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Psychiatry Gag Manga Uses Classic Paintings as Basis for Dating Sim
posted on by Eric Stimson
While dating sims generally focus on high school life, the scope for their casts ranges widely, from monsters to birds to ancient crones. Even though the classic wide-eyed, sweet-talking human teenage girl is still the standard, some of the characters in Yū Yūki's manga Comical Psychosomatic Medicine think they've thought of a better idea.
Tokimeki E-ga Real ("Heartbeat Real Paintings"; a play on Tokimeki Memorial) takes its inspiration from the subjects of famous Western masterworks. Besides the Mona LiSA (who tells the player not to "worry about her eyebrows") and Botticelli's Venus, it features Liberty from Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, a genderbent Van Gogh (who asks the player his favorite flower, although all the choices are sunflowers), Goya's Maja in both clothed and nude forms, Munch's The Scream (reacting to a break-up), the Creation panel from the Sistine Chapel (representing "the happy ending"), and Picasso's Guernica (representing "the bad ending").
The idea came when Yū's coworkers catch him playing a dating sim at work and start speculating on why the characters' eyes are so big. Although they think using such widely recognized works of art would broaden the audience for their game, they are mistaken. Piles of games sit in their storage room unsold. The developer speculates that focusing on foreign art was the problem and decides to make another game using shunga (Japanese erotic art from the Tokugawa era).
Comical Psychosomatic Medicine attempts to explain psychiatric disorders and mental conditions in a gag comedy format. It was recently adapted into a web anime.
