I'm glad we got a new title from one of my favorite moege visual novel developers, SMEE, since they usually nail that perfect mix of things I like in moege. It also helps that Kagami Games was able to release an English translation only about a year or two after the Japanese release.


SMEE is back in full form, arguably better in some ways with LOVEPICAL-POPPY!. It really shines with the goofy, over-the-top comedy where characters act like silly, savage weirdos, but it still blends that humor surprisingly well with down-to-earth wholesome slice-of-life, romance, and friendship moments.

One thing that might put people off is the brand new art style for SMEE. I was a little weirded out by it at first—I still prefer the look from Making*Lovers, Sugar*Style, and Harem Kingdom by far. But the art has grown on me as I kept reading.

What helps a lot is that the protagonist Tetsuya is a refreshing change from the usual SMEE leads. Past ones were good guys but sometimes a bit too “TMI” about their sexual preferences; Tetsuya is the opposite—he's a genuine gentleman, kind and hardworking without being a boring self-insert. He still joins in on the weird goofy jokes and works great as the straight man to the eccentric cast. One interesting flaw is that he's almost too good-natured, to the point of smothering people sometimes, and that gets decent development.

The setup has Tetsuya as the male dorm mother for an all-girls dormitory, which sounds like it'd be full of lame accidental pervert scenes. Thankfully that happens literally once in the whole VN—not even in the common route—and when it does, the characters handle it maturely before subverting it into an actually funny joke.

You get the idea: the mature yet amusing protagonist really shapes the tone and makes LOVEPICAL-POPPY consistently enjoyable in both the humor and the comfy wholesome departments.


The common route is pretty long—probably 10-15 hours for most people—with 2 prologue chapters and 7 main ones, totaling 9 before you hit the real route choices. Early choices are mostly meaningless but funny in classic SMEE style. There are also some “serious” meaningless choices that let you check in on what the heroines are doing in their rooms after the group scenes, giving rare heroine POV bits and extra dialogue if you like them.

Otherwise, it's what you'd expect from a SMEE slice-of-life common route: tons of goofy comedy as the cast bounces off each other, plus a bunch of surprisingly likable side characters like Kuma and the excitable dorm “roomers”. The comedy stays strong because it's mixed with little bits of character growth and wholesome moments that show why the heroines fall for Tetsuya and how some actively try to get his attention. Watching him juggle jobs at Honey and Berry while adjusting to dorm life is fun too.

I was surprised how much I liked the common route ending—the first big choice actually matters a lot for Tetsuya's life and moves the plot forward more than I expected. So if you want a common route packed with goofy comedy and slice-of-life but with enough character arcs to feel like it has a story, this one's solid.


To balance the long common route, the heroine routes are on the shorter side since there are six of them. The four main ones are 7 chapters each and are around 3-4 hours, while the two side routes are 5 chapters and around 1-2 hours each. There are really only two or three choices that matter, all at the end of the common route, splitting into two branches with three heroines each (though the heroines chosen for each feel kinda arbitrary).

Quality-wise the routes are mostly consistent: the couple gets together fast, then it's mostly focused on the protagonist and his chosen heroine, with a route-specific side character showing up and previous major characters only showing up occasionally. The goofy humor carries over, but there's way more lovey-dovey romance, and each route has at least some character arc—usually for the heroine—that wraps up wholesomely. I only truly loved a couple routes, but I didn't dislike any—even my least favorite had funny and wholesome moments.


The heroines are a pretty likable bunch overall—not the absolute best moege cast ever, but all were at least decent.

Nozomi (the implied “true” heroine) was easily my favorite; her simple-minded deredere personality, constant seduction attempts, food obsession, and random yelling were consistently hilarious, and her route had the most wholesome ending.

Ayako, the likely older 20s crepe lady, was the biggest surprise—her age gags and pessimism were forgettable in the common route, but her (side!) route had the best overall character development, tackling her low self-esteem and other nice relationship developments through good communication, and feeling like something out of Making*Lovers.

Tamaki was somewhere in the middle for me: an interesting gap moe with her petite body but mature personality, plus her secret desire to be spoiled made her route enjoyable enough, if not particularly standout.

Tanpopo and her side route ended up just okay for me despite me usually being into the “weird” girls. She was friendly enough and kinda amusing, but a route-specific side character ended up being more interesting.

Suzuka, the blood-related little sister heroine, is someone I actually kinda liked since she was more down-to-earth than others of the archetype. But the typical lame incest romance actually ruined the little development she got in the common route.

Miu, a parody on social media streamers/influencers, was probably my least favorite since I couldn't see myself dating a stuck-up diva, though she had some funny moments.


Even though I enjoyed the VN consistently, a few things kept LOVEPICAL-POPPY from being truly great for me.

• The early-20s protagonist with mostly high-school heroines felt a bit uncomfortable, though not as much as Japan pandering to imouto lovers as mentioned above.
  
• I think the common route was a bit too long, could have been shortened to make the romance transitions longer and more natural.
  
• Lots of voiced spriteless roomers had real personality and memorable lines but no sprites or names to tell them apart.
  
• The clickable "heroine thought bubble" gimmick is a fun way to see heroines' thoughts... at first, but becomes an annoying pace-breaker, especially on auto-mode where you have to jump back text to properly click the bubbles.

I think for the most part—as of version 1.1—the English translation of LOVEPICAL-POPPY! generally reads pretty well. It has a good balance of faithful translation and a little bit of localization to make sentences flow better. Honorifics are there in full for those who like them.

That said, even on version 1.1 I still noticed a lot of spots with weird line breaks with closing quotes, and a handful of typos here and there.

But more importantly, this translation has quite a bit of what we can call “Gen Z slang.” I'm talking about words like “peak,” “on god,” “sus,” “GOAT,” “the ick,” etc. I personally think it's a trap that translators sometimes fall into by relying a bit too much on "current" modern slang that'll be outdated in 1-3 years, but oh well.



Overall I quite liked LOVEPICAL-POPPY. I consider SMEE the definitive moege developer (yes even more than Yuzusoft), and Lovepical delivered with SMEE's typical quirky, savage comedy mixed with real character growth and cute romance that leaves me satisfied. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed my time with it a lot and think most moege fans will find something to like.

Heroine/Route Ranking:
Nozomi > Ayako > Tamaki > Tanpopo > Suzuka > Miu

Buy it for Tamaki. Cute is justice. Tamaki is cute. Therefore, Tamaki is justice.

(Also all the other heroines are great too).

LOVEPICAL-POPPY! might be the last VN I can finish this year, but what an amazing finish! It was developed by SMEE, the same company that made my favorite VN of all time, Making*Lovers!

I have a single complaint about the game and it's not even a huge deal. Some routes are clearly better than the others, but I didn't find a single route I disliked. Other than that, I can only say positive things about it. While not as insanely funny as Making*Lovers, where it was quite often that I laughed out loud which is very rare for me, this game still made me smile countless times and got a few chuckles out of me. Which is impressing, considering how I usually watch almost everything with a poker face. Speaking of impressive, the most impressive thing was how insanely fast I ended up liking the main heroines and even the main character. The first impressions of the girls were so impactful and/or so cute that just after a few scenes I was already struggling, thinking who's route I want to read first. Sometimes maybe like one or two heroines manage to catch my interest this fast, even when I was reading Making*Lovers, it took me a bit to warm up to the heroines. What also impressed me is how well the heroines were written. It's not like they were something I've never seen before, but they were very well fleshed out, something I appreciated also in Making*Lovers.

I know most, especially modern VNs have an amazing cast of voice actresses/actors, but here they were truly exceptional. To me the absolute standouts were Tamaki and Nozomi, but everyone else's VA deserves the highest praise I can give.

The common route was one of the best common route I've read this year probably. It was fairly long (took me about 10 hours), but it never felt boring. It had some ups and downs, but nothing major as far as negatives goes and it was mostly just ups. Now, for the main routes (and the two additional side ones) in order how I've read them (the actual order doesn't matter):

Tamaki: Probably the simplest route, but that doesn't mean it was bad. She's the definition of gap moe. She has a childish, innocent and playful side, but at the same time she can act very mature and everyone loves and respects her as the dorm's president. She's very responsible and disciplined, smart and has great leadership skills. Yet she also (not so) secretly craves to get pampered. It's really hard to dislike her and simply because of her cuteness, I enjoyed this route very much, she was just absolutely adorable!

Suzuka: The (blood related) sister of the main character, who basically lived all her life with her big brother by her side. Which is why she has troubles adjusting to her new life at the dorm, her brother not being there. She wants to be independent and wants to reassure her brother that she's going to be okay, the reality isn't so simple. Which is basically the whole concept of her route. If I want to pick a route that I liked the least, it's definitely this one, but I also enjoyed it all the way through, so it's not like didn't like it. Suzuka wasn't exactly the most unique character, but as I said before, I really like every single character in this game, and being only a 4 hour long read, like the other main heroine routes, it never overstayed its welcome.

Ayako: The first side route of the game. But I was impressed how much they packed into this about 2,5 hours long route. It kinda felt like a main heroine route, just compressed, but also without feeling rushed. She's the oldest heroine and being in the workforce for quite some time, having a "unique" boss at her workplace and being single during her entire life, made her quite the negative person. As an almost middle aged man myself, I was able to relate to her a bit too much, but it was also nice to see how her negativity slowly faded, having the main character by her side. A more "realistic" route, I guess.

Tanpopo: This side route was crazy in a lot of ways. Tanpopo herself is like a storm, exactly as the main character described her. She just appears, stirs up your heart and goes at her own pace. But she's also true to herself, very open with her feelings and loves to help other people. She's a real gem and despite only having a side route, I enjoyed her's as much as the next two. It starts really fast, but it really fits her character.

Nozomi: If I have to name someone who's the "main heroine", she's definitely the one. But not a very typical one. She already has a crush on the main character and does everything to seduce him, only to fail miserably. She's very clumsy, kinda freaky, but also extremely charming in a lot of ways. Except for Miu's route, her's feels like the most fleshed out. The ending felt a bit weird, not exactly in a negative way, more like it was a big upgrade to her, compared to how she was before. I guess this is what you call "character development" and I just wasn't expecting it. Even though there were hints that she's quite capable in some ways.

Miu: It's super hard to talk about her route without any spoilers, so I'm not even going to attempt to do so. But what I can say is, this was on par with Nozomi's and Tanpopo's. Getting to know the full story behind her motivation and goals, not to mention the secrets she held was very interesting. Yet another well written heroine with a similarly well written route.

I can very safely recommend this VN if you like romcoms. It had plenty of funny and cute moments, very entertaining banters between characters with some wholesome (and horny in the heroine routes) moments.