u/1SilVerA1

All images in this post is avaliable on the official website to avoid spoilers.

I am currently playing Matsurika no Kei and I absolutely LOVE the game so far. I love many aspects of the game but specifically the art. It is phenomenal, to the point I wanted to make a post talking about it. Considering I am not done the game and want to keep this spoiler free, I am going to avoid talking too much about the story.

https://preview.redd.it/ory2mex6suzg1.jpg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9bc556741627e16aa7381fc71fcb464b1b882dc

Backgrounds:
OMG there are so many backgrounds. Just when I think I've seen them all THERES MORE and many of them have crazy amounts of detail. I feel like they went the extra mile with the backgrounds considering they could have reduced the number of locations BUT THEY DIDN'T. Also since some of the backgrounds are very sparcely used. The art has a very paint-y style that fits the tone of the game and really shines in the nature scenes which I especially like. Distant or nature heavy backgrounds look very water color-y like traditional asian art pieces. (The bambo forest with the lilies and a specific background in Seirin's route are favorites of mine ABSOLUTLEY GORGEOUS backgrounds).

Water color looking mountains in the far back with very soft and smooth more focused nature in front

Animals:
There are a lot of animals in this game (well of course considering one of the LIs' whole theme is WOLF). Perhaps people will think these drawn animals aren't anything amazing but I find them really charming and just really well drawn. The birds and cute, the wolves are fluffy, and the horses are suprisingly detailed. Like it caught me off guard how detailed the horses are considering I wouldn't expect a lot of effort to go into drawing animals in an otome game lol.

Very cute doggos. Bright moon focal point that highlights the LI's face. Slanted for a more interesting view

^I have this CG dinner mat poster on my otome shelf wall I got from the otomate garden. He watches me sleep every night 💕

Sprites, CGs and overall art:
A little bit of a side tagent but man. Zebenera (the guy in the CG above) is hot. I don't even know exactly what it is but he is legit the HOTTEST otome LI by far. The moment I saw him I was like YESSSSSSSSSSSSS. Even though I knew personality wise, he wouldn't necessarily be my type I still love him but I like my otome men insane.

I've always prefered soft lines (totally not because I hate doing line art), it makes the art piece feel warm and cozy. As I stated before, the art style is very painterly, but its also soft and glowy but not muddy (I feel like I'm bad at explaining this).
The lighting and composition of the CGs are AMAZING. The CGs are very well focused, which is often done with lighting. Even when the main point (usually the LI's face) isn't very big, the composition and lighting makes it natural to focus on said point. The CGs also never feel stagnant or boring. They utilize the rule of thirds and have the scene on a slant in almost all of the CGs. I also really appreciate the focus on the LI rather than the MC in most CGs.

Again slanted. Very noticable reflective light from water and sky on MC's hair, ties her into her setting

^I don't know if this was intentional but the bird and the MC's head piece makes a heart between the MC and LI which is super cute.

One thing that makes this game's art unique to me is the usage of strong reflective light in shadow and bold in between colors, the color between the base color and shadow or highlight (I couldn't find the name for this, I found sub-surface scattering but I'm not sure if thats correct). While lots of artists utilize these techniques, the game's pieces go very heavy with it. They are not afraid to use very different colors as opposed to playing it safe and using different shades of the same base color. This prevents the art from looking flat or boring.

Bold colors are used rather than darker or lighter shade of the base

Red, pink, and orange tones are often used with highlights while greens and blues are used for reflective light in shadow. Mostly likely because these are complementary colors. These adventurous colors really brings whimsy and life into the art piece.

And the reason why I went down this art analysis rabbit hole is the EYES. The first route I did was Ruwo's route and I couldn't stop starring at his eyes 👁️👁️. Totally doesn't sound weird. The eyes look like actual GEMS. They are are so beautiful (each LI has different eyes so I'm mainly refering to MC, Ruwo, and Seirin's eyes). The soft colors used, the haze that gives it dimention, and the highlights that make them sparkle.

BEAUTIFUL EYESSSSS

Sweet bby

Overall, this game has taken the place as my favorite art in an otome game and unfortunetly is making me want to buy more merch which my wallet cannot handle. Dosen't help I'm craving the FD even though I'm not done the og game. PLEASE OTOMATE I NEED AN ART BOOK OF THIS GAME, ITS A NEED. I wish there was more content with this artist but it seems like Matsurika no Kei is their only work so far.

I'm not very good at conveying ideas with words but I hope people can appreciate the art regardless and perhaps make people more aware of otome art in general. I'm hoping to make another art analysis of Virche and Mistonia but I underestimated the amount of time making a post like this takes, also because the Virche one would be much longer and filled with spoilers but it sounds really fun since I have so much to say.