Otome has several meanings:
1. "Maiden" in Japanese.
2. A game aimed at a female audience that generally where you are presented options as to what path you go down.
3. A girl who is obsessed with anime or manga.
3. She's such an otome. I heard she has watched, like, every anime ever.
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Literally means "maiden" in Japanese. It is also the partial name of a popular shoujo anime sequel: "Mai-Otome." The original being Mai-HiME.
The term "otome" is also slowly being integrated as a new way of referring to a ramped anime/manga fangirl. It's a more specific and updated version to the current otaku label (which has been grossly misinterpreted in the States).
"That girl's a MAJOR otome! She's got over 80 manga!"
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A type of game, usually made for girls, though some targeted towards men do exist, where the Heroine, MC/Main Character/You, falls in love with some hot guys, gals, and non-binary pals.
Average Otome Player: I've spent at least $300 on otome games.
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As an experienced otome isekai enjoyer of several years, I will give a short blurb of this genre.
Otome Isekai is a sub-genre of Isekai where the main character(s) are in some way transported to another world that resembles an otome game.
Isekai means "other world" in Japanese. Isekai stories are those where the protagonist goes to another world. Things like Escaflowne, Sword Art Online, even No-Game No-Life are all forms of Isekai.
Otome means "maiden" and "otome games" are a type of dating-sim visual novel game for girls and women. The goal is to make choices to navigate various story routes to win the hearts of different capture targets.
It is essentially the girly version of the modern shounen isekai that goes in the direction of female wish fulfillment. Instead of stuck in an action game, she's stuck in a romance novel or romance game. It is almost always "died and reborn there" rather than the sort of "stuck" we see in Sword Art Online or the "teleported" we saw in the 90s.
In general, otome isekais contain almost all of the following tropes:
1. The Main Character (MC) has foreknowledge of the events to come.
2. Our Main Character is usually a villainess.
3. Our Main Character almost always wants to avoid the "bad ending."
4. The setting is Lords and Ladies.
5. The Story is about Relationships.
6. It is written for The Female Gaze.
sara: I really wish I could get hit by a truck and isekaied into an otome isekai.
beth: otome isekai?
sara: yeah so I can be surrounded by pretty boys 24/7
A normally invisible allure that is emitted from an otome that attracts particularly desperate otaku, causing the otaku to either fall in love on the spot or to feel the need to ask the otome for a date almost immediately after having met her.
If the aura is strong enough, it is said that color may be detected radiating from the otome, and also has the potential to weaken and kill any otaku nearby.
It is an aura emitted from an otome who is friendly, at least slightly physically attractive, and is interested in at least one similar hobby with the otaku they have just met.
First coined by the friends of an otome with a strong aura that caused at least one otaku to stalk her, and at least 3 guys she had just met to ask her out or almost ask her out on the spot.
"Her otome aura caused him to stalk her for over two years although they've only spoken once..."
"...she likes anime, video games, dresses up in cosplay... her otome aura is quite strong."
"I was almost killed by her bright pick otome aura, but was rescued by my close friend Babar just in time."
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