Taishi looked pretty lame in the short prologue, but in the extended prologue story he seemed pretty interesting. After all, how could I resist a story with a man declaring thus:
That just makes it more dramatic, right?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that at all. The main problem with this story is that it waits entirely too long to get to the romance. They spend plenty of time together, but most of it unfortunately results in MC not being able to read/understand Taishi. In the last quarter of the story, she’s able to read him better and a lot of his weird sayings start making a lot of sense, but despite that, I felt like there’s little to no swoon worthy moments until the last few chapters. 
But as a plus, you do get to see Taishi grow as a person thanks to MC. I liked seeing that character development. He begins the story as withdrawn, awkward, and self-centered. By self-centered, I don’t mean egotistic, I mean his world literally revolves around his desires at the moment. It’s like a child, to be honest.
For instance, he suggests going on a field trip because he has things he wants to do personally, and after a short conversation, pushes all the responsibilities on MC so he can go have fun alone. But MC ends up pushing back and in that, he captures the attention of his students and shows how passion for a subject can ignite other people. He wanted to be a museum curator, but his parents forced him into teaching, so he learns the good points of teaching from MC.
The other subplot involves a student breaking the no dating rule, culminating in a blackmail scheme. This pretty much takes up the entirety of the final arc. I feel like it was inserted to make him more of a traditional hero and to me, was unneeded. Taishi isn’t a traditional hero archetype, so I feel like audiences would be fine with certain things not coming to fruition with his character like it would any other lead.
We basically learn why he’s obsessed with history and why he acted the way he did in the amorous ending. Yes, the ending. It’s more of an aside before the big confession (which made me giggle, it was very cute and very Taishi-like) but still rather sad and made my heart ache reading it. I’m just upset we found out during the ending. I wish this was incorporated more into the actual plot, tbh… But I do adore MC’s response to his confession. A++ reaction
In the climatic ending it’s more of a traditional swoon-read, with a shockingly assertive Taishi and a hidden tryst in the library… that’s good for the swoon, but you don’t find out anything about his past. The confession moment is more on the light steam side than the romance side. I think the amorous ending is the better of the two, but if you’re craving that heart-thumping moment with Taishi then the climatic ending will fill that hole.
I usually think the voiced movies are silly little easter eggs, but in this one I felt like it got the true nature of his character across that the novel parts didn’t. I liked it and consider it a plus to the route. 
Despite not caring too much for the plot, I ended up caring for Taishi quite a bit as a character. I think with him, it’s the little things he says or does that speaks more. Perhaps I’m reading too much into things, but I think some of the things he does aren’t entirely out of ignorance and it’s his way of speaking his feelings without the possibility of getting them hurt. Perhaps I can see a bit of myself in him, and that’s why.
And he does get his feelings hurt several times in the plot. What people say to him really effects him and he completely shuts down if its negative. I’m not sure MC even understood that until after the fact, but as an outsider looking in, it was something I caught. What is nice, however, is that even though the plot revolves around him, unlike the other two where the teachers were the already the best and you’re just sort of admiring them, with Taishi it’s more of watching him grow as a person and realize his potential, which makes a better read.
The problem with having a subtle character like Taishi is either you make the character study the plot or you have a more traditional plot at the expense of making subtle traits less pronounced, both of which are hard to do in a visual novel short story. I think Voltage tried to straddle the lines here, with mixed success.
It’s hard for me to objectively look at this for a rating. On one hand, I do see what they tried and while execution wasn’t perfect, I think they still succeeded. It’s a different sort of lead and I appreciate that. I don’t think the story is strong enough to win over those who think he’s too quirky for them, however.
And lastly, the art is standard Voltage art. It’s not unique but it’s consistent.
The CGs were dull and boring. I know Voltage hates their CGs to be spread on the web, but seriously man, these were some boring standard CGs.
- Taishi with a book
- Taishi with his sword
- Taishi conflicted
- Couple shot (ending)
- Close-up (ending)
There’s one that’s creative and that’s it. It really hammers home the cookie-cutter feel of their games.
My heart scale is defined as follows – 5 hearts = a story everyone will fall in love with, regardless of preferences; 4 hearts = a well-done story that people who love the concept will adore, and people who don’t may end up liking it; 3 hearts = if you like this type of story or this type of hero, then you will enjoy this, but those who do not like either of those things will probably not; 2 hearts = it had potential, it squandered it; 1 heart = just a waste of time from the get-go; 0 hearts = why was this made?
This is probably the last bachelor I review from this game. I am sort of interested in the school nurse, but purchasing it would honestly depend on how bored I am when he’s released. >>;;
Favorite Moments
Considering the lack of overt romance, there’s not a whole lot to screenshot here.
I do adore blushing sprites. 
This scene takes place during the field trip, and we get to see a certain aspect of him wasn’t just a geeky thing.
This is from the last chapter before the ending. We see how introspective Taishi is during this conversation.
