VN Talk: My Sweet Bodyguard - Part 5: Sora

I was looking forward to Sora's route since he's a bright and optimistic personality on the other routes, even if he tends to get a little too huggy with the MC, but by the time I finished it, I wasn't sure I liked him as much anymore. It wasn't that he turned out to be a secret jerk, but there were two things about him that bothered me on his route.

The MC meets Sora first out of all the bodyguards during her rescue in the prologue, but she thinks she's being helped by another woman, who turns out to be Sora, who sometimes crossdresses as a disguise. He looks really good as a woman, and given his upbeat personality and that he's even enthusiastic about it on other routes, I assumed he was fine with it. And I actually think that he is fine with it, and proud of how well he passes, since he even has a photo album of him in his disguises which he admits are all of him dressed as a woman.

Given his protests on his own route, I suspect the problem is that Sora doesn't want to look feminine in front of a woman he's attracted to, but even if the MC is nothing but supportive he always feels resistant about it. It's not until the ending when the MC tells him his disguise is what allowed them to meet that he kind of dials it back, but it doesn't feel like there was a solid resolution on how he really feels about it and I didn't like the "I can't look girly in front of my woman" vibe I was getting.

The other issue is perhaps a little more concerning given that this is a romance game. I couldn't tell when he was actually getting serious about the MC, especially since he said he would never date a client. Sora is a flirt, and suggested to be a ladies' man, and he gets a lot of calls from random people with female names, but the only one we actually meet in person is either a fellow crossdresser or transgender (the game uses female pronouns, but the way they talk about the character made their actual gender identity murky to me). Given that Sora crossdresses, I was left with the impression that this network of women he spoke with were his support buddies to help him pass and not a string of girlfriends.

Really, it wasn't until his blow-up just before the finale over using the MC as bait that it became apparent that his feelings were getting in the way of his job, and even playing as the MC I didn't get the feeling she liked him romantically, though I guess she seemed a little sad at the thought of the day he'd stop guarding her.

So when they go to a party after the bad guys are caught and all is well, suddenly Sora starts calling the MC his girl, and I was like "When did they start dating?" At least in his happy ending, unlike the other routes', the game makes it clear she's no longer his client, so he can just date her, but I felt like the game assumed they had mutually acknowledged feelings for each other even though they actually hadn't, which felt very awkward.

Similarly awkward was the MC telling him she knows how many ex-girlfriends he has and there was a part of me that thought "Those really were ex-girlfriends and not his crossdressing support network?" I felt fairly certain all those phone calls were to mislead the MC into thinking one thing only for her to later learn it was nothing of the sort.

I'm going to sound like I'm ripping on Sora's route even though I liked it better than Subaru's, but the non-romance portion of his route was pretty disappointing. This is the only route where the prime minister doesn't show up at all even though he's the one who the bad guys are ultimately trying to get at and I miss him giving his dad stamp of approval on her boyfriend.

Aside from that, there were no outlandish villains, not even guys in sunglasses. The villains were just a trio of thugs given no names or political connections, no motivations. Instead of having a scene with MC almost getting attacked or kidnapped at one point by the main villain(s), she's instead menaced by three high school delinquents in the women's restroom (I kid you not). For a brief moment I had hope that we'd have a second round confrontation like Katsuragi and Kaiji's routes, but no. The plan to use her as bait works (a little later than expected, but before a scene change can happen) and the baddies are caught.

And the whole plan to catch the bad guys made no sense. I wasn't expecting it to go down like a real police operation since this is popcorn gaming, but I do expect the story to be internally consistent with itself.

Unlike the other routes, Sora does not stay with the MC 24/7 even though he's her chosen bodyguard. Instead an unnamed female bodyguard takes over off-camera most evenings so he can avoid cohabitating with her in her apartment. This isn't because he thinks she has girl cooties or anything. It's just the way things are going to work. Which is fine, and actually makes a lot more sense than some of the other routes because a single guard is going to get tired and it's better that her security team works in shifts.

The problem is when the plan to use her as bait comes up. Sora's part in the plan is to crossdress so he looks like a female friend rather than a bodyguard, to lull the bad guys into a false sense of security. Only he pitches a fit and doesn't want to because he dislikes the plan. When he walks out the MC brings up the possibility of using a female bodyguard (because we know at least one exists!), but Katsuragi shoots that down because what few they have on other assignments.

And I'm like: "What about the one that is part of her security detail for the evenings? If she's off shift, call her in. And if she's working elsewhere, isn't the plan to save the prime minister's daughter one of the most important assignments a security police officer could have?" It's not like they had a hard deadline to catch the bad guys.

Aside from that, once Sora agrees to go with the plan, there's this really weird exchange between the MC and Kaiji about why Sora can't ride in the car home with them if the plan doesn't work. He says it would be weird for two female friends to get in a car together (is it?!) and they don't want to risk ruining Sora's disguise so they can use it again on another attempt. At least the second part kind of makes sense, but then the MC asks what will happen if the plan works and they get attacked.

Kaiji then tells her he and Sora will arrest their attackers, and the MC points out this will ruin his disguise. Arguably it would be water under the bridge if the bad guys are caught, but then Kaiji says it won't matter because the bad guys already know what he looks like as a woman from the day they first rescued the MC.

And my brain about melted. Sora's disguise shouldn't be broken, but it doesn't matter because the bad guys already know what he looks like when he's wearing it?

The writing was not strong in this one. Other than Sora's odd conflict about crossdressing and the list of ex-girlfriends that I don't entirely believe in, I liked him as a character. He's fun and a ray of sunshine in what could otherwise be a serious game. I just wish he had a better route to support him.