Jack Jeanne: A Boy Named Sou
Sep. 10th, 2024 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Soshiro/Sou is the protagonist's childhood friend. He's shy, androgynous looking, and neurotic, and wants to be Stronger. He's also the only love interest who goes into the game knowing she's a girl.
There's a lot of interesting places a romance like that could go, but also a lot of very unfortunate ones. Luckily so far the game has mostly gone for 'interesting' but I have had some tense moments.
Spoilers for Sou's route, though I still haven't finished it yet.
So I've been playing this game for a week or so, and the only reason you haven't been INUNDATED with reactions already is that I was rambling about it to a friend on discord instead. I cut and pasted all those reactions into a document as a base for this post but there's SO MUCH OF IT, not all very coherent, so some editing will be required.
OK. SO. SETUP.
The protagonist's default name is Kisa, so let's go with that.
The game starts with a dramatic scene where two heroes vanquish an evil villain. This is quickly revealed to be child!Kisa and Sou playing with Kisa's older brother, Tsuki, at a shrine. Kisa says she wishes she could play like this forever, and Sou agrees.
Flashforward to Kisa, having just finished middle school, doing odd jobs and planning on skipping highschool so she can support her poor single father. Tsuki was the glittering star of the all-boys Univeil Drama School, but vanished after he graduated.
She is very earnest and hard working and stays chipper when her best friend moves away to a school near Univeil. And then... a weasel with a moon on it's tummy(?) leads her to the SAME SHRINE DUN DUN, where she happens to bump into the principal of Univeil, who offers to let her join as a boy, if she can (a) Hide her gender (b) Win a lead role in the end of year play. Otherwise she will be expelled. SURE.
Since deep down, acting has always been her dream, and because she wants to learn more about her brother, she agrees.
There's some very hard auditions which she gets through with Guts and Hard Work, and we meet all the love interests and learn about the school structure. All named roles are Jacks (male characters) or Jeannes (female characters). The lead Jeanne is the 'Al Jeanne' while the lead Jack is the 'Jack Ace'. The best singer is the Tresor.
There are four houses at the school:
Quartz: Focus on acting and flexibility in roles. Agender vibes.
Onyx: Focus on dancing and Jack roles. Manly gay vibes.
Rhodonite: Focus on singing and Jeanne roles. All the Jeannes dress super femme all the time and refer to themselves as women.
Amber: Unique artists, kinda transcend gender with the weirdness of their plays.
The protagonist and love interests are all in Quartz, as was Kisa's older brother Tsuki, who graduated two years ago. Tsuki was so outstandingly talented that Quartz won everything while he was there, then lost everything once he left, and they're still figuring out who they are without him, though only the third years ever met him.
Just as I was deciding who to romance, I hit the time management sim part and had to choose what classes to take, and the mechanic was opaque enough to me that I decided to just look up a walkthrough rather than making the wrong decision and getting frustrated, at which point I learned the suggested 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: 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. Tresor of Quartz.
Fumi/Sarafumi: Tall, elegant, wry, ridiculously talented third year. Al Jeanne of Quartz.
Kai: Quiet Jack who is dedicated to making others shine, especially Fumi. Jack Ace of Quartz.
Neji: Eccentric genius playwright/director third year, who gleefully switches between Jack and Jeanne.
(EDIT: Having played more of the game, a lot of the "correct" choices/order from the Walkthrough I was reading are actually pretty arbitrary, and the game will go fine either way. But I didn't realise that for ages, so, just bear it in mind going forward!)
Taking screenshots on the switch is a PAIN and I want to avoid spoilers too much to find CGs online, but here's the protagonist Kisa and all her potential boyfriends. From left to right: Kai, Fumi, Neji, Kisa, Sou, Mitsuki, and Suzu.
Here's a character list with images and voice actors.
I liked Suzu but wanted to romance someone at least a little androgynous. So I settled on Sou.
The common route is divided into the preparation for and performance of five plays, each of which is done in competition with the other houses. The first play uses first years as leads but all others are merit based, making it very difficult for a first year like Kisa to get a lead role in the final play.
Right off the bat, Kisa is cast as the lead Jeanne of the first year's play and told she is Very Jeanne, Suzu is cast as the lead Jack and told he's Very Jack, and Sou is cast as a secondary Jeanne character and lags behind in practical performance skill, though he's very good at theory. This was not a SUPER interesting gender dynamic but did give a straightforward setup to explore the basic characters and dynamics.
OK. AND NOW I CAN POST THE REACTIONS I SAID TO MY FRIEND.
I was so focussed on deciding whether I'd enjoy jack jeanne as a highschool crossdressing romance I didn't take into account the appeal to me as a former highschool theatre kid.
Which is thus far very much the focus, I can see why some people complain it's too low on romance, but I can enjoy a good old fashioned shoujo/shonen sports anime plot. She must become the Strongest at ACTING.
Also she and the guy I'm currently pursuing (Sou) both got sent to Being A Girl lessons and she was told she had the basics down but still got challenging extra tips from a Being A Girl Expert Sempai (Fumi) Kisa was just OK GOTTA LEARN TO ACT LIKE A GIRL BETTER with no 'wait I'm an actual girl'.
I really like that she's acknowledged as having an especially feminine face and voice but everyone's like "ok sure you lucked out physically but your acting/dancing/singing is just kinda mid so don't get cocky".
Also I love how Being Good At Being A Girl is a skill these guys take deadly seriously, and train for.
Also MC has female bff whose reaction to MC going to all boys school was hooray you get to pursue acting! and when they hang out bff seems upset about something and the only two options are "pull her close" and "hold her hand" and bff is all oh wow I'm all doki doki you were so gentlemanly! Though you shouldn't get too close to me since you're a boy now and people might get the wrong idea.
So far only romantic interest hints are from Sou, who already knows MC is a girl, and Suzu, who during rehearsal for a romantic scene suddenly freezes and goes "Oh wow Kisa really... felt like a girl... HEY KISA SAY THAT ROMANTIC LINE TO SOU, SHOW HIM HOW GOOD YOU ARE AT BEING A GIRL!!"
Sou: IT'S FINE D:
In the second play of the semester she gets cast as a Jack :D Some people get pissed because why would you waste that obvious physical jeanne potential but the director wants to push everyone past their comfort zone.
Oh man this scene is so great. Kisa is playing a Jack and everyone keeps going ohh you're so small though, it's a waste of time unless you maybe play against an even smaller femmier Jeanne. And Kai, the Jack Expert Sempai, sees her practicing, and is like "stop trying to be 'a Jack'. Look in the mirror. That is the body and voice of the character you are playing. There are men who look like that in the world, and this man is one of them. Play that character."
And then he points out all the ways her personality matches the character, like being forthright and hard working, and gets her to look in the mirror as she acts and suddenly she sees the character, (a man) and not just herself (a girl)
Her voice actor does a really good job of switching from "girl putting on a deeper voice" to "high voiced man" so you hear a man as well, even though it's exactly the same lines she's reciting.
Kai is like, "I am an inherently mid actor, I am an expert at making Jeannes look beautiful and working out how to support the rest of the cast, which is something you are also good at." He's the tallest deepest voiced LI but just sees Kisa as another actor, it's great.
Tragically Sou seems to the literally the only one who is at all invested in MC as a girl/Jeanne/femme, since he's a small shy high voiced childhood friend who feels self conscious about not being manly. Though even he's mostly like well this is an acting challenge and I support you in it!! You can do it!!
Overall I really enjoy how this game clearly separates gender ROLES from gender and biology and subverts "MC, as a girl, is inherently Maximum Jeanne", "everyone is inherently at one place on a Jack/Jeanne continuum", "a gender role you deliberately play or are read as is the same as your preference/actual gender" etc.
Every otome needs a scene where all the love interests band together to tell the protagonist that she is important to them and even though others say she's the wrong body type to play a man she will do such a good job that she'll get the Best At Playing A Man Award
Sou and Kisa are in a sort of freshman friend trio with Suzu, a cheerfully dumb genki jock who's like 6 foot tall and has massive charisma and stamina.
In the first play Suzu plays the hero and Kisa the heroine and Sou is a secondary female character without much presence and Sou felt REALLY bad about it and wished HE could be the big manly charismatic Jack at Kisa's side. Which felt pretty gendered, especially since he's the only one who knows Kisa's gender.
Then for the second play Suzu and Kisa are both secondary but very important male characters who don't do much together (and Kisa has a cute learning to be her own type of man arc), while Sou is AGAIN a very minor female character, and AGAIN everyone is like wow Suzu and Kisa are so talented!!! and Sou feels left behind.
And then for the third play Suzu and Kisa are male characters, Suzu being Kisa's sempai, and Sou is an unnamed background character and Sou gets REALLY UPSET and just stops talking to the other two at all.
And what I really liked was that the focus of the conflict was the damage to Sou and Suzu's friendship, and while Sou definitely has a crush on Kisa it's not implied he really sees Suzu as a romantic rival (which he isn't, Suzu thinks Kisa is his male buddy) so much as the general kind of man he would like to be to feel more attractive, and also his friend who is more successful than him.
And then Suzu hurts his ankle and limps to the director shouting REPLACE ME WITH SOU!!! HE CAN DO IT!!!! Which was so sweet???
And then Sou struggles to play the cool sempai role but then Kisa has an inspiration for how they can play it differently... and my choices were "as younger" and "As siblings" and the latter was the right choice!
Sou gets really into playing creepy male twins with Kisa, and says he's basing his brotherly affection for his brother on how he feels about Kisa. Afaict this scene happens in every route so mostly they WILL be more sibling like but as my first playthrough, with him as LI, it's sure something.
One of the dudes who hit on Kisa comes across Sou and Kisa practising their Weird Twin Dance and says "Nice but it could be sexier" and does a sexy dance and Sou says "Wow, thanks, we COULD be sexier villains. Let's practice that, Kisa!"
Friend and I had a rambling conversation about how while there's subtle sexual vibes in this game it feels like the romances will end with like... significant hugs.
Back when Kisa's brother Tsuki was in Quartz, he was the Jack Ace (also I think he has the same voice actor as Kisa in flashbacks??). Once Fumi started first year (when Tsuki was in third year) he immediately become Al Jeanne, and the two were the jewel of Quartz and the school, challenging and playing off each other. After Tsuki graduated noone else could match Fumi's talent or energy and Quartz started losing every competition. Then Neji, a second year like Fumi but the writing jewel of Amber, shocked everyone by swapping to Quartz, and coming up with a new setup.
Neji made the previously ignored, quiet Kai the new Jack Ace. At first Fumi just yelled at him a lot for not being Tsuki, but eventually they figured out a dynamic where Kai worked to make Fumi shine on the stage. In the second play we see them playing a romantic couple with a somewhat similar dynamic and it's very shippy. Fumi's bittersweet nostalgia for his time by Tsuki's side feels like a lost love, too. Then in the third play Fumi plays Kai's character's beloved mother/creator, lol. GENDER.
Around the time of the second play, everyone except Neji is dismissive of the choice to make Kisa a Jack, but then Kisa blows everyone away and the other houses all vie to get her to switch to their house. The manly dudes of Onyx want her to be a pretty little Jeanne they can make shine, while the femmes of Rhodonite want her to be their Jack (or, if she prefers, Jeanne) to make them shine, pointing out that she'll look so much manlier next to them. I ship the main jeanne from Rhodonite with the twinkiest jack from Onyx, they seem into the idea of Kisa as their twinky jack/feisty jeanne respectively, so they're a good match! (EDIT: Actually not so much)
There's a summer break with no play, which had some cute Sou shippy shenanigans including them sharing a hot spring much to Sou's extreme embarassment.
Amber is away for most of this, having been overseas, but then arrives and blows everyone away with a weird, disturbing play so amazing it makes everyone doubt themselves until they become refilled with DETERMINATION to WIN AT ACTING.
Amber's Jack Ace is the deeply weird genius second year Tanakamigi Chui, who at first scoffs at his former sempai Neji's decision to make her a Jack, then declares that she MUST become HIS Jeanne, his 'vessel', to make him look good. It's clear he is the God of his house, treating everyone else as extensions of himself, and they all are willing acolytes with no artistic feelings of their own. Chui asks fellow weird genius Neji to rejoin him and make godly art, but Neji says he prefers being surprised by the mortals of Quartz.
There's this repeated symbolism everyone uses of the Vessel and the Flower, where the flower gets the spotlight and the vessel exists to give a place for the flower to shine from. At first the example we see is vessel = Jack, flower = Jeanne, with Fumi and Kai, but then others are the reverse, or two Jacks, etc.
Rhodonite is full of jeannes and all the ones we see present as female all the time, unlike other jeannes who only do so in character. They even show up to the beach in bikinis
and Kisa is like... I spent so much time making sure I looked sufficiently masculine in a tshirt over careful bindings...
They're all likeable enough but kinda flighty, the head Jack has to do all the practical work and is always irritated that the jeannes skip class to go shopping versus every other student being ridiculously motivated. There's a few moments of them being called their masculine birth name and getting upset and it being played as kinda funny, like they're playing pretend
friend: it's like the class s of being trans
Yes!!
And so in universe it makes sense for characters to think it's just a phase and playing pretend cos this is the kind of universe where it plausibly is.
I do find it interesting that the Rhodonites are less flirty with Kisa than Onyx.
I think the ONLY character to express interest in a cis girl presenting as a girl was Sexy Bisexual Sempai from Onyx. Otherwise there's a notable lack of the constant horniness about Girls I'd expect from teen boys.
The stat raising is SO pointless. You just pick the stat associated with your chosen dude every day, stopping every now and then to rest.
afaict EVERY stat test is just "are any of the player's stats over X", so there's ZERO value to diversifying.
And I only know this because I looked up a walkthrough, the game keeps saying stuff like "if you struggle with dancing take dance classes" when that is the LAST thing I should do when romancing Mr Insight Stat, since the higher his stats the more of a boost I get during dances, while Mr Dance Stat will give me nothing since he's overall lower.
This game covers a year and there are roughly five classes a week that's... like 200 tedious choices, only some of which can be very slightly automated with a "study every day this week" choice uurgh.
Cute shippy scene doing improv with Shou where player has to decide which lines best get across "creepy codependent brother". Do I belittle the heroine or ridicule her?
Here's a CG of Kisa and Sou as the brothers, are they not amazing:
Their motive is to give a sufficiently dazzling performance that Fumi the Secretly Sad Jeanne Sempai feels the joy of competition on the stage. I love the contrast of being supportive OOC by being cruel in character.
Kisa, improvising: Do you remember the look on our teacher's face when I shot him? Ahahahaha!!!!
Sou, dropping out of character in shock: OMG you're playing the character I created for you to shine in, just as I imagined him!
Sou, I had my doubts, but you have won me over.
I accidentally did the first romantic scene with Neji, and that was him getting Kisa to roleplay being the woman who'd stolen his (female OC's) man. I hope ALL the routes have weird improv roleplaying.
Passerby: Oh wow what a hot guy! The other one is cute too.
Kisa: o.O
Fumi: Want to go over there, cutie? š
Kisa: (Huh. Noone ever thinks I'm a girl any more. I'm glad I can hide my identity, but I do feel like I've lost a part of myself...)
Also, delightfully, having realised his dream of becoming a Jack supporting Kisa by connecting to his inner Creepy Obsessive Shota, Sou is now inspired to go back and ask Fumi how he can be a better Jeanne, because he feels like he wasn't putting his all into it before, and they're bonding really cutely.
I kinda ship everyone in this bar, their interconnected relationships are all great.
*friend and I discuss how Sou feels like a self hating trans*
He's in love with an afab person so obviously he needs to be a Sexy Manly man to win her!!!
And he is canonically realising that's not true, that he can be Himself really hard, whatever that is, and be by her side. I wasn't sure this route would click for me but it's actually really sweet. I hope I don't feel too bad for him in other routes since afaict a lot of this is not specific to his route. As long as he gets to be Kisa's creative partner to some extent even once she starts dating someone else. Cos them improvising together was really great, I can see him becoming a playwright who writes for her.
So far I am most drawn to Fumi, who is (a) Hot (b) has this great like... sad wry older woman thing going on. He doesn't really read as a trans woman to me but maybe like... androgynous agender, enjoys playing with femininity a little.
haaa I was curious and looked up the artist/writer and... huh! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_Ishida
The writing did get VERY into the creepy goth twins versus necromancer dollmaker story
And he is apparently into writing body horror stories about young men who are transformed into something other than human.
FOUND AN INTERVIEW https://nejis-desk.tumblr.com/post/742959302528188416/jack-jeanne-complete-collection-interview-with
ooh ok the next play lineup is a lot of fun. Fumi has been feeling trapped by the role of Al Jeanne and Best Actor In Quartz. Kai feels obliged to remain nothing but Fumi's support. And tsundere Jeanne Mitsuki has been feeling bad that he's been coasting tsunderily and not helping out with this stuff. During the last play, Kisa did such a great job as a Jack who improvised with Sou and Fumi that everyone sees Kisa as an excellent Jack, and it's clear Fumi needs more Enrichment.
So!
Neji: This new play is set in a city of Desire and Pleasure. The lead is played by the Head Jeanne, and is the lowest of the low, a mugwort seller. Hey, Suzu, stand here so I can demonstrate.
Suzu: Ok!
Neji: She brings men to her room, lights mugwort, gets up behind them and puts her arms around them...
Suzu, being embraced by Neji: UH
Neji: AND THEN TIGHTENS HER ARM AROUND THEIR NECK UNTIL THEY COLLAPSE!
Suzu: URK
Neji: Her job is to help the sleepless men of the city of pleasure get to sleep ;)
And she will played by.... Kisa!
Class: But he's a Jack!!
Neji: Her virtuous nightclub singer bff, who hates mugwort selling, will be played by a SECOND Head Jeanne: Mitsuki!! This is a two Head Jeanne play with no Head Jack!!
Mitsuki: WTF WHAT ABOUT FUMI???
Fumi: Oooh :D
Neji: And Fumi will play.... the playboy with a secret heart of gold in love with the virtuous singer!
Fumi: OOH A CHALLENGE :D :D
Neji: The princely man in love with Kisa will be played by Sou!
Sou: Yay!
[names remaining main characters including himself as a pimp's mistress]
class: But... Kai?
Neji: Oh and Kai will be the lonely virtuous priest!
Kai: ????? D:
He doesn't know who he is if not supporting Fumi as Al Jeanne.
Oh also I haven't gone into it but there's a whole cute arc with a mean boy/rival first year in Quartz slowly learning to respect Suzu/Sou/Kisa and the power of TEAMWORK. He's playing the pimp haha.
I am really looking forward to seeing Fumi play a skeezy guy hitting on Mitsuki while Kai pines sadly in the shadows, while presumably Fumi also gives Mitsuki and Kisa tips on being Al Jeanne.
Kisa, not even remotely embarrassed, all business: Ok in this scene I run my hand up Sou's chest flirtatiously
Sou: *literal high pitched squealing sounds*
Neji: SOU. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BEING SEDUCTIVE!! BE MORE SEDUCTIVE!!
Sou, being forced to flirt with his crush in front of the entire class: ...I'll...try.... ;_;
Neji have some sympathy for this poor 16 yr old boy.
I don't remember a single moment of overt no homo, or any overt mention of homosexuality at all. It's a weird... blank.
This game can be SO WEIRD. Neji makes confusing veiled remarks about how Kisa is lacking the One Thing her female character needs, even though she had it in her first performance and says something similar to Fumi (who is playing a guy for the first time) A director's directions should not be so cryptic!
Chui: My vessel is clouded, are you being made to play a Jack again? No? Then why are you wearing a Jack face?
Then he takes her hand and says she needs to give everything of herself to him, and pulls her into a dance, and she Remembers What She Had Forgotten. Sou sees them and says she must never be near that guy again because with him, Sou could only see her as a girl.
Kisa talks to a teacher who knows her gender and he says that at first, even though she tried to come across as a guy, she always had a feminine vibe. But now she has gotten so good at playing a young man that part of that young man she was playing has seeped into her, and is reacting against the idea of being her true gender.
"If you fully commit to acting this part, you will reveal your true self on the stage. This play is designed to make people confront the hidden parts of themselves, but Neji doesn't realise that if you are revealed as a girl you will be expelled"
I have no idea where this is going esp with Fumi also learning to be more masc...
haaa ok and then a bunch of stuff about how this play is about helping everyone find their place as actors, with the usual structure needing to change because a) the third years won't be around forever and need to set up replacements b) Kisa needs to be made more central as an upcoming Talent.
Ok so I got too tense and decided to look up a plot summary. Chui is the antagonist and a good end involves never taking his hand, oops.
Turns out the summary I read spoiled the Kisa (gen) path, not the Sou path. So I'll put it under a cut.
I replayed that section with the right choices and 90% of the stuff I described still happened, since he forces Kisa to dance with him anyway. But the vibe did feel different knowing that going along with him at all is a Bad Choice and that Kisa being more femme is just what she's doing for THIS role not like her final form. (EDIT: Actually it turns out neither choice is 'correct', it's just different vibes with the same effect. But it's still not so bad in context)
There are aspects of Sou's arc that rub me the wrong way a bit, but less so knowing this is only one route of many. Like, he is learning to be more self confident, sexual, and express his masculinity. Which is not the same as the sort of masculinity he thought he needed to emulate, and involves being able to switch roles, but it would still feel kind weird if he was the Final Boy in a crossdressing game. But he's not, he's just a boy.
Fumi goes back to being a Jeanne, too, afaict. So this mixup isn't FIXING things it's just playing around with people's roles and shaking up a stale status quo.
Also apparently there's some sort of magic curse that Chui was born into??
Maybe this will make sense in context??? Chui and the principal are two halves of an ancient whole? Sure!
I was thinking about why I like that this is mostly gen friendship and not a reverse harem where Everyone Loves The Girl. It would make her feel Special and Different in a gendered way (also ofc I feel bad for the rejected dudes) This way they are all mostly just buddies in an agendered way, except her and the one dude she is with this time. It really stands out doing Sou first, too, since he's the only one who knows she's a girl or expresses any interest off their route (though I am not sure yet how much of that is the game recognising I'm on his route and inserting extra interest) So everyone else really does think of her as one of the guys, and presumably when they find out will go huh!!!! welp, guess you're still my buddy.
like... if All The Dudes in an all (ostensibly straight) male cast are attracted to a crossdressing girl and noone else, it feels a bit "her afabness transcends gender identity". This way a guy can be theoretically into her, but also capable of legit just seeing her as a friend. "Potential girlfriends" and "potential buddies" are not distinct categories.
AND THAT. IS THE END OF MY REACTIONS SO FAR. Phew!!
My main two worries going forward are (a) Unexpected intense dysphoria inducing Gender Bullshit (b) Not being convinced that Kisa loves Sou back. I realise they have to keep things ambiguous on the common route, and they are definitely cute together, but she is SO oblivious to his interest. We'll see.
Soshiro/Sou is the protagonist's childhood friend. He's shy, androgynous looking, and neurotic, and wants to be Stronger. He's also the only love interest who goes into the game knowing she's a girl.
There's a lot of interesting places a romance like that could go, but also a lot of very unfortunate ones. Luckily so far the game has mostly gone for 'interesting' but I have had some tense moments.
Spoilers for Sou's route, though I still haven't finished it yet.
So I've been playing this game for a week or so, and the only reason you haven't been INUNDATED with reactions already is that I was rambling about it to a friend on discord instead. I cut and pasted all those reactions into a document as a base for this post but there's SO MUCH OF IT, not all very coherent, so some editing will be required.
OK. SO. SETUP.
The protagonist's default name is Kisa, so let's go with that.
The game starts with a dramatic scene where two heroes vanquish an evil villain. This is quickly revealed to be child!Kisa and Sou playing with Kisa's older brother, Tsuki, at a shrine. Kisa says she wishes she could play like this forever, and Sou agrees.
Flashforward to Kisa, having just finished middle school, doing odd jobs and planning on skipping highschool so she can support her poor single father. Tsuki was the glittering star of the all-boys Univeil Drama School, but vanished after he graduated.
She is very earnest and hard working and stays chipper when her best friend moves away to a school near Univeil. And then... a weasel with a moon on it's tummy(?) leads her to the SAME SHRINE DUN DUN, where she happens to bump into the principal of Univeil, who offers to let her join as a boy, if she can (a) Hide her gender (b) Win a lead role in the end of year play. Otherwise she will be expelled. SURE.
Since deep down, acting has always been her dream, and because she wants to learn more about her brother, she agrees.
There's some very hard auditions which she gets through with Guts and Hard Work, and we meet all the love interests and learn about the school structure. All named roles are Jacks (male characters) or Jeannes (female characters). The lead Jeanne is the 'Al Jeanne' while the lead Jack is the 'Jack Ace'. The best singer is the Tresor.
There are four houses at the school:
Quartz: Focus on acting and flexibility in roles. Agender vibes.
Onyx: Focus on dancing and Jack roles. Manly gay vibes.
Rhodonite: Focus on singing and Jeanne roles. All the Jeannes dress super femme all the time and refer to themselves as women.
Amber: Unique artists, kinda transcend gender with the weirdness of their plays.
The protagonist and love interests are all in Quartz, as was Kisa's older brother Tsuki, who graduated two years ago. Tsuki was so outstandingly talented that Quartz won everything while he was there, then lost everything once he left, and they're still figuring out who they are without him, though only the third years ever met him.
Just as I was deciding who to romance, I hit the time management sim part and had to choose what classes to take, and the mechanic was opaque enough to me that I decided to just look up a walkthrough rather than making the wrong decision and getting frustrated, at which point I learned the suggested 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: 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. Tresor of Quartz.
Fumi/Sarafumi: Tall, elegant, wry, ridiculously talented third year. Al Jeanne of Quartz.
Kai: Quiet Jack who is dedicated to making others shine, especially Fumi. Jack Ace of Quartz.
Neji: Eccentric genius playwright/director third year, who gleefully switches between Jack and Jeanne.
(EDIT: Having played more of the game, a lot of the "correct" choices/order from the Walkthrough I was reading are actually pretty arbitrary, and the game will go fine either way. But I didn't realise that for ages, so, just bear it in mind going forward!)
Taking screenshots on the switch is a PAIN and I want to avoid spoilers too much to find CGs online, but here's the protagonist Kisa and all her potential boyfriends. From left to right: Kai, Fumi, Neji, Kisa, Sou, Mitsuki, and Suzu.
Here's a character list with images and voice actors.
I liked Suzu but wanted to romance someone at least a little androgynous. So I settled on Sou.
The common route is divided into the preparation for and performance of five plays, each of which is done in competition with the other houses. The first play uses first years as leads but all others are merit based, making it very difficult for a first year like Kisa to get a lead role in the final play.
Right off the bat, Kisa is cast as the lead Jeanne of the first year's play and told she is Very Jeanne, Suzu is cast as the lead Jack and told he's Very Jack, and Sou is cast as a secondary Jeanne character and lags behind in practical performance skill, though he's very good at theory. This was not a SUPER interesting gender dynamic but did give a straightforward setup to explore the basic characters and dynamics.
OK. AND NOW I CAN POST THE REACTIONS I SAID TO MY FRIEND.
I was so focussed on deciding whether I'd enjoy jack jeanne as a highschool crossdressing romance I didn't take into account the appeal to me as a former highschool theatre kid.
Which is thus far very much the focus, I can see why some people complain it's too low on romance, but I can enjoy a good old fashioned shoujo/shonen sports anime plot. She must become the Strongest at ACTING.
Also she and the guy I'm currently pursuing (Sou) both got sent to Being A Girl lessons and she was told she had the basics down but still got challenging extra tips from a Being A Girl Expert Sempai (Fumi) Kisa was just OK GOTTA LEARN TO ACT LIKE A GIRL BETTER with no 'wait I'm an actual girl'.
I really like that she's acknowledged as having an especially feminine face and voice but everyone's like "ok sure you lucked out physically but your acting/dancing/singing is just kinda mid so don't get cocky".
Also I love how Being Good At Being A Girl is a skill these guys take deadly seriously, and train for.
Also MC has female bff whose reaction to MC going to all boys school was hooray you get to pursue acting! and when they hang out bff seems upset about something and the only two options are "pull her close" and "hold her hand" and bff is all oh wow I'm all doki doki you were so gentlemanly! Though you shouldn't get too close to me since you're a boy now and people might get the wrong idea.
So far only romantic interest hints are from Sou, who already knows MC is a girl, and Suzu, who during rehearsal for a romantic scene suddenly freezes and goes "Oh wow Kisa really... felt like a girl... HEY KISA SAY THAT ROMANTIC LINE TO SOU, SHOW HIM HOW GOOD YOU ARE AT BEING A GIRL!!"
Sou: IT'S FINE D:
In the second play of the semester she gets cast as a Jack :D Some people get pissed because why would you waste that obvious physical jeanne potential but the director wants to push everyone past their comfort zone.
Oh man this scene is so great. Kisa is playing a Jack and everyone keeps going ohh you're so small though, it's a waste of time unless you maybe play against an even smaller femmier Jeanne. And Kai, the Jack Expert Sempai, sees her practicing, and is like "stop trying to be 'a Jack'. Look in the mirror. That is the body and voice of the character you are playing. There are men who look like that in the world, and this man is one of them. Play that character."
And then he points out all the ways her personality matches the character, like being forthright and hard working, and gets her to look in the mirror as she acts and suddenly she sees the character, (a man) and not just herself (a girl)
Her voice actor does a really good job of switching from "girl putting on a deeper voice" to "high voiced man" so you hear a man as well, even though it's exactly the same lines she's reciting.
Kai is like, "I am an inherently mid actor, I am an expert at making Jeannes look beautiful and working out how to support the rest of the cast, which is something you are also good at." He's the tallest deepest voiced LI but just sees Kisa as another actor, it's great.
Tragically Sou seems to the literally the only one who is at all invested in MC as a girl/Jeanne/femme, since he's a small shy high voiced childhood friend who feels self conscious about not being manly. Though even he's mostly like well this is an acting challenge and I support you in it!! You can do it!!
Overall I really enjoy how this game clearly separates gender ROLES from gender and biology and subverts "MC, as a girl, is inherently Maximum Jeanne", "everyone is inherently at one place on a Jack/Jeanne continuum", "a gender role you deliberately play or are read as is the same as your preference/actual gender" etc.
Every otome needs a scene where all the love interests band together to tell the protagonist that she is important to them and even though others say she's the wrong body type to play a man she will do such a good job that she'll get the Best At Playing A Man Award
Sou and Kisa are in a sort of freshman friend trio with Suzu, a cheerfully dumb genki jock who's like 6 foot tall and has massive charisma and stamina.
In the first play Suzu plays the hero and Kisa the heroine and Sou is a secondary female character without much presence and Sou felt REALLY bad about it and wished HE could be the big manly charismatic Jack at Kisa's side. Which felt pretty gendered, especially since he's the only one who knows Kisa's gender.
Then for the second play Suzu and Kisa are both secondary but very important male characters who don't do much together (and Kisa has a cute learning to be her own type of man arc), while Sou is AGAIN a very minor female character, and AGAIN everyone is like wow Suzu and Kisa are so talented!!! and Sou feels left behind.
And then for the third play Suzu and Kisa are male characters, Suzu being Kisa's sempai, and Sou is an unnamed background character and Sou gets REALLY UPSET and just stops talking to the other two at all.
And what I really liked was that the focus of the conflict was the damage to Sou and Suzu's friendship, and while Sou definitely has a crush on Kisa it's not implied he really sees Suzu as a romantic rival (which he isn't, Suzu thinks Kisa is his male buddy) so much as the general kind of man he would like to be to feel more attractive, and also his friend who is more successful than him.
And then Suzu hurts his ankle and limps to the director shouting REPLACE ME WITH SOU!!! HE CAN DO IT!!!! Which was so sweet???
And then Sou struggles to play the cool sempai role but then Kisa has an inspiration for how they can play it differently... and my choices were "as younger" and "As siblings" and the latter was the right choice!
Sou gets really into playing creepy male twins with Kisa, and says he's basing his brotherly affection for his brother on how he feels about Kisa. Afaict this scene happens in every route so mostly they WILL be more sibling like but as my first playthrough, with him as LI, it's sure something.
One of the dudes who hit on Kisa comes across Sou and Kisa practising their Weird Twin Dance and says "Nice but it could be sexier" and does a sexy dance and Sou says "Wow, thanks, we COULD be sexier villains. Let's practice that, Kisa!"
Friend and I had a rambling conversation about how while there's subtle sexual vibes in this game it feels like the romances will end with like... significant hugs.
Back when Kisa's brother Tsuki was in Quartz, he was the Jack Ace (also I think he has the same voice actor as Kisa in flashbacks??). Once Fumi started first year (when Tsuki was in third year) he immediately become Al Jeanne, and the two were the jewel of Quartz and the school, challenging and playing off each other. After Tsuki graduated noone else could match Fumi's talent or energy and Quartz started losing every competition. Then Neji, a second year like Fumi but the writing jewel of Amber, shocked everyone by swapping to Quartz, and coming up with a new setup.
Neji made the previously ignored, quiet Kai the new Jack Ace. At first Fumi just yelled at him a lot for not being Tsuki, but eventually they figured out a dynamic where Kai worked to make Fumi shine on the stage. In the second play we see them playing a romantic couple with a somewhat similar dynamic and it's very shippy. Fumi's bittersweet nostalgia for his time by Tsuki's side feels like a lost love, too. Then in the third play Fumi plays Kai's character's beloved mother/creator, lol. GENDER.
Around the time of the second play, everyone except Neji is dismissive of the choice to make Kisa a Jack, but then Kisa blows everyone away and the other houses all vie to get her to switch to their house. The manly dudes of Onyx want her to be a pretty little Jeanne they can make shine, while the femmes of Rhodonite want her to be their Jack (or, if she prefers, Jeanne) to make them shine, pointing out that she'll look so much manlier next to them. I ship the main jeanne from Rhodonite with the twinkiest jack from Onyx, they seem into the idea of Kisa as their twinky jack/feisty jeanne respectively, so they're a good match! (EDIT: Actually not so much)
There's a summer break with no play, which had some cute Sou shippy shenanigans including them sharing a hot spring much to Sou's extreme embarassment.
Amber is away for most of this, having been overseas, but then arrives and blows everyone away with a weird, disturbing play so amazing it makes everyone doubt themselves until they become refilled with DETERMINATION to WIN AT ACTING.
Amber's Jack Ace is the deeply weird genius second year Tanakamigi Chui, who at first scoffs at his former sempai Neji's decision to make her a Jack, then declares that she MUST become HIS Jeanne, his 'vessel', to make him look good. It's clear he is the God of his house, treating everyone else as extensions of himself, and they all are willing acolytes with no artistic feelings of their own. Chui asks fellow weird genius Neji to rejoin him and make godly art, but Neji says he prefers being surprised by the mortals of Quartz.
There's this repeated symbolism everyone uses of the Vessel and the Flower, where the flower gets the spotlight and the vessel exists to give a place for the flower to shine from. At first the example we see is vessel = Jack, flower = Jeanne, with Fumi and Kai, but then others are the reverse, or two Jacks, etc.
Rhodonite is full of jeannes and all the ones we see present as female all the time, unlike other jeannes who only do so in character. They even show up to the beach in bikinis
and Kisa is like... I spent so much time making sure I looked sufficiently masculine in a tshirt over careful bindings...
They're all likeable enough but kinda flighty, the head Jack has to do all the practical work and is always irritated that the jeannes skip class to go shopping versus every other student being ridiculously motivated. There's a few moments of them being called their masculine birth name and getting upset and it being played as kinda funny, like they're playing pretend
friend: it's like the class s of being trans
Yes!!
And so in universe it makes sense for characters to think it's just a phase and playing pretend cos this is the kind of universe where it plausibly is.
I do find it interesting that the Rhodonites are less flirty with Kisa than Onyx.
I think the ONLY character to express interest in a cis girl presenting as a girl was Sexy Bisexual Sempai from Onyx. Otherwise there's a notable lack of the constant horniness about Girls I'd expect from teen boys.
The stat raising is SO pointless. You just pick the stat associated with your chosen dude every day, stopping every now and then to rest.
afaict EVERY stat test is just "are any of the player's stats over X", so there's ZERO value to diversifying.
And I only know this because I looked up a walkthrough, the game keeps saying stuff like "if you struggle with dancing take dance classes" when that is the LAST thing I should do when romancing Mr Insight Stat, since the higher his stats the more of a boost I get during dances, while Mr Dance Stat will give me nothing since he's overall lower.
This game covers a year and there are roughly five classes a week that's... like 200 tedious choices, only some of which can be very slightly automated with a "study every day this week" choice uurgh.
Cute shippy scene doing improv with Shou where player has to decide which lines best get across "creepy codependent brother". Do I belittle the heroine or ridicule her?
Here's a CG of Kisa and Sou as the brothers, are they not amazing:
Their motive is to give a sufficiently dazzling performance that Fumi the Secretly Sad Jeanne Sempai feels the joy of competition on the stage. I love the contrast of being supportive OOC by being cruel in character.
Kisa, improvising: Do you remember the look on our teacher's face when I shot him? Ahahahaha!!!!
Sou, dropping out of character in shock: OMG you're playing the character I created for you to shine in, just as I imagined him!
Sou, I had my doubts, but you have won me over.
I accidentally did the first romantic scene with Neji, and that was him getting Kisa to roleplay being the woman who'd stolen his (female OC's) man. I hope ALL the routes have weird improv roleplaying.
Passerby: Oh wow what a hot guy! The other one is cute too.
Kisa: o.O
Fumi: Want to go over there, cutie? š
Kisa: (Huh. Noone ever thinks I'm a girl any more. I'm glad I can hide my identity, but I do feel like I've lost a part of myself...)
Also, delightfully, having realised his dream of becoming a Jack supporting Kisa by connecting to his inner Creepy Obsessive Shota, Sou is now inspired to go back and ask Fumi how he can be a better Jeanne, because he feels like he wasn't putting his all into it before, and they're bonding really cutely.
I kinda ship everyone in this bar, their interconnected relationships are all great.
*friend and I discuss how Sou feels like a self hating trans*
He's in love with an afab person so obviously he needs to be a Sexy Manly man to win her!!!
And he is canonically realising that's not true, that he can be Himself really hard, whatever that is, and be by her side. I wasn't sure this route would click for me but it's actually really sweet. I hope I don't feel too bad for him in other routes since afaict a lot of this is not specific to his route. As long as he gets to be Kisa's creative partner to some extent even once she starts dating someone else. Cos them improvising together was really great, I can see him becoming a playwright who writes for her.
So far I am most drawn to Fumi, who is (a) Hot (b) has this great like... sad wry older woman thing going on. He doesn't really read as a trans woman to me but maybe like... androgynous agender, enjoys playing with femininity a little.
haaa I was curious and looked up the artist/writer and... huh! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_Ishida
The writing did get VERY into the creepy goth twins versus necromancer dollmaker story
And he is apparently into writing body horror stories about young men who are transformed into something other than human.
FOUND AN INTERVIEW https://nejis-desk.tumblr.com/post/742959302528188416/jack-jeanne-complete-collection-interview-with
"I donāt struggle with any gender related issues myself, so itās not like I can fully understand what itās like, but in general Iāve never considered gender to be a very big deal. If someone born male were to tell me āI have the heart of a womanā then Iād just think āok coolā.
To me it feels strange to place so much weight on such an issue. I donāt see why others need to be bothered by someone elseās gender, Iām not since I myself am not able to speak for such experiences."
ooh ok the next play lineup is a lot of fun. Fumi has been feeling trapped by the role of Al Jeanne and Best Actor In Quartz. Kai feels obliged to remain nothing but Fumi's support. And tsundere Jeanne Mitsuki has been feeling bad that he's been coasting tsunderily and not helping out with this stuff. During the last play, Kisa did such a great job as a Jack who improvised with Sou and Fumi that everyone sees Kisa as an excellent Jack, and it's clear Fumi needs more Enrichment.
So!
Neji: This new play is set in a city of Desire and Pleasure. The lead is played by the Head Jeanne, and is the lowest of the low, a mugwort seller. Hey, Suzu, stand here so I can demonstrate.
Suzu: Ok!
Neji: She brings men to her room, lights mugwort, gets up behind them and puts her arms around them...
Suzu, being embraced by Neji: UH
Neji: AND THEN TIGHTENS HER ARM AROUND THEIR NECK UNTIL THEY COLLAPSE!
Suzu: URK
Neji: Her job is to help the sleepless men of the city of pleasure get to sleep ;)
And she will played by.... Kisa!
Class: But he's a Jack!!
Neji: Her virtuous nightclub singer bff, who hates mugwort selling, will be played by a SECOND Head Jeanne: Mitsuki!! This is a two Head Jeanne play with no Head Jack!!
Mitsuki: WTF WHAT ABOUT FUMI???
Fumi: Oooh :D
Neji: And Fumi will play.... the playboy with a secret heart of gold in love with the virtuous singer!
Fumi: OOH A CHALLENGE :D :D
Neji: The princely man in love with Kisa will be played by Sou!
Sou: Yay!
[names remaining main characters including himself as a pimp's mistress]
class: But... Kai?
Neji: Oh and Kai will be the lonely virtuous priest!
Kai: ????? D:
He doesn't know who he is if not supporting Fumi as Al Jeanne.
Oh also I haven't gone into it but there's a whole cute arc with a mean boy/rival first year in Quartz slowly learning to respect Suzu/Sou/Kisa and the power of TEAMWORK. He's playing the pimp haha.
I am really looking forward to seeing Fumi play a skeezy guy hitting on Mitsuki while Kai pines sadly in the shadows, while presumably Fumi also gives Mitsuki and Kisa tips on being Al Jeanne.
Kisa, not even remotely embarrassed, all business: Ok in this scene I run my hand up Sou's chest flirtatiously
Sou: *literal high pitched squealing sounds*
Neji: SOU. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BEING SEDUCTIVE!! BE MORE SEDUCTIVE!!
Sou, being forced to flirt with his crush in front of the entire class: ...I'll...try.... ;_;
Neji have some sympathy for this poor 16 yr old boy.
I don't remember a single moment of overt no homo, or any overt mention of homosexuality at all. It's a weird... blank.
This game can be SO WEIRD. Neji makes confusing veiled remarks about how Kisa is lacking the One Thing her female character needs, even though she had it in her first performance and says something similar to Fumi (who is playing a guy for the first time) A director's directions should not be so cryptic!
Chui: My vessel is clouded, are you being made to play a Jack again? No? Then why are you wearing a Jack face?
Then he takes her hand and says she needs to give everything of herself to him, and pulls her into a dance, and she Remembers What She Had Forgotten. Sou sees them and says she must never be near that guy again because with him, Sou could only see her as a girl.
Kisa talks to a teacher who knows her gender and he says that at first, even though she tried to come across as a guy, she always had a feminine vibe. But now she has gotten so good at playing a young man that part of that young man she was playing has seeped into her, and is reacting against the idea of being her true gender.
"If you fully commit to acting this part, you will reveal your true self on the stage. This play is designed to make people confront the hidden parts of themselves, but Neji doesn't realise that if you are revealed as a girl you will be expelled"
I have no idea where this is going esp with Fumi also learning to be more masc...
haaa ok and then a bunch of stuff about how this play is about helping everyone find their place as actors, with the usual structure needing to change because a) the third years won't be around forever and need to set up replacements b) Kisa needs to be made more central as an upcoming Talent.
Ok so I got too tense and decided to look up a plot summary. Chui is the antagonist and a good end involves never taking his hand, oops.
Turns out the summary I read spoiled the Kisa (gen) path, not the Sou path. So I'll put it under a cut.
Spoiler for Kisa route
"They realize that Kisa needs to be the sole protagonist of the performance. However, instead of making it a romance between a man and a woman, they want Kisa to have a role that transcends gender, almost like an angel, is how Kokuto (Neji) puts it. Rather than a āJackā or āJeanneā decide to call it āJack Jeanneā.
I replayed that section with the right choices and 90% of the stuff I described still happened, since he forces Kisa to dance with him anyway. But the vibe did feel different knowing that going along with him at all is a Bad Choice and that Kisa being more femme is just what she's doing for THIS role not like her final form. (EDIT: Actually it turns out neither choice is 'correct', it's just different vibes with the same effect. But it's still not so bad in context)
There are aspects of Sou's arc that rub me the wrong way a bit, but less so knowing this is only one route of many. Like, he is learning to be more self confident, sexual, and express his masculinity. Which is not the same as the sort of masculinity he thought he needed to emulate, and involves being able to switch roles, but it would still feel kind weird if he was the Final Boy in a crossdressing game. But he's not, he's just a boy.
Fumi goes back to being a Jeanne, too, afaict. So this mixup isn't FIXING things it's just playing around with people's roles and shaking up a stale status quo.
Spoiler for Kisa route
Also apparently there's some sort of magic curse that Chui was born into??
"One night, she spots Chuui practicing at the shrine. He tells her the origin of the name of āTamasakaā (the acting troupe associted with the school) and āChuuzaā (the principal's surname). There was something called the āHimehiko curseā in where anyone who took the āHimehikoā name died. The name was eventually split but it didnāt end up making a difference. Regardless, Chuuiās full name is actually Tamasaka Chuui. And the principal has the last name Chuuza. So they believe that the principal is most likely being driven out. Chuui admits he doesnāt really care about the conflict between the two families but heās here to prove what he himself can do. He again tries to convince Kisa to take his hand but she refuses."
Maybe this will make sense in context??? Chui and the principal are two halves of an ancient whole? Sure!
I was thinking about why I like that this is mostly gen friendship and not a reverse harem where Everyone Loves The Girl. It would make her feel Special and Different in a gendered way (also ofc I feel bad for the rejected dudes) This way they are all mostly just buddies in an agendered way, except her and the one dude she is with this time. It really stands out doing Sou first, too, since he's the only one who knows she's a girl or expresses any interest off their route (though I am not sure yet how much of that is the game recognising I'm on his route and inserting extra interest) So everyone else really does think of her as one of the guys, and presumably when they find out will go huh!!!! welp, guess you're still my buddy.
like... if All The Dudes in an all (ostensibly straight) male cast are attracted to a crossdressing girl and noone else, it feels a bit "her afabness transcends gender identity". This way a guy can be theoretically into her, but also capable of legit just seeing her as a friend. "Potential girlfriends" and "potential buddies" are not distinct categories.
AND THAT. IS THE END OF MY REACTIONS SO FAR. Phew!!
My main two worries going forward are (a) Unexpected intense dysphoria inducing Gender Bullshit (b) Not being convinced that Kisa loves Sou back. I realise they have to keep things ambiguous on the common route, and they are definitely cute together, but she is SO oblivious to his interest. We'll see.
