with collecting corpses to decorate his castle, finding solace in their presence.
⬇️ Click to view Content Warnings
I felt a bit spiffy and decided to start with Cidre’s route first because his VA is one of my favs. Just a disclaimer, while I pretty much knew how PIL games can go, I hadn’t looked up anything about each route for this game prior, so I hadn’t had a clue what was ahead of me when I played Cidre’s story (cackles).🤣 Though I should say, I actually like the CGs for this route; the H-scenes were also tastefully drawn (not male-gazey), and it was by far my favorite visual-wise, among the rest of the routes. As for the story itself, although it started quite disturbingly (as I expected), I was a bit disappointed by how Cidre’s ‘Happy Ending’ felt a tad too vanilla. It was actually in his bad endings where things got juicier plot-wise, and hooboi, I……well….ummm…..💀 (laughs) Read spoilers if you’re curious.
⬇️ Spoilers
Because I jumped into this route completely blind, I was totally whiplashed by my liking for Cidre’s kuudere personality only to find out that not only does he have a leg kink, but also a DEAD PEOPLE kink.💀 To be fair, his good ending was actually not as bad as how I made it sound above (laughs) I said “vanilla” but really, comparing it with the other two routes, his was truly the most straightforward. Cidre, once Karen broke into his icy walls, was the sweetest and I liked how he was slowly falling for her during their story. His wedding CG was also beautiful!
ON THE FLIP SIDE, his dead people kink doe! I CANNOT!😂😂 So during this route, when Karen decided to stay in the country of Shirayuki, she was almost raped by some ugly spriteless NPC when Cidre happened to save her, and took her to his castle while she was unconscious. At first, I was like “aww he kinda cute and aloof!” Then the next day, he orders her to collect dead bodies outside so he can display them in his castle.😂 Dude is necrophiliac!
****WARNING: EXPLICIT SCENE SPOILERS BELOW****
During one of the H-scenes, when Karen (with her magic glasses) was trying to escape Cidre’s castle, she happens upon a secret door which Cidre had put a spell on: Anyone who touches it, turns into a corpse. As her body starts to deteriorate, Cidre catches her and takes off her glasses, asking her why she wears them. Cidre tells her that if she tells the truth about her magic glasses, he’ll help her. She confesses that the glasses make her confident and that she also wants to get to know Cidre better (lol). Cidre breaks the spell and then tells her that if she wants to get to know him, she should show it with her body (ROFL OF COURSE!)😂 He then begins to put a blindfold on her and starts eating her out! WHAT LMAOO He lightly chokes her and tells her to KEEP QUIET LIKE A CORPSE! LMFAO😭💀 While he continues to pleasure her down there, Karen’s blindfold comes loose. When Cidre notices this, he is displeased and orders her to continue the rest (lol). Cidre then asks her to remove her stockings so she can fully touch herself. After she finishes, she dozes off exhausted and falls asleep. Later, Karen awakens when she feels someone (Cidre) *enjoying* her sweaty body as if it’s a ‘prized treasure’. Apparently, because she looks like a dead corpse while sleeping, Cidre is SEVERELY turned on.😬 🥶
WARNING: THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OH HEART, ONLY PROCEED READING IF YOU CAN STOMACH THE TWS ABOVE!!
The H-scenes in his bad endings were even more messed up. And I found it funny how his bad end actually had more substance and plot compared to his good end. So basically, the main villain of this route is Cidre’s mom “Snow White” – which is also Peach’s grandma (go figure – tbh this’ll all make sense once you actually finish all of the routes in this game including all its branching bad ends) Anyway, the ever beautiful Snow White’s actual secret on why she stays young and pretty was her heart hidden in this sacred box somewhere in Cidre’s castle. Snow White sneaks into Cidre’s castle one night but then gets caught by Cidre and Karen.
During an altercation between the three, they (Cidre and Karen w/ glasses on) began to make love while they continue to torture Snow White, (they messed with her heart in that sacred box thingie, so now Snow White’s beauty has deteriorated, and she’s in her old hag form). Cidre began stuffing Snow White’s pulsating heart up on Karen’s junk, and then proceeds to eat her out. When the heart started spilling out off of the heroine’s junk, Cidre begins to FREAKIN MUNCH ON IT! WHAT THE FUCK SO GROSS I ALMOST BARFED WATCHING THIS SCENE CHESUS CHRISST! 🤢 He also brought his mouth to kiss the heroine,🤢 and they ridiculously began eating the heart together, killing Snow White in the process.🤮🤮🤮
Honestly, there are even more messed-up events during this route’s other BAD ENDS, such as Karen becoming the new Snow White, and then Cidre giving her poison so she can peacefully end her life. She drinks the poison while they dance together, with Cidre telling her that it’ll take a minute for the poison to kick in, so they continue dancing until she slowly dies. Momentarily after she’s completely dead, Cider bangs her dead body. lol
I believe Cidre and Peach’s routes are almost up to par as far as being obscurely WILD AND TOTALLY MESSED UP. Like, what in the hell were they smoking when they wrote this? I honestly expected something truly horrid, but they have managed to surpass that it seems lol. Sasuga devs, i guess?! 😂
DOUTEI
- grumpy manchild
- thicc d
Doutei is the young man that governs the land of “Peter Pan,” where children and fairies reside. He is serious, strictly disciplined, and stubborn, yet he possesses an oddly honest side. With an unusual aversion to love and sex, he enforces unreasonable punishments on anyone who engages in acts or conversations pertaining to it. Although he is over 6 feet tall and has the body of an adult, he insists that he is a child.
⬇️ Click to View Content Warnings
I was laughing out loud because the literal meaning of the name Doutei (童貞) in Japanese is actually “male virgin,” with the character 童 meaning “youth” and 貞 meaning “chastity.” And of course, this wordplay had so much to do with this route, which made it even funnier! 😂 (Read spoilers if you’re curious). Content warnings aside, I actually happened to like Doutei’s happy ending. Doutei wasn’t really as *messed up* as the other two LIs; he had some moments where you can be like “oof, no thanks, bro”😂😂😂 but I think overall, this route (in PIL standards) is pretty tame. Also, the route leading up to his happy ending had some twists I didn’t expect, so I kind of liked that. One major gripe I have in this route, however, was that almost all the CGs were close-ups, and there weren’t a lot of them compared to the other two LIs.🙁
⬇️ Spoilers
Because his name, literally means “male virgin”, Doutei pretty much also plays as one. The dude hates sex. And since he rules the land of Peter Pan, he makes it a point that anyone who indulges in lustful, indecent acts will be punished. So technically, no kissing, no hugging, as well as no touching in Neverland. Though all the inhabitants in this land were pretty much young kids! And this is where I thought we’re treading into danger zone with the mention of ‘young kids’. I was ready to drop the game if they do some pedo-sh*t, but thankfully they didn’t go that far. Phew! Though I would still heavily caution, because there was one bad end that involves the adults having sex while there was some kid watching and that scene gave me the ick!
Anyway, so Doutei threatens to punish everyone (all the kids) in Neverland who engages in convos about “love and sex”.The heroine thought it was cruel of him to punish kids like that, but then later finds out that he never really “punishes” kids harshly. Instead he just gives them candies with flavors they don’t like (that’s apparently his form of punishment lol). So Karen was all, “aww he ain’t that bad afterall”.😁 She starts getting curious about Doutei, and then notices he has this tendency to profusely scratch his hands till it gets bloody when he becomes uncomfortable or when there are “adult talks” going on. Doutei, for some reason, also declares that he’s not an adult but a kid himself.🤷♀️ PS: EXPLICIT R18 AND TW ON CONTENT BELOW! One day, while Karen was on her magic glasses, she accidentally made physical contact with Doutei. So she started getting horny and gave him a kiss mark. Doutei being a male virgin who abhors sexual acts, gets extremely flustered and angry that he, out of pure reflex slaps her, making the glasses fall off her face, so the heroine snaps out of her hornbee mode. The next morning, Doutei gets upset about his hickey and thinks he got infected with some sort of poison or virus lol. Little did both of them know that a kid named Kabi witnessed all of these, and the next day, this little asshole blackmailed the heroine to wear her glasses so he could touch her and see what happens. WTF NOOOOOOO! 😬😬😬 The heroine being her weak pushover self, reluctantly obliged, and just when she was about to attempt to kiss the lil shitty kid, she manages to snap out of it and takes her glasses off. She feels mortified of herself after almost doing such a heinous act. Doutei saw all this and took her to the amusement for a ride to make her feel better lol. There were a lot of build-ups regarding Karen and Doutei’s relationship, and while some were wacky af, they were at least present for the most part, and it wasn’t just abrupt like how most of these trashy R18 games go, so I kind of appreciated that.
One night, Doutei gets curious about Karen’s magic glasses, steals them from her, and puts them on, but nothing happens, so he asks her to touch him, and this is where all the ugly stuff goes down. Doutei became violent, and started raping her, forcing her to gag on his thique cawk, and then started punching and slapping her while she’s giving him a bj. YIKES! NO THANK YOU!🙄
Additionally, this route reveals that Doutei’s world is not actually “Peter Pan Land” but rather a “blank” country. It’s a place where anyone who doesn’t have specific “roles” in the fairytale realm resides. Since kids don’t have roles assigned to them in this world, they end up in Doutei’s country, which he began to coin Peter Pan or Neverland because the kids never grow up and become adults. (This lore will be further expounded during Peach’s route) ***His BAD ENDING involves MC (magic glasses on) and Ouji-sama (the prince who gave her the glasses) having sex in public in front of the children in the land of Peter Pan.💀 Doutei finds out about this, and locks Karen up in prison. Karen tried to remove her glasses but it turns out it wouldn’t come off no matter what. Doutei having developed feelings for her, visits her every day in the dungeon to help her remove the glasses. However, no matter what they do, the glasses does not not budge. This ends up with Karen seducing Doutei to do sexual acts to her as a form of her “punishment”. After a lot of coercion, Doutei obliges and gets hooked into sex until this becomes a recurring thing, where he would go to the dungeon to fuq MC mercilessly. One day while they were doing the deed, the little shithead kid Kabi decides to sneak into the dungeon and catches the adults doing dubious acts and exposes Doutei for lying to everyone in Neverland about how he hates sex, etc. As a punishment, the role is now reversed and Doutei is now the one locked up in the dungeon. Karen (still on her magic glasses) becomes the ruler of the Peter Pan land and punishes Doutei every day in the dungeon. She makes him wear a chastity belt.
She also punishes him by teasing him and not finishing off lol. MC also swallows the chastity belt’s key in front of Doutei, telling him he can never escape this torture. Suddenly, Ouji-sama appears and offers to help Doutei out. The prince, being as dubious as he is, then stabs Karen’s stomach so they can look for the key inside. It turns out Karen was hiding the key in her mouth all along and was just acting as if she swallowed it. Now there’s a massive hole in her belly, her guts exposed (lol, how is she still alive though?).😂 Ouji-sama then proposes they have a threesome while her stomach is open and while MC IS BLEEDING TO DEATH. JFC!!!!🥴🥴🥴 The whole 3P scene would have passed as “hot but fuqd up” if it wasn’t for the MC’s belly freakin open and her guts flapping out on a Sunday afternoon! good lorrdt! 
PEACH
(literally) loves to spank the monkey🐒- loves water sports…..
Peach is from the land of Momotaro. He’s flamboyant, very flashy, & excessively friendly with a strong inclination towards physical contact. He is basically Momotaro himself, though he prefers to go by the name “Peach.” He resides with his enigmatic and beautiful grandmother, as well as his seemingly boisterous grandfather. Accompanying Peach are a dog, pheasant, and monkey, whom he declares as his “lovers,” hinting at engaging in sexual acts with them. His favorite foods include cup noodles and mayonnaise.
⬇️ Click to View Content Warnings
It was the perfect decision to save Peach’s route for last. After enduring the stomach-churning unpleasantries of the two previous routes, I thought I was conditioned to breeze through Peach’s like a pro – or so I thought! (cackles) But holyyyy, was I wrong!😅 I swear, this game continually surpasses my expectations in the most unsettling way possible (laughs), and well… hats off to that!😂 What’s kinda amusing is that this route’s *mystery* wasn’t half bad. Peach’s backstory was also interesting to me as well. First off, it had me hysterically laughing when they incorporated the pheasant, dog, and monkey from the actual Legend of Momotaro into Peach’s route. These animals actually accompany Peach in his story but besides being his friends, they were also his f*ckbuddies, and the game made it apparent to always have Peach mention how he spends skin-to-skin time with them.🥴
In a general sense, Peach’s route did provide some answers to the mysteries from Cidre and Doutei’s routes, but I was disappointed by how some of the conflicts were resolved illogically. I mean, yeah, this sort of thing happens all the time in otome games, so I don’t know why I’m even bringing it up as a gripe, especially in a trashy R18 game title. (cackles).😂
⬇️ Spoilers
Alrighty! So first of all, about the “beastiality” in the content warnings above. I wanted to clarify that Peach really isn’t into these things and he was just pretty much joshing around with the heroine. The game makes it a point to have Peach hint several times that he was having sex with the monkey, dog and pheasant only to reveal in the later parts that he was just really joking about it. HOWEVER, beastiality DOES HAPPEN in this route and it’s on Peach’s BAD END. For additional context, it was between the heroine and some monster (and Peach doesn’t really take part of it). As for Peach’s route, it feels like half of it was solely dedicated to throwing in all kinds of deviant sexual kinks, almost as if they were ticking off every one they could find in a book.LMAO 😂 And then half of it was spent on the plot, as well as tying up loose ends lol. Peach was also really into golden showers and he seems to really enjoy the act too which basically is just YUUUCK.🤢 JUST…WHYYYY???
So story-wise, it turns out the root of all evil in the fairytale world is actually Peach’s grandma (a.k.a Snowhite). Peach’s grandma and grandpa are actually some sort of ugly vampiric demons, and every month they drink Peach’s blood to feed, torturing and ravaging him each time. It’s the same cycle repeated over and over again. Peach detaches his heart from his body and keeps it in a heart ornament container dangling from his waist, attached to his kimono (as shown in his sprite), so I guess that’s the reason why he’s not dying?
The main reason Peach complies with the torture each month is because he seeks companionship in Momotaro Land. He chooses to turn a blind eye to his grandma and grandpa’s evil ways just so he can continue living with them. Now, this really pissed me off because he also confesses to Karen that the monkey, pheasant, and dog weren’t really his fckbuddies but were just his friends because he doesn’t have any in Momotaro Land. So why can’t he just be satisfied with his animal friends who seem to emotionally support him? Why go so far as to be tortured by monster demons each month? It’s so ridiculous, but whatever!🤷♀️ After learning all this, Karen tells Peach to run away and escape to the real world with her. However, Peach explains that the fairytale world and its citizens operate according to their “roles”. Therefore, him being Momotaro in Momotaro Land is a must. Children do not have “roles” in the fairytale land, so Doutei takes them in, in his “blank” country (aka now coined Peter Pan Land/Neverland). If they happen to wander into Momotaro Land, Peach’s grandma ends up killing these children so she can remain youthful in appearance.☹️ Peach then bears the burden of sending the children’s dead bodies away via the river, offering prayers as their bodies wash up downstream.😢 These corpses end up in Cidre’s country, the world of Snow White. That’s why Cidre finds so many dead bodies ending up near his castle. This also explains why Doutei was able to go back to the real world while Peach couldn’t. Doutei doesn’t have a role in the fairytale land, and he doesn’t belong there in the first place, whereas Peach had to fulfill his role as Momotaro.
In his GOOD ENDING, with the help of Peach, Karen manages to defeat the evil grandma and grandpa, allowing her to return to the real world. Both Karen and Peach feel sad and emo as they are about to be separated, but Peach promises the heroine that they will see each other again. As a symbol of their connection, Peach gives Karen the heart ornament from his waist. Years pass, and Karen grows old, living in a nice estate with a servant caring for her. She reflects on her life, admitting she’s lived a good one but she never truly loved anyone else as she waited for Peach all this time. Closing her eyes, Peach magically appears in front of her, telling her that he’s taking her back to Momotaro Land to be his bride. This indicates that she has passed away in the real world and is now returning to the fairytale land to live happily ever after with Peach.
To be fair, if you take out all the devious sexual kinks in this route like the fruit sex, golden showers, etc. This ending can pretty much pass as decent tbh.😂 Like the plot was still godawful but I wouldve shrugged that off if they just gave me some good ol’ decent B-grade romance! But alas! It wouldn’t be the infamous Mashou Megane if it werent for those wild disgusting kinks so….😂😂😂 As for Peach’s BAD END, well…….. I’m not going to even talk about it, periodt. But yeah, just expect a whole lotta’ SHIT going down! (pun intended). I mean it.💩
KAREN AKAZAWA (Main Heroine)
- the glasses stay on during smex!
Karen is exactly as the game’s premise describes her: very timid, shy, with an inferiority complex, severe lack of confidence, and she doesn’t really have any initiative on her own, which is the reason why she resorts to the power of the glasses. Because she feels that she can never be her ideal self, she succumbs to her magical glasses to take the reins on her persona.
Without her glasses, I don’t really find her too annoying though; she is a bit of a pushover, but it’s because the story calls for it. It’s also funny how she instantly agreed to Ouiji-sama’s bait about the glasses and his proposal regarding fixing the fairytale world. 😂I mean, I get it, girl. If your 2D husbando from your body pillow suddenly manifests in front of you, spouting flowery words and enticing promises for an isekai adventure in his enchanted fantasy world, someone in Karen’s state; depressed, and no hopes whatsoever about the future, would easily give in.😂
Karen with the magic glasses on, does a complete 180, shifting from her timid demeanor to a more assertive and aggressive one. The game also made it very obvious that whenever she decides to put on the glasses, you’re pretty much headed to a bad ending (for context, most of the choices are either “put on the glasses” or “don’t put on the glasses”). On the flip side, I don’t find her any more likable with the glasses on. While she becomes more confident, sassy, with a lot of bite inside, she still tends to make foolish decisions regardless of whether she’s wearing the glasses or not. 😂 So, it doesn’t really make much difference to me! (laughs). To add to that, it seems that all the LIs, ironically, dislike her when she’s wearing the magic glasses and prefer her original self over her hornbee mode.
I was surprised that the Prince/Ouji-sama didn’t have his own route. I was expecting his to be some sort of locked route in the game at the end, but that didn’t happen at all. And you know what? After enduring three routes filled with disgusting scat, gorefest, and corpse-banging, I don’t think I have it in me to go through a fourth one! LMAO. So yes, I’m actually glad Prince dude does not have a route!😂
SYSTEM AND UI
The user interface was rather straightforward, and I liked that it was also really clean-looking, like there weren’t unnecessary frills in it just for the sake of aesthetics; t’was very simple! Also, despite being a Japanese-only game, the main menu was entirely in English. And while this isn’t uncommon for Japanese visual novels, I always appreciate it when developers choose to do this.
I like that there was an “Easy Mode” option for you to see which choice leads to a specific LI route as well as which choice would lead you to a good or bad end. There’s also a voice collection feature in the EXTRA section where you can re-listen to the saved voice clips you have added during your gameplay, as well as a scene selection for each route, in case you want to revisit a scene in the game. A “Jump to the next choice” feature was also available in the game, making it a breeze to get all the endings for completionists like myself.
To my surprise, the Japanese texts/kanji weren’t too difficult with this game either. The fairytale lore wasn’t too heavy to follow; and if you’re between N2 and N3, I think you can easily breeze through this game with the help of kanji parsers as well as any handy JP to EN dictionary, like Midori, which is what I use.
What are the chances for this game to get picked up for localization?
I honestly have no idea. First of all, PIL-VAMP is one of the many subsidiaries of STONE HEADS Co., Ltd., which is their parent company. Another subsidiary of STONE HEADS Co., PIL/SLASH (specializing in BL games), had an old game that was recently picked up for localization by JAST Blue. That BL game is ‘Paradise‘, which is set to release this month. If you are familiar with how the pre-localization licensing process works in video games and put two and two together, it might seem plausible for a PIL-VAMP game to receive a western release, similar to how PIL/SLASH’s Paradise did. However, in my opinion, it’s highly improbable for Mashou Megane to be selected for localization. Not because the developers are unwilling to make it happen, but rather due to collective caution from both the developers and publishers regarding releasing very risqué games like this in the West. Plus, I don’t think there’s enough market for it.
Many years back, I once suggested this title in Mangagamer’s annual localization survey polls, but that was my past naive self thinking our niche demographic could stomach games like this lol.😅 After seeing a couple of folks in the community getting extremely triggered by games like Piofiore, which is honestly not even a hair’s breadth in comparison to the trigger/content warnings of Mashou Megane. I honest-to-god think this game just needs to stay unlocalized. But then again, this is just me thinking out loud with my unfiltered opinions. Please take all of this with a pinch of salt!
TRAILER
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Mashou Megane was a short game; I think it took me about 20-ish hours to complete the entire thing. Though, judging by my actual gameplay, I believe I spent almost three weeks completing this title, playing in spurts. This was mainly because I’m not a fast reader when it comes to JPVNs. In theory, you can probably finish this title in less than 20 hours give or take.
As a disclaimer, I’ve actually completed this game back in 2022 and had already written half of this review during that same year. However, I decided not to continue it simply because I didn’t feel like discussing it openly in public (laughs).😂 I only seriously considered finishing this review after seeing a few comments on my end-of-year survey last year; I had no idea that some people were actually looking forward to reading my thoughts on it. Ya’ll wild af!😂I also added this game to this blog’s “motivation corner” back in January and promised myself that I would only publish my review if the votes in the poll reached 100. To my surprise, they did! (cackles) And now, here we are!😂
The Almighty Isekai
As for the story, I actually thought the premise was kind of… fun! No, seriously! I’ve always been a fan of the “isekai’d into xyz world” theme, and I know these tropes are already overdone and extremely saturated, especially in today’s manga/manhwa market (not to mention the countless entries from the isekai anime pool). But in joseimuke media, I can never get sick of it!😅 So yeah, Mashou Megane’s plot actually had a thing going! The intro, particularly the scene where Karen, was shook to see her 2D oshi from her daikimura manifest before her, had me cackling!😂
The game also explored themes loosely based on popular world fairytales. Characters like Snow White, Peter Pan, and Momotaro (aka Peach Boy) are featured, and it was interesting to see how the writers interpreted each tale with their twisted versions of the characters. So I have to give them credit for that!
What this game lacks, however, is good character development, and I believe this is due to the stories being really short. There wasn’t any proper build-up in the characters’ relationships either. Sometimes the romance was cute, but most of the time it felt rushed and not really believable. It was just kind of there for the sake of being there, if you know what I mean. Despite that, the voice actors did a spectacular job with the roles they were given, and that was one of the reasons why I kept playing the game. Even the protagonist’s VA (who’s very famous for her other galge and eroge projects) did an incredible job portraying her role and transitioning from timid Karen to wild megane Karen.
Horror, Gore, Erotica (and a few things in between).
Also, kudos to the writers for fully embracing the horror-gore and erotica themes for this game. THEY REALLY WENT ALL IN FOR THIS ONE AND DID NOT HOLD BACK. Though, I have to say that most of the gore is purely for shock value and isn’t properly integrated into the story. Like at one point, the protagonist and her LI were just being intimate, and suddenly, there were vegetables up her genitals or some pulsating organ inserted up her junk. Like, I’m telling you, the whiplash of these wild instances is relentless. It gave me a few laughs and cackles, and while the impact of these scenes was there, it was only momentarily. It’s not the kind of game that relies on psychological horror; rather, it’s more about jump scares of gore one after another.
The story also moves quite quickly, and there isn’t enough nuance given to the characters, especially the protagonist, so it’s difficult to empathize with anyone. What’s funny is that Karen’s desperate desire to obtain the magic glasses was initially driven by her need to gain confidence for her job-hunting in the real world. However, after being isekai’d to the fairytale world, that motivation became trivial, and she eventually forgot about it altogether. It would have been funnier if she had continued her job-hunting antics throughout the story.
As for the LIs, I don’t exactly have any favorite for this game, to be honest!😂 Though if I had to choose a character just for the heck of it, I think Doutei was maybe…alright. 🤷♀️
Do I recommend this game? NO.
Do you like b3stg0r3 dot com? If so, then maybe you’ll get a kick outta this title? (cackles). 😂 Saying Mashou Megane was a *wild experience* is kind of an understatement. Out of all the raunchy R18 otome games I’ve played (bee-game included; and I found that one pretty tame on content)😅 this one was definitely the wackiest…and not just your regular ‘wacky’, more like holy crackpot on a stick kind of wacky. I really would not recommend this game to anyone, not even my worst enemies.
However, if you’re REALLY curious and unfazed by any of the content warnings above, then by all means! 😂 Just don’t pay full price for it. With its mediocre story and romance, plus the very short gameplay, you’re really not getting your money’s worth with this title. Getting it half off is probably reasonable! If you do decide to give it a go, take this advice and make sure to have some rose-scented bath salts at the-ready for a post-game soak. Trust me, you’ll need it for cleansing purposes!
Otome Kitten 
godddd I’m glad I didn’t play this. some R-18 games I played were gross enough and this sounds like a minefield for me HAHA but thanks for taking one for the team 8)
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lol thanks! as someone who pretty much plays just about anything, this was also a minefield for me! lmaooo 😭😂😂
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oh my… 👀
i read this cause I was curious but even just the summary is enough to make me run… I don’t even want to try the good ending.
is there good R18+ otome or are they all stranger (to be polite…) no need to have too many hot scene but more than nothing like code realize 🤣🤣🤣
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LOL, the good ones definitely exist! But it’s very slim pickings, and you have to weed through a conundrum of R18 kusoges to find one! HAHA😂
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Sometimes i really question how the team meetings in these game companies go, like does one extremely high worker just throw this plot out there and everyone is like ….. genius!
I’m not even surprised about the amount of out-of pocket gore in r18 Japanese games but i am surprised that its not BL because i feel like I’ve seen so many more of these in that section.
Anyhow your blog post about it is hilarious, please carry on we appreciate your sacrifice. ❤
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I’m really glad you went forward with reviewing a game like this! While the content is def not for everyone (not for me!), I think it’s important that our otoge community is able to get games like this released, especially since our demographic gets very few R18 games. Thank you for trying it, stomaching the rough stuff and making a review! ⭐️
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