Making*Lovers: First Blush (also known as HajiLove -Making * Lovers-) is a romcom visual novel by SMEE, who are known for their use of comedic banter. Despite the shared title, it acts as somewhat of a spiritual successor to Making*Lovers, rather than a direct sequel.
This review is based on the full version, with the adult patch. You can see how to install this and how to access the various routes in our walkthrough/guide.
Fate Brought You and Me Together
The nameable protagonist believes in destiny and idolizes a fateful romantic encounter. His dreams are little more than slightly unrealistic anime tropes though, like meeting a girl by catching her as she falls from the sky. Still, he believes that fateful encounters are the basis of every love story, including his own future romance.
While working a festival job at a local shrine, he runs into two familiar faces and meets two strangers. Along with Yui, an outgoing gyaru and idol fan to whom he gave a spare ticket, and Sakurako, a childhood friend who knows him better than anyone else, he also encounters Kouta and Hatsuho. He assists Kouta by finding her lost siblings and, during the search, runs into Hatsuho, the granddaughter of the head priest.
Each of these encounters involves a mention of the legend of Starry Falls, a magical place where it’s said you can only find it if fate guides you, even if you know where it is. It’s a place where a man and woman can make a wish, as long as it’s for the other person.
Hearing this legend and the events along the way sparks a change in the protagonist’s fanciful thinking about unrealistic encounters and fate, leading him to wonder if being with any of them might lead to a happy end. This provides the setup for a short common route of Making*Lovers: First Blush, where each of the heroines is introduced further over the course of a few hours of reading time.
Four Destinies
Sakurako is very close to the protagonist, with them feeling very comfortable with each other. She comes over and cooks for him, and aside from a moment or two, there’s very little in the way of romantic tension, perhaps in part due to her calm and gentle nature. He thinks of her as almost family, and lacks awareness of her as a girl, even while objectively knowing that she’s a catch. Sakurako, on the other hand, shows a little more awareness of the protagonist, though it’s more evident in segments shown from her point of view than in her dialogue.
Yui, on the other hand, is a fairly recent acquaintance. The protagonist only gave her his ticket because she’s such a big fan of the idol who plays at the festival he’s working. Her bubbly nature tends to clash with the protagonist’s slower, calmer pace, but as with many protagonists, he feels like he can’t leave her alone. This is even more true when she gets herself into trouble by pretending that he is her boyfriend because she has never had one before, unlike her friends. During the common route, we see hints that she is not as much of an outgoing gyaru as her first impression might suggest.
Kouta’s first impression is that she’s very much the older sister type despite her tiny stature, and that caring nature remains an attraction throughout. While she wants to pay the protagonist back for his help, it’s her younger siblings who drag them together in part, thinking it’d make her happy to have a boyfriend like him. While very kind, she does have a tendency to snap on occasion and make the odd biting comment, which can be amusing. One interesting aspect is that she’s very much on the same wavelength as the protagonist when it comes to wanting to find love.
Hatsuho is very much the mysterious heroine, which is perhaps fitting since she’s a shrine maiden and there are hints that she’s tied to the supernatural. Though perhaps odd would be a better descriptor, as her personality is certainly unusual. She’s gained nicknames like the Bringer of Dusk and Stygian Witch of Nari Girls, and shares details like her lack of pubic hair with the protagonist soon after meeting him. Much of what she says can sound absurd, and seeing the protagonist react to this creates a lot of comedic moments. Due to certain reasons, she asks the protagonist to pretend to be her fiancé in front of her grandfather.
Unexpected Imbalance
I read Making*Lovers: First Blush routes in the order of Sakurako, Kouta, Yui, and Hatsuho, and by coincidence, this is the opposite of how much I enjoyed each route. This came as a surprise to me, as I thought I’d enjoy Kouta or Sakurako the most, considering that I tend to like childhood friend heroines, or the ‘little big sister’ type (Ushio from Marshmallow All The Way Home being one of my favorite heroines, who happens to be played by the same voice actress as Kouta).
Sakurako’s route has some very romantic moments, but it lacks any excitement or sense of tension. I came out of it feeling like almost nothing had happened and not much had changed from the start of their relationship to the end, aside from a few moments of sharing anxieties and Sakurako learning much more about sex. It very much has a comfortable vibe of friends who can joke around and play off each other’s comments which I enjoyed to an extent, but outside of a handful of moments, I didn’t feel like it excelled enough at creating a lovey-dovey atmosphere to forego anything but fluffy romance and a world where only the two of them exist for the most part.
What I did appreciate was that the romance is very clearly not just one-sided, and the protagonist clearly shows that he loves her too. As well as that, I was surprised to find actual open communication about their expectations for the relationship. It depicts a great romantic relationship, just not one that’s too interesting to read about.
Kouta’s route is a little more interesting. It’s still much more slice-of-life scenes than story events, but it involves a wider cast as Kouta has a large family who make frequent appearances, and I enjoyed the comedic back-and-forths more than the ones with Sakurako. There were also moments of sharing hobbies and getting to know each other, and learning personality quirks, like how Kouta remains very composed until she breaks.
Her appeal as a heroine is being the caring “older sister” or “mom” type, despite being small and the same age. There’s plenty of being treated to food, head pats, and being called a good boy. But as well as that, the gap between that gentle sweetness and the comedy routine is quite fun. Still, I can’t say her route felt like it particularly stood out, and neither did the caring atmosphere created. Kouta does have some pretty good retorts though.
Yui’s route is where Making*Lovers:First Blush starts to get stronger. I actually didn’t like her much at first, but found her surprisingly endearing after starting her route. Unlike Sakurako or Kouta, the outright romance doesn’t start immediately, but instead it shows a hint of it, and reveals more of her personality beyond the gyaru exterior. And while it’s still slice-of-life focused, it felt like there is more of a plot here, more coherently stringing events together, and a stronger theme about self-acceptance and confidence behind them.
Her route is probably the one I found to have the best comedy, with Yui having plenty of silly skits. She’s described as lacking a brain, and this certainly does come through in how little she considers things at times. She ended up as my favorite heroine due to just how amusing she is, along with seeing her personal struggle. Her dressed down outfit is adorable too.
As much as I liked Yui as a heroine, Hatsuho isn’t far behind. That said, I thought that Hatsuho’s route itself was the best by far. There’s plenty of outrageous comedic moments showing what an oddball she is, alongside more romantic moments where they’re getting to know each other, but the plot ends up as far more important here than in the other routes, and nicely paces hints of a certain event. Due to the greater narrative focus and the topic of the events covered, it also comes out as feeling like it’s the ‘true route’ of Making*Lovers: First Blush. I’m glad I played this route last, as it nicely wraps up the visual novel. That said, there was a certain major plot point which came across as somewhat incoherent in retrospect; by the end, I was still wondering if I had completely understood what had happened.
Beyond her role in the story, Hatsuho is a quirky and unpredictable heroine. She is just as likely to jokingly attempt to trick the protagonist into unknowingly signing a marriage registration form or roundhouse kick her grandfather as she is to melt into a shy, flustered mess. She remains an enigma in many ways throughout her route, much more than the other heroines.
One issue I did take with all routes was that for the most part, none of the other heroines appear, other than Sakurako very briefly appearing outside of her own route on occasion and another rare exception that may happen depending on your choices. This felt a little jarring, particularly as it showed Sakurako as incredibly close with the protagonist and Hatsuho is left with an important dilemma that she asks for help with, but the protagonist seemingly forgets she exists outside of her route.
The Inevitable Making*Lovers Comparison
Considering the shared title and its popularity, people will inevitably wonder what sets Making*Lovers: First Blush apart from Making*Lovers and what connects the two.
Making*Lovers: First Blush is set in the same city as Making*Lovers, and as such, they share a number of the same locations and background graphics. However, the characters are all different, even where you might expect a cameo or two. You can visit the Leviathan restaurant or the flower shop, but the staff won’t be previously known characters like Mashiro, Akari, or Becky from the previous title. The closest we get is seeing a reference to a certain hamster mascot. The ‘date system’ makes a return as well, which allows you to choose two locations from a selection to experience date scenes with the heroine in those settings. As with the original, the locations you choose only really matter in terms of which scene you see, with no further effects.
One notable change is that Making*Lovers: First Blush gives much more of an introduction of the heroines before splitting into routes too, even if the common route only takes a few hours. Making*Lovers is known for its almost immediate split. Both have their strengths, but I think the additional introduction time for the heroines in First Blush works to its benefit for the most part, except for in Hatsuho’s case as mentioned above.
More generally, I’d say that Making*Lovers: First Blush is less focused on comedic moments and funny retorts, even if it has plenty of them. Each route is also less connected than those in Making*Lovers, which used shared side characters between routes well.
Both are strong titles in certain ways, but I do think that Making*Lovers is the stronger one in terms of comedy and just in how much I liked the heroines. As mentioned, First Blush feels a bit more inconsistent between routes, while Making*Lovers was consistently great, with a couple of routes leaning more towards excellent.
Girlfriendology and Flashbacks
While Making*Lovers: First Blush borrows its date system from Making*Lovers, something new it introduces is the Girlfriendology system. This system is a profile system with a radar chart that updates as you play through the routes. These reveal additional information, sometimes related to the story, and you can see their ‘stats’ change throughout. It’s a nice system, though sometimes the stats shown on the radar chart change to different ones, like Yui’s Idol Stan stat disappearing in favor of her Charm stat, which makes it feel a bit inconsistent. Still, it underpins the messaging at times, like seeing Self-Esteem stat rise. Sometimes it’s just used for comedy too, like seeing her Brain stat never increase much.
What is most important is that it unlocks scenes from the heroine’s point of view. These are some key scenes already experienced as the protagonist, but with the heroine’s inner thoughts on display. They can work quite well at times, like showing Sakurako’s romantic interest in the protagonist before she makes him aware. It works particularly well for Hatsuho, but unlike the others, it leaves her scenes locked until the end for plot-related reasons.
They All Have High H Stats
Quite a few H-scenes are included, though they’re not distributed equally. Sakurako and Hatsuho have eight each, while Yui has seven, and Kouta only has six, for a total of twenty-nine. There are no mosaics in this release.
Some of these do lean toward the slightly kinkier side, with accidental watersports and dubious consent occurring in a couple of routes, among other things, and anal making an appearance in every route. The heroines are all rather proactive about the topic, and H-scenes occur rather early on and often.
Graphics and Sound
Making*Lovers: First Blush is a 720p resolution release, with nice art overall. It comes with 80 CGs (split equally between heroines), most of which are the 18+ variety. There is quite a lot of variation in poses, expressions, and sprites, with the number of outfits that each heroine wears standing out in particular. What I did find a little odd was how certain side characters have sprites while others don’t. This isn’t too unusual among visual novels, but this didn’t feel like it always lined up with how often the side characters appeared.
There are thirty-nine background tracks, which allow for quite a lot of variety to fit the various moods and scenes. Most are fairly upbeat and work well with the comedic tone of the story. There is reuse between Making*Lovers: First Blush and Making*Lovers, so those of you who read the previous title will likely feel a lot of familarity.
The voices all fit well and are played by experienced voice actresses, with plenty of visual novel credits in most cases. I mentioned Kouta’s voice actress above, but Hatsuho is played by the same actress as Shione from Renai X Royale, and Yui’s voice actress plays Hiyori from Da Capo 4. Sakurako is the only main heroine played by a voice actress without dozens of listed credits that I could find. I didn’t feel like any particular performance stood out, but they all worked well.
Verdict
The routes in Making*Lovers: First Blush vary from a comforting experience with low-stakes domesticity to high-energy comedic antics, with varying levels of plot-importance depending on the route. This variety ensures that each route feels distinct, but it does lead to what feels like an inconsistency in the quality of routes. Tedium started to creep in as I read some routes where the slice-of-life moments and comedy didn’t entertain as much, while others were a lot more engaging.
Still, as long as you enjoy more character-driven romance visual novels with a focus on those comedic slice-of-life moments, you should find something to enjoy here. Even if they vary slightly in style at times, SMEE titles are always good for humor, and this is no exception.
MAKING*LOVERS: FIRST BLUSH IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another romcom visual novel, you might want to check out LOVEPICAL-POPPY! We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both original to English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
Thank you to Kagura Games and NekoNyan for providing a PC review code for Making*Lovers: First Blush.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
