喧嘩番長 乙女 Kenka Banchou Otome 2nd Rumble!! Summary/Review

This is a sequel that takes place after the first game (not the FD) with the addition of a new fighting system and a new route.

Hinako is going back to Shishiku for her second year of high school. Hinako starts the new year in the same class as Totomaru and Konparu. They go to the entrance ceremony to find new first years such as Kira Nozomi (Rintaro’s brother) and Sagara Tenma fighting for the top fighter. The top ends up being Tenmna and Rintaro tries to talk with Nozomi but he shuts him out. Rintaro explains to Hinako they aren’t blood related but they had an abusive step father and when Rintaro left the house, he felt abandoned. After that, Hinako encounters Tenma who tries to test his skills with Hinako since he heard she was the top fighter of Shishiku.

So as Hinako continues her school life as a 2nd year she ends up in a few fights with 1st years who start to think she’s a mysterious 1st year fight. For a while, Tenma chases down Nozomi to fight him and determine who’s the top fighter of the 1st years. Finally, they battle and Tenma wins the top fighting position of the 1st years and vows to fight Onigashima Hikaru–or Hinako. After that, Hebi who is now in their class is having issues after he and Totomaru got into an argument. Totomaru planned to apologize, but he continues to skip school.

During golden week, Hinako goes shopping with Hikaru who wants to buy new clothes for Mirako’s live performance. But then Totomaru appears noticing Hinako looking at girl clothing. He awkwardly says it would suit her but then when Hinako says it would be for her sister, he immediately takes back what he said lol. He came along with Houou as well and Hinko realizes it would be bad if Houou saw Hikaru since he doesn’t know about a twin sister. Just as Hinako tries to get them to leave, Hikaru comes out (still dressed as a girl) and Houou demands an explanation.

Totomaru leaves and Hikaru pretends to be “Hinako” in the sense he explains her back story as his own and says he didn’t want to get involved with yakuza so kept her existence hidden after finding out about her family. Houou understands but also tells them to consult him as well. Hinako tells him that Hikaru’s name is “Hinako” before he leaves. Unfortunately, Hinako feels bad about still lying to Houou and how her existence is still technically a lie. After that, Shishiku and another school’s first years start ralling up and fighting each other. They find out Hebi was among them and secretly pretend to join them so that when they tried to attack Hinako and the others, he turned on them so they weren’t outnumbered.

So with the sports festival approaching, Hinako gets ready for her battle with Tenma and beating the 1st years. So after the 2nd years winning most of the sport events, finally Totomaru, Konparu, Hinako, and Hebi face off with the other 1st years along with Tenma and Nozomi. They end up winning but Tenma begs Hinako to have one last battle with him. Hinako does and beats him and gives him a lecture on how her friends are her power and he needs to find the support of others if he wants to become stronger. So, now Hebi and the 2nd years decide who to make wear a girly costume. They try to get Nozomi at first but then Tenma offers to wear it instead since he lost his match with Hinako (I LEGIT DIED LAUGHING). Which burns everyone’s eyes after seeing it.

After this, Houou visits the school and Tenma speaks to him and admits he lost because he didnt notice the people around him (they also apparently know each other). He also says it was his last chance to be top since Shishiku is to be abolished next spring. But this is the first Houou heard this as everyone else but apparently it was said at the entrance ceremony but no one was paying attention and the flyers were tossed. After this, Tenma explains Houou helped him before when he was getting beaten up by some guys. He begs Houou to make him his underling in the sense he’ll help him become stronger and Houou accepts.

From then on, Tenma has a complete personality change and is super polite and acts like a loyal dog to Hinako and her friends (even considering Hinako and him siblings). Eventually, Mirako’s concert comes up and he invites Hinako and Rintaro. Hikaru is super jealous of her but doesn’t want to trade places because he doesn’t want to go with Rintaro lmao. So on the day of the concert, Mirako asks to go to Rintaro’s place so he can make food for them. They then run into Nozomi and Tenma who are seemingly getting along (much to Nozomi being tsun about it). Rintaro is happy he has a friend and they invite them all to eat together while he cooks them food.

So with summer break coming up Hinako gets a call from Tenma inviting everyone to work part time at restaurant near the beach together. Hikaru is against it at first but when he finds out Mirako is going, he immediately changes his mind. So they all agree to go and find out its called “muscle sea-house” aka a restaurant where ikemen serve with their tops off lmaooooo. After working at the restaurant, they all head to a camping site. Houou appears after hearing about it from Sakaguchi and decides to join as well. Hinako helps Konparu put up the tent and goes fishing with Totomaru. After that, they all have a BBQ together.

Thoughts: Honestly, I liked the common route a lot. It had a good length, was full of events with all of the characters, and felt like a good start to the game. The part with Tenma was making me laugh a lot. I still kinda wish the other guys were forced to crossdress lmao. ALSO, when they went to the beach to work I was really hoping for it to be longer!! Interactions with all the characters is so fun. That’s why I usually enjoy the common route.

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Routes

(All routes have a ‘set’ it branches off into so Totomaru/Konparu, Rintaro/Mirako, and Houou/Tenma. Then it branches off from that into a friendship route with the pairs or an individual romance route).

Totomaru & Konparu
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After Hinako and everyone is back at school, they find out a girls school might take in male students from Shishiku which makes all the 1st and 2nd years excited. Unfortunately, it leaves Hinako conflicted on how she wants to continue her school life as “Hikaru” or “Hinako”. So to cheer Hinako up, Totomaru and Konparu go to the arcade. It’s then they realize the cultural festival is coming up and decide to prepare for their last one. They decide with a haunted house and most of the class hope to invite girls to the school. Hebi ends up meeting a girl named Kotoko who he starts to get along with (after Hinako and the others save her from some yankees).

So on the day of the cultural festival everything goes along smoothly with the haunted house that Hinako and the rest of the class decided on. But unfortunately, it ends up being destroyed and most suspiciously by the girl “Kotoko” who befriended Hebi. So after that, the school trip approaches and they all find out they’re going to Hokkaido and staying at a nice hotel. So Hinako, Totomaru, and Konparu take a flight to Hokkaido together while Totomaru constantly takes pictures lol. When they make it to the hotel, Konparu and Totomaru decide to go to the baths but of course Hinako tells them she’ll go later lol. After that, they go snowboarding together.

After the school trip, Hinako and everyone find out Shishiku students are no longer transferring to Kotobuki high school. In addition, the school’s director has completely smeared the school by saying how its dangerous and showing articles on the internet of Hinako looking like she’s drinking alcohol on the school trip. Sakaguchi manages to find out that the director had no plans of actually taking in Shishiku students and finds suspicions about the whole Shishiku closing ordeal. Hikaru suggests they find evidence on this and so Hinako agrees. So, on Christmas Eve, Totomaru holds a party for their class and in addition decides to discuss further plans on what to do.

Finally, Hinako, Totomaru, Konparu and Hebi decide to meet Kotoko to find out the truth. But an injured Hebi arrives to tell them Kotoko has been kidnapped and wrote a long text basically saying everything she did was for the sake of smearing Shishiku including getting close to Shishiku students like Hebi. So they decide to try and go help her. They find the yakuza guys at an abandoned warehouse and fight them there. Hinako manages to find Kotoko and she gives her evidence of a recording from their school school’s director to try and ruin Shishiku. More yakuza appear and leave them surrounded but Hebi, Nozomi and Tenma arrive to help and they beat them. So thanks to that, Shishiku is saved and Hinako graduates from a 2nd year with Totomaru and Konparu.

Thoughts: I absolutely adore Totomaru and Konparu but I was left wanting more than I got. The whole trip they went on felt really quick and the events weren’t really that long. Even when things did happen, it was mostly drama with the whole yakuza group trying to demolish Shishiku. Like during the cultural festival, instead of making drama happen let Hinako hang out with her boys!! They always had choices for advancing into a romance route or the friendship route with both of them, but the events were so quick. I felt like there definitely could have been more.

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Totomaru (CV: KENN)
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When back from the trip, Hinako and Totomaru notice that Konparu is very busy a lot lately and doesn’t hang out with them as much. One day, Hinako looks at a dress in a store and Konparu notices her there. She immediately flips out and decides to run away since she doesn’t know how to respond lmao. Its then Totomaru and Konparu consult Hinako together and ask if she’s hiding something but tell her its okay if she doesn’t want to tell them yet. Finally, Hinako admits she’s not really “Hikaru” and is actually a girl. Totomaru and Konparu aren’t phased though because they figured it out on the trip. Regardless, they’ll keep her secret and continue to be friends with her. Hinako is super happy about this and is glad they’re treating her the same.

Before Christmas, Totomaru and Konparu decide to hang out together on Christmas Eve and tells Hinako that she should wear something more her style rather than force herself to wear boyish clothes. So Hinako decides to come out wearing more feminine clothes which utters Totomaru to become awkwardly embarrassed while Konparu keeps cool about it lol. After karaoke, Konparu and Totomaru ask about Hinako’s circumstances whereas she also tells them her real name is “Hinako” and she intends to go back to her normal life after they switch schools. Although they promise to always be together, Konparu continues to voice his doubts.

One day, Totomaru’s father appears and basically tells him he should switch schools after Shishiku closes and attend a more elite one than Kotobuki (the all girls school they were to be transfered to). He angrly tells him to mind his own business but his father tells him to make a decision before the end of the month. But they suddenly get news that the transfer to Kotobuki is canceled and now they’ll be transferred separately. Konparu then decides to talk to Hinako and Totomaru on the roof and tries to get Totomaru to speak up about something regarding Hinako. He then pretends to confess to Hinako leaving Totomaru shocked and speechless (before he said he was kidding). Totomaru tells them he’s decides he’ll quit school and work his job and decides he’ll no longer attend Shishiku since there’s no point if he’s quitting.

With Hinako and Totomaru trying to sort out their feelings, Hinako consults Hikaru and admits she’s in love with Totomaru. Hikaru is blunt with her and tells her that Totomaru must be in love with her too otherwise he would’ve cheered her on rather than say nothing to Konparu’s fake confession. After this,  Totomaru texts Hinako he wants to talk to her at school. The next day, Totomaru explains he decided he won’t transfer to a more elite high school and will continue his year at Shishiku but will go to a university picked by his dad instead. He also decides to finally confess that he’s in love with Hinako. She tells him she loves him too and he asks for her to be his girlfriend which she of course agrees to lol.

After that, Totomaru tells Konparu he still wants to continue to be together with the three of them. They have a battle and if Totomaru wins, he wants Konparu to continue to come to school until Shishiku closes. So Totomaru wins and Konparu continues to stay until then. So one day Hinako and Totomaru each chocolates together in his room (albeit Totomaru being an awkward dork lol) and share sweet kisses. After that, Houou informs Hinako and everyone that the yakuza were involved in the destruction of Shishiku. Some of the yakuza guys try and tear down the school early, but they fight them to try and stop them. In the end, Houou stops them and they all find out Shishiku is no longer being abolished and can continue their final school years. Eventually they graduate and during spring break, Hinako and Totomaru then go on a date at the library.

Thoughts: Surprisingly, this was actually my least favorite route. Mainly because it felt rushed (especially the romance). I also gotta say, the way he found out about Hinako’s gender was pretty lacking. With Totomaru I felt like there would be a bigger surprise factor but it was suddenly he just knew and then BAM I love you be my girlfriend–BUT WAIT no don’t because I have to get Konparu to make me want to confess. Then some weird roundabout drama with his dad and Konparu?? Either way, his romantic scenes were cute when present, but it wasn’t really a lot. These routes in general were pretty short.

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Konparu (CV: Aoi Shouta)

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Konparu asks for Hinako to train with him so he can win the championship in the fighting competition. One day, Totomaru asks to speak with Konparu because he suspects Hinako could be a girl. So while training with Konparu at a gym one day, he asks to fight Hinako. She ends up winning and she notices he hadn’t been sleeping properly and had been training non stop. So while he decides to take a shower, he falls over because he overexerted himself. Hinako helps him but gets wet in the process so he asks if she wants a change od shirt. So because she won’t change in front of him he directly asks if she’s a girl and she finally tells him she is.

Konparu tells her he already had suspicions but didn’t want to accept he was beaten by a girl. But now he sees it doesn’t matter if she’s a girl or not because it doesnt change who she is as the top fighter. Hinako also tells him that her real name is “Hinako” and explains her situation to him and how he’s the only one who knows she’s a girl. Konparu also realizes he’s very shy talking to her lmao. Regardless, Konparu promises to not tell anyone. After that, Hinako visits Konparu’s siblings and they manage to make Konparu admit he has a girlfriend and he’ll bring her to their christmas party. So, he hesitantly asks Hinako if she can pretend to be his girlfriend for their Christmas party and she agrees.

Hinako dresses up like a girl and goes to Konparu’s home as his pretend girlfriend which shocks his siblings lol. After that, Hinako wins some tickets to Kyoto and so she gives them to Konparu. He decides to go to try and challange a guy named Todoroki but says he wants to do it alone. Hinako really wants to go with him though so she follows him there and ends up getting caught. He tells her he’s glad she’s there though and they try to find Todoroki that Konparu wants to challenge. In the end, Konparu and her get caught up with a fight and some guys steal Konparu’s things. Hinako tries to fight for them back but ends up hurting her leg. So a worried Konparu helps treat her leg and also tells her he can’t stand being without her and always wants her next to him. 💕

After that, Todoroki himself decides to challenge Konparu in a match and remembers when he fought him at a rookie fighting match before. After fighting him, Konparu realizes he wants to fight and become a pro not only to support his family, but because he likes it. The next day he brings Hinako to the roof and tells her he wants to spar with her again since she’s stronger than him and the only one he can spar with. He then also confesses he loves her too and asks her to be his girlfriend. She agrees and confirms she likes him too and so they kiss. He also promises to use the strap she gave him as well. 💕

Thoughts: Definitely better than Totomaru’s route but man there could’ve been more!! I just didn’t really like the story in Konparu’s route. It was kinda sorta related to his story but I really couldn’t care less about him finding this rando guy so he can fight him. I just wanted more romance and cute events like him pretending she’s his girlfriend in front of his siblings lol.

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Rintaro and Mirako
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With Shishiku now covered up and soon to be abolished, its leaving everyone at the school uneasy. One day, Mirako brings a metal detector he got from his director as thanks for all his hard work. He decides to bring it to Shishiku and use it with Hinako and Rintaro who are both enthusiastic about finding buried treasure. So they go to the library and research about the town and find an pld book about a treasure that may have been hidden. Unfortunately, they can’t peruse any further but make Mirako admit he had fun lol. During the cultural festival, Hinako’s class decides on a haunted house. She talks to Rintaro and he’s doing a cafe while Mirako plans on doing a live concert event.

During the festival, Hinako and her class have the haunted house and she gets forced to cross-dress again for a miss contest lol. After that, the school trip to Hokkaido is coming up for 2nd years so Hinako goes to Rintaro and Mirako to help her shop for the right equipment and clothing to bring. But they end up getting carried away and make her try on all sorts of cute clothing lol. After Hinako goes on her trip, she gives Mirako and Rintaro cookies as souvenirs from Hokkaido. They eat them together while Mirako teases her for loving her senpais so much lol.

Afterwords there’s word of a TV program using the rumor about buried treasure to badmouth Shishiku on TV. Because of this, Hinako, Totomaru and Konparu get kicked out of stores because of the bad rep Shishiku is getting. On Christmas Eve, Rintaro invites Hinako to his place along with Mirako and Nozomi. They eat food Rintaro made for them and spend Christmas eve together. On New Years, Hinako goes with Rintaro and Mirako to the shrine to pray she continue to spend more time together with them.

After that, Shishiku’s rep starts to get worse after students pretending to be students from Shishiku do things outside of school like harassing people and vandalizing. His producer is also being forced to broadcast the destruction of Shishiku for the sake of obtaining the land to scam people with the rumor of treasure buried underneath it. Mirako decides to get to the bottom of it and comes up with a plan. He intervenes with the broadcast and reveals the truth to everyone watching. A fight then breaks out and the police arrest those involved. On graduation day, word gets out about the treasure buried under Shishiku so the whole school starts trying to find it with Mirako leading them lmao.

Thoughts: I really liked their routes the best!! It may be because Rintaro/Mirako is a funny pair (with Mirako being a sarcastic ass all the time & Rintaro is super serious).  Something about the senpais taking care of their kouhai was really enjoyable to me lol. My favorite scene would probably be them trying to dress up Hinako cause honestly it was so hilarious.

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Rintaro (CV: Hosoya Yoshimasa)
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Hinako visits the facility where she grew up and talks to the caretaker there. She tells him about her school life and how happy she is. After she leaves, she runs into Rintaro who wonders why she’s there. Hinako panics and runs away, while Rintaro chases after her. She ends up bumping into Mirako who asks whats going on. Finally, Rintaro catches up to her and asks for the truth. Although, she tries to lie at first, the caretaker appears and gives Hinako her gloves she left behind. He immediately recognizes Rintaro who stayed at the same facility and indirectly confirms Hinako is not Hikaru. After he leaves, Hinako confirms she was lying about her identity and apologizes before leaving. Meanwhile, Rintaro explains the situation to Mirako who is left confused about their relationship.

After that, Hinako pretends she’s sick and stays absent from school for a few days. Rintaro continues to visit her until she finally agrees to talk to him. So she tells him the entire story about how she ended up taking Hikaru’s place in Shishiku. He tells her he wants her to leave Shishiku, but respects her decision to want to stay and continue her school life there as long as she can. Regardless, he tells her he’s glad he could meet her again and intends to look out for her. After that, Rintaro, Mirako and Hinako consult on the roof. Mirako promises to keep Hinako’s gender a secret along with Rintaro. All the while, Rintaro goes into super protective mode and suddenly comes up with the idea to repeat his 3rd year so he can be in the same year as Hinako.  Hinako talks to Nozomi about the situation and he tells her that he also noticed that Rintaro will go to great lengths to protect his family and those close to him. Regardless, Hinako promises to convince him otherwise. But before she does, Rintaro invites her to the facility to have a Christmas party. Rintaro brings a cake he made for the kids there and they all happily enjoy it. On their way back, Rintaro gives Hinako homemade macaroons for Christmas and holds her hand on the way back. 😍💕💕

On New Years day, Hinako and Rintaro pull fortunes. Hinako gets good luck and Rintaro gets bad. Hinako realizes she should discuss about him repeating a year and so she does. She tells him she doesn’t want him to sacrifice himself for her sake nor does she want his protection in that way. Finally, he understands and promises he’ll think about what he really wants. So, he meets with Hinako again at the park and tells Hinako he made the decision of what he wants to do. He wants to become a pastry chief and continue to make people smile with his sweets like he always has.

So, Rintaro asks Hinako to help him try sweets and critique them for an upcoming exam to work as a pastry chief at a high end restaurant. In doing so, Rintaro invites Hinako to his place and makes lots of sweets for her to try. On Valentines day, Hinako dresses as a girl and comes to Rintaro’s place to hand him some chocolate. He’s super happy that he hugs her and starts blushing. 💕💕 He then shows her a cake he made for her and they eat it together. After that, they leave to go to the facility to deliver some sweets for Valentines. But they get caught up in a fight with some guys and Rintaro injures his hand. He goes to the hospital to get it checked but will have to wait about two weeks before its fully healed. Rintaro promises he won’t give up but starts to feel unmotivated. So Hinako tells him she’ll help him and over the next few weeks she does.

The day before the exam, it’s basically fully healed and Hinako tells him she’ll support him. On the day of the exam, the guys from last time appear again so this time Nozomi and Hinako protect Rintaro so he doesn’t have to fight. He realizes after this that he doesn’t always have to be overprotective to protect someone and the two of them protected his dream. Before taking the exam, Rintaro hugs Hinako and confesses to her and she does the same. 💕💕 After Rintaro graduates, he brings her to the park and asks her to always be with her and promises they’ll continue to support and protect each other after saying how much they love each other.

Thoughts: Ahhhhhhhhhh they actually made up for his shitty FD route I’m so happy!!! Rintaro’s route was honestly the best for me and yes while that may be because he is my bias, but it was DEFINITELY better written. I also like how he had a dream he wanted to pursue and was working towards it. Quite frankly, that whole crap where he was obsessed with Hinako and only saw her (not his surroundings) was really annoying in his FD. And he also had the best CGs weirdly enough. IDK BUT I felt SUPER satisfied after having to deal with the bs that was his FD route.

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Mirako (CV: Kakihara Tetsuya)
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Starts off the exact same as Rintaro’s route. Hinako visits the facility she grew up and Rintaro catches her there. She tries to run away and Mirako stops her. In the end she reveals she’s actually a girl after the caretaker gives Hinako the gloves she forgot. After running off again she stays home from school until she decides to go again. She meets Mirako there and decides to tell him the truth about her secret on the roof. Mirako is surprised but also figured she was a girl from the start anyway. Regardless, he tells her to rely on him she ever needs help and teases her by calling her Hinako lol. She also tells Rintaro and says she still intends to continue her life at Shishiku.

After this, Hinako’s class put up a video of Hinako crossdressing during the cultural festival. It ends up getting really popular to the point where Mirako’s producer watches it. He invites her to meet him since he has an offer for her and so she does. His producer tells her he wants to cast her in a drama he’s going to make staring Mirako, another actor named Akuto, and her. Hinako finally decides to accept after hearing how determined Mirako is to make it a success for his idol career. So when Hinako first starts practicing she’s bad at memorizing the lines but great at doing the action moves. Albeit the other actor Akuto is a dick half the time, Mirako continues to encourage her and invites her to his place with Rintaro to practice their lines.

So on the day of filming the producers come to Shishiku to record. They also hear that those who do the construction are related to a scam where they tell lies about a piece of land so they’re able to buy it for cheap. While Hinako and Mirako are filmed for the drama, Akuto who is playing the other character is continuously a dick to Hinako and even “accidentally” spills tea on her. After that, they get the students of the school to start a brawl as extras because their other extras were unable to make it to the school. But while filming the final scene, a basketball goal falls towards Mirako and Hinako takes the hit by protecting him. She ends up hurting her foot but doesn’t want to worry Mirako. They also realize its been tampered with by someone suspicious but don’t know who.

Meanwhile, Hinako tries to go home immediately but Mirako realizes she’s trying to hide her injury and carries her on his back to take her home. He tells her he wants this film to be successful for the sake of his idol career. After that, they finish up filming at Shishiku after adding a real scene of a fight between the guys who sabotaged their filming. The other dick actor ends up getting injured and can’t complete filming so the producer cuts him out and rewrites the script. So when the drama is finished, Hinako goes over to Mirako’s place and watches it with him.

She gives him chocolates and when he asks for what feelings she has for giving him these chocolates, she’s persuaded by him into confessing her feelings for him. He tells her he feels the same and kisses her. 😍 Soon after the drama gets very popular to the point where fans who want a continuation gather and post on the internet dirt about those abolishing Shishiku. With this, Shishiku is no longer going to close. Now Hinako can continue to work on the drama with Mirako. After Mirako and Rintaro graduate, Mirako promises to go with Hinako on a date.

Thoughts: Honestly, when I literally first played KBO I kind of thought Mirako was annoying (he did have his own issues). But now after playing through all of these games he’s really grown on me. The verdict for all these routes is that I wish that they were longer and there was more romance, but when there was it was really satisfying. I also like how his route was relevant to his career and whatnot. Either way, I know I’d enjoy Mirako trash talk anyone who badmouths Hinako!~

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Houou & Tenma
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Hinako hangs out with Tenma after school since everyone is busy and bumos into Houou. He tells them about a festival he’s going to and invites them to come. He also asks Hinako to invite who he thinks is “Hinako” aka Hikaru. Of course, he immediately declines to go so Hinako tells Houou, leaving him slightly disappointed. So on the day of the festival, Hinako goes with Houou and Tenma to the festival and eat lots of stall food. Suddenly after Houou gets a sudden call and leaves, a fight breaks out among other yakuza who are picking a fight. Tenma and Hinako fight them off and they leave. When Houou comes back, he apologizes on their behalf.

One day on Hinako’s way to school, she spots Tenma with a dog that has become attached to him. Realizing it may get stuck in the rain one day, they decide to take care of it at the school. Tenma names it Kotaro and Houou builds it a dog house. So finally the cultural festival comes up and Hinako’s class does a haunted house. Houou comes to visit and both Hinako and Tenma show him around and go into the haunted house together. After this they have a sort of battle arena and Tenma fights all the classes and the final battle with Hinako. She ends up winning and then when Houou appears, he battles him as well to test his strength.

After the cultural festival, Tenma starts having issues at home and skipping school. Hinako tries to get him to open up about it but he tells her he’ll tell her eventually but isn’t ready to talk about. So while Hinako and her class are on the school trip, Houou offers to take Tenma to his place for a few days to train so he can become stronger and protect who he wants to protect. While staying at the Onigashima home, Tenma ends up finding a a family photo with Hinako, Hikaru, and their mother that the head of the Onigashima had. After this, Nozomi and Hinako take care of Kotaro in Tenma’s absence. He ends up barking and running off to where Tenma is and they follow. They end up at an abandoned warehouse where Tenma being beaten up by a bunch of yakuza.

Hinako and Nozomi arrive to fight them off but then Houou stops them as well. They end up taking the photo that Tenma has before they’re chased off. After that, When Hikaru mentions he feels like he’s being watched, Hinako finds out that the yakuza are most likely targetting “Hinako” aka Hikaru to use as a threat to the Onigashima family. Houou offers to help him but he immediately turns it down. Because of this, Tenma offers to become Hikaru’s bodyguard to help defend him. A few days later, Hikaru is constantly complaining about having Tenma stuck to him 24/7 since its being misunderstood he’s his boyfriend lmao.

So with the yakuza still a threat, Hikaru continues to get escorted by Tenma which makes all of Shishiku make rumors about him having a girlfriend. Soon after the guys threatening them try to blow up the school along with Houou and Hinako by planting a bomb in the school. Hinako goes to the roof of the school with Houou and Tenma where they trap them there with the bomb. Thankfully they come up with the idea to throw the bomb in the pool and it explodes in there instead. After that, the school is safe and the guys involved are arrested. On Valentines day, Hikaru gets chocolates from her friends and tells Hinako to give them to Tenma and Houou for their hard work.

On Mirako and Rintaro’s graduation day, Hinako challenges Houou to a battle and wins which gives her the title of the ultimate bancho. After this, Tenma starts a brawl with everyone and they all start battling each other lol.

Thoughts: My opinion on Houou/Tenma’s routes would be best described in one word… which is ‘okay.’ I didn’t LOVE them but I also didn’t dislike them either. I think Tenma is definitely a fun, interesting character they added. However, I felt like his ‘conflict’ somewhat got shafted. There was a random event where Tenma was in a threatened situation but it wasn’t too elaborated on (not even in his route) which I found weird. It also makes sense you would feel a big chemistry with two characters who seemingly didn’t know each other until it was said that Tenma looked up to Houou and met him back when he was in junior high. BUT, I really enjoyed that Tenma was taking care of a dog (probably because he’s like one lmao) cause it was really cute.

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Houou (CV: Tomoaki Maeno)
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One day, Hinako throws a Christmas party with everyone from Shishiku, including Houou. Hinako meets Houou outside and gives him a belated birthday present and hopes he can get along with him. Albeit, on their way home they’re attacked by Yakuza who try to go after Hikaru. After fending them off, Houou confronts Hikaru knowing its actually him and not Hinako. He angrily lectures him for this and Hikaru angrily runs away. Meanwhile, Houou asks for the circumstances regarding this and Hinako explains she replaced Hikaru after meeting him.

Houou lets her sleep at his place while Hikaru is still staying at his apartment. When Houou visits Hikaru he explains he’ll go back to Shishiku for Hinako’s sake if he has to. After this, Houou presses on the fact she shouldn’t continue to attend Shishiku any longer, but Hinako tells him that she wants to. She tells him that she wants to continue to go to Shishiku and so he respects her decision. The next day after school, Hinako and Houou meet with Hikaru and Tenma. They’re suddenly ambushed by the same yakuza guys and one of them takes out a knife to try and attack Hikaru. Houou saves him in time but takes the hit instead with Hikaru in shock.

At the hospital they find out Houou is okay but Hikaru feels like crap because he doesn’t feel he deserved to be protected since they’re not even really related. Hinako is surprised to hear this but Houou confirms its true and that he was adopted into the Onigashima family because his father risked his life for Hikaru and Hinako’s father. So Hinako and Hikaru’s father appears and he explains how his wife took Hinako to be far away from the Onigashima home.  The caretaker at the facility gives Hinako and Hikaru a letter from their mother and they cry after reading it.

On Valentines day, Hinako confesses her feelings to Houou who also felt the same way. In the end, Hikaru makes a deal with his father that he won’t take over as the Onigashima head but instead will have Hinako choose aka her husband who she’s decided to be Houou. They then give Houou letter that was addressed from Hinako’s mother to her future loved one. Hinako and Houou read it and find a ring inside which Houou gives to Hinako.

Thoughts: If you played the first game, you know that Houou’s route is the route with the chunk of plot and reveals the backstory for Hinako. While you did get some of that, you can very well tell its kinda shoved in there. But, even saying that, I do think it was handled the best it could be if you consider the length of the other routes. Its just unfortunate when you have plot you want to shove in, the romance feels sliiightly forced and shoved in as well. I don’t think Houou wouldn’t like Hinako like that but I felt like there should’ve been more between the two while he knows she’s not his brother. It did make sense that he figured out Hinako’s identity though when you consider how Hikaru acts lol. LASTLY, all I ever wanted was Hikaru and Houou to get along so even though Hikaru is tsun about it I’m glad they kind of had a moment.

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Tenma (CV: Kaito Ishikawa)
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While Hinako goes with Tenma to pick up more drinks, he tells her a bit about his past and how his parents died in an accident which is why he lives with his grandparents. He also feels bad for getting Hinako caught up in his troubles and doesn’t understand why she believed him even though he basically betrayed them. But Hinako knows he’s actually very kind and Tenma is so moved he starts crying lol. Hinako can’t help but pat his head and Tenma gets super embarrassed asking her not to tell anyone he cried lmao. After the party ends, Hinako walks Hikaru’s friends to the station with Tenma.

On their way they end up getting alcohol spilled on them thanks to a couple of drunk guys. The police stop them and ask for ID but Hinako only had an insurance card that has her real name on it. In the end, Houou appears and tells Hinako to give the police her ID. He reveals her real name on her card and the police leave. After that, Houou confronts Hinako and Hikaru and demands an explanation later. Meanwhile, Tenma is super confused and upset for Hinako to lie about being Hikaru and goes off to cool his head.

On New Years day, Houou essentially tells Hinako she’ll need to go back to Kotobuki (her girl’s school) and Hikaru will go to Shishiku. Hinako tells him she wants to stay at Shishiku but he won’t have it. Hinako runs into Tenma at the shrine and he apologizes for yelling at her. He also realized that man or woman she is still the “Hikaru” he met and there’s no other top of Shishiku than her. Because of that, he tells her he’ll try and convince Houou to let her stay at Shishiku. He meets him to tell him he wants to protect Hinako’s place at Shishiku and battles Houou. He loses but Houou sees the determination in him and changes his mind and leaves Hinako in his care.

One day, Tenma witnesses one of the yakuza guys who stole the family photo of Hinako. He runs away and acts like he doesn’t know what happened with it and Tenm goes off and follows him. Hinako decides to call Houou and follow after Tenma. They manage to find him and he retrieves the picture that they stole of Hinako’s parents. So after Shishiku is no longer going to be abolished, Tenma decides to confess he’s in love with Hinako on the roof. He asks for a match and if he wins, she’ll go out with her. He ends up losing and realizes he can’t go out with her at this rate so he tells her he’ll wait until she’s ready to reply. He also asks her to hang out with him as a girl and while Hinako doesn’t give an answer to his confession, he agrees to go out with him.

So Hinako and Tenma go on a “date” together. They eat sweets a shopkeeper gives to Tenma and play at the arcade. Before Valentines day, Tenma tells her that he never recieved chocolates from a girl before so Hinako offers to give him some. However, he declines until he can beat her at a match. So she gives him a present on his birthday instead. So finally, on graduation day, Tenma challenges Hinako again. When Hinako loses, Tenma loses his shit but confesses to Hinako again and asks her to go out with him. Hinako complies and says she likes him too and they kiss. 💕 (You have to lose the match but you also have the option of winning which makes Tenma say he’ll never give up in he beats Hinako).

Thoughts: So, Tenma is the new route they added to this game. Truthfully, I really liked the direction this route was going in but it fell kind of flat when it came to the romance and plot. But when I think about it the reason this route feels somewhat flat in terms of the romance/plot… I realize its because of this game. Tenma only existed for this game so there’s no history between him and Hinako from the original game. So because each route in this game is fairly short, it makes sense you can’t give a lot of content and development for a new route. Because of this, he didn’t really have a ‘backstory’ or a sort of internal conflict to solve. While I really actually enjoyed what little romance they had, it was waaay to quick. If they make a FD for this, I’d definitely be excited to see what they do for him. I think romance scenes with him would be really cute since he’s really just like a loyal dog.

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Overall Thoughts: I can say for sure I enjoyed this game but it definitely wasn’t as good as the original (or even the FD). I don’t really think it was the best idea to pair routes in the way they did. They should’ve just had the routes branch into their own individual routes like the original game instead of making it a pair. That way, there could’ve been more content with each individual character. I see what they were trying to do but I think it just ended up making the romance feel shafted and the routes super short. But there were definitely pros to this game and that being that Rintaro’s route was much better than his FD one, Tenma was certainly a fun addition to the story, and they ended it in a way that definitely seemed like there could be a sequel. I wouldn’t mind if they did do Hinako in her final third year. That way, Hikaru’s plan would be considered a success and we’d see the outcome of that.

Story – Hinako is still disguised as a boy at Shishiku which is the underlying plot while the main premise used for this game is that Shishiku is going to be abolished and events happen relating to that. It wasn’t necessarily a bad plot device, but sometimes it felt irrelevant to the story.  In certain routes, sometimes the plot fell short because not enough content was written. In that sense, the romance could’ve been written better.

Characters – All the characters are back as their usual selves. Also with the addition of Tenma who is a first year and just joined Shishiku. Nozomi (Rintaro’s brother) also ends up having a role in the story too because he’s a first year as well. I adore the characters in this game and it makes up for how short the routes are. Hinako is still a kickass heroine albeit it didn’t focus on her fighting since she already obtained the top position of Shishiku in the original game.

Visuals/System – The quality of the CGs good as usual but… if you look bad at the first game, and then look at the FD, I feel like there’s a bit of diminish in the quality of the CGs. The kissing ones sometimes it just looks like they’re touching noses or barely reaching lips (e.g. for some reason Houou’s head look huge in his kiss CG).  My point is, I can tell there wasn’t as much effort in this game compared to the original which is rather unfortunate. Unfortunately, they got rid of the skip to the next option from the first game (probably cause they had issues with it and it took literally 30 seconds to load). The minigame was changed into a cute fighting one. It’s super easy but I like it better than the rhythmic button pushing.

Music – There was about 2 – 3 additional tracks they added to this game. The romance theme was really nice and I did like the new fighting music. This game has some pretty unique beats that you can’t quite describe. I’ve always compared it to Jet Set Radio because that’s pretty similar to what it sounds like.

Final Thoughts:  So, while I do recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of the franchise and played the original game (you wouldn’t of had to play the FD), it wasn’t as good as the original. As a sequel, you want it to have the same quality as the first game. I think they should’ve focused more on making the routes LONGER. Its weird when you play and feel an inconsistency between the quality of each route. Totomaru and Konparu’s for example felt so rushed. In general, the romance was pretty lacking for all routes which is probably why it felt shoved in there. Rintaro’s route felt like it had the most direction and Mirako’s route suited his character as well. Tenma would’ve been a good addition had he had more content, but you were left wanting more after you finished. If they make another game, (I would assume they’d make another FD first), I hope that they go another direction in terms of the romance. In a nutshell, this game felt unfinished. It feels like the romance was there cause it HAD to be and they can’t just leave it without it even if they are planning a 3rd sequel. And a 3rd sequel would probably feel like a conclusion to this series, so I’d like to see the romance after Hinako graduates Shishiku.  I don’t think SpikeChun will give up on this series because it seems fairly popular, but I do hope that they ‘finalize’ it in the sense where they make another game that makes it feel really complete as a whole. That being said, I really love these characters and I love this series too. Regardless of my complaints, I did enjoy this game and I miss the characters already.