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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

Ojou-sama to Himitsu no Otome

Well, you'll be disappointed to know that I am disappointed with this VN, even though I didn't have high hopes for it. First, I should explain the theory/template for a good trap protagonist VN. 1. Protagonist is voiced (voicing the protagonist in these VNs with a sex-neutral-sounding VA generally gives you what you want) 2. Protagonist is something of a submissive personality, when it comes to minor issues, but when it comes to anything major is proactive. 3. Protagonist at some point s
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VNs

Ojou-sama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/Rihochan/Ojomasu.png Now, this was a game I didn't really have high hopes for, but I am glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised.  While this falls short of kamige level (primarily due to the disproportionately short epilogues), it is definitely an interesting take on the trap protagonist ojousama-ge.  Generally speaking, trap protagonists and ojousama-ge go together like hot fruit pie and ice cream.  While the formula (begun with the original
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Clephas in VNs

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Office de Sasou Ecchi na Kanojo

First, I should probably say that this isn't a nukige.  It looks like one, it has all the outward qualities of one, but it isn't one, strictly speaking.  The ratio of story and character development to H-content is too high, for one thing.  This game focuses on a young salaryman named Touma, who has just completed his training period, and he is given his first trial with one of the departments of his company.  He is assigned to a more experienced senpai, a capable young woman named Mai, at
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October Releases: Tsukikage no Simulacre

Tsukikage no Simulacre is a mini-VN by Akatsuki Works' sibling brand, Applique, which specializes in solid story-focused VNs ranging from nakige like Toko o Tsumugu Yakusoku to hard sci-fi stories like Re:Birth Colony.  Applique is also responsible for the creation of Tasogare no Sinsemilla, which is a classic VN that I still remember well to this day. This VN, like Hinonai (reference the previous post), seems to have been created as a combination prelude/advertisement for a future, more ex
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October Releases: Hi no Nai Tokoro ni Kemuri wa Tatanai

This is a mini-VN planned by and written by Hino Wataru of Akatsuki Works, the company responsible for Ruitomo; Comyu; and Hello, Lady.  It was released for free at the beginning of the month, and it is done in a style that feels a lot like one of those close-ended hour-long 'preview' OVAs that sometimes come out a few years in advance of a potential TV anime release (Noblesse, Beelzebub, Phantom, etc).  In other words, it is done in the form of a single 'episode' in the life of the characters,
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October 2016: Which VNs I plan to play and what I'm doing now

October is turning out to be a frustrating month, with the VN I was most interested in delayed until December (for some reason, December seems to be getting all the most interesting ones...).  I honestly had hopes that October would break the 'dry spell' I've been experiencing since I completed July's releases.  There is still a possibility of that happening, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Right now, I'm busy with work, trying to open up a nice quiet period so that I can get all of Octobe
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Nukige: Grimo Love and some comments on the beginning of Jeanne

Grimo Love is a nukige.  Now, you'll notice that I generally don't bother to rate or comment on nukige... because most of the time I drop them inside of ten minutes.  However, Grimo Love has this sort of dread fascination to it that kept me playing right until the end (incidentally, it wasn't the story or the characters that kept me going).  I'm going to be blunt.  This VN doesn't really have a story.  Oh, there is one in there that probably would have made for a ridiculously good charage w
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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
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November releases, what I'm playing/looking forward to

Playing: Koisuru Kimochi no Kasanekata by Ensemble.  This VN is by the same company that did Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas (kamige) and Ojousama ha Gokigen Naname.  The company specializes in ojousama-ge (games with mostly wealthy heroines) and generally the protagonists in their VNs are either wealthy themselves or have some special talent that makes it logical for them to be around the wealthy.  There last few games have been mediocre, unfortunately...  Golden Marriage wasn't bad per se... bu
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November 2018 Releases

While I won't be playing everything anymore, I thought I'd list here the non-nukige up for release and my impressions based on the Getchu and official pages. Definitely will play Fuukan no Grasesta: https://vndb.org/v23199 This is the latest Eushully game... and it also shares a writer with the last few entries, which were a somewhat mediocre set of games.  As such, my hopes aren't high... but I can't resist playing it.  I mean, the protagonist is a sociopathic mercenary in a city
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Not much hope for 2015's VN of the Year?

To be honest, the harvest for this year so far has been kind of... less than impressive, to say the least. The best VN I've played this year so far was Silverio Vendetta, and even I think it would have been much better if it had only contained Vendetta's path. I'll come straight out with it and say there aren't any solid candidates so far, even though the year is almost half-over. Last year, by this time, there were four solid candidates - though the later part of the year blew most of them o
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Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart

なんだこりゃ？！  Seriously, that was what I thought as I read this VN.  'What the heck is this?!'  Mmm... at times, it felt like I was reading an adult version of a children's picture book (if such things exist), at others I felt like I was reading a VN version of the various -gatari anime series, and at yet others, I almost thought this was just another charage.  This VN is by Harukaze, a subsidiary of Minato Soft (makers of Majikoi) that has produced one other game before, Love of Ren'ai Koutei
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Ninki Seiyuu no Tsukurikata

First, I should say that, left to my own devices, I would never have played this VN.  You ask me why?  It's because I avoid show-business themed VNs and anime like the plague.  If a rl friend hadn't begged me to try it, I would never have picked this VN up.  I should say that one thing I didn't like about this game is that it has a similar protagonist to the one from Aokana... a former talent in his field who gave up and ends up helping others 'rise to the occasion'.  To be honest, I loathe
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Neyuki no Genei and VN of the Month announcement

From the beginning I'm going to be blunt and say this VN is going to be a bit of a hard sell for most readers. There are several reasons for this. 1. Rapid genre shifts (this thing jumps through hoops for at least four genres and shifts rapidly from serious, to sad, to scary... so rapidly most people will probably lose track of what's going on) 2. There is a surprisingly large amount of rape and H in general for a VN that is only about five to six hours long for me (and about twelve to fourt
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Newton to Ringo no Ki

... Laplacian isn't a company I had any hopes for, after how much of a kusoge their first game, Kimi to Yumemishi was.  However, Newton to Ringo no Ki is a pleasant surprise, with a lot of nostalgia for people, like me, who were born in the mid to early eighties. Why?  Because this is, in some ways, a tribute to the Back to the Future movies I watched as a kid.  While the time travel style is switched from a car to a telescope and there are a few minor differences (no vanishing protagonists
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Nemurenu Hitsuji to Kodoku na Ookami -A Tale of Love, and Cutthroat-

First, a short intro... this is the second Clock Up game where Kurashiki Tatsuya (one of Light's second team of writers) has been involved, and those who played the previous one, Maggot Baits, will recognize the atmosphere and 'flavor' of the story instantly.  This is a game devoid of salvation in any real sense.  The protagonist and the other characters are universally the scum of the Earth (Mirei being the only exception, though she is a bit screwy too), and their lifestyles and pasts range fr
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Nekotsuku, Sakura

*pukes a river of sugar* *wipes his mouth clean* Ok, I'm better.  This game is very much what you would expect if you came in knowing nothing of Lump of Sugar's past works and only knew the name of the company itself.  It is sugary sweet, adorable, and generally interminable to someone who likes a nice balance between the cuteness and ichaicha and other aspects of a VN. That's not to say it doesn't have good points... the common route is pretty funny, if you are a cat lover, and I
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Nekonin exHeart

To be blunt, I'd expected at least a little more from a company that has made something of a name for itself balancing moe, ecchi content, and good story-writing.  This company occasionally slips up completely (Girls in Black was one example), and I'm afraid this is one of that type.  Nekonin follows an 'average guy' protag for roughly four hours (reading time) after he meets two kunoichi catgirls who say they've come to serve him.  The results are pretty wacky, and I actually had hopes for
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Nekogami-sama to, Nanatsuboshi -Imouto no Ane-

As always, I played the one with the catgirls.  lol This VN is a kinetic novel from the makers of Karenai Sekai, Sweet & Tea.  At this point (the third game) the pattern the makers of these games are following has become apparent, though this game is not really on the same level as Karenai Sekai or Kemono Musume.  The protagonist is generally amusing (he is the type that constantly sends conversations off track by saying random crap and then forgetting it ten seconds later), and his sur
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Neko-nin exHeart 2

This VN is the second game in Whirlpool's short, low-price mimikko fetish game series... and I have to say my impression of it hasn't changed from the first one.  This is a direct continuation of events from the end of the first game, and basically it increases the number of mimikko-ninja in Haruki's harem... and nothing else. Oh, it is moderately funny, the h-scenes titillate my mimikko fetish, and you get hints of a deeper setting once again... but its short length means that the game nev
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Natsuiro Kokoro Log

To be honest, despite how much some people recommended this VN to me (or hyped it without playing it *smiles dryly*) this VN didn't seem even the least bit exciting to me. This didn't change significantly even after I started playing it, and it never really felt like it got off the ground.  First of all, they plopped down a bunch of wastefully (and I do mean that as it sounds) colorful characters into a setting that felt kind of forcibly glued together.  Second, the story itself is brutally
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Natsuiro Koi Uta

Studio Ryokucha.  This company is fairly unique, utilizing an art style that differs dramatically from the standard for moege/charage but still falls into the same realm nonetheless.  In addition, this company has produced a disproportionate number of excellent games, despite the fact that they are all essentially charage (though the degree to which they fit the genre differs from game to game).  Natsuiro Koi Uta is their latest work, a ‘pure’ charage set in modern Tokyo.  It starts out
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Natsu no Majo no Parade

Natsu no Majo no Parade is a classic-style 'dotabata love-comedy', meaning that it is partially about romance and partially about what amounts to a situational comedy.  The VN was made by a newborn company called Wonder Fool.  It is based in a world where (mostly female) magic-users called Witches go around helping people (the setting is never really properly explained, probably because the writers were lazy when it came to world-building). The protagonist, Yukito, is a normal guy whose mot
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My weaboo experience: the latter days

I am a weaboo and it is good, lol. More seriously, I started out becoming a Japan fanatic through swords, rather than through anime or games, like many others.  As an adolescent, I shared the same obsession for sharp things that any number of young men in the past have had, and that eventually led me to the katana, then to the samurai, then to Japan (in that order).  I met anime and jrpgs about the same time, which only made the hunger more intense.  Like all newbie weaboos, I pra
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My VN slump

Due to work in recent weeks, I wasn't able to play any VNs for about a week straight... and when I tried to pick up Ouka Sabaki to finish Feb's releases, I found I had no urge whatsoever to play a VN... any VN.  Understand, I've been playing VNs constantly since 2009.  I literally have not gone more than a day without playing at least a little bit of a VN (even if it was only a half hour or so) since then.  So, to my shock, I've found I don't have the energy to pick one up for the first tim
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