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About this blog

This is a blog primarily focusing on but not limited to VNs.  It is primarily designed to express my opinion on otaku media (jrpgs, anime, manga, LNs, VNs, etc), individual VNs, and otaku community issues.   Most of the posts are related to my VN of the Month and Random VN columns, originally started in threads in the forums. 

As of March of 2017, I'm also looking for people to help with VN of the Month.

Entries in this blog

November's releases so far

It has turned out to be a big month, hasn't it?  Three good quality games in a row... one of which I was sure was going to be a kusoge (guess which one).  This month had a surprising number of non-nukige releases that I was interested in, and I didn't really want to leave any of them to anyone else (I was actually interested in most of them).  Here is a list of what I've played and what I might play before picking VN of the Month. Played Aoi Tori Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha Yor
Clephas

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Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha

For obvious reasons, VN vets rarely get up their hopes for games by new VN companies.  Generally speaking, most of them are charage or nukige, and those that aren't usually flop on their faces.  So, it should come as no surprise that the people I chatted with about this game generally didn't have any hopes for it.  However, that is probably because they didn't take a look at the team of scenario writers.  The first one, Gihara, was the writer for Tenka Gomen, Shin Koihime Eiyuutan, Shin Koi
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Aoi Tori

Aoi Tori is Purple Soft's latest project, a VN based in a girls' school in the mountains, where the protagonist, a priest (I'm assuming Episcopalian/Anglican for various reasons), goes to school as an exception, as he cannot live outside of the school without being taken by demons. Ritsu, the protagonist, possesses the power to take others' negative emotions, thus enhancing their feelings of happiness and joy, and this power works best when he has sex with them.  Now, given that he is a you
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Experimental book post: The Black Jewels Trilogy

This is a test post, based on the results of the poll I posted a few weeks back.  The win was borderline, so if I don't get a reasonably large response, I won't continue to post about my conventional reading. The Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop is one of my favorite book series of all time.  It is a dark, sensual fantasy based in a unique universe, where a race of magic aristocrats called the Blood rule three worlds, Tereille, Kaeleer, and Hell.  The main characters of the story are a
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Random VN: Zero Infinity - Devil of Maxwell

I've been saving a replay of this VN for years.  My original opinion on this VN was excessively influenced by the fact that this VN is filled to the brim with Masada and Dies Irae worship.  However, it is also the VN that, separate from that, defined the second Light team's style.  The base character archetypes, roles, and numerous aspects of their settings were almost universally drawn from Dies Irae, if you strip away the specifics.  This is the biggest reason I had so much trouble properly ra
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VN of the Month, October 2017

First, I should mention that this was an awesome month.  There are multiple releases worthy of consideration for the winner and there are two releases that will be added to overall consideration for VN of the Year 2017. The actual twin candidates were: Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary and Imoten The runner-up was: Junjou Karen Freaks For various reasons, I avoided playing several VNs this month, including Boukyaku Shitsuji and Tsugihagi Make Peace.  The biggest one with the former is t
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Baldr Bringer (dropped)

Understand, I loved the Baldr series, before Heart... even Heart still retained a lot of what was great about the series, though it placed too much emphasis on the less interesting elements.  The Baldr series is literally Giga's only good IP, and as such, it is the only reason I even bother with this company. Unfortunately, it looks like Giga has set out to destroy its costly but greatest IP, ending it on a sour note. Baldr Bringer, from what I have played of it, has very little story
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Kanojo wa Tenshi de Imouto de

... *weeps like a small child* Seriously, I haven't run into an utsuge/nakige hybrid like this since Karenai Sekai last year.  Imoten (the nickname for this one) is the latest production by Alcot Honey Comb, the mid-priced subsidiary of Alcot responsible for Satsukoi, 1/2 Summer, and Hatsugamai.  For some reason, in most years, the larger majority of the high quality VNs for the year tend to be put out in the first or last three months of the year... at least, that's the way it has bee
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Junjou Karen Freaks

Junjou Karen Freaks is based in a future world where all the mysterious creatures of human mythology have turned out to be real, and, after some twists and turns, have begun to coexist peacefully with humanity as part of a larger society.  The protagonist, Mikitaka, is the child of two 'diplomats' who work at trying to bring together the many races, and he lives alone together with his cousin oneechan Shizumi.  Suddenly, one day their osananajimi Yuuka appears before them as a ghost, they meet t
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A Ramble: Various Random subjects

The Poll To be straight with you, this is a suggestion that has been brought up numerous times by the small number of people I recommend books (in English) to.  I am a bibliophile, with a focus on history, anthropology, fantasy, and science-fiction.  It has been suggested to me that I should add book reviews/commentaries to my blog in addition to my posts on VNs.  While this is in some ways a good idea... I'm unsure if it makes sense to post about non-otaku content in this blog. Fantas
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Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary

Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary is a VN made by Azarashi Soft, a company that I’ve ignored up until now due to its obsession with the Amakano series (a series which is aesthetically uninteresting to me). It is written by Kizuki (of Tasogare no Sinsemilla, Gurenka, and Hanono) and Onsen Daisuke (of Kon Kon and Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort). Kizuki was responsible for the writing of the common route and the central heroine route (Alice’s), as well as the character settings. Apparently, Onsen Daisuke w
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Hoshi Furu Yoru no Farnese and VN of the Month September 2017

Farnese This review was written by fun2novel and edited by me.  fun2novel's tastes run to complex settings and stories, with a strong preference for mysteries and a fondness for chuunige. Let me start of by saying that Farnese is a good game. It has all the elements that make a great Phoenix Wright style mystery game. Much of the story is inhabited by murders, corpses, clues, trials, murderers, witnesses, and other characters involved. The game is divided into several chapters wi
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VN of the Month September delayed and other announcements

September 2017 Releases I'm delaying VN of the Month September 2017 while fun2novel finishes up Farnese.  I honestly don't know when to expect him to be done, but I don't think it will be much more than halfway through the month of November. My schedule for October's releases. October is chock full of first-class releases in appearance... and I'm just going to mention the ones I'm most excited for. Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary (playing this right now... it is terrifyingly good
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Random VN: Gokudou no Hanayome

Gokudou no Hanayome was released by Galactica (a sister company of Baseson and one of the many subsidaries of Nexton) back in 2011.  I originally played it around the first time I started getting tired of charage... which was horrible timing, thinking about it in retrospect.  To be blunt, I hadn't yet developed my current style of evaluation, and I didn't have as much appreciation for the good points of charage at the time, so I basically judged it based upon what it wasn't... an action chuunige
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Mono no Aware wa Sai no Koro

The review below was done by fun2novel and edited by me.  One word about the title that might be interesting to you is that 'Mono no Aware' is a term for the 'awareness of impermanence', and it is one of the fundamental concepts underlying the traditional Japanese views on life and death and mortality.  In essence Mono no Aware wa Sai no Koro is a Japanese take on the film Jumanji staring the late Robin Williams (Clephas: I cried when he died for a week straight...). However, this is doesn
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My odd experiences with Anime icons

Anime, if you limit it to Japanese animation (the actual word in Japanese refers to all animated shows, but I'm limiting the definition to J-animation), has been around since 1917, but anime as we know it, in its earliest distinct form, was born in the 1960's.  My personal experience with anime (where I understood it to be anime, as opposed to my Voltron experience in the mid eighties as a kid) began in 1992, with Record of Lodoss War (the OVA series, not the TV series), drawing me in and making
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Sakura Hitohira Koi Moyou

For those who are interested, this VN is the latest production by Parasol, a company rather infamous for its incest charage (most of which are middling in quality).   This is one of the few companies where I've actually dropped most of the VNs they made simply because they were boring, rather than because of some inevitable mismatch between my tastes and some aspect of the game's setting, characters or story.  To put this in perspective, I rarely drop charage merely because they are boring.
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Yuganda Uso to Koi no Letter

First, I should note that, despite how it begins, this VN turned out to not be a nukige.  However, it is definitely not a 'pure love' story from beginning to end.  A literal translation of the Japanese name would be 'The warped lie and love letter' with 'letter' being interchangeable with the word for a stereotyped reputation. Second, I should warn anyone who plays this to either do Saeko's path last or read only her path.  It is just too hard to pick another heroine after picking Saeko.  I
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September Releases (UDATED!!!)

First... I already talked about Haze Man, though you can't really call it a review, lol.  Second... I'm stalling Mono no Aware for now.  After playing it for three hours, I've come to the conclusion that I hate the setting in this game.  It feels like one of those anime episodes in an otherwise awesome series that I drop simply because I don't like how they handled it.  This game has enormous potential to be interesting... if you obliterate player agency.  Unfortunately, I hate the way this game
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Omokage Railback

First, I should mention that this review is split into two parts.  One covers the free prequel VN released back in May and the second covers the main game, which was released last week.  My personal advice is that you play the prequel first.  Both games are written in a really odd fashion (multiple narrators with the prequel and third-person with no insight into the protagonist for the main game).  Prequel The prequel covers the events eight years before the main game, filling you in o
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Haze Man -The Local Hero-

Yes, I played this.  On the surface, this game looks like a straight-out thematic nukige... but in reality it is a comedy VN that just happens to have a lot of sexual humor and h-scenes, lol.  Basically, the protagonist Shotarou receives a fatal wound protecting a pretty girl, who proceeds to kiss him, fusing her body with his, covering him in an armor suit and granting him incredible physical abilities while also healing his wounds... and then immediately asks for sex once he is finished b
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Playing and Replaying old VNs

First, I should define what I consider to be 'old' VNs.  I essentially define 'old' VNs by the 'ten year rule'.  When ten years have passed, generally the cultural references, the artwork, and even the sound styles have changed enough to be almost completely distinct from the most modern VNs.  At present, that means VNs made before 2007. Now, next I need to make a statement... I am not an art bigot.  One of the most negative issues I've run across in dealing with newer VN readers is art big
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Anniversary 2017

Well, the fourth anniversary of my VN of the Month series of posts is coming in another week or so... and to be honest, I'm a bit amazed at how long I've kept this going.  Four years of playing most of the non-nukige VNs that came out each month, writing something on them, then picking one to be VN of the Month (or not, if none met my standards)... to be honest, my opinion hasn't changed much since the last time this time of year came around.  VN of the Month is one of the single most grueling t
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Shuffle! Essence +

Shuffle Essence! + is the definitive version of Shuffle, which was originally released in 2004.  Shuffle was also the first game where Agobarrier, the now-deceased writer of the Tiny Dungeon series, made a claim to fame.  First, I should note that I originally played Shuffle in English and was not in any way satisfied with the results.  My primary reasons were the low quality of the localization (though it was better than what MG had done up to that point) and certain differences with the a
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Random VN: Bishoujo Mangekyou - Tsumi to Batsu no Shoujo

For those wondering why I haven't posted recently (two weeks without a blog post is about the longest I've ever gone since the Fuwa blogs opened, save for the Fuwapocalypse periods), I've simply been too busy with work and playing Mask of Truth to bother.  This review was written up by Dergonu before then, and I only just got around to editing it.  Bishoujo Mangekyou -Tsumi to Batsu no Shoujo- was my first Mangekyou game, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect of it. The limit of my know
Clephas

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