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Slap her cheek!

Rose & Camellia is an Adobe Flash game by Nigoro, the same people who made La-Mulana.

With the death of Shunsuke, the eldest son of the Tsubakikoji family, his wife Reiko holds claim to being the matriarch of the family and house. However, Shunsuke's sisters and mother object to this, as Reiko was born a commoner. So with the family turning against her, what's a forlorn widow to do? Slap these bitches, of course! Join Reiko as she slaps all the women in the family until they accept her as the head of the household.

The game has two basic mechanics: you move the mouse pointer quickly to the left and over your opponent's face to slap them, and you move the mouse pointer quickly across the bottom of the window to the right to dodge. Think of this as a cat fighting Punch-Out!! set in the Regency period with some Japanese anachronisms thrown in.

The sequel, Rose and Camellia 2, involves Saori trying to claim the house from Reiko one year later using the same methods as Reiko in the first game. It's available here, in English and without the need to play through the original.

Nigoro has also made a La-Mulana version where Mulbruk goes around fighting various other female characters for the title of main heroine. It can be played here.

A remake for mobile devices was released in 2020, featuring updated animations and new mechanics. A port for the Nintendo Switch was announced on 2022, adding local multiplayer and two new chapters to the saga. On July 2023, an announcement of a collection of all five games - titled Rose & Camellia Collection - will be released on Nintendo Switch either late 2023 or early 2024 outside Japan, featuring an English dub. The collection was released in Japan in September 2023 and in the West in April 2024.

This is the elegant art of feminine conflict:

  • Affectionate Parody: Of Regency England period pieces and the series aesthetically resembles a shoujo drama like The Rose of Versailles or Revolutionary Girl Utena — though by around the second game on you have the noblewomen speak of the feminine nobility of their slaps the way a shonen Fighting Series would, if tropes like Lady Hanae's speed trails didn't clue you in.
  • Attack Her Weak Point: In the first game:
    • Saori’s is her cheek.
    • Shizuka’s is her chin.
    • Etsuko’s is the area between her chin and neck.
    • Hanae’s is her eye.
    • Camellia’s is her nose.
  • The Battle Didn't Count: The final boss in the sequel.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Zigzagged. Averted to high hell with the (attractive) sisters, twin maids, the already ugly head maid, the giant demonic matriarch, and the muscular, overly masculine cousin, but played straight with the head of the family, and Reiko herself in the sequel.
  • Big Fancy House: The setting for the main games.
  • Bitch Slap: The primary form of combat among women, as demonstrated in this game.
  • Butt-Monkey: Saori is the training dummy featured in the How To Play pages, even in games that don't feature her as an opponent. She also gets the most abuse in promotional materials and doesn't even accomplish her goal in the game where she features as protagonist. The third game, a game which doesn't even feature Saori at all outside of this one gag, has her be inexplicably defenestrated at the game's epilogue!
  • Cat Fight: The Game.
  • The Chosen One: As Reiko vows to defeat Grand Madame Camellia,Lady Hanae wonders out loud if Reiko is perhaps "The Rose Bride of Legend."
  • Defunct Online Video Games: With the death of Flash, the games are no longer playable on Nigoro's website. As such, the games were later remade for mobile devices as well as the Switch.
  • Denser and Wackier: Giant demon matriarch aside, the first game is a fairly straightforward soap opera narrative about a woman slapping her way up her rich in-law's social hierarchy. Each of the subsequent three games in comparison gets increasingly more bizarre and parodic.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Reiko bitch-slaps the demonic matriarch to finalize her claim to the house.
  • Difficulty by Region: The English version has a difficulty slider that can make the game easier.
  • Dual Boss: Leftie and Rightie Mita are still treated as one target.
  • Extremity Extremist: Everyone fights by slapping with only one arm except for the final boss of the first game who punches with only one arm. The sequel's final boss subverts this in the climax, by catching a slap with her other hand.
  • Flower Motifs: Camellias for the Tsubakikojis, and roses for Reiko.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Other than the ugly Ninja Maid and Hanae with her glowing eyes, it sorta makes sense. The final boss, Madame Camellia, is the demonic matriarch who has lived for centuries.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: The mother Hanae and the cousin Haruhi.
  • Hit Flash: Hitting an opponent makes the screen flash white, while getting hit makes it flash red.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: Reiko catches what would have been the decisive blow against her in the sequel, and sends Saori flying with a single slap, no matter how well you performed.
  • Important Haircut: Saori gives herself one at the beginning of the sequel, vowing to dethrone Reiko in order to bask in luxury again while lopping a chunk off her hair.
  • Irony: In the sequel Saori detests the rest of the Tsubakikojis for wearing roses instead of their camellias. Despite this, Saori as the player character still has her lifebar represented by roses just like Reiko before her.
  • Life Meter: Health is depicted as roses, with weak slaps only shrinking a rose to half its size.
  • Lighter and Softer: Rose & Camellia & La-Mulana is this for La-Mulana proper. In the place of the original game's heaps of lore and melancholy, sometimes dark plot, there is a comedic story of Mulbruk beating up the other female characters including the Mother, the creator of all life on Earth to earn the title of "heroine of La-Mulana."
  • Lone Wolf Boss: As she's a member of the working class, Etsuko is a mere neutral third party and has no real opinion over the squabbles of the Tsubakikoji household.
  • Moveset Clone: Leftie Mita and Rightie Mita play similarly to Etsuko.
  • Ninja Maid: Etsuko Mita can crawl and stand on the ceiling.
  • Nintendo Hard: The mouse movement-only control scheme makes critical hits and dodges quite difficult.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: In the mobile version, it's possible to seize the opportunity to perform the "Slap Rush", a rapid flurry of slaps that will likely finish off the opponent.
  • Recycled Premise: Rose & Camellia & La-Mulana uses the same slap fight mechanic, but this time the plot is about Mulbruk fighting the other female La-Mulana characters for the title of "heroine of La-Mulana."
  • Retraux: The cutscenes are put through a sepia filter, and also resemble the cutscenes of the NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy.
  • Rogue Protagonist: Inverted. The sequel follows Saori instead of Reiko, who isn't evil but is now the final boss.
  • Royal Brat: Saori levies a counter offensive to Reiko's reign in the sequel for no other reason than to once again bask in the lap of luxury. That, and the idea of being led by a commoner is as much a metaphorical slap in the face as it was many literal ones.
  • Shows Damage: As you slap your opponent senseless, she'll start bleeding from the mouth or develop a bruise on her cheek.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sword Lines: Except with slapping and dodging.
  • Tears of Awe: The tears that slip out of Lady Hanae as you fight her turn into this at the end of the match, as she hopes your slapping prowess can take on Madame Camellia, the final boss.
  • Threshold Guardian: Etsuko Mito challenges Reiko, not because she has a particular beef with her, but because she's testing her resolve and strength to make changes in the household.
  • Time Skip: The sequel is set one year after the first game.
  • Tournament Arc: The third game is about the "Death Queen Circuit", a world tournament of slap fights in which Rightie fights her way through a series of national stereotypes.
  • A Twinkle in the Sky: In the sequel, Saori's near-victory against Reiko ends with Reiko catching Saori's hand and counterslapping her into the sky (though the cutscene after shows her sprawled in a heap).
  • Worthy Opponent: In the sequel, Etsuko speculates that Reiko saw Saori as this after counterslapping her, having long yearned for a similarly capable challenger.

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