Shoko Sugimoto

Shoko Sugimoto (杉本翔子 Sugimoto Shōko) is a recurring protagonist in the UMEMARO 3D canon. Debuting in Lewd Consultation Room, the eighth UMEMARO 3D release (and first to feature interactive elements), she has since starred in Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment, The Chiropractor -Erotic Este Course-, and Sexy Trainer Shoko Sugimoto, and appeared in a supporting role in Game of Lascivity OMEGA and Sugimoto Gynecology Clinic ~Nurse Reform Program~. Shoko is widely considered to be UMEMARO 3D's most popular character, and her numerous appearances since Lewd Consultation Room have filled out her character and history and cemented her status as the unofficial mascot of UMEMARO 3D.

Appearance
Shoko's appearance has changed drastically from release to release, as she has been depicted in a variety of professions, at multiple points of her life.

As a student, Shoko wore a white and black schoolgirl uniform, with a purple ribbon and black skirt. She was very pale, with a much more Japanese appearance, and kept her shorter hair in a side ponytail. As an adult, however, Shoko is a drastic divergence from previous females in the UMEMARO 3D canon; dark-skinned with tan lines, with long, dark hair reaching just below her waist, and Amazonian proportions, Shoko is presented as an exotic beauty, despite being Japanese. Because of the diversity of her appearances, she has worn more outfits and has had more minor details changed than any other character in the UMEMARO 3D canon.

In Sexy Trainer Shoko Sugimoto, Shoko wears a lime green sports bra and matching athletic bikini, with prominent tan lines visible underneath. She has a lanyard around her neck containing her gym ID, wears a smartwatch on her left wrist and white shoes with purple soles, and has her hair tied back in a ponytail with a purple scrunchie. Her nails (including toenails) and lips are pink, and underneath her athletic outfit, she wears a leopard print mini bathing suit top and thong.

In Sugimoto Gynecology Clinic, Shoko wears a white outfit with black leather accents. Her button-down suit-style top has a large flared collar, with short sleeves and a single button in the front. Her skirt has no accents and is held up with a large black belt with a silver buckle, in addition to simple white heels. She has a ring on her right ring finger, heart-shaped earrings, and grey-framed glasses. Though she retains the leopard-print panties of later chronological appearances, she does not wear a bra at this point in time.

In Lewd Consultation Room, she wears a doctor's coat over a green turtleneck and short black skirt that ends high on the thighs, with leopard print lingerie underneath, a black choker with a golden heart accessory attached to it, light pink lipstick, and purple nail polish. Her hair is tied back at the nape of her neck in a black hair tie. In this appearance and subsequent appearances as an adult, Shoko's pubic hair is auburn - unique among UMEMARO characters - and does not match her natural hair color.

In OMEGA and Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment, she wears a white sleeveless blouse coupled with a short pink skirt. She wears only a leopard print thong underneath (the print itself being much less dense), the straps of which now rest on her hips rather than her waist, changing her jewelry from a choker to a simple gold ear piercing, and swapping out her black hair tie for a blue rose-shaped one. The shade of her lipstick is darker, as well. Shoko's model is slimmer and thinner in the hips in Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment compared to Lewd Consultation Room, likely as a result of re-modeling Shoko for the game.

Traits
Patient, but with a fair degree of seductive allure, Shoko is a mature, enchanting woman and she tends to solve her patients' problems through sexual treatment. She is usually very composed, treating her patients with respect and care as she works to pleasure them. Being a doctor, Shoko is assumed to be well-versed in the field of medicine, but she is never truly shown demonstrating this at any point in her scenes. Additionally, she takes her work very seriously despite the immensely sexual nature of it; in Sugimoto Gynecology Clinic, when she discovers that Chiha has been using her job as a cover to have sex with patients, for more than just collecting semen samples, she orders her to undergo a brutal correction program, breaking her spirit and taking the matter of treatment into her own hands.

When she was younger, Shoko seemed to be much less confident in herself, desiring a change of appearance and body structure in The Chiropractor, citing her lack of a "feminine" body structure due to her athletic endeavors.

History
Uniquely, Shoko has been depicted in UMEMARO 3D releases at various points of her life, released out of chronological order as UMEMARO built out her background. Shoko appears as a teenager in The Chiropractor, a young adult in Sexy Trainer Shoko Sugimoto and Sugimoto Gynecology Clinic, and an older adult in Lewd Consultation Room, OMEGA, and Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment. Her appearances are chronicled below in original release order.

in The Chiropractor
Set long before Lewd Consultation Room, Shoko is the central female character in The Chiropractor, where she enters Ohara's massage parlor, believing that he has a treatment to make her look more feminine. Under this pretense, Ohara molests and eventually has sex with Shoko at her encouragement, after which she departs the center, believing that the treatment is unique to Ohara's parlor. In a similar twist to Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment, Shoko's identity is not revealed until the very end of the comic, acting as a surprise origin story.

in Sexy Trainer Shoko Sugimoto
Shoko is once again the central female character in Sexy Trainer, as one of the trainers for a gym. It is quickly revealed that she frequently has sex with the male members of the gym, accosting Ichijo on his very first day and encouraging him to join in the sexual acts that Tanaka and Ohara apparently frequently engage in with her. The three of them have sex with Shoko repeatedly in various positions on the gym equipment. At the end of the game, Shoko reveals that she has been fired after the owner of the gym discovered what she was doing, and muses that she should become a teacher next, referencing her role in OMEGA.

in Sugimoto Gynecology Clinic
Shoko is a supporting character in Sugimoto Gynecology Clinic, as the head of a gynecology clinic that also performs semen analysis for child conception purposes. She spies on Chiha carrying out an affair with Kenji Kataoka during the course of her work, and orders her underling nurses to have sex with Kenji to punish Chiha, while enrolling Chiha in the clinic's "correctional program" for nurses. Later, while Chiha is forced to watch while being raped by the doctors of the medical board, Shoko has sex with Kenji. At the end of the comic, she notes that Kenji has issues in his personal life - referring to his affair with Chiha - and offers to continue treatment in his house, which he readily agrees to.

in Lewd Consultation Room
Shoko is one of the main characters in Lewd Consultation Room, alongside her nurse Ai Koyanagi. In the game, Hajime Tanaka goes to Shoko's office, complaining of stress. Shoko tells Ai to give him "the usual," which turns out to be various sexual treatments, which Shoko later joins in. At several points throughout the game, the player chooses whether to have sex with Ai or Shoko. The game ends with Tanaka's departure, Shoko having declared him healed. Ai complements her prowess, and they call the next patient in.

in OMEGA
Shoko appears in a brief supporting role in OMEGA. She appears when Masaaki Ohara goes to the nurse's office to seek treatment, which Shoko gives by way of a handjob and blowjob. As she is about to finish him off, she calls in Ayane Tendo and Kayo Shinozaki, who were watching outside, to observe as she "treats" him.

in Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment
Shoko appears as the main character in Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment alongside a young male student whose identity is initially not revealed. The game starts with Shoko diagnosing the patient with a nosebleed, mentioning Miyuki Kageyama. She then proceeds to heal him in various ways, all of them involving sex. When he climaxes, she briefly passes out, assuming him to be satisfied. However, a sigil appears on his chest, and his penis splits vertically into two, with which he rapes Shoko for several minutes until he climaxes once more. Shoko is tossed back onto the bed and passes out, while the male student, now revealed to be Shinnosuke Nakata, crumbles into dust. Outside of the room, Mimi Minami observes, and then leaves, her job done.

Reception
Shoko is one of the most popular characters within the UMEMARO fanbase, and is consistently cited as a fan favorite, claiming the top spot for many people. Her popularity led to Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment, following the immense collective disappointment that followed her scene in OMEGA. Disappointment turned to outrage when she was not included in OMEGA 2, despite Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment's sole storyline purpose being to sideline her so that she could not appear in that game. Fans continued to call for her return despite having two full game releases dedicated to her; this aggressive fan demand for her may have contributed to Shoko's resurgence since 2014, with three out of six releases since Work in Progress featuring Shoko in a central or supporting role, expanding on her background in a way that UMEMARO has not done for any other character.

Development
Shoko's teenage design, as it appears in The Chiropractor, was originally different: her hair was dark brown and tied at the back of her head, and her eyes appeared to be slanted more in the middle rather than downward. This design was posted when development began on August 29, 2014; however, UMEMARO backpedaled on the design in the very next update, and implored readers to "forget" about the original design posted, explaining that the final design was closer to what UMEMARO intended from the beginning.

The model used in Sexy Trainer Shoko Sugimoto was revised numerous times in response to fan feedback, with most of the criticism focusing on how the original model, revealed on May 4, 2017, only somewhat resembled Shoko. A revised model posted on May 13 more accurately resembled a younger Shoko, and the model was finalized by May 17.

Trivia

 * Shoko holds numerous records related to the number of releases she has appeared in:
 * She has appeared in six releases, more than any other female character.
 * As a direct result, Shoko has been the star of more releases (four) than any other character.
 * Shoko has been seen in more in-game outfits than any other character.
 * Shoko is the star of two of UMEMARO 3D's highest selling releases (#1 Lewd Consultation Room and #3 Dr. Sugimoto's Lecherous Treatment).
 * Shoko is tied with Hana Ono for most male partners, and if Ai Koyanagi is counted, she has had more partners than any other female character, and is tied with Masaaki Ohara and Takashi Togo overall.
 * Promotional artwork for OMEGA identifies Shoko as 杉本翔予, which does not translate to a valid spelling of her name. The last character would instead result in "Shoyo" or "Shosha."
 * Shoko shares her voice actress with Kayo Shinozaki and Shiori Tamiya.
 * Shoko is based on the actress Jintana Arromyen, as seen in the film Tom Yum Goong, playing a woman briefly seen in a massage parlor.