Visual Novel / Ikemen Revolution

The nighttime home screen of IkeRev^note From left to right: Back: Kyle Ash, Zero, Edgar Bright, Sirius Oswald, Luka Clemence and Seth Hyde; Middle: Jonah Clemence and Fenrir Godspeed; Front: Lancelot Kingsley and Ray Blackwell. Not pictured: Harr Silver, Loki Genetta, Blanc Lapin, Oliver Knight, Mousse Atlas, Dean Tweedle and Dalim Tweedle.

Ikemen Revolution: Love and Magic in Wonderland is a mobile Visual Novel by Japanese company Cybird, the same company behind Ikemen Sengoku. Character designs are done by TCB.

In 19th century London, a young woman leaves her job at a confectionery for the day when she runs into a man fretting about being late. After their Crash-Into Hello, the young woman realizes the man - whom she notes is suspiciously rabbit-like - has dropped a gorgeous pocket watch. The watch being clearly well cared for, and she being a Nice Girl, the woman chases after him to return the watch. He disappears in front of her eyes in St. James Park, and when she takes a step after him, she finds herself falling Down the Rabbit Hole - her last glimpse of home being a bright full moon.

The long fall leads her to the land of Cradle - known to those in the Land of Reason as Wonderland. Reuniting with the man - who introduces himself as Blanc Lapin, but his friends call him White Rabbit - in this mysterious land ruled by magic instead of science, the woman learns that she has become Alice the Second, caught in a war between the Red and Black Armies of Wonderland.

The original Japanese version of the game, イケメン革命:アリスと恋の魔法 (Ikemen Kakumei: Alice to Koi no Mahou) was released in 2016, with the English release arriving in 2018.

The game is available for Android and iOS devices.

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Ikemen Revolution contains examples of:

• Abandoned Area: The dilapidated castle-like building deep in the Forbidden Forest, a relic from when Red and Black coexisted peacefully.
• Affectionate Nickname: Since the player can name the protagonist, her being called Alice comes across as this. Seth and Loki in particular rarely call her anything else.
• Alice Allusion: Obviously. The entire premise of the game is a reference to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with many characters being based off characters in the original story. The MC herself is called "Alice the Second" with Alice Liddell implied to be the First.
• All Just a Dream: In a clear allusion to Alice in Wonderland's ending, Loki's route has the MC suddenly wake up back in London and wonder if her adventures in Cradle were all just a dream. However, her return to Cradle turns out to be the true dream due to Loki having cast a spell on her to make her believe she was safe in her home world.
• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • Luka, unlike the other Black Army officers, was born in Red territory but chose to work for his home territory's opposing army instead.
  • Zero is the only member of the Red Army who was hired based on merit instead of family bloodlines. Due to this, he's snubbed and looked down on by most of the Red Army.
• An Interior Designer Is You: The player can decorate Alice’s room with various furniture received over the course of the game, or through Gacha events.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: The player can also receive various outfits, dresses, hairstyles, and makeup for Alice and outfits and accessories for her suitor, through the story or Gacha.
• Anti-Magic:
  • The MC, and everyone who comes from the Land of Reason, has the power to repel magic spells in Cradle.
  • In Oliver's route, his efforts to invent an anti-magic weapon for the Black Army to give them an advantage in their war against the Red Army is a big plot point. Oliver himself has the same anti-magic power as the MC since he came from the Land of Reason too, but only when he's in his adult form.
• Anti Poop-Socking: Most cards will have a randomly-played line during the player's nighttime that gently encourages that player to not stay up too late and/or get enough sleep.
• Awful Truth: The Magic Tower’s leader, Amon Jabberwock, is the real instigator of the war between the armies, so that he can control Cradle from the shadows, and eventually the Land of Reason too. He did this by being the real killer of Lancelot’s father, not the Black Army.
• Bad Date: Jonah's first date with the MC on his route is a hilarious trainwreck for most of its running length with the MC No Selling Jonah's attempts to buy her affection with ludicrously expensive items and him dragging her to watch the Red Army soldiers train in a desperate bid to end the date on at least a semi-positive note. The only things that prevent it from being a total disaster are the two of them having a small bonding moment over their shared love of hot chocolate and the MC starting to see Jonah's nobler side with his soldiers.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension:
  • Jonah and the MC on the latter's route at first, with Jonah's attempts to win the MC's heart being more than offset by his haughty personality and outright admittance that he's dating her only to persuade her to submit to the Red Army.
  • Kyle and the MC also have shades of this in the former's route, with the MC frequently getting exasperated about Kyle's love of drinking and near-total lack of tact.
  • Oliver also has this with the MC on his route, since he's a Bratty Half-Pint half of the time who regularly calls her a "dummy" and a Deadpan Snarker the other half of the time who still regularly calls her a dummy.
• Birthday Episode: Each character gets a birthday event, which usually includes limited edition clothes and furniture for your room, and a special birthday story. Also, during the player's specified birthday date, the characters' cards will have special voiced lines wishing a Happy Birthday to the player.
• Blank Slate: Averted. Though a lot of her backstory is left up to the player, the MC is canonically a young woman older than nineteen, who moved to London from the countryside to work in a confectionery before the story proper.
• Blessed with Suck: Being born with innate magic in Cradle. It gives you the ability to do powerful feats without using up Magic Crystals, but it also can hurt innocent people if you don't know how to control it, makes you the target of the Magic Tower's disciples who conduct inhumane experiments on magic users, and using magic too much will result in your premature death.
• Boarding School of Horrors: The boarding school in Cradle during the time Ray and Fenrir and Kyle's brother attended, due to The Day Lost to Darkness.
• Break His Heart to Save Him:
  • Jonah tries to do this on his route when he thinks that their enemies have them surrounded at Blanc's house, but he's such a Bad Liar that the MC sees through his lies right away.
  • Fenrir and Sirius both lie to the MC on their routes to get her to agree to return to her world and avoid getting caught up in Cradle's war.
• Broken Pedestal: Jonah, for Luka.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Alice being who she is, she’s the Gentle Girl to Luka’s lone wolf and shy Brooding Boy in his route. This trope is in play to a lesser extent in Lancelot’s route as well.
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • Happens to Lancelot in both of his endings and Loki in his Dramatic ending due to them using up too much of their magic. Their post-canon story events completely ignore this, however.
  • Revealed to have happened to Zero in his backstory; he used to be capable of magic as an Artifical Human created by the Magic Tower, but he used up all his magic by the time he turned twelve.
• Call-Back: Ikemen Revolution has a premise that is a call back to its predecessor, Ikemen Sengoku. The MC finds herself in a different time/world than she knows, and is abruptly caught in the middle of a war between two opposing sides, with possible Love Interests on either side. Oh, and a bespectacled gentlemen also warns her not to fall in love which she promptly fails at.
• Cash Gate: Proceeding through the story requires having enough Intimacy Points or a certain piece of attire to pass.
• Cassandra Truth: On Jonah’s route, no one believes Alice when she and Jonah arrive at the council meeting to tell the army officers that the Magic Tower is behind the war, and that Lancelot is working with their leader. Having their main piece of evidence destroyed doesn’t help matters. Averted when it turns out Lancelot was only pretending to punish them, since he knew Amon was watching the entire thing.
• Came from the Sky: The MC's arrival into Cradle is marked by her falling from the sky into Ray's arms.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Loki's character profile lists his last name as Genetta and Fenrir mentions in one scene on Loki's route that the Genetta family used to have a son who suddenly went missing one day. The route still treats the reveal that Loki was abandoned by the Genetta family as if it's a huge surprise.
• Cast from Lifespan: People who have innate magic power have a limit to how much magic they can use and risk dying if they overuse their powers.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: See Bishōnen above.
• Chekhov's Skill: In Jonah's route, the MC gets self-defense lessons from the Black Army in case Jonah tries doing anything funny with her during their dates. They end up coming in handy when one of the Magic Tower's disciples grabs her by the arm during the climax and she knows how to elbow him off.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each character has a color associated with them:
  • Lancelot: Red
  • Jonah: Pink
  • Edgar: Yellow
  • Zero: Orange
  • Kyle: Brown
  • Ray: Navy blue
  • Sirius: Teal
  • Luka: Lavender
  • Fenrir: Lime green
  • Seth: Green
  • Harr: Deep purple
  • Loki: Magenta
  • Blanc: Light blue
  • Oliver: Emerald green
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Same as above.
• Contrived Coincidence: The MC falls into Cradle the same night that the two armies declare they’re officially going to war with each other...for the first time in 500 years.
• Darker and Edgier: Both endings are good endings, but the Dramatic Ending generally involves Alice and her suitor overcoming a rockier road to happiness than in Romantic.
• Dating Catwoman: Happens on Jonah's route between him and the MC. Unusually for this trope, both of their sides are fully aware they are dating and support it for practical reasons: the Red Army hopes that Jonah can peacefully convince the MC to switch sides to them, while the Black Army hopes that the MC going along with Jonah's dates will buy them more time to prepare for the impending war or even avert the war entirely.
  • Played straighter in one of Jonah's event stories set in an Alternate Universe where he and the MC come from rival families who disapprove of them dating each other.
• Dream Reality Check: Alice hits her head inside Blanc’s carriage and realizes that she’s not dreaming, she really did fall into Wonderland.
• Enemy Mine: In every route the Red and Black Armies team up to save Cradle from the Magic Tower and Amon Jabberwock.
• Everyone Can See It: Several instances:
  • In Edgar’s route, everyone can tell that Edgar showing genuine emotions for once is directly related to his growing feelings for Alice
  • This is rampant enough for the rest of the Black Army officers to corner Alice into confessing her love for Sirius.
  • Luka is Oblivious to Love, and therefore is one of the last to know that he’s in love with Alice in his route. This sometimes crosses over into other routes when phrases like “stealing Alice’s heart” go right over his head.
  Luka: Aren’t her ribs in the way?
  • In every route, Blanc usually can tell when Alice has begun to have feelings for somebody. Considering he’s the one who warns her in the first place, this may indicate he knows more than he lets on about what this means.
• Expy: Several characters are very clearly based on ones from Cybird's previous game Ikemen Sengoku:
  • The most blatant example is Ray Blackwell whose black-themed appearance and "aloof military leader with a hidden cheeky side" role/personality mimic Nobunaga Oda's to such an extent that he even shares Nobunaga's "tilted head and smug grin" pose.
  • Sirius Oswald, like Hideyoshi Toyotomi, is the right-hand man to his army's leader and acts like a perpetually worried parent to the rest of his army's members who constantly tease him about his mother-henning.
  • Fenrir Godspeed, like Masamune Date, is a playful, fearless Spirited Competitor who wields two weapons at once and initially frightens the female main character with his battle lust until she learns his reasons for fighting.
  • Blanc Lapin, like Sasuke Sarutobi, is a bespectacled Nice Guy whose chance encounter with the main character inadvertently causes her to become trapped in another time/world. He even warns her not to fall in love with anyone before she returns to her original time/world like Sasuke does.
  • Amon Jabberwock, like Kennyo, is a Manipulative Bastard who's Playing Both Sides of a war between two opposing armies and keeps his identity and true mastermind status a secret from them until The Reveal. The two armies also eventually join forces to defeat him in most routes.
• Fiery Redhead: Fenrir’s hair is more pink than actually red, but he fits this trope the most of the main cast. Averted with the only actual redhead, Kyle. Despite his love of drinking, he’s a pretty calm guy, and is professional in his role as army doctor.
• Flower Motifs:
  • Roses are the flowers growing in the Garden on top of Cradle’s Civic Center, and they feature in both covers for the game (which changes depending on the time of day).
  • In Lancelot's route, Lancelot tells the MC that a single white rose is supposed to have a special meaning but that he's forgotten what that meaning is. That meaning turns out to be "You are the only one for me," derived from a well-known Cradle fairytale, and it's the key to breaking the amnesia spell Lancelot cast on the MC.
  • In Sirius's route, Sirius's love of gardening means that he knows the language of flowers well, including the fact that irises mean "I love you". This gets a Call-Back when he gives the MC a bulb to plant when she returns to her world that turns out to be an iris acting as an indirect love confession from him.
• Forced Sleep: In Loki's route, he puts the MC to sleep with magic to keep her safe until she can return to her world — but it doesn't stick due to the MC breaking the sleeping spell with her Anti-Magic once she realizes she's in a dream.
• Gilded Cage: Lancelot subjects the MC to this in his route; he has the MC kidnapped and held prisoner in his army's headquarters where she's treated well with orders from him that no one is to harm or manipulate her. Edgar even likens him keeping her in his headquarters to him keeping a baby bird safe by locking it up.
• Government Agency of Fiction: The Magic Tower, a civic agency that refines and distributes Magic Crystals
• Gray Rain of Depression: Things aren’t usually in a good mood when it rains in the game. Explicitly stated to be one of Loki’s dislikes. This is because it was raining when he was abandoned by his parents.
• Guide Dang It!: Maxing out the Love Meter often requires a walkthrough, as it requires you to consistently pick the dialogue option that nets you the most Romantic and Dramatic points.
• Halloween Cosplay: The Halloween event features the cast dressed as various witches, vampires, and mummies.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: While she’ll always be referred to as Alice the Second, Alice’s real name can be determined by the player.
• I Choose to Stay:
  • The MC usually finds she would rather stay in Cradle with her new friends and lover than return to London. Which is coincidentally exactly what the White Rabbit warned her would happen.
  • In the past, Oliver chose to do this because he felt that he couldn't go back to London as long as he was under the spell that made him a child during the day.
• Instant Fan Club:
  • Jonah’s “Heart Defenders” - a secret group of Red soldiers who fanboy over Jonah
  • Also, Seth to Alice.
• Inventory Management Puzzle: You’re given limited closet space, so eventually you will have to either buy more with Magic Crystals, or sell old pieces to make room.
• It Seemed Trivial: A villainous version; Lancelot says this to Amon in several routes when the latter asks him why he didn't tell him about the MC's arrival in Cradle. Which is actually just Lancelot's attempt to hide the fact that he doesn't want the MC to fall into Amon's hands.
• It Was a Gift: One of the attire checkpoints usually shows up in the story right after it’s bought, as a gift to Alice from the man whose route she’s on.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Lancelot does this to the MC near the end of his route, he feels it’s safer for her to forget about him and return to London, even if it breaks his own heart to do it.
  • Zero remembers very little about his time at the Magic Tower due to the Disciples tampering with his memories. Later on in his route, they erase his memories of his post-Tower life to reprogram him into an obedient tool to them.
• Luck-Based Mission: Getting the 4- or 5-star Gacha usually is this, unless you want to spend a lot of Magic Crystals to up your chances of success.
• Magic Is Evil: Played with. The kinder Black Army uses physical weapons instead of magic, whereas the more ruthless Red Army relies more heavily on magic and the true Big Bad, Amon, is the leader of the Magic Tower who's performed inhumane experiments on people to further the Tower's study of magic. However, the Red Army isn't as evil as they initially seem and magic by itself isn't treated as an inherent evil but as a power that can be used for good or evil depending on who wields it.
• Magitek: Magic Crystals seem capable of replicating any form of technology. They're used to power streetlights, fountains, and plumbing, among many other things.
• Mayfly–December Romance:
  • In Oliver's route, this is a source of worry for Oliver regarding his relationship with the MC: the spell that makes him a child during the day also made his adult form stop aging, which means that he will likely outlive the MC if they can't find a way to break his spell. The MC reassures him that even if his spell never gets broken, she still wants to be with him for as long as possible.
  • While Blanc's route hasn't come out yet, this trope will presumably come up on his route too since he's The Ageless who's lived far longer than any other character in the cast.
• Meaningful Name: Many characters' names have an obvious meaning to them. The most blatant ones are Ray Blackwell and Lancelot Kingsley.
• Microtransactions: There is an in-game currency of gold coins called Lin, used to buy Normal attire, and then there’s the premium currency called Magic Crystals, which nets you the Premium items, but it requires paying actual money to get. Either that, or waiting for the daily login bonus to be Magic Crystals.
• Multiple Endings: There are two endings, Romantic and Dramatic. Both are happy endings, though one generally puts the characters through a bit more to get there. Your dialogue choices during the route affect which ending you’ll receive.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Day Lost to Darkness/The Day that Went Dark, depending on the translator.
• New Game Plus: You get different ending rewards for your room and avatars depending on which ending you pick, and you have to go back and get the other ending to get the other rewards. Additionally, some chapters from his POV are only available after reaching both endings.
• No-Sell: Alice has the ability to nullify magic, since she’s from the Land of Reason.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Oliver the snarky, sophisticated, hatter-slash-inventor and Blanc the flirtatious, kind record-keeper. One looks like a 13-year-old boy by day, adult man by night, and the other is implied to be The Ageless with a darker past than he lets on. They’re also housemates, and probably each other’s closest friend.
  • Luka the shy, innocent Jack of Spades and Edgar the manipulative, devious Jack of Hearts. Despite their polar opposite personalities and allegiance to opposing armies, they used to be schoolmates and still consider each other to be friends.
• Play Every Day: The Daily Login Bonus feature, which awards the player with Lin, Magic Crystals, Gacha tokens, or items to raise stamina and intimacy if the player opens the app every day.
• Playing Card Motifs: Considering the source material has plenty of this, it’s a given.
• Power Crystal: Magic Crystals enable people in Cradle to use magic even if they're not gifted with innate magical ability.
• The Power of Love:
  • Despite it being established in several routes that the MC can't break a magic spell that's already been successfully cast, she manages to do exactly that in Loki and Zero's routes with no explanation given other than her love for them being powerful enough to override the magic.
  • In Oliver's route, it turns out that Oliver feeling especially strong emotions of love for the MC can temporarily break the spell that keeps him in child form during the day. It's not enough on its own to completely break the spell, however.
• Pretty Boy: As expected for an otome, every suitor is considered very attractive in-game, though special mention goes to the Clemence brothers for having features described as “porcelain doll-like.”
• The Promise: Some routes have an important promise made between characters:
  • At the start of Fenrir's route, he makes three promises with the MC to help her feel safe and happy in Cradle before she returns home: they'll spend every day having fun in Cradle, say their goodbyes with a smile, and avoid falling in love with each other. Unsurprisingly, they end up breaking pretty much all these promises when they fall in love with each other anyway and the MC decides that she wants to stay with him in Cradle instead of saying goodbye to him.
  • In Sirius's route, Sirius says that in the past Lancelot promised him that after he had become king and achieved peace between the Red and Black Armies, he would ride into the Central Quarter and buy flowers from Sirius's flower shop. In Sirius's Dramatic ending, he does just that.
• Recycled Premise: Players coming to this game from Ikemen Sengoku may notice that the basic concepts of the two games' premises are very similar: A young woman from the modern day has a fateful encounter with a bespectacled man that leads to her being trapped in a time/world completely different from the one she is used to, where two factions are on the verge of war and a third party in the shadows is secretly manipulating both sides for their own nefarious goals.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When a character's eyes turn red, it's a warning that they're about to use magic.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: This dynamic is at play between the Red and Black Armies, but with the Onis switched: the Red Army tends to place more value on prestige and nobility, with an air of cold professionalism in the way they conduct themselves. Meanwhile the Black Army places more value on the merit of a soldier, rather than their family lineage, to determine their ranks. They’re also a much friendlier bunch, often acting like a big family. However, a big part of the story revolves around the MC realizing that the Red and Black armies are more similar than they seem.
• Remember the New Guy?: Zero's route introduces Mousse, Dean, and Dalim who were completely absent from the prologue and earlier routes due to them not being part of the original cast and added only when the game was starting to run out of characters to release new routes for.
• Rescue Romance: The MC is always under the threat of being kidnapped and used as a test subject for the Magic Tower and they achieve this with varying amounts of success in each route.
• The Reveal:
  • Edgar's route is the first route released wherein Amon shows his face to Alice for the first time.
  • Oliver's route reveals more of the Magic Tower's intentions: they're working on time retrogression magic to restore an old journal from London that might have belonged to an "Alice 0" who fell into Cradle decades before "Alice the First" did.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Haughty, confident platinum-haired Jonah who wants to reconcile with his little brother, and quiet, introverted dark-haired Luka who just wants his annoying big brother to leave him alone.
• Socialization Bonus: Sending a greeting to your friend list everyday nets you Lin for every friend on the list.
• Switching P.O.V.: Some chapters can be read from the suitor’s POV, and even more when both endings are completed.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Red and Black Armies when they have to team up against the Magic Tower.
• Tempting Fate: At the end of the prologue, Blanc tells Alice not to fall in love with anyone from Cradle, as it could cause trouble for her desire to return to London by the next full moon. Of course, being an otome, this goes about as well as you’d expect.
• Token Good Teammate: Kyle and Zero, unlike the other Red Army officers, aren't interested in kidnapping or manipulating the MC and are the only person at first to show her genuine kindness when she's forced to stay with the Red Army in their routes. They're only a partial example of this trope, though, as the other Red Army officers aren't quite as evil as they initially appear.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Happened to Ray Blackwell when his previously-undetected magic powers activated when he witnessed Magic Tower disciples trying to kidnap students, causing many people to be severely injured and at least one of them to die, and also to Loki Genetta when he accidentally injured several people with his powers and his family abandoned him as a result.
• Tsundere:
  • Jonah, oh so very much. Despite being arrogant and egotistical, he becomes extremely affectionate and fawning towards the MC after they get together and frequently gushes about what an amazing girlfriend she is.
  • Luka is a platonic version of this towards Jonah. He spends 90% of his time in Jonah's presence insulting him, trying to fight him, and/or rejecting his attempts to reconcile with him and the remaining 10% being upset about Jonah risking his life and/or not being as close to him as he used to be.
  • Oliver, who constantly insults and snarks at the MC but will play the Knight in Shining Armor for her in a heartbeat whenever she's in danger.
• Unique Protagonist Asset: Alice is the only one with the ability to No-Sell magic attacks, being from the Land of Reason. No one she meets in Wonderland has the ability, not even Oliver, who is from London like her.
• Unwitting Pawn: The entire Red Army for Amon Jabberwock and the rest of his disciples of the Magic Tower, except for Lancelot who's fully aware of Amon's plans and is trying to subvert them.
• Vague Age: Alice’s age is left up to the player, though she mentions being older than Loki who is nineteen, and it’s implied she’s younger than Sirius is at thirty. She’s probably meant to be somewhere in her mid-twenties like most of the rest of the cast, though beyond that it’s anyone’s guess.
• Virtual Paper Doll: The MC gets various items of clothing in each route, which she can change at any time.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Seth and Fenrir, who have regular arm-wrestling and verbal sniping contests. The MC even thinks at one point that she can't tell if they're best friends or rivals.
  • Blanc and Oliver, though it’s more one-sided on Oliver’s part.
  • Edgar and Zero. Edgar constantly (and deliberately) gets on Zero's nerves, but the two ultimately respect and watch out for each other.
• We Used to Be Friends: Sirius, Lancelot, and Harr all used to be best friends in school. Fast forward to the present, where Sirius and Lancelot are on opposing armies and Harr is a wanted fugitive.
• White-and-Grey Morality: The Red Army vs. Black Army conflict initially appears to be a case of Black-and-White Morality in the prologue with the Red Army men coming across as power-hungry Jerkasses in contrast to the Black Army men's kinder treatment of the MC, but each route reveals that the Red Army men aren't as evil as they seem to be and have their own noble qualities. When the legitimately power-hungry and crazed Amon is revealed to be the true Big Bad, the conflict morphs back into a Black-and-White Morality one, with the Black and Red Armies joining forces to take down Amon.

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