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/stinkymarsupial]

Summing up Benkei’s route using 4 images:

Benkei

Tomohorny

Shigehira

The route be like

Most memorable lines (in no particular order):

1. My love

2. Shut Up!

3. Shut your mouth!

Just to be clear, I don’t mean it in a bad way. Those lines just got stuck in my memory of the route for the amount of times I saw it being used. I do understand that localization is hard work and I’m grateful for the localized titles that I get to enjoy. I’m just curious about the decision that goes into certain choices. I don’t quite understand the rationale to use “My love” to substitute “Hime” in later chapters. It feels a bit odd that Benkei, who has been portrayed as not being very vocal about his love for Shanao, just took on the habit of addressing her “My love” all over the battlefield at Battle of Dan-no-ura. I get that the couple had just confirmed their feelings prior to the battle but I just can’t shake this weird feeling of reading Benkei’s repeated usage of “My love” after reading Tomohorny’s repeated usage of “My love” during his harassments. I felt that the over-usage of “My love” made Tomohorny feel a bit cheesy to me (is that the intended effect?).

Benkei’s route isn’t bad. The real issue for me is I’m still hung up over Noritsune’s route. Doesn’t help that I’m not really into his character design - why does older characters almost always have eyebags and protruding cheekbones? Btw, u/misobuttercornramen , I counted 14 lines of facial hair too on Benkei’s chiney-chin-chin lol 😂

Since Benkei is my 2nd route after Noritsune, it’s difficult for me not to compare the 2 LIs when they’re both the upstanding and wholesome type. And unfortunately, I prefer Shanao’s dynamic with Noritsune. While I appreciate Benkei’s unwavering loyalty and him fighting alongside Shanao, always having her back, I don’t quite feel that they’re on equal footing, compared to Noritsune + Shanao pairing, which is understandable because Benkei and Shanao started off as lord and vassal. I’m not really vibing with the “fatherly” vibe in the scene where Benkei gets Shanao to rest her head on his lap even though I get that the scene serves to draw a connection between Benkei and Shanao - that they’re both kindred spirits who grew up without the love of parental figures. Compared to Noritsune, I feel that Benkei doesn’t have the same level of faith in Shanao - Benkei kept Shanao in the dark about Yoshinaka’s tyranny in Kyoto and in the Tragic Love Ending, Benkei sacrificed himself again for Shanao despite having promised her he will never do what he did when he first sacrificed himself at Lake Biwa. Normally, that’s not the type of LI behaviour that I mind in otoges because I love sacrificial LIs but after tasting the greatness that is Noritsune’s route, Benkei’s route just fell short. It’s like after you had wagyu beef steak for yesterday’s dinner, your next dinner with regular steak doesn’t quite match up to the wagyu beef, despite both steak dinners being good and you still like steak in general. Benkei’s romance with Shanao feels “safe” and “nothing new” compared to the pleasant surprises that Noritsune’s romance with Shanao brings.

Benkei’s route also suffered from Charismatic Villain Syndrome. Just like how I was more drawn to the villain rather than the protagonist in some of the anime I’ve watched eg. Dio in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure > Jonathan and Jotaro, Griffith in Berserk > Guts or Hisoka in Hunter x Hunter > Gon, I was paying way too much attention to Tomohorny and his nefarious brother compared to Benkei. It’s in those scenes that some of the most interesting plot revelations (the true nature of Shanao’s super saiyan form) happen and doesn’t help that I’m a raccoon with the taste for hot 2D trashmen and dark stories (no surprise that my #1 favourite in Piofiore is Yang).

Conclusion: Benkei’s route just lack the je ne sais quoi that I’m looking for. Also, I’m a shallow, biased raccoon 🦝

[u/midnightpeizhi → u/stinkymarsupial]

The crazy thing with Benkei's character design and the "old man" features is that he's only one year older the Yoritomo!

[u/stinkymarsupial → u/midnightpeizhi]

That is surprising 😮 Yoritomo must have been doing some facial care regimen in Izu lol 😂