I honestly have no idea how to translate the title Yome Sagashi ga Hakadorisugite Yabai, because of that ヤバい in there. According to some Japanese department professor’s explainer article, writing yabai in katakana is a trend among young Japanese people, and it means the thing has the opposite meaning. やばい originally meant “oh no,” while ヤバい carries the same double-edged opposite sense as badass, meaning “so good it’s kind of alarming.” Honestly, translating this やばい as “insane” fits better, because whether something good or bad happens to you, you can just say “well, that’s insane.” So at first Yome Sagashi ga Hakadorisugite Yabai should mean something like “the wife hunt is going so well it’s insane.” Then I played the game and realized I’d overthought it. Better not jump to conclusions about that やばい.

Play enough visual novels and you start to notice patterns. For instance, most visual novel plots follow the same trajectory when it comes to love: the girl has feelings for the guy, keeps them bottled up, and every time she’s about to say something, the protagonist plays dumb, she stays reserved, he keeps wandering around blind, until some specific event happens, he realizes he’s actually in love with her, confesses, they date, they fuck, End. Honestly, that formula is pretty standard, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But even if salted tofu pudding is delicious, even if five-kernel mooncakes are tasty, you eat them year after year, month after month, day after day, and you’ll eventually get sick of them. So some visual novel companies started throwing in all sorts of weird shit: the girl isn’t human but a god, the girl gets tortured to death, the setting is in the future, the setting is in the past, time travel here, changing the future there~ And so on and so forth. Over time, the original meaning of “Galgame” as a shorthand for “Girl and Love Game” has become a bit of a misnomer. No wonder foreigners always call these things “visual novels.” Some stories have literally become novels, but even then, they still slap an 18+ sticker on the label, just to attract more people, forcibly stuffing in so-called “romance elements” that don’t fit, and while they’re at it, throwing in some sex scenes, hoping to lure in more players—at least those who don’t care about the story and just want to see fucking—to contribute a few more sales.