[VN of the Month May 2025]

Obviously the VN of the Month for May 2025 is Kinsenka aka Perennial Dusk with it written by Irotoridori's writer, and obviously he can still write the dark story if the fact that Frontwing tell us to apply the patch that restore the violent content is any indication (And yes the writer has been wrote some dark stuffs even when he wrote Irotoridori no Sekai way back in 2012). There's also Hatsukoi Master Up with it another story about a group of people who want to make VN, and from what I saw at VNDB discussion is that the participants didn't like one of the heroine because of what she did, although in the end it's just the warm-up for the upcoming Amakano 3 in which it'll be released at the same day as Yuzusoft's Lemonade Jam. For Clover Reset, no much to say other than it has nice arts and it's more like CGDCT even though it's labelled as GL VN, and it probably could be a bit longer seeing the developer set another couple.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of May 2025 releases.

[UI Design – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels]

For UI, well basic should be enough for the ease of the players, although sometimes developer can do much with it, with one example is Tokyo Necro which Nitroplus tried to allow us feel like virtual player whenever we start the VN (Although it become quite cumbersome). Other than Tokyo Necro, there's also Purple Software which they do the floating textbox with the shortcut is half hidden at the top with the player allowed to customize it to their convenience, at least in their VN before Criminal Border such as Amatsutsumi and Aoi Tori.

Besides those two examples, no much I can talk about seeing this is the basic of the VN with the UI in most VNs are usually quite similar, so that's all for what I can talk about this topic.

[Dorama of the Year 1997 - Love Generation (1997)]

For the info sometimes there are manga adaptation when it come to dorama just like Glass Mask, so I'll comment on whenever there was one. That said for Glass Mask obviously the dorama still not finished the story yet seeing the author still not resuming her work in 2025, but at least I know it adapt majority of the volume (38 out of 49) with it had second season later. 

That's all for what I can comment in regard of 1997 dorama here.

[Meta Fiction – Genre Deep Dive]

It should be noted that before DDLC Nitroplus already done the similar thing with You and Me and Her: A Love Story, although in the end Shimokura Vio (The Nitroplus writer) and Dan Salvato have different idea on where they went from the infamous twist. I do know there are much more examples for the first point, but the element in those examples are quite complicated to discuss. 

For the second point, arguably Umineko and Danganronpa V3 can count. In those case though it's note really joke like Lamunation or Royale, but instead it's where the writer can be pretty much perceived as someone who lashed out towards its customer base, and of course most of the players were very reactive at that with it cause no small controversy. 

For the last point, I don't remember much VN limit the player's progression, but I do remember there's a review of Love Plus which mention some eccentric feature with one of those that you must say 'I love you' to the DS had you decided to leave the game causing it to become locked with the only way to unlocked it by saying that, which in turn it made the VN more like pet simulator only with the heroine. I don't know if Love Plus count toward the example of meta fiction, but at least it's the VN that I know limit the player's progression.

That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

[VN of the Month April 2025]

Out of five listed releases, only Noble Butler did resemble the usual VN, although I'm not sure to have it as VN of the Month for April 2025. Anyway, let's see what I can comment in regard of this month releases.

Hundred Lines - This is definitely the most popular and well received releases VNs in April 2025, and it help by word of mouth which mention that it has a bunch of endings with those endings are distinctive enough, so obviously people interested to find out if said word is true or not. Hype buildup aside, Hundred Lines is worked on together by Danganronpa writer and Uchikoshi, although Danganronpa influence is very clear in this with one of it being there are 15 casts who unlike in Danganronpa was instead tasked to protect the school by the Monokuma equivalent (Sirei). For the game, I can only say that you can try it to see if the game is really good or just overrated.

Memories Off Sousou - My first impression on the art is it resemble Chaos Child which make sense given the artist, and like usual Memories Off this is more or less a lighthearted charage that has been made since 1999. Or at least it seems to be if one didn't look at the spoiler, which prove that the writer (Hayashi Naotaka) still has some knack to write it like that even when he didn't write Science Adventure VNs. Note that this is available on Steam, although it only has Chinese language. Also the VN itself prove to be quite popular, so much they also make the fandisc of it which will be released on some times later at this year.

Love Live Nijigasaki Tokimeki - I can only say that at least the staffs didn't make the MC as male, something that Gust surprisingly fumbled at that when they made Blue Reflection Sun. That said, I'm not sure if the MC being genderless is the good thing either, seeing the original Love Live School Idol Festival mobile game (Which is the sources of Nijigasaki series) MC was locked into female. MC gender aside, this is more or less telling us the story about Nijigasaki cast that somehow lost their memories and it's up to the MC to retrieve it.

In the end, the VN of the Month for April 2025 is very obviously Hundred Lines, and that's all for what I can comment in regard of this month releases.

[Event CGs – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels]

Well event CG is obviously very common feature in the VN, and obviously the company make it as the way to attract the people into buying the VN, because after all the people tend to check the CG whenever they saw the VN before they decided to get it. That said, not all successful VN using event CG though which Ryukishi manage to prove it with both Higurashi and Umineko with Alchemist add the even CG for both in the console version.

For the first point, obviously this is what the developer thinking when it come to make the CG, with they use the very first CG in order to introduce the heroine that the player will date. Another standard usage for this is obviously HCG with it far more prominent in nukige because the main selling point of nukige is the sex scenes, and the developer of nukige would put their focus on the HCG for very obvious reasons (The CG need to be visually exciting after all). Sometimes we also have CG in video games, with the most prominent company that like to use it is Gust in their older games, and it should be noted that one of their game, Ar Tonelico, is available on VNDB with it has a number of CG.

Another obvious usage of the CG is SDCG, which as you say is to emphasize the comical moment. Note that many charage company made their VNs have SDCG, like Yuzusoft and Purple Software with they hire Komowata Haruka who is quite a well known name who working on SDCG. That said, not all of the company use SDCG to express the comical moment, with tone work's just use the SDCG as the hint for the player to know which route they'll enter if they chose a certain choice (At least in Hoshiori and Ginharu).

For the last point, obviously chuunige (Or like any VNs that have battle scenes) are the one that like to use the event CG to show the casts use the special move in the battle, and obviously it's the attempt to copy the action scene in the anime with VN can't really do animating the action scene. Again not all of the battle scenes in the VNs use the event CG to depict it (Particularly Umineko with Ryukishi use the sprites movement in order to make up the lack of the CG), although it definitely help the reader to immerse themselves in the battle scenes.

That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

[Adventure Games – Uncovering The VN Hybrid]

Adventure.

PS - Seriously speaking, VN as the whole is the subgenre of adventure, at least according to Wikipedia. Obviously there's growing distiction of both with pure adventure game relies on the features above while VNs only has choices, although Japanese would never forget that seeing the ADV text presentation was came from adventure with I also remember one commercial called a VN as adventure game, so yeah Japanese was called VNs as adventure game.

As for the other examples of the VN that retain the adventure game element, it would be Kara no Shoujo trilogy with the MC Reiji need to examined the criminal scenes (Pixel hunt) in order to gather the evidence that could help him in the investigation. Another example is the Zero Escape series with it being the game that was made by Somnium's writer (Uchikoshi) back in 2009, which is contrast to Root Double here with it is the traditional VN even with Nakazawa made it as the answer to 999 (Zero Escape first game).

That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

[VN of the Month March 2025]

If you desperate, you can add Nightmare x Sisters Omega with it being the Endgame equivalent of Nightmare series that have all the heroines from the previous VNs gather to finally defeated the evil cult, although obviously the developer made the game so that they can have all the girls getting raped by the members of the cult. Obviously that VN is nukige, so I can see why you didn't include it.

For the candidate, well there's only two viable one, Kamitsubaki and Gensou Roukogu no Kaleidoscope 2, with Kindaichi Kosuke VN is still not released yet. So obviously March 2025 is lack of the usual VN, which is already concerning sign seeing even Getchu didn't do the voting for 2024 VN because the winner would be very obvious. Gensou Roukogu 2 is obviously still written by Ryukishi, although the art was done by someone else instead of Itaru Hinoue which may be the improvement for some people (I don't know if the story is still the same or not despite it has the same premise with death game). Kamitsubaki was written by Root Double writer and translated by Lemnisca, and apparently it has interesting story despite the main feature is to have the virtual idol Kamitsubaki. So yeah, to me VN of the Month for March 2025 goes to Kamitsubaki, with it also currently has the most votes on VNDB and available in English.

That's all for what I can write in regard of March 2025 releases.

[Anime of the Year 2025-I Winter - Übel Blatt]

I see that you now decided to comment at the end of the each season, and good to see now you really caught up to the very recent anime as well. For Winter 2025, I only watch four series fully, Ameku Takao, Bang Dream Ave Mujica, From Bureaucrat to Villainess, IdolPC, so let me to comment on those four anime here.

IdolPC - Obviously this is 2025 Precure with it currently have 8 episodes out of 49 episodes, so there's still some potential story to be unfolded besides the simple premise of the Precure (Uta and friends) using the power of idol to defeat the darkness (Chokkiri). Admittedly the premise is quite simple after previous Precure has more complex theme, although sometimes it's fine to have simple premise. It also notable that Toei bring back the physical fight after they decided to go with chase battle in WPC, and it has idol theme with each Precure will perform the concert before purify the monster (It help that Toei bring Aikatsu anime writer as the main writer). I don't know if I'll watch this fully or not, so I'll give a try to do so this time seeing it's been a while since I watch Precure full series directly with the last time I do so was in GPPC.

Bang Dream Ave Mujica - As expected this series tell the story about the one who behind the drama in MyGO, Sakiko, with she also bring the new drama into her own band, Ave Mujica, before realized the disastrous result of her action and make amend of it, starting with find the closure with her first band that she abandoned. Ave Mujica members has some darker setting compared to the previous Bang Dream, with one of the cast has DID. With the staff need a season and half to resolve the drama from MyGO, the story is obviously still not over and so the staff announce they'll make a new season that will tell the story of both band (MyGO and Ave Mujica) with the anime will probably resolve the story of all band members.

Ameku Takao - I saw the poster where the doctor of House TV series turned into this anime, and out of curiosity I checked it. Turned out it's detective series with the character design was worked by Noizi Ito (Also worked on Haruhi and Flyable Heart character design), albeit with a heavy dose of modern medical knowledge. For the story, its about the titular Ameku Takao who is a director of Department of Investigative Pathology in a general hospital. Said department job is to find out what's really wrong with the patient in case the regular doctor can't find out the cause of disease, although what's really wrong can be expanded all the way to murder cases. Obviously like most of the detective series, the anime is episodic with we'll see on how Takao will do her detective job.

From Bureaucrat to Villainess - I did read the manga before watch the anime, and find it quite nice. For the story, it's about the 52 years old bureaucrat Kenzaburo was involved in an accident after saving a boy, and somehow he find himself in a body of shoujo manga villainess from the otome game that his daughter like to play, Grace. Obviously like any other villainess work, Grace did her best to not stand out in order to give more chance to the real otome game MC, Anna, only to be backfired because Anna become smitten to Grace anyway, and of course the heroes follow suit as well after they find out on how competent Grace is. Note that I didn't say Kenzanburo is dead after the accident, because his body was still in coma with his family played through the game in order to have the family head returned. The anime ended on the play at the school festival, with it hint the involvement of Grace's mother in the soul switch situation although the manga still not reveal on how she involved yet.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Winter 2025 anime here.

[[KeroQ] Tsui no Sora (1999) Visual Novel Review (NSFW)]

I see that you tried the original Tsui no Sora there. While the remake was obviously refined the art (And have voices), the original design are mostly fine except for Yasuko with her original design is the least appealing to me. Speaking of Yasuko, her role in here at most is on Kotomi's perspective so at least it's still more than her appearance at Subahibi, although obviously SCA-JI didn't write Yasuko as one of perspective character in the original. For the remake, besides the obvious Yasuko's perspective (And cuter design), I only spot a difference in the writing where Zakuro was about to be dead with the girls tried to calmed down Zakuro by saying the ritual stuffs was taken from the manga, which not exist in the original and Subahibi.

In the end, when it come to Tsui no Sora I would say that I probably prefer the remake, although I can see if you prefer the old version for some reasons (Whether it's just feel right or find the charm in the old art). If anything else, at least it's not as bad as the infamous OVA of Subahibi with the writer also wrongly wrote the circumstances surrounding Zakuro's death.

[Apocalypse – Genre Deep Dive]

Here's my belated comment on this topic.

For the first point, I didn't find much example of the VN besides Muv Luv, although Swan Song here is the closest one. While it didn't have the monster overwhelming the Earth like Muv Luv, what we have in there is there's society chaos after very massive earthquake hit the town with the chaos is obviously because the nature of human who prioritize themselves in the admist of difficulties, and some of them became insane. It ended on hopeful note in the good ending, although it still fulfill the first point for the most part anyway.

For the second point, well eden fit what you think with the humanity already launch a large scale plan to move on from the Earth because the Earth is about to be destroyed thanks to a mysterious Red Star while the human do a number of large scale wars causing the big towns to be destroyed. That said, our focus on eden is not on the humanity's exodus to the new planet, but instead the MC who was tasked to guard the artificial human that help the exodus plan, with the artificial human want to run on the empty Earth before its life expired. In the end, the MC decided to live in the empty Earth instead of join the exodus, so in a way eden did subvert the second point in regard of the MC moving on to the new place even though it technically follow after the end part.

For the third point, Purple Software decided to try their hand into the story with Kunado Kokuki with them expanding kotodama setting from Amatsutsumi. In the setting, the civilization was attacked by the metal demon Tekki that could corrupt the metal into living being, and so the humanity force to build the house using the wood which in turn revert the civilization into old Japanese. The story start with the amnesiac MC Shin woke up from his slumber after the humanity defeat the strongest Tekki and somehow still has the knowledge of the old world, thus it fall to Shin to teach the knowledge to the humanity because they only know warfare which is really understandable seeing they need to keep fighting against Tekki in order to survive. Oh yes, the writer of Kunado is also eden's director, which is quite a coincidence even with both eden and Kunado has many difference when it come to write apocalypse story.

That's all for what I can talk in regard of this topic.

[Save Systems – An Anatomy of Visual Novels]

Saving is obviously very essential function in the game, especially since no one would want to replay the game from the beginning had they lost the progress without saving the game. Granted there are some games that didn't have save feature, but those games are quite rare. Anyway other than the obvious saving the progress, people find a number of ways to exploit the save system.

Well most VNs obviously has the first type when it come to save system, which may be happen because the gameplay of the VN is basically the cutscenes and so the developers make sure that you can save anytime. Note that I say most VNs, because there are VNs that still abide to force the player saving in the save points and not saving in the narration, like Ar Tonelico trilogy with Gust pretty much treated it as RPG despite VNs element in Cosmosphere. Speaking of saving freely, we have Persona 2 allow us to save freely in the dungeon which is very notable because usually in RPG the player can only save freely in the world map whilst you need to search for the save points in the dungeon (Which could also act as the warning that bosses await the players after the save points).

For auto save only, it's very rare for the VN to use it with the only example that I knew is Rance Quest. Obviously this feature limit the player ability to be able to exploit the save system, so the player need to live with their unwanted progress, which bring in mind of mobile game whereas the game immediately save any activities that the player make for the very obvious reasons. For the non-mobile game, we have the infamous Getting Over It that the players mention as very difficult with one of the feature that make it harsh is the save system with it'll automatically save any progress the players make, whether it's favorable for them or not with the player has easy time to lost a big progress.

For the third type of save system, single save shot, on paper I can see if the game tried to challenge the player to be careful with their chance to save the game. In practice though, obviously the player would see the walkthrough just so they can go through the game without much problem, at least when it come to the game like Phoenix Wright in which the single save slot is the artifact from their game way back in GBA. Since you also mention that Capcom add the additional save slots in Ace Attorney PC version, I agree the new feature may feel odd for some people seeing there's no much need to make multiple saves in the game besides to replay the player's favorite scene in one of the chapters.

That's all for what I can write in regard of the topic.

[VN of the Month February 2025]

While Jewelry Heart sequel has higher score, in the end it feel more like fandisc with it had shorter length. So instead, to me VN of the Month for February 2025 is Ren'ai Hajimemashite even though it's not as well received as the previous ASa Project VNs. Anyway, let's see what I can comment in regard of the releases.

Boku to Kanojo-tachi no Jisshuu Nisshi - This is the VN set after the nukige duology from Prekano, and since Prekano is part of Giga naturally it's up to Entergram as the parent brand of Giga to release this. Of course since Entergram decided to go all age, the staffs decided to not make the sex scenes in this game despite both prequel can be said as nukige. In here, we have the MC need to be decisive in regard of his future partner, whether it'll be his childhood friend who became the nurse, his senior who become the doctor, or perhaps he can go to take both and ended in harem route (No threesome sex scene though). Entergram also released this in English along with its two prequel, so you can read it in English if you want.

Jewelry Night Academia - I did mention that I hope Cabbage Soft would like to have their story VN to be translated instead of Amairo Chocolata trilogy, and my wish was answered with Shiravune manage to have Amazing Grace available in English, so I hope that sometimes Shiravune can also translate both of Sakura no Kumo and the main game of this. Note that I call the prequel as the main game, because after I saw the review and the length I feel this title would be more appropriate for Jewelry Heart Academia fandisc seeing this consist the after stories of the heroines from the main game. Well, at least the fandsic has interesting premise that can attract Jewelry Heart fans.

Ren'ai Hajimemashite - I saw a comment on VNDB which describe the title is like Jaku Chara, although the MC here was approached by the questionable angel instead of a perfectionist gamer who will then teach the MC about become happier person or something like that. Note that while this game has angel one should remember that ASa Project usually didn't involve supernatural element like Yuzusoft, so obviously there's a reason behind the angel heroine in Hajimemashite. With ASa Project VNs were localized by Nekonyan, obviously we should expect Nekonyan will sometimes localize this in the future, although it's obviously will take some times seeing currently they have several title queued to be released.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of February 2025 releases.

[Rewrite+ - 7.5/10]

If you interested with the behind the scene, you can read the interview that was translated by Ixrec of Amaterasu Translation when he released the full translation patch.

Rewrite Final Patch Released (plus an author interview)

I thought that it may be a good read regardless of your opinion on Rewrite.

[Dating Sims – Uncovering The VN Hybrid]

Dating sim system most likely is the relic from the past where the developer still focusing on the gameplay, and so they pad the gameplay in there with the MC need to improved himself while he need to pick what he want to say to the heroines carefully before he become worthy to the heroine he seeks, with the player would feel rewarded if he manage to get closer to the girl. This approach is obviously has some weakness in the writing, with some may find the story is very bare boned if they (Understandably) using the walkthrough to get the right steps to get a certain heroine. Obviously, nowadays dating sim system would be quite cumbersome had the player was forced to do so before even hearing the story of the heroines, so the developer gradually removed the dating system parts with eventually the choices was boiled down to chose the heroines.

Anyway, when it come to dating sim, the closest one that I played was Fureraba in which it was listed as such on VNDB, and obviously I use walkthrough in order to get through all of the choices. There's also Dokyuusei in which it had its remake released by Shiravune, and the remake version has Easy Mode in case the newer player didn't want to engage with the difficult gameplay much. Since mod Clephas mentioned Persona 3 to 5, I also should mention that Metaphor (Which share gameplay as Persona) has its own Social Link system called Bond, and Atlus did streamline the system even further so the newer player should have easier time to maximize the Bond compared to the old Persona 3.

That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

[Anime of the Year 2024-IV Fall - Shangri-La Frontier: Kusoge Hunter, Kamige ni Idoman to su 2nd Season]

Nice to see that you also now caught up with the anime as well, and I assume that you'll post this at the end of each seasons then. Anyway, let's see what I can comment in regard of Autumn 2024 anime here.

Gushing Magical Girl - We have Utena who live in a town without male (I don't know if it's deliberate from the author or not) and have magical girl group as its protector, with Utena herself is a very big fan of magical girl. One day she met a very clearly evil mascot who offer her a chance to become the magical girl, and without thinking Utena accept only to find herself become a cadre of the enemy of the magical girl. While at first Utena was very hesitate to fight the magical girl, soon enough she find herself be very adept at it and more importantly enjoying herself doing so with she will do some torure after Utena beat the magical girl. Well, it's very obvious the main sale point is the fanservice stuffs which caused by Utena when she torture the magical girl, and so the anime studio offer three level of censorship with the Blu Ray version has fully uncensored which obviously attract the people to bought it so much it manage to have second season. By the way currently the series is on hiatus because of the author's health issue, and I hope someday she'll get well and can continue the manga.

Girls Band Cry - There are some who didn't like Nina's attitude, so you're not alone in that regard. That aside, this is the anime where Toei show they can do 3D CGI anime very well even with some distortion in the drawing. In here we have Nina who ran away all the way from Fukuoka to Tokyo after a big incident. In there, she met her favorite guitarist Momoka who was quite from her band doing solo live in the road, and Momoka invite Nina to perform as the singer. Obviously Nina being Nina, both of her and Momoka often argue, but in the end they're being supportive to each other. Initially Toei only license this in French, although the English speaking fans soon proving they like the anime with the sales of Blu Ray support the popularity, in which Toei finally allow the anime to be licensed with English sub in last November. Of course, Toei saw the potential profit with Girls Band Cry, and thus they made the compilation movie of this. By the way, Toei did air this at 12 AM which mean this is their first midnight anime with Toei usually aired their anime at afternoon, so I look forward to see more midnight anime from Toei (And they answer it with MGPC 2 was aired in 2 AM).

Jellyfish - It's about Mahiru who has problem with her forcing herself to be normal after her friend say her art is weird, and she met Kano who is a former idol going to be unknown Youtuber JELEE. Together with the other two colorful girls, they form a quartet of Youtuber and making MV with their skill. What I can say is the first eight episodes is going well, only for the writer of Jaku Chara (He's the one who write the scenario of this anime) decided to throw a drama in the last third, which while it spiced up the story the staffs was still keep their formula with each characters get their focus at the interval of four episodes so it make the drama dragged a bit. Still, in the end I guess I can say the anime did well enough. For the reminder, the artist also design the character in Tanetsumi no Uta, although it took me until last December to recognize the art similarities despite I did watch this weekly in last Spring.

VTuber Legend - For the info, the novel is about to be finished in volume 10 now that the author already satisfied with the story. Anyway, the story is about the new VTuber Awayuki Kokorone with her real name is Tanaka Yuki (Which is only told in the novel) was very frustrated on how she still has low number of viewers. After one of her streaming, Yuki decided to drink her favorite alcohol, StroZero, thinking she already turned off her connection. Turned out Yuki has very different personality which only appear when she was drunk, and also she still turned on her connection so all of her audience watch her stream causing her to become viral. While at first Yuki confused on her sudden popularity, soon she decided to roll with it. The series is pretty much the parody of VTuber with a bunch of reference, and easy to say I learnt more of VTuber compared to Kizuna no Alelle with the latter only focused on the audition to search the sucessor of Kizuna Ai (The VTuber that popularized the concept of it).

Whispering - I did hope the anime become another Bloom into You, but alas it wasn't meant to be especially with the studio Cloud Hearts facing several setback before practically bankrupt so much they can't produce the Blu Ray for this with the anime was already delayed once. If anything else, I can say that I hope the anime will be adapted by Cloud Hearts whenever I see the manga or novel that I didn't like. For the story, it's about Hima who was mesmerized by Yori's voice with Hima tell Yori upfront that she like Yori's voice, although Yori think that Hima like her and thus confused with her feeling. For the anime, while I know there are some unadapted chapters, it's already a miracle they be able to make 12 episodes before 2025 if we consider the half year delay, and I can see if they decided to not adapted few chapters seeing even the author acknowledged she wrote the certain arc too long.

Love Live Superstar 2 and 3 - I should know that when the staff decided to going back to basic with Love Live it mean that they also will do graduation plot, so the season 2 was ended in such awkward position with the season 3 mainly focused on the first five members preparing for the inevitable graduation while leaving the important task of preparing the live to their junior. Of course, the staff also addressing the remaining plot thread in the third season, especially in regard of Keke which they didn't solve in the second season (I saw the question on why the anime suddenly focused on Keke at MAL, and I can only say the third season is the only chance to resolve the thread). In the end, now that the third season is available, I didn't have much problem with the second season ending anymore, although obviously anyone who watch it in 2022 would be very angry seeing they need to wait for exactly two years to see the continuation of the ending thanks to the artist get a job at Toei to do HSPC art in 2023.

Radio - I like to call it as Adachi and Shimamura Radio because the character art resemble those two with the bonus Shimamura's VA voicing the look alike character, Yumiko. For the story, it's about the duo VAs Yumiko and Chika who initially like each other has their meeting in the bad start with the two will fake their closeness in the radio show while in the real life they're argue a lot. Still, each time they argue mean that they'll getting closer with both of them helping each other. I feel like the author was initially only believe that there'll be two volumes novel with the story seems to be like the dramatic climax in each of volume's ending (Adapted in episode 4 and 7) before the novel was greenlighted to be continued, although I may be wrong on this. By the way, I like the ending song that was sang by the duo of the VAs, who turned out to be the idol duo Pyxis.

'Tis' Time for Torture Princess - This is about the very strong human princess who was ambushed by the demon and then get captured. From there she will face several cruel torture with the goal to get as much as secret about the human empire, and the princess will not give the secret even if the demon give her a bunch of food. Of course, being the prisoner of war, the princess was get treated cruelly by the demon, especially by the cruel demon lord who is a very bad father to his daughter. And, ...yeah it's more or less CGDCT with the princess almost always give the secret to the demon, and it's nice the author can still going with very formulaic story even after 258 chapters. It's nice that it got the second season, and I look forward to see a certain character in the second season later.

Mayonaka Punch - For the reminder this anime was directed by Paripi Koumei director. Anyway, this anime is about Youtuber Masaki who was cancelled by the people after she punch her friends in one of their stream with Masaki was fired, although her rude attitude is certainly didn't help at all. At night Masaki met a vampire who introduce herself as Live, and Live ask Masaki to ate her blood only for Masaki denied it. However, Masaki give Live the chance for it if Live can help Masaki to get a million subscriber. While that kind of number should be easy for Koumei to achieve in short time, unfortunately there's no Koumei in the anime so obviously both Masaki and Live need to get the subscriber by their own, doubly so without showing Live's vampire power even though it would be very interesting for the audiences (In universe it's to avoid the attention of the people, although out universe it's obviously to avoid the plot resolving too soon).

Shy - This is the series about the world where each countries have one superhero, although the main focus is on Japanese superhero Shy who is as shy as her namesake. That said, Teru (Shy's civilian name) still does her best as Japan's superhero even after she was causing someone to be injured, which to be fair is obviously not really her fault even though the people prefer to blame her despite her effort saves a lot of other persons. One day, Teru encounter a creepy boy, Stigma, who have the power to corrupt a person. After dealing with the incident where Stigma tried to corrupt a civilian, Teru find out Stigma is the head of an evil organization, and so start Teru's job to fight Stigma and his cadres of super villains. The staffs manage to make this as two cours anime with it adapt 74 chapters of the manga.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Autumn 2024, and see you in Winter 2025 anime post.

[VN of the Month January 2025]

As for the VN of the Month for January 2025, I want to say that it tie between Kara no Shoujo 3/The Last Episode and Tenshi Re-Boot, although obviously both are not eligible seeing this is not about translated VNs. For the one that was newly released in Japan, well I agree that it goes to Jiraikei Magical Girl Sakura which ironically enough was also available in English, if only because out of all listed releases it has the most votes on VNDB. For the VN, it's about the MC who met a girl wearing jirai kei fashion (Jirai kei is the Japanese fashion that born in the middle of pandemic) find out the girl is also the magical girl, and then both MC and the girl start to going out while the girl also doing her job as the magical girl protecting the town.

For the other two, well Seifuku Kanojo is all age moege which also available on Switch, so no much I can say about it. While for Haou Senki Raimu, it follow the usual magical girl nukige formula where the magical girl heroine could suffer rape from the Arc Villain, which looking from the writer it did resemble Escalayer with the threat caused by the evil alien that the heroine fight against.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of January 2025 release.

[Anime of the Year 2024-III Summer - Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!]

Alya - The author clearly realized that have the MC Masachika understand Russian language that Alya used would get stale quickly, so the author understandably mix some plot about student council election. I can only say the result is definitely successful seeing the author manage to drag the election plot up until Volume 9 with it is still ongoing (For the info the arc started from Volume 2 which the anime adapt), and of course the author add more drama in Masachika family just to make it even more dramatic (And dragging even more). Honestly not the kind of plot that I would expect from the title, but at least it's interesting for some (Even though it may annoy some) so much it got second season. Oh yes, the anime staffs know what they did when they chose Sumire Uesaka as Alya's VA seeing she did learn Russian in the past.

Fairy Tail 100 Years - The continuation of Fairy Tail which in the similar vein as Boruto, although at least it didn't starring Natsu's son as the new MC. For the story, it's about the titular 100 years quest which was teased in the prequel, and turned out the quest is to kill five dragon gods which obviously would be very enermous task. It's also worth to note the staffs only made 25 epidodes, which seems to be the trend with the shonen manga adaptation seeing One Piece was on hiatus with Toei remaking Fishman Island arc with the new one only have 21 episodes compared to the old one which had 56 episodes.

Newbie Uncle - It's about 30 years old Rick who has been harshly trained by the four very strong teammates, and as the result Rick is very strong even though his common sense was shattered thanks to his teammates. The story begin with Rick tried to pass his adventurer test, and he passed despite people looking down on him thanks to his old age.

Makeine - It's about the MC who met with a girl who has her heart crushed because her childhood friend go with another woman, and then the MC see more of the girl who didn't get their boyfriend. I can only say that it's quite unique seeing there's no romance between the MC and the female in the work yet, at least in the anime.

Pseudo Harem - It's about a theater member who has several girlfriends, or rather one girlfriend who can act as many characters as possible (No idea if the girl can act for 100 characters). So yeah, you better expect romcom anine instead of harem anime. The anime did adapt all of the manga, which make sense seeing the manga was ended long before the anime was aired.

Weakest Tamer - It's about the girl in Japan who reincarnated into another girl in the fantasy world, although the girl was very pitiful with she was banished from her village with her skill can only adapt a very fragile slime (And the reincarnated soul didn't even have the line). Nevertheless, the girl pushed on to be successful with her life, and she eventually manage to win over some people who've been wanting to help her with the girl tried her best to help those people with whatever she could.

Well that's all for my comment on Summer 2024 anime, and you'll caught up with the recent season in the next post.

[The Skip Button – An Anatomy of Visual Novels]

Well let's just say that it's very useful tool to anyone else who didn't like to read the lines in the VN for the second time, although sometimes it does its job too well because the button would obviously skip everything that already read, regardless if the reader want to re-read the lines or not. Still, the usefulness outweigh it's potential drawback anyway, seeing that it would help someone who stuck in reaching the route that the player want, moreso if said VN has too many inconsequential choices which is prevalent in the older VNs. Said potential drawback is quite rare anyway, in which it only happen in the old Chaos Head where the text keep skipping if the player need to trigger the delusion at the certain instances in order to get the bad ending, and you can only get the bad ending in the second playthrough which mean you already read the lines.

For skip the scene, the closest one that we have is skip to the next choice which skip a lot of scenes anyway if the developer didn't make much choices in the first place outside of the sex scenes, and one of the VN that apply that is prominently Yuzusoft VNs. As for the VN that explicitly mention skipping the scenes, well maybe only Fate/Stay Night that still apply it until now. Anyway, this feature is obviously very useful if you want to check the Japanese guide before making the English guide, or maybe checking the gallery seeing it only unlocked after you finished the game. Granted you can also do so with the regular skip, although it's obviously faster if you can skip the scenes.

No much to say that the auto mode is mostly useful if you record the VN to make the playthrough to upload it on Youtube, although it won't be useful if you prefer to rush the game seeing auto mode speed is usually too slow if you're fast reader.

That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

[Anime of the Year 2024-II Spring - Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai]

Grandpa and Grandma Turned Young - The series is pretty much the slice of life about the old couple who turned young and how their surrounding adapt with the change, which is interesting. The manga is already ended with the ending is quite bittersweet, with the anime follow suit despite the gap between the material.

The New Gate - The studio for this was stretching when they make this seeing they also need to deal with the GL anime Whispering You with A Love Song (Or Sasakoi if you prefer Japanese name) which aired in the same season and time slot, so obviously the animation for both suffer a lot with Whispering staff force to delay the airing for its last two episodes until December 28th thanks to one of GL fans posted the horrible condition that Whispering production staffs face, resulting some people who may or may not pretend to care about the Japanese work ethic lashing out. Anyway, the fact that New Gate can still aired the last episodes on time obviously mean that no isekai fans care enough about this anime, which make sense considering several isekai big title aired in Spring 2024 (Mushuko Tensei 2 part 2, Konosuba 3, Slime 3 even with people calling out the anime has too much meeting scenes).

Spice and Wolf 2024 - Considering how Higurashi Sotsu and Gou turned out (Which in hindsight I should realize that it's one of Ryukishi's hasty experiment), at first people was wary on how Spice and Wolf will turned out now that Passione took care of it, and turned out it's really faithful. So faithful in that the first 19 episodes is really resembles 2008 anime, with only the new material start from episode 20 to 25 in which those episodes adapt the volume 4 that wasn't adapted in 2008 anime. Anyway, obviously this is quite successful remake so there'll be second season, in which Passione will adapt the final arc from 2008 anime as its first six episodes. Oh yes, the story here was telling through Holo telling her youth to hers and Lawrence's daughter, Myuri.

Level 2 Cheat - Let's just say that people obviously won't watch this for good isekai story seeing it's about the MC who transferred from a fantasy world (Not Japanese) into another fantasy world with he immediately find out that his status jumped out to infinity once he was at level 2. But instead, people watch this for how the studio (JC Staff) using the VAs from The Familiar of Zero to voicing the character based on its role, at least to me. Anyway, after the MC getting his infinity power, he decided to become neutral while making friend with several people, including the demon lord.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Spring 2024 anime.

[Scarlet Kaleidoscope Review - Top 10 Best Rated Visual Novels Translated in 2024]

On 1/3/2025 at 7:15 PM, Clephas said:

I also was surprised to see this in any way put below Mashiro-Iro Symphony as it is a generic sol game.

The thing is I took the score from VNDB, so since Aoi Tori has lower score compared to Mashiro Iro I'd put it above Aoi Tori, and if any VNs scores changing then I'll upgrade the ranking if possible. Anyway, nice personal ranking there.

[Dorama of the Year 1980s - Takeda Shingen (1988)]

As for 1980 dorama, I only know Oshin in which it's dorama with 297 half episodes (15 minutes for each episodes) with it got the anime in 1984. More importantly, it was aired in Indonesia in 1986 which make the series become very well known in Indonesia, which back then there's only one television broadcast with the internet is obviously still not exist so it's only the few entertainment the people had, although it really help the series is very popular in Japan and several other countries (Notably Iran and Vietnam). For the premise, well it's more or less the same as the anime movie that you saw with the MC Shin (Also called as Oshin) does her best in pre-war Japan despite her numerous hardship.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of 1980's dorama here.

[VN of the Month December 2024]

Well, let's just say that December 2024 is nicer compared to December 2022, especially with three of its release are available in English. For the detective VNs, I can only mention the one from Entergram and it's because the artist drew the MC like Azusa in Since Memories (I know it's her style, but this time it's really noticeable). Anyway, I should try to comment on the releases here.

Tir na Nog - In theory this is the joint project between Azarashi and Cuff, although in practice this is more like usual Cuff (And thus Cube) VNs. Anyway, the name is pretty much telling us this will be lighthearted moege, seeing Tir na Nog is the equivalent of paradise in Celtic mythology with the title can be very roughly translated as 'Eternal Paradise'. From the premise, well it's like Kakenuke in which the casts will tried to spent their summer to do everything they could to enjoying life, although apparently the casts will uncover the secret that lies in the so-called paradise.

LingerieS - Considering on how one of the fanservice in the VNs is usually the heroines only wore the lingerie, it's surprising to not see the nukige based on the lingerie store with the closest one if Negligee (GL OELVN) until now, although then again it may be because the store clerk for that need to be female so much the staff need to make the MC as the androgynous. Rambling aside, this VN is about Aoi who said to be as beautiful as his older twin sister suddenly asked to take care of his older sister lingerie store, and so he was does his best to do so while crossdress as his sister. From there, Aoi entering the world of lingerie, and he'll encounter the romance with one of his customers, Aisu. The VN itself is released as the first part of serial VN, so we may have more parts for the other female characters, doubly so seeing Aoi can have sex with more than one girl.

Holy Undead - One of Steam reviewer did somehow decided to ban this despite this is the VN by Visual Arts, although turned out there's two suggestive CG which I assumed still left in the build and the reviewer feel the CG was too stimulating for them. Steam reviewer fiasco aside, at least it's good this is now available with English language support. For the story, it's about the necromancer who cast a spell to make him reincarnated as the undead king before he was defeated by a hero, although instead he was reincarnated as the hero's daughter, Yuricia, with she has high power of holy element. Being former male necromancer, she judge her follower based on the potential as undead while at the same time understandably indifferent with the handsome men. By the way if you feel that its like usual reincarnation work, it's because the VN was made based on the web novel from the contest winner, and looking from the ending it seems the story is still continuing.

Tanetsumi no Uta - The art is definitely resemble Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night anime which I watched in Spring 2024, although I just realized it after I saw the name of the artist back in December. Anyway, this VN is about 16 years old girl Misuzu who lost her mother at her young age suddenly was visited by her late mother, Yoko, at her 16. To complicate matter, both do time travel to the future where they visited Misuzu's future 16 years old daughter Tsumugi. From there, the 16 years girls across three generation do the journey to save the land in another world with Hiruko who claimed to be Mizusu's brother. For the games, let's just say there'll be a number of family moments which make sense seeing all four of the main casts are the family members.

Out of those four, well I'm going to say that the VN of the Month for December 2024 goes to Tanetsumi no Uta simply because it has the highest average score. That's all for what I can comment in regard of December 2024 releases.

[Science Fantasy – Genre Deep Dive]

I did learn that science fantasy was the part of the sub-genre of science fiction in the first day of 2025. Anyway, like mod Clephas mentioned science fantasy here is pretty much prevalent in the JRPG, in which the setting had them using the technology from the very advanced ancient civilization while at the same time the casts can also utilize magic, and such setting is also prevalent in the recent isekai story (Presumably to make the setting more easy for the modern target audience to do the self-insert). Being the parody of JRPG series, obviously Rance series also included as science fantasy with the technology is basically equal to modern Japanese while the casts can also use magic and skill.

Well, no much that I can talk about this topic, so that all for what I can talk about it.

[Anime of the Year 2024-I Winter - Kingdom 5th Season]

Well you really finally almost catching up with the most recent anime now that you cover Winter 2024 anime, which mean I'm going to coming into familiar territory starting now. Anyway, let's see what I can comment in regard of both Autumn 2023 and Winter 2024 anime here.

Tearmoon Empire - An user did make a blogpost about it here, so I decided to take a look on it. To summarize, it's about the spoiled princess Mia who live in the kingdom that face the revolution as the result of the poverty with Mia herself got guillotined, and she find herself in several years before the happening. Obviously being afraid of guillotine, Mia does try her best even with her limited intelligence, unknowingly change the the people around her to be better simply because Mia was not act as spoiled princess anymore.

Frieren - While Anya of Spy x Family bring Kirihana into attention, Frieren definitely put her on the map with she voiced the titular Frieren. For the story, it's about Frieren who find herself lost the purpose after she defeat the demon king together with the hero party, and moreso after she lost two of its fellow party member while she herself was still alive thanks to her being elf. So in order to spend her time, she decided to retrace her journey with the party member. Also yes I know it currently rank first at MAL defeating FMAB, and unlike Interspecies Reviewer this time it's more make sense seeing Madhouse do the good job on the anime adaptation. Frieren here always employ the flashback whenever possible, which in the series make sense considering it mean she reflect her past journey and it also help the audience to see more of the hero even with he was already dead (So much the hero manage to be the most popular character in the poll). By the way, I did skip the second cour for personal reason despite Madhouse effort on the battle animation, mainly it has some unsatisfying outcome to me. Anyway, it got second season, which if Madhouse keep adapting two cours per season we may see two of its interesting arcs (Golden Land and Fiala Toll) animated.

WPC - Since now Kirihana is on the map, Toei decided to cast her as one of Precure, Iroha aka Cure Friendy. That aside, in WPC we have Iroha who walking her dog Komugi find a mysterious stone, and in usual Precure stuff turned out the stone is contained monster with Komugi turned into a human as the result of her desire to protect Iroha. Afterwards, Komugi herself manage to ansform into Cure Wonderful. After pacified the monster (Which is not through the fighting), the monster turned into the talking sheep Mey Mey who inform the other world called Niko Garden was attacked, and thus he tasked Komugi as Precure to save Niko Garden. Toei did another experiment of not bringing the fighting like in KKPC, with in here it make sense because the monster are animal and it would bad example for children to hit the animal. Oh yes, the series was written by YPC5 duology writer Narita, in which she did bring the successful romance after she failed to do so in HapCha (Which ironically speaking is the least concern to me after see a bunch of the experiments that Toei did in there).

100 Girlfriends - Let's just say it's seemingly impossible for the author to develop 100 heroines at once, but regardless the author manage to stick with it anyway thanks to the MC Rentarou being very competent to handle his quirky girlfriends (It help that the genre of the manga is comedy). For the premise, we have Rentarou who was rejected 100 times was wishing to have a girlfriend, and the God decided to grant his wish. Unfortunately though, the God overcompensate Rentarou by granting him 100 soulmates thanks to the God's carelessness with the girl will die if she didn't become Rentarou's girlfriend. Determined to not make his soulmates dead, Rentarou decided to do his best to search and be the best boyfriend to his soulmates. The anime is quite successful, and it will have the second season in the upcoming Winter 2025.

Tank 9999 - It's about the siscon Rude who was banished from the party just because he was tank (Never mind on how useful the job can be to soak the damage in order to have the attacker and supporter do their job properly), and with Rude find his ability was very useful obviously his former party find the difficulties after Rude left the party. Nevertheless, Rude decided to just start his life in his hometown with his beloved sister along with the homunculus that he found. Since this is only have 12 episodes, the finale have Rude dealing with the third enemies with the manga is still ongoing. Overall, I can only say this is not too bad adaptation of the not too bad manga.

Apothecary Diary - It's about Maomao who work as the apothecary in the ancient Chinese palace after she was kidnapped by the slave trader, although in practice Maomao ability is very useful in detective work with she helping the palace uncover the schemes that happened around her. Other than the detective stuffs, we also have the side plot which is about Maomao relationship with her superior Jinshi with Maomao initially didn't trust Jishi much.

Wrong Way of Using Healing Magic - At the beginning, three friends was thrown into the other world with one of them, Usato, has the affinity for the healing magic with he was just accidentally summoned, with the summon was to search the heroes to fight the demon. Regardless even with non-combat ability, the author manage to find a way to make Usato as overpowered as isekai MCs, namely having Rose (Who remind me Izumi Curtis of FMA) do some very hellish training to Usato with he manage to prove his training shortly after. Like any popular anime it has second season, although compared to the first season I did find it's conflict was too overblown seeing it can be boiled down to childhood friend quarrel goes wrong with the second arc threat being a very harsh tsundere human childhood friend (With Usato took the sideline as the supporting character).

16-bit Sensation - It's about Konoha who want to become the famous illustrator of a VN, although unfortunately she was stuck with the job at the nukige company who prefer to make cheap hypnosis game. One day, she was got several physical copies of the old VNs, and after Konoha opened one of it she was time slipped into 1992. Eventually she was stumbled into the VN company, Alcohol Soft, and Konoha was recruited into working there. It has manga, although the anime was very different with the manga with Konoha is the anime MC. Also there are several references of the VNs (Kanon, Mashiro Iro HD, and Teshi Re-Boot), which is understandable because the artist are former Leaf illustrator. The first episode here did a good job on showing the worry about the future of the VNs, especially with some have express their worry on it.

Villainess Level 99 - It's about the random girl who reincarnated into the otome RPG bonus boss Yumiella, and she was destined to be defeated by the female MC Alicia. Seeing Yumiella fate is death for certain had Alicia decided to do 100% completion, Yumiella decided to not interact with Alicia much. However since her level was shown to the public as level 99 (As expected of the bonus boss), it become harder for Yumiella to avoid Alicia. Nevertheless, Yumiella tried her best to avoid her doomed fate. The anime has different ending from the web novel, in which I prefer the anime ending seeing the web novel has some questionable events in the finale.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Winter 2024 anime.