Diabolik Lovers hell.

Konnichiwa mina-san!!

Oh yeah this is happening, like I said on my latest update I'm going to be talking about Diabolik Lovers soon. Well that's today.

From left to right: Shu, Reiji, Ayato, Kanato, Laito, Subaru.

Where to begin...I got hooked on DiaLovers in July I think, and the more I learned about the characters and the plot, the more obsessed I became. It's an addictive series...if you like that sort of thing. First of all, this series is not for the faint of heart. DiaLovers deals with dark themes like sadism, sexual abuse, abuse and murder and none of the boys are nice. You can forget that Twilight bullshit, these vampires don't sparkle nor swear their eternal love to us. They are very mean, abusive and arrogant. Having said that, I'm not gonna spoil too much of the plot here incase people who read this get interested and want to checkout the games and anime themselves. Diabolik Lovers consists of 2 Otome games for PSP and PSP Vita (Diabolik Lovers Haunted Dark Bridal and now Diabolik Lovers MORE,BLOOD), bunch of Drama CDs, mangas and an anime series.

The plot involves around 17-year-old Komori Yui whose father leaves her in the care of their "relatives" the Sakamakis whilst he goes abroad. At the Sakamaki mansion she meets 6 brothers who turn out to be vampires. The brothers claim that she was send to their house on purpose so she is forbidden to leave their side. In the first game "Diabolik Lovers Haunted Dark Bridal" the player gets to choose which brother becomes their love interest. As the game proceeds Yui-chan gets more acquainted with the brother she chose and we learn that he is just a misunderstood, frightened young man. Eventually they fall in love....PPPPFFFFF nnfufufufuuu I LIED! (*´∀`*) Sorry, but that's not how it goes at all!! Like I said, this is dark stuff. 
But I didn't lie about the opening, we get to choose love interest for us/Yui and the game goes from there (naturally you want to play all the brothers, but it's up to you in which order...well in the beginning you have to choose between Ayato, Kanato and Laito). Each guy's route is split into 3 sections, "Dark, Maniac and Ecstasy" in which we learn more about the guy we chose. Throughout the game the guy presents us with questions, and our answers will determine what kind of ending we'll have with the guy. A good ending then locks 'hidden' Heaven scenarios. 

Fate selection bit from Ayato's route.

So far pretty ok right? If you have played Otome games aka Visual Novel games before DiaLovers follows the basic Visual Novel game format. We get various sprites of the brothers, full screen shots, 2 answer choices (in some games you get 3) to determine our fate, locations suchs as: the school, garden, lake, torture chamber, dining room, living room, bedrooms etc etc and what else...oh yeah we get to hear the amazing seiyuus (voice actors) put their acting skills in to good use ;) Not to mention the art is stunning!! I really, really wish I could paint that well!! Seeing such beautiful art makes me want to design my own otome game and do the art for it *_* The whole game has a very realistic 3D look and the artist (shite I don't know who the artist is, but I want to!!) has designed great colour palettes for the game. The game is easy on the eyes and Reject, DiaLovers developer, hired superb seiyuus to voice the brothers.

That's the summary of how the game works. No, I haven't played the game. I just ordered DiaLovers MORE,BLOOD and in December when I get my next paycheck I can order PSP and start playing (=*_*=) So how did I get access to DiaLovers and know about the plot, the brothers etc etc?? I googled. There are bunch of people on youtube now playing the game and on the web many people have written detailed summaries of each route. I recommend you follow Narihira on tumblr because she gives great insights on the psychological side of DiaLovers (she studies psychology in university). And she posts a lot of stuff regarding DiaLovers ❤ and she's also playing MORE,BLOOD now http://narihira.tumblr.com/
A great blog worth mentioning is Ilinox's blog. She's English whose Japanese skills are insanely good!! She has translated some DiaLovers stuff, and her translations are insanely detailed and accurate! http://yumemirusekai.wordpress.com/
And on youtube you can follow for example ka jia who's played the first game  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5drJjqf-BAp9KEDxLQEATQ/videos

Anime poster 2013.

I probably should mention that both DiaLovers and MORE,BLOOD don't have english susbtitles/translations. So how come I can play the games and understand the Drama CDs??
Mochiron because I have studied Japanese! (=^.^=) I studied Japanese 4 years in high school. I wanted to continue in college, but our sensei forbid me to attend the class because she thought I was too good. I didn't really learn japanese or watch anime that much in college. I hardly listened to J-Pop too. But once I learned about DiaLovers and started watching people play the game and listen to DiaLovers Drama CDs, my Japanese has gotten better. (well I listen all kinds of Drama CDs now but I'll do another post on that). Although my kanji knowledge sucks big time, also I can hardly remember any hiragana-katakana signs I learned in high school!! So I am slightly intimitated about playing the game, but I usually learn while doing anyway so it should be fine (・ω＼)

Now on to the really good stuff...what makes this series so notoriously dark? How disturbed these boys really are? Tottemo, very! Well that doesn't say anything still. You really have to experience it yourself. But there's no denying it, these guys are really disturbed, somewhat paranoid and hardcore Do-S types (for the love of God, don't google that!!). And with Diabolik Lovers it's not about sex. Like with some people the first thing that comes to mind when someone says "Sadist" or "Masochist" is sex. But no, these guys are not some lame Christian Grey teen versions (my God those books were bad!!...not bad meaning good, but bad meaning really bad ಠ_ಠ ). Christian Grey ain't got nothing on these guys, he's just a guy who likes to have sex and spank Anastasia. But DiaLovers are both mentally and physically abusive and like I said, it has nothing to do with sex....well...unless it's Laito-kun (///O.O\\\). These guys were brought up by disturbed or broken mothers who craved for their husband's attention in vain (except Christa, Subaru's mother). Their husband... Karl had three wives: Cordelia who had Laito, Kanato and Ayato, Beatrix who had Shu and Reiji and lastly Christa who had Subaru. Hence they are half brothers (LOLS this is a popular pattern in Otome games. The brothers are always "just" half brothers, cuz, I think, it would be too icky if the heroine was going through 6 full-blooded brothers. 'Half brothers' cushions the blow I think..). But Karl was never around and never expressed any interest in his wives or sons. Basically Cordelia was the first wife, but Shu and Reiji were born first, so Shu is going to be the head of the Sakamaki house. Without giving too much spoilers I'm just going to say that Cordelia abused her sons in various ways to get back at Karl (and well....she is insane) and Beatrix ignored Reiji completely and focused her energy on Shu, who didn't want to be the head of the family anyway. And Christa...who was forced to have Subaru was locked away and suffered a mental break down. Hhhmm..were those spoilers??

The "Triplets", Laito, Ayato and Kanato.

That's a little bit of history that lets us understand better why these guys are the way they are. Their father Karl then dumped them in the mansion and had Reiji make sure that they all go to school whilst he attends some secret business of his own. These guys are now used to doing whatever they want to do, with Reiji occasionally disciplining them. And that's when Yui/we come in. Yui is literally told that if she tries to escape, they will kill her (and that's not a cute, iddle threat, they really mean it. She/we are nothing to them, and, well they are vampires with superpowers). Yui's father is abroad, and she has no where else to go. The church she attended won't aswer her calls and eventually tell her not to contact them ever again. Yui is left alone in a mansion with 6 guys with personality disorders (personally I would already be concerned about having to live alone with six unfamiliar men, even if they weren't vampires).
Okay so my first thought, when I got into this series was "yeah right, what can these guys do, really?". Hence I'll demonstrate by listing one horrible thing each brother did to Yui/us, I'm starting from the eldest and move down to the youngest.
Shu: because Shu is so lazy, he mostly just orders Yui to feed him her blood. Or calls her names. In the Versus Drama CD he was pretty mean though (O_O), but definately in the game he is the lesser of 6 evils.
Reiji: he pretty much uses Yui as a lab rat for his drug experiments. Seriously don't eat or drink anything this guy gives you, he makes special poisons just for Yui/us!!
Laito: oh boy...Laito-kun...where to begin...I'm just gonna say that Laito sexually harrasses Yui before he tries to drown her in a bathtub.
Kanato: throws toast in Yui's face and starts stabbing her with a fork.
Ayato: ties Yui to a dartboard and starts playing darts.
Subaru: the violent tsundere!! Seriously when this guy is in a bad mood (he is pretty much all the time), stay away! Not as bad as his other brothers, but can be very violent and aggressive.
Also I need to point out that when you choose a guy, the story mostly focuses on him. However the other brothers make guest appearances, and are always trying to get some too. Whilst trying to deal with the guy you chose, you also have to fend off his brothers who can be persistant.

Subaru, Ayato, Shu.

Well if I was just reading this and didn't know anything about DiaLovers, this wouldn't be enough to get me scared of these guys. It's the seiyuus that finally sell it (and of course the writers who wrote the dialogue) that these guys are sadists. No one can deny that the seiyuus are doing a great job voicing these characters. I'm especially fond of Subaru-kun's 'throat' chuckle, because it's so deep yet boyishly sexy at the same time. I hide my face every time Subaru chuckles, it's just so.....ghifueyfgsioohjjjshhhaayurhnomg!!! And Hirarin...also known as Hiragawa Daisuke who does Laito-kun's voice, deserves some kind of seiyuu Oscar for his performance!! (´・_・｀)
Granted Laito-kun's personality is already really over the top so the seiyuu could have approached this character from several directions. Hirarin however....uummmm *blush* plays Laito's playfulness and sex appeal to the max, he does not mess around. Every time Laito enters the scene, the raiting should go up to R21. And....the kissing noises he makes....KJDFDEOPAFPDGKMDIJWEOWUAHDYAAAHHHH!!! (////∀\\\\) *my face is burning*.
Yes all the seiyuu's have done brilliantly, sasuga professional seiyuu-tachi! All of them manage to bring out their character's individuality and personality through. If you let your imagination get the better of you...the seiyuus make these characters so real...and really convincing. I especially love the Tokuten Drama CDs where the brothers get to be interactive with each other. It's really a pleasure to listen to because the seiyuus are able to show off their acting talents and reveal something new about the character they are playing.

Yes before I forget, this game was recorded on a "dummy head mic", which is basically a "mannequin's" head that's a microphone. So when the seiyuu talks to the dummy's left ear, if you have headphones on (you should have head phones on!!) it literally sounds like the character is talking to your left ear (////∀\\\\) *my face is burning again*. Pretty much went to a fangirl oblivion when I experienced this the first time. Just make sure you are alone in the house when playing the game or listening to the Drama CDs...I'm 25 and I couldn't keep a straight face.

So what made me like this series? To a normal onlooker it should seem quite weird that girls would like to play a game where they are abused and sexually harrassed by teenage vampire boys. It's misogynist, anti-feminist and sounds down right awful, right? Granted I acknowledge that the game objectifies women and really jams these twisted gender roles down our throats. But when this game was put into development, the writers and developers made sure that this game would be very self-aware. Everybody who embarks on this journey knows what they are going to be dealing with. Well...there will be nasty surprises along the way. I can deal with a lot of trauma and stuff....but oh Laito-kun....I kinda expected that...but I was like "naaahh can't be true"....and when it was.... (ノ；Д；) The developers and writers chose to take this game to the extreme and they don't apologize for it. Which I am very happy about! I hate it when a story introduces a really dark and sadistic character...he meets the girl and after a while he becomes the nice prince charming worthy of her kindness. Hate to break it to you, but that shit doesn't happen in real life ಠ_ಠ  In Diabolik Lovers there is no magical cure for these guys. That Twilight bullshit doesn't happen here. These boys are only interested in Yui for her sweet blood, which they say is the best blood they have ever tasted. Hence they get addicted to it, they don't care who she is or what she thinks, she is just gourmet food to them. Bit by bit, these guys do take down the crazy, but they don't really change. The only one in this game who is forced to change, is Yui. That's very brutal, but I kinda like it. Yui eventually comes to understands the situation she is in and in order to survive, she has to become the Do-M that's expected of her. I'm saddened that many people (usually girls) have criticized Yui for being the little stupid weak blonde bimbo who can't do anything by herself. If you would just look at the situation she is in, you'd understand that the reason she becomes the guy's Do-M bride is because she has burning desire to survive. She is resisting the guys as much as she can, but eventually she is forced to go through some traumatic event that snaps her out of her optimistic mind set. She sees the reality of things and chooses to change in order to survive. The game doesn’t gloss over this and it's actually quite painful to go through/imagine. No Disney happy endings here guys. 

Well yes...I'm in it for the bishies...and because I'm interested in characters with borderline personality disorders. They are fascinating. But well, the frightful thing is that this could be real, these kind of guys most definitely excist, there could be girls out there who are locked away and constantly harrassed by 6 guys (I read The Collector, and I'm still not over it. That book made a mess out of me Q_Q really traumatizing read). To quote a fellow blogger "This is not a game where the douchebag male love interest is glorified and the girl changes him with the awesome power of love—because that’s not how things work in real life". As much as I hope that these guys would become the prince charming for Yui, the grown up in me knows that that is impossible. If you fall in love with these guys, you’ll have to handle the consequences. As much as I like Disney's happy endings and lovey-dovey stuff, I'm more interested in fantasy laced with reality, and Diabolik Lovers gives me just that. If you take a minute and think about what I have just told you, you should get it that the game's psychological side is frightfully realistic. The douchebag sadist you meet is not going to change for you, nor is your love going to magically heal him. Heh that sounds harsh..but really people that's how it is. And I find that very poetic and real. It's unfortunate the situation Yui is in, and you wouldn't wish that kind of destiny for anyone. 

You still here?? Here take this golden medal *hands you a medal* I have been rambling all this time (=^.^=) and you are still here.
What I'm trying to say I guess is that I enjoy the game and the series for its realistic approach to borderline personality disorders and their sources. The bad guy gets the girl and she is not happy about it. The beast doesn't change, Belle does. That sort of thing. And of course the hot boys and amazing seiyuus! Not to mention unlike regular boys (well at least Finnish boys) these guys will give you the time of day anytime! (=*∀^=) (and when they do, we probably wish they wouldn't). And actually whilst watching the game and listening to the Drama CDs I have found new sides of myself too (=^.^=) I discovered that I don't have to be so cool all the time, that I can show sadness and blush in public (<- somehow that sounds so dirty...) and not feel like I have to be in total control of my emotions and faces all the time. And yup learned many other things as well.

And now as a treat, I'll reveal who is my ultimate favourite DiaLover, who beat the others when I saw him and heard him talking..TADAAHHH it's Laito-kun!!!! (*///∀\\\*) It's best not to ask...

Sakamaki Laito.

And with that, thank you so much for reading!! Seriously mad props to you if you made it to the end!! I feel like I wrote a lot of stuff, but didn't really say anything. So I'm getting my PSP and MORE, BLOOD next month and I'm not sure if I'll be posting videos of me playing on my youtube channel. I want to play MORE,BLOOD first because I have watched the first game so many times that I want to play the new game. I have only read Kou-kun's route summary and little bit of Laito-kun's so I want to see what's going on there =^.^=

Domo arigatou gozaimasu for reading!! Next I'll be blogging about Drama CDs. 
Cheers, take care!!! Mata asobi ni kite nee!!