A positively hilarious light-hearted otome comedy about two guys trying to make a fashion model out of the least sociable person in the universe.

Release: 2016 (Kalmia8)
Writers: Kazama Bonanza & Yamagen
English: MangaGamer
Ratings: VNDB (7.00)

Having little experience with otome games, I knew little what to expect of Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, but while it did have a few otome archetypes that tend to turn me off, mainly pertaining to the two main male leads, it actually felt surprisingly gender neutral and certainly didn’t make me feel like I’d wandered somewhere I didn’t belong… which I can’t say about most of otome games I tried before.

While Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome doesn’t offer much in terms of plot or romance, it makes up for it with almost non-stop well paced comedy. Indeed, the whole modeling thing and even the eventual relationships with the guys feel more like an excuse to come up with funny situations rather than an attempt to tell a cohesive story.

But hey, not everything has to challenge you intellectually or tear your heart to shreds to be worth your time and Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome is nothing if not entertaining. Tachibana Ema is the most clueless person in the world who comes off like the evil (comparatively) twin sister of Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke, and is able to turn even the dullest of situations into hilarious comedy.

Now, that’d do little good to the English version if the game had a poor translation, as there’s just that many laughs stilted dialogue can produce, but luckily, Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome seems to have received not simply good, but positively amazing localization.

It’s been over a decade since I last read a visual novel in English (if you discount my own translations), and I’m really glad I picked this one as my first. All the jokes are conveyed perfectly, and most of the puns are actually even better in the English version. Heck, the dialogue as a whole flows better in the English version. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed this game nearly as much had I read it in Japanese.

It’s honestly something I’d highly recommend if you want to study how visual novel dialogue should be translated.

And if you’re not an aspiring translator or editor, you should then check this game out if you’re up for a quick laugh (regardless of gender), just don’t expect anything beyond that.