JackJeanne: Initial review/info
Sep. 9th, 2024 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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So after my brain insisting I watch Vampire Dormitory but not write reaction posts, it has now insisted I not keep playing this game until I write up my feelings so far?? I guess I have thoughts I want to work through??
SO HERE WE GO.
First, some non-spoilery information/initial review.
JackJeanne is a thus far quite enjoyable and VERY GENDER otome game about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to attend an all-boys acting school with a tradition of dividing roles into 'Jacks' (male roles) and 'Jeannes' (female roles) She then gets to know and in some cases romance various male classmates, who are a mix of Jack and Jeanne (and in some cases both). Afaict the English version is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch.
CW: Transphobia (it's better than the average otome/shoujo, but the bar is low) Also I don't go into it in the review but there's a minor character who's just a walking fat joke :/
I'd heard it has a very queer vibe and yep, it sure does, though thus far I have not seen anything that couldn't be explained away by a doggedly het-goggled player. With the main character and her love interests playing all sorts of combinations of boys and girls it feels like yuri, BL, and het, all in a delicious wrapper of genderfluid non-binariness. The same is true to a lesser extent true of the shippy friendships between the other students at the school. You'd have to squint pretty hard to read the protagonist as a binary trans man but so far I am not having to squint very hard to read her as a non-binary person who hasn't figured it out yet. Similarly, none of the love interests ping as binary trans women to me (though some side characters do), but some can again be read as non-binary with only a little squinting. Of course everyone is THEORETICALLY cishet, and the occasional reminders of that can be jarring, I can't ever entirely let my guard down. But so it goes :/
I'm most of the way through my first route and having a good time, though it has sometimes rubbed me the wrong way, especially with the mixed treatment any Jeanne who dresses femme off the stage: they're sympathetic, but flighty and silly, and sometimes them insisting on being a girl is treated like a joke :/ On the other hand, the narrative overall treats 'acting like' a man or woman, on or off the stage, to be roles that anyone can learn and excel at, or struggle with, regardless of their assigned gender. Also a bunch of unromanceable guys are implicitly but publicly into the protagonist when they think she's a guy, there's a vibe that being mlm or transfem is moderately accepted by the students as a whole.
The writing is clearly rooted in a genuine love of acting and the theatre, the "everyone works to improve at ACTING" scenes don't feel pasted on, and I got really invested, and nostalgic for my own highschool theatre kid past. In general it all feels very sincere.
There's unskippable rhythm games which are easy enough that I have only found them mildly challenging so far, but they would make the game unplayable for anyone with very poor coordination/slow reactions. There's an incredibly easy but tedious time management mechanic, and the story is long, which is going to combine into a lot of VERY tedious button clicking on later playthroughs.
The structure is a very long common route, with little scenes scattered throughout with your chosen character, and some mild variation based on your choices. Then the end section is unique to your love interest (or lack thereof) Getting the best ending for a given love interest requires not only the right dialogue choices, but enough of the right skill acquired in class, and good enough scores in the rhythm games.
The common route plot is less romantic and more like an enjoyably homoerotic sports shonen about a group of earnest boys working together to win the BIG COMPETITION with the POWER OF TEAMWORK and ACTING and BEFRIENDING YOUR RIVALS, except one of the boys is secretly a girl.
The love interests, in their recommended order:
Suzu: earnest firstyear jock. He is in a gen shonen about the power of ACTING and he is going to be the VERY BEST.
Soshiro/Sou (who I'm romancing): Childhood best friend. Shy, androgynous looking, and neurotic, and wants to be Stronger. Already knows she's a girl.
Mitsuki: Tiny grumpy tsundere second year Jeanne who pretends not to care about anything.
Fumi: Tall, elegant, wry, ridiculously talented third year Jeanne.
Kai: Quiet Jack who is dedicated to making others shine, especially Fumi.
Neji: Eccentric genius playwright/director third year, who gleefully switches between Jack and Jeanne.
I love all of them and am looking forward to romancing them all! The reason I didn't go for Suzu first is that he's too straightforwardly masc for me to want to romance first in a game about cross-dressing, but he's very endearing, and I look forward to seeing him deal with being attracted to his 'male' friend.
JackJeanne is the passion project of Sui Ishida, best known for the horror manga Tokyo Ghoul. He created it with his sister, Shin Towada, who writes Naruto spin-off novels. Which was a surprise, but makes a weird amount of sense in retrospect, eg why despite being a relatively fluffy otome about acting it has Surreal Vibes and that strong backbone of friendship gen. And while I've heard Tokyo Ghoul can be kinda transphobic, he definitely seems to have Feelings About Gender. Also, he did all the art, and it is gorgeous, and often very enjoyably androgynous.
OK I THINK THAT'S IT FOR THE NON SPOILERY THOUGHTS. Now to START writing about my SPOILERY feelings haha.
So after my brain insisting I watch Vampire Dormitory but not write reaction posts, it has now insisted I not keep playing this game until I write up my feelings so far?? I guess I have thoughts I want to work through??
SO HERE WE GO.
First, some non-spoilery information/initial review.
JackJeanne is a thus far quite enjoyable and VERY GENDER otome game about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to attend an all-boys acting school with a tradition of dividing roles into 'Jacks' (male roles) and 'Jeannes' (female roles) She then gets to know and in some cases romance various male classmates, who are a mix of Jack and Jeanne (and in some cases both). Afaict the English version is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch.
CW: Transphobia (it's better than the average otome/shoujo, but the bar is low) Also I don't go into it in the review but there's a minor character who's just a walking fat joke :/
I'd heard it has a very queer vibe and yep, it sure does, though thus far I have not seen anything that couldn't be explained away by a doggedly het-goggled player. With the main character and her love interests playing all sorts of combinations of boys and girls it feels like yuri, BL, and het, all in a delicious wrapper of genderfluid non-binariness. The same is true to a lesser extent true of the shippy friendships between the other students at the school. You'd have to squint pretty hard to read the protagonist as a binary trans man but so far I am not having to squint very hard to read her as a non-binary person who hasn't figured it out yet. Similarly, none of the love interests ping as binary trans women to me (though some side characters do), but some can again be read as non-binary with only a little squinting. Of course everyone is THEORETICALLY cishet, and the occasional reminders of that can be jarring, I can't ever entirely let my guard down. But so it goes :/
I'm most of the way through my first route and having a good time, though it has sometimes rubbed me the wrong way, especially with the mixed treatment any Jeanne who dresses femme off the stage: they're sympathetic, but flighty and silly, and sometimes them insisting on being a girl is treated like a joke :/ On the other hand, the narrative overall treats 'acting like' a man or woman, on or off the stage, to be roles that anyone can learn and excel at, or struggle with, regardless of their assigned gender. Also a bunch of unromanceable guys are implicitly but publicly into the protagonist when they think she's a guy, there's a vibe that being mlm or transfem is moderately accepted by the students as a whole.
The writing is clearly rooted in a genuine love of acting and the theatre, the "everyone works to improve at ACTING" scenes don't feel pasted on, and I got really invested, and nostalgic for my own highschool theatre kid past. In general it all feels very sincere.
There's unskippable rhythm games which are easy enough that I have only found them mildly challenging so far, but they would make the game unplayable for anyone with very poor coordination/slow reactions. There's an incredibly easy but tedious time management mechanic, and the story is long, which is going to combine into a lot of VERY tedious button clicking on later playthroughs.
The structure is a very long common route, with little scenes scattered throughout with your chosen character, and some mild variation based on your choices. Then the end section is unique to your love interest (or lack thereof) Getting the best ending for a given love interest requires not only the right dialogue choices, but enough of the right skill acquired in class, and good enough scores in the rhythm games.
The common route plot is less romantic and more like an enjoyably homoerotic sports shonen about a group of earnest boys working together to win the BIG COMPETITION with the POWER OF TEAMWORK and ACTING and BEFRIENDING YOUR RIVALS, except one of the boys is secretly a girl.
The love interests, in their recommended order:
Suzu: earnest firstyear jock. He is in a gen shonen about the power of ACTING and he is going to be the VERY BEST.
Soshiro/Sou (who I'm romancing): Childhood best friend. Shy, androgynous looking, and neurotic, and wants to be Stronger. Already knows she's a girl.
Mitsuki: Tiny grumpy tsundere second year Jeanne who pretends not to care about anything.
Fumi: Tall, elegant, wry, ridiculously talented third year Jeanne.
Kai: Quiet Jack who is dedicated to making others shine, especially Fumi.
Neji: Eccentric genius playwright/director third year, who gleefully switches between Jack and Jeanne.
I love all of them and am looking forward to romancing them all! The reason I didn't go for Suzu first is that he's too straightforwardly masc for me to want to romance first in a game about cross-dressing, but he's very endearing, and I look forward to seeing him deal with being attracted to his 'male' friend.
JackJeanne is the passion project of Sui Ishida, best known for the horror manga Tokyo Ghoul. He created it with his sister, Shin Towada, who writes Naruto spin-off novels. Which was a surprise, but makes a weird amount of sense in retrospect, eg why despite being a relatively fluffy otome about acting it has Surreal Vibes and that strong backbone of friendship gen. And while I've heard Tokyo Ghoul can be kinda transphobic, he definitely seems to have Feelings About Gender. Also, he did all the art, and it is gorgeous, and often very enjoyably androgynous.
OK I THINK THAT'S IT FOR THE NON SPOILERY THOUGHTS. Now to START writing about my SPOILERY feelings haha.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-10 02:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-10 04:06 am (UTC)Yes! It's been quite an intense experience! And I'm only partway through the route for love interest 1.