Manatsu (CV: Okitsu Kazuyuki) makes deliveries for Ponpokonrin from his Serigano shop. Shared a fate with Rin that prevented them from being together but finally broke from it and now they’re dating.
Manatsu and Rin are being lovely dovey under the wilted tree. Gin spots them and they all have lunch together. Once Rin’s 3rd year of school starts, there’s a new teacher named Shimon Shimon and a transfer student named Kimura Asagi. They also hear a church has opened up in the village from Asagi. On Rin’s way home from school, Manatsu makes a graceful entrance by crashing his bike as usual. He then walks home together with Rin and talk about the church being rebuilt. Apparently a couple owned it before but since a new priest moved into the village, they’re rebuilding it. Manatsu suggests they visit together if he drives her and him there (thankfully he’s not as clumsy with a car as he is with his bike lol). Anyway, Kami-sama visits and Rin asks about the church being built. Apparently it’s a protestant church and even Kami-sama had visited it before.
Rin visits Manatsu’s mother while waiting on him to come back from a delivery. She talks about having her getting married with Manatsu and such. Anyway, Manatsu finally arrives and he walks Rin home. He mentions that he can drive her to the church tomorrow too. So the next day Rin gets ready for her date with Manatsu and he picks her up in his car. On their way there Manatsu ask if there’s anywhere Rin would like to go in specific after they visit the church and Rin says she’d like to go to the beach.
They finally arrive at the church and meet their new teacher Shimon. Apparently he’s the priest and he’s actually an old acquaintance of Manatsu. Though Manatsu was acting strange about it, they bid farewell and Rin asked Shimon to visit sometime. Rin asks Manatsu about how he met him and apparently he’s a vampire Ayakashi and met him when he was reincarnated as a samurai. There’s a flashback with the two of them and Shimon was surprised he could been seen by him. Samurai!Manatsu asked him to kill him since he lost what was precious to him but he refused to do so because he thought he was interesting. So they became close and repetitively met each other in each lifetime after Rin had died. Anyway, after they visit the church Manatsu drives Rin to a giant flower garden which was one of his favorite places he used to visit with his sister and Gin.
A few days later Rin makes plans for Shimon to come over and eat with them. Yomi feels a bit uneasy about it but regardless trust Rin’s judgement. Rin makes food especially for Shimon to visit and so they all eat dinner together. Rin goes outside with Manatsu and Shinon greets the two. Rin mentions to him how he knew Manatsu in the past and he says he and Manatsu were good friends back then.
It’s finally Summer and one day Rin and Manatsu were walking together in the rain. Rin talks about the future and how she wants to manage her own restaurant in the future. Manatsu more or less has the same dream for success of his own management; so they’ll both study hard and work together to make this dream come true. Rin eventually tells Gin about it too. She Also writes this in her course papers that Shimon goes over and he tells her it’s a dream fitting for her. Shimon offers to help them study. After school Manatsu meets Rin and offers to have her study at his house. Rin gets really embarrassed by this and Manatsu’s all “It’s not like I have any ulterior motives or anything!!” Anyway, she goes over to his house the next day (with Manatsu’s mom teasing her about being Manatsu’s bride-to-be) to study with Manatsu in his room. They eventually take a break and Manatsu invites Rin to go to the beach with him over summer break. She gets so excited she hugs him like a teddy bear. Soon they end up making out a bit too before getting back to studying lol. After that they have dinner with the Manatsu family who are typical “oh just get married already” sort of people.
After Manatsu walks Rin home, he meets up with Shimon. He drives Manatsu home and they share a bromance of good ol’ times together. Once Manatsu’s goes home (shit gets weird) Shimon has makes a jelly remark of how he’s always been there for him yet Rin’s such an important existence to him. Anyway once he drives back he walks up to a cat and straight up says “Sorry, I’m gonna need your blood im hungry” so his hair turns white and it cuts to black (HE JUST ATE A CAT WTF).
Next day Gin tells Rin to be careful since animals have been killed here and there (yeah well its obvs who’s been doing that). Anyway it’s finally summer break and Rin spends time going to Manatsu house to study. One day he asks to kiss her while they’re at his house and just before they can Manatsu’s mother suddenly appears to tease the two lol. Just when they’re about to kiss AGAIN, Shimon appears and interrupts since he was studying with them lol.
The planned day to go to the beach was finally here. Rin got ready to leave and suddenly Uta, Tsudzuri, and Shimon ended up coming as well. Unfortunately, Tsudzuri gets carsick and Shimon suggests putting sunglasses on him. Rin makes a comment that he looks like a cute gangster LOL. It doesn’t help though Tsudzuri ends up puking in the car much to everyone telling him to try his best to endure lol. Anyway, they finally arrive at the beach and play lots of games together. Rin eventually takes a break and talks with Shimon. She asks him about his past and so he talks about being alive for many years seeing people die as he continues to live eternally. But Rin mentions that regardless of that fact, he’ll always keep the bonds he made with them. Shimon feels he understands why she’s so important to Manatsu after talking with her. He tells her that Manatsu had always mourned over her and Rin starts crying. Manatsu comes over and asks what’s wrong, he suspects Shimon at first but Rin tells him it wasn’t his fault. So he took her to a separate area and basically him in despair in his past life made her sad so she started crying. He comforts her though and hugs her closely. Shimon watches the two with a sad expression on his face.
It was finally August; Manatsu and Rin were back to studying. One day though there was a typhoon overnight so Rin couldn’t return home. And low and behold, Rin had to stay the night with Manatsu! Coincidentally, his parents aren’t here either! Anyway, after Rin takes a bath, Manatsu lays out a futon for himself so she can sleep on his bed. Unfortunately, the thunder scares Rin so Manatsu decides to hold her hand. Rin mentions how she had to endure thunder like this alone when she was younger. So Manatsu gets into bed with her and comforts her (I guess). Anyway, they don’t get freaky or anything but they make out a bit lol. The next day when Rin gets back though, Uta makes a joke implying they had sex (which was pretty hilarious I might add).
Soon the summer festival arrives but unfortunately it’s raining. So while they shelter under the shrine, Rin starts sneezing so Manatsu draws her close to him to shelter her from the cold.
Finally the cultural festival is coming up and they’re trying to come up with ideas. Haginosuke suggests a Ayakashi Cafe where they cosplay as Ayakashi LOL. Everyone makes suggestions on what to cosplay and someone says Shimon would be suitable to a vampire (wow what’re the odds). Anyway, Rin makes menu plans and also wonders what sort of Ayakashi would suit her. Manatsu suggests a nekomata so she’d wear cat ears and a tail. Rin wonders why Manatsu chose this and he says he just wants to see her dress up as a cat. Uta calls Manatsu a pervert and literally everyone is teasing him lol. Anyway, Manatsu runs off in embarrassment after his delivery and Rin and everyone discuss the cafe plans. All the ayakashi will just be in their ayakashi forms and Rin is going to be a black nekomata. Manatsu and Shimon are having a bonding drinking together at a restaurant and they laugh about the students saying Shimon should be a vampire.
So it’s finally the cultural festival and every real Ayakashi is “dress-up” as an Ayakashi with ears and a tail. Though people don’t realize it’s real of course. Soon Gin, Manatsu and Tsudzuri arrive and are sat at a table. Some older guys harrass Rin and tell her to bring them sake and even grab her arm (wtf is this the edo period???) but Manatsu helps her and tells them a student cultural festival doesn’t serve sake (no shit). Finally during Rin’s break she meets up with Manatsu to go eat together. Rin thanks him for helping her and he tells her he was pretty possessive of her and wants no other man touchin’ her. Anyways they get very ラブラブ and Manatsu spouts out some pretty cheesy lines like he’s the knight that’ll protect her lmao. Later that day Manatsu gets jelly seeing Rin next to Yomi and grabs her arm and starts dancing with her. It shows Shimon with a distorted look on his face as he watches them.
It’s Novemeber so Rin and Manatsu are talking about how it’s getting colder and Christmas is coming. That night Manatsu meets with Shimon at the usual spot. He mentions how Rin usually dies but Manatsu says it’s different this time. He’ll no longer be separated from her. Manatsu takes Shimon home and when he leaves, Shimon mutters to himself how it’s a nuisance that their chain of fate was severed.
It’s finally winter and Yomi and Uta started it off by having snowball fights lol. It reminded Rin of the winter with Hisame who sacrificed herself for Saku. It’s later on that Rin notices Hisame alive and well. They all thought she disappeared and she did too. She was alone in a black world and has no idea how much time passed. But eventually she saw Cherry Blossoms and reached out to them. It was then she was here like she is now. They return home and Manatsu appears to notice Hisame as well. He’s shocked but Rin tells him to go bring Saku. Once he does he starts crying and hugs her saying he’ll never let her go again. And so, they all have dinner together.
One day after school Rin stays after to study more. Shimon notices she’s still here and helps her study for a while. A little whiles after Shimon begins to basically explain everything that happened with Manatsu. How he fell in the love with Rin as a princess and he was reborn over and over only for him to fall in love with her and have her die. He says he watched him for a very long time go after princess Rin. He then suddenly asks her which Manatsu he likes, the present one, or the past one. He tells her that Manatsu has only ever loved Princess Rin. So he basically led her to believe that Manatsu only likes her because she’s the reborn princess Rin. So now Rin starts wondering if Manatsu’s love for her is genuine or just a mere attachment to Princess Rin. Suddenly the caretaker comes in and tells Shimon and Rin they should head back now since the school is closing. That night, Rin broods over this fact and starts to doubt Manatsu’s love for her.
The next day when Manatsu comes over and fawning over Tsudzuri as usual. When he says he loves him but also loves Rin, she gets weird about hearing him say it. He notices she seems out of it and asks if she’s okay but just uses her studies as excuse. A week later Hisame finally notices something’s up so makes Rin tell her. Once she does, Hisame believes it’d be better to talk with Manatsu about it rather than hide it from him. This motivates Rin to tell him so she says she will over a meal together. She then visits Manatsu’s shop to go see him. Once she does, he suggests instead of studying they go on a date next Sunday. That day, they drive out to town and go shopping and eating at a cafe together. Soon Manatsu then brings her to his favorite place. Manatsu then asks Rin tell him what’s wrong if there’s something on her mind. Rin finally asks him which Rin he likes, the present one or the princess Rin from 1,000 years ago. Manatsu understand how she feels since his love was always bound to her. But he likes the present Rin more (well obvs he’d say that). She’s energetic, positive, and loves to eat; quite frankly she’s the opposite of Princess Rin. Manatsu tells her that he loves the current her and she tells him that she loves the current him too. And so the two of them promise to always tell each other their concerns or worries. After they make-out, Manatsu wonder why Rin had these sort of thoughts. She mentions Shimon asked questions related to it, and so Manatsu says he’s going to talk to Shimon about it. Rin doesn’t want any conflict between the two, but he’s going to make sure he don’t pull no shit again.
So, they drive to the church where Shimon is and meet him there. He explains to him that he does indeed have feelings inside for Princess Rin. But now he loves the current Rin of the present. He basically tells him to back off in regards to his past, and Shimon is just like “I see…” he apologizes profoundly for hurting Rin. As a make-up apology, he invites them to a party for Christmas after his mass in the church. Rin happily agrees to attend and as the two of them leave, Shimon watches them drive off with a dark expression on his face.
Finally on Christmas day, Rin and Manatsu are driving back from their date to the church. They finally arrive at his church to find it’s covered in illuminations. They’re greeted by Shimon and attend his mass together with him where they sing hymns and listen to his preaches. After all that, Shimon says he’s got a gift for them. And so he locks the door and whispers “the time has come”. He tells Manatsu to step away from Rin and asks him to become a Vampire so he can have eternal life like him. But since he refuses, he starts attacking him and Rin. He eventually gives Manatsu a good hit and grabs Rin while pointing a knife to her neck. He tells Manatsu that if he doesn’t become a vampire he’ll kill her. Manatsu doesn’t understand why he’s doing this and he says that if he doesn’t, he won’t be able to meet him anymore. If he doesn’t reincarnate like he used to, that means he’ll be alone again. Just like he’d lived alone for 1,000 years. He’d always been abandoned by people and Ayakashi alike. But Manatsu accepted him, and was his best friend. He was always there when reborn. He was always sad when he died, but he could always be reborn as long as the curse with Rin was intact. But the curse was no longer and their fate was severed. And so if Princess Rin is reborn, neither would Manatsu be. And so ((cause he has a hardcore crush on Manatsu)) he can’t live in a world without Manatsu. So he came up with the brilliant plan of murdering Rin here and making fate repeat itself.
So Manatsu asks Shimon to make him into a vampire as long as he doesn’t kill Rin. So Rin tries to stop him but Shimon pins her sleeve to the chair with his knife so she can’t move. Rin screams and pleads for him to run but Manatsu is completely calm and tells her not to worry. He’s just accepting it and knows how strong Shimon is. He starts reminiscing and reminding Shimon of all sorts of memories they had together. He asks if he remembers it, and Shimon starts yelling out that of course he remembers it all. He remembers everything they did in the different time periods. So in order to make more memories, he needs to make him into a vampire. Manatsu says he’s welcome to do that, but he’ll no longer be friends with him if he does. He’ll disappear and die right in front of him. Obviously this doesn’t sit well with Shimon, and he just doesn’t want to be alone.
Best End
—
Eventually, Rin is able to escape and yells out that if Manatsu is to become a vampire, she’ll become one too. Manatsu then hugs Rin promises he’ll always be with her no matter what happens. Shimon starts going on wondering why he’s alone while Manatsu has Rin. Manatsu apologizes and tells him that regardless of whether or not he became a vampire, he’d still want to be with Rin. He tells him he should make other friends aside from him. There’s plently of other Ayakashi in the village that would be willing to befriend him. Since he too will always be friends with him. Shimon starts crying and apologizing, believing what he’s done cannot be forgiven. But Rin sympathizes because she understands what it’s like to feel lonely. They start going on about future things they’ll celebrate together like New Years, Valentines day, ect. Manatsu then suggests they all go to an amusement park together. Shimon starts crying and thanks them over and over. After that, they promise to continue their miracle of living happily together.
It’s New Years so Manatsu and Rin are on their own little date together. They prayed at the shrine to get into university and drew fortunes. Unforutnately, Rin got a bad fortune and Manatsu decides to just rip it up lol. After that they visit Shimon at his church to invite him to their very own ponponkorin New Year’s party. And so he happily accepts. So that day they all have a New Years party together. Shimon has a really fun time and thanks Manatsu for inviting him. He also apologizes again for before and promises he’ll pay more attention to his surroundings and try to open up more. And it’s all thanks to Rin for him realizing that! He tells him that he understands why he admires her so much and Manatsu gets huffy-puffy and says she’s off limits. Rin calls out to both of them to tell them that Gin is serving desert.
They eventually have their exam and Rin is pretty nervous about it but Manatsu believes she’ll do fine. So a few weeks after her exam low and behold, she passed! Manatsu congratulates her and shows her the result of his exam too and he passed as well.
Time passes and Rin finally graduates high school. She meets Manatsu afterwords and he congratulates her on graduating. So now she’s finally joined the adult club lol. So Manatsu makes a comment asking if she’s ready to take their relationship up to the next level of adulthood lmao.
Four years later, Manatsu and Rin are finally getting married back in the village. There’s a lot of conversation about who Tsudzuri loves more lol. Also while Manatsu and Rin make their speeches, Rin announces that she’s pregnant with her and Manatsu’s child.
Good End
—
Manatsu closes his eyes to ready himself for Shimon to make him a vampire. Rin begs him for him to stop but can’t move because she’s still pinned to the chair with the knife. And so, Shimon bites his neck and Manatsu turns into a vampire. Shimon starts laughing and Manatsu basically bitch slaps him across the room since he’s more powerful and not human anymore. Manatsu apologizes to Rin and begs him to make her a vampire too so they can always be together. Manatsu says she’ll lose her daily life in the village but Rin doesn’t care as long as she’s with him. He asks if she’s sure and she says she is. So he bites her on the neck and changes her into a vampire as well. Shimon makes a comment that it’s completely ungraceful and laughs a storm.
When Rin gets home she acts normally towards Gin and says she’s looking foward to what he makes for dinner. Unfortunately, that night Rin apologizes to everyone while slipping out of her room and meeting Manatsu. Apparently they’ll leaving somewhere far away since they can no longer stay in the village as vampires.
So many, many years pass to the point where the both of them would be dead as humans. Rin and Manatsu visit the village again and everything had sunken into the bottom of the dam. Not many people live in the village anymore except for a few elder folk.
Bad End
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Manatsu shuts his eyes and steels himself for Shimon to turn him into a vampire. Rin finally escapes from being stuck to the chair and hugs Manatsu closely yelling she won’t let him become a vampire. Shimon yells at her that she’s in the way and attacks her. Manatsu yells out to her in worry. But due to the attack, Rin had become a vampire. Manatsu is pissed as hell and tries to attack Shimon but to no avail and ends up getting badly hurt. Rin can’t bring herself to drink Manatsu’s blood and so she disappears with Shimon.
—
Thoughts: Well…. what the fuck just happened. I mean I knew I was kind of getting into something I was unsure of but I don’t even know. Truthfully, Manatsu is my least favorite character so his route being not so good kinda just made it worse for me. First of all, Shimon’s character confuses me. He had such malicious intent at first but then he just suddenly switched out of nowhere in the best end. I mean, it showed him basically eat a cat and it was mentioned someone had been killing animals (obviously himself) so… whatever happened to that? I mean, he’s a vampire so he obviously must crave blood? So what, he’s just gonna stay in the village while still feeding on some animals/humans here and there? The reason I point this out is because in the good end (which was awful imo) Rin and Manatsu are both turned into vampires. Yet, they decide to leave the village cause of this ????? WHWAT SENSE DOES THAT MAKE??? Shimon was still a vampire in the best end yet he didn’t leave the village or anything???
Also, I don’t even understand Hisame and Saku’s random appearance. Sure, in the first game they had relevance but Hisame just randomly appeared and literally served no purpose??? It kind of just ruined the tragedy that happened between him and Saku. Anyway, he’s got this humongous crush on Manatsu and is so thirsty for him to be his friend, he’ll make him into a vampire. Cause yeah, sure, he’ll still be friends with you after you kill his girlfriend and turn him into an immortal being that craves blood //sarcasm ヘ(´－｀;)ヘ And truthfully, I didn’t really blame Rin for thinking that Manatsu only liked her because of their fated past together. Mainly cause in the first game his love for her technically was always princess Rin and thats what brought them together. Basically, I felt no chemistry between the two. And I noticed Rin is a lot more shy around him, which I don’t really like because Ayakashi!Rin’s personality isn’t really suited to being so shy (cause she’s really blunt with Yomi).
His route was also very cliche to the point where I literally rolled my eyes. Rin scared of thunder felt like a shoehorned reason to get Manatsu in the bed with her, honestly. And Manatsu jealousy was sometimes annoying… I get Rin is yours but if Yomi is just standing next to Rin idk what the hell you think he’s gonna do. It also felt like nothing HAPPENED in this route. I guess I just never enjoyed Manatsu/Rin so I couldn’t even enjoy their moments together. Hence why the scenes with Shimon made it the most interesting. And omg the good end was horrid I don’t know what the hell makes that end “good” in the slightest. Rin and Manatsu turn into vampires and travel the world for years until they arrive back at the village to see everyone is basically either dead or left. Anyway, in a nutshell, I thought this route was boring and while Manatsu may not be a bad character per se, he’s really just not my type.
Otome Adventures 