Title: KLAP!! ~Kind Love And Punish~
Company: Otomate
Release Date: 30th July 2015
Length: 25-30 hours
Links: Official Site , VNDB
Story
Yamashiro Koyomi was inspired by her old high school teachers to pursue a career in teaching and has recently graduated university. The only problem is that she is rejected by every school she applied to. Faced with the despair of losing her dream, she notices a letter from a school that she can’t even remember anything about – and it just happens to be a letter of acceptance. She hastily decides to accept the offer and packs up her stuff and goes on the 30 minute journey to the school. After spending over 60 minutes just on the bus and train only to arrive at a small bus stop in the middle of the mountains, Koyomi realizes that the letter actually states that the journey should take 300 minutes. Undeterred, she sets off on her 4 hour hike through the mountains and arrives at the gates to the Aima prefecture – the secret 48th prefecture of Japan which houses all manner of mystical creatures and spirits (collectively known as UMA). It turns out that she is offered employment by Yomotsu Hirasaka UMA Senmo Kouto Gakkou (aka Yomikou) a special school with the sole purpose of helping UMA to control their powers so that they can visit and live in the human world safely. Koyomi is understandably reluctant to take the job offer but the school principal Nurarihyon tells her that if she works at Yomikou for a full year then he will give her a good reference for other schools. Koyomi eagerly accepts and thus begins her life trying to keep these troublesome UMAs under control~
If a UMA loses control of their powers completely then they lose all sense of self and nothing can save them. In order to prevent this happening, all of the teachers at Yomikou must discipline the students when they start going out of control and as such carry whips around with them all of the time.
Each play through of the game features 8 chapters: 5 for the common route and 3 for each character route.
Characters
Yamashiro Koyomi
Koyomi is the new teacher at Yomikou, and one of only two humans. She is very level-headed and cares deeply for all of her students as she hopes to inspire them to make the most out of life. She’s originally quite reluctant to participate in disciplining the students but is okay with it when she realises how disastrous it could be if any of her students completely lose themselves.
Mimisaka Toma (CV Morikubo Shoutarou)
A hot-blooded 73 year old Tengu. Apparently he has a small nose for a Tengu which he was bullied for so he gets extremely angry whenever he hears any word similar to “small/tiny” in his vicinity and won’t hesitate to start a fist-fight. He cares a great deal about his family (including his 4 younger siblings) who were thrown into poverty a few years ago. He wants to graduate so that he can prove to the other Tengu that he can keep his abilities under control.
Suo Sosuke (CV Kaji Yuuki)
Sosuke is the 18 year old half Yuki-onna, half human boy. He enjoys messing with people and teasing them (especially Koyomi). He has no mental filter and says things as he sees them. As he is not a pure Yuki-onna, his parents were kicked out of the clan when he was a child and he was left in the care of the clan who view him as “impure” and try to have as little to do with him as possible. He currently writes letters to his family and wants to graduate from the school so he can go to the human world and meet his parents again.
Suruga Akito (CV Tachibana Shinnosuke)
Akito is the 168 year old playboy Kappa. He is the only heir to the prestigious Suruga fortune but never takes anything seriously and would rather be chatting up the ladies who throw themselves at his feet. He enjoys teasing Touma about his small nose. He can be reliable occasionally. Akito is expected to graduate from the school so that he can help the family expand their business on a global scale.
Camil Settsilin (CV Kimura Ryohei)
Camil is the 333 year old vampire whom has spent the past 150 years “spacing out” [his words not mine]. He tends to go at his own pace and doesn’t appear to pay much attention to his surroundings. He’s always tired because he spends all night playing online MMORPGs (specifically “Vampire Eternal Story”). He also really, really hates blood and feels ill whenever exposed to it. He’s not really bothered if he graduates or not.
Harima Kanade (CV Nobuhiko Okamoto)
Kanade is the 602 year old Nekomata who is straight-forward and outgoing. He tends to speak in a very old-fashioned way (and gets referred to as “gramps” by Sosuke) and has a few traditional values. However, he has many cat-like tendencies and enjoys nothing more than finding a warm place to nap on a sunny day. He can also play the Koto very well. He wishes to graduate so that he can go to the human world and find his special someone.
Izumo Shion (CV Sugita Tomokazu)
Shion is one of the other teachers at Yomikou and has no problems helping Koyomi settle in. His background is shrouded in mystery. He is a bit of a sadist and appears to enjoy disciplining his students (especially Ryo who is the bane of his life) but he generally cares a lot for the students.
Ishimi Kaede (CV Igarashi Hiromi) & Omi Ryo (CV Kakihara Tetsuya)
Kaede and Ryo are students in Koyomi’s class and wish to graduate so that they can start a mermaid + werewolf comedy duo in the human world. The tsukkomi of the pair (Kanade) is kind and always offers to lend an ear to Koyomi. The boke (Ryo) is a complete idiot who acts without thinking and is forever losing his grip on his powers.
Hyuga Shinobu (CV Yasumoto Hiroki)
Shinobu is the school’s doctor and the only other human in the school. He can normally be found in the infirmary either smoking or eating candy. He gets on very well with his fellow teachers and is always willing to help Koyomi with any problems.
Sound
Opening Theme: SHOOTING STAR- Morikubo Shoutarou & Kaji Yuuki
Ending Theme: HAPPINESS – Morikubo Shoutarou & Kaji Yuuki
This game lacks a traditional “Music Recollection” system but according the the OST, there are 25 BGM tracks.
Artwork
Artwork and character design for this game was handled by Kawahito Yasutake (川人 やすたけ) whom is probably best known for his work on D3P’s “Storm Lover” series of games.
System
Aside from the usual VN choices, this game offers a S or M choice (which makes little difference to the ending you get) which changes some of the dialogue in the discipline parts. After completing a character’s route you unlock the “secret missions” which allow you to replay the discipline sessions from said route but with an added “kiss” option.
The discipline system is more like a rhythm game where you must time your button presses with the small heart in the top right hand corner.
My Thoughts
Okay, back when this game was first announced, I had absolutely no interest in it whatsoever. It sounded really bad (I’m not the biggest fan of overly S or M characters at the best of times) and the discipline thing sounded like it would be quite, erm, distasteful? However, after the game received good reviews from English and Japanese fans alike I decided to pick it up tentatively & was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it so much!
I really liked the fact that the discipline system thing is actually justified – as Kanade says in his route: losing control of their powers is like an illness and using their discipline sessions to return them to normal is akin to humans taking medicine when they’re ill. Okay, it is still a bit silly (especially some of the dialogues omg) but it’s strangely fun haha.
Despite being set in a UMA school, the game’s common route reads like a standard school game with important events (i.e. Sports day, summer vacation & culture fair) all present and correct. The thing that surprised me was that the character routes are actually fairly deep and focus on matters such as family, which is a theme that I personally enjoy. And at roughly 4 hours each, the routes are a good length. After you finish a route, you unlock a bonus story and they are so good! Kanade’s one is a bit o.o though [is this game really cero C???].
This brings us on to the characters. I expected to like both Camil & Kanade and I really loved them both – especially Camil who **TRIES SO HARD** OMG ! But the biggest surprise for me was Sousuke – he makes a terrible first impression but his teasing ways and occasional angelic smile slowly won me over. (つ∀<)ﾟ+.ｷｬｧ♪ However, his route reveals a more interesting character and learning about his back story was just too sad! His route was my favourite from the game and I just fell in love with him so much.
I just love this expression~~~~
Wait there are 3 more characters you say? Oh yeah, Touma was actually quite cute and his relationship with his younger brother was adorable. Akito was better than expected for being a flirty character & Shion was alright once you got into his route. Apparently we’re going to get routes for sub characters Ryo & Shinobu in the fandisk but to be honest I never really felt the need to date either while playing the game? Like, Ryo and Kanade make such a cute couple I don’t want to come between them and Shinobu plays such a small role until Shion’s route that you barely notice him there.
One of the reasons I was originally not interested in the game is because I am not the biggest fan of Kawahito Yasutake’s art style for some reason? I can’t even explain why I dislike it but whatever? I will admit that most of the CGs actually look really nice though and there’s little to fault. The background images are also gorgeous, are super intricate and do a great job portraying the unusual setting. Just going to throw it out here but the bonus image for fully completing the game is so incredibly lovely! I’ll put it at the end of the post.
The game’s opening & ending songs are great – I bought both from itunes (bless u otomate for putting most of your game OPs on itunes). I was gutted that the game didn’t have anywhere you could listen to the BGM since some of the character tracks were so good. I might have to buy the soundtrack when I have a quiet month (HAHAHAHAHA). Voice acting was great, although given that 3 of my favourites (Kimura Ryouhei, Kaji Yuuki & Nobuhiko Okamoto) are in this game I may be slightly bias. Everyone did well during the discipline parts~ ((o･д･)bｸﾞｯｼﾞｮﾌﾞ♪
Final Thoughts
My Score: 9/10
A rare Sousuke has appeared!
So in the end, this is a great game with a wonderful cast of characters and enjoyable stories. I’d personally recommend leaving Shion and Kanade until last (order is up to you) as their routes feel more like “true routes”.
Character Ranking:
Sousuke > Camil = Kanade > Touma > Akito = Shion
Route Ranking:
Sousuke = Kanade > Shion > Touma > Akito = Camil
I’d highly recommend this game to someone looking for a fun otome game with a character-based story. Even people put off by the discipline sytem should give this a second look as it isn’t as bad as it sounds aha.
Am I looking forward to the fandisk? Yes! I hope that Camil gets a better route (although the pacing of his route kind of matches his character which is super fitting). I’m really stuck though since I really want the stellaworth set for Sousuke & Camil but I’m already spending far too much in march RIP
I was laughing because I just realised that this game contains both Kimura Ryouhei & Kaji Yuuki, as did PsychicEmtion6 and I recently finished Tales of Zestiria on my PS4 which has them both too! What a coincidence~ I could’ve continued this trend if I had played either CollarxMalice or nil admirari next but I’m not;;;;
Oh well I think that’s about the end of this review, hopefully people will give this super fun game a chance~
Thanks for reading as always!
Zettai Renai! 