Unrequited Love Plus

This is an actual comment left in an article about Konami’s Love Plus promotion plans, which involves preaching to Japanese men to be more “aggressive in courting love”.

I shouldn’t be, but I’m surprised whenever I come across people who look to these dating simulators not as curious pieces of software, but as real, essential sources of affection — though if they have attitudes like the misogynist above, I understand why they can’t find more sources.

So, it’s great that Konami is steering single men towards physical (3D) relationships instead of virtual (2D) girlfriends, even if it is a ploy to move Love Plus copies.

This initiative to motivate males in Japan to find dates isn’t new; one of the biggest best sellers in Japan last year was Health and Physical Education for Over Thirty, according to New York Times’s recent “2D Love” article. It’s a “manga-illustrated [relationship] guidebook that holds the reader’s hand from the first meeting to sex to marriage.”

You can see a few NSFW Health and Physical Education for Over Thirty pages at Akibablog. The manga even saw a recent sequel, Beginning of Love, for “cherry boys who even have not been on a date”. Its six chapters:

1. How you look at girls
2. Let’s meet with a girl
3. Let’s give a good impression
4. Becoming to a private partner
5. Let’s go on a date
6. A declaration of love and after that

It sounds goofy, but if it successfully educates and cures disenchanted bachelors like the Love Plus commentor above, more power to the manga’s creators! If you’re considering importing Love Plus, why not pick up one of these books, too (assuming you can read Japanese text)?

Preorder import: Love Plus

See also: Imagined scene of a young gamer enamored with Love Plus

tags / canned dogs / import / konami / love plus / manga / health and physical education for over thirty / ec