In the VN community, you’ll sometimes stumble upon people who refuse to read anything that “doesn’t have a plot”—people who refuse to read anything that could be classified as a charage or moege. They’ll say that they wouldn’t be able to enjoy a VN that focuses entirely on romance.

I was one of these people.

I first started rethinking my earlier prejudice against the moege genre after I played Princess Evangile and its fandisc, however, I still had some qualms with the main routes (i.e. they were boring.) I thought maybe this was just the one moege that really clicked with me. However, Fureraba has been an utter joy from the entirety of the first route I’ve played through, to the route I’m currently progressing on.

I tried it out on a whim, but I was drawn in by the comedy displayed in the prologue. The heroines all stood out to me as people I could see myself meeting, be it Rina, the protagonist’s friend, who he is always jokingly fighting with (which was reminiscent of my own friendships), or Himari, the girl he knew as a kid but drifted apart from over the years. There was also Hiiragi, a fiery redhead (I’m allowed to say this because I am also a redhead) who was trying to make a connection outside of school before the protagonist accidentally face-planted into her underwear—I normally hate this but I love the way they played it off here—and with a little more hijinks she became hostile towards him, and later dropped a line which accurately describes the way I see most moege protagonists.

And then, the prologue ended, and I was able to choose to approach a girl. I realized that I hadn’t even MET one of the four heroines, Misaki. I thought, how am I supposed to know if I like her if I hadn’t even met her yet? Looking back, that might be the entire point of not having met her yet. Since the protagonist is actively looking for a girlfriend, what better way to prove that he’s trying than to have him approach a girl he doesn’t know entirely?

Minor spoilers ahead:

Funnily enough, you have to attempt to approach her three times before you can even see her face. This is all due to the fact that her classmates and even her teachers have made a ton of ridiculous assumptions about her; thinking that she’s the daughter of a councilman, has a fiancé, is a genius, etc., so they all try to keep you from approaching her because they don’t think you’re good enough for her. In the end, she’s the one who approaches you, by pure coincidence of you dropping your wallet and her picking it up. You discover she’s nothing more than a regular girl who just wants to make real connections with other people. She has no friends because everyone puts her on a pedestal.

This is a consistent theme in Misaki’s route. I really appreciated the scene where she gets upset with the protagonist for treating her like she is some pure angel that shouldn’t be touched. She’s a normal girl with normal feelings who wants to be treated with respect, but also as an equal. You don’t see characters like that very often.

I’m currently making my way through the rest of the routes. I’m working my way through the childhood friend route, and so far I am greatly enjoying the way the VN is handling it. There’s a lot of awkward tensions between the protagonist and Himari because while they grew up together, they drifted apart over the years and are just now rekindling their friendship. There’s also a scene where she casually lets it drop that she had a crush on the protagonist when they were kids, and that’s the part that really sparks his romantic interest in her.

I also love the dynamic their mothers have as long-time besties. They’re constantly teasing Himari and the protagonist about getting married one day, and those scenes are absolutely hilarious. Honestly, the dialogue in this VN is what makes it a winner.

I’m very glad I picked this up; it’s really clicked with me and I’m never bored reading it. I’m thrilled to play the rest of the routes, as the girls I’ve saved for last seem really special. If you’re looking for a good, funny moege, I’d definitely recommend you pick this one up.