Kisa Tachibana has always dreamed of pursuing theater and she always wanted to attend a opera academy called ‘Univeil’ where the students play male characters called “Jack” and female characters called “Jeanne”. Unfortunately, it’s an opera academy where only boys can attend so she decided to give up that dream. One day, she’s personally invited by the principal of the school who tells her she may attends so as long as she keeps her identity as a woman a secret.
The heroine, Kisa Tachibana grew up doing plays along with her brother and childhood friend, Yonaga Soushiro. The heroine’s brother attended a famous boys-only drama school called Univers. Kisa always wanted to attend along with her brother but since it’s all boys school she couldn’t and gave up her dream. Her childhood friend also moved away after he started junior high school so she had been alone ever since. But one day she meets the principal of Univeil who’s bored of the traditions of the school and wants to see how it’ll play out inviting an actual girl to the mix. So he invites her to attend so as long as she passes the entrance exam like everyone else and hides the fact she’s a girl. She also needs to land a lead role in the Univers performance.
In Univers, a person is either a ‘Jack’ (plays a male role) or a Jeanne (plays a female role). The first person she meets is Orimaki Suzu who is looking to be a Jack. When he first meets Kisa, he’s impressed at how much she looks like a girl and believes she would be suited to be a ‘Jeanne’. So, a month later Kisa takes the exam and passes. She’s assigned to the Quartz group along with Suzu and her childhood friend Yonaga Soushiro. Soushiro is the only one who knows that Kisa is actually a girl. The other classmates in the Quartz group is Mutsumi Kai (CV: Kasama Jun) who is a Jack and rather taciturn but kind, Neji Kokuto (CV: Kishio Daisuke) is the eccentric genius who plays both Jeanne and Jack but also is in charge of writing the scripts. Then there’s Shirota Mitsuki (CV: Kajiwara Gakuto) who’s known for his beautiful singing voice but also comes off as standoffish and takes his work seriously; and Takashina Sarafumi (CV: Kondou Takayuki) who’s a skilled dancer and the most down to earth and casual character.
There’s multiple performances that they must do such as the rookie performance, fall performance, winter performance, spring performance, summer performance, and Univers performance. Suzu struggles at first but surprisingly manages to do well while practicing as the lead role — the king. All of them practice until they’re ready for their first performance which is called the “Sleepless King”. Eventually they get to a point where they’re ready for the play, but Suzu is nowhere to be found. He apparently stayed up all night practicing and fell asleep right until the very last moment before their performance 😂. Thankfully, he arrives in time and they start the performance of the “Sleepless King”.
As for the story of the “Sleepless King”, it tells the tale of a angry King who hasn’t slept in 10 years. Because of this, there is a reward for anyone who can’t put him to sleep. One day a young woman visits his castle and requests to try and help him sleep by singing her lullabies to him. She also tells the king she wants to be his queen. Unfortunately, the King still can’t fall asleep but the young woman doesn’t give up and continues to sing for him everyday. Because of this, her throat gets dry, and the fortune teller tells her a lucky food is “apricot” so she obtains it to clear her throat. The King constantly tells her to give up and go home but he young woman is eager to see the kind king be once was. So after speaking to the cleaning lady, she helps the cook with her dish and she teaches the young woman a song the past queen had known.
Unfortunately, the King still doesn’t sleep and goes back to his room [Otori suddenly forgets his line in the middle of the play so Kisa adlibs to help him through the scene]. One day, the young woman falls asleep in the courtyard and the King finds her and she tells him she wants to learn more about him. The two of them dance until he gets tired and falls asleep for a moment. But the King is afraid to sleep because every time he did in the past his father or his mother died and so he’s afraid of losing another loved one and doesn’t want to lose the young woman. However the young woman reassures him she doesn’t intend to leave her side and the King sleeps peacefully for the first time in ten years with the young woman by his side.
After the successful first performance for the Quartz group, they get ready to do their next performance. So Kai introduces the Onyx group to Kisa and Soushirou who consist of Kaido Dakeshin, Kasai Ataru, Nagayama Toichi, Dante Gunpei, and Sugachi Kiyoharu. Soushiro seems to remember Kai from middle school but apparently he doesn’t remember him. After meeting them, Kisa eventually runs into a member of Rhodonite named Oshinari Tsukasa talking to Mitsuki about transferring to Rhodonite since they excel in singing. They also meet Minorikawa Kiito who is a Jack Ace and Oshinari Mare who is a Al Jeanne (and Tsukasa’s younger brother) and lastly Torimaki Eita who doesn’t say a word lol.
Finally, Kokuto has the new script for the drama named “Weekend Lesson”. Kai is the Jack Ace and the Al Jeanne is Sarafumi. Kisa is playing a Jack this time while Kokuto is a Jeanne, Suzu is a Jack, and and Soushiro is a Jeanne. So as they continue to practice, Kisa tries to adjust to doing a Jack role for the first time. After watching Kids practice, Kaido realizes he doesn’t want his potential as a Jeanne to go to waste and wants her to join Onyx while Tsukasa agrees with her doing a Jack role and wants her in Rhodonite as a Jack. Kokuto then makes a bet that if they don’t win in the summer performance, then Kisa shall transfer to Onyx or Rhodonite for not maximize her true potential. Apparently after getting permission, it’s possible to transfer and the principal allowed it too lol.
Kisa is shocked that Kokuto would make a deal like that but he tells her that she’s need in Quartz for the very reason he did it but Kisa is still doubtful she’s capable. So now after Rhodonite and Onyx’s group hear about this, they’re eager to get Kisa in their group. This becomes a struggle for Kisa who doesn’t really want to leave Quartz but doesn’t know if she can truly outshine as a Jack between Suzu and Kai. Eventually, Kai notices Kisa struggling so he gives her some advice to play Mukai the character not Jack. He tells her that he wasn’t actually a Jack Ace at first and it was because of Kokuto pushing him into the role he did it. However, Quartz did pretty bad at first but it was a learning experience for Kai and he had only gotten his first bronze reward recently.
Kai sees himself as a vessel that emphasizes the beauty of the flower, or the Jeanne in the sense what he does with Fumi. But Kisa tells Kai she learned a lot from him and still believes he’s super talented. Finally, Kai tells Kisa to embody other people and “steal” their talents, in order to do better. In doing so, Kisa takes some traits of Kai when embodying the character “Mukai” that she’s playing. So after this, Kisa gradually fits into her role and practices the role of Jack well. Kisa realizes that her role is to be the vessel that helps Kai shine, so she asks for Kokuto’s help to do so. Finally, the day of the performance for “Weekend Lesson”.
A man named Hasekura (Kai) with little confidence is party of a company called Great Galleon SJB that has a building in the shape of a boat. One day, Hasekura decides to follow after one of his co-workers that he likes named Shiroma (Mitsuki) out of concern and sees she goes into a ballroom dance studio. Hasekura meets a woman there named Ando (Fumi) who invites him to take dance classes which is what he starts doing. [Kisa changes the ‘tone’ of her character ‘Mukai’ in order to be the vessel for Kai. They knew if they told Kai this he wouldn’t of allowed it so after confronting Kokuto about it, he has no choice but to continue along with it since they’ve already started the performance].
Back to the story, Ando takes Hasekura to a bar to dance and wonders if he truly likes to dance since he knows he only did it on a whim. Hasekura admits he does and would rather be busy the entire time doing something. Lewis (Suzu) who also works at the company decides to challenge Hasekura to a dance competition. This angers Mukai since Lewis only cares about showing off [Kisa shows off an amazing performance with raw emotion, amazing the cast and the onlookers]. So Lewis and Hasekura continue to practice but Mukai gets angry at Hasekura every time he puts himself down since it hurts him too who’s his friend. Thanks to Mukai, Hasekura continues to practice dancing for the dancing duel between him and Lewis.
Hasekura continues to keep dancing even after he starts to lose confidence in himself after his coworker Shiroma said he found him to be a scary person. However, Ando doesn’t believe she truly meant it and has been watching him grow as a person. So Hasekura admits he doesn’t want to quit dancing because he enjoys it. So eventually Lewis and Hasekura have their competition but when Hasekura and Ando dance, Hasekura takes the lead. He realizes he doesn’t want to be in the spotlight and would rather support those around him. Especially, Ando who he believes should shine the brightest. So they all recognize Hasekura as the winner but he also realizes his love for Ando as well. After the performance, everyone congratulates Kisa for winning a gold award along with Kai who also won one for the first time.
After the summer performance, summer break starts and Kokuto tells the class about a trip they’ll be taking. On the day of the trip, they take a bus to a resort hotel where they’ll be doing their training but also having time to take it easy as well. Kokuto creates a short script for them to perform and so they do daily practice for it. Kokuto continuously tries to see Kisa’s potential and pushes her limits. Meanwhile, they enjoy their vacation too and visit the beach and hot springs. After they get back from summer break, they hear Amber is back from giving a performance overseas so they will be participating in the autumn performance.
The autumn performance is called “Mary Jane”. After announcing the roles, Soushiro isn’t listed in the cast, leaving an awkward air about it. Kisa and Suzu try to confront Soushiro about it but he becomes closed off and avoids them. Even when Kisa tries to talk to him, he tells her that that people are chosen and some are not Kisa and Suzu continue to practice like normal while Suzu struggles to get a feel for his role. Eventually he finds out he’ll be using a sword as a weapon which raises his confidence since he took kendo classes before. After practice, Suzu tries to invite Soushiro out to practice with them but he declines again and again. Eventually this frustrates Suzu who confronts Soushiro about it. Soushiro tells him both he and Kisa are amazing and he can’t amount to them. This pisses off Suzu and he tells Soushiro he thinks it’s probably because he doesn’t want to lose to Kisa who’s always on stage. This angers Soushiro who yells at Suzu that he knows nothing about about him nor could he ever and he storms off. This leaves an awkward tension between him and Suzu during practice. Kisa wonders if there’s anything she can do to relieve the tension between them, but Fumi suggests to Kisa that she leaves the situation alone and it will be resolved in time when they’re ready.
Meanwhile, Soushiro asks for Kai’s help to improve on his acting after realizing if he gives up he won’t be able to catch up to both Kisa and Suzu. Suzu continues to practice with Kisa, but notices that he sometimes winces from pain in his foot. It gets bad to the point he can’t practice. Eventually, everyone finds out that Suzu has a foot injury from taking Kendo which is why he stopped in the first place. Unfortunately, this means he can’t perform in the upcoming autumn performance. So Suzu asks for Soushiro to take his place on stage since he’s noticed he’s been practicing with Kai and believes he can do it. So, Soushiro agrees to do it but he doesn’t feel as though he’s fitting into a role that was made for Suzu.
Meanwhile, one of the main members from Amber named Tanakamigi Chuui shows interest in Kisa and says “she will join Amber eventually”. One day, after noticing Kamiya Utsuri and Momonashi Kakuto (who continue to act like assholes to Quartz) Kisa realizes their height is the same and it might be better for her and Soushiro to play their roles as twins. So with the help of Fumi, Kisa and Soushiro’s roles are rewritten as Charles and Figalo which Kokuto approves after seeing them practice. Suzu is also given a role that will put less strain on his legs as a ghost which excites him and relieves Soushiro. So, Kisa and Soushiro continue to practice together while trying to figure out how to “free” Fumi and give him a proper challenge like with Kisa’s brother Tsuzuki.
The next performance is called “Mary Jane” where Mary (Fumi) is a woman known as a dollman and a puppeteer who sells her dolls. She is greeted by two twins Charles (Kisa) and Figaro (Soushiro). They explain how dolls made by the dollman are evil because she makes them using the corpses of humans. [Kisa and Soushiro adlib and make an opportunity for Fumi to basically go ham and do what he wants with the performance, making him even more eager to perform and win against them. Soushiro is the vessel for Kisa, while Kai is the vessel for Fumi, both aiming to make them shine]. Back to the performance, Mary decides to make an actual person out of a corpse.
Mary names the ghost she made “Jacob” and as he awakens he refers to himself as Jacob Jane and Mary is his new mother. With Jacob, Mary is able to befriend ghosts near the church as the leader (Kokuto) accepts them to have a ghost party with them along with the other ghosts sister ghost (Mitsuki), Bukuro (Otori), and Pachipochi (Suzu). Mary soon meets with Charles and Figaro who say they want to be Mary’s friend. Mary is delighted to finally have human friends but Jacob sees her distancing herself from him and the other ghosts. This causes Jacob to get angry and say he hates her. This upsets Mary who runs out of her home and goes the port.
Mary witnesses the port in flames with both Charles and Figaro who explain that all the residents of the island are ghosts except Mary. Charles and Figaro are ghost exterminators called “Kariudo”. Their goal is to kill all of the ghosts on the island but intend to let Mary come along with them since she’s human. Mary refuses so they knock her out and take her by force. The ghosts then rescue her and she heads for the church where Charles and Figaro are. She reunites with Jacob who apologizes for what he said before. After this, they return to the port where Figaro tells Charles to kill Mary since she’s committed the sin of making a ghost. However, Bukuro grabs Charles and throws himself and Charles into the water.
This angers Figaro who screams in agony and anger as he screams he’ll kill them all. The dolls that Mary made then come alive and hold back Figaro as the ghosts and Mary escape on the ship together. After the performance, they find out that Quartz had won the autumn performance which even surprises Chuui and is starting to see why Kokuto transfered from Amber to Quartz. Fumi also realizes he doesn’t need to be the one completely supporting Quartz as there’s plenty of talented among all of them and he feels more free to act without the pressure of putting all the weight on himself. So now that the autumn performance is compete, Kokuto immediately starts writing the script for the winter performance.
They find out the next performance for winter is called “Oh Rama Havenna” where both Mitsuki and Kisa will play the main Al Jeanne roles. Mitsuki is struggling with this and is annoyed that Fumi wasn’t picked instead since he felt it suited him better. Fumi is instead playing a Jack this time along with Soushiro and Suzu. Unfortunately, Kisa is struggling to play the role because she keeps hiding the main factor that made her role in the Sleepless King successful, which is the fact she’s a woman. When she did the rookie performance, she wasn’t as good as hiding her gender but now that she’s improved on acting, it’s harder for her to let the fact she’s a woman be exposed.
All the while Mitsuki explodes during practice one day and yells how he can’t do the Al Jeanne role and that it should be given to Mitsuki. Later, Kai goes looking for Mitsuki and Kisa goes with him. They find him and Kai apologizes saying that he and Fumi can no longer team up which is ultimately why he’s being picked as a Al Jeanne now. Mitsuki doesn’t understand what he means though so he goes to talk with Kokuto and ask why Kai and Fumi can’t have the roles of Al Jeanne and Jack Ace anymore. Kokuto tells them that Fumi has become “free” in the sense he doesn’t need Kai anymore so there’s no need for them to team up. This is especially due to the fact he, Kai, and Fumi are all 3rd years so they’ll be graduating anyway.
While both Suzu and Soushiro gradually get a hang of their roles (Soushiro was struggling on a approach scene with Kisa where he kept getting embarrassed when she had to touch him LOL), Kisa and Mitsuki continue to struggle. Meanwhile, they hear Kai refused an opportunity to join a renounced male opera Tamasakaza. There’s a lingering frustration Mitsuki has with Kai for always selling himself short to he tells it to him straight that he’s a good Jack Ace and if it weren’t for him, the Quartz they now wouldn’t exist. This makes Kai realize he has the potential to do better and gives him confidence. So because of this, Kai improves his role after practicing with Kisa which also in turn helps her. He also decides that he does want to enter Tamasakaza. As the performance approaches, Kisa has to make the decision of whether or not she wants to play as a “woman” and risk getting found out. Ultimately, she decides to play a “woman”.
The performance of “Oh Rama Havenna” this begins. A woman named Chicacina (Kisa) comes to an island called Havenna where where may find fame or fortune but otherwise you may end up in the backalleys selling the plant mugwort (Artemisia princeps). Rukiora (Mitsuki) is Chicaccina’s best friend who knows her as “Chichi” and likes to sing. Rukiora often has a stuffy nose which is why she can’t smell the mugwort off of Chicaccina. The two of them run into a man named Fugio who is a wealthy man but also acts clean when he actually buys mugwart from Chicaccina in secret. He addresses Chichi as Chicacina which is her pseudonym for when she sells mugworts which is unknown to Rukiora. Chicacina applies it to men who can’t sleep which also includes Fugio.
Rukiora is also fond of Fugio but he’s more interested in Chichi as “Chicacina”. Rukiora dreams of leaving Havenna with Fugio and carries around a flower that she caught from him at a pub which was actually intended for Chicaccina. There’s also a man named Miguel who likes Rukiora and knows of Chicacina. [Just as the scene approaches the moment where Rukiora’s nose is starting to get better, Kisa notices Chuui in the audience]. One day, Rukiora’s flower falls and is crushed by a woman named Domina (Kokuto) who is Rukiora’s father’s mistress. Rukiora calls her a filthy mugwort selling pig and so Domina mocks her mother. As soon as she brings up Fugio, Domina is about to reveal Chicaccina’s secret but is cut off by Miguel.
Rukiora can tell something is being hidden so she ends up finding Fugio and Chicaccina. Rukiora yells at Chicaccina for lying to her and runs away. After this, Rukiora goes to the church, wondering what she should do. Miguel appears and tells her he’s not originally from Havenna and he finally saved up enough money to leave and wants Rukiora to come with him. Fugio tries to run away and Gilet (Suzu) tries to stop her. He tells her he doesn’t want someone as pure as her to continue to live on lies and that she should start over. Chicacina says screw that nonsense and decides to find Rukiora and apologize for hiding her secret and that she only wanted to be her most important friend. Rukiora forgives her [but in turn forgives Kisa who’s internally struggling with the fact she too is hiding a secret].
Kisa Tachibana (CV: Terasaki Yuka)
As the final performance approaches, Kokuto and the rest of the senpai are told by their teacher and the principal that Quartz will no longer exist after the final performance. The school wants to condense the classes and by getting rid of Quartz, they’ll increase the capacity of the other classes. Tamasaka, which owns Univers, feels it’s best for students to be in classes that hone their skills such as skilled singers being in Rhodonite and skilled dancers being in Onyx. While it’s possible this decision can’t be changed, Kokuto believes the best way to convince them to not get rid of Quartz is to make the best final performance they can.
On the day of the cast announcement, Kokuto makes a double Jeanne and a single Jack Ace act by making Fumi and Kisa the Al Jeanne and Kai the Jack Ace in “The Kingdom of Shishia”. Afterwords, Kisa meets with the principal who congratulates her for getting a main part in the last performance. This means she can stay in Univers, but unfortunately there’s still the issue of Quartz being abolished. He tells her he actually invited her to Univers because he believed she would be capable of changing Univers so it’s not so stuck in it’s old ways of tradition and trying to be the school with the best of the best students. He also believes Kisa winning the final performance will prove to be enough in getting the message across that Quartz isn’t worth getting rid of.
As they continue to practice, Kisa encounters Chuui who basically tells her he still wants her as his Jeanne. He was willing to throw away both Kakuto and Utsuri to do so since he doesn’t believe the two of them are worthy to perform with him. Fumi eventually intervenes when he asks her to take his hand and he leaves. Kisa continues to practice their “Kingdom of Shishia” play but starts struggling because her own emotions end up seeping too much into the role. However, there is a moment where the entire class is captivated by Kisa when she delivers a certain line.
One night, she spots Chuui practicing at the shrine. He tells her the origin of the name of “Tamasaka” and “Chuuza”. There was something called the “Himehiko curse” in where anyone who took the “Himehiko” name died. The name was eventually split but it didn’t end up making a difference. Regardless, Chuui’s full name is actually Tamasaka Chuui. And the principal has the last name Chuuza. So they believe that the principal is most likely being driven out. Chuui admits he doesn’t really care about the conflict between the two families but he’s here to prove what he himself can do. He again tries to convince Kisa to take his hand but she refuses.
Kokuto suddenly calls for a team meeting in which they discuss how they feel about the performance thus far. Kokuto asks them to play out a scene with Shishia having no lines. Kokuto the asks what Shishia would say, and after she gives an answer, Kokuto and the rest of the senpai realize what needs to be done. They realize that Kisa needs to be the sole protagonist of the performance. However, instead of making it a romance between a man and a woman, they want Kisa to have a role that transcends gender, almost like an angel, is how Kokuto puts it. Rather than a “Jack” or “Jeanne” decide to call it “Jack Jeanne”. This becomes a buzz around the school so Rhodonite, Onyx, and Amber hear of it. The principal allows Kisa to go by this role since it’s interesting.
As Quartz continues to practice, both Rhodonite and Onyx decide to help hone their skills in dance and song. The day before the performance, Fumi gives Kisa the key to the theater so she can ready herself as the protagonist in their last performance. So on the day of the final performance, when Amber performs, it’s just Chuui. This performance is so heart wrenchingly terrifying that it throws off Quartz’s morale and even makes Soushiro cry. Kisa of course cheers him up and does the same with the rest of Quartz by boosting their morale and asking them to lend her their strength to beat Amber. With Quartz feeling confident again, Soushiro opens the stage as Izaku and lightens up the mood with his comedy act.
A person named Shishia (Kisa) escapes over the boarder from the slave country to see the performance of the circus performers “Kirutsue”. They consist of Chance (Suzu), Izaku (Soushiro), Adora (Fumi), Crowley (Kokuto), Levi (Kai), and Carlo (Mitsuki). These performers try looking for another applicant to join their troupe and it’s Shishia who appears and when they sing it impresses them all. So, they allow them to join as the “gear” that will create a fantastic performance for them. Shishia is now officially deemed a member it’s because of the “boarder performance” they witnessed which was a performance done on the boarder between the country Albaine and the unnamed slave country once known as the Quatra country. The Quatra country is what it was called before it was branded as an unnamed one after they lost the war. There, the people are treated as cattle and as such are slaves to the government. This is why they wish to perform in the “border performance” like the one they witnessed years ago since it is a celebration that ignores race and status.
After witnessing a government official capture a Quatran who escaped from Quatra, Sissia decides they want to perform the “boarder performance”. In doing so, the troupe creates a script to perform and go on top of the boarder between Quatra and Albaine. When Kizire decides to do the border performance, they leave it to Sissia to sing solo. Unfortunately, Azul is watching from a distance and orders for the Quatran to be killed. After Kirizue perfroms their song, Shishia is about perfrom on their own. However before they can, they are shot from a distance, much to everyone’s shock. Even so, Sissia gets up to sing one last song. This shakes the entire stage with emotion in seeing Shishia’s death.
After the performance, the crowd cheers and everyone is in tears. Quartz is announced as the winner of the final performance with Kisa gaining a gold award for her performance. Rhodonite and Onyx praise Quartz and even Chuui admits defeat after seeing the performance. Thanks to Quartz’s absolutely amazing performance, the principal tells Kisa that they won’t be abolishing Quartz after all. Kisa then decides to go tell everyone and so she gets her one-on-one time with everyone in Quartz, but also the sensei, Rhodonite, and Onyx students. In the epilogue, the senpai visit Univers to see many more people applied to Univers after seeing Quartz’s last performance. Soushiro, Suzu, Mitsuki, and Kisa help facilitate the exams for the potential 1st years joining the class.
Bad End – Tanakamigi Chuui
Kisa succumbs to the idea of becoming Chuui’s Jeanne and decides to accept his offer of “taking his hand”. The two of them become a formidable pair in performance (I had to playthrough the game twice to get the proper stats for this ending. It was a bit of a pain, especially considering how short it was, but the CG was definitely worth it. It’s beautiful in a “haunting” way).
Main cast
Orimaki Suzu (CV: Uchida Yuuma)
Suzu is a first year and a Jack with a very hot-headed but cheerful attitude. Suzu decided to enroll into Univeil due to his admiration of the “Jack Ace” He can be both very loud and energetic but always tries his hardest in his performances. He also has a bit of a tactless side to him in which he’s somewhat oblivious to certain situations that surround him.
Weekend Events
Suzu is struggling to practice kissing so he tries a method Kokuto told him to put a finger to one’s lips to “pretend” your kissing without actually doing it. So when Kisa notices this, he suggests asking for her help to do it. She agrees and he tells her to close her eyes to make it easier. Kisa waits for something to happen but it’s just silence for a good few seconds. Unfortunately, he can’t do it because she just looks too much like a girl and it makes him flip out in embarrassment lmao.
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Suzu is a little jealous of Kisa who’s doing both Jack and Jeanne roles now so he tries to play a Jeanne by reciting her lines from the “Sleepless King”. In doing so, he just looks ridiculous and flails his arms like an octopus which makes Kisa have to try and hold in her laughter. He kind of feels bad about it be she reassures him there’s things only he can do as his Jack role.
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Kisa meets with her friend Ao and encounters Suzu while she’s with her. Suzu acts awkward when he seems them so Ao suspects he may have misunderstood and thought she was her girlfriend since to Suzu, Kisa is a guy. So Kisa visits Suzu to clear up the misunderstanding and assures him she and her friend are just friends. Suzu admits it’s normal if she has a girlfriend but feels sort of off about it and can’t explain why.
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One day, Kisa goes out and ends up getting followed by a creepy fan of hers who watched her perform. Kisa gets freaked out so she calls Suzu for help who comes running to help her and shoo away the creepy guy. Kisa thanks Suzu for helping her but is clearly stilled freaked so then Suzu hugs her to comfort her. After this, Kisa thanks Suzu for helping her and Suzu seems like he’s about to ask her something but stops himself. After she leaves, he mutters that he won’t be able to perform with her on stage at this rate.
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Kisa visits Suzu who’s practicing his “Sleepless King” lines on the rooftop. Suzu suggests trying to do their “kiss practice” they did before and so Suzu attempts to but isn’t able to do it and something about her hiding “it”. This makes Kisa realize he may know that she’s a girl but he dismisses it and doesn’t talk about it further.
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After the winter performance. On Christmas day, Kisa hangs out with Suzu and the two of them go shopping together. Kisa sees a hand mirror she likes and Suzu thinks about buying a cup but decides not to. Suzu then ends up going back to maybe buy the cup but ends up not buying it anyway. After this, the two of them go to the rooftop where Suzu finally decides to confront Kisa about her gender. He asks if she’s a girl and tells her he started to think it when they did their “kissing practice” but continued to keep it in the back of his mind and still had doubts. But it was affirmed for him when she was doing the winter performance as her and her character “Chicaccina” were very similar to each other.
In the end, when they tried the kissing practice a second time, he couldn’t do it knowing her actual gender. Kisa finally admits it’s true that she is a woman and she’s been hiding her gender to stay at the school since it’s always been her dream to attend. Kisa also tells him the conditions of her being there is that no one finds out she’s a girl. This makes Suzu upset at the idea of Kisa having to drop out and he tells her he wants to continue to stay with each other and perform on stage together. In order to do that, he intends to keep her secret hidden. He also gives her the hand mirror that she was admiring for her as a Christmas present.
So both Suzu and Kisa tell Soushiro that Suzu is now aware that Kisa is a woman. Suzu reassures Soushiro he intends to keep it hidden and Soushiro tells him that the trusts him. Meanwhile, Suzu and Kisa continue to do practice like normal while on their short winter break. On new years eve, Kisa and Suzu visit the shrine and pull fortunes. The two of them both pull “great luck” fortunes and when Suzu gets too close to Kisa, she becomes somewhat conscious so Suzu fumbles in embarrassment and apologizes 🤭. So hype around Amber’s famous overseas performance starts buzzing throughout the entire school with Kamiya who’s going to play the single Jeanne role.
Due to this, Quartz knows they need to step up their game. And so, Kokuto announces the next performance called “The Kingdom of Shishia.” Both Kisa and Suzu get the main roles with Kisa as an Al Jeanne and Suzu as a Jack Ace. Kisa is super relieved since this means she can still attend Univers and Suzu is also super happy for Kisa. The two of them start working hard during practice but Suzu starts to struggle more and more since the role entails him to be more like “himself” who is getting in the way of the role. Fortunately, Suzu is able to slowly get back into the role after he feels he’s weighing Kisa down. So Kisa and Suzu visit Rhodonite, Onyx, and Amber’s classrooms to get an idea of how they perform and practice.
After doing so, Suzu asks Kisa what she liked to do as a kid and she says she liked to perform with Soushiro and her brother. She apparently first realized her dream of wanting to attend Univers when she watched her brother on stage. Suzu was apparently watching the exact same performance at the time which made him realize his dream too. Suzu then suddenly asks to hug Kisa and she lets him. He tells her that he finally realizes he needs to be true to himself to manage the role of “Chance” since he believes it’s a chance (pun intended probably) for him after not being able to do his other Jack role due to his injury. But to do this, Suzu says he’ll probably have to reveal his own secret as well.
So as Suzu decides to do his best and expose everything, Kisa struggles to respond her her character “Shishia”. One day, Kamiya who’s already been shit talking both her and Suzu comes to observe their class after Chuui basically told him he’s not good enough to play the single Al Jeanne role given to him. By the end of their practice session, Kamiya shit talks Kisa in how her Al Jeanne is trash and she can’t possibly compete with them at the rate she’s going. This furthers Kisa’s anxiety as she and the rest of them move to the stage to practice. Suddenly, part of the stage collapses and Kisa is completely in her own world she doesn’t realize it in time so Suzu grabs and saves her before it collapses on her.
Due to this, Suzu has to rest for a few days since it put strain on his leg. Kisa feels bad about it but Suzu assures her he’s fine and will still be able to perform. On Valentine’s day, Suzu asks Kisa if she can get him something sweet. So Kisa goes out and runs into Mare and he asks her to go shopping with him for Valentine’s. In the end, Kisa decides to make pound cake for Suzu and tells her she made it herself. He tries her and tells her it’s the best thing he’s ever eaten in the world LOL. And he would also love to get some next year too! 🥰 After Kisa leaves, Suzu flips out in embarrassment at how happy he is. Meanwhile, Kisa realizes she’s in love with Suzu and intends to express it in her role. Unfortunately, Suzu starts struggling with the role more and it’s because he doesn’t fully relate to certain actions made by his character “Chance”. Because of this, Kokuto decides to let him be the one to decide on what to do for one of the final scenes and they all agree it should be more interesting that way.
Finally, the day of the final Univers performance arrives. A woman named Shishia (Kisa) escapes over the boarder from the slave country to see the performance of the circus performers “Kirutsue”. They consist of Chance (Suzu), Izaku (Soushiro), Adora (Fumi), Crowley (Kokuto), Levi (Kai), and Carlo (Mitsuki). These performers try looking for another applicant to join their troupe and it’s Shishia who appears and when she sings it impresses them all. So, they allow her to join as she’s the “gear” that will create a fantastic performance for them.
Shishia is now officially deemed a member and Chance asks why she wanted to join their troupe. She tells him it’s because of the “boarder performance” she witnessed which was a performance done on the boarder between the country Albaine and the unnamed slave country once known as the Quatra country. The Quatra country is what it was called before it was branded as an unnamed one after they lost the war. There, the people are treated as cattle and as such are slaves to the government. The two of them have the same dream of wanting to have a “border performance” like the one they witnessed years ago, which is a celebration that ignores race and status.
Shishia hides her tattoo of a horse with make up which is branded on Quatrans [after a performance they do together, Suzu puts too much strain on his leg and it starts to show. Everyone is worried about this but Suzu assures them he’s fine and can finish the performance. So they decide to put their faith in him]. After witnessing a government official capture a Quatran who escaped from Quatra, Chance decides he wants to perform the “boarder performance”. In doing so, the troupe creates a script to perform and go on top of the boarder between Quatra and Albaine. Chance and Shishia then decide to do a final song; but before they can, Chance is shot by the General Azul who forbade the performance.
[Suzu is struggling to continue after more strain from his leg. They reach the final kiss scene between Shishia and Chance. Kisa then gives her final singing performance.] After Shishia sings her song, the crowd of people listening start trying to tear down the wall and are eager for peace. Both Suzu and Shishia admit their love for each other and kiss (for real). In the end, the wall is broken down and both countries live in unity. They also rename the country the Shishia o’ Chance Kingdom.
Everyone is completely floored by Quartz performance and in the end it’s Quartz that wins. Suzu is forced to go to the hospital for his leg injury. A week later, Kai decides he’s going to attend Tamasakaza and better himself as an actor. Kokuto and Fumi also wish Kisa the best and realize that both she and Suzu are the ones who will carry Quartz as the Al Jeanne and Jack Ace duo. After talking to the principal who wishes Kisa to keep doing her best at Univers, Kisa runs into Suzu who wants to speak with her. The two of them go up on the roof and Suzu confesses he’s in love with Kisa. She too tells him she loves him and they kiss. 🥰
Thoughts: If you’re looking for a route that feels most like an otome game route, then this is definitely the route for you. While everyone had their moments, Suzu 100% got the most “romance” because it was very in your face and apparent I absolutely adore Suzu because even though he seems like your typical loud-mouth delinquent, he’s actually such a kind, adorable, bundle of cuteness (especially when he gets blushy). I also love how he just supports and compliments everyone whole-heartedly and believes in all of his classmates. I just love how nice he is. Honestly, I had a feeling he would be my favorite because he gave me hot-headed tsun vibes (and the red hair) but while he isn’t really tsun per sue, he’s definitely what I would consider “my type”. Suzu is actually the only one who got an actual kiss CG, which I guess isn’t surprising when he had a bit of a subplot in his route in relation to him being able to perfrom a “kiss scene”. He’d get super embarrassed with it too… aw, I love him.
Yonaga Soushiro (CV: Satou Gen)
Soushiro is Kisa’s shy but modest childhood friend and her first year classmate in Univeil who knows her identity as a girl. Soushiro used to do dramas with Kisa along with her brother when they were young. He’s very reserved and tends to bottle his feelings up in regards to his passions. Often because of him holding back, he struggles to keep up with Kisa and hides in her shadow.
Weekend Events
Soushiro and Kisa visit the shrine where he and her would often act out plays together with her brother when they were young. Soushiro actually hadn’t been in touch with Kisa since he went to middle school and was surprised to see her again. Soushiro admits he attended Univers so he could see Kisa again but didn’t expect her to actually enroll there. Soushiro then apologizes for saying something strange all of a sudden and they return to the dormitory together
—
One day, Kisa invites Soushiro to hang out near the shrine they often go to. Suddenly Kasai appears and greets Kisa, asking to hang out sometime. After that, Soushiro acts slightly more down so Kisa changes the topic. Soushiro reminisces on when he had these marbles but lost them when he moved. Suzu then appears and a crowd also follows suit after noticing both him and Kisa because of the “Sleepless King” performance. So they decide to leave and after Suzu parts ways with them, Soushiro starts lamenting the fact that Suzu and her on completely different levels than him. Soushiro originally wanted to be a Jack, so he starts realizing how far he is from it.
—
Kisa and Soushiro visit Onyx to observe how they train to get their expertise in how they play Jack. Soushiro continues to lack confidence in his own ability since he ends up so exhausted from training he’s told my Kaido to take a break while Kisa and the others continue. After they train together, Kasai reveals he was actually originally an Al Jeanne before but he decided to train to be a Jack merely because he wanted to. Because of that, he was able to become a Jack Ace. This resonates with Soushiro who realizes Kasai saw his dream and went for it without caring what anyone else thought. But Soushiro feels pathetic for letting his own dream die and tells Kisa to not look at him since he’s so ashamed of himself. He assures her he’s fine and runs away to be alone.
—
After the autumn performance, Soushiro and Kisa go out together like before. Soushiro admits the autumn performance is very special to him since he was able to prove his worth as he’s always tried to catch up to Kisa who’s so far ahead. He also wanted to support her and became jealous of those who were able to when she was troubled. However, in doing so, he lost sight of himself. Kisa tells him that he’s supported him numerous times since she’s enrolled in Univers which gives Soushiro more confidence to do his best in the future.
—
Soushiro wants better practice to play his role of Fugio. He thinks of “Kasai” who is more of a “prince type” and decides he wants to practice with him in the Onyx classroom. Soushiro asks Kisa to come with him so she can watch him. So they go to the Onyx classroom and Kasai agrees to train with Soushiro. In doing so, Soushiro manages to train all the way through alongside Kasai without stopping in-between. Kasai recognizes Soushiro as a formidable foe but admits he doesn’t remember him from middle school. But in order to not forget him, he expects he’ll continue to work hard. After this, Soushiro admits he overworked the hell out of himself but Kisa tells him he looked really cool which makes Soushiro blush and die from embarrassment lol.
—
After the winter performance, Soushiro invites Kisa out on Christmas. The two of them look at wreaths together and notice they have a cinnamon smell to them. Soushiro ends up getting too close to Kisa and so embarrassed he apologizes 🤭. After they leave town, they go to the shrine where they usually meet together. Soushiro tells her it was fun when she, her brother, and him would act out dramas together. Unfortunately, that all changed when he moved and her brother went to Univers. So he worked hard to get into Univers in order to see Kisa again. In the end, that dream came true but he also wanted to be able to stand next to Kisa as her equal.
Soushiro admits he want to see her dream come true because he loves her and always has. He also gained a new dream of wanting to be on stage with his first love (初恋 😭). He loved her back when they were young but the feeling only grew stronger as they spent time together at Univers. She tells him that she also wants to stand on stage with him and this makes him super happy. He also decides to give her his Christmas present which is a necklace with a quartz crystal. Since she struggles to put it on herself, Soushiro helps her by putting it on her. She tells him she’ll take good care of it and hopes to continue to be on stage with her.
One night, Soushiro visits Kisa in her dorm. He struggles to get it out since he’s so embarrassed but tells her since he confessed he was hoping if it’s okay to be dating since he knows they can’t openly do so at Univers but hopes the two of them could be more of a couple when alone together. Kisa tells him it’s okay since they’ve basically become a couple now and Soushiro just apologizes for blurting out something so embarrassing all of a sudden. He tells her that’s all he wanted to say and before he leaves, he says “I love you” and “goodnight” before running off. 😭
On New Years, the two of them visit the shrine and Kisa almost gets lost in the crowd but Soushiro helps her by grabbing her hand. After that, Kakuto from Amber suddenly greets them. He can see the two of them getting along well but tells Soushiro that it’s possible Suzu will get the Jack Ace role in the final performance which means he won’t be performing alongside Kisa. On the day of the announcement for the last performance, Soushiro is cast as the Jack Ace role “Izaku” while Mitsuki is cast as the Al Jeanne role “Shishia”. Shockingly, Kisa isn’t cast as the main role, which surprises both Soushiro and her.
Kisa ends up as a different supporting character named Kikin. But since Kisa wasn’t cast as the main character, she has no choice but to meet with the principal who tells her a deal is a deal and must leave Univers after the final performance since she wasn’t cast as a main character. Unfortunately, this only makes things harder for both Soushiro and Kisa who have a hard time focusing. Kokuto even tells Kisa that he was considering choosing her as Al Jeanne but didn’t because he knew she could do it. This confuses Kisa but when she and Soushiro are greeted by Kakuto, he tells Soushiro he couldn’t match up to Kisa which is why “Kisa” was essentially chosen instead of him.
This leads to Soushiro believing it’s his fault that Kisa wasn’t chosen as Al Jeanne. One day during practice, Soushiro is unable to do his lines so he asks Kisa to practice as “Shishia” with him. In doing so, Soushiro realizes it’s his fault that Kisa wasn’t picked as an Al Jeanne and gets upset. Soushiro leaves and Kisa follows after him. Kokuto explains to everyone else that he had plans to make Kisa an Al Jeanne but it would be too much pressure on her to be both the main character and Soushiro’s “support” as a 1st year student who doesn’t have a lot of experience. He also wanted to give Soushiro the experience of playing a main role but the best support he can get should be from a person with more experience, such as a 3rd year student.
Kokuto knows that Kisa could play a major role next year, but unfortunately they don’t realize she would be unable to since the conditions of her staying in Univers was to get a main role in the final performance as a 1st year student. Soushiro who’s already upset upon realizing this, believes it’s his fault Kisa can’t realize her dreams. Kisa tells him she was happy that he was cast as Jack Ace but for Soushiro it’s not enough. Univers was everything to Kisa, but Kisa herself means everything to him. He hugs Kisa and tells her that he doesn’t want to leave her side since he loves her and if she leaves Univers, then he too wants to. In the end, he’s too upset to continue the conversation any longer and leaves.
Mitsuki realizes there’s something going on between Kisa and Soushiro. And speculates there may be a reason why Kisa and Soushiro can’t eventually pair up together next year. Realizing this, Mitsuki goes to Kokuto’s workroom and asks for a favor. The follow day, Kokuto announces to everyone that Mitsuki has declined to play the Al Jeanne role since he’ll be the Quartz team leader when the rest of the senpai graduate and wants to prepare more for that. So Kisa is cast as Shishia in Mitsuki’s stead which shocks not only Kisa but everyone else. Kisa visits the principal to tell him the news and so because of this, she’s able to stay at Univers. Kisa immediately tells Soushiro the good news who’s super relieved he can continue to work alongside Kisa.
However, as they start to practice, Otori observes that Soushiro isn’t fully putting his all into his role. Even Kasai, who decides to visit Quartz from the Onyx class, gets frustrated seeing Soushiro not taking his role seriously. Suzu is super confused since he figures Soushiro is doing fine, but the rest of the senpai already realized this. Soushiro finds himself frustrated by this and leaves, with Kisa following after him. Kakuto then appears and finds it amusing that the rest of the senpai “gave up on him” that Soushiro clearly can’t act for the sake of the class and can only do so when it’s with Kisa. Kakuto believes he and Soushiro are similar and in order for him to understand himself better, he recommends that he visit Amber so he can explain.
Soushiro decides to visit Amber’s classroom along with Kisa who decides to come with him. They watch Kakuto and Chuui practice and when they’re done, Kakuto invites Soushiro and Kisa out to talk with them. He tells Soushiro he attend Univers because he admired Chuui and was never able to communicate well with others in school. He honestly felt like life was a drag and even considered suicide. It was around then he saw Chuui’s performance on stage and was “reborn” in a sense where felt there was indeed meaning to live. So while Kisa assumes he wanted to stand on stage with him, but he tells them he actually wants to “devour him” and “become one with him” (not Natsuki Hanae AKA Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul saying this LOL).
Kakuto doesn’t need Amber as long as he’s recognized by Chuui wants a world with just the two of them. Kakuto tells Soushiro he believes that that he wants the same thing with Kisa and that he wants it to be just him and her without Quartz being present. But Soushiro can’t perform without Kisa present so what Kakuto recommends is that he only looks and thinks of Kisa when he performs in order to harness his performance power. Soushiro doesn’t know what to think anymore but believes it really is his fault and he’s weighing everyone down because he’s not good enough. After this, Soushiro tries changing the way he plays “Izaku” in the way Kakuto suggested.
In doing so, Soushiro’s acting turns more harsh and aggressive. This starts to make Kisa uneasy since Soushiro starts believing Kakuto’s method was correct and he needs to only focus on Kisa and ignore everyone else. In doing so, he uses his feelings for Kisa to act (he also has some yandere vibes in doing so omg). He wants Kisa to do the same for him and to only think of him but Kisa doesn’t agree with this method. One day during practice, Suzu can’t handle Soushiro’s method of acting and sees that he’s only including Kisa in his field of vision and ignoring the rest of Quartz when performing. Soushiro and Suzu get into a heated argument due to this especially when Suzu tells him he doesn’t really “see” Kisa at all because he’s hurting her in the process.
Soushiro realizes how pathetic he’s been and decides to be alone for now. On Valentine’s day, Kisa decides to bring Soushiro chocolate. Soushiro admits that Suzu was right and he was so focused on himself, he really wasn’t seeing Kisa at all. So Soushiro decides that he’s going to try practicing again for the sake of everyone in Quartz. Soushiro visits Kokuto in order to gain some insight on why he chooses certain people for certain roles. Kokuto basically explains his reasoning for casting everyone but tells Soushiro to not sell himself short and that even he has a talent no one else has. After this, Soushiro decides he’s going to restore Izaku to his original shape and perform for the sake of his friends.
So Soushiro is finally is able to practice smoothly for the final performance. However, during practice, they notice Amber practicing there as well. Chuui calls Kakuto an empty vessel who isn’t able to be anything other than that. Due to this, Chuui calls out to Kisa after practice. Kisa starts to think that he may have figured out she’s actually a girl, so she decides to follow him to the mountains to confirm her thoughts. Kakuto asks Kisa what exactly is it she’s hiding that makes Chuui so drawn to her. As he wonders if it’s because her “beautiful” face or her higher sounding “voice”, he wraps his hand around her throat saying he wants to see all of her to understand it.
Thankfully Soushiro arrives in time before he can do anything and he yells at Kakuto to keep away from Kisa. Kakuto stops but mutters to himself how on earth he could be empty when he has all of Chuui inside of him. After he leaves, Soushiro escorts Kisa back to the dorm who starts crying because of how terrified she was of Kakuto. Soushiro warmly comforts her and tells her now that he’s here it’s okay. 😫 Apparently he knew where she was because Onyx saw her go in the direction of the mountains. After hearing what Kakuto had said, they figure Chuui may have rejected him which led to his anger towards Kisa. Since Kisa doesn’t want Soushiro to leave, he stays with her and touches Kisa’s cheek and neck where Kakuto’s cold hands gripped.
On the day of the performance, Soushiro starts hesitating on whether or not he can outperform Amber with his current “Izaku” so he decides to go with what he’s most comfortable. During the performance, Soushiro lights up the stage as he interacts with the audience when introducing Kirutsue. As the performance continues, Shishia joins the troupe and Izaku asks to speak with Shishia privately. He recognized her as his childhood friend he used to play with near the border (much like Soushiro and Kisa’s situation). Izaku is worried for Shishia who is a Quatran and would be punished for going over the boarder. Regardless, Shishia wants to do the “border performance” she’s longed for and Soushiro promises to protect her.
As Izaku and Shishia stand together after their performance together, Izaku is shot. [Soushiro is told to adlib the final scene so he tells Kisa his feelings through Izaku such as her being a treasure to him and to sing for him. He then corrects himself and says it suits her better to sing for everyone’s sake rather than just his own. He tells her to fulfill her wish and dream which was his own dream]. After the performance, Kisa and Soushiro win gold awards and Quartz wins the class. Soushiro also realizes he not only connected with Kisa but also connected with everyone on stage as he performed. After the performance, some time passes and both Kisa and Soushiro visit the shrine again. Soushiro tells Kisa he’s going to quit trying to be a Jack Ace.
He only wanted the role because he wanted to be the one standing next to Kisa and was jealous when he wasn’t. But he realized he was always next to Kisa and had a connection with her from the start. But he wants to stick with doing what he’s most capable of and still wants to be the main character with her. Not only that, but he believes his feelings of loving her are unmatched. In the epilogue, a young Soushiro writes a letter to Kisa before she moves telling her he’s going to attend Univers and wants her to watch him on stage like her brother. He also tells he’s writing this letter because he loves her and wants to show her different places and have her experience different things. Unfortunately He was unable to send her the letter. It’s then, Soushiro wakes up from this dream and tells Kisa about the letter he never sent.
Thoughts: I usually don’t really like childhood friends, but I do like how Soushiro was written (or living in their shadow). I can’t recall anytime I’ve seen an otome game where the childhood friend was basically jealous of their love interest. Plus his love was just so cute and pure at times; he’d flip out in the most adorable ways. His route definitely had the 2nd most romance, with Suzu being 1st and the scenes with Kisa and him were really cute. Also the fact that Soushiro loves Kisa no matter what route is kind of bittersweet. But holy shit I really felt the Sui Ishida vibes in this route with Kakuto (who is voiced by Natsuki Hanae aka Kaneki) because it started getting kind of dark whenever he was present LOL. I think the part of this route that was most surprising was the fact Soushiro gave off some yandere vibes at one point. It didn’t last very long though so it was more about him “losing himself” and trying to be more like what Kakuto suggested.
Shirota Mitsuki (CV: Kajiwara Gakuto)
Mitsuki is a second year Jeanne known for his beautiful singing voice and ideal for the Quartz class that repeatedly tries to recruit him. He often keeps to himself (he also has a very kuudere air about him) and doesn’t show interest in others but gives guidance when needed. While it seems like he’s indifferent about most things, he works hard especially when it comes to his singing.
Weekend Events
Kisa spots Mitsuki speaking with his mother who keeps urging him to sing for her friend’s birthday party. Mitsuki, who is clearly against it, keeps getting pressured by his mother to just sing for her and should just do it since she’s his mother. This annoys Mitsuki further since his mother only comes for her convenience. His mother gets pissed and almost slaps him, but Kisa intervenes and gets hit instead. Mitsuki is shocked and yells at his mother for hurting Kisa, he tells her to leave and goes to help Kisa. Mitsuki takes Kisa to his room and gives her an ice pack to put on her cheek. He feels he should’ve just sing for his mom, but Kisa doesn’t believe Mitsuki should feel forced to sing somewhere that isn’t Univers.
—
Mitsuki invites Kisa out to a cafe to have tea together. He suggests she add jam to her tea and the two of them try each other’s different flavors. Mitsuki says he likes to relax like this after singing and also talks about being a “tresor” (the main singer in the group) is why Rhodonite tries so hard to get him in their class. He loves to sing since he was young and after seeing a young tresor perform in Univeil, he believes he could do that as well. Along with the accommodations that came with it, entering Univeil seemed the most convenient for him. He was a nervous wreck at first but everyone there treated him kindly. He also entered in order to lose the constant stares he would receive but for some reason doesn’t get the sense of a man or woman from Kisa as strange as it sounds.
—
While Kisa decides to practice during the summer break, Mitsuki notices and joins her. He decides to ask her why she’s trying so hard to the point of seeming like she’ll lose everything if she fails. Kisa doesn’t say anything and this frustrates Mitsuki who isn’t good at communicating with others and thought maybe it would be different with Kisa. Frustrated by not being trusted, Mitsuki leaves. Kisa realizes having this secret may lead to hurting those she gets close to. However, Mitsuki eventually comes back after changing and invites Kisa out to tea. Kisa is surprised by his sudden offer but accepts and they go to the cafe together.
—
Kisa helps Kyoharu, Kiito, and Mitsuki with a showcase performance since the person who was supposed to do it got sick. Kiito thanks Kisa for her help and goes on to talk about how impressive Quartz is with her and Mitsuki. After he tells her he’d love to have her in Rhodonite, Mitsuki suddenly yells out to him not to touch Kisa. All of them stare at Mitsuki confused since he didn’t even touch her, but then Mitsuki runs away. Kisa goes after him and he starts getting upset on how Kisa can open up more to Kiito but not him. Mitsuki doesn’t understand why he feels so jealous and apologizes. Kisa also apologizes since she knows hiding her identity has made it harder speak openly to him. Just as she tries to leave, he stops her. He tells her he didn’t want Kiito’s line of sight to “touch her”. He doesn’t mind making eye contact with her and feels at ease when he does. However, whenever he tries to get closer to her, her expression become clouded.
—
While Kisa thinks about wanting to talk to Mitsuki, it starts pouring rain. Kisa trips while trying to go back to the dorm and loses her dorm key. She’s worried she may have to go look for it but then runs into Mitsuki who wonders what’s wrong. Kisa tells him she lost her key outside in the rain and she needs to go find it. Mitsuki thinks it would be ridiculous to go back out in the rain so he suggests she just change and shower in his room. Kisa is hesitant but reluctantly complies since Mitsuki grows more suspicious as she continues to decline his offer.
However, Kisa continues to show reluctance so Mitsuki gets upset and wonders if she doesn’t trust him or thinks he’ll hurt her, or even worst, destroy what’s important to her. He suddenly removes his shirt and asks if she’s able to strip in front of him and show everything to him. Kisa says she can’t and Mitsuki starts to wonder what the hell he’s doing and mutters to himself how he’s horrible for even saying that to her. He tells her him wanted her to rely on him since he’s always been helped by her. He believes it’s possible she may come to hate him but hopes that someday when she fully trusts him, they can talk. He then leaves and let’s her change.
—
On Christmas after the winter performance, Mitsuki invites Kisa out to a cafe. She knows that he’s realized she’s a woman and yet still accepted her and forgave her for deceiving him when playing Rukiora. They go back to Univeil where Mitsuki sings for Kisa as a Christmas present. Kisa then decides she wants to tell Mitsuki the truth and tells her she enrolled in Univeil while hiding she’s a woman. Mitsuki hugs her and tells her he knows and he already realized it before. But he also has been hiding something as well and that being he’s fallen in love with her. He apologizes for hiding his own secret which may have hurt her in the process as well. He goes on to tell her he loves the days he spends with her in Univers and intends to protect her from now on and ensure she stays in Univers.
On New Years eve, Mitsuki and Kisa go to the shrine together and Mitsuki wishes the best for the years to come. On the day of the cast announcement for the final performance, Kokuto calls Quartz to the classroom. Mitsuki is given the role of Carlo is is the leading Al Jeanne while Kisa is given the role of Shishia as a Jack Ace. However, it’s Kisa who is doing both solo songs instead of Mitsuki. Kokuto explains that they’re not aiming for a win, but rather to train Quartz to better themselves for next year since the senpai will be graduating. Kisa bumps into Chuui one day who basically tells her that Quartz wants to use her to save it but believes she would be better suited for Amber. Mitsuki tells him to back off but struggles to say anymore.
One day while Mitsuki and Kisa practice singing, Mitsuki realizes he doesn’t want to give up singing. He also doesn’t want to lose to Amber. So he decides to entrust his song to Kisa in order for them to win and will do all he can to support her. In order to do so, both Kisa and Mitsuki work super hard the next few days by gaining experience by not only their senpai, but from Rhodonite as well. Everyone starts to notice how hard both Kisa and Mitsuki are working and realize they need to follow suit. On Valentine’s day, Kisa gives Mitsuki chocolate and they eat it in his room together. He wants to try and be as good as Tsukasa Oshinari who took the role of the leader and mastered both dancing and singing. He realizes that all he needed to do was not give up and because he loves Kisa he wants to do his best with her in the final performance together.
Suzu tells Kisa he wants to hold a celebration / graduation party for the senpai as thanks for their hard work before the final performance. As their practicing in the Univers theater, Kisa struggles to give a powerful voice to her singing. Even so, Mitsuki encourages her and tells her that after everything he’s seen her accomplish, he believes she’s capable. Kisa then asks Mitsuki to sing her solo so she can get an idea of how to sing better. In doing so, Amber arrives for their turn to practice in the theater. After they leave the theater, Mitsuki tells Kisa to just sing like herself because he loves the way she sings.
The day before the final performance, Quartz has a graduation party for the senpai. Mitsuki makes a speech on how the senpai in their class always put the needs of Quartz first but even so he intends to win the final performance for them. Then all them ask Mitsuki to be their team leader for Quartz next year because they believe he can better the class and be a great leader, to which Mitsuki happily complies. On the day of the performance, Mitsuki brings attention to the stage with his singing. Shishia joins Kirize and Carlo helps him with his pronouncation of the language. When they perform the border performance, Carlo is shot protecting Shishia and tells him to sing in her stead.
After the performance, Quartz wins with Kisa and Mitsuki earning gold awards. Even Chuui from Amber admits that their performance was good and looks forward to what they’ll bring next year. Mitsuki is thankful for Quartz and glad he’s in their class. A few weeks later, the rest of the senpai are getting ready to graduate. Meanwhile, Mitsuki tells Kisa he wants to continue to play the role of Al Jeanne and Tresor. He also has a new dream of wanting to sing with Kisa on stage together. Mitsuki also recalls when Shishia would call out Carlo’s name and is envious of that. So Kisa decides to call him “Mitsuki”. He smiles happily at her and calls her Kisa, asking her to sing with him.
Thoughts: Mitsuki’s route definitely felt like it had the least amount of romance. Not that I didn’t enjoy it though, I just only felt a strong bond between him and Kisa and strangely didn’t get super romantic vibes?? His relationship with Kisa was no doubt adorable but most of his “intimate scenes” were usually just the weekend events. That being said, I honestly expected Mitsuki to be a harsher kuudere type character but he was surprisingly very sweet most of the time. Even when he got pushy towards Kisa when he thought Kisa was hiding something, he apologized for it and felt really bad. Mitsuki is the type who likes people when they’re in his sort of “trusted circle” so I like how he’s able to open up to Kisa and his relationship seemed realistic. In one of his quick weekend events, he was afraid of a bug in his room so he asked Kisa if she’s weak to bugs; if you say no, he’ll ask Kisa to help kill it LOL; it was a pretty short but hilarious scene. If I were to give one fault to his route, I would’ve liked to get more background on his relationship with his mother since she only appeared in one scene.
Mutsumi Kai (CV: Kasama Jun)
Kai is a third year student in Univeil known to play Jack Ace roles and often pairs together with Fumi. He grew up as an orphan so he often visits the orphan children at a church nearby the Univeil Academy. He considers himself a “vessel” that helps the “flower” shine on stage. He lacks self-confidence when it comes to his own abilities and tends to be very selfless in the sense that he’ll always put others before himself.
Weekend Events
Kisa sees Kai visit the church where he often plays with the orphaned children there. The children ask Kai and Kisa to act as a Jack and Jeanne pair so the two of the dance together. Kai reveals that the children there stay at the same facility he too grew up in as an orphan. This is why he often visits and helps the facility from time to time. Kai apologizes on the behalf of the kids bothering her, but Kisa assures him she doesn’t mind and can tell he’s loved by these kids.
—
Kai wants repay Kisa for entertaining the children before so he takes Kisa to a cafe and asks her to buy whatever she wants. He’s usually alone and doesn’t like to bother people so he didn’t know what else to do lol. Kisa also learns that Kai likes flowers when the employee there shows them some preserved flowers. Kai also tells Kisa that the kids from the church want to see her again and she can visit if she wants so Kisa happily agrees she doesn’t mind seeing them again. Kisa also learns from Fumi and Mitsuki that Kai never invites people out nor does he ever go out to cafes so it was strange when he asked them “where do juniors like to go with their senpai??” LOL.
—
Kisa goes to Kai to the mountains where he usually likes to go since it reminds him of when he lived with his family before they died. He lived in a rural area but his dad died when he was very young and eventually his mom got sick and died as well. He was then shifted from relative to relative until he ended up in the orphanage facility. Eventually he was approached by the principal of Univers who asked if he was interested in joining. Kai apologizes for boring her with his story but she tells him she wants to hear more. This surprises Kai who isn’t used to people listening to him earnestly. Suddenly, it starts to rain but Kisa almost slips when trying to go down the mountain. Kai helps her by grabbing her hand, and notices how small it is. Kisa wonders if he’s just stating the obvious but he doesn’t speak any more of it and they head back to Univers.
—
Kisa can’t sleep and decides to go out for a walk and spots Kai. He follows him to one of the classrooms where he practices by himself other performances they’ve done. He notices Kisa who apologizes for suddenly watching him but couldn’t sleep. He tells her he often goes out in the middle of the night to practice. He often feels a loneliness overcome him, especially living without his parents. He has quartz but wonders if someday he’ll die without making an impact on anyone because of his severe lack of self worth. Kisa assures him that he’s needed by both Quartz and her. She also believes someday he may have someone who cherishes him. This actually legit brings Kai to tears who admits he wasn’t even able to cry when his mother died. He apologizes for suddenly crying and Kisa tells him it’s okay.
—
Kai takes Kisa near the shrine and he thinks about how spring is approaching. He also laments on the fact when he graduates he won’t be able to see her anymore. But she reassures him she’ll visit him anytime so as long as he’s not too busy which Kai eagerly agrees to. Kai and Kisa then go back to Univers to practice the first scene between the priest and Chiccina. He tells her he intends to make her look as beautiful as he possibly can make her on stage.
—
On Christmas, Kai asks Kisa to come to a Christmas party with him and the children from the church. While of the kids gets a cake ready for the party, Kisa notices a car approach them while they’re not paying attention. So, Kisa saves the kid but gets hit by the car instead. Kai hears the commotion and anxiously calls out to Kisa who’s too out of it to respond. An ambulance is called and Kai rides it with Kisa. Kai gives the paramedic info about Kisa but soon finds out she’s actually a woman while she’s being tend to. After that, Kisa wakes up in the hospital room and greeted by the principal of Univers.
Thankfully her injuries aren’t severe and hee tells her that Kai found out her gender, but he’s definitely someone she can trust. Not only that but she saved the life of a child in the process so it doesn’t really count anyway. After Kisa leaves the hospital, she goes back to Univers to encounter a very worried Kai who immediately hugs her when she comes back. She’s also greeted by everyone else who was worried about her and she assures them she’s fine. Kai then asks to speak with Kisa privately. Kai admits he saw signs of her hiding her gender with her being reluctant to play Chicchi and also when he noticed how small her hands were before.
Kai also realizes how helpless he felt when she was hurt and doesn’t want to lose her. When Kisa told him he may find someone special in his life, he tells her that person is her and he always wants to be with her 😭. Kisa tells him she loves him and he’s in such agony from the feels he can’t even believe someone would say that to him. He gives Kisa the Christmas gift he intended to give her before which is a preserved flower like the one in the cafe. Kai tells her he wants to be a Jack Ace for the final performance even though it’s possible it’ll go to Fumi instead now, so he can stand on stage with her. He also tells her he loves her 😍😍😍.
On New Years Eve the two of them go to the shrine together. Kai feels bad about Kisa going out of her way to get a cake for the children so he wants to pay her back somehow. She tells him it’s fine though and his appreciation is enough. Kai is the type of person who feels like he has to repay people whenever they do something for him because he’s always felt like his entire existence is a nuisance (omg Kai 😭). So the final performance approaches and Kai is eager to practice so he can be the Jack Ace that emphasizes Kisa’s beauty. After they find out that Amber is doing their performance they did before during the fall, Kokuto brings them in to announce the cast for the final performance.
Kokuto admits he’s not sure who he wants to make Jack Ace for the last performance. Since he’s choosing between Kai and Fumi, he asks the both of them if they want the role. After Fumi admits he does, Kai tells Kokuto he does believe Fumi would be suited to the role. That being said, he too wants the role for the sake of making Kisa shine. In the end, Kokuto already had plans to choose Kai but wanted to get him to admit that he wanted it. So, Kisa is playing Al Jeanne as “Shishia” and Kai is playing the “Jack Ace” role as “Levi”. Kisa and Kai practice to better their performances but Kisa feels she’s lacking something and visits Rhodonite and Onyx to help train both her singing and dancing.
When she visits Amber, Chuui suggests she try and perform their play “wareshinari” as “Takihime” and in doing so, she internalizes feelings about her brother and her father, realizing her loneliness. This also makes Kisa realize that seeing how her brother perform may give her some insight based on what Chuui told her, but it also may “break” her as well. She decides to find a video of when her brother performed as a Al Jeanne but in doing so, it pushes Kisa to the edge. One day, Kisa is super exhausted from practicing and starts hearing her brother’s voice. She goes into the mountains and ends up getting lost. She ends up there for a while until Kai arrives and finds her.
Kai takes her back to the dormitory and when Kisa wakes up, he’s holding her hand while keeping her company. Kai admits he knows Amber bad mouthed him but Kisa apologizes and blames herself. Kai is more concerned about her and tells her no matter what happens he’ll always love her. He also tells her that being a vessel isn’t enough so he intends to push even further. On the day of practice, Kai tells Kokuto he doesn’t want to be a vessel, but rather a flower on stage just like Kisa. In doing so, Kokuto adjusts the script and Kai changes his tone in his performance. Due to this, Kai acts more strange around Kisa and avoids eye contact. He invites Kisa to a cafe and she tells him he doesn’t have to force himself to take her out but he tells her that he’s absolutely not forcing himself but rather he’s anxious about making himself a “flower”.
Kai eventually hits a roadblock with his acting because he’s too connected with his character “Levi” that his emotions are getting in the way. Kai feels bad and continues to tell the class he needs to do it for the sake of their class. Kokuto and Fumi suggest that Kai stops saying “for the sake of the class” when he’s part of it. So if he stops playing the martyr and doing everything for the sake of others, he can finally realize he should do it for his own sake. After this, Kisa gradually notices that Kai continues to avoid eye contact with her.
On Valentine’s day, Kisa brings Kai chocolates and they drink coffee while eating chocolates together. Kai finally opens up and admits he felt jealous whenever Kisa looked up to her brother or was in the eye view of other people such as their class. What he really wants is for Kisa to “see him” on stage but he feels terrible about it though and wants to rid these “ugly desires” and starts to cry. Kisa tells him to look at her and not turn away. Kai tells her he loves her and tells her not to leave him. He tells her to look at him and she says she’s always there was watching him and wants him to watch her too.
Eventually, Kai finally overcomes the scene that overlaps with the loss of his own parents. In doing so, Kai and Kisa progress with their practice until the day before the final performance. Kai suggests watching the video of her brother again to overcome her own feelings. Kai realizes that she really is similar to her brother in the sense that they both carry the same talent. Kisa starts crying and so Kai hugs her closely 😫. On the day of the performance, everyone becomes uneasy after seeing Amber’s performance. But Kai gives a long speech on how everyone in Quartz is already so amazing so he intends to do his best for his sake this time.
Kai’s character “Levi” was an orphan who lost his parents in the war but was raised by Quatrans. However, soon his parents were taken away and he never saw them again. During the border performance, Levi and Shishia are the ones leading the fray where the bomb is planted. There, Levi protects Shishia who is almost shot. He tells her to sing and adlibs a scene where he tells her he loves her and to sing her last song. After the performance, Quartz wins and Kaido admits Kai as his best rival and Chuui admits defeat as the performance was impressive to him. After Kisa is told by the principal to keep doing her best at Univers, she meets Kai by the mountains he used to always visit. He shows her the flowers bloom and he talks about wanting to visit the cafe more but only the mountains when he’s with Kisa. In the epilogue, Kai visits Kisa at the cafe this often visit. Kai talks about how he’s learning a lot at Tamasaka but also wants to go his place so he can say things to her he can’t say in public (ラブラブ言葉🥰)
Thoughts: omg ya’ll I cant accurately describe how I felt about Kai’s route in words it was just:
Kai is such a sweetheart!!! And a poor lonely boy too… seeing him so devastated when Kisa was in the hospital made my heart hurt omg. He was so afraid he was gonna lose her and have no one. I think what got me the most in this route is how much Kai would cry and seem very lonely. At first he has like, no self-confidence whatsoever but by the end of his route he definitely gained self-confidence thanks to Kisa. The fact that he’s an orphan and felt so alone after his parents died just made me want to give him a hug ugh. The romance with him and Kisa was well done too; I liked how his route really felt like an otome (esp when Kisa got sick and he held her hand!!!!). He deserves so much and more.
Takashina Sarafumi (CV: Kondou Takayuki)
Fumi is a Al Jeanne and third year student known to be skilled for his elegant dancing and knack for talent. Due to his talents and his families expectations, he feels bound by his families traditions which is why he left to attend Univeil Academy. Even though he has a very laid back attitude, he’s actually very sharp and intuitive.
Weekend Events
Fumi is speaking with his brother who believes he should be the one to take over the Takashina style dance — which is a tradition in Fumi’s home. Fumi doesn’t understand why his brother doesn’t just do it but he believes Fumi is most suited. However, Fumi constantly refuses because it’s for that reason he left the traditions of his family to attend Univers. Fumi notices that Kisa overheard him with his brother, and the two of them go to the dance room to discuss about it. Fumi tells Kisa about the Takashina style dance in his family and how he was essentially wasn’t allowed to be free when he was at home due to the strictness of the traditions. He still loves the dance regardless and even Kisa thought it looked beautiful when she first saw it. He then shows her how to pose himself when dancing and gets closer to Kisa who admits he’s seemingly feminine when he does that. Fumi finds this amusing since he felt it was the opposite with her reaction being feminine.
—
Fumi invites Kisa out for Rakugan and tea to talk. Fumi asks what Kisa was doing before she joined Univers but immediately tells she’s reluctant to answer due to her own reasons. He asks if she has her parent’s approval being there since he noticed she doesn’t have any family watching her performance. Kisa lies saying she does but they’re too busy to come to her performance. Fumi admits his parents never come see his performances. He tells her he likes her and the fact she can do things he can’t. Kisa figures he means he admires her as a person and tells him she appreciates that. Though Fumi jokes saying at times like these she should say she likes him too lol.
—
Fumi invites Kisa out and suddenly gets an urgent call from his brother. He tells Fumi that his father collapsed and he’s being operated on. Fumi is conflicted on whether or not to go but Kisa convinces him to go since he clearly wouldn’t be so conflicted if he wasn’t worried. Fumi decides to go and comes back to Kisa waiting for him. She asks how it went and Fumi tells her the operation was a success, however when his father woke up for a moment he told Fumi to leave Univers and come home. He knows the reason his brother keeps asking him to come back is because his father is in bad health and wants him to continue to the Takashina dance. However, Fumi went to Univers in order to preserve it in his own way. Kisa believes if Fumi tries to talk over how he’s feeling to his family, then perhaps she can convince them. Fumi appreciates Kisa trying to cheer him up and tells her he really does like her which makes her get flustered while Fumi acts disappointed she won’t won’t say it back LOL.
—
After the autumn performance, Fumi is thankful to Kisa for the outcome especially since she supported both him and Soushiro at the same time. Fumi realizes he wants to go back home to honestly speak with his family about what he wants. Fumi then gets a call from his brother again to tells him that his father has recovered from surgery. Fumi is clearly anxious as he waits for his brother to meet up with him and asks Kisa to stay with him until he arrives. Even though Kisa is about to leave, Fumi’s brother is fine with her being there and so Fumi finally talks with him honestly. He tells him the customs and traditions of his family have been suffocating as nothing would change and everything would stay the exact same. This is why he entered Univers where he can better his dance in a new way, while still feeling proud of the Takashina dance which is part of his family.
He admits he does want to take over his family house someday but not yet since he’s not ready. He wants to gain more experience and confidence so until then he asks for more time. His brother admits that he actually saw his performance of “Mary Jane” and was impressed. This shocks Fumi who thought they would never come see his performance. Apparently his brother and father realized just how high Fumi can go when he’s not bound by the traditions of their family dance and has more freedom to do what he wants. Fumi’s brother also thanks Kisa who clearly helped him. After this, Fumi’s bracelet, which he made when he was young, breaks. This signifies that his dream came true and so he jokes about his new dream being that Kisa saying she likes him back LOL. He then thanks her for expanding his horizons and mutters next time he wants to be the one to help her.
—
Kisa notices how sharp Fumi is and starts wondering if he may suspect her of being a woman. One day, she visits Fumi in the dance room and he asks her to watch him dance. After showing her, he tells her he intends to visit his family for new years and show them that same dance. He then asks her to try and dance the same way. In doing so, Kisa almost loses her balance and is caught by Fumi who catches her before she falls. There’s an awkward silence until Fumi speaks up and says she’s thin. But then he also asks if he should make her into a woman. The way he says this makes Kisa think she was speaking to her as a woman, but then he immediately changes his demeanour. Fumi suggests giving Kisa tips on being an Al Jeanne.
—
After the winter performance, Fumi invites Kisa out for Christmas on a date. They take a look at shops together until sunset. Fumi admits he never really celebrated Christmas much before so it was fun. He tells her she did a good job in the winter performance but Kisa starts to wonder if he’s already realized she’s a woman. After this, he takes her to the dance room. He asks to dance with her as Al Jeanne and him as a Jack Ace. When they’re done dancing, Fumi admits he knows she’s a woman. He actually knew ever since the entrance exam and could tell by the way she danced. Even though he knew the entire time, he never said anything because he became fixated on her. What he likes most about her is how she can make the impossible possible.
Fumi wants to lend his strength for her this time since she helped him. So he asks her what the conditions for staying in Univers aside from hiding her gender. When she tells him it’s to get a lead role in the last performance, he assures her she’ll get the leading role no matter what and she should look ahead for what’s to come. He believes that Kuro has been harnessing Kisa’s strengths so she can steal Fumi’s abilities and go even higher even after he’s left Univers. Fumi then gives Kisa the “koi tie” bracelet he made for her in order for her to make a wish and have it come true. He tells her he’s always loved her and has been waiting for her to say it back. Kisa tells him she loves him too and he says he’s been waiting so long for her to say that and he loves her again.
After this, the word of Amber doing their performance “wareshinari” with two Al Jeanne. Eventually the cast is announced for Quartz and Fumi is chosen as the Jack Ace role of Adora and Kisa chosen as the Al Jeanne role of Shishia. Now that their roles have been chosen, Kisa and Fumi aim for victory since Chuui is clearly eyeing Kisa for her talent. Fumi is also aiming for victory for the sake of Quartz and to help Kisa. However, due to Fumi’s overwhelming presence and talent, Kisa struggles to keep up with him. Fumi notices Kisa working hard so he decides to take her out on a date so she learns it’s okay to take a break here and there. The two of them go out together and Fumi teases Kisa about measuring his waist since he keeps himself thin from all the dancing he does lmao. Kisa gets obviously embarrassed but he tells her he just wanted to see her cute reaction.
Unfortunately, Kisa is still struggling to keep up with Fumi. During practice, Fumi notices this and asks Kokuto if they can take a break to talk to her. He encourages her by telling her he too struggled with being her brother’s shadow in performances. So the two of them need to form a “partnership” before they can truly work well together. The two of them consult the others with Kisa speaking to Soushiro, Suzu, and Rhodonite members. And Fumi speaks to Kokuto, Kaido, and Kai. Fumi then tells Kisa he believes he needs to make her the best of the best and surpass even him. In order to do that, he needs to fill her vessel with his own flower and give everything he has to her. He asks her to grab a hold of him and when she tells him to not let her go, he hugs her and says he won’t.
One day, Fumi brings Kisa to the Univers theater to practice more. After the two of them are done, Fumi brings up how he hopes Kisa can take over his role when he graduates. This makes Kisa slightly sad which is competely written all over her face. Fumi tells her this and realizes she doesn’t look like any of her roles right now but just a normal girl. He tells her he’s always wanted her but now is not the time but at this rate he won’t be able to stop himself 🤪. On Valentine’s day, Kisa brings him chocolate. He hugs her and thanks her but Kisa also realizes his body feels hot. He says he wonders if it’s cause of her or if he’s sick.
A few days later, it turns out that Fumi was indeed getting sick and has a cold. Kokuto relays this to the class and they have Kai relay his lines until he gets better. Kisa is worried about him though so she decides to go check up on him in his room. He admits he didn’t expect to get sick but Kisa tells him it’s because he worked himself so hard. He starts to feel sentimental about the fact he won’t be there when he graduates but is glad Kisa is here. He realizes just how he and Adora are similar with their relationship with their father. He was always around adults because of his talent, but Fumi always just wanted to be praised and spoiled once in a while. Fumi jokes that its not so bad being sick if he can be taken care of by Kisa.
After Fumi gets better, he continues to train with Quartz until the final performance. Fumi and Kisa go to the dance room as Fumi becomes reminiscent on the fact it’ll be his last time practicing there. He tells Kisa he believes he was destined to be partnered with her. She tells him she loves him and has completely fallen for him. He tells her he does too and apparently the wish he made for his new Koi tie is that he could continue to be with her forever. On the day of the performance, seeing Amber perform makes Quartz waver. However, Suzu gives them hell for not having confidence in themselves. Fumi agrees and believes Quartz can beat Amber as long as they give it everything they’ve got.
As the performance starts, Fumi lights up the stage as Adora and the rest of the Kirutsue members. Adora explains to Shishia he opposed his father, who is the general of Albaine. His father saw the dances of Kirutsue has a hobby and nothing more. Adora is hoping to change the way his father thinks while Shishia is hoping to be apart of the “border performance”. After the “border performance”, Adora is so moved he starts to cry [in reality it’s Fumi who’s crying and since Kisa knows all he ever wanted was to be praised, she tells him he did a good job]. Suddenly, Adora is shot protecting Shishia and Adora’s father Azul screams in agony from accidently shooting his son. Adora asks Shishia to sing for him and tells her that he knew she was a Quatran but wanted to continue to look after her and see how she grows (overlapping Fumi’s own feelings for her).
Finally, Adora tells her he loves her. After the performance, Quartz wins first place and everyone is super estatic. After the performance, Kisa continues her time at Univers. She hears Fumi dancing and decides to go see him. He admits he’s been busy preparing for Tamasaka but now he also wants her to be his lover. So he says starting from today she’s his girlfriend 😍. In the epilogue, Fumi gives Kisa the key to his (heart) room so the two of them can have extra special alone time (oooooh boy 🥵).
Thoughts: Here I’m thinking Fumi is going to be my least favorite route but I LOVE HIM!!! Then again, I didn’t dislike anyone in this game. He initially knows Kisa is a girl from the start so he’s just so flirty and seeing Kisa’s reactions to it is pretty funny. I also like how Fumi just seems to genuinely appreciate Kisa and admires her. His route didn’t have the same level of romance as Suzu did, but he still made a ton of flirty comments and the romance scenes between them were pretty cute. He was definitely the most blunt when it came to confessing his feelings (he kept saying he loves her and was waiting for Kisa to say it back LOL).
Neji Kokuto (CV: Kishio Daisuke)
Kokuto is a third year student who plays both Jack and Jeanne roles while also being the “leader” of Quartz. He has an eccentric personality and is known for being a “genius” who writes his own scripts and directs the plays for Quartz’s performances (instead of using the school’s scripts). He often likes to push everyone to their limits to the point where he’s somewhat reckless.
Weekend Events
Kisa visits Kokuto and he suddenly throws a sort of adlib scene at her which she easily slips into. Kokuto then gives her like a billion more themes which he’s ecstatic to see she’s done them all and tells her she needs to do 5 a day with him LOL.
—
Kokuto randomly brings Kisa to the theater to act out various characters and once he’s done he asks Kisa for her impression in order to help him write more stories.
—
Kokuto invites Kisa out and they ride the train to the ocean together. He takes a flower he got and tosses it to the ocean. During their train ride back he reveals that his father killed himself by drowning in the same spot where he took her. He had a mistress who was an actress who pushed him away from his family and in the end he no longer thought about acting and killed himself. Kokuto admits he’s afraid of women, thinking that he he fell for one, the same thing would happen to him. This is why he attended Univers where it’s only men that can do both female and male roles. Kokuto then tries to play off what he said as a joke but Kisa calls him out on being a liar and he admits he was indeed telling the truth and apologizes for lying.
—
Kokuto invites Kisa out to confesses his love… For her talent lmao. Kokuto can’t handle how talented Kisa is and writes down things about her potential in his notes. He tells her if she were a woman he’d marry her cause he doesn’t want her talent to go to waste I guess so they could procreate cause he’s a genius (LOL wtf Kokuto). Unfortunately, he may lose his talent if he did that like his father supposedly so this makes Kisa anxious if he found out she’s a woman.
—
Kokuto realizes that Kisa knows she’s holding back to play a woman in the “Oh Havenna” performance so he tells her he’ll help draw it out with an improv play. He plays a man confessing to Kisa as a woman but once Kisa responds, he stops as if some sort of shock hits him and turns into his usual self. He realizes it was probably foolish to do it like this and apologizes. He thinks something to himself but mutters “No way”.
—
On Christmas, Kisa visits Kokuto with thoughts to hang out with him. Kokuto thanks her for a good job on the winter performance and tells her he should’ve believed her talent from the start. Suddenly he asks to do their improv play again where he plays a man and she plays a woman. However instead of him seducing her, he wants her to seduce him. So she draws closer to him and repeats his first name “Kokuto” and tells him to say her name. From there, Kokuto realizes that Kisa is a woman which shocks Kisa who profusely apologizes. Kokuto tells her it’s fine and is actually shocked at how well she hid her gender and didn’t realize it at all.
Kokuto tells her he doesn’t intend to reveal her secret since she clearly worked hard for the sake of Quartz. After she leaves, Kokuto tries to piece together everything such as Soushiro knowing her gender in the first place and no one else ever addressing “her” as a “he” as if they subconsciously never saw her as a man. He also realizes that through “Chicchi” she was crying because of her real feelings towards possibly being found out as a woman and not being able to attend Univeil anymore. Unfortunately, Kokuto is so flustered about the situation and keeps thinking about Kisa to the point where he can’t come up with anything to write for script of the final performance.
As days pass, Kisa hasn’t seen Kokuto for a bit but feels bad since she “ruined” his safe place for him in her eyes since he came to Univers since there was no women there. But the reason he found out is mostly likely due to her feelings for Kokuto coming out as a result of her acting. On New Years day, Kokuto invites Kisa out to make a wish at the shrine. Kisa finds it awkward but he acts like his normal self albeit somewhat different. He asks Kisa what she does when she’s unable to act and she tells him she’ll usually think hard about what to do until she can do it. He tells her that sounds like her but realizes for him, it’s impossible. Kisa doesn’t know what exactly he’s referring to, but before she can ask he already tells her he’ll see her later.
After this, Kokuto is completely at a loss for what to write with the final performance script. Weeks pass until Kai and Fumi start considering using a script provided by the school rather than one written by Kokuto. Kisa realizes she needs to see Kokuto again instead of indirectly avoiding him do to his fear of him rejecting her. So she finally sees him again and he admits he wanted to see her. He takes her to the theater and shows her the script he performed that was based on his father and the actress who charmed him. Kokuto asks Kisa to play the “actress” and in doing so, he starts to realize he made this actress out to be the enemy in order to protect himself but never tried to understand her as a person or what his father may have taken from her.
Kokuto thanks Kisa for enrolling in Univeil and tells her thanks to this he can finally start writing something and needs to make final preparations. So the next day, Kisa tries to visit Kokuto like normal but notices he’s not in his usual working space. Kisa sees his unfinished script on the table. In addition, he left his notebook there as well which is unusual since Kokuto usually always has it with him. Kisa starts thinking the worst and it’s possible he may try to end his life like his father. Kisa hurriedly rushes to the spot where Kokuto took her and where his own father took his life. She finds him there and he tells her he can’t do it after all. It seems he’s fallen in love with her and she’s all he can think about now.
So Kisa manages to convince him to write about her but in a way that won’t allow her secret to be revealed. Kokuto comes back to class and apologizes for worrying everyone and assures them he intends to write the script. So over the next few days, Kokuto writes the final performance script with Kisa’s help. When Kokuto finally finishes the script, he casts Kisa as the Al Jeanne “Shishia” and him as the Jack Ace “Crowley”. So they begin practice right away but Kokuto feels as though his “Crowley” is lacking distance between him and Shishia. Kisa suggests it may be because his character or rather him, has had no interest in women but focused more on writing performances.
Chuui from Amber shows interest in seeing what Kokuto has to offer as a Jack Ace so he decides to see Quartz practice one day. Everyone finds it somewhat awkward but Kokuto tells him he doesn’t mind. Before he leaves, Kokuto asks for his impression and he tells Kokuto he can’t play a character who seeks love from their parents if he can’t love them himself. So in order to play this role, he needs to overcome his feelings with his father. In doing so, Kokuto visits his family home and collects some of his father’s things such as his notebook. Kokuto tells Kisa that even before his death he was still writing ideas and notes in his notebook and it’s possible when he committed suicide he may have not meant to die.
Kokuto starts to cry so Kisa takes his hand to comfort him. Kokuto also noticed that his father wrote on his notebook that he didn’t go to the sea to die, rather for the sake of his performance. Kokuto is completely confused about what to believe. Regardless, he’s reliving the fact his father is dead and is in pain over it. After this, Kokuto tells everyone in Quartz he no longer can write scripts and has essentially lost his talent which is why he wants the help of everyone there to make him the best Jack Ace. So everyone works together to help train Kokuto into a better Jack Ace.
On the day of the performance, Kokuto adlibs for the audience in order to gain their attention before they actually start the performance. Shishia joins the troupe and is one of the members, Crowley, is fascinated by her. He admits they’re a troupe that has anti-nation ideals which often make the police come after them. After they decide to do the border performance, they find out Shishia is from the country Quatra. [However, just like with Kisa’s actual situation of being a woman, he tells her it doesn’t matter where she’s from and Kirutsue is free to all]. When they perform, Shishia and Crowley set the bomb but Crowley is shot protecting Shishia. After, Crowley asks Shishia to sing her song, the border is broken and the both countries live in unity and the country is named after the two heroes who made it happen. The Kingdom of Shishia Crowlitz.
So, Quartz wins the final performance and even Chuui who didn’t think Kokuto could pull it off, admits defeat and tells him he would want to work with him again and thanks him. When announcing the individual awards, Kisa wins a gold as well as Kokuto who won one for the first time. Kokuto thanks everyone including Kisa who’s talent he loves. Just after Kisa responds, Kokuto flips out because he suddenly has a million ideas for what to write and needs to go write them down. So he runs off and Kisa wishes him luck and he tells, “Oh yes, leave it to me, my Al Jeanne! I LOVE YOU!!” 🤭.
After this, they have a celebration party and then weeks pass before graduation for the rest of the senpai. When Kisa visits Kokuto, he has piles and piles of written content that he produced over the past week. He screams out how he’s a genius and how Kisa is also a genius and brings her to the Univeil theater. There, he gives her a ring as an early white day gift in return for Valentine’s day. He also refers to when he joked about proposing to her a while back but he’s a different person who doesn’t want to be tied to her talent, but rather Kisa herself. The fact he can make him write so much means she’s close to his heart, so he asks her to marry him (LORD AND IT ENDS THERE). In the epilogue, Kokuto visits the the place where his father died again and realizes that he was a genius all along and him overlapping with his father’s actions didn’t affect that. The two of them leave hand in hand and Kokuto says he no longer intends to visit the beach anymore.
Thoughts: Ngl, at first Kokuto’s backstory kinda made me roll my eyes because I’ve dealt with otome games where the main cast are are “woman haters” because of stupid traumas. But over the course of his route, I felt like it’s more he’s afraid if he falls in love with a woman, he’ll end up losing everything like his dad who committed suicide. He even started to realize that he was pitting all the blame on this woman so he didn’t have to put any blame on his father in order to protect himself. And even after he found out about Kisa, he never acted different towards her. It was Kisa who kind of freaked out because she felt bad knowing his circumstances. So overall, I liked how this route was written. Especially with Kokuto being that sort of comic relief character but having a trauma that cripples him??? delicious; feed me more of this. Romance-wise, it was very subtle, but it was good! I wish there was a CG when they held hands because GOD what a tranquil scene. I felt more of a romance between these two than Mitsuki to be honest. The fact that he proposed to Kisa right after realizing she makes him whole was pretty romantic and I wanted to see more of it LOL I wish it wasn’t cut off so soon!!
Support Characters
Minorikawa Kiito (CV: Suzuki Ryouta) – is the only Jack from Rhodonite who gets frustrated with his other members when they slack off lol. He joined Rhodonite because of his mom and sister (I can’t remember exactly why??). He also clearly admires Kisa and its hinted that he may know her gender if you trigger all of his events (he may even have a crush on her it seems??). I think its somewhat criminal to not have a route for this guy when he borderline likes Kisa but alas!!!
Oshinari Mare (CV: Kusano Taichi) – is the brother of Oshinari Tsukasa who is also part of Rhodonite. He’s very girly and loves both gossip, shopping, and hanging out with his friends Yuki and Eita. Mare admires Kisa a lot and in one of the events where they have a sleepover he asks who she’d prefer to partner up with. She admits later she’d love to partner up with Kisa and doesn’t care about how feminine or masculine Jack or Jeanne have to look but just admires her for the way she presents herself (especially when she performed as a “Jack Jeanne” in the final performance in the Kisa route).
Kasai Ataru (CV: Masamu Ono) – is a Jack from Onyx and known for being a skilled dancer. He’s immediately interested in Kisa after seeing her performance of “The Sleepless King”. He studied abroad in Spain so he knows some Spanish and often talks to his friends from there over the phone. I thought one of his events were cute where he and Kisa memorize a children’s play in order to perform in front of some kids. If you trigger enough events he reveals he wants to perform alongide Kisa abroad someday.
There’s a lot of other support characters that had more scenes but there’s not much to say about them. There’s a good collection of sub characters in this game but some didn’t get a lot of screen time compared to others.
Beach and Hotspring CGs
These are events that are triggered just by selecting a specific character to hang out with on the beach or deciding to go to the hot springs (and having a higher affection for someone). I thought the CGs were nice though so I might as well post them.
[Girls just wanna have fun and be gay at the beach]
These hot spring scenes were really short but some of them were pretty hilarious like Soushiro and Kokuto’s scenes. Soushiro obviously already knows Kisa is a woman so he didn’t even mean to go to the hot springs when Kisa was there LOL and of course he flipped tf out. For Kokuto’s, he was the last person Kisa wanted to see in there with him and continously made jokes about washing each other’s backs omfg.
Overall Thoughts
Anyone who doesn’t think this is an otome game is 100% incorrect because it definitely is an otome game. I think by not explicitly advertising it as one, they were trying to broaden the audience more by lessening the fact its a “game for girls” which to an extent I kind of understand because unfortunately there are people who will completely gloss over this game because its put in this category that some just aren’t open-minded enough to try. Regardless, the main focus of this game is the story and development of the characters. The romance is definitely on the light side and the routes themselves aren’t really long so I do wish they were longer. I know this isn’t your typical otome game so I kind of expected it wouldn’t feel entirely like one. I just really hope there’s another game whether it be a fandisk or a sequel. There’s so many characters that didn’t get enough screentime that I’d like to see more of or I’d like to see them get routes as well. From my understand this game got really decent sales for an otome game (Otomate’s sales have been a flop recently) so I really hope we see more of these characters. I’ve found I’ve been enjoying other developers games recently (Sorry, Otomate, you’re games have been boring me recently).
Story – Jack Jeanne has it’s focus on the protagnist Kisa Tachibana who hides her identity as a woman she she can attend Univeil Opera Academy. The story is rather simple and slice-of-life in the sense where the focus is on the performances that Quartz performs each season. The ultimate goal of Kisa is to continue to hide her identity until she can perform in the Univeil performance where she needs to be cast as the main role. During this, Kisa develops friendships (or romances) with her Quartz classmates as they encounter different hardships while training for each performance. Perhaps the “girl pretends to be guy to attend a school” seems like a generic concept, but it’s really not and you’ll understand that after you play.
Characters – From the main cast to the sub characters, all of them are really likeable and I don’t think there was a single character I absolutely hated. The main cast especially has such a charm to each and every one of them. I love how Sui Ishida clearly put a lot of heart and soul into these characters and even their designs have a mixture of his neat aesthetic while stilling embodying the bishounen look. Honestly, I loved these characters so much it was hard for me to even pick a favorite — which is just how likeable all of them are. And being a sort of “youth ensemble” there’s a lot of bonding between them which is so nice to see especially when in some otome games, some of the characters don’t even interact much with each other. There’s actually a large cast of characters in this game aside from the main cast that I hope we see more of somehow if there’s future games.
Visuals – One of the main things that makes this game stand out is Sui Ishida’s incredable artwork he did for this game. I’m sure many people have read Tokyo Ghoul (me included) but I’ve always been a fan of his watercolor-like artworks and seeing that he was essentially designing for an otome game really surprised me. I honestly have no complaints about the artwork and I enjoyed it immensely. I think due to his very light coloring style, the sprites needed to modified to fit the game’s setting (the backgrounds kind of contrast with the sprites a bit) but I honestly thought it looked really good. As for the CGs, there were SO MANY. Like, Sui Ishida calm your pen, over 100 CGs??? It took a bit of effort to get them all to be honest but it was worth it.
System – As for the system, there’s actually a lot to unpack when it comes to this because when I first played, there wasn’t a patch that adjusted some things. First off, the skip speed used to be slower and wouldn’t be active non-stop before you had to select your activity for the day. Secondly, there wasn’t an option to skip some of the practice rhythm parts until you were actually doing it. Lastly, there wasn’t an option to look at the past scenarios (which I found odd for a visual novel). Well, apparently these were all adjusted and patched in the latest patch. That being said, the system itself is a bit of a drag after a while. Like, the first couple routes its… okay… but then when you’re on your third or fourth it gets super repetitive to the point where it becomes much less enjoyable. They still don’t have the option to skip the actual performances (where you do the rhythmn system) either so you legit have to do them all. I honestly felt like, aside from the rhythm part, the stat building seems a bit arbitrary because it doesn’t add to the game very much and starts to become a bit of a drag to the point it takes you out of the story a bit. The rhythm system wasn’t terrible, I don’t play a lot of mobile rhythm games anymore but it was decent I think.
Music – The music was the absolute highlight of this game. Usually most otome games I’m reviewing more the OST, but since this is a rhythm game there was legit 12 or so songs sung by the main cast. To be honest, I’m not usually super fond of idol game music to an extent. I find it can be repetitive and start sounding too much like the same things I’ve heard before. But Jack Jeanne’s music is so beautiful! A lot of the music kind of reminded me of vocaloid songs. I think Ms. Robin was one of my favorites. Even though they made me go through the game a million times, I don’t think I ever got sick of the music. I really want full versions of the song because I’ll definitely buy the album.
Final Thoughts: It took me way longer than I wanted to get this review written because the system in this game is a bit of a bitch (plus I was really busy while playing) but it was 100% worth my time. Please don’t avoid this game because it seems off putting (like the art or whatnot) the story is actually very good and I love the characters a lot!! I’m not gonna pretend that there was a ton of romance in this game because there really wasn’t, but there’s a charm in this game that’s unique to all of the otome games I’ve ever played. There’s potential for this game to get localized thanks to Sui Ishida’s influence, so I hope if it does, people play it because I honestly adore this game. I highly recommend it if you want a likeable cast of characters (especially if you like Sui Ishida’s artwork). I regret not getting a store tokuten but oh well, maybe once I go back to Japan I can find some things.
I think one of the things I like most about this game is how Kisa doesn’t feel like a heroine with no purpose or no identity. She’s a character that stands out and has a talent that everyone in Quartz recognize. Her gender never matters and it’s more about who she is as a person which is one thing about this game that I love. All of her lines are voiced too including her ‘thoughts’ so there’s no “descriptive dialogue” that you have to read through (some of the weekend events ARE unvoiced however but they’re really short). It doesn’t give you generic tropes; perhaps that’s thanks to Sui Ishida writing this, but it’s clear this is not meant to be a generic romance story that’s long forgotten. The performances that they perform all have an actual “script” too (you can look at it in the menu) so I like how we actually see the performances and the characters all dress up for it. I think my biggest issues were the system and having to do multiple playthroughs to get all the CGs. I can see why it would get really annoying to have to go through it a million times when having to do a new route.
Otome Adventures 
I am so sold on this game. Hopefully it gets localized soon!
Yeah, same here!! I tried the japanese demo on Switch, and loved it! (though didn’t understand nothing, but, you know, the feeling! <3)