Our Private Homeroom

When Voltage first announced the Our Private Homeroom collection, I didn't think there was any way I could play it as the idea of a teacher and a student (especially for me as a mom) generally sounds really skeevy. That's not to say that I'm always against that type of "forbidden love" storyline.

I'm not a huge fan of Lolita (bad English major, I know, I know) but take Garret Weyr's Stay with Me and yes, I buy it. Heck, in that case, the main character is only 16 and her love interest is a whopping 31 but it's a believable story. It invests you. And stays with you. It's been years since I read that and I still love it...even if Garret is SO much taller than me that pictures of us together look absolutely ridiculous. I don't hold it against her. Much.

Anyway, let's just say that I approach these types of stories with a healthy dose of skepticism. You've got to really talk me into it. I have to believe it. And I really wasn't sure that Voltage could do it because, as I've mentioned before, they only hit about 50% with me. A lot of their older heroines are ridiculously weak and if they'd gone that route with Our Private Homeroom, it would have been...well...just gross.

They're really pushing the forbidden aspect in this CG. Don't really like this image. Also, he's cuter than this.

But, for once, the MC is actually awesome. She's great. She's probably the best Voltage heroine I've read yet. She has sass. She has attitude. She stands up for herself. She's believable. She doesn't start out wanting to be with her teacher either (thank goodness) nor he with her.  At least in the Ryota Mochizuki route which is the main story that I played through...just a guess but the childhood friend one (Shuya Komaki) that isn't released yet may play into that.

To begin at the beginning...the MC's mother is a doctor and has moved to the US for her job. The MC is in her last year of high school (and is 18, thankfully) and stays behind to live on her own. But there was a mistake and the apartment she was supposed to live in is already rented. Her teacher comes upon her as she's contemplating what to do and invites her to stay over. It winds up turning into more of a long term thing than originally anticipated (with the mother's knowledge) and they slowly grow closer as he tutors her in math (she needs to seriously improve her score if she wants to get into the medical program) and she slowly learns that his perfect image hides what he's really like.

Things I liked (other than the MC herself--she's got great snarky wit): a) Ryota cares about his students; all of them, and not just the MC, b) their banter back and forth, c) that neither of them were looking for anything deeper, d) that both of them gained something from their gradually growing relationship and e) while the relationship comes from an inherently unbalanced starting point, it was believable by the end that they BOTH offered something to it that the other needed.

Things I didn't like: a) that they went the stereotypical route and threw in the whole oh no, your job is in jeopardy because of our relationship (even though they didn't even technically have a relationship officially at that point as neither of them had admitted it to each other) and b) the bitchy villain girl who has no real motivation beyond moving the plot forwards...she was a one note character and c) the stalker dude that had no consequences for his actions...his redemption arc didn't do it for me.

I was also curious about the other teacher, Yohji Furuya, the one who is apparently a playboy type and the MC's music teacher. But I wasn't interested in him enough to do the main story....and having a fair amount of coins due to their login bonus thing now (thank you, Voltage), I bought his POV story. Glad I didn't shell out for the main story as, weirdly, THIS one turned out to be a childhood friend story! Bah!

Okay, it wasn't bad and at least they were both important to each other but I'd definitely say I prefer Ryota over Yohji. Yohji does say some skeevy things to her too in the beginning (though he doesn't mean them at the time and is just joking in a very inappropriate manner...but then, that makes you wonder what she's thinking later on when she remembers back...).

Anyway, thanks, Voltage for finally writing a MC I could get behind. Now, could you pretty please give that same attitude to a grown up woman character? That'd be great. It's not right that your 18 year old character has so much more character and backbone than your thirty-something ones. Seriously.