VN Talk: Variable Barricade - Part 2: Nayuta

I played Nayuta's route first for Variable Barricade, and since I was predisposed towards liking all the men after clearing their first barricade boards, he wasn't the shoe-in that I thought he'd be. Nayuta interested me when I read my first import review of the game (back when I thought it would never be translated), but the specific reason is a bit of a spoiler so I won't mention it just yet so you can't accidentally glance down at it.

However, if spoilers bother you, now would be a good time to check out, as I will eventually cover all of his route.

Nayuta is often likened to a large dog, but he is definitely not an alpha dog. He's happy to please, all the other guys get him to run errands and do things for them, but he has tons of energy and is genuinely happy to help. Not getting to help, when he can possibly be of assistance, drives him crazy, and what he wants to do more than anything else is please Hibari.

He's also... not the brightest bulb in the room. At one point Shion texts Hibari to say that they have no need of a pet, because they have Nayuta. When Hibari points out that Nayuta is a human being, Shion replies with a protest that Nayuta was eating dog food.

Seriously.

I wasn't sure I could keep up with this whirlwind puppy energy, so even though I went into the game expecting Nayuta would be my favorite, I was really turned off by his antics in the common route. All the guys are a bit much, which is the point, but Nayuta felt like he could be too much. There were times when he'd be like an untrained puppy. Hibari would tell him the equivalent of "Stay" and then thirty seconds later he'd totally forget she'd given him a command and start bothering her again.

It got to the point that I wanted Hibari to grab him and sternly tell him that he was irritating her and if he wanted to make her happy, he should step back and leave her alone. But scolding Nayuta is a bit like scolding a puppy, so I guess it's not too surprising that she doesn't do it, especially since there's no way the other guys and Kasuga wouldn't find out about it, making her feel like a heel.

Despite that, Nayuta ended up being the second of the love interests whose barricade boards I checked out (since even if he was a pain, his sincerity made him a better potential match than the remaining two). And that was a turning point for me. While it did not cement him as the leader, since as I mentioned last week, I liked all the guys after finishing their first boards, it gave me the reason I ultimately used when choosing Hibari's first fiancee.

Nayuta's flaw (the one that should disqualify him from being a suitable suitor), is that he's a walking debt generator. His complete lack of guile causes him to be taken in by all kinds of scams, and he's not good with money, so he buys things figuring he'll pay it all back later, without any concept of how long that would take him. (Never give this man a credit card!)

But over the course of his first barricade board, it finally sinks in that him being in debt would reflect poorly on Hibari, so with Kasuga's help he takes on a bunch of part-time jobs to start paying down his debt. He even starts coming to Hibari and Kasuga to get their approval before making new purchases. Though he doesn't erase everything he owes by the end of the board (since that shouldn't be possible given the implied scope of his debt), he makes serious progress paying it down, and that impressed me.

Nayuta is the only one of the four suitors who tackles the most serious flaw in his personal background before Hibari has to choose a fiancé, and given his earnest personality, I knew he would be someone who would never betray Hibari, so even though I was happy to go down any of the four routes by the end of the common route, in the end I chose him. I like Hibari's rationale when she explains her choice to her grandfather; that she likes border collies.

Even though Hibari has a tentative fiancé now, one that her grandfather supposedly can share with the cadet branches of their family to get them off her back, none of the suitors are informed, and that includes Nayuta. This is so Hibari can change her mind if it turns out she regrets her choice (seeing as she's only known the guys for a couple of months at this point), but unsurprisingly there is possible changing of the mind narratively, because once we're on Nayuta's route, it's his route.

Nayuta, trying to be ever helpful, offers to become her bodyguard while she goes to and from school, and that's when his "work mode" kicks in, which really spices up the dynamic between him and Hibari. It turns out that Nayuta can focus himself, and when he's acting as a bodyguard, he's remarkably proficient (since it turns out that he comes from a large, extended family that specializes in bodyguard duty for rich people). Nayuta can not only protect her, which he does from a guy with a knife, but is observant enough to see when she's being socially pressured and able to intervene with a made-up excuse like her grandfather needs to see her, thus giving her an dignified exit from the conversation.

It's not surprising that Hibari becomes increasingly impressed with this side of Nayuta, and that she begins falling for him despite herself. She's a huge fan of the in-universe movie The Guardian: I Will Always Love You (which is a thinly veiled reference to a real movie I probably don't need to name), and she can't help seeing the bodyguard of the movie in Nayuta. She even calls his "work mode" "guardian mode" at one point.

And this is one of the things I really like about this route. Hibari can be a colossal dork. She's a teenage girl with no romantic experience, so of course she compares her potential love life to the romance of her favorite movie. Hibari even tries pulling off a stunt from the movie to see if Nayuta will be concerned enough to chase after her. He does, and she is so smitten that she decides she'll let him know that he's her pick of the suitors.

But she does it by reciting her favorite line from the movie! She requests that he be her one and only bodyguard, and Nayuta is ecstatic, so this is how you know something is going to go wrong. Nayuta is pretty thick-headed, and because Hibari doesn't actually say anything about making him her fiancé, things can't possibly work out this well. And besides, there are three barricade boards per love interest and this scene happens near the end of the second one.

When their conversation derails and Hibari realizes Nayuta didn't understand what she really meant, she actually comes out and says it, only for Nayuta to tell her that he's not actually a suitor!

According to him, prior to the whole suitor setup, he was looking for the perfect client (since he does not want to guard anyone morally objectionable), and after seeing her defend a child he decided that she would be the one he'd protect. He asked her grandfather for a chance to become her bodyguard and was placed among the suitors after being told that he could only be her bodyguard if Hibari chose him. And seeing as she just named him bodyguard for life, Nayuta is thrilled that he can now be her bodyguard and it's not part of this suitor thing at all.

But... Hibari is clearly upset by this. It is a massive chain yank. Like, what do you mean he's not a suitor? Why would her grandfather do something random like that?

Though Hibari's grandfather tells her it's true that Nayuta is not a suitor when confronted about it, he is also a frequent liar and not afraid to omit details if it suits him, so it's my belief that Nayuta was always a suitor. He makes it clear to Hibari that her suitors all have something she lacks, and he specifically calls out Nayuta's bravery and honesty when he makes the offer to place Nayuta among the suitors, so he clearly was doing this with an eye towards providing Hibari with a potential someone who had traits she does not. It's just Nayuta, being Nayuta, was too thick to realize that he was also being given a chance to court her.

This makes the start of the third act a little awkward for all the characters, as Nayuta has won the chance to be her bodyguard, has removed himself as a suitor, and behaves as though he's perfectly fine with her choosing any of the other men. But the other guys aren't idiots, and realize there's only one person who Hibari's interested in. Aside from a series of amazingly bad fail dates to try making Nayuta jealous, this route has one of the best scenes in the entire game, and the surest path to teenage embarrassment.

The guys find out that The Guardian is going to be airing on TV so they plan a group movie night to watch it! Hibari is not allowed to miss it, and has to sit through the whole thing, completely mortified, as Nayuta digests the movie as if it's the greatest thing he's ever seen. He's completely taken by the effectiveness of the movie's bodyguard, and even mentions that the film's heroine makes him think of Hibari. But what he does not comment on is the romance between the heroine and the bodyguard.

When Nayuta expresses interest in seeing the movie again, Hibari reluctantly loans him her copy. But the thing is, though Nayuta's pretty thick, he's not that thick, and he recognizes privately is that the movie is stirring emotions in him that he hasn't been able to name. Watching and rewatching the movie gives him a chance to figure them out.

What I like about this route is that it's not just a matter of other people pounding Nayuta's skull until he finally realizes he's in love with Hibari. Hibari's friends also push her to confess her own feelings, so Nayuta is clear about where she stands. She doesn't want to though. It's hard enough being honest about how she really feels without worrying about rejection on top of it.

However, since she has taken too long to choose a fiancé from the remaining men, her grandfather has gone ahead and chosen one for her, which is clearly a lie that we can see as players, but one that has Hibari in distress, and this is why she ultimately decides she wants to make her feelings known to Nayuta before she is formally engaged to someone else.

But we can't have that simple a resolution to the story, so right after Hibari decides this, she ends up being hauled back to her family estate where she'll have to wait until the engagement party her grandfather set up.

Meanwhile, the guys finally get through to Nayuta, and he realizes that he needs to save Hibari before she can get engaged to someone else, leading to a touching, but totally engineered scene where he breaks through her family estate's security in order to come to her window. His request: for her to ask him to save her, even if it's just pretend.

Though she tells him it's too late, Nayuta is full of a canny confidence that is a pleasant mix of the bodyguard and puppy sides of his personality. He pushes, and gets her to ask, before disappearing before security can catch him. Hibari might have felt she was preparing herself for disappointment, but I was looking forward to what he would do.

The finale is probably my favorite scene of his route. Even though parts of it are predictable, like Nayuta coming to save the day, and the revelation that he's the fiancé her grandfather chose for her, how he saves the day is a complete hoot.

A group of dancing dog mascots disrupt the engagement party, and the confused guests end up thinking they're part of the show, but Hibari realizes that one of the mascots must be Nayuta. Normally in her place I'd probably die of embarrassment watching my love energetically dancing his way towards me in a dog costume in front of every member of high society I've ever known, but it was so well done that I'm not surprised that Hibari's first instinct after picking him out among the others is to reach for his hand.

Of course, it can't be that easy, and Hibari's current bodyguard (after Nayuta was dismissed due to some drama I don't have room to go over) is Nayuta's uncle, Kojiro, so it turns into a big battle with Nayuta fighting his uncle while stuck inside a dog suit! Topping it off, when he momentarily goes down, Hibari grants Nayuta's wish to be stepped on, by stepping on him real hard (in heels!) to motivate him to get up again.

It works! And I about died laughing.

I really loved how the two came together and that in the epilogue Hibari is the one to make the first move to kiss him. It's not often that otome protagonists get to make the first move, but Hibari is clearly the one in charge.

My only complaint really is that the second part of the two-part epilogue felt like it could have been the start of a fan disk story rather than an ending. Nayuta ends up being really uncomfortable with the idea of being lovers and starts freaking out whenever he gets close to Hibari because he can't handle how his heart starts racing. The other guys can't even move out because he doesn't want to be alone with her.

The epilogue ends with Hibari pinning him against the wall explaining how this isn't working and he's going to have to get used to thinking of them as a couple. She also lets him know that his behavior is making her lonely and unhappy, which she knows are things that will get through to him, and they do, but it just felt like a really awkward way to end his route.

Fortunately there are after stories in this game, and they're fully voiced with CGs, so I felt a lot better after playing Nayuta's. His after story takes place after they've gotten used to their relationship so there's no more freaking out and it's lovely to see how they've matured into a real couple (a couple of nerds, though Hibari wants to be more closeted about it).

In the end, Nayuta did become my favorite. Oh, and the reason I became interested in Nayuta is that I knew about the kabedon scene at the end (pinning him to the wall) and I liked the idea of a protagonist who was very clearly telling her love how she felt and that he'd better get used to it. We just don't get that many.

Next week will be Shion, who I chose second for a role playing reason, much like I did with Nayuta.