Clephas

That begin with a light tone and become troubled and somber after: Sakura, Sakimashita For ones that begin with a lot of jokes but become serious and/or grim later: Akagoei Tiny Dungeon Tsuisou no Augment For ones with a serious action focus that is emphasized by the slice-of-life early on: Hello, Lady Electro-Arms Tenshi no Hane For end of the world that begins with laughter: Soranica Ele

Evolimit Soranica Ele Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide Tiny Dungeon Tasogare no Sinsemilla Suisei Ginka Hello, Lady (suggest that you read the Superior Entelecheia version) Rui wa Tomo o Yobu Tsuisou no Augment Sakura, Sakimashita Akatsuki no Goei (depending on the route, the third game especially) Electro-Arms Nakige don't count...

Mmm... to be honest, it depends on if you take a liking to the heroine and how the common route plays out up until the split. I do recommend that you play Yoshimi's route in all three games, if only for amusement's sake. Kani's routes are all boring, so I wouldn't bother picking her in any of the three. Other than that... Erika? Erika is probably the most unusual character on the list from my point of view.

Yes, you are missing something. To be blunt, the best thing you can do if you don't want to read through the entire thing is to read the common routes for the first two games, since 3gakki is based on the idea the protag didn't choose anyone in the first two semesters.

Classic tsundere, in practical terms, usually refers to a heroine who covers up their affections with a thorny attitude. The reason I say this doesn't apply here is because Saku and Tamao straight-out don't like Shinri at the beginning.

Otaku corners aren't made. They naturally appear as a result of our obsessions, the miasma of our lust and desire corrupting the air and creating an area full of moe.

Yeah, I'm talking about the ones on syosetu. They are just about as long as the main story and are ongoing. There are also several major story arcs in addition to a bunch of short stories, including three involving Kousuke and two involving Kouki.

No, there is none of that type of tsundere in this VN. Both tsunderes (Tamao and Saku) have good reason for acting the way they do. To be honest, I dunno if it is really the best to call them tsunderes, since there is none of that bashful mixed signal BS. The web novel version of Hajime is pretty awesome, and he only gets better in the epilogue, lol.

Maybe Hello, Lady then... Shinri the protagonist is an arrogant pervert normally and a ruthless avenger at heart.

Since you liked Tsukihime, I assumed you would enjoy Fate, at the very least...

Yondome wa Iyana Shizokusei Majutsushi Yondome is a series that would probably be traumatic to watch but is ideal for reading. I say this because the things done to the protagonist and he does to others are pretty horrifying from an objective perspective. He spends most of his first reincarnation being tortured as an experimental subject, his magical energy drawn out to make convenient tools, and his second reincarnation has him cursed and living his life surrounded by undead of his own making. However, for someone reading this story, it is surprisingly touching at times, with interesting and amusing characters. Yes, imagining a lot of the scenes is pretty guro and reminded me of Tokyo Necro. However, the story of Vandalieu has become quite dear to my heart. Most likely because of how ingenious the author's portrayal of Vandalieu's life is. It is proof positive that there are things you can get away with when writing that would only alienate people watching an anime. Sacchi Sarenai Rule Breaker Rule Breaker is your standard 'protagonist is overpowered and has an absolute advantage' series, with the twist that he has a solid girlfriend almost from the beginning. Hikaru is an unusual character type, in that he is someone who is a bit overly impressed with his own cleverness, but he is aware that this quality is a personality flaw. The story itself has Hikaru sorta-kinda reincarnating into the body of a guy who tasks him with avenging his death inside one hour by killing a local nobleman. Hikaru, in order to succeed, uses his new ability - the Soul Board - to specialize in stealth so he can get away with it. This essentially begins a story where the protagonist essentially does amazing things because he is overspecialized to an insane degree in stealth and detection. Unlike a lot of stories of this type, where the protagonist is exceedingly capable in all areas, Hikaru is definitely a min-max character for most of the story. His personality is also one that some people will have trouble with, but on the flip side, he has a lot more foresight than the average isekai protagonist and actually manages to keep his public persona in the background, something few overpowered isekai protagonists can manage. Kuro no Maou There is only one phrase that sums up Kuro no Maou... 'Yandere Harem in another world'. The protagonist of the story, Kurono Maou (lol, yes his name is a pun) begins the story as a fierce-looking but kind-hearted high schooler... until he is summoned to another world to be experimented upon by a bunch of religious fanatics to turn him into a black magic using living weapon. Counter to tradition, he manages to break free only after losing a surprising amount of his humanity. By the time he gains his freedom, he has killed other people on numerous occasions, including other summoned Japanese people. He also loses the ability to hesitate when killing is needed, which cuts off one of the more annoying character tropes that tend to follow around isekai protagonists. The author describes Kurono as a 'Yandere Seizouki' (a yandere-producing machine) because he is not only dense but somehow manages to say and do the right things to tip girls over the cliff into yandere-ism. While this is highly amusing, it also means that even the SOL toward the middle and end of the story is quite a bit more stressful than is common to fantasy and isekai. Moreover, his density is made worse by the fact that his magic mastery actually suppresses his sexual desires, meaning he mostly just fails to notice the girls are aiming for him for most of the story, despite them being rather obvious to people looking at the situation from the outside.

Tokyo Babel (no H-content) Fate/Stay Night Sorcery Jokers

The reason why I observed that the collapse began in 2018 was because that was the point where the absolute number of non-nukige VNs began to decrease significantly. Even before that, even as far back as 2015, there was a sharp drop in quality in the 'mainstay' genres of JVNs (Charage/moege) as well as a gradual drop in quantity. However, this is something that was only noticeable if you were consuming as many as I was at the time. Not only that, but it was at that point that a number of companies that had previously been exclusively charage/moege focused began to produce plotge (story-focused) VNs, testing the waters for reasons that are obvious in retrospect. To put it simply, there was an economic downturn in the demographic for consumers of the mainstay JVNs and JVNs in general. With less money in hand, they were less likely to spend on the figurines and other goods that tended to make up for any shortfalls in game sales, so it became more difficult just to break even when producing a standard-quality moege/charage (this also hit the other genres to a lesser extent).

Tokyo Babel for action (Dies Irae and Fate both only get action-y relatively late) Even though this isn't translated: End Sleep for horror

The collapse of the VN industry in Japan actually began back in 2018, but it is true that Covid has trashed the industry pretty thoroughly. The main reason why is that the consumers of VNs have less spare cash these days, thus making production of high end VNs risky. Moreover, charage/moege in particular are dying because the sheer number of fanboys necessary to keep the industry going simply aren't around. Right now, it is actually common for only one or two non-nukige to be released each month, whereas six or seven was the norm prior to 2018. This is directly proportionate to the economic downturn amongst the fanboy demographic.

Just the bombings of cities during the campaign to liberate Europe are nightmarish if you think about it objectively. It's hard for someone who wasn't alive back then to really understand how horrific things were. The reason that the Germans and Japanese are the focus of such sentiments is because 1)They were the invaders, 2)Germany systematically murdered anyone who didn't fit their visible genetic archetype, 3)The Japanese created a massive number of sex slaves in the conquered territories, 4)Neither the Germans nor the Japanese ever got around to establishing even a facsimile of law and order in occupied territory despite holding some areas for years (basically, they were incompetent at anything other than invading, slaughtering civilians, and making weapons). Also, by its very nature, war brings out both the best and worst in people, forcing them to extremes. That's why no one should be surprised if they hear about their country's soldiers doing horrible things to the locals when they occupy an area or are hunting insurgents. People often find it difficult or impossible to consider those outside their affiliated group to be people in any case.

Amatsutsumi (future release in English) Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no (future FTL release) Unfortunately, the rest of my suggestions are all untranslated. Natsuiro Recipe Izayoi no Fortuna Tasogare no Sinsemilla Koko Kara Natsu no Innocence Sakura, Sakimashita 1/2 Summer Toppara Tamayura Mirai

That and a mix of other motives. The nationalists don't like to talk about it because it messes with their message; the average person doesn't like to think about it because of the horrible things Japan did to the conquered populaces; and the politicians keep trying to whitewash the history books.

Generally speaking, WWII is a huge sore spot with the Japanese. Mostly, they try to pretend it never happened.

Gensou no Idea Paradise Lost Ikusa Megami Zero (not at first, about halfway through, then the rest of the series has the protag periodically losing his memories)

This is more or less correct.

I'm reading Kumo right now... Campione I watched the anime for, but I honestly dunno if I want to read it. Mushoku Tensei is fine as an anime, but I know for a fact that I'd hate reading the protagonist's perspective. RE-zero I hate, so no chance I'll read it. Yondome I just found on syosetu, so I'll probably start it at some point.

Let's be clear about something first. I will be the first person to admit that I am really, seriously strange for actually enjoying the anime version of this. However, it turns out this story is a lot less frustrating in the written form, so I imagine that those that hated how the anime went might still enjoy the books. To be clear, Death March is, despite the whole setup, essentially a story of Satou touring the isekai to see the sights and eat good food while incidentally (to his mind) saving the world again and again. His overpowered nature never really changes from beginning to end, and I feel that he is a nice contrast to Hajime, the protagonist of Arifureta, in that he is the epitome of what you would expect from a good-hearted Japanese person with ultimate power and no real ambition. For those who are curious, the web novel and the light novel versions diverge massively. The anime follows (imperfectly) the light novel, where a lot of events were changed from the WN version, most likely because the WN has some tragic points early on that the writer thought didn't fit with the atmosphere of the story when he put it in LN form. The essential points of the story don't change a lot, but there are certain arcs - such as the Lalakie arc - that simply don't exist in the WN version and some characters that exist in the Web Novel don't exist in the Light Novel. One thing that frustrated me as time went on was the way Satou consistently ignored the feelings of the (adult) women around him, even when they were blatantly obvious about it. Considering this was an isekai anime, you would think he would just give in and enjoy the harem, given that he doesn't have any hesitation about using brothels, lol. His ignoring the feelings of Arisa and Lulu (for the most part) made sense since he didn't have any sort of loli fetish, though. If you were to ask me how good the story is, I would say it is significantly lower in quality than Arifureta. If I were to say that Arifureta is at the level of my favorite VNs of all time, I would say that Death March falls somewhere just above the average. If it weren't for the fact that the series fit my tastes almost perfectly, I probably would have dropped it after the third LN, and I certainly wouldn't have gone through the trouble to read both the LN and WN versions. So, unless you liked the anime during the first half of the season (as unlikely as that might be), I can't honestly recommend the books to you. Rather than being a series that gives me extreme laughs or feels, this one is one that makes me smile, more like comfort food than anything else.

Seirei Gensouki, Der Werewolf, Death March, Hazure Skill, etc. Also, setting aside the anime, the web novel and LN are both near the top of the charts in Japan. It wouldn't have gotten an anime in the first place, otherwise.

Some people may have seen the relatively low-quality anime for Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou and are probably wondering why I am bothering to spout about this. Lately I've been plowing through LNs and web novels because I ran out of interesting VNs, but this is the first one I feel a need to expound on at length. Let's be clear, I am one of the freaks who enjoyed the anime, though I did so while wincing constantly at the animators' choices and the horrible monster CGs. To me, Hajime's story just stood out as being that good, despite the crippling weakness of having used up half the season on the 'buildup arc' that is the content of the first LN. However, I wasn't anticipating just how high in quality the web novel version would be. To be blunt, Ryo Shirakome is one of those rare Japanese writers who really is as good as the hype and has a very obvious love of the material he is writing. More importantly, he is very consistent with how he portrays his characters and their growth. Story Intro For those unfamiliar with this series, it focuses on Nagumo Hajime, a young man summoned with his class to another world, only to turn out to be the overall weakest of the group and in possession of a class that is both common and unsuited for battle. In the beginning, Hajime is a kind-hearted, pacifistic young man with a great deal of courage (and enough of an otaku that it survives all his travails) but no standout abilities. However, when delving into the depths of the Orcus Labyrinth, his fellow classmates get caught in a trap and they are all sent to a much lower floor... to face a Behemoth, a monster that is beyond their abilities. Hajime, despite his weakness, manages to help greatly in holding it off, but just as he is about to make his own escape, one of his classmates betrays him, directing a fireball to stray and hit him so that he will fall into the abyss with the Behemoth. He survives the fall only to have his right arm eaten by one of the beasts in the depths in front of his own eyes. In order to survive, he is forced into a corner where his previously kind heart is shattered and reforged in the fires of despair and hatred, reforming him into a man who sees the world in only two colors, those who are enemies and those who are not... and responds to enemies with death. This is further reinforced when he eats a monster and has to endure immense agony as his body is broken and remade again and again, shaving away at his humanity with each cycle, until what remains is only one step short of a true monster. Main Story assessment That's a pretty bare bones prologue for you and essentially covers the content of the first episode of the anime and the first three chapters of the web novel. Oddly, despite the horrific beginnings, this is as much a story about love as it is of hate and killing. Yue, the story's main heroine, is the reason for this. She is also the reason that this didn't turn into just another 'dark anti-hero goes out and gets revenge' story. His meeting with Yue is one of several turning points in Hajime's growth as a character and one of the most well-orchestrated ones I've ever seen (regardless of whether it is the anime or the web novel). Yue is the kindred spirit who helps Hajime stay one step away from the abyss of endless carnage he would otherwise have stepped into. This is despite the fact that she is just as broken as he is, psychologically. The way this story uses the various heroines to help Hajime regain bits and pieces of his humanity is perhaps the most emotionally powerful aspect in retrospect. Yue helps him stop short of losing his humanity, Shia (the bunny-girl) stops Yue and Hajime from becoming completely isolated from the rest of the world, Aiko reminds him of what it is to be human, and Kaori reconnects him to his past, solidifying his reasons for his journey. Without all of these heroines, it is likely this story would not have been nearly as powerful, as Hajime's journey would have probably just been a series of 'kill this, kill that, have sex with Yue, kill more'. I didn't mention Tio, Shizuku and Myuu in the previous paragraph because they serve slightly different roles from the other girls. Tio is pretty much just comedy relief as a character, despite being as in love with Hajime and the other girls. Shizuku is, surprisingly, the most 'normal' girl in the group and the one who serves as the most solid connection between the self-isolating harem of girls who are mostly disinterested in anything other than Hajime (with Aiko being the exception, given her sense of duty to her students). Myuu... well lets just say Myuu's role is fairly similar to Yue's, except that she awakens Hajime's obsessively protective instincts that come to define him later on. The story itself is dark and brutal despite the frequent humorous interactions between the characters. This is inevitable, as the world of Tortus is a world ruled by an insane god whose greatest pleasure lies in ruining the lives of his slaves. There are a lot of hugely powerful battle scenes, crazy plot twists, and hilarious results of Hajime's trip through Tortus. The ending of the main story (which will probably be published sometime next year in the LNs) is as hugely dramatic as the beginning. After Story Assessment The After Story, which is still ongoing, is HUGE. It is almost as big as the main story, but it is told in non-chronological order as a bunch of arcs and one-off postings rather than in order. Despite this, the After Story has provided me with probably fifty times as many laughs as the main story did. Part of this is because what trials and tribulations that occur are mostly overcome by Hajime's already beyond-divine power gained during the main story or the power of his OP friends, wives, allies, and classmates. Whether it is Myuu attracting UMAs, demons, ghosts, and youkai like a bug lamp attracts flies or Kousuke falling deeper into the chuuni abyss as he builds his accidental harem in Hajime's service, I haven't stopped laughing in weeks. Of course, there are some deadly serious points, perhaps the most powerful of which are the stories involving Kouki, who struggles with the after-effects of his time on Tortus more than anybody else (for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who has already read the existing LNs or the main story of the web novel). However, even in these, Shirokome does an excellent job of keeping the balance from taking you too far into grimdark to truly enjoy. Overall assessment up to the present Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou does great at every aspect of what I want from this kind of story. It has great feels, it has great comedy, it has awesome characters, and its plot is close to sublime. More importantly, it is put together in such a way that all the elements enhance one another nearly to perfection. If you like isekai with a wide dark streak that can make fun of itself, this is an excellent choice.