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

[BlackF]

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.

 

[AriaMira]

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

 

[nekokaburi]

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!

 

[ufoufufu]

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

 

[lovingarlert]

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...

 

[sorene]

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.

 

[q1w3e5]

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.

 

[Teylin]

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

 

[Daisy Magnus229]

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.