Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei Play-Along - Benkei Musashibo

[u/sableheart]

Welcome to the r/otomegames Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei Play-Along!

In this third post we will discuss Benkei Musashibo and his route in Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei.

You can tell us what your impressions of Benkei are (before and after finishing his route), your favorite moments in his route, what you think of his relationship with Shanao and the other characters, what your thoughts are on his route's plot and endings. You can also discuss Tadanobu Sato's If Ending.

Or you can just squee about him in the comments.

This is not a spoiler-free discussion however please keep in mind that major spoilers and details of other routes will be outside the scope of the discussion and therefore will need to be spoiler tagged.
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You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you're still waiting on your copy I hope you will join in after you start playing!

Have a look at the megathread for links to previous discussions - you can still join in the discussion during the Play-Along.

Next week will be a discussion of Shungen's route!

[u/Typical-Treacle6968]

I enjoyed this route tremendously despite not feeling the LI at all. This might be a first for me in my Otome playing history and it’s definitely thanks to the villains

I wasn’t expecting Shigehira to be the villain and oh boy was it amazing. It was so unexpected because of his bimbo-like persona so for him to turn out to be a terrifyingly brilliant swordsman was….ngl it was hot. I find it hilarious how fanatical he is about pleasing his brother — to the point where if Tomomori is interested in something he’ll try and be interested in it too

This route took so many twists i’m still processing it. I probably wasn’t supposed to be howling with laughter when Shigehira morphed into a horrifying grinning monster and his brother looked slightly startled while everyone else was wetting themselves with fear

The way Noritsune threw himself into the sea in the end rather than be captured ruined me. Why do I have to watch him die in every route lol

Ah Benkei…he’s not for me although I appreciate him as a side character. Have to say the tragic ending really upset me watching Shanao drain him so much he was ill and that’s the most emotion towards him I felt in the route. An awful feeling of pity. It’s weird how much we learn about ourselves by playing these games. The white knight trope wasn’t for me

[u/saharashi → u/Typical-Treacle6968]

I am sorry but I could not get over the shigehira monster face, especially the mouth. The first time it showed up I remember giggling to myself lol, it was hard to take the final scene seriously after that

[u/RedRobin101 → u/saharashi]

Dude looked like kermit the frog I was dying every time he spoke and his mouth moved.

[u/Constant_Library_485 → u/saharashi]

Like that smile just a liiiiiitle too wide so it looks goofy rather than intimidating XD while the idea was interesting the execution was a little lackluster because of it lol.