Visual Novel / Senren * Banka

The girls, clock-wise from top: Lena, Mako, Murasame and Yoshino.

Masaomi Arichi is a lazy guy just going about his business. His mother forces him to see his grandfather in the mountain town of Hoori, known for its hot springs. When he arrives, he meets his grandfather who invites him to the spring festival where participants attempt to lift a legendary sword, the Murasamemaru, embedded in a large rock. Masaomi then tries his luck when the sword inexplicably snaps from the hilt.

Later that night, he encounters a spirit of a young girl who houses the Murasamemaru, Marusame, repairs the sword with ease. She reveals that only a select few who can see her, such as shrine maidens and ninjas. Masaomi then finds himself engaged to the young Shrine Maiden Yoshino Tomotake.

As if his life couldn't get any better or worse, a tourist loses her young son, prompting him to find the child before dark. But he is suddenly attacked by a strange shadowy creature. Masaomi then finds out the truth about Hoori: the creatures are cursed spirits, monsters born from immense grudge and cursed the land. As Murasumemaru's wielder, Masaomi decides to arm himself to save the town and purge Hoori of its curse once and all.

Senren ＊ Banka (also known as Senren ＊ Banka: A Thousand Colors of Love) is a 2016 Visual Novel by Yuzusoft, the creators behind Dracu-Riot!, Sabbat of the Witch and Noble Works. The Steam version was released in Feb 14, 2020 along with other Yuzusoft titles.

Has a Character Sheet under construction.

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This work contains the following examples

• Aborted Arc: On Murasame's route the spiritual aura of the temple is stated to be weakening and this is treated as a potentially serious issue. After the investigation into this brings up a separate issue, namely Murasame's body and her chance to be human again, nobody brings up the matter again.
• Accidental Pervert:
  • On Masaomi's first hunt, he accidentally cuts Yoshino's robes.
  • He almost went on Mako while she was bathing. Unfortunately, what didn't help was that Mako was completely naked while being close to him. This actually becomes a Running Gag between the two before their Relationship Upgrade.
  • When he first met Lena, she accidentally crashed into him, causing him to land on her chest. She doesnt seem to notice.
  • Funnily enough, he parodies and exaggerate this when girls walk in on him. After his first H-scene with Murasame, she points out he's still naked, prompting him to tell her, teasingly, "I can't be a groom anymore!" which of course a humorous take of girls can't be brides anymore if a guy accidentally saw them naked.
  • And then there's Lena's case where she stumbles upon Masaomi's gift from Rentarou whom gave him a porn mag for him to view while he was hospitalized at the Tomotake's household.
• A-Cup Angst: When the girls are taking a bath, Murasame becomes incredibly jealous of the assets of the other girls, especially Lena.
• Advertised Extra: Motoko Inotani, the manager of Genjuurou's inn, and Hinami Chuujou, the kids' teacher, get actual sprites and reasonably detailed introductions then go on to have very little of significance to do in any route.
• Affectionate Nickname: Roka often calls Masaomi "Ma-bou".
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents:
  • Five out of six heroines', including Masaomi's own, are this. There hasn't been a single parent in each route where Masaomi has yet to meet his current girlfriend's parent with a bit of normalcy in them. The exception however is Murasame and then only because her parents have been dead for centuries.
  • Masaomi ironically becomes one himself after Yoshino gave birth to their first-born son, who took hundreds of pictures of him.
• Amicable Exes: In other routes outside Yoshino's, Masaomi and Yoshino are on good terms with each other since they see each other as Better as Friends rather than in a romantic light.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: How Rentarou sees his little sister while Masaomi has the opposite mindset.
• Anti-Frustration Features: A rare visual novel version. The game features a flow chart, showing you what route is being taken. Meaning you don't have to go through the entire Common Route just to see whose route you end up. All you really have to do is select the choices that favor that particular heroine. This also lets the player revisit any scene they want.
• The Atoner: Mako's family is descended from the eldest son of the Tomotake family. But because the main Tomotake family branch showed mercy to them since they were innocent throughout the whole mess, they chose to serve the main family for generations.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • After pulling (and breaking) the Murasamemaru, Yoshino's father imposes one on Masaomi and Yoshino. Masaomi can reject this in other routes, but becomes a Perfectly Arranged Marriage in Yoshino's route.
  • Yoshino keeps receiving frequent requests from other men to see their sons whom she has no intention of meeting. This irritates her as well as Masaomi, who wants to confess his love for her in her route.
• Art Shift: Many comical events in the story are depicted in Super-Deformed style.
• Babies Ever After: In Yoshino's route, Masaomi and Yoshino have a boy as their first-born child, confirming that the Tomotake family's centuries-long curse is truly no more.
• Bad Liar: Yoshino can't seem to lie her way out nor keep things a secret, only coming up with Suspiciously Specific Denial. Masaomi and Mako are painfully aware of this in the latter's route when they decide to have lunch together.
• Being Evil Sucks: In Mako's route, Shirokoma begins to feel what it's like to love again and asks to be purified. Since he spent 500 years as a cursed beast and Mako abates his anger, being purified is his last wish.
• Better as Friends: A Just Friends variety in Mako's route. Yoshino and Masaomi agreed with each other that they are just better as friends since they don't feel anything romantic with each other. While it gets less focus the same is true on every route except Yoshino's own.
• Big Brother Bully: Rentarou is rather mean towards Koharu.
• Big Brother Attraction: Despite being cousins, Koharu develops one towards Masaomi in her shared route with Roka. Also implied to be the case with the god Shirokoma towards his elder sister Murakumo
• Big Brother Worship: Koharu adores and treats Masaomi affectionately like the big brother she cares for, unlike her actual big brother Rentarou due to his negative reputation.
• Black Sheep: Subverted as Mako is concerned. She reveals that her family are descendants of the Greater-Scope Villain. While her ancestors were ostracized, her living family were not, despite living near the edge of town. She is aware that Masaomi is angry about it, and told him not to worry about it as her family chose to serve the main Tomotake family by their own admission.
• Bowdlerise: The steamy scenes are edited out in the Steam version. However a DLC was made to restore the sexual content for the game for free.
• Breather Episode: Roka and Koharu's routes are definitely the most calming routes compared to the main heroines, since it only deals with Masaomi getting a job at Roka's workplace while he either pursues Roka or Koharu.
• Bridal Carry: Mako wanted to be carried like this when she reads manga. When it does happen, she gets caught by Masaomi after trying to save a kitten stuck on a tree. Since Masaomi was the one to do it, this would lead to her attraction to him in her route.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Masaomi lampshades this in regard to himself. But once the cursed spirits show up, he has no time to laze around anymore and asks his grandfather to train him.
• But I Read a Book About It: Mako's mind operates from shoujo manga, and thus Thinks Like a Romance Novel. In her route, she tries to get Yoshino to ask Masaomi to use the Wall Pin of Love on her to see whether she has feelings for him. Masaomi picks up on it when he goes into Mako's room (by her mother's admission) seeing her shojo manga collection.
• Butt-Monkey: Rentarou is the butt of everyone's jokes. Considering the guy he is, no one, not even Lena, gives him a shred of respect.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: In Lena's route, she begins to hug people after inviting them to a sleepover. It actually causes the girls to question their sexuality after they receive a hug from her. Except Rentarou.
• Cain and Abel: The backstory reveals that the older brother of the Tomotake family resented and had a massive grudge against his more charismatic and successful brother who took the inheritance. It gets the point where in backstory, the younger brother had slain his brother with the Murasamemaru but not before cursing his brother and his family for generations to come.
• The Cameo: So far, the character cameos consists of Yamabuki Aoi from Tenshin Ranman Lucky or Unlucky!?, and Touko and Tsumugi from Sabbat of the Witch.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: In Roka's route, she eats Masaomi's shaved ice with sake. However, she ate so much of it that she becomes piss-drunk.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: Once the cursed spirits show up, it takes a much darker turn when the protagonist face them. But after the Common Route, the heroines' routes are significantly lighter. Yoshino however still has a much darker story since her family has ties with the cursed spirits.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Masaomi can choose either Roka or Koharu as his Love Interest.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Lena frequently drops this. However, it's used in an innocent way.
• Commuting on a Bus: Yoshino and Mako appears sparsely in the subroutes involving Roka and Koharu. Murasame almost never appears after Masaomi leaves the Tomotake household.
• Cool Big Sis: Roka is the oldest of Masaomi's original friends. She's also the teasing sort.
• Curse Is Foiled Again: The main plotline is centred around breaking the curse laid on the Tomotake family. On Murasame's route and the Roka/Koharu subroute it is broken just before the route starts by repairing the Medium, on Yoshino and Mako's routes the same thing happens but the curse re-manifests in a new form requiring a different solution to finish off properly and on Lena's route the Medium is drawn into her, causing the curse to persist until the end of the route.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Elements of the plot points of each route are hinted at in others, but the inciting incident which triggers the drama of a particular route is usually not present for one reason or another.
  • In Yoshino's route, her physical intimacy with Masaomi reawakens the grudge after he absorbed it into his body, and causes it to target her again. Without that intimacy, the grudge would have slowly died away.
  • In Mako's route, Shirokoma's curse starts afflicting her because of the budding romance between Mako and Masaomi, as the god wants to understand the concept of love and is hostile to Mako since she descended from the man who made the original curse. In other routes, Murasame says that Shirokoma would find peace on his own without interference and become a divine messenger in time.
  • In Lena's route, Shirokoma encounters Lena when she joins the group to purify the cursed spirits, and this starts his obsession with her. In other routes, Shirokoma doesn't come into contact with her directly so he never makes the connection between her and his sister.
  • In Murasame's route, she regains her body and Murasamemaru is returned to the stone that originally housed it. The latter isn't mentioned in any other routes, but both Yoshino's and Lena's routes hint that the group are going to find a way to return her to her body.
• Darker and Edgier: By far the darkest visual novel made by Yuzusoft, even more so than Dracu-Riot!. While it does contain your usual eroge high school tropes, it also deals with loss, betrayal, revenge, Death by Childbirth, very cruel Star-Crossed Lovers, and a Tragic Monster who holds a deep Humans Are Bastards viewpoint. Let's not even get into the Cain and Abel plotline that started the whole mess.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Lena loves to hug her nearest friends when they see her, and they all react when she does this. This is Truth in Television as Japanese people are not used to physical contact, especially with friends or co-workers. Masaomi eventually gets used to it after his Relationship Upgrade with Lena.
• Disproportionate Retribution: To get back at the village as well as his father and brother, the eldest son of the Tomotake family sacrifices Shirokuma to create the curse and it causes disease and natural disasters, as well as getting to the nearest warlords in his campaign to declare war on his own village just because the entire town favored his brother over him.
• Eastern Zodiac: Each girls' route has two different Eye Catch with different signs:
  • Yoshino: Rooster and Horse
  • Mako: Dragon and Dog
  • Murasame: Rabbit and Snake
  • Lena: Tiger and Ox
  • Koharu: Rat and Monkey
  • Roka: Sheep and Pig
• Empathic Weapon: The Murasamemaru is one as Masaomi is its wielder. Murasame thanks Masaomi for being its wielder at end of Murasame's route.
• Eldritch Abomination: The cursed spirits look like a demonic dogs with Combat Tentacles. Justified as Shirokoma was used as a sacrifice to place a curse on the land and hold an immense grudge against the Tomotake family.
• Even the Girls Want Her: In Lena's route, when everyone goes to the inn for a sleepover, Lena starts hugging everyone there. The girls quietly comment on her breasts after she hugs them.
• Event Flag: There are flags in the Common Route that leads to other flags in the story. Some of the flags can lead to the chosen heroine of your choice.
• Food Porn: Quite a lot of moments in the story focus on how damn good the food the characters are having is, though Lena's route turns this around by taking jabs at some of the stranger culinary ideas to come out of Scandinavia.
• Forced Transformation: Mako's route has her running this issue ever since she was attacked by a cursed spirit by turning into a puppy. Luckily, one wash in the bath restores her to normal.
• Foreign Queasine: Salmiakki, the Scandinavian candy Lena gives Masaomi in her route, tastes so awful, people act like they were about to pass on to the afterlife. Mako gives an excruciating detail on what it tastes like. Even Lena admits that it is more like an acquired taste to her countrymen.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Rentarou is shunted into this role after some unsavory rumors against him. Him being a Casanova Wannabe, trying to hit on Lena, and the fact that he had two ex-girlfriends fighting over him and then some took his reputation a massive nose-dive did not help his case. He's basically your usual visual novel best friend where he's more unpopular than the actual protagonist.
• Funny Foreigner: Lena is a Japanophile from Scandinavia who mangles Japanese words and phrases from time to time.
• Good Parents: Yasuharu is an Open-Minded Parent and he doesn't mind Yoshino and Masaomi's relationship.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: In Mako's Route, after purifying Shirokoma in a long-winded battle, Mako and Masamoi find themselves turned on after they purify him. Murasame and Yoshino decide to let them be after all the both went through, and Mako and Masaomi decide to have sex right after.
• Greater-Scope Villain: While long dead by the start of the story, the eldest son of the Tomotake family is the cause of the many problems for Yoshino and Mako's families, as well as Murasame's illness. His It's All About Me attitude and stripped of his inheritance lead to him sacrifice the komainu god Shirokoma, which created the curse that had spawned cursed spirits, and placing one on his younger brother's family where all of his descendants would be women who die young. As the Hitachi family descended from him, they see serving the main Tomotake family as a form of atonement for the atrocities their progenitor. Yoshino's route is the only time he's fought but with Yoshino the one who defeats him.
• Happily Married: Some routes involve Masaomi getting engaged with the woman he loves. His relationship with Yoshino becomes a Perfectly Arranged Marriage at the end of her route.
• Hated by All: No one likes Rentarou due to his womanizing ways, including his own family. It started when he was dating a girl in his class but broke up with her. He dated another girl right after and his ex got into a fight with her as well. It got so bad that nobody would let him live it down and to the point that he becomes The Friend Nobody Likes.
• Hereditary Curse: The Tomotake Curse was started by the eldest brother who held a grudge on his younger brother. He sacrificed the komainu god Shirokoma and even imbued his own grudge against his younger brother and his family. All of the Tomotake descendants are female with no male heir, which enforced for men to marry into the family from each succeeding daughter to the next. The mother would die young while leaving their only daughter in their stead. In Yoshino's route, they break the curse, and Yoshino and Masaomi are able to get a son.
• Heroic RRoD: When a cursed spirit attacks Mizuha's clinic, Masaomi suggests that Murasame embed divine power into him to take it on due to lack of the Murasame on his person. She heavily objects the idea, but since she has no other options to deal with it, she imbues Masaomi's body with divine powers, but once he finishes off the Cursed Spirit, she immediately takes back her power, but Masaomi becomes incapacitated for two days.
• Human Sacrifice: Murasame was offered as a sacrifice willingly to fight the curse. Since she was already dying, she had no hangups about it. She only laments that she can't eat food or communicate with other people. Only she did it to escape death despite her parents wanting to be with her Together in Death. She still feels awful about it.
• Hypocrite: The eldest son of the Tomotake family hated his father and younger brother, yet he has the gall to yell at his brother for killing him when he was the one who cause Hoori's troubles to begin with.
• Identical Stranger: Raised but subverted in Lena's route. Lena and Masaomi see the goddess Murakumo and the mortal she loved in their dreams as looking exactly like Lena and Masaomi respectively but it's quickly established that they bare only passing resemblances to these past individuals in real life and are only perceiving them as identical because they are taking on their memories.
• I Just Want to Be Normal:
  • Yoshino wants to have a normal life, but due to her duty as the Shrine Princess, her duty comes first. She really wants to socialize with other people like a normal person.
  • Murasame wishes to to be human again after being the Murasamemaru's caretaker for 500 years, though she denies wanting to. She becomes fully human again after Masaomi reseals the Murasamemaru at the end of her route.
• I Want Grandkids: The heroines' parents express this desire one way or another, which undoubtedly puts a pressure on Masaomi and his chosen love interest.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the subroute, whomever Masaomi doesn't choose will be fine with his decision and will come to terms with it.
• The Ingenue: Lena and Yoshino are very innocent when it comes to the topic of sexual relationships.
• Insecure Love Interest: Yoshino is reluctant to accept Masaomi's confession since she feels she's hurting people around her.
• Insistent Terminology: Murasame would like to tell people she's not a ghost. She is a divine spirit and her soul is housed in the Murasamemaru.
• Invisible to Normals: Murasame is invisible to normal humans. Only a certain few can see her. Masaomi at one point was talking to her when a tourist saw him. He forgot she can't be seen by normal humans. Lena however can see her, which confused the group. However, since Murasame is revered in the town, certain people show great respect for her. Including Genjouro.
• Ironic Fear: Mako is a ninja, but she's deathly afraid of heights. There are two scenario where these events play out:
  • When Masaomi goes to help her vegetable picking, she finds a small bird and decides to put it back in its nest. She realizes how high she was, and tried to make herself lighter. Which involved throwing out her weapons and substitution log. She still remains shaky about the ordeal until everyone goes home.
  • She finds a kitten stuck in a tree and decides to rescue it. Unfortunate, she didn't think it through on how to get down again, until the branch snaps and Masaomi manages to catch her.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Getting to the bottom of the entire history of Hoori and the curse is not easy, and the player has to go down all four routes to figure out the entire storyline. Lena's route has the most important revelations, many of which explain events in the other three routes, particularly Mako's.
• Kill the God: While the information only becomes relevant on Mako and Lena's routes the curse on the Tomotake family was sealed with the forced sacrifice of Shirokoma, a local god of beasts.
• Kissing Cousins: Koharu is one of Masaomi's love interests and his cousin.
• Lampshade Hanging: Masaomi is aware of certain tropes in play when he talks to certain people. He even refers them as tropes.
• Love Epiphany: Par course for a visual novel like this. Several heroines at some point develop feelings towards Masaomi while he himself will fall for whomever's route the player chooses.
• Love Interest: There are a total of 6 heroines, four being Yoshino, Mako, Lena, and Murasame and two being subroutes for Roka and Koharu.
• Love Triangle: Both Roka and Koharu develop feelings for Masaomi in their shared route. However unlike other examples where drama ensues, because they are on good terms with each other, they will bow out to the person Masaomi chooses.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places:
  • At one point on Lena's route she and Masaomi are the last to leave the school classroom and, well, one thing leads to another...
  • At the ahem climax of both Koharu and Roka's sub-route the girl in question and Masaomi hook up at their restaurant after hours.
• Mayfly–December Romance:
  • The goddess of stones and jewels Murakumo fell in love with a human samurai while he was out training by his lonesome. She gave him the sword Murasame to fight the bandits with. But their love was never meant to be and he married another woman. Their family would become the Tomotake for generations to come.
  • Averted on Murasame's route. Murasame regains her mortal body shortly after she starts going out with Masaomi.
• Missing Mom: Yoshino's mother Akiko died before the events of the story. Her death weighs heavily on her daughter and husband who still grieves for her.
• Moment Killer: While retraining himself during Murasame's route, Masaomi rests his head on her lap while exhausted. Genjirou unintentionally breaks the mood that Murasame becomes really pissed at that she was about to reveal the time he tried to deliver a letter to his crush. He apologizes immediately.
• Mood Whiplash: A tense or dramatic scene tends to be followed by a comedic moment. One example is the Accidental Pervert moment where Masaomi inadvertently disrobes Yoshino with the Murasamemaru, another is in Mako's route when Masaomi thinks Mako fled from him after he made his move and feels dejected, only to find Mako transformed into a puppy, making him laughs his ass off.
• Nervous Wreck: When Masaomi invites Roka to his apartment room, she automatically assumes he's inviting her for sex. She comes to his room freaking out while Masaomi prepares some dessert for her to try. Once she figures out he wasn't inviting her for sex, she calms down.
• Naked First Impression: When Masaomi goes to Mako's house to return her wallet, her mother invites him to her room. As Masaomi waits in her room, Mako goes into her room, seeing Masaomi while wearing a pair of panties and a towel over her shoulders. Thinking she might be hallucinating, she asks her mother for some medicine. But after realizing that she isn't, she flips her shit.
• No Name Given: Historical characters weren't named when brought up. This extends to the Tomotake family's ancestor who was given the Murasamemaru when it was called the Murasame.
• Oblivious to Love: Occasionally, it takes a while for Masaomi to notice a girl's affection towards him or that he feels that way for the girl of his choice. Once he realizes they are, he will pursue and develop a Relationship Upgrade with them.
• Older Than They Look: Murasame looks like a preteen girl, but as she's the spirit of the Murasamemaru, she's a 500 year old spirit.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Masaomi knows his strict grandfather enough that seeing him being very formal when told that Murasame is around surprises Masaomi.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: While she insist she isn't a ghost, Murasame is able to go anywhere she pleases, select few can see her, and Masaomi can physically touch her. That last one was a surprise to her since she thought no one can touch her.
• Plot Hole: In Murasame's route, Hoori was in a financial crisis after the Murasamemaru was released from the stone it was embedded in. The entire plot on her route revolves around resealing the Murasamemaru to save Hoori from financial crisis, and this is after the cursed spirits were dealt with. In all the other routes, including the subroutes, there's no indication that Hoori has a financial crisis.
• Quirky Household: When Masaomi meets Lena's family through her laptop, they were apparently too excitable when they meet him, calling him a samurai. Masaomi points out how odd this is.
• Regional Riff: The soundtrack is composed mostly with a shamisen. In fact, Roka's subroute involves her practicing a shamisen in her spare time, and teaching Masaomi how to play.
• Reincarnation Romance: Implied but ultimately subverted in Lena's route; Lena is not the reincarnation of the goddess Murakumo, her grieving brother was just trying to force her into that role and Masaomi has nothing particularly to do with the samurai she loved except maybe being distantly related to him.
• Relationship Upgrade: Masaomi can gain relationships with the girl of his choice. He has a total of 6 potential Love Interests, two being subroutes involving Roka and Koharu.
• Running Gag:
  • Mako would love to remind people that she's a Ninja. Masaomi even lampshades the possibility of saying this in Yoshino's route. She also tends to call Masaomi's junior an alien.
  • Murasame insists she's not a ghost. She's a Divine Spirit.
  • Lena receives a gift from her parents back in Finland in her route, and among one of them is salmiakki (salty liquorice). While she is accustomed to its taste, the same cannot be said for Masaomi, Mako, and Yoshino's father. All three of them find the liquorice unpalatable, especially Mako, who has a culinary background.
• Shared Universe: With Café Stella and the Reapers' Butterflies, in which the Tomotake family, especially Yoshino, are directly referenced. Even the foreign tourists make their appearances in Cafe Stella!
• Single Sex Offspring: The Tomotake family produces only girls as a result of the curse (and only ever one girl per generation at that. On Yoshino's route her and Masaomi having a boy is the final proof that the curse is gone for good.
• Sleeping with the Boss: If Roka is chosen as Masaomi's Love Interest, he will go out of his way to help her at her cafe while making shaved ice desserts and wishing to see her smile again. They actually sleep with each other when she's chosen.
• Soul Jar: The Medium is what remains of Murasamemaru's creator, Murakumo after she went out of her way to save a samurai's wife and child, violating the non-interference rule among the gods in the process and ended up paying with her life. Oddly the soul imprisoned there is not hers but rather that of her brother Shirokoma after he was sacrificed centuries later. Part of Murakumo's essence is in the sword Murasamemaru.
• Story Branching: There are multiple choices in the game. These choices reflect on the player's chosen heroine and unlocks their route. Luckily a Flow Chart makes this easier to show you the choices you've made and what route is being taken.
• Sweet Tooth: Yoshino loves sweets or anything with sugar. In her route, Masaomi goes out of his way to make pudding for her.
  • In addition, there is a scene where Yoshino and Masaomi debate on how eggs should be seasoned. The former insists sugar, while the latter states salt. This is referenced again when Yoshino makes a bento lunchbox for Masaomi in her route. And surprisingly enough, he doesn't mind if there was sugar added in the eggs.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: How the village of Hoori views the Tomotake's eldest son. As an act of revenge, he set off the curse on the village and gets put down by his younger brother. But he curses his brother and his bloodline with his dying breath.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Mako spends her alone time reading shojo manga, specifically romance ones, on her spare time. She actually wishes her life was like this.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Mako and Yoshino respectively, even though they are both considered femininely attractive in-universe. Mako is strong, athletic, extroverted, has short hair and does not care much about her appearance, while Yoshino is traditionally courteous, reserved, has longer hair (hence more feminine-looking hairstyles), works as a miko and does elegant ritual dances as part of her job. This dynamic makes Mako convince herself that she is less attractive than Yoshino and a significant of part of Mako's route is about making her realize how feminine and cute she actually is.
• Training from Hell: Masaomi stopped practicing Kendo because of his grandfather's Spartan-like training. But after his first near-fatal encounter with a Curse Spirit, he realizes he can't slack off anymore. Luckily, his training with his grandfather improves his performance against the cursed spirits.
• Troll: Mako loves to troll her friends at their expense.
• Tsundere:
  • Yoshino at first acted very Tsun towards Masaomi and seeing him as The Load when they slay cursed spirits. But once she discovers he had been training with his grandfather to get stronger, she feels horrible by the way she treated him and wants to be nicer to him. She still has traits of this after her Relationship Upgrade, but out of annoyance. She remains this towards her own father when he insist Masaomi redo their marriage arrangement in other routes.
  • Murasame is a classic case. She will frequently deny wanting to try modern food or her feelings towards Masaomi.
  • Masaomi humorously thinks Roka's father is one after taste-testing a coffee she brewed.
  • His grandfather is actually a straight example. He loves his grandchildren, but is very stern with Rentarou and Masaomi. Masaomi manages to get on his good side but Rentarou would rather avoid making eye contact with him. Masaomi lampshades this in Murasame's route about him being this.
• Unlockable Content: The subroute for Koharu and Roka is unlocked when a main heroine's route is completed. In the process, the After Story for the heroines, the CG image gallery, the music gallery, and the sprite gallery all become available.
• Unusual Ears: Yoshino spouts dog-like ears from her head. Unlike many examples, her animal ears is a red flag to signal incoming cursed spirit attacks.
• Wall Pin of Love: Invoked Trope. In Mako's route, at Mako's suggestion, Yoshino asks Masaomi to do this to her in order to test her feelings for him. Much later in that route, Masaomi does the same thing to Mako while confessing to her.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: After eating one of Masaomi's shaved ice with sake, Roka becomes too drunk that she gets a hangover on the following morning. When she wakes up, she starts screaming, having Masaomi tell Lena it's Not What It Looks Like.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: The cursed beast in Mako's route spares her, but in return wants to learn what love is. Lena's route reveals that his beloved sister told him he would understand her actions once he learned about love.
• When She Smiles: In the subroutes, Masaomi thinks of whose smile he wants to see the most. Choosing Roka or Koharu will lead him to chose one or the other and his efforts to do so.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: In-universe example. The legend states that a general was seduced by a demon, and thus, produced a curse that covered the land. That's the official story provided by the townsfolk to the visitors. The real story was covered up to protect the Tomotake family from stigmatization.
• In Vino Veritas: On her half of the subroute Roka first confesses to Masaomi while sloshed.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: In Lena's route, Masaomi fights against the cursed beast in Lena's dream world. He ends up bedridden for two days as the injuries he suffered during that battle affect his real body as well.

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