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When Did You First Discover Otome and How Did You Get Into It?

BlackF

BlackF

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乙女
Jan 20, 2026
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Okay, I'm curious about everyone's otome origin story...
When did you first discover otome media, and what was the first game, CD, manga, or character that pulled you into the rabbit hole?
Like, did you randomly find it through an anime, a friend, YouTube, an old forum, or were you just scrolling around and somehow ended up here?

For me, it started with Japanese and English boyfriend ASMR on YouTube, I randomly got curious about it and that eventually made me start looking for more content. One thing led to another and somehow I ended up falling into the whole otome rabbit hole :D
It's funny looking back because I definitely didn't expect a few random YouTube videos to turn into me being this deep into otome media.
 
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I played my first otome game not even knowing it was one! Back in the day I was obsessed with reading F2P visual novel type games (like the ones made by SEEC) on mobile, and one day I got into this game called Mystic Messenger. I played quite a few routes (707 and Yoosung my boys) but at the time I had no concept of what an otome game was and just played it as a normal VN.

It wasn't only until a couple years later when I was formally introduced to non-mobile visual novels (somehow it was Rance of all things...long story) and found a playthrough of Collar x Malice, and that was what *really* got me into otome games. I was dying to play one so I bought Piofiore on Switch and well, one thing led to another...

Not long after that I found out that R18 otome games existed after some Interesting youtube recommendations but that's a whole other story XD
 
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I first discovered *otome* games just after I turned ten.
I watched my older cousin playing one, and she let me try it out myself.
Even though I hadn't really been interested in games before that, I was instantly hooked. That game opened up a whole new world for me, leading me to discover anime, manga, drama CDs, and so much more!
 
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A friend of mine was playing Pacthesis sim dates...And also other flash games? Maybe something with vampires? These were pretty much my first introduction lol. And then I got into some other stuff that was available in English like Re: Alistair, Princess Debut or the first Starry Sky. I remember there being some Android otome games I was interested in at the time but I didn't have my own smartphone and was too shy to install something like that on my dad's phone lol

I watched UtaPri, Arcana Famiglia and Brothers Conflict around the time they were airing, and also was reading Watashi ga Motete Dousunda as it was being published (my actual BL arc came way later than that, ironically). I also had a JOP online friend with a PSP who would talk about and expose me to stuff such as Norn9 or Gekka Ryouran Romance [man I'm realizing they might actually still be checking on this website from time to time and if so... o7 hope you're doing ok!]

Funnily by the time MysMes was a thing I had mostly lost interest in otome aside from casually reading game reviews and was more preoccupied with galge or mystery VN, so everything I know about that game I owe to my online circle at the time lol. This break period would last til 2020~ish
 
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Hmmm i forgot about the first otome I played because it was a long time ago and didn't really sticks to my mind since the story is just meh. Found it randomly on playstore, clicked because I saw a handsome anime man lolol! 😭

And then I started to like otome kind of game because of Mystic Messenger, but since I was just a kid back then it's pretty hard for me to wake up or remember the time where I need to respond to the LI's 😭 and then i found obey me, and the rest is just history...
 
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I also started with a mobile game, Mystic Messenger. After that, I moved on to otome games on Steam, and eventually started playing them on the Switch as well.
 
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I think the one my brain remembers is Hakuoki—I went to great lengths to play the *Hakuoki* game back then.

I clearly remember that I used to like Hijikata.

Then there's Kiniro no Corda—I really liked Tsukimori back then.

I have a vague memory of really liking both of these characters when I was very young, but I think Hijikata might have come a little earlier.
 
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It was over 10 years ago, I think... An online friend of mine played The Second Reproduction and recommended it to me. I started playing without even knowing what an otome game was or that there were different routes. So I ended up on the Gardis route and was really upset that I couldn't be with Lezette. It was such a tragedy for me that I quit the game and still haven't finished it lol
 
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For anime, it's probably Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka.

For otome games with pure Japanese text, it's Starry Sky in Summer, which was shared by my senior. Back then, I never thought I would study Japanese using otome games! lol After I finished my Japanese studies, I downloaded the rest of the Starry Sky series here lol I'm really grateful to Ataraxia-san for sharing all of them, even the 'after' versions here.

With Starry Sky opening the door, I've been able to keep playing otome games until now without being scared just because they are written entirely in Japanese.
 
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My first game was a mobile game. Specifically My Forged Wedding from Voltage, back when they still did the standalone apps. I dont even remember how I found it, maybe I was just browsing through the appstore. It got me into Otome VNs but mostly just other mobile ones I could find. The first technically non-mobile game I played was Amnesia, but I still played it through the mobile app lol
But playing that still got me into other non-mobile console games and then it developed from there...
 
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I don't even remember when exactly it was, but I was looking for references on pinterest and came across a few characters from Diabolik Lovers — and that's kinda how I found out about otome games.
 
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I've basically loved any game with dating sim mechanics since I was a kid - I loved girly games on the DS and a lot of them had characters you could romance, like Princess Debut or Harvest Moon DS Cute.

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I became aware of otome games around 2013 after watching some anime adaptations such as Amnesia and Hakuoki, but didn't have the platforms to play them on.

I only really got into the otome community when Mystic Messenger came out in 2016, I played the game on day 1 and was obsessed. I started seeking out more otome games to play, and spent a lot of time on the otome games subreddit seeing what people recommended.

I then got a PS Vita since basically every otome game was on the Vita at the time and finally got to play Amnesia, Hakuoki, Code Realize, etc.
I also got into PC otome at the time like Yo-Jin-Bo, Ozmafia, Nightshade and played some fan patched games like Alice in the Country of Hearts and Re: Birthday Song.
 
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When I was in middle school "Wow handsome anime boys that I can do fake marriage with?" So I downloaded it and played it for a bit. I didn't know it was otome game lol just liked the hot anime boys. I also wasn't very good at playing the game cuz I was young, and didn't wanna accidentally spend real money.
 
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I think my first otome game was Re:Alistair++ which a friend recommended me around 2012. I really enjoyed it and tried to check if more games like that were available (I did not really know much about otome that time). Back then there was not many games available in English (and playing in English was still kind of a challenge since it is not my native language). But that is how I found Hakuouki for the PSP. I played only two routes but I think I was too young for them as the tragic story totally killed my mood, haha! It was not a real trauma but for many years I did not want to play otome games fearing all would be as sad as Hakuouki.
So from otome I switched to BL games, Lucky Dog1 to be exact. And after enjoying that I switched back to otome games with some mobage titles and Amnesia: Memories for the Vita around 2014-2015. The rest is basically history. :)
 
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I think mine really started with reverse harem animes ^^; I vividly remember coming across Ouran and Utapri and then all of a sudden just going through the list of otome related media. Also i couldn't really afford any games back then, so I mostly just watched people play VNs in youtube (ᵕ—ᴗ—) Code Realize was my go-to! Saint Germain's route just ruined me and really shaped my tastes in leads lol
 
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Technically my first otome game was My Forged Wedding on mobile back when Voltage games used to have their own standalone apps before they combined them in Love 365, but I never really knew them as "otome games."
I got much into the genre after discovering more otome games on mobile like Shall We Date: Wizardess Heart and then eventually on Steam like Amnesia and Hakuoki! From then on, I was deep in the rabbit hole 😅
 
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My first exposure to otome content was the OVA of Hanayaka Nari, Waga Ichizoku. I liked many of its characters. After learning it was adapted from a game, I dived into this broader world and discovered plenty of titles I ended up loving.
 
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I played the Harvest Moon games when I was young but it wasn't until I finished playing Persona 3 Portable that I actually started to look for games with more romance in them because I had an itch that needed to be scratched. I was only looking for PSP games because that was the only device I had back then so naturally I found out about Hakuoki and that's about it! 😆
 
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I got into Otomes through watching romance animes, I was always into romantic media as a young child. I guess I got it from my mother who would watch a lot of romance movies and TV shows. Even though some of these animes fit within what I somewhat wanted, it still didn't fill in my crave. I wanted something else! Something more deeper but I didn't know what it would be. So then I found the DeviantArt flash games where you could date certain anime characters, then it went into fan made romance games themselves. Eventually I fell down the rabbit hole into Otome games by then.
 
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It was sure because I watched some otome game anime adaptation when I was a teen. I'm not sure which one was my first show (probably Starry Sky or Utapri) but I remember I got interested and started to search for games to play at the time. Sadly we didn't have that many games in English and I had to stick to galges/my candy love for a while until otome games got more popular XD
 
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I don´t remember exactly how I discovered it, but i belive my first otome was Mystic Messenger, from there I tried to find something similar and started to play more games
 
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My memory isn't the greatest, but I do remember playing Pacthesis flash games and Re:alistair++! I also played my candy love, and I liked watching any anime with hot men, so I really liked the Starry Sky, arcana famigilia and norn9 animes. Also the gree apps and the shall we date games. Ninja love was the one I remember playing the most! Basically if it was free I'd get my hands on it.

I played a lot less commercial games because I had to borrow my mom's card and she always made me fight to be able to spend my own money by making deals 😭
 
For me, the very first game I played was Angelique Special which was released on windows platform back in 2000s. :) My dad bought me the physical disc. I was first drawn to the gorgous art and game system. Back then I didn't even know there's an otome game genre. When I first played it on PC, I was so surprised that the game has an full animated-intro, and it even was voiced. Unfortunately, the game is not fully voiced, but back then even there's a few voiced scenes I felt so playful and fascinating. The game system is also very interesting, it's mainly life simulation. The goal is to win the Queen competition and you have a rival in the game. But I always chose the romance ending of course. My first pick was Oscar - a classic knight with red hair to symbolize fire and voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi. This sort determines how I choose my first pick in later otome games LOL.
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