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First, as a fantasy anime/VN fan, one thing you'll inevitably run into are these two words... 'yuusha' (勇者) and 'eiyuu'　(英雄). The problem with these two words is that they inevitably end up translated as the same thing... 'hero'. However, the nuance of each word is dramatically different, at least for those of us who actually care about nuance. Now, 'yuusha' is a word you hear mostly in certain types of fantasy VN or anime... these include 'sent to another world' and 'classic swords and sorcery fantasy', but can include things similar to Power Rangers and games like Venus Blood. The usage of yuusha generally refers to a 'chosen' individual who is stuck with the duty/obligation to confront a force that is beyond the capacity of normal people. Demon Lords, kaijin, insane gods... you name it, it probably has a swirly target sign that only a yuusha-type hero can see on it. There are 'evil' yuusha (mostly in dark VNs), but for the most part, they are pictured as being on the side of 'good' pictured as a near-absolute concept. 'Eiyuu' is a bit different. The concept of 'yuusha' can't really be applied to a real person, because the real world is almost never unambiguous enough to allow for the term to be usable, but the concept of an 'eiyuu' can be applied to real people. War heroes, great military leaders, rulers that lead their people to victory against an impossible foe, men who turn the tide of a war, etc. fall under this term's aegis. As an example, Valzeride from Silverio Vendetta falls under the aegis of this word, as does the insane loli in Youjo Senki. It is much easier for an eiyuu to be evil, because all an eiyuu needs to be is glorious to a group of people. They don't need to be moral or upright... or even seem so. Really, this is just a commentary on how confusing Japanese words that translate the same can be... and it might give you all a hint as to why some of us say that 'Japanese translation is an oxymoron.'

Or: These game characters should learn to stop worrying and love the dong Disclaimer: The following opinion is genuine. But I like to express myself in creative ways after so many mostly serious posts, so shit ensues. A review will be up next week, please keep supporting this blog. After so many dicks, I looked back to my complete VNs folder and tried to do one of the most dumb things a fan can do: compare not completely alike games. Bl games comes in all kinds of packages, with different plot genres and structures, but as long as they are under the same umbrella definition of BL, I noticed they all share the same types of mistakes. Misses that I found in BL anime and manga too. Of course, when I say all I don't mean AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL of them, but I'm trying to raise awareness of the problems that I usually spot in the majority of the popular releases. I already saw every one of those pitfalls being avoided in mangas, so there's hope in this world. Since Fuwa surely love some top X, I'll organize it in some top 5 countdown fashion. Do notice that I'll not tackle what I see in doujinshis here, because seriously, who wants to fix the fantasy world of short doujins? Hell, if everything they did there had 100% realism, instead of 17/20 pages of porn we would get 17/20 pages of (trying to) pay bills. But enough sadness, let's get this over with! 5) Girls Okay okay, maybe lots of people don't want tits in their BL works, but unless we're on a prison/gang/old army/all-boys school/world where mpreg is a thing (90% of the games are out already...), we need some of them! Of the works I read, if I happen to see some girl, one of the following happens: She's some character's mom. Then she dies/is murdered and the guy angsts; She's some character's sister. Then she dies/is murdered and the guy goes into a roaring rampage of revenge (in both cases, she dies within the first five minutes of the novel); She's the main villain. She eventually dies; Plot twist, she's actually male! Because of this maaaaybe she can survive. She totally confused me for a second... I would love to see some day a BL story where the MC have some female best friend and they talk about boys together aaah~ 4) Porn that doesn't sound like your average BxG h-scene Seriously, if some games didn't keep reminding me that both participants have dicks, I would think that I was reading some R18 otomege. Even some CGs seems like the guy on top is totally hitting the wrong place, artists, please get basic anatomy right thank you. I wouldn't copy a whole scene of this type here because effort, but it's as full of "yameteeeee, yaaaaaaa, Ryou-kun (random name) dameeee" as you're expecting. And what's the deal of only the guy on the receiving end feeling it? Draw some expressions on the other guy too! It almost looks like that while the uke is having the time of his life, the seme suddenly realized that he'll probably die before Kentaro Miura finishes Berserk. Probably he and all of us, actually. Not BL, but I'll never forget Akihito pulling a Sad Affleck in the middle of the porn years before Sad Aflleck was a thing! (Image edited by ESRB) 3) Characters that actually identify themselves as gay/bisexual Okay, we get that social stigma exists and all that... But BL VNs are usually more "edgy" than Yuri ones... Sometimes society collapsed already, what are you waiting for, you dummy??? "Oh, I'm totally not gay, it's just because it's you!" Yeah sure, Jun-kun (random name) only liked Kou-kun (random name), not a single woman (they exists? See point 5 above) or guy before. Or after. You're really not gay, Jun-kun, you're Kousexual apparently. The scenario is even worse for bisexual characters. Remember any? Exactly. Just kidding, I remember him! In fact... Everyone is bi in this pic. This is one bitastic game! 2) Condoms Eeeer, just because none of you guys can become pregnant (if mpreg isn't a thing in their world, that is) doesn't mean it's all okay... But maybe if they DID try to use one, the following could happen, so guess in the end it's all the same... FINISH HIM! (ESRB attacked again, thank you for your understanding) 1) Lube Dude, seriously, ouch. Just... ouch.

Gensou no Idea is the third VN from 3rdEye, a company specializing in chuunige. When I originally played this game, I was a bit more perverse, personality-wise, and as a result, I treated this VN badly, as one of my pet-peeves is dual-perspective VNs. I generally prefer for there to be only one protagonist, and my reaction to this game was colored badly by that. First, I'll introduce the protagonists. The first protagonist is Minase Yuuma, an optimistic young man who is nonetheless grounded firmly in reality. There isn't a scrap of malice in this kid, but he is not an innocent or unaware of the nature of the world he lives in... he simply has a very firm philosophy on life, as the result of being raised by a rather... strong personality. Yuuma is a 'cleaner', specializing in the removal of corpses and the cleaning of homes that have been contaminated by them. He takes pride in his work, and he is one of the few optimist protagonists I actually like. The second protagonist is Akashi, an Idea (the term that refers to beings from Utopia that roughly conform to human legends) who possesses control over fire. His emotions are weak in most areas, partly because he isn't human, partly because he is missing a big chunk of memories. However, he possesses a driving urge to recover his memories and destroy the 'Phantom' who brought ruin to his life. He has a strong interest in humans and believes firmly that he is good at mimicking them, but he is... not very good at it, lol. Now for the heroines... strictly speaking, there are no separate heroine paths in this game. This game is, like Sorcery Jokers, essentially a kinetic novel where you choose which protagonist perspective you see first sometimes. There are epilogues for each heroine, but they are pretty short and to the point. The first Yuuma heroine is Naru. Naru is a fortune-teller with a bad case of chuunibyou and an inherent optimism that matches Yuuma's own. She is very prideful and has a tendency to lose her cool rather easily. The second Yuuma heroine is Rinon. Rinon is an idol and an Idea that Yuuma follows obsessively. She is arrogant, possessive, and violent. However, once she falls for him she is... passionate and loyal. I really, really liked her epilogue, and I almost fell out of my chair laughing at its end. The third Yuuma heroine is Kokoro. Kokoro is your classic 'emotionless heroine', showing little reaction to most stimuli. The first Akashi heroine is Noel. Noel is a possessive, jealous Idea woman whose first priority is Akashi's love, second is Akashi's safety, third is Akashi's happiness, and fourth is Akashi's penis.... do I need to go on? One of her ongoing hobbies is drugging Akashi and having him tortured to find out the identities of women he is cheating on her with (she defines 'cheating' as talking to or being talked to by another woman... or looking at them, touching them, or breathing the same air as them). The second Akashi heroine is Mitsuki. Mitsuki... has issues. She is very much an introvert, and she has a tendency to keep her distance from others. She does get pretty cute when Akashi manages to make it past her guard, though. The setting This game is based around a century or two after Bloody Rondo (don't know if this is fully canon or not), seven years after a disaster that nearly destroyed humanity. In this new world, where a large portion of the planet's surface has been submerged and the human population has been greatly reduced, Archive Square, the corporation that has taken charge of the recovery, has become the central power in the world. This is the case across most of the world, but the city this story is based in is one where more than half of the population works for AS. There are two worlds in this game... one is 'Dystopia' (the name Idea give Earth) and the other 'Utopia' (the word the Idea use for their own world). Idea, beings of immense power from Utopia, have been going back and forth between the worlds for centuries, taking the form of humans on Earth and generally indulging their curiosity and whims as they desire. The story This story focuses on two perspectives... Yuuma as he deals with the changes in his situation, and Akashi as he seeks the past. This story has a lot of really good battle scenes, emotional moments, and some seriously interesting hedge philosophy (mostly out of Kyouko and Yuuma, though Akashi contributes sometimes). On my second playthrough, having gone in with a more open mind than my first, I found the story a great deal more interesting. I won't say it is perfectly paced or that the characters are the best I've ever run into in a chuunige (they aren't), but I honestly enjoyed the ride, from beginning to end. This isn't a VN that is likely to make it into my top fifty, but if you are looking for a good chuunige and have already read the more famous names, this is an excellent choice.