Imagine an island where sex is everywhere; On the streets, on the beach, and even in school. It’s an island where the residents are happily having kinky sex with anyone they want to. It’s enshrined in the law, taught while growing up, and everyone there thinks it’s normal to have sex with everyone and anyone. Is the island utopia or dystopia? That’s what Nukitashi sets out to answer.
Nukitashi, not Nukige
You might think that this setting lends itself to a plot-light, sex-heavy type of game. Surprisingly, while Nukitashi (Nukige Mitai na Shima ni Sunderu Watashi wa Dou Surya Ii Desu ka?) does contain sex everywhere, it’s very serious at times, even while keeping plenty of absurd moments. One moment it’ll be highlighting the fact that rental bikes have dildos attached, and another it’ll be going into the political background of why the island is like this.
The premise is that the protagonist Junnosuke and his sister Asane return to the island after years due to unfortunate circumstances. Along with their sensibilities from living on the mainland, they have their reasons to not want to participate in sex. Notably, Asane only likes women (with her brother as an exception), but the island doesn’t cater to her or anyone’s preferences. With few exceptions, the law of the island requires anyone to agree to sex if asked.
For all it shows itself as a tourist destination and paradise, the island is essentially a police state. The Seiran Homeland Organisation is armed with riot weapons and regular checks are done. Sex is enforced and even those who only want to keep to one partner are punished by a form of rape.
Junnosuke says he only wants sex with love and gathers a group of others to avoid the sex law. Amusingly, most of the others don’t specifically share his feelings on that but have other issues or reasons to join him.
It is worth a mention that it is a somewhat slow start. We don’t even meet most of the heroines for quite a while, and the most interesting elements of the plot start coming out quite late.
Both Types of Action
Nukitashi opens with avoiding sex and this keeps up throughout, but it soon introduces ways to fight back too. A mysterious sponsor gives them access to a secret base and equipment to make their own weapons shaped as sex toys. All he asks for in return is to find a mysterious girl living on the island who can help him to bring down the sex law, a mission that Junnosuke is more than eager to help with.
There’s plenty of action in this visual novel, even if it’s somewhat absurd at times like using a fleshlight flashbang or blow-up doll decoy. At times it even hints at the supernatural with some of the abilities used.
The action scenes are exciting and often used as part of key plot points. Particularly at the end of routes, it’s used well to help raise the tension.
The protagonist doesn’t always win though and on Seiran Island a loss in a fight can mean sex. He is raped or otherwise unwillingly has sex at several points throughout the story. Keeping with the idea that Nukitashi isn’t just about the sex though, in many cases it becomes plot-relevant. I was impressed that they managed to link it to story events so often, even if it was sometimes silly how.
Heroines
Nukitashi has four routes, which you can see how to unlock in our guide. Nanase, Hinami, Misaki, and Fumino.
Nanase is known as the ‘number one nympho slut’ in the school (an honor on Seiran Island) but is actually a virgin. She speaks and dresses like a trendy girl, but she’s kind, sensitive, and accepting. Her route shows the protagonist slowly starting to like her, despite having misconceptions about her that dissuade him. Her route explored some of Junnosuke’s past.
Hinami is overlooked as a sexual partner on Seiran Island because she appears much younger than her actual age. Despite the issues the island does have, adults don’t touch children. Her appearance is a sensitive point for her, especially when she enjoys being relied on as the oldest in the group. Her route explored a particularly dark topic involving organized crime.
Misaki isn’t just overlooked as a sexual partner but overlooked in general. She has the unwanted ability to blend in and stay unnoticed, which comes in useful at times. She considers herself a background character and has a complex about being fat on an island where almost everyone is beautiful with perfect figures. Despite how weird she seems in some routes, she’s the most interesting in terms of seeing how the islanders think. The final moments of her route were hilarious.
Fumino is a mysterious young woman. She’s quiet, speaks very stiffly, and is often expressionless. She’s very important to the story of Nukitashi. I’ll avoid saying much about her due to spoiler reasons, but she’s my personal favorite and feels more like a pure romance route than some of the others, despite being plot-heavy.
Building Up
Each route reveals important elements of the story. They often have similar major points, but get there in different ways and reveal different things, giving slightly different insights. The final route in particular has aspects of the other routes that make a reappearance. Speaking more generally too, Nukitashi slowly adds in reveals and does a good job at building up the plot this way.
It worked well to connect the routes and make them continue to feel fresh, even while often going through similar events at times. Admittedly though, there are only so many times you can hear a background character say “Get pregnant bitch” before it gets old.
Hidden Depths
One thing that particularly impressed me about Nukitashi was how much detail and backstory it went into at times. It discusses the history of the island, why people support the law, how it was implemented, outside influences on the island, and several aspects of the island is run. More than anything though, that they included so much about the antagonists was appreciated.
Three of the routes heavily feature not just one of the heroines, but one of the antagonists from the student council. At times, this is to the point that the antagonists feel more important than the heroines, which won’t be to everyone’s tastes.
To give an example, in Hinami’s route, we see a lot of Rei, who happens to be her friend. For quite a lot of time, the protagonist spends all day with her, then briefly sees Hinami at night. While she is one of the enemies, the protagonist finds that she’s someone he genuinely likes and that there’s more to her than being someone who enforces the law. Beyond that, it shows several issues with society through the lens of her history. Junnosuke does start to widen his perspective through events like these over time. But on the other side, Hinami mostly gets a few tender moments and frequent jokes about her being a loli. Her route is probably the worse for this, but Nanase’s and Misaki’s have the same issue to an extent.
To Junnosuke, Seiran Island is a dystopia and we do see many problems with it. But he starts to understand that for others it’s a utopia, or at least that changing the law will hurt people too. A protagonist that isn’t single-minded is always welcome.
Comedy Is No Laughing Matter
Nukitashi isn’t a constant barrage of jokes and puns, but they’re certainly frequent. Characters are often very outspoken too, with Asane going on frequent overly long rants and Junnosuke making some very direct statements or just throwing in things like a loud ‘nom nom nom’.
Sex terms are inserted into almost everything, so a character may say “Bring me a fleshlight” when they want a flashlight. Even the protagonist’s tracking system identifies people as ‘enemy genitals’ and shows statuses like ‘drenched AF’ while he’s trying to escape. Using sex toys as weapons was mentioned, and it’s amusing how technical they can get with the explanations of how they work at times or what they get up to with them.
References are frequent too. I imagine that some of them are quite different from the original Japanese, with mentions of Yes Minister (an old British sitcom), My Little Pony, Star Wars, Overwatch, and The Simpsons to mention a few. Some are more relevant to the genre, such as Touhou and JoJo.
A lot of the comedy is just how absurd not only the setting, but some of the actions are too. Over-the-top scenes like driving off a cliff and landing on blow-up dolls aren’t rare here. What would just be jokes in other visual novels often make their way into serious plot points too and influence the direction of the story. One in particular was so absurd I had to laugh when I saw it first appear.
I enjoyed the comedy of Nukitashi, but I think it’s going to be very much a matter of personal taste.
Sexual Content
It’s possible to buy Nukitashi on Steam, but without the adult patch, it’s essentially unplayable. The censored version took me 22 minutes to read, didn’t really explain what was going on, and cut off abruptly. There are no routes, no endings, and no real story after their arrival on the island. Even the title screen is almost blank. If you buy on Steam, get the patch.
Sex is everywhere in the 18+ version of Nukitashi, and this includes the backgrounds at the school and beach, the sound of moaning from outside as you wake up, and more. This doesn’t feel like it’s meant to arouse though, but to be part of the setting. It makes it feel inescapable on this island.
In terms of content, it has several non-consensual scenes, mostly happening to the protagonist. The heroines are put into some difficult situations but are generally safe from that. It is worth noting that there are scenes with non-heroines, even in many of the heroine routes.
Despite Nukitashi’s law about “perverted sex”, most of the scenes with the heroines aren’t too ‘niche’, though a few are a bit more geared towards fetishes. Generally, scenes are fairly short as adult scenes in visual novels go, though there are a lot of them, with a total of 27 scenes. As always with Shiravune, mosaic censorship is retained.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics and look of the user interface all feel done to a high level. In terms of animation, there’s a lot of movement in the action scenes used to good effect. In conversations, it’s less animated, but there are occasionally mid-line expression changes, slides into the scene, and so on.
Nukitashi has a lot of repeated minor characters. I can understand why due to budget, but it is a pity that many of these are without sprites. One of them even appears in a H-scene with the protagonist and it’s the first time we see her face.
35 pieces of background music are included and they all fit the scenes, particularly the ones that give the feeling of a tropical island. It has enough variety that even through a planning and action segment, it can change music several times.
Aside from the protagonist, Nukitashi is fully voiced, including the minor characters. One of the characters claims that she can ‘excite’ someone just from her voice, which is perhaps a stretch, but the voicing is certainly high-quality, and the performances help to show the characters’ personalities well.
Verdict
Nukitashi could easily be dismissed as an overly-sexual visual novel meant to be played one-handed. Those playing it will instead discover plenty of adult scenes, but a surprising depth of story behind it.
I expect that Nukitashi will be well-regarded by most, but between the humor and writing, it may not be a hit with everyone. Still, I certainly feel it’s very worth playing—as long as you play the 18+ version.
NUKITASHI IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another more plot-heavy visual novel, you may enjoy Kunado Chronicles.
Many thanks go to Shiravune for a PC review code for this title.
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.
