First I want to say that I think that everything you say about how Yukari's falling to Touta's sexual prowess is spot on. In that regard I totally agree with you. The part in which I don't agree with you is that Yukari fell only because of the sex. I think that there are two degrees of falling for Yukari: body and heart. The "body" part is really obvious in the sex scenes and the monologues she has in the bathroom, however the "heart" part is not that obvious because it's just hinted in her interactions with Touta. I think she goes from hating him to not liking him to be upset to him to not hating him to just accept the way he is to worrying about him to liking him. I think this will be much more obvious in the Bonus sceneario if it's like the one in
Toaru Hitozuma no Netorare Jijou 2, and I think it will be. I think Yukari finally falling/accepting Touta is a mix of both: The sex and her change of heart towards him because of their not sexual interactions together.
Next I will summarize what I found in the game. First I will summarize in game events as faithful as posible (those are not my opinions but the "words of god" - Rascou -), then I'll make my opinion in
bold.
- Yukari is asked to tutor Touta. Touta itself ask her, and he insist that he will try hard. Yukari was expecting a blackamil, so she is taken aback by Touta's attitude. She thinks he has ulterior motives, but can't help to be dumbfounded by Touta's attitude. "No blackmail, and he seems seroius about studying".
At this point Yukari thinks Touta is just a crooked guy with an amazing cock. She is way of him and doesn't really trust him.
- Kento says to Yukari that Touta was studying at lunch hour. Yukari is impressed once again, like she can't believe the Touta she knows will study seriouslly. But she thinks it's something that will last only a day or two, and he will be back to his original self soon. "That Touta? It can't be".
Here her impression on Touta begins to change even so sligthly, as she begins consider the posibility that he can actually make an effort if he tries.
- The first time Yukari tests Touta she realize that the situation is worst of what she originally thought. Touta gets a zero, so she realize she will have to start from scratch. Yukari questions if Touta has being seriouslly studying but Touta claims that even thought he tried hard, the knowledge just scaped from his head. Remembering his son's words, Yukari considers the posibility that Touta is the kind of student that forgets easilly, so she decides to test him again. Touta asks for a reward if he pass and Yukari gives him an impossible goal (15 out of 20). Even though Touta has 5 minutes to memorize the characters, after just 1 minute he claims that he is ready, and urges Yukari to give him the test before he forgets. Yukari thinks that's imposible and gives him the test expecting that he will burn and crash again. Touta gets 14, just one point short from the goal. Saying that Yukari gets amazed by Touta memorization ability is an understatement, as she thinks what Touta did with just 1 minute of memorization was almost imposible, specially considering his first test (with 0 score). "Imposible, amazing memorization skills".
This is the first time in which Yukari's perception of Touta changes outside of the sex. To this point she thought Touta was just a perverted and lazy kid pampered by his parents and with no redeming qualities whatsoever (exept his cock). Now she is forced to rethink her perception of him after watching the amazing feat he was able to pull off. She is the first one to realize Touta's potential.
- From here on Yukari will make the tests in a way that Touta will definetly not pass, but not that hard that it will get suspicious. Depending on the player choices Touta will either pass the tests or fail just by a little bit. No matter what the outcome Yukari will get amazed once again, specially if Touta pass the tests, because she is making them specially for him to fail by a 3-4 point margin (she thinks once that she was expecting him to fail with a 7-8 out of 20). So once again Yukari is impressed by Touta's learning ability. This only happens at the begining, since by the end Yukai will make the tests easier and Touta will pass or fail depending on the players choices. "Did I understimated him?"
This is the continuation of the last point. A pattern in which Yukari didn't expect very little or nothing at all from Touta, but Touta surpass her expectations over and over again.
- Touta ask Yukari for a kiss if he pass the schoo test at middle July. She says to him that she doesn't mind if it's just a kiss in the cheek and Touta accepts. Kento tells Yukari how Touta is trying hard studying (player's choice) and Yukari gets amazed that Touta will go that far just for a kiss in the cheek. Later on we have the scene with drunk Yukari. When Touta ask his result Yukari tells him that he failled, however she remembers Kentou's words and decides to give him the reward kiss anyway. Here she says that she loves kids that make an effort. She is drunk, but what she said is true, since the reason she bacame Tutor in the first place, was because of that (liking kids that make an effort). "I love kids that make an effort."
At this point along with other minor things in their interactions, we have a Yukari begining to accept the fact that that Touta always manage to surprise her by doing the unexpected. This kind of interaction is typical in rom-com (more of that later).
- I already wrote about the flee market scene in my last post, but there is a couple of things to add. Here Yukari thinks that is not really Touta's falt being crooked, but is a consecuence of the enveroiment he was raised in. Also she feels a little bit happy when Touta stood up for her (in his childish way).
At this point is clear that Yukari doesn't really hates Touta anymore, she even hints to worry about him a little bit. If you imagine this situation in the first game it would be imposible that Yukari worry about Touta, even less to invite him to the flee market to cheer him up. However at this point she doesn't see Touta as a problem kid with no hope. At this point she has realize Touta's potential and he has proved to her that he can make an effort when he gets the right motivation (even thought is a perverted one). She has also learn that in other circunstances, maybe Touta won't be the crooked guy he is, and his familly has a lot of fault for it, so it's not that fair to put all the blame on Touta. Also Yukari putting herself on Touta's side when they are badmouthed is a big thing. If you imagine this situation in the first game Yukari will probably think something like "Well, with a kid like this, there is no help for what people think", but instead now she is more like "let them talk, they just talk because they can, don't mind them". Finally, Yukari would never would feel happy for Touta standing up for her in the first game, but now she is a little happy about it.
- When Touta manage to finish all the summer homework in one week, Yukari gets really amazed by his hard effort, that she saw along the whole week. She is fully aware of Touta's ulterior motives (having sex with Yukari), however despite that she trully thinks what Touta did was amazing and has its own merit. "He really did it!".
More of the same: Touta surpassing Yukari's expectations and proving that he can really make an effort (even though for a perverted reward).
- There are two instance in which Yukari felt flattered by Touta trying hard every week just to have sex with her. One in the kitchen and once in her bedroom (I think). "........."
At this point Yukari feels something similar to being courted by Touta. I mean, a guy making an effort to have sex with her. At this point Yukari is begining to like Touta, since it's imposible for her to feel flatered to being courted by a guy she doesn't like, specially being as proud as she is.
- In the first part of the bonbon whisky event Yukari thinks that Touta's naivity and simple minded behavior is cute, and goes along with it. "If he always behave like that"
At this point Yukari understad Touta really well, even tought he always manage to surprise her with something unexpected. I can't help but feel that they have some kind of bond at this point. They have a great chemistry together, not only on the sex department, but also in their interactions. Those interactions are really fun to watch and sometimes they are kind of cute.
- In the bad grades route Yukari notice that Touta has become really focused into making her feel good. She compares him with the Touta from before in which he didn't care about Yukari's situation at all and selfishly thought only in his own gratification. She thinks Touta has matured.
In this route Rascou wants to make sure that the player realize that Touta has change a little bit for the better, and that is thanks to Yukari. Yukari has changed him.
- In two endings (2 and 4) Touta is no longer a problem child. There are no longer complaints from him by the neighbors. In the (2) ending Touta's grades have also improve a lot. In the (4) ending, Touta is still trying hard even though he is with another teacher, he has associated making an effort with having sex with Yukari. Yukari thinks that turoring Touta was worth it if it made him change for the better. "Good kid, try your best."
The same. Touta has changed thanks to Yukari.
- In all this process Yukari's attitude towards Touta changes a lot.
This is best to compare by playing the first part of the first game, and then playing the last part of the second game. You will notice that Yukari shows parts of her (personallity) that she would never ever think of showing him before. Her attitude, her behavior, her gestures, her way of talking; all of that changes in the course of the game. In the end Yukari opens up to Touta.
There is more, but the last time I played I decided to make Touta always rest to unlock some scenes and pictures, so I missed all the extra-tutoring scenes. When you schedule an extra tutoring (not the ones from monday or friday), you sometimes can watch a little conversation/interaction between Yukari and Touta. Considering that Rascou is a perfectionist (it's amazing the detail he has putted in the decision branching and how he is really careful in changing even just 2 or 3 lines of text because of a scene/decision played/made before), I don't think those little conversation scenes are there for nothing. If there is one think I have noticed about this game is that almost everything is there for a reason. I didn't feel text/scenes are there just to make the player feel that the game is longer (which is something some developers do to "justify" the price of the game). As a result the game is really enjoyable, not only for the sex scenes, but the whole story is really fun to read. And the best part are Yukari X Touta interactions (I found myself chuclking/smilling/laughing at their interactions at varous occasions). I think they make a great combo together.
I can't help but think that Rascou is fan of rom-com given all the tropes from that genre that are hidden into this game. It's like Rascou thought of this game like this: Imagine the typical 17 years old bad-guy-with-great-potential-but-lazy-that-however-can-make-an-affort-when-he-has-to and the typical 17 years old tsundere-but-the-good-one-(not-the-obnoxious-one)-the-adorable-type-that-is-the-only-one-that-can-tame-the-guy. Both of them in a rom-com setting in high-school. Now take that couple and make the female 10 years older or so, and the guy 10 years younger or so. Imagine what their lifes would be (the female married with a kid and the male in his spoilled childhood). Now put them together with a NTR setting to see what happens between them. And thanks to the superb storytelling skills from Rascou, what we get is a masterpiece.
Also if we consider
Toaru Hitozuma no Netorare Jijou 2 and compare it with this game, it's obvious that both have strong rom-com elements into them. I think that this will become more clear in the bonus scenario once it gets implemented, but the whole interaction between Yukari and Touta is typical rom-com, it's only that is not that obvious because of the NTR setting and the age difference between them. Girl has its world sorted out, then she meets a boy that manages to make her world upsidedown. She hates him at first, but then the boy manage to surprise her and supass her expectations. She begins to think better of the boy just for him to dissapoint her again. And so on and so forth, meanwhile the boy always manages to get her out of her comfort zone by doing something totally unexpected everytime they meet, while sweeping her off her feet in the process. Typical rom-com setting.
To summarize: I think Yukari doesn't fall only for blackmail and sex. I think it's a sum of everything that makes her fall (including her non sexual interactions with Touta). And I bet that in the Bonus scenario we will see Yukari with a mix of maternal/lover feelings toward Touta (this considering what happened in the Bonus scenario of
Toaru Hitozuma no Netorare Jijou 2 and how similar both games are in terms of heroines, villains and scenario).
Shine
