Otome games -- visual novel dating sims where the female protagonist can romance a number of attractive men -- have become increasingly popular and available in the West. With these games come a number of sexy, emotionally turmoiled men ready to fall over the heroine and fulfill the player's desire for a perfect and perfectly attractive boyfriend.
Unfortunately, for every shy gentleman and jerkass with a heart of gold there is a creepy, possessive, or sadistic love interest who can only be described as psychotic. I guess that's just some girls' thing, but the rest of us can only sit in horror as we watch our self-insert get tormented, manipulated, and worse on screen.
If you've ever been morbidly curious about the worst of hot anime boys, then look no further than this list. Just be warned: spoilers abound, and some of the character descriptions may be triggering and/or NSFW. Happy dating!
Toma
Amnesia
At first, Toma comes across as a kind, protective older-brother type, the childhood friend of our amnesiac heroine. When the heroine of Amnesia collapses in front of him at the start of the game, he rushes her to the hospital and sets his own life aside to look after her once she's released.
Unfortunately, his desire to protect the heroine from danger soon proves problematic, as he utilizes her memory condition in order to pretend to be her boyfriend, steal her phone and computer battery, and whisk her away to his house all so he can shield her from the cruel pranks being played on her by her male friend's group of angry fangirls (rotten eggs in the mailbox, emails telling her to commit suicide, etc.)
The situation becomes more disturbing after the heroine "disobeys" his order not to leave the house in order to try to figure out what's going on and recover her memories, and instead of filling her in on the situation like a normal person, he drugs her to keep her asleep most of the day and eventually locks her in a dog cage. Which he then fills with stuffed animals and childlike toys, because he thinks she still likes the same things she did as a kid. Creepy.
It gets worse in his bad end, where it is implied he eventually rapes the heroine, and then chains her in the cage and treats her like his personal doll as she slowly loses her sense of self. BUT if before he reaches that level of yandere he discovers that the heroine really loved him all along, he apologizes and sets her free and they live happily ever after, I guess. Yay, romance.
Kanato Sakamaki
Diabolik Lovers
Ah, Diabolik Lovers. This vampire-themed otome franchise has a whole treasure trove of psychotic, rapey guys -- but if anyone takes the cake for the Creep Factor, it's resident shota Kanato.
The kid's room is full of wax dolls (that used to be real people), he throws intensely hysterical tantrums in order to get his way, and he carries around and talks to a teddy bear filled with his mom's ashes. And like all his vampiric brethren, he doesn't give a crap about consent or niceties, and is perfectly willing to manipulate, sexually abuse, and drink the blood of the heroine without considering her own wishes.
I guess you can excuse his issues as the result of his Tragic Past and self-harm tendencies, but really, it's probably a better idea to take a guy like that to the psych ward than give him your body, blood, and heart.
Dorian Gray
Ozmafia!!
This guy is such a creeper that he doesn't get his own route, and only shows up as a "love interest" when the player chooses the brothel route. Which is, yes, exactly what it sounds like.
Dorian Gray is the owner of the Oscar Wilde salon, where the heroine learns the pleasures of unadulterated coitus and BDSM. He's also a hedonistic sadist who takes pleasure in "breaking" and raping others and turning them into his sex slaves, and then killing them when they've outlived their usefulness. And he does it all while maintaining his composure as a polite, respectable gentleman. Don't bring this one home to your parents.
Hasui Tomoomi
Kuro to Kin no Akanai Kagi
Kuro to Kin is another game where all the love interests are pretty problematic in a "I have an overwhelming desire to sexually assault you" sort of way, but Tomoomi definitely wins the "most likely to be put in a mental institution" award.
The game starts with him chasing down the heroine and cutting her hair by force for no apparent reason, though if you choose his route you come to learn that he has a seriously creepy fetish with her hair. The salon he runs in the game is all a front for his obsession with the heroine, who he considers the "perfect female specimen." Eventually he drags her into his hotel room, which she discovers is full of mannequins that look just like her. How is this not a horror game, again?
Anyway, in one of his bad ends he turns the heroine into his own living doll, and in another he locks her in his room, rapes her, and almost mutilates her. But in the good ending, she convinces him that she's not a doll and they get married and have lots of happy consensual sex! Yay?
Makoto Mikami
Sweet Fuse: At Your Side
It shouldn't be surprising that Mikami is a disturbed person, considering the tragic death of his parents years before the start of the game. Unfortunately, said death has lead him to pursue a dramatic and bloody quest for revenge that the heroine and her other potential love interests get dragged into.
Makoto is one of the secret villains of the game, but his crazy side only comes out in full force on his route, where his love for the heroine is mostly dependent on her ability to fulfill his vision of her as a messianic figure devoted to justice. If she messes this up, then he shoots her. Not a great way to start a relationship.
Stalkers, yandere, violent psychopaths. Dating sims have them all, and then some. Though some might find them attractive in fictional form, I would highly recommend that all steer clear from people in real life that display any of the qualities found in the guys on this list. Keep your favorite creepy fantasy rapist doll-making boyfriends in the fictional worlds where they belong, yo.
What's the creepiest otome love interest you've ever come across? Got any otome recommendations or horror stories? Let us know in the comments below!
Published: Jul 2, 2016 07:18 pm