Attending a girls’ school sounds like it might be the dream for a lot of young men. Having to dress up and pretend to be a girl while doing so? Not so much. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, Minato ends up attending Whitebell Girls’ Academy, a small school for the education of rich young ladies. Otome Domain (or Otome * Domain) tells the story of how he is actually best girl, despite being a boy.
Purchasing the full adult version from Johren or applying the free 18+ patch is highly advised for this visual novel. The default Steam version cuts out an entire route and more. Full details can be found in our guide.
Entering Whitebell Girl’s Academy
Otome Domain begins with the unfortunate passing of Minato’s grandmother who raised him. Having lost his parents long ago and all the family’s money having been spent on medical bills, he doesn’t know what to do next.
A young lady appears. Kazari is from a rich family and Minato’s grandmother used to take care of her as a maid until she had to retire. When visiting her shortly before her death, she asked that Kazari looks after Minato. To Minato, she asked that he help Kazari. This ties the two together.
Kazari happens to be the board chair of her school. With even more power than an anime school council president, she manages to enroll Minato, waiving all tuition fees and putting him in a dorm. It’s a great deal for him and honors his grandmother’s wishes, so he agrees. At this point, she hasn’t told him that it’s a girls’ school though…
The New Dorm Mom
At its core, Otome Domain is a romantic comedy. Comedy is certainly forefront, though it has some great romantic moments and the occasional dramatic moment. It is kept light overall though, with no real consequences for problems in the long run.
A lot of the initial comedy is set around Minato needing to hide that he’s not a girl. A lot of this is on the lewd side, like getting stuck in the changing room or having the heroines barge in on him when he’s in the bath.
While some of the comedy is about Minato being almost discovered, with his feminine face and short stature, he isn’t easily suspected. On top of that, he’s actually the best at being traditionally feminine. His grandmother taught him how to cook, clean, and even make tea. This is compounded by the fact that most of his dormmates are useless at these things. On top of that, they’re a bunch of misfits. He ends up essentially becoming the dorm mom, taking care of them all.
Minato isn’t exactly happy about this. As much as he likes his new friends and taking care of them, he has feelings of guilt about deceiving them. On top of that, being known as the most feminine girl there isn’t doing wonders for his masculine pride.
Despite being a comedy, Otome Domain does include more serious topics. It shows different views on femininity, plotlines about meeting society’s expectations, and more. It never stays too serious for long, but I really appreciated the inclusion of these and it helped to give some real depth to the three heroines.
Hinata Ogaki – The Demon General
I’ll say it upfront: Hinata is my favorite heroine in Otome Domain. Between having a soft spot for chuunibyou characters, her own charms, and a story that resonated with me the most, I enjoyed her route the most by far.
Hinata claims to be Zarathustra, one of the Demon Army’s Four Heavenly Kings, and the one who will slay God. But she’ll happily break character to talk enthusiastically about her hobbies. She only plays the Demon Lord some of the time too, with her having plenty of moments as the cute underclassman attached to her ‘Big Sis’.
Minato deals with Hinata well, playing along with her role at times, while other people find her a bit difficult. It helps that they share a lot of the more ‘boyish’ interests, like video games, light novels, and guns. There’s a specific event that brings them closer too.
I really liked how they handled Hinata’s character here, weaving her personality quirks into a serious story about society’s expectations, growing up, being true to yourself, and fitting in.
Yuzu Kifune – The Kitchen Destroyer
I didn’t expect to enjoy Yuzu’s route much at first. On the surface, she seems like a polite well-mannered young lady and the most traditionally feminine. At first, the only break in this we see is that she’s comically terrible at any housework, and her sense of taste is completely unlike anyone else. On top of that, Minato has no real connection with her or any event that brings them together until we get into her route.
Luckily I found her to be deeply caring and sweet soon after entering her route. She’s secretly quite adventurous, and not above teasing Minato or acting badly to get what she wants. I ended up liking her quite a lot by the end of the route, which had some exciting drama in too near the end.
Again adding in serious themes, Yuzu has somewhat of a complex about her own femininity and role to play. Her boundless curiosity has her breaking stereotypes, sometimes in ways that work against what she actually wants.
Kazari Saionji – The Board Chair Without Common Sense
Assuming that you have the 18+ patch installed, Otome Domain begins with Kazari getting on all fours and peeing into a bottle in front of Minato because she didn’t get up for a bathroom break while working. That she sees nothing odd about this gives you an idea of her personality quirks right away. On top of that, it was her idea to bring Minato into a girls’ school without explaining it to him.
Despite Kazari’s eccentricities, she’s shown to be a kind girl, who wants to do everything she can for the students. While she does lack common sense, seems quick to go to extremes on occasion, and is out of touch with reality at times, she also does realize when certain things are issues. She’s the heroine with the most serious connection to Minato.
Kazari’s route has some of the more touching romantic moments, while also occasionally subverting expectations by turning them into a joke. One of the themes in her route is related to her disconnection from the rest of the students, which had a very satisfying climax near the end of her route.
Adult Content and Extras
As mentioned at the start, I highly recommend purchasing the full adult version or applying the free 18+ patch if playing Otome Domain. Not only is the adult content not in the Steam version, but neither is Kazari’s route or sixteen extra scenes.
The extras are an unusual one. Usually, these are only adult content in many other visual novels, but in this case, all but three are non-adult short story scenes. These often relate to points brought up in the main story, such as showing Yuzu interviewing Minato for the newspaper club, which is mentioned in the main story as how people know about his arrival at the school so quickly. These are unlocked through progression. Further details are mentioned in our guide on Otome Domain.
There are some niche fetishes on display in the 18+ scenes. Pee-related scenes, punishment play, anal sex, and coercion (if not too seriously) are included, along with the standard sexual content. Along with the CGs, nude sprites are included in several scenes.
Graphics, Sound, and Options
The artwork in Otome Domain is great. It has some beautiful CGs and the sprites look great too. It’s brought to life with some animated aspects, including blinking eyes, moving sprites, frequent switches of expression even mid-line, and extra touches like little hearts flashing up on the screen.
Each heroine has 16 normal CGs and Minato has 3, for a total of 51. This doesn’t count variations. In addition, there are 20 ‘super-deformed’ CGs, which look great too.
Otome Domain is fully voiced, including the protagonist. The voice actors fit the parts well. The 27 music tracks are all great too, helping to set the scene well.
Options don’t stand out much but are certainly decent. It includes some basic choices about how the text is displayed, individual voice controls, and some choices around displaying certain effects. The convenient ‘Next Choice’ button is included for replays and getting onto alternate routes, which is always a help.
Verdict
Otome Domain took me about thirteen hours to complete and I enjoyed each one. It has a fun concept that is rare in localized visual novels. The characters are great too. I really enjoyed how it connects their various personality quirks to their own challenges and a serious plot while keeping a fairly light and comedic tone throughout most of the story. Mixing in some touching, dramatic, and romantic moments kept me engaged the entire time.
OTOME DOMAIN IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another more comedic visual novel, you may enjoy Renai Karichaimashita: Koikari – Love For Hire or KamiYaba: Destiny On A Dicey Deadline. We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both original to English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
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.
