DECIPHERING OTOME: A STUDY OF THE OTOME GAME PROTAGONIST

Abstract

At the forefront of Japanese girls’ culture is the shōjo, whose existence from the Meiji has spawned a myriad of cultural and commercial products accompanied by a high volume of academia surrounding the subject. Another facet, however, is the otome, who is commonly defined as an unmarried young girl or a maiden but continues to evade concise cultural definition to present day. To begin deciphering this lesser discussed enigma, I attempt to distinguish otome from shōjo through a close examination of scholars’ past works, and to further categorize the otome into two distinct forms: the traditional otome and the contemporary otome. With these defined otome forms in mind, I conduct a study of the otome game protagonist and her biographical traits to determine her significance in the greater scheme of otome culture outside of her original otome game platform by compiling and comparing biographical data of otome game protagonist characters across twelve otome games. I then argue that the otome game protagonist, even in her many incarnations featuring a wide permutation of biographical factors, possesses a vacant quality reminiscent of traditional otome that makes her body a key vessel for otome game players to access hands-on and consequence-free romantic experiences.