As promised in our weekly podcast, I have given Obey Me! a try to see how it would compaire to the anime that began it’s release last Friday. I gotta say…it was not what I expected at all. I’ll give some first impressions below. Don’t worry, I’ll keep spoilers out of here.
Opening Screen for the mobile game
Obey Me! is an otome game (dating sim) available for your mobile device. You’re a human student going to school in the Devildom as part of an exchange program along with another human (Solomon) and two angels ( Simeon and Luke). While there, you live in the house of the student counsel, which happens to be 7 devil brothers. Each reprisents a different Deadly Sin, which I have listed below (In order from oldest to youngest):
Lucifer: Pride
Mammon: Greed
Leviathan: Envy
Satan: Wrath
Asmodeus: Lust
Beelzebub: Gluttony
Belphagor: Sloth
So far, it seems like the average dating sim, but once the game starts, there’s a marked difference. Where the typical dating sim will have you pick routes, or the route be determined by your choices, this one just doesn’t have one at all. Instead, you can raise your intimacy with all the characters. That’s the first loop I was thrown for. The next is the rhythm game aspects of it. There are ‘dance battles’ you must complete in order to progress, and you must draw cards in order to do so from a gatcha system.
Tap Tap Tap your favorite devils!
To say I was a little disappointed would be selling it short. I was very excited to play a new otome with fun character designs and personalities. Additionally, seeing the story from each character’s point of view would also have been fun. In games like The Arcana and Ikemen Sengoku, the story will drastically change depending on the route you’ve chosen. With none present, it’s the same story regardless. Perhaps I have not gotten far enough to see a split, but based on what I have looked into, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
All of this is well and good, but how does the anime compare? Honestly…calling it an anime feels a bit mistitled. Episode one is a 5 minute short about the brothers having a study group that dissolves into hijinks. While it was still entertaining, I had high hopes to see how they would handle the MC and adapt the story presented. That doesn’t look like what we’ll be getting unless later episodes prove longer.
While all of this seems kind of negative, I will say I do enjoy all of it for the characters. They all have very distinct looks and personalities, which makes it fun to interact with. It’s just a shame the player can’t focus on one at a time in a story capacity. If you’re curious about the game, I can highly recommend it though. It’s VERY free play friendly, just a bit frustrating with the gatcha part of it.
The anime is available currently on Funimation and YouTube, so give it a watch if you’re curious! Subtitles in English are available as well, so if you don’t speak Japanese, you can still enjoy it.
-Cora, Devildom Exchange Student