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According to a program I made, I've played 20 hours of Ginharu as of the end of this post, so I decided to see how far in I am. I timed how long it takes to ctrl from the start to where I am, and then how long it takes to ctrl from where I am to where the OP movie plays, and it seems I only need to play about 15 more hours until the prologue (dunno if you can really call it that in this case, but whatever) ends. Hurray for terrible terrible reading speed! Quite a bit happened since we last left off, Hina spent all day hanging out at our place with Yuzuki The two of them then went up to her room, and when Yukito came to bring them tea Once that misunderstanding is out of the way, Yukito retreats to his room to read some shounen manga in peace and quiet, when The next day after class, Hina invited Yuzuki over to her place (Yukito was invited too, but he dodged it by saying boys of his age shouldn't be going to girls' houses), and his parents were at work so he went to a restaurant, and unexpectedly met Mizu-nee Over the next few days we meet Momo-chan-sensei, a new student teacher who happens to have been a student of Yukito's mother, and after the two of them got drunk at his mom's restaurant with Yukito still present, and Momo-chan-sensei having forced him to sleep in the same futon with her, he promises not to tell anyone in return for her letting him decided what extracurricular activity she is going to hold. He decides to have her hold a "One-room classroom", essentially a class where students from different grades could all be equal regardless of being a senpai/kouhai, an idea he got from one of his first conversations with Hina. Once the extracurricular activity is decided, Yukito makes a pamphlet to advertise it, and Yuzuki suggests he draw a snowman. The next day he shows the pamphlet to his classmates This however leads to a conversation where we find out that Bethly is really good at drawing, and she proceeds to draw a much better snowman, and it's all thanks to her mother who is a somewhat famous artist Over the course of the day Yukito invites all of the girls to this One-room classroom, and they mostly say they'll think about it This all happens right before golden week, so we then cut to each of the girls in turn thinking about going... aside from Bethly, who pretty much just thinks about her mom, but can you blame her? Once golden week is over, Bethly doesn't come to school for a few days, turns out she's sick. Naturally, Yukito and Yuzuki go to visit her and bring her the handouts, but she's asleep when they get there, so they talk to her father, Brian, instead. He only speaks English, but because the devs were lazy all the English conversations are in Japanese and it's simply implied that they're speaking English. After a short conversation, Yukito invites Brian to his mom's cafe, saying they have great pancakes He accepts, and they have a nice long conversation at the cafe thanks to Yukito's mom Maria being able to speak English rather well, due to the fact that she traveled a lot back when she performed. We learn that Brian is a pilot, and that they moved to Japan because after Bethly's mom died of sickness around the same time last year, he wasn't making enough money, so the moved to somewhere where airline pilots are paid more. He really enjoys the pancakes, Maria insists he take some back home to Bethly, and Yukito decides he wants to try drawing a snowman again... That's all for now~

Kanojo Step is the latest VN from Smee, a company famous (or infamous) for making old style first-generation charage (right down to being able to name the protagonist and having him be a non-person, as well as there either being no drama or only weak/easily resolved drama in the story). As such, I wasn't anticipating a blowout hit, and I didn't get it, of course. However, it did surprise me a bit in one aspect... ... and that was its comedy. Ok, most of it is cheesy and 'familiar', but the timing of the comedy (usually emanating from the protagonist, as he is a 'class clown' style protagonist) is pretty much perfect and frequent enough that I spent about sixty-percent of this VN laughing. Unfortunately, the slice-of-life in this VN and the romance (which make up everything that isn't comedy) are... unimpressive. They chose to go with heroines that were surprisingly dependent and deredere after they and the protagonist get together, and that wasn't a bad choice. However, the simple fact is that there is a huge gap in the quality of narration and dialogue between parts meant to be funny and parts that are meant to be semi-serious. This is the first VN I've encountered in a while where I felt like going to sleep whenever I wasn't laughing... and that isn't even an exaggeration. Part of this can be attributed to the fact that the common route pretty much gluts you on everyday slice-of-life, and by the time you hit the heroine routes, it feels like being handed an apple pie after having gorged yourself on six others only an hour before. Another part is that the way the everyday life parts are sectioned out is almost always the same, leaving you with a somewhat exaggerated sense of monotony. This, combined with the frequent meaningless choices and map movement systems (the classic type seen in a lot of older slice-of-life VNs that went out of style because they drove most people up the wall) made this a VN that reflected older styles... in a bad way. For all the salt I just spat, this VN is actually fairly enjoyable most of the time... it's just that when it starts to feel monotonous, it really feels monotonous... Given a more story-driven plot combined with this same comedy and the complete elimination of the map movement aspects, it would have probably inched its way up into the top five percent of the charage I've played over the years. Unfortunately, those aspects made for a VN that was far less than it could have been, at least from my perspective. Edit: Understand, the people who like the 'warm and fuzzy, devoid of any stains of negative emotion' charage will lap this up. If I were to design a VN engineered solely to prick at 'mainstream' Japanese VN otakus' desire for 'an ideal everyday youth' this would be what I would aim for. However, as a story, it is fatally boring, unoriginal, and lacking in any entertainment value outside of the comedy, which happens to be hilarious.

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, serving as a prologue, and introducing characters and setting the stage for a future release or releases. Something that should be noted in advance is that this VN mentions the characters from Ruitomo (without using their names) in the context of their relationship to the protagonist's 'grandmother' (Izuru). This is backed up by the fact that the protagonist, Akeno Yuuri, follows the same 'profession' that Izuru does... as a 'katariya' (the meaning doesn't really translate that well). Basically, those who master this profession have the ability to create intentional changes in others through words they speak (in most cases, these changes are dependent on the others' expectations or desires, from what Yuuri says). I won't go into any other details on this, because it is a spoiler. The protagonist gets mixed up with the Kouga family, which runs the area through his client. Another aspect that should be noted in advance is that this VN reuses a lot of resources from previous games by Akatsuki Works... in particular the city backgrounds from Hello, Lady and various songs and sound effects from other games. For those that are bothered by this kind of thing... give up. The game is free, so AW recycling backgrounds, BGMs, and sound effects really isn't a big deal. For those looking for a translation... don't bother. This VN utilizes so many subtle plays on kanji in its mere four hours in length that it even makes Ruitomo's text seem easy. If I were to try tling it without ruining it, I'd be pulling out my last few hairs inside a minute. This VN is standard Hino Wataru in style... which means a lot of quirky characters, a protagonist who has a bad case of ennui and a tendency toward hedge philosophy, and a general sense that whatever is happening at the moment is the most important thing in the world while saying the opposite openly in the text, lol. I enjoy Hino Wataru, but for every person who likes him, there are two that hate him, so this VN will definitely pick its readers. Action-wise, there are some nice scenes, which mostly seem to be designed to whet your appetite for more (again, I got this sense throughout the VN that they were advertising as much as trying to make a game). The narrative is, of course, high quality... Hino Wataru was quite obviously enjoying himself when he wrote this (believe me, I can tell when a writer is just writing what he wants to write, versus what he has been paid oodles to write, haha), since Yuuri is the type of guy who will drive a lot of people crazy. He's a natural con artist with a heart of gold, a persona that changes from moment to moment, and a virulent hatred of soba noodles. He also spends a ridiculous amount of time being insulted by the girls who will probably end up being the heroines of whatever future game or games he stars in, lol. While this isn't a VN of the Month candidate (as it is obviously intended to be a prelude or prologue to something else) it is nonetheless an enjoyable side-trip for me as I continue on my journey to avoid playing Sen no Hatou as long as possible *snickers*