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Do otomeges have a higher chance of success than galges in the Western market?


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So I was thinking about this since Amnesia was licensed. In my opinion, otomeges do have a higher chance of success.

 

First, because most girls like more romance than most guys.

 

Second, because most of the character archetypes from otomeges are attractive to Western girls even if they aren't anime/manga fans, but the same doesn't apply to Western boys. For example, usually western guys aren't attracted to lolis, but there are lots of western girls who like shotas.

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I think otomege has a far better chance for "mainstream" (in the western anime fanbase really) success than galge do as well. One of the bigger reasons is that there is a pretty huge split in the male anime fandom. A huge part of the casual male anime fanbase won't watch stuff that is cute and/or has many female characters. A lot of men are simply uncomfortable with that sort of stuff, sadly. This sort of split doesn't really exist in the female fanbase.

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The simple answer: No

 

The more complex answer... most otomege are more than a little sexist against women.  Enough so that even someone who isn't a rabid feminist can see it.  This is one of the areas where the cultural wall is a problem, so I can't see otomege having massive success over here, though there are definite exceptions like Bloody Call or Hakuoki.

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I feel like it's more a development thing than anything else.  There seems to be a higher degree of otome game developers than there are 'standard' VN developers around here.  Frankly, I don't have a way to know why this is, but the result is that Otome game players have a readily accessible pool of OELVNs to go to as opposed to instead of figuring out how to weave through the mass of translated Japanese games.  The barrier to entry has been lowered, and we've come to a point where the genre, while still a niche, is certainly thriving to some degree.

 

tl;dr OELVN otome games plentiful and easier to get than Japanese ones, and they outnumber standard OELVN by a wide margin.

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OELVNs being a separate issue... Japanese otomege have a tendency toward 'DID Syndrome' excesses to an extreme degree.  While some women like that (mostly really young ones), a lot more women in the west are offended by it...

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OELVNs being a separate issue... Japanese otomege have a tendency toward 'DID Syndrome' excesses to an extreme degree.  While some women like that (mostly really young ones), a lot more women in the west are offended by it...

Yea I agree.  From what I've seen most OELVN otome seem to be VN versions of The Notebook. 

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It is actually a problem I've brought up with some of my conversational partners over there... they said that a lot of the problem is because shoujo manga culture is really tilted toward that, which leads to a lot of would-be otomege writers going down that path... not to mention that a surprising number of otomege writers are guys hidden under female pennames.  It also means that fantasy otomege have the most popularity over there, combined with historical fiction.  You'll notice, if you pay attention, that the most successful otomege company is Idea Factory... and that's because they've been using their fantasy action settings to make otomege for consoles - primarily portables.  It is kind of funny, but without their VN sales, that company would have gone under years ago, lol.

 

Another issue is that most otomege are on portables or console, rather than pc... as a result, there are fewer translations, less exposure over here, and generally less interest.  The lack of H content is a plus, but a lot of the advantage of VNs - the ease of localization outside of translation issues - is disposed of because of this, because of the nature of console localization.

 

Edit: 'Damsel in Distress Syndrome'.  Basically, every female has to be 'rescued' by a guy, regardless of whether they have the ability to get through the situation themselves.  The disproportionate number of otomege where a seemingly capable female protagonist becomes suddenly helpless a minute after meeting a good-looking guy is a little disturbing.

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