Slave Pageant (PC) review "Yujiro Mido and Sumi Mizuno have known each other their entire lives. They’re neighbors. They’ve attended the same schools and been in the same classes. She walks with him every afternoon, trying to take care of him. He thinks she’s generally nice (though a bit of a crybaby), that her red hair is very pretty, and her figure is amazing. When Sumi’s nominated for the school’s Miss Twilight competition, Yujiro believes she just might win. To help her cause – but more to help himself – he rape..."

Yujiro Mido and Sumi Mizuno have known each other their entire lives. They’re neighbors. They’ve attended the same schools and been in the same classes. She walks with him every afternoon, trying to take care of him. He thinks she’s generally nice (though a bit of a crybaby), that her red hair is very pretty, and her figure is amazing. When Sumi’s nominated for the school’s Miss Twilight competition, Yujiro believes she just might win. To help her cause – but more to help himself – he rapes her, then continues to sex her up until she becomes a naughty, naughty girl.

“Mad Dog” Mido isn’t the only one who has lost his mind in Slave Pageant, though. The public face of the annual contest is just a ruse. The students see it as a popularity poll, but the institution secretly prostitutes the queen out to any old slob with money and power. Sumi, in all her naivete, is just the first of three candidates. Shinju is a straight-laced heiress, best known for her overbearing performance on the disciplinary committee. Sorami is a nationally ranked swimmer, which means she has sexy tan lines, but her IQ sinks like a brick. Yujiro has a reputation as a tough street-fighter, and through a barbaric show of force, he assumes control of the pageant. He doesn’t really care what happens to the girls; he just wants the honor of acclimating each beauty to the skills expected of Miss Twilight’s station, whether she likes it or not.

It’s a despicable premise, but Slave Pageant covers itself in a thick coat of denial. This graphic adventure plays to the fantasy that the protagonist behaves like a normal, even decent, human being. No one acknowledges the error of the situation or his actions, least of all himself. The day after Yujiro rapes Sorami for the first time – it was filmed in front of a live audience – he casually sits down to eat lunch with her. As she reacts angrily and tries to leave, he wonders why the hell she’s so upset. Yet he’s not always that oblivious, which only makes these instances seem more idiotic. When Yujiro first meets the reigning Miss Twilight, the game explicitly describes how he gazes into her empty, soulless eyes, and thus comprehends the depths of her hopelessness. Of course, moments earlier, he was gazing down into those same eyes as she sucked him off.

Slave Pageant also plays to the fantasy that the girls will like their treatment – sooner rather than later – so it assumes a comical tone. Shinju maintains this hostile flirting vibe; there’s a cutesy graphic of her cackling over Yujiro’s frequent rules infractions. Sumi tries to jump out a window the next time she sees her friend, not from despair, but because she’s become a love-struck fool. She took her assault as if he proposed that she be his steady. Even in that first miserable display, Sorami manages to last through the entire meal with the guy who stole her virginity. In fact, the whole group becomes such good buddies that they have a big picnic together. Each of the victims brings a homemade bento for their tyrant master.

Repeated intercourse certainly speeds up the process of getting acquainted. Despite his guise of training the candidates for every sexual situation, Yujiro doesn’t broach too many levels of perversion. He does put the girls on leashes to parade them around like animals, and occasionally some S&M restraint will make an appearance. But threesomes – and moresomes – are his preferred activity, especially when a strap-on is involved. Mostly, it’s just random sex, wherever, whenever. The scenes themselves look flat and lifeless; they lack the shading that would provide depth and the variety that would keep it interesting. Several share another particular problem: the first graphic will jump right into a revealing shot, but then minutes of written dialogue detail what lead up to that point in the action.

If anyone can swallow this version of happily ever after, though, then neither this backwards pacing nor the simplistic gameplay will be a deterrent. Selecting Yujiro’s true love consists of a few elimination rounds. You successively pick out a girl to assault, and the leftover drops from the rotation. When only one remains, the traditional hentai system of binary branching paths emerges. If the main character’s mean streak continues, he might be punished with a harem ending. If you make him act nice, his target becomes your own private sex kitten.

Of course, “nice” is a completely relative term. This story exists in an immature fantasyland, a place where antisocial behavior is treated as the norm. The girls can’t resist a guy who’s a good lay, despite any and all atrocities he commits against her. If you’re not taken by this delusion, Slave Pageant is downright insulting and just plain dumb.

Community review by woodhouse (September 21, 2007) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.