Toma…Toma, Toma, Toma…sigh…Toma…I know I said this before, but I really have mixed feelings about childhood friend routes. Some are amazingly sweet, especially when executed well, while others…not so much. I don’t really like childhood friend stories at the best of times and from what I’d seen of Toma in Shin’s route, let’s just say that I was not overly thrilled to play his route. I didn’t need to get the end of Shin’s route to suspect that beneath his big brother act was a seriously twisted and messed up individual. The first indication that this route was different from the previous three was the addition of the Doubt indicator on the Parameters screen. The second indication was the fact that his Suspicion indicator is maxed out from the beginning. None of the other guys started at 100% Suspiscion, not even Shin, and he was accused of pushing the MC off a cliff. And even then I had to work for it! So then, I began wondering: What makes Toma so special? Why is his route so different? Well I’m afraid the answer is simple…he’s batshit crazy psycho insane in love with the MC.
*Side Note: I will not have an MC/Heroine section in this review…I feel that there just isn’t enough about her to fill an entire section in this game. I was actually really disappointed by the MC in this game.
Disclaimer: I don’t own these images, they belong to Idea Factory…and this goes without saying, but there will be SPOILERS under the cut…
Dude has a Cage Fetish
So this route starts off differently from the rest, in that Toma isn’t the MC’s boyfriend in this world, that and the MC wakes up outside on the street. After choosing the Diamond world, Orion attempts to return the MC to her location before their consciousnesses collided, but something interrupts him and she ends up passed out in the middle of the road. While the MC is half conscious and confused Toma arrives to save the day. His appearance triggers a very important memory and causes the MC to lose the ability to see Orion. But, before they can worry about that new development, Toma is dragging the MC away to the hospital. Since she has no one to rely on Toma offers to go to her home and retrieve some of her essentials. He even takes care of all of the doctor’s questions and the medical paperwork for her. After that the MC is forced to stay in the hospital for three days causing her amnesia condition to deteriorate due to the lack of stimulation within the hospital. The doctors run a battery of tests, but when they can’t find anything wrong they decide to release her into Toma’s care…
Toma is the typical big brother/childhood friend character, protective and reliable. Initially he’s attentive and kind, hell he’s positively normal. He takes care of the MC’s every need, while she is in the hospital since her parents live far away and long after that. He even stays with her the day after she leaves the hospital, watching over her like a guardian angel. There’s this really sweet scene where he falls asleep at her bedside. Orion is even impressed by his dedication, gushing over how well he cares for the MC. He even suggests that Toma might be the MC’s boyfriend. When she questions Toma about their relationship, he is quick to confirm that he is indeed her boyfriend. Orion is relieved that the MC is in good hands and encourages the MC to trust Toma. Hell, I found myself trusting Toma for a bit…that is until he let slip that he only sees the MC as a sister…which is strange coming from someone who claims to be her boyfriend. But, naively I let it pass, maybe he was just trying to reassure the MC that he wasn’t some type of sexual predator. He even makes excuses for her at her job so that the stress of working won’t interfere with her recovery. When he realizes that the MC is being harassed he offers to let her stay at his place until the trouble dies down. He was a dream, and if I didn’t know better Toma might have actually given Kent a run for his money as best route in the game. But, I did know better and the entire time Toma was doting on the MC, I was sitting in my seat munching my popcorn, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And boy did Toma deliver!
In this route the MC has had an unrequited crush on Toma for almost 19 years, but big brother Toma has been too stupid to notice. So the MC seeks the assistance of Ikki in winning the heart of her oblivious big bro. If you’ll think back with me for a moment to Ikki’s route, you’ll remember that Ikki has a murderous cult of fangirls following him around 24-7…so you can see where this is going… Her secret meetings with her love guru senpai don’t go unnoticed by the fan club, who in retaliation begin harassing the MC. The antics of the fangirls in Toma’s route make the Ikki route fangirls look tame. In this route their harassment is turned up to eleven. At first they start in with threatening texts and emails. From there they move on to defacing the MC’s home and filling her mailbox with garbage and rotten food. But, their grandest prank by far is when they spread rumors about the MC online and then sharing her personal information with perverts who follow her around and send her suggestive messages. However, rather than call the cops and report the abuse, she does nothing, like it’s just business as usual. She doesn’t tell anyone about it, and it isn’t until her accident that Toma even finds out about it. Which prompts him to assume his ultimate form: Super Protective Big Brother Toma. He then drags her to his house under the guise of monitoring her condition, but in reality he wants to keep her locked up until he can take care of the fangirl problem.
From the minute the MC enters Toma’s home the red flags and alarms started going off, something was just not right about him. Sure he was nice, but he was almost too nice! While she was living with him, he would cook meals for her everyday and he even slept on the floor so that she wouldn’t have to, which was actually really sweet. He even secretly went to her house everyday to clean up her mailbox and whatever else the fan club messed up that morning. He even went so far as to buy her a new phone and hide her computer’s battery so that she wouldn’t have to see all the nasty message and hate mail. But, he would constantly lie to her about little things and his contradictory statements were becoming more and more frequent, to the point where I was yelling at the MC to run for the hills. But due to the restrictive gameplay there wasn’t much that I could do, besides sit there and watch as Toma’s actions became less kind and more restrictive and controlling. He caught her out of the house alone on several occasions, and each time he would drag her back to his house and forbid her from wandering off again. But, because she needed to gather information in order to regain her memories, she would ignore him and sneak out anyway. That is until he brought out the cage.
First let me say that I was highly suspicious of Toma preparing all of the MC’s food from the start…so when she started passing for hours at a time, I was almost positive that he was drugging her food…So when I finally saw the cage in all of it’s glory, I laughed to keep from crying at how utterly ridiculous the whole situation was. The cage, which was made to contain a large dog, he assured her was for her protection and not meant as a punishment. He even promised to let her out for potty breaks and showers, because he’s not a complete jerk! She was his princess after all…and he…well even he admitted that he was like a demon king keeping her held captive…At least he’s self aware…And as if to make the situation better Toma would bring her toys so she wouldn’t be bored during her time in the cage. 
obsession affection to love him and to never ever run away from him…which I guess is sweet…but when he decided to put her in the cage…that’s when everything got out of hand!
Do I Recommend This Route?
Sometimes in life there is just no one way to react to something, this is one of those moments…The first gif, featuring Dean Winchester from Supernatural, is how I felt during the initial playthrough. It encompasses my reactions to some of the choices I had to make and the actions of the characters involved in this route. Now the second gif, featuring Emerson Cod from Pushing Daisies (an awesome and very underrated show), is the actual response/recommendation gif.
Now I know why Toma is barely in any of the other routes other than Shin’s and his own…there is no way in hell any of the other routes would be possible with him around…
So the endings…The only redeeming ending in this route is the Normal ending. In that ending Shin bursts in like a Captain-Save-A-Hoe, punches Toma before he can rape the MC and drags her out of his apartment to safety. Toma disappears, never to be heard from again and Ikki and Shin take care of the fangirls. Life goes on for the MC, but she can’t help but pray that Toma is happy where ever he is! I sincerely hope that where ever he is he’s getting the help that he needs! In the Good Ending, the MC is about to get molested by an out of control Toma, at first it seems like she’s just going to lay there and take it. But then she does the unthinkable…she opens her mouth and speaks, in an act of desperation the MC calls out to the Big Brother inside of Toma to come and help her, just like he would do when they were children. Toma snaps out of it just and time, and backs away from her directly into his book shelf. The MC’s bag falls from the shelf, and out pops her diary (which until this point was forgotten by everyone). Toma reads it and learns that the MC has been in love with him her entire life…they confess their love for one another, put the fangirls in their place and live happily ever after…I shit you not! I almost threw up when I read this! He kept her in a fricken cage for Christ’s sake, you don’t start dating him after all of that…No, you run like hell in the opposite direction!
I actually got the Ukyo Bad Ending just to end it all! In it, after the MC escapes the cage, she runs into Ukyo. Instead of running away from the only person creepier that Toma, she decides to trust him and is rewarded by him pushing her down a well. In the other Bad Ending, the MC runs into Toma, who in his fury, locks the MC back in the cage turning her into a living doll…at least it came with a CG…
There is nothing more that I can say about Toma that hasn’t already been said…so my recommendation, if you haven’t already guessed it… I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS ROUTE…I found myself treating this route as a joke just so I could get through the whole thing!
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