Dracu-Riot Saga Part 5: Yarai Miu
Entry posted by Arcadeotic
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[WARNING]
[This entry has great amounts of spoilers from Miu's route, which you most likely haven't played, so if you wan't the best experience for the obvious best grill, turn around now. If not, go ahead and enjoy.]
Miu is a so-called 'senpai' to Yuuto in their workplace. When Yuuto gets attacked in the very beginning of the VN, Miu feels responsible for this because she couldn't stop it and Yuuto got dragged to the ambush pretty much unnecessarily. Afterwards, Miu swears to protect Yuuto to right this wrong she did. Miu is pretty much a shy girl, hiding behind a wall of a 'experienced woman'. She's also listed as a Modern Tsundere, but I really don't see it that much in her.
As I've said countless times already, Miu's route is my favorite, and the same goes for the heroine itself. Honestly, I realy didn't like the heroine, but this is the case for most of my favorite heroines in VNs. In the beginning, she just seems like a sadist tsundere, which was rather annoying, but when she really cared for Yuuto's sudden transformation to a vampire and that her 'sadist experinced woman' side was just an act, I started to warm up to her. What made her shine the most in the Common Route was how she acted when Yuuto saved Azusa from the speeding car, thus revealing his lycanthropy. The genuine emotion was something that was missing from the Common Route, and as such, shone through even more. This kind of behavior made her stand out from just a regular moe-blob heroine, and although heroines in Dracu-Riot aren't this kind of heroines, Miu stands out with actual character development in the very beginning. Needless, to say that she made the biggest expression on me.
The start of Miu's route is pretty much the same as everyone else's. Some event triggers Yuuto and the heroine to get closer. In this case, the unfortunate conclusion that was in the Common Route, causes Miu to getting confused and sort of going to a boob-groping streak. I'm not even kidding, it's quite hilarious. Afterwards, after they conclude this, Yuuto asks Miu to go on sort of a date with Miu, to buy gifts for everyone, which causes more funny and rose-colored events to happen, like that one with a dressing booth. They also get put together to smoke out some criminals hiding in the shadows, so they have to act like a couple.
This start of the route is pretty nice and fluffy, very well done for a moege. It also has those undertones I adore in VNs, no matter the genre. Miu and Yuuto's ever-growing consciousness of each other is really heart-warming to watch. Also Miu's reaction to these are something that you won't see that often, at least for me, that is.
After these events, Yuuto starts getting conscious of his feelings for Miu, and proceeds to keep his distance, mostly because of his lychantropy. Their fake-couple acting is also getting taxing for Yuuto, so he's getting more and more akward by the minute and keeping his distance to Miu. Miu of course notices this, and gets more and more depressed. It all cluminates in an amazing kiss in an alleyway. Thye start dating right afterwards, but get one week of house-arrest for illicit behavior in work-hours.
This final part before dating is, well, okay. I never liked this trope of getting farther and farther even if it's really, really obvious that they love eachother, but it was actually bareable. That might be because of Miu's fear for lychantropes was established in the Common Route, and as such there was legitimate reason for Yuuto's actions. That doesn't make it that much better, however. It was just okay, but the climax of this part was more than worth it. It felt very Miu-esque. You really can't describe it without reading the route yourself.
The dating part is pretty good. The week-long house arrest is quite funny, as Miu's more than ready for them to become one, but Yuuto's just nerveous. So all they really do is hold hands. However, it all culminates with Miu staying home under the guise of being sick. She asks for Yuuto's room's key with the explanation of 'wanting to borrow manga', although she wants to find a reason why Yuuto hasn't done anything at all. In the truest reoge fashion, she ends masturbating while sniffing Yuuto's boxers. And of course Yuuto comes back when she's still masturbating, and thus the first H-scene happens.
There's some normal couple-like events afterwards and another H-scene. This start and mid-part of the dating part is quite... different, if I say so myself, well at least the beginning-part is. It's been a while since I saw a scene like that in VNs. The following part though, is just your standart 'couples doing couple-like' things, which isn't bad in my opinion. They bring out Miu's somewhat special character out more. The two H-scenes present are amazing, I really did like them.
Then the meat of the route begins to form, earlier on than other heroine's route's by far. How Yuuto gets kidnapped by the researchers who produce L and how that specific drug feeds the lychantrope genes, ultimately leading to Yuuto basically becoming a super-vampire, trashing everything and everyone. Only the combined efforts of Azusa, Miu and Hyouma can fell him.
Also the way how Miu found where Yuuto was kept captive was touching, to say the least. Somehow hearing the screams of Yuuto's consciousness in her mind and chalking it up to 'power of love' is somehow cheesy and romantic at the same time.
The after-effects of L and how it makes Yuuto's thirst for blood that much stronger makes Miu go jealous by just Yuuto feeling bloodlust and sexual arousal towards his fellow dorm-mates triggers the 3rd H-scene. All of this makes for a great meter on how much they long for and love each other.
The date afterwards is your standart mushy-mushy lovey-dovey stuff, but I must say that the sound effects in this route are amazing.
In the middle of the date they get called by Hyouma and hear that there's a riot outside of the school.
This riot marks the finale of the route. Vampires have grown weaker and ill because of the lack of blood-packs distributed thanks to the drug L's own distribution in blood-packs in its own completely authenticated trade route. After Saya fails to quell the flames of the riot, the only way out of Aqua Eden, the monorail-bridge, gets blown to pieces by a so-called terrorist attack.
This all especially lets Anna and Saya shine to their maximum potential, outshining Elina's route and Azusa's as well to some extent, which I can appreciate. This final part gives life to the rioters, introduces two new characters, Yuka and her mother, and establishes a brand-new villain, goverment's peace-keeping agency, who want to sink the artificial island in its entirety.
Everyone works nicely together, be it Saya and the rioters, the dorm-mates all pulling together, or Yuuto and Miu. The point where Yuuto shields Yuka from the crashing warehouse, making everyone, humans and vampires, to work together manages to do something that no other route could, bringing in the problems of other more minor characters and thus making the more 'alive'.
The ending too, was wonderful. Yuuto decides that he has to destroy the missile aiming towards Aqua Eden in an attempt to destroy it, not for his or Miu's own good, but for everyone's future on the island. The way it all gets resolved was fantastic, definitely deserving the title of best ending in Dracu-Riot!
All in all, the route's great. There definitely is more effort put into this than say, Azusa's route, but the balance of everything, the icha icha, charactrr ane romantic development, the effort put in the side characters, the underlying themes and the grand finale is all that makes Dracu-Riot! my favorite moege and Miu my favorite route in moege.
Thanks for reading my heroine impressions in Dracu-Riot!, review coming soon.
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