I’m a male member who joined recently. It seems that the female members at Universe are ranked almost entirely based on their looks. A one-class difference is probably pretty common, but sometimes I see women in the Gold class who I think could easily be in the Black class, and others in the Black class who, to put it kindly, aren’t exactly the kind of beautiful women you’d turn around to look at twice. I’ve also seen women in the Standard class who seem hardly any different from those in the Platinum class.

Everyone has different preferences, after all. There’s nothing wrong with being Lucky Gold, is there? If you don’t think someone is worth Black or Platinum, you can simply choose not to make an offer. Since there are no objective criteria for evaluating people, I think you should just decide for yourself that you’re Lucky Gold and enjoy the feeling. I’m a Gold member, so I’m always searching desperately for Black members among the Golds, but I can hardly find any. I’m jealous of you, honestly.

I pretty much agree with the person who asked the question. As a general trend, a woman’s class tends to match her looks, but at least 30% of the time, I come across someone who makes me think, “Huh?” That said, for me, finding someone whose assigned class doesn’t match is nothing but a plus. There are occasionally Black-class women listed as Gold, so I make an offer immediately. And if a Gold-class woman is listed as Black, I simply pass her by. I have nothing to lose. I found a lucky Gold-class woman last month too. When I asked about her previous job, I thought, “That explains it.” I’ve already locked her in, so none of you can make a move on her! Also, the second-longest-running girl in my lineup is Gold. Maybe it’s because she’s Gold, but while the other papas were making offers of around 5, I offered 12 and won her at the final price. She left the club almost immediately. I’m happy with the allowance of 12, which I feel is appropriate for her. The length of our arrangement is also the second-longest, right after my top girl.

You’ve written out your own thoughts and simply made it look like a question at the end, so I’m not really sure what the purpose of the question is. I think many people were captivated by Don Quijote’s treasure-hunt-like appeal, where you repeatedly come across unexpected prices and new products. Universe Club is the same way. “Wait, there’s such an amazing woman in a place like this?” I’m sure finding someone like that must have been a pleasant surprise. It’s precisely because Universe has features that other dating clubs don’t have that it has grown this much and continues to gain momentum. Also, if a Black-class woman was listed in Gold, wouldn’t the questioner have been happy to get a better deal on the setting fee? If you really wanted to pay a higher setting fee, you could always say something like: “I feel bad paying only the Gold-class setting fee for this woman, so I’ll pay an additional ¥70,000.” Although, if you’re going to pay that extra ¥70,000 anyway, I’d rather you give it to the woman as additional allowance. If you agreed on an allowance of ¥50,000, please pay her ¥120,000. > A question for the staff: When you look at the class assignments of women you didn’t personally interview, do you often find yourself thinking, “This woman should be Gold,” only to see that she’s been placed in Black—or the other way around? That happens all the time. More importantly, it’s sad to see so many women rejected even though they might not have been if I had conducted the interview myself. Men saying that the quality of women has declined is nothing more than empty talk, yet I think it’s a problem when staff take it seriously and reject wonderful women.

“Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.” —A saying by Laozi. I’ve been a member for three years now, and after all I’ve experienced, I see the club’s class system as nothing more than a strategy Universe Club came up with to increase its revenue. There are women I click with in every class, and women I don’t. So, in the end, the class doesn’t really matter much.

Universe sets its standards independently, just as the other clubs set theirs. Since Universe has more interview staff and more new female members joining, I imagine there’s naturally going to be a somewhat wider range. But what does that have to do with anything? Whatever class they’re in, you can simply make an offer to the women you personally like, can’t you? Marika

Do you know what line breaks are? From what I’ve seen of women registered with multiple clubs, they seem to be placed in roughly the same class wherever they register. Other male members and club staff say the same thing when I talk to them, so I’ve always considered it a fairly well-known quirk of dating clubs. Also, club classifications are often explained as being based simply on looks, but I think that’s inaccurate. It’s probably more accurate to think of them as being based on how much of a setting fee the club can charge.