Title: My Girlfriend is the President
Alternate Title: Osananajimi wa Daitouryou
Developed By: Alcot
Published By: JAST USA
Genre: Comedy, Eroge, Romance
Audio: Japanese Dub
Subtitles: English
Screen Dimension: 800×600 (Images modified to be more landscape for this review, click on image to see proper sized screen)
Cost: $34.95 from the Jast USA online store.
Thinking about it… it has been quite a while since I last reviewed a visual novel, but hopefully this is the first in a line of VN reviews to come over the next few weeks and months with both JAST USA and MangaGamer releasing some very interesting titles. My Girlfriend is the President is the latest visual novel title to be released in English by the folks at Jast USA. The game was originally developed by Alcot in 2009 and as you might have guessed it… poses what the world would be like if you were a perverted guy and one day woke up to find yourself Vice-President of your country… more-so your childhood friend has become president. Before I start my review I would like to make something very clear before you read any further – This is an Eroge Visual Novel title, it contains sexual content and references and should not be played by those who are under the age of 18 at the very least. As such, this review will mention such content and also should not be read by those under this age. All set? Read on for my review of My girlfriend is the President!
In the not so distant future, in an alternate universe version of Japan… a young man awakes to discover that the house of his childhood friend who lives next door has been changed into the White House. Why? Because she’s the president, of course! The president of New Japan, appointed by an alien who crash-landed on earth and brainwashed humanity to this new world order of bishoujo leadership in which you come to take a vital spot in the new moe administration.
You begin the title as Junichiro Hondo, woken up by your beautiful childhood friend Yukino Ohama (Get it… Obama… Ohama!) sprouting your normal morning wood and being the overall pervert you are made out to be (Bad boy!). Despite this erotic trait about you, you are friendly, social and a hit with the ladies. However things start to get a bit weird after you find yourself in the middle of the Whit… Snow House, with your girlfriend suddenly being made the President, you the vice president and a number of your other friends taking different roles in the presidential cabinet. As the only one who notices the change you also become acquainted with the loli alien Qoo who explains that after having crashed on earth (and seemingly killing the President of “The United States of Nippon”), they had to brainwash the population in order to cover up the event and making Yukino the president. From there, the story unfolds about the new President and vice-President…. and the President of Russia, a humanoid Starship and the chief of staff work together to keep things running while all vying for Junichiro’s attention.
The game’s purpose was to act as a romantic comedy and I think they pulled it off pretty well even with the obvious references to erotic material at every turn. As I have not actually read the Japanese script for the game I am not sure how much of it was localized over simply translated but the parodical references to politics, government officials and other important entities along with references to the anime and visual novel genres (Loser Flags anyone?) were also present at well used to give you a consistent stream of humor, which was good at times to drown out the sometimes dry attempts of the main character to get all touchy feeley with the girls. I liked that while it sounded a bit too coincidental that they chose to work with the whole spaceship crashing into earth element of the plot as that futuristic element to the cause to the events gave them a bit more freedom to work with than the cliche “One day I woke up and I was the President” plot some might have been expecting.
If the comedy had not been as cleverly translated and written I believe the title may have not been as strong without it, with the rest of the story jumping between the four main girls while occasionally engaging in the secondary characters such as someone in a Panda suit and a character that pays homage to the Pope. While they delved in the act of sexual relations several times through the story especially in the later chapters, the main plot was quite solid and doesn’t rely too heavily on the act of sexual relations even if there were several verbal references provided by the characters. Each of the four main girls had their own respective personalities and story which they dived into and of course each seemed to have their own route to go on even though the game for the most part is a linear experience separated by only a handful of “decisions”. However it would have been nice for more development of some characters early on – as while for example you are introduced to Yukino right at the beginning of the game, she starts off more as a secondary character role instead of the main “heroine” (At least in my opinion). Another minor element that was appreciated was the “Next Episode” previews which gave each of the girls a chance to state their feelings towards the main character – and personally I enjoy these little additions.
To to summarize, the comedy and political parodies were the winning components to the storyline along with all the plots that attempt to shake up the storyline a bit rather than take it into a sexfest series where every five minutes you are watching ero scenes take place. While I would have liked more character development at the start over introducing all the characters in the first chapter and then mixing their development together but in the end I felt they were developed at least adequately – along with having some more zany character ideas for secondary characters.
When it came to the design aspect of the visual novel, I think they did a pretty impressive job with both their character portraits/backgrounds and CG artwork which is critical when it comes to any visual novel title. The character portraits were all well designed containing a good degree of detail, give off an appearance that suits their personality and come equipped with a good number of emotions so they are not just staring blank at the screen during an emotional time in the plot. While the secondary characters primarily retain one or two clothing designs, the main characters contain a good “wardrobe” to suit the plots intended scenario. In terms of environment designs I can say the same thing and I appreciated that while some names were changed in the plot such as the White House to the Snow House – that they still retained their characteristic appearances which loaned itself more to the comedy than if they hadn’t.
In terms of CG Artwork, it is a mixed bag of eroge and non-eroge art which is used throughout the novel. The “naughty bits” in this title are uncensored and in comparison to other eroge visual novels I have viewed in the past couple of months I would place them more towards the anatomically correct side of the scale over some of the others I have seen prior. The quality overall is good with some good use of brighter and more vibrant colours along with good attention to detail.
In terms of the titles music track list, it is your normal assortment of tracks that you would expect to find in any similar title – with nothing much standing out. Despite that, I have to admit the animated opening sequence which they designed for the game was really enjoyable, both for the upbeat lyrical song and more so the animation that went along well with the music and was just enjoyable to watch. In terms of voice acting, all but the main character (Both Male and Female roles) are voiced and while I am not familiar with many of the cast that perform in visual novels thus have nothing to compare to, it proved a good set of voices for the main characters… although I never understood why they never usually dub the male protagonist roles (Are we supposed to say the lines out loud or something?) when every other male role is dubbed.
As I mentioned above, this is an 18+ Eroge visual novel and thus there is a considerable amount of adult-oriented content in both the design and plot. For the most part there is just a mixture of your usual sex scenes with some yuri involved as well. Some of this is plot related however a considerable amount of it remains unimportant to the story but still justifiable through the character personalities. This is not the sort of content one who doesn’t mind this eroge provided it has a strong plot backing will enjoy (Unlike Deus Machina Demonbane for example).
As always, I would like a moment to discuss the actual visual novel system included within the game. Overall, the system worked fine with the text for the most part not being too clumped together or too spread out, and gives you a selection of three fonts to play the game with – all of which are easy to read with no display problems. Unfortunately at times it does get a bit troubling on determining who is talking just through the text, as the system does not show the characters name above text but instead only in the backlog which in itself is an easy to read system. It is easier to tell who is talking when there are two character portraits on the screen however, with the textbox halving in size and appearing underneath the respective character. From the main menu, you are granted access to a “Continue” option which saves you the trouble of having to load your last save file and an Extras menu which is unlocked upon completion of the game and gives you access to the normal ensemble of CG artwork etc. Overall not a perfect system but I was left satisfied with it.
Overall, while I would have loved to have seen the plot with all eroge references removed and more of a focus on the political comedy nature that it delivered, I think this is an enjoyable eroge visual novel that while not taking itself too seriously, didn’t take itself too lightly either. Alcot did a great job at developing this title and credits go to the translators and the Jast USA team for translating and picking up this title in the first place.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: B-
Design: B
Music and Voice Acting: B
Adult Content: Yes
System: B+
Personal Opinion: B
Final Score: B
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It had too few choices and yet one of those choices didn’t affect how the game progressed. The comedy factor was really good though and the line from the main character made green jokes romantic was good but in the end, it didn’t feel like you were making the choices. It just felt like watching a manga in slideshow since you didn’t make the choices but the graphic and characters were stellar especially President Putina who had so much character compared to the other 3 and even at times the supporting heroines had more character in them than the some of the main choices. On the music side, I totally agree that the opening sequence was really enjoyable.