Akuru (left) and Ren (right)
OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos
is a Yuri Genre Romance Game Visual Novel, released internationally in February 2020. The story was developed by SukeraSomero, and published by HUBLOTS and mirai works.Akuru Hayahoshi is an unlucky otaku office worker who just can't pull her husbando in the gacha game she's obsessed with, no matter how much money she throws at it. Until one day, she runs into the garishly gorgeous and freakishly lucky Ren Furutachi. A series of misunderstandings lead to a proposal, and Ren starts to full-on pursue Akuru. Akuru wants her husbando, and Ren wants Akuru as her waifu... Are these two ever gonna end up together?!
A voice drama set after the story's events, Akuru & Ren's Exchange Diary, was released in April 2021. A full sequel, OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos ~Love･or･die~, was released in July 2021. Both the original game and the sequel have been announced to receive a release on the Nintendo Switch in 2022.
Tropes:
- Born Lucky: Ren is referred to as uncannily lucky, which helps contrast her with Akuru, who initially spends time with Ren just for better odds at her mobile game.
- Born Unlucky: Akuru, who just can't seem to pull her "husbando" in her mobile game's gacha lottery no matter how much money she sinks into it until she meets Ren. It continues in Akuru & Ren's Exchange Diary, where she sinks a ton of money into a raffle for merchandise based on her mobile game, and ends up with merch for every character except the only one she cares about.
- Crack is Cheaper: In-universe, Akuru's mobile game obsession is leading her to actual financial ruin at the start of the original story.
- Companion Cube: Akuru is utterly infatuated with pursuing her "2D husbando" in a mobile game.
- The Fashionista: Ren, who's referred to as "garishly gorgeous".
- Hotter and Sexier: The version of this visual novel (and its sequel) available on JAST USA and MangaGamer websites includes H-Game content not present in other public releases; for those that already purchased the game via Steam, JAST and MangaGamer also sell a "DLC" patch that can be applied to enable this content, which cannot be sold through Steam itself due to terms and conditions.
- Love Triangle: In ~Love･or･die~, Akuru ends up having to compete with Aira's advances toward Ren.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Ren, whose influence on Akuru's life is compared by the latter to an alien suddenly coming from space and proclaiming their love for an Earthling.
- Mistaken Declaration of Love: The crux of the story is Akuru confessing her love to her "husbando" from her phone game, and Ren mistaking it as reciprocation for her own Love at First Sight towards Akuru.
- Officially Shortened Title: OshiRabu is actually the shortened version of the game's original Japanese title Oshi no Love yori Koi no Love (roughly translating to "This Isn't Fan Love, It's Real Love").
- Like any good mobile game, "Swordsmen for Sale" has an officially shortened title: "Kensho."
- Operation: Jealousy: An accidental example in ~Love･or･die~, wherein Akuru's jealousy over Ren's long-time friend, Aira Udou, leads to her accepting a marriage proposal from Ren.
- Otaku: Akuru is a downplayed example, as she's simply obsessed with a mobile phone game...though to the point of financial ruin. Her friend Shino is a more traditional example that's joined at least three doujin circles.
- Shout-Out: The game opens with Akuru's recollection of a story in which "an alien descends from the star to loudly proclaim her love to an Earthling man." Sure enough, the inciting incident— in which Ren mistakenly thinks that Akuru's declaration of love for her "husbando" is aimed at her— is basically a reference to the inciting incident of Urusei Yatsura. At one point of the game Ren even cosplays in Lum's iconic tiger stripe bikini.
- "Swordsmen for Sale," the popular In-Universe gatcha game, is about recruiting a team of famous swordsmen throughout history reimagined as handsome men, making it sound like a swordmans-specific version of FateGO, or perhaps an alternate version of Touken Ranbu that focuses on the sword-wielders rather than the swords.
- Show Within a Show: "Swordsmen for Sale," or "Kensho," is the In-Universe gatcha game that Akuru is obsessed with. Its focus is collecting famous swordsmen throughout history in order to put together the "strongest team of sellswords"
- Slice of Life: The focus of Akuru & Ren's Exchange Diary is the titular duo writing diary entries about days in their lives.
- White Collar Worker: Akuru and Shino are coworkers at an office.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The plot-starting misunderstanding of Ren misinterpreting Akuru's "proposal" as being directed towards her is taken from Urusei Yatsura. The recollection Akuru tells at the beginning of the game about a story of "an alien descending from the star to loudly proclaim her love to an Earthling man" makes this apparent.
