Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujotachi-

vndb • erogamescape

Intro:

Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujotachi- is the third main game in ωstar’s series of short supernatural nukige, released in 2015.

Story: 7/10

As usual, this Bishoujo Mangekyou is framed by the writer Fukami Natsuhiko visiting a Japanese inn for inspiration, meeting the mysterious Renge, and being shown a story through the bishoujo kaleidoscope.

The set-up for this installment’s story is easily the most ambitious so far. It takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth, where the scientist protagonist Kaminari Ryuunosuke is working to recreate humanity’s technological advances that were lost when mankind was nearly destroyed. He lives in the middle of a desert wasteland in a tower with vestiges of the old civilization’s technology. Nearby is a much more destitute and primitive village that Ryuu frequently visits and helps, but is an outsider to. There are a few other elements fleshing out the setting, like the church that serves as the power structure of the village and another group of humans who live in the wastelands and are rejected by those who live in the village.

The setting is built out with a good amount of elements that interact with one another, but something about it feels artificial. While not as filmsy as post-apocalyptic settings in shallower nukige, the world of this game doesn’t feel lived-in. There are a decent number of moving pieces, but these pieces are pretty transparent tools, both for painting the backdrop to the story but also to serve as Chekhov’s guns that you just know exist to be pulled in as plot points later in the game. I’m sure it’s hard to create a natural, fully-realized alternative setting with the time alotted in a shortish nukige, and given those limitations the writer probably does about as well as can be expected, but that doesn’t change the fact that the setting feels unsatisfactory.

After a period of time devoted to explicating the basis of the setting, we get into the bishoujos when Ryuu restores two robots in the tower to serve as his maids. Though things don’t exactly go as he planned. This ends up being the bulk of the game: Ryuu’s interactions with the robots, Alice and Dorothy, and how their relationships develop. Some people might lament the turn from establishing a relatively detailed sci-fi setting to focusing on cute girls, but I’m not one of them. After all, the Bishoujo Mangekyou games refer to girls in both the main title and the subtitle of each game. That’s what these games are ultimately about: beautiful girls…and sex with beautiful girls.

For me the shift of focus to the robot girls and their interactions with Ryuu is a welcome one, but it gets off to a very rough start. The early scenes between Ryuu and Alice and/or Dorothy are generic at best, and at worst, and most often, their banter is grating rather than entertaining. I’ll get more into this when I talk about the characters, but suffice to say these interactions are largely unpleasant to sit through. Fortunately things improve as the game goes on and the characters and their relationships develop. But I even have to complain about the development, which feels pretty artificial most of the time, and happens in discrete steps. With each of these steps the interplay between the characters gets better, though, and by the latter half or so of the game it’s pretty enjoyable to read. Unfortunately(?) by then the sex is in full swing and you don’t get a whole lot of non-porn interactions.

There’s a love triangle going on between Ryuu, Alice, and Dorothy, which seems to begin before either of the girls even like the protagonist. Love triangles can only really be good with good drama (occasionally, good humor) and that’s in short supply early on in Biman 3. Later on it has its moments, but the game is definitely better once it starts to branch into its version of routes. In the second half of the game you get a few choices where you basically pick to see a scene with your favorite robot, and then a romance between Ryuu and that robot develops interspersed with the game’s plot, which is the same for either robot and leads to the same end (other than a heroine-specific epilogue.) Luckily by this point in the game the character dynamics have blossomed into something good, if not great, so the romance is good, if not great.

The story of the game isn’t entirely disregarded during the character-driven middle section. There are flashbacks that gradually shed light on Ryuu’s and the world’s pasts, and the pace at which this information is revealed strikes a great balance. There are also occasional scenes with the village/rs which remind you that that’s still a part of the story and will probably become important later. The various plot pieces come together in the last hour or two of the game, when it goes full-in on the story. Said story is not especially unique, but the driving action is compelling enough that it would be hard not to read this section of the game all in one sitting. The story takes several twists and turns, and while none of them are as mindbending as the second game’s, they’re effective glue to keep you in your seat throughout the final stretch of the game.

Bishoujo Mangekyou games have never been thematic powerhouses, and the third game doesn’t break the mold. I can’t say I really mind, since post-apocalyptic and robot stories tend to rehash the same tired themes that I don’t think I ever found that interesting to begin with. The story does devote a lot of consideration to what, if anything, separates advanced AI from humans—because that’s of vital importance to the characters—but it engages this question on an emotional, rather than philosophic, level. This is actually really refreshing and preferable to intellectual pontification. The story lightly touches on humanity’s destructive nature, a la post-apocalyptic cliché, but fortunately doesn’t drown in pointing out the obvious. It even finds a little something novel to say about it.

Characters 7/10

The robot maid heroines are the blonde big-titted tsundere Alice and the short-haired kuudere Dorothy. At their introduction they are much too hard tsun- and kuu-, respectively. I get the sense that this was done intentionally to cast their characterization as robots, but it doesn’t make them any less unpleasant. It’s possible to make characters likably unlikable, but the heroines starting off so one-note and generic precludes that possibility here. As mentioned, Alice and Dorothy develop over the course of the story—though this feels artificial in a way I don’t think is intentional or because they’re robots—and they get better and better as the game goes on. They soften, and the reader gets to know other sides to them. By the end of the game they are both quite lovable.

The protagonist Ryuunosuke is a megalomaniac mad scientist. He’s not as interesting as that makes him sound. In practice he’s similar to any number of arrogant otaku characters whose arrogance routinely fails to disguise their fragile ego. In fact, Ryuu is an otaku. His tower has a library of media from the old world that he has spent years with, so he makes frequent references to otaku culture, and broader pop culture, but also philosophy and literature. I get the feeling the writer was reading Subahibi around the time he wrote this. Like the heroines, Ryuu starts off too harsh and unlikable, but develops into someone more likable and less annoying as the game goes on.

Biman 3 contains a handful of side characters, which makes for a more extensive cast than other games in the series. But there’s really nothing to say about these side characters. The villagers don’t add anything to the game (save for one sex scene for the female barkeep) but are necessary because the village is necessary for the plot and has to have people living in it.

Sound: 7.5/10

It’s been so long since I last played a Bishoujo Mangekyou game that I can’t remember how much of the BGM is reused. Some definitely is, and some definitely isn’t. The bulk of the soundtrack consists of piano, strings, and atmospheric synth. These tracks are decent but only a couple stand out. Then the game adds in some novelty songs, like the slapstick, ragtime, honkytonk, and desert theme tracks. These suck and break up what’s otherwise a cohesive sound. The game has an ED, which I’m not sure whether is new or not. It’s OK.

I dislike Alice’s voice acting. Her voice has a pinched, harsh quality that only exacerbates the early personality problems her character has. I much prefer Dorothy’s voice, which is quite cute. The side characters are all voiced…but leave such little impression that it took me a minute to remember if they were or not.

Art: 9/10

Happoubi Jin (my previous reviews got his name wrong because of the pun) is still as amazing as ever. Something about the coloring in this game seems worse to me than in previous entries. It’s got a slight pastel quality to it that I’m not huge on, especially when paired with Happoubi Jin’s line art. The background artists continue to do their damnedest to keep pace with Happoubi Jin, and the setting provides them with excellent fodder, with all the ruins and other cool set pieces.

One thing I have to say about the art: the composition of the CGs is awful. I’m not sure if I’m just biased after coming off a string of games from elf, who are masters of framing CGs. But Happoubi Jin tries to cram as much of the girl into view as possible, while also getting as up close as possible. This requires twisting the girls and the frame into awkward angles. Play too long and your neck will be sore from having to tilt your head to get a decent look at the art.

As usual a minority of the CGs have animation. It’s rather standard AE animation. The flesh of tits and asses moves nicely, but the bodies and limbs of characters move like weird paper dolls. The animation isn’t really missed for the CGs that don’t have it.

Ero: 7/10

The ero in Biman 3 manages to maintain admirable variety for a nukige that doesn’t get into any real fetish material. Much of the variety comes from the different situations, which give most scenes a hot twist. Others get by on the hotness of the art and the girls’ dirty talk. Though the dirty talk can get out of hand to the point of being too ridiculous to be sexy. The heroines talking about *word*-pussy and *word*-cock starts to get boring, or else it makes you laugh with wild shit like “gift-pussy” and “windshield wiper-cock.” A good number of the scenes have a distinct but tasteful femdom vibe, and they’re balanced by scenes where the protag is the sadist. There are even some scenes that switch between the two. Again, variety is the strong suit of the porn in this game, second only to the supremely erotic Happoubi Jin art. Surprisingly given the game’s premise, there are only a few threesome scenes; the only one where the girls do anything with each other is probably the hottest ero scene in the whole game.

The vexing fly in the ointment of the ero is how long the scenes are. This game doesn’t have the overly verbose writing of many eroge sex scenes. Rather, the sex just goes on and on, with the protagonist usually cumming 5 times (3 times in “shorter” single-CG scenes.) I realize the amount of porn content in a nukige is of great commercial importance, but I can’t see anyone who spends money on these games being satisfied with scenes being so drawn out. I consider anything past one orgasm per CG to be filler. The situations and art are the best part of the ero for me, both in this specific game and in eroge in general, so continuing to tack on more writing and voice acting doesn’t add anything and just means more text to slog through before you can get to a new scene.

Overall 72/100

Pros: Characters and their relationships develop throughout the game; fantastic art; good ero; good plot at the end

Cons: Characters and their relationships take time to develop into something good, and in fact start off pretty bad; setting doesn’t feel natural

Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujotachi is the most ambitious Bishoujo Mangekyou so far in the series. It establishes its own unique setting, contains two heroines to choose from, and runs much longer than the first two games (looking at erogamescape, about twice as long.) I can’t help but feel that that ambition is misplaced. The series is probably best when it keeps things short and simple. The notable thing about both of the first two games is how each one packs a small but effective punch, not some broader greatness. Biman 3 doesn’t nail characters as much as Biman 1 or plot as much as Biman 2. It does both decently, but it’s not enough to carry the length of the game and it’s not enough to make up for a poor first quarter. I was able to push myself through the first part of the game for Renge and only by the very end was I able to feel I wasn’t still doing it mostly for Renge.

Of course the whole picture might be different if you play this for the porn first, and treat everything else as extra. Which might be how it’s intended. Yet the writer clearly has ambitions beyond that, and skill beyond that too. He fumbled here, I think because he tried too hard.