Yuugen Romantica

Yuugen Romantica

幽幻ロマンチカ
[Phantom Romantics]

Rejet

About: A certain school has several myth that enveloped in scary stories about ghosts and monsters. One day a girl happened to be in one of the supposed haunted side of the school alone at night...

Trivia: There is currently four season for this series and total of 8 characters. This summary will cover only the introduction volumes to each youkai, which is the entirety of season one and some of season two.

Hifumi (CV: KENN)

The legend of the old school building is that if you happen to be there alone at night, you will be spirited away and will never be seen again. Hifumi, the trickster tengu, met the MC while she was in the old school building late at night to find her cellphone and he decided to play some tricks on her. Even to the day after, Hifumi possessed MC (i.e; attached to her/borrowing her body) and asked her to go out of the school area. He mentioned he cannot leave the school grounds unless in his much weaker tiny crow form. MC took him to the Animate store then buy him some crepe - Hifumi's favorite, it turns out. After a while, MC comes across the news that the old building will be demolished soon and Hifumi told her if that were to happen, he would disappear. He told the history of how he was born from the people's belief many hundreds of years ago and for some reason I couldn't really catch, he was confined there at the area that would be the old school building, and was placed a curse to never step out of the school grounds. MC said she'd help him out somehow but Hifumi already made his decision. He banished her from the building and wished to never see her again. On a terribly stormy night, MC came again worried for him. The dilapidated roof tore down, fell to crush on her but Hifumi stopped it with his body. He saved her by using every single drop of his youkai power, and flew away from the collapsing building. Hifumi was sad to see the building destroyed, and that he, too, will disappear as well. But after he confessed to have fallen in love with the MC, have the feelings mutual, and kissed her, the curse that bound him broke. The destroyed old school building was also restored to previous condition. Hifumi would never have to worry about being forgotten anymore because he has someone who will always be thinking about him all the time. He is free to venture out of the school ground and used his disguise ability to look like a normal human boy. They spent their days as lovers ever since.

Zakuro (CV: Sakurai Takahiro)

Zakuro is a nine-tails fox spirit who also controls the spiritual fire called the onibi. He haunted the cooking classroom which is also famous within students to come and test their courage to see the onibi at night. Zakuro is very annoyed at this and would scare them all away. One night, MC was forced to join some of her classmates, so Zakuro possessed her and scare her with all the threats he could think of. He made her promise she would never tell anyone about him. The next day, he disguises as a fellow student just to eat his favorite from the canteen - the kitsune udon - and he asked her (met while ordering his food) to see if she will keep her promise. Later that night some more students came to the cooking classroom hoping to see a youkai and that made him angry, thinking MC had not kept her words at all. MC insisted it was not her doings so Zakuro ordered her to gather the previous group she joined so he himself could find who spread the words about him. He came with her while possessing her and they went to an Animate store. Zakuro was quite amused seeing the things there and he used his magic to make her win a winning lucky draw. MC didn't want to win unfairly like that so another boy from her group took it from her. Zakuro made it burned in his hands and that triggered the sprinkler. In another night, MC came to meet him again at night to let him eat the inari sushi she made for him. He got flustered a bit and went outside to calm down. When he returned, MC was gone. He felt something must be wrong and found her being led by some boys looking like they're not planning anything good with her. He tried to save her in his weak tiny fox form but easily got kicked around. MC seemed to confess her liking Zakuro then and he asked her to prove it by kissing him. His curse broke and he used the new-found power to scare the boys away. He finally admitted to share mutual feelings with the MC. They later dated as a couple of human and youkai.

Iriya (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke)

MC fell asleep in the health room until past school hours, and she was awakened to Iriya, a youkai with snakes in his hair, right beside her. She tried to get away from him but he gave her a kanashibari (sleep paralysis) as he threatened to gobble her up whole. Iriya was only teasing it turns out, and instead to MC, he gave her three wishes for him to grant. MC didn't believe it at first and ran away before he could ask what her first wish was. The next day he appeared again as MC was looking worriedly at her test result. She didn't do well, and Iriya asked if she would want to grade much better. When the results came out, MC ran to the health room to meet with the youkai again to show that his wish-granting came true! Strangely, for her second wish she didn't wish for herself, but rather for a friend who was trying to confess to the person they liked. Iriya grew more interested with the MC by then since for hundreds of years he had lived and give wishes to humans, none ever wished for another person's happiness. Iriya followed her home in the form of a tiny snake hiding in MC's bag and helped her to run away from a man who was stalking her. Iriya then told her of his history; he was born from stories shared among humans about a snake god who granted wishes. He was trapped within the school grounds by a curse, and that it can only be broken if he, a youkai, were to fall in love with a human. MC by then said that she had gotten fond of Iriya and wished she could free him of his curse, but Iriya refused. He revealed himself to be none other than Yamatano Orochi (8-branched snake god) and those whom he had granted three wishes for will be his prey. He tried to scare her away but MC was dead set on breaking his curse. Perhaps in mercy, Iriya erased all her memory about him instead. One night, MC ran towards the health room and immediately begged for Iriya (while in human disguise) to save her. The stalker from before was running after her with a knife in hand. Iriya chased him away with his youkai form. MC, though had her memories erased, said he reminded her of someone and was forcing herself to remember. Iriya begged her to stop as it would ruin her body. He gave up and grant MC's last wish; to free him of his curse by accepting her love.

Arahagi (CV: Kaji Yuuki)

One night, MC wandered into the music room alone to find the source of the mysterious piano playing. There, she finds Arahagi, the bakeneko (lit. monster cat). Arahagi is a very playful youkai and he played lots of tricks on her before finally letting her go, trembling in utter fear. The next day he came to her in his human disguise and used his magic to made her believe that he is a classmate of hers. Arahagi feigned sympathy for her scary experience and made her to believe that he will always be there for her if the youkai appeared again. MC gave him a strap that will make a sound if pressed in show of her gratitude. One day, Arahagi in his human disguise came to her saying there is a cat trapped in the music room and she immediately agreed to join him to look for it. Arahagi the youkai appeared instead but MC has a trick up her sleeve. She saw the strap hanging in his pockets and pressed it. It proved that the student was Arahagi and she knew it all along! He gave in afterwards and said if she spread the story about his existence, there would be a lot of people disturbing his place and he would have no where else to go. MC assured him she would not do such a thing but instead only wanted to know who had been playing beautiful piano music she heard at night. He followed her while possessing her body to an Animate cafe and he was amused by the colorful characters and decorations around. But suddenly her glass exploded and Arahagi could feel there is a malicious spirit nearby. He asked her to go home early and they slept together in her room with him in his tiny cat form. The following day, Arahagi tried to get to go to her home again but saw her together with another boy. He grew jealous and said some mean things to her before running off. After purposely not seeing her for a few days, he grew lonesome and decided to go see MC and apologized. MC, however, was facing a malicious monster and Arahagi saved her in time, though he could not do much in his cat form. He ordered her to run back to the school where the spiritual barrier would stop it, but unfortunately the monster easily broke through. In his dire need to save MC, he used all of his power to throw the football goal post towards the monster and effectively defeated it, leaving behind the unconscious boy he saw with MC before (the monster possessed him it seems). MC was thankful and explained that the boy came to her to confess his interest in her but she refused, because she already liked the cat youkai. Arahagi confessed feeling the same and their kiss broke his bound to the school's curse. The spent their happy times in the music room playing the piano together ever since.

Toneri (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke)

The stories about a sad howling of a dog coming from the sports' storage area tells that if someone were to curiously seek the source, they would dragged into the darkness for eternity. MC, however, was one of the curious souls and I think she just wanted to find the sad dog. Inside, Toneri the inugami (lit. dog god) was waiting and he played some tricks on her. Later he begged her to let him possess her body so he could go outside. MC agrees out of pity I suppose, and in his puppy form, he was very happy to run around and play. During the day in school, he posed as one of the students of the track club and joined their morning training. Toneri also has a bit of a possessive side of him (described as a yandere). While at the Animate store, waiting in line to buy a certain limited merchandise, he made everyone else sick so that MC will be the only one capable to buy the items. He explained that he was a creature that was used to curse people that someone else didn't like. When he made MC's friends sick so she could have more time to play with him, MC shut her heart from him and that led to Toneri losing all his youkai power. Toneri, now powerless, could no longer step out of the dark storage room and run free anymore. MC probably felt sorry for him and came one night to share her dinner with him, but she collapsed suddenly. Her body was cold and she was very pale and shivering a lot. Toneri immediately could tell it was the side effect of his curse. In complete helplessness because he has none of his youkai power, he could only watch MC slowly dying in his hands. He regretted what he did and said to have fallen in love with her. He kissed her and a warm light magically appeared. MC woke up again in her own room and Toneri right beside her but not in his puppy form. He told her the bound that held him in the school was broken because a youkai and a human had fallen in love. They later spent as much as their time together seeing other places, enjoying his new-found freedom.

Hanawo (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru)

Some of the students of the school would sometimes gather to challenge each other of test of courage of sort in and around the school buildings, and that includes the male toilet, especially the unit at the last row. If you were to knock three times at night, the ghost Hanako would come out and grant your wish. MC joined this test in substitute of her friend to prove that ghosts does not exist, and there she met the very gaudy guy with the dozens of flowers around him, Hanawo. He disguised himself as one of the students of the school and became very popular because of his attractive looks. He is also very interested with human and their pretty things. To the MC, he asked to borrow (i.e. possess) her body to visit an Animate store to buy some merchandise. Hanawo explained that the reason why the other youkai in the school was bound has something to do with him but my current understanding can't really grasp what it is. What I could tell is that he created the safe place for the other youkai who had no where else to go, due to his experience of watching his own fellow youkai friends disappeared one by one when humans no longer remembers them. Next few days, Hanawo felt like something wrong and dangerous were to happen soon while MC was busy getting ready with the school's culture festival. Before he could lead her out, a monster appeared and broke through the barrier that was supposed to protect the school from such a thing. Hanawo tried to fight it at first, but he was not strong enough. He and the MC ran towards the male toilet to the last cubicle and hide there, saying it is the only place he is the strongest, and that the monster will never get in there. After confessing that he liked the MC and she liked him as well, he got a boost of youkai power. He managed to defeat the monster and fixed the protection barrier around the school again. There is a funny scene with Hanawo pretending to die and got the MC to kiss him for the last time, and she was very pissed when it was all an act. They later were happy together, with MC joining his hobby of cleaning up things.

Utashiro (CV: Kimura Ryohei)

Utashiro is one of the youkai introduced in the second season. He haunted the stairs with thirteen steps with rumors saying if someone were to count their steps as they were going down, the youkai will haunt and trap them in their dreams. MC is one of the people who went ahead and tried to test the authenticity of the stories and she met Utashiro, the baku (dream eater). While Utashiro was having his fun scaring her with his version of bad dreams, MC was only there so she would be caught in his sleeping spell and catch a good rest. She explained later that her sleep had been disturbed with nightmares and it's beginning to have affect on her well being. Utashiro walked her home in his human form (he is not limited to the bound/curse of previous season) and noticed there is a bad aura coming from her home. He sneaked in with his tiny baku form (looked like a tapir) in order to eat her bad dreams but later that made him sick, saying MC's nightmare was unlike any usual nightmares. Utashiro and MC agreed to enter the dream world to face whatever it is that was haunting her and found it was by one of his own kind. Bakus were once plenty and very sought after to help human with their bad dreams but as the years go by, less and less people remembered what they did for the human and one by one disappeared from existence. The one they're facing then was a corrupted one with no more hope to be saved. With a heavy heart, he had to defeat the corrupted spirit and watch the last of his kind ceased to exist, but at the same time, managed to protect the MC. They stayed together as lovers in the end.

Merry (CV: Toriumi Kousuke)

MC was the only one left in the school one night and she heard someone calling for her to the broadcasting room over the speaker. Inside waiting for her was Merry from the urban legend's ghost that will follow you everywhere you go. Merry is also very extremely shy and in order to avoid her looking at his face, he possessed her. MC was terrified to the bone though Merry admitted he just wanted to say that he liked her. MC ran away with tears in her eyes. The next day Merry approached her in his human form and made her to go to the broadcasting room again. In repeat of yesterday's event, she was scared and in tears while Merry showed every sign of a stalker. Merry never gave up to try and approach her, changing strategy every time until MC finally accepted his honest feelings of just wanted to get to know her and warmed up to him. She then told him that she was partly scared because she was convinced to be cursed due to a certain cursed chain mail she chose to ignored, but it came back again and again every single time. Merry used his youkai power to reply to the sender of the harassing mail and called them out to the school's broadcasting room in the dead of the night. They were just fellow students who wanted to bully the MC, it turns out. Merry gave them a good scare and only let them go after they promised not to do it again. In the end, MC was grateful for Merry's help and accepted his feelings towards her. Though he still can't look at her right in the face without being anxious, they ended up happy together.

Final say: It took me a lot of time to get used to Japanese the language by listening to a lot of other drama CDs, improved my listening skills a bit better, that I could finally understand at least 70% of the stories. And I'm glad they are pleasantly pretty diverse in terms of plot and all equally interesting. I had to admit, I love every single one of these boys, with my bias be Toneri (bc Hirakawa lol) despite him being slightly yandere at times. The other would be Merry because Toriumi was just so adorable playing the shy dude. I recommend this series to anyone who loved a story that has a spiritual theme being the main.