Practically everything I’ve said so far can also describe Omori, Omocat’s 2021 RPG.
Its sudden shocks of violence and sexuality lend it a lightly transgressive edge, but it’s more interested in providing comfort rather than psychological depth. Its story is familiar and its characters are predictable, but its execution is appealing. In other words, Pretty Boy is a triumph of aesthetics over character and plot. The page on which Pretty Boy gazes at Jock playing football, and Jock blushes as he realizes he’s being watched, is what falling in love feels like – a sharp, distilled moment of thrilling visibility. Its storytelling is visually economical and emotionally appealing. Pretty Boy is a short comic, so there isn’t a lot of space to draw out a complex narrative. He is the blank canvas onto which Jock’s character arc is projected. We know nothing about Pretty Boy except that he is pretty, that he is a boy, and that he is gay. Pretty Boy's beauty does the talking for him, implying his virtue without detailing it – it means we can see Pretty Boy reading an explicit BL manga without ascribing to him the impurity of sexual thoughts. The two live happily ever after: they get married, adopt a child, and live their lives peacefully until Pretty Boy, still pretty as ever, passes away with a smile on his face. The story climaxes when Jock saves Pretty Boy from homophobic violence, symbolically overcoming his own bigotry. It's the story of an unnamed Jock who bullies the titular Pretty Boy and then, slowly, falls in love with him. Omocat's Pretty Boy hits pretty much every Tumblr sweet spot there is: 1) cute, 2) manga, 3) violence, 4) gay. This essay discusses mental health and suicide and contains significant spoilers for the Omori game.
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