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My newest Visual Novel Monthly Recap show is up for any releases or news for May 2021. Some notable highlights include a Loopers demo fantranslation, official TL announcement, among other things. See more in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCAPqJhld30

actually, technically, a good while longer, since i vaguely recall sitting through an episode of ROBOTECH as a very young boy around what must have been sometime in 1986 or so. a nephew gave me his old 1985 REVELL ROBOTECH CHANGERS VEXAR transformable model (U.S. market reboxing of 1983 IMAI MACROSS VF-1S Focker 1/72 VARIABLE TYPE) around 1988/1989 or so, and then i got a taste of Mecha Anime tropes at a more readily-impressionable age around 1991, thanks to the Mecha action-platfomer game "ASSAULT SUIT LEYNOS" (TARGET EARTH in the U.S.) on the SEGA GENESIS games console. my Anime fandom truly began to consciously coalesce around 1995, when my dad bought me an old IMAI MACROSS 1/100 VF-1J Ichijo GERWALK mode model kit, and PLAYMATES toy company reissued the old original MATCHBOX-made ROBOTECH Mecha toys under their "EXO-SQUAD" line. around that time, i discovered SUNCOAST VIDEO at the mall, and their Anime selection. first i concentrated on ROBOTECH, -via the dual-episode FHE VHS cassette volumes- found VIZ MEDIA's ANIMERICA Anime magazine, and began picking up issues often as i could, and then i discovered MANGA VIDEO's MACROSS II and MACROSS PLUS movie compilation releases, Pure, uncut MACROSS, for the first time. from there, i began to branch out from Mecha-themed anime, with series such as Galaxy Fraulein Yuna and Tenchi Muyo! and then the early-21st-century and the DVD Anime boom hit, and i was well and truly off to the Anime Races. i'm about as hardcore today as i've ever been, and, thanks to the internet, i now have the kind of Mecha and Character-themed merchandise that i would have killed for as a young teen, two-plus decades ago...

I think the anime is close to perfection. Some of the other heroine stuff is probably a bit pointless, but the rest is pure gold

@Eclipsed In a rare turn of events, I'd actually argue the anime adaptation of Clannad is better, with the Visual Novel as an appendix if you want to spend more time in the world. In either case, don't shy away from just doing the heroines you feel like (and then maybe watching the anime, because it does differ).

Ok. So, I started reading VNs in 2014. That's like what, 7 years? And my VNDB lists 76 finished, which makes 10-12 per year average. You could say I'm a seasoned veteran now (not really, still a flippin' casual tbh). My first five VNs were If My Heart Had Wings, Little Busters!, Rewrite, Steins;Gate, Grisaia no Kajitsu. Y'know, all the common classic starter packs, so I rated all of them 9+/10 And what am I reading now? CLANNAD. This monster has so many 9+/10 ratings I have to wonder if it was all because it was one of the starter packs that everyone starts their VN career reading and then they get nuked by the late game Key Magickz and hail it as one of the greatest of all time I'll have the luxury of going into this with seasoned veteran status, so I am totally going to be critical and see what all the hype was about. ~~ Yes. Sometimes I wish I was back in my naive VN early days where I didn't realize how utterly butchered Moenovels' translation was for IMHHW and I still regarded it as a wonderful VN. Btw that's the obvious poster heroine above: (first) Nagisa Furukawa. The male protag Tomoya surprised me. Idk why, but I totally thought he would be another LB! bland nice guy Riki, but he's got some Rewrite's Kotarou delinquent sass to him so at least he'll keep me entertained I hope. The main heroine Nagisa also caught me off guard; when you're into idol rhythm games like Love Live / Bandori, and all the Honokas and Kasumis AKA orange/brown haired girls are the genki type, Nagisa totally throws a curve ball by being the innocent naive mellow type: LOL FURUKAWA WTH!!!! And then there's Sunohara: F*** me, I forgot Key loves them some male bro side characters. I got spoiled by ISLAND having no bros to deal with. I personally feel these guys only serve to deduct heroine screentimes. Their banter is usually always whatevers. ~~ Scariest thing so far: 7 heroines, jeebus! I felt overwhelmed with ISLAND having just THREE heroines and was glad they focused on ONE. I know, forgive me, I'm old. Idk if I gots the patience to go through 'em all, but I'll try. Right now I really like Tomoyo for being a former-delinquent-turned-model-student-badass (yay, so that leaves Tomoyo After something to look forward to). Nagisa is a bit too mellow. Ryou's aight, Kyou's where it's at though. Fuko just Fukos. And I don't even think I saw Kotomi or Yukine yet; damn these numerous blind choice mechanics. ^Best girl ~~ I'm so curious what will happen. So far this totally looks like just standard high school SoL, and then come lategame Key'll pull some uber QQ tragics that will me bawls like no tomorrow and 10/10 this VN. But wtf can they do...?