Title: ネモフィリア-We pass each other-
Developer: Clown
Release Date: 31st July 2026
Age Rating: 18+
Length: ~5 Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
Nemophilia is set in post-war Shouwa-era Japan and follows Hotaru, a young man who was orphaned in the war before being adopted into the wealthy Hiiragi family as a servant.
He spends much of his time doing chores and helping look after the two daughters of the household – oldest daughter Chizuru and her younger sister Mio. This would be fine but it becomes apparent that Chizuru holds more than just friendly feelings towards him.
Chizuru has a weak constitution so at the beginning of summer break she, Hotaru & Mio are summoned by her mother Takako to the countryside to perform a religious ritual to hopefully improve both her physical health and mental commitment to her family duties.
However it quickly becomes clear that something is not quite right – between the remote temple, the strange monk Saiten in charge of the place, the rumours of girls going missing, and the uneasy feeling Hotaru experiences when witnessing the ritual, it becomes clear that there may be more sinister matters at play…
Thoughts
Note: This review will contain spoilers.
To explain a little of the backstory of this game: Clown are a new sister brand of Circus. Yes, the Circus best known for the Da Capo series. Clown promised a different experience to the romance-focused stories from main brand and thus the low-priced suspense trilogy beginning with Nemophilia was announced.
I will admit here that I'm dumb and didn't realise it was a trilogy until after I had pre-ordered the game but I mean it's still Circus, so what do we expect (lmao). In terms of expectations, I know that personally I was expecting a pretty dark game given the gory CG on the main site and the hints of mystery during the game's trial, although whether it delivered on that is up for debate.
Nemophilia is a frustrating game. It has some parts that are good, maybe bordering on great, yet is sadly let down by the writing. The director and scenario writer Manpukutei Hakumai (満腹亭白米) is somewhat experienced, but this was their first non-romance work and you can really tell that they were struggling with the scope of this title. I guess maybe it was my fault for expecting more of a mystery but with such a limited cast of characters there was very little left to question for the reader. It's more akin to watching the characters in a shoddy horror movie making the dumbest decisions possible. I guess if I had to pick a genre for this then suspense does fit somewhat but there were limited scenes where I really felt much tension or unease.
A tale rooted in Buddhist Mythology
Moving into the story itself and this game is essentially a retelling of the Buddhist mythological figure Hariti (Kishimojin / 鬼子母神 in Japanese) – a demon who, to look after her own children, killed and fed on the children of others, until one day the Buddha hid one of her own children away to give her a taste of how the other parents had suffered. After learning her lesson she vows to protect all children and feeds on pomegranates instead – later becoming a symbol of protection for women and children. (I'm simplifying it a bit here but you get the gist).
In-game this figure is represented by Mio and Chizuru's mother Takako – a woman who, due to generational trauma and the societal pressures of women during this time period, is hellbent on her daughters marrying into a good family and bearing sons. She knows that Chizuru has feelings for Hotaru but becomes so obsessed with the idea that Chizuru should not repeat the same mistakes that Takako made in the past that she seeks help from Saiten – a misogynistic serial rapist/killer masquerading as a monk. Her obsession to save her children blinds her to his evil and she ends up assisting his murders under the guise of "helping" or "saving" her children. It's up for debate if she truly believes that she's "saving" the other victims of Saiten but I think she's made ignorant by her own fears and trauma rather than being a genuinely evil person (in contrast to Saiten who is almost comically irredeemable).
Similarly to the myth, the thing that snaps her back to reality is Saiten's mask slipping and revealing that he wants to harm Mio & Chizuru. She ends up killing him, thus saving her daughters and decides to kill herself afterwards. I guess this is where the story divulges from the myth a lot – I suppose that killing herself would save her family from further harm caused by her actions but it seemed like a cowards way out to me. She claims that death is a fitting end for a demon like herself but I dunno I think it's her continuing to run from responsibility for her actions.
This is why I'm so conflicted about the game – the basic plot arc is interesting enough but the execution, plus the "show, but then tell" type of storytelling kind of ruins it. Like the connection to Hariti becomes clear throughout the game but the characters go out of their way to have an awkward conversation at the end that amounts to "Huh, I guess mother is like Hariti, right?" – this was so out of place and honestly ruined any sort of nuance the story wanted to have.
A proactive main heroine who sadly falters under the pressure
Though perhaps my main problem with the game actually comes down to the main heroine Chizuru. She's actually the reason I bought the game – being a sheltered ojou-sama of course but at the same time she clearly knows her own mind and is quite proactive about her feelings towards Hotaru, going so far as to be the one to initiate the first H scene of the game. She makes it clear throughout the entire game that she doesn't agree with her mother's old-fashioned views and wants to convince her to allow her relationship with Hotaru, even asking Hotaru to run away with her at one point (he refuses for ~practicality~ though, how boring).
This interesting characterisation is completely, and utterly, ruined when in the end after her mother realises her sins, Chizuru decides to die with her. Like girl you've spent the ENTIRE GAME trying to forge your own path in the world and fight against the expectations of your mother to achieve your "happy ending" with the man you love, only to throw that aside to "decide your own ending" which is… death? It's absolutely baffling. I guess this could relate to the themes of guilt that are woven throughout the game (Chizuru feels guilt at not saving her friend Ayano) but it really did not fit. And I can only describe this as sequel-bait because the game goes out of its way to point out that Chizuru's body couldn't be found by the police afterwards.
My only thought about the ending is that it is meant to tie into the game's title. Nemophilia refers to a type of flower, whose meaning (花言葉) is "I forgive you". I'm going to assume here that this refers to Takako & Chizuru. It's debatable on if Takako's sins can truly be forgiven rather than understood but I can kind of see what they were going for – perhaps Chizuru's way of forgiving her mother's sins (and the sins that she perceives herself to have) is to die with her? It's flimsy though.
The main "baddie" in the game is Saiten – a crook pretending to be a monk to make it easier to find and manipulate his victims. I can't decide if he's well written or not. He's a disgusting sexist, to the extent that listening to him speak for more than like 4 lines at a time made my skin crawl but that's what they were going for so I guess good job? Chizuru showing some spine towards him was enjoyable though, gosh she was great until the end of the game.
What makes me unsure about him though is that his backstory was super weak, boiling down to a woman was mean to me so I hate them all now, but making him in anyway redeemable was not the goal here. I will say that the artist in charge of him had some fun with his sprite expressions – there were some gross yet fun ones.
He typically makes a lot of sweeping generalisations like this, as well as even less pleasant statements when you get the *pleasure* of reading from his perspective.
The other characters – Hotaru, Mio & Chizuru's missing friend Ayano play a smaller role in the story. Despite being the protagonist, Hotaru feels more like a side character at times, perhaps because the game makes extensive use of perspective changes. I wish he had a sprite, though that will be changed in the next entry in the series (more on that later). His most important role in the story comes at the end when it just so happens that his dead father was the one who performed the ritual that Takako believed condemned her to a life of misery many years ago. And it just so happens that Hotaru's father was also faking being a monk and died due to pissing people off and being lynched at some point. This plot point was so ridiculously convenient, and raises so many more questions that I hope are answered in the sequel – like, is Mio & Chizuru's father aware of Hotaru's family past and that is why he was adopted or is it all a coincidence (if it's the latter then it is poor storytelling) because the author is laying the groundwork for some sort of great conspiracy here. Or it could just be terrible, convenient writing. It's hard to tell at this point. The timing of this reveal was abysmal though.
Mio again feels like she plays only a small role, like she exists only to preview her as a heroine. She is cute but that's all I really feel. Ayano is the most interesting of the three, and her story is tragic. The game explores her and Chizuru's friendship and, while brief, I enjoyed those scenes. She's a victim of the linear nature of the game though.
I did find it darkly funny that a LOT of reviews in Japanese complained about the lack of an "evil route" in what could be described as a surprisingly feminist game (well as feminist as an eroge aimed at a male audience can be). I would disagree and say that said route isn't needed but I do think that the game being completely linear is a detriment. For example, I'd love a happier end with Chizuru, or maybe some bad endings to up the tension a bit. I do think there was a lot of potential left unexplored, some of which can be explained by this games lower pricing but there was still room for some experimentation imo. Surely that should be the point of a new brand?
And that lack of polish expands to things like not having a music recollection or any vocal songs in the game. The BGM was nice and fitting but having no way to listen to it after the game was a let-down. It just gives the game a slightly rushed or unfinished feeling.
I will say though that the artwork by primarily Shouna Mitsuishi was lovely. She's best known for her work with minori and her expertise definitely showed – there's a pretty standard number of CGs for a game of this length but they were well-done. There were two more artists – Yatanuki Kei & Tsushima Kurita who worked on the side characters. The former did the artwork for Mio, which is important for the sequel and they also did a fine job.
A look towards the next chapter…
I wasn't sure what I was expecting when it came to the second game in the series except I was expecting Mio to take a bigger role in the story. I was NOT predicting Hotaru to end up cross-dressing and staying at the dorms of Mio's all-girls school because she's suffering from trauma after the events of the summer.
Hotaru's new look (very cute~) Will also be voiced by Ayumi Sarah.
The meaning of the Anthurium flower is Passion which is less clear in terms of plot progression, though when combined with the school's urban legend about the fox spirit that killed its former partner & their new lover in a fit of jealousy it gives a little hint towards the story, which I must admit that I feel quite invested in.
Though I am kind of concerned about any sort of romance between Hotaru & Mio because it will be hard to write it in a sympathetic way with regards to his prior relationship with Chizuru.
Between the winter setting and the whole murder at an all-girls school shtick, Anthurium reminds me heavily of Innocent Grey's Kara no Shoujo series, though that would be a very high bar to surpass.
I really do hope that Anthurium improves on the base that Nemophilia laid, as there is potential with some tweaks for a really interesting trilogy.
Also Mio's friend and new girl Sayuri definitely gives off main heroine of game 3 vibes from her design.
Conclusion
My Score: 6/10
Like I mentioned, Nemophilia is a game that's hard to rate because there's a few aspects that rely on how the sequels turn out. The atmosphere was a bit flat, and the lack of choices hurt the storytelling but there were parts that were enjoyable – particularly Chizuru's proactive personality earlier in the game & the Buddhist mythology used to juxtaposition a story of generational trauma. The more that I think about this game, the more I appreciate different aspects of it.
I will always try to support new brands, especially when making something different like this & I personally am looking forward to the second part of the trilogy releasing later this year. Though I would recommend waiting until at least the next game is out before picking this series up.
Thank you, as always, for reading!
CHIZURU REALLY IS TOO CUTE THOUGH
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