Content Warning: discussions of sexuality, romance, adult media, homophobia,/transphobia, ableism
I will include links to VNDB and other citations, as well as screenshots of tweets. Proceed with caution.
I first got into visual novels in 2006, when I was 14. My introduction to the genre was Other Age, by Zeiva, along with a handful of similar titles on flash game sites. It awoke a vast hunger for visual novels in me, especially since I was starting to run out of books at my school library. Books and games were my friends at that period in my life, so visual novels were a perfect match.
There were not a lot of options for any western fans at the time, let alone a kid, let alone a nonbinary biromantic asexual with sex repulsion, who wasn't actually super interested in romance. But I acceoted whatever I could get my hands on, even if it was romance, even if it had sex in it.
One of the first Japanese VN's I'd gotten my hands on with an English patch was the gorey yaoi title Animamundi: Dark Alchemist. Every time I encountered the Hirameki Anime Play DVDs at Borders Bookstores I would pine after them. I acquired Saya no Uta and read it when I was WAY too young for that content. Let it be known that I was desperate for VNs.
The lack of options eventually got me into the English Visual Novel development scene. I lurked for a long time before finally joining the Lemmasoft Forums in 2010 and started making VNs as a hobby before doing it professionally in 2015.
So there's my background as a fan and creator, my credentials if you will. Now let's get to the main point. It was during this time I found Otome and clung to it, because it was the best thing I could get that wasn't necessarily 100% targeted towards me, but close enough. Additionally, I was unaware of the term “joseimuke” until recent years because of the nature of niche cross-cultural media exchange.
Part of the issue lies in the fact that terms applied to VNs (including the term "visual novel" itself) and related media are often loan words, sometimes misunderstandings happened early on as things came to be known in Western audiences, and sometimes those terms aren't clarified or corrected. This is why I've personally started to hesitate towards saying certain terms despite there not being alternative phrases that are widely accepted by fans at this time.
As time moves forward, sometimes the language around the hobby changes as language generally changes over time. For example, years ago I'd say "female" because that's what everyone would say, but now that I recognize that sex does not equal gender, it feels wrong to say that.
![Beth Beinke 💙 on Twitter: "Your quarterly reminder that unless you are a Ferengi from Star Trek, the word "female(s)" is an adjective, not a noun. " Women" is the noun you're looking](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BMeS!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd471783f-12a8-467a-8fea-6a4b37317d4e_523x369.jpeg "Beth Beinke 💙 on Twitter: "Your quarterly reminder that unless you are a Ferengi from Star Trek, the word "female(s)" is an adjective, not a noun. " Women" is the noun you're looking")
So I'll say something like GxB or whatever variation is understood or recognizable to the community. I recognize that visual novels have not caught up to this reality, so I do try to encourage it where I can. I'd love to play an otome where at least one of the men is trans, same with yuri that has trans women. There's too much fetishization interwoven into visual novels for me to personally feel comfortable seeking out titles to read because I'll probably be let down. So I wait and make my own games in the meanwhile. Which appears to be a trend among queer western developers, and that has started to cause a stir among “otome purists” in recent years.
Now from what I saw on twitter, this most recent influx of the topic arose when a western indie dev’s projects was initially accepted and then rejected from r/otomegames. Looking into the matter further, it was actually multiple projects by different developers. One was ultimately allowed but the other was not. One of the mods explains the situation here. It all boils down to that specific subreddit’s rules.
I myself have done gamedev specifically for visual novels/otome and I understand the dev's frustration. I also am going to break down why this sort of thing happens. It all comes down to marketing and trying to find an audience as an indie developer. If you find an audience that may be compatible with your game, you try to share it there. This may not work out depending on execution. A lot of subreddits don't like getting spammed and have rules to circumvent self promotion, for instance. And even if a post is allowed, maybe your project clicks with some people, but it probably won't appeal to all of them. Still, you try to share your project because that's the work of a developer. It's up to the community to be understanding and the community leaders to be consistent in their execution of rule enforcement. (After all, you don't want a situation like Steam's nebulous policies getting games banned from the storefront with little to no communication or recourse.)
I've felt estranged from this community for months due to growing unease. I don't think a niche fandom surrounding a subset of another subset of games should be alienating each other and it really makes me sad to see it so I am hoping we can foster some more understanding and less gatekeeping.
Earlier this week I let myself get heated on twitter. I usually don't let myself do this and I did end up posting pretty sarcastic and inflammatory responses. I apologized to the folks I mocked, and even got to have a good conversation with a couple of them. I still feel confused by the amount of cognitive dissonance and hurt by what feels like gatekeeping and hostility over this topic. So I want to break this down with screenshots. Please note that I have censored usernames and icons to the best of my ability. Most of the tweets are still live so I implore you to not harass anyone no matter what they said. I’d like to tackle some of the more pernicious arguments put forth on twitter.
Some otome purists tell people who do want women as love interest options to "go read yuri" (or yaoi or galge, or any combination thereof.) Or “why not call it a ‘romance’ game?” is another argument.
Yaoi and Yuri (aka BL and GL) and galge tropes and conventions are all distinct from otome. It's important to recognize that some types of games/genres have been boxed into certain tropes and expected conventions. So "go read GL/BL/galge" as a suggestion doesn't really do much except alienate some of the otome audience or feel like gatekeeping. I have read GL/BL and galge in the past. There's only so many skeezy galge I can stomach nowadays, as the masculine gaze is intense and I am not into some of the more questionable tropes. I've fallen out of enjoying yaoi because so much of the current trends don’t match my desires in fiction at this time. Currently I only tend to read GL and otome because those are the type of joseimuke that appeals most to me. As far as joseimuke goes, there's not a lot of GL (or anything else) compared to otome, and otome is getting better and better. AND some otome have women love interests!
Let us take Mystic Messenger as an example. Jaehee has a route. I loved Jaehee but I had mixed feelings about her route. For one I was happy because I like friendship routes and would love to see more, especially friendship routes for the guys as well. But that she was the one friendship route (at the time I played it after launch, I’m not sure if updates changed that) and the one woman route, it kinda stung, it felt like queerbaiting. It felt uneven. Add onto this that MysMes is not from Japan so there's additional cultural aspects as well as fan culture expectations, so it has to be regarded with context and nuance. I still remember it being a hit with the otome fandom of the west when it came out. It wasn't until fairly recently that I've observed what to me is a rather militant policing of what it means to be otome, so I’m not sure what the stance on MysMes is at this time.
With "romance" VNs (including GL/BL, and especially galge) there's sometimes the expectation of sexual material and even sexually explicit material and for the most part that's avoided in otome. I've seen the argument that otome and joseimuke are separated by the level of explicit material, and while I sometimes don't agree with the particularly intense "that's not otome" views I've seen espoused by some, I can agree with the general idea of "maiden" games not having explicit scenes. (I would however also argue that even old queer josei like myself can feel like maidens in our hearts and still seek out the appeal of such media.) At the same time, Joseimuke shouldn’t be relegated merely to explicit otome games or games for older women. It’s more of an umbrella that includes a variety of genres (including yuri, some yaoi, and otome) from what I understand.
Sometimes people are told to "go read the wiki" for the definition of otome as a "gotcha" to prove that otome shouldn't have ladies as love interests. Okay, which wiki? Is there a singular wiki that is the be-all end-all word of otome gods? Wikis are created and maintained by fans, so anyone could edit it, and it may change over time. The point is, it isn't written in stone. Media constantly changes and I don't think that's a bad thing. Otome can (and has) the ability to expand and improve, as can fandom. (You don't hear much about lemons outside of specific circles anymore, do you? Aside from the post-2019 NSFW Ban tumblr resurgence.)
When those lines of questioning don’t work, you can see common lines of thinking among the folks who want to gatekeep otome:
There's a repeated sentiment of surprise, like it's completely unheard of that otome can have love interests who aren't men, and that the "sudden" demand for more is going to ruin otome
A sense of possession over otome media, the implication that "those people" should be happy with "their own games" (yuri, etc.), ie. otome isn't for queer women, anything to the contrary shouldn't call it otome
That "they" (people who want routes for women in otome) are destroying "the true meaning of otome" (Make otome great again!)
There is a certain level of being disingenuous in arguments put forth by some otome gatekeepers.
Goalpost shifting:
A user stated that Otome is made for women in Japan, which “does not have queer women” who would want to read about queer women like themselves. Despite some Japanese Otome having women love interests. (This tweet was deleted and this image is of the discord embed of the tweet.)
The argument that NO Japanese Otome games have had routes for characters who are women is debunked with a list of Japanese otome.
When corrected with examples of Japanese Otome releases with routes for characters who are women, poster shifts the goalposts by saying that those games don't count because they weren't localized, “which speaks volumes.”
There was also a general tendency to accuse folks of not arguing correctly, twisting people’s words, and generally speaking over folks who were trying to make their point in earnest, putting roadblocks in the way of making progress.
Additionally while claiming not to be homophobic, occasionally they slip up and say the silent part out loud.
Dehumanization of queer people:
keeping "real people" out of fantasy (because apparently queer people don't want or deserve representation in media they consume?)
implied that bisexuals and non-binary folks are aliens and also said aliens don’t belong in fiction
Calling "those people" (LGBT folks) “selfish and demanding”
Saying that people who want to see women LI “think they are victimized and delusional for wanting self-inserts”. Again, I wonder why representation does not apparently matter only for queer folks or that fictional people can ONLY be heteronormative.
“Bi representation will gatekeep otome from "the majority" of its audience and is once again an example of queers gaslighting straights.” 99% seems a bit high, I didn't realize that otome was a finite resource. Also apparently bi representation is a dictatorship and the straights will be ruled over with an iron fist. Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss.
As you can see there were many sentiments of ableism (“moronic,” delusional) along with a general sense of othering the fans who want to see a romance route with a woman (“those people.”) Accusations of “gaslighting” were frequent, and honestly I wonder if the people accusing others of gaslighting know what the term actually means or if they’re just co-opting social justice language to brandish against others in fandom spaces, which is sadly common.
False equivalence:
putting straight routes in a queer game would be "discrimination" so having one queer route in otome would be "gaslighting" and "ruin otome" (again)
don't people have a right to avoid gay relationships? Yes, you can skip routes you don't want. For example, many people skip routes who aren’t their type, like for yandere characters.
queers would cause a riot if they had to deal with a straight romance route
what would be the reaction of straight route in yuri?
Xenophobia (I don’t know what else to call the attitude of “dirty westerners are ruining our games from Glorious Nippon” which is rampant in visual novel fandom.)
people be mocked for being "typical westerners who can't read"
An American: We have to cater to the unreasonable demands of gays because “Americans hate straight people.”
People like to see themselves reflected in fictional characters. Representation matters and is important. Diverse otome would still be otome. Much like how people skip over some routes they don't like (that guy isn't my type, I don't like tsunderes, whatever reason) it's just as easy to skip over a route if you don't want to pursue a woman romance route. Having a woman love interest doesn't take away from the 4-5 guys that'll be in the same game. Otome is not a finite resource, if there’s more otome it just adds more otome. It doesn’t subtract otome if it’s not to someone’s individual taste. Until a new terminology is widely accepted but fans, it’s what we got to work with. We shouldn't box it in to a strict set of standards because that's how stagnation happens.