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Comments
Visual novel by Front Wing I think about an underworld janitor in a world where the underword is a school and he (obviously) has a harem, then stuff happens.
Amazing!
Okay, cross the premise for SZS with Katawa Shoujo (Cross Channel would be a closer comparison but I'm guessing you don't read VNs) and make the MC a cross between Araragi Koyomi and a well written Shiba Tatsuya.
It's about an orphan who works for a covert anti-terrorism joint American branch of the JSDF attending a school for very rich families to dump socially autistic embarrassment children. The school prior to him joining consisted of five girls.
Sakaki Yumiko is a rather violent and asocial girl. First student there (Her father created the school specificially for her), she acts aloof from the others and takes an immediate dislike to Juicy Yuuji. She's a lot like Hitagi from Monogatari and honestly the most boring girl so far (With one game out of three translated).
Amane Suou: A twenty year old girl who had been held back two years and the mother of the group. A mystery to Yuuji (Her past is the one that comes closest to being as dark as his own) and she wants to be his big sister or get in his pants. Second best character.
Matsushima Michiru: A singularly stupid girl Yuuji's age and one of the game's two primary sources of humour. She has bad codependency that makes her pretty much unable to do anything by herself and she dyes her hair bottle blonde to try to scare off people. Always puts her foot in it, can't do anything right and is utterly endearing.
Best Girl Irisu Makina: Obligatory loli of the cast and Amane's best friend/little sister stand in. She is utterly adorable. She was in a coma several years before the story began so she can't talk right and her vocabulary is peppered with old slang, English words and lewd jokes. She's a bit of a parasite that seeks out the strongest person around and latches on to them. She comes from the richest family in Japan who have pretty much disowned her and she has issues. The first one Yuuji feels comfortable befriending because he figures her out and she's smart enough to know she's been figured out and rolls with it. Pretty much my favourite vn girl ever.
Komine Sachi: The youngest girl in the cast, She has no sense of personal agency and lives to serve others while making snarky quips. Very lewd and disarmingly intelligent (You can't tell if the joke is on her or you a lot of times). As she can't exist without serving and Michiru can't live without being served; the two of them have formed a symbiosis that regularly lapses into sado-masochism.
It's extremely well written, very very funny and every line out of Makina's mouth is a miracle of the universe.
The adaptation will probably butcher it, but there you go.
Opening
My VN repertoire consists of The Knife of the Traitor and Dysfunctional Systems episode 1. Probably gonna read World End Economica episode 1 next. So yeah, the domain of VNs is pretty new to me. That said, I've seen a little SZS and heard descriptions of Katawa Shoujo, but I don't know either of those two characters you cite.
Anyway, this sounds like a school comedy/drama series with harem elements and walking bags of tropes...
So I finished Nobunaga the Fool.
And suddenly, reincarnation!
Better than I'd have expected, but that's not saying much. At least it felt like an ending, which isn't something I can say for some other anime endings I've seen recently *cough*riddle*cough*wizardbarristers*cough*.
Also I started Sea Story. (a.k.a. Umi Monogatari)
I had started Elemental Gelade earlier, but for some reason I don't feel like watching that at the moment, despite it having a really awesome OP.
Also trying to decide my opinion of Ragnarok the Animation.
I might watch Spice and Wolf soon.
Meanwhile, Lagrin 2 is probably just going to trickle into my repertoire episode by episode, when I don't feel like watching anything else but just want to waste some time. At least it's a good thing that I don't know what to expect from it.
Expect stupidity.
So with The Fool and Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushi done, I am finished with the Spring season I was watching, besides the ones that are continuing.
I assure you it's much better than the sum of its parts. I'm trying not to mention all the terrorism and military stuff, and I can't really put into words how Juicy Yuuji is the best harem protagonist in the history of ever.
Also the girls dress in KKK outfits and have clandenstine meetings when you start to get closer to x girl.
Also the writing is outstanding and I usually don't really care about that in vns, outside of ones Romeo did (Play Cross Channel! Play Cross Channel!)
Also I'm one of about five people who adored Umi Monogatari. It's amazing!
Umi Monogatari was less than amazing for me, mostly because I didn't like second protagonist girl (non-underwater girl) and I was disappointed that for a show called Umi Monogatari, it took place almost entirely on land. I want a good underwater anime. :c
But on the other hand, it has an OP by marble.
I think when I actually watched it I had less superficial opinions about it, but that was a while-ish ago and it really didn't make enough of an impression on me for me to remember really...
Umi Monogatari's OP sounds more like an ED in its style but that is oddly refreshing.
I've heard it compared to Uta~Kata though it only seems very superficially similar, for now. It's even stylistically different -- Uta~Kata is more contemplative while Sea Story is more...vivid, for lack of a better word.
I'm hoping that Sea Story turns out to be have a more engaging story than it's had for these first three or four episodes.
And lol @ Lagrin 2. I got my enjoyment from the first season; I'm satisfied.
Re harem protagonist: is it really that much of an honor to be the best in a category like that?
but what about when it is not an absurd confluence of events
Harem and harem leads aren't bad by definition, they just have a very high chance of not being good because of how tired the setup is.
Yuuji has a highly developed backstory. He's witty, professional, gets just as much if not more character development than the girls per route and that's just the first game. I've heard it gets even better when the main plot comes into focus in the latter two games.
I don't understand this sentence~
Yuuji gets dangerously close to edgelord sometimes, and I really hope I'm wrong about that. I'm not really fond of angst, justified or not.
I have played the Majikoi games which I adore, and a bit of Lovely Cation. Both look pretty, but Majikoi just has such a likable cast ofcharacters that goes beyond the girls you can pursue. I enjoyed how both ends of the relationship are developed. Both characters fall in love in each route rather than just a sudden realization on the MC's part.
I assume you're referring to the first encounter with the police and suchlike? He gets massively better when he begins to interact with the girls regularly. The big turning point is when he befriends Makina.
The best vn I've ever played is Cross Channel, The MC is the worst scum on the face of the earth (validated in universe), all the girls are unlikeable fucked up and it's perfect.
It also has one of the most misleading openings I've ever seen.
I so feel dethroned...
Eh if I ever get a PSV I'll play RE:VICE[D] which has to count twice since it's otome.
Only visual novels I've played are RE:Alistair++ (doesn't count because it's not Japanese), Piece of Wonder (doesn't count because it's awful), and Sakura Wars/Sakura Taisen 5 (which I did like).
Might play more but effort, also I don't actually think I have the attention span for a visual novel that is either not extremely short or has no gameplay (and at this point I barely even play games anymore for more than a few hours so I don't know if even that would help). >.>
Filed under things I should've posted ages ago.
Sorry, it was the first thing I thought of when seeing that.
If you're only going to play one visual novel before you die then make it Ever17. It's a fantastic and very well known survival thriller about seven people (Or is it eight? Wait, why does it say nine..?) trapped in an underwater theme park that's got seven days until the structural integrity collapses and it implodes due to water pressure. It's a really great science fiction story that shows exactly what the medium is capable of with a lot of heart to it (Something pretty lacking in the writer's newest games; #999 and Virtue's Last Reward).
Also the wikipedia page will totally ruin it for you.
Will consider it! if I remember.
So, as the passage of time is dictated by what cartoons are on TV in a country halfway around the world from me, I am now able to finally consider it to be summer, with the first couple new anime having just aired today. Sabagebu and probably others had pre-airing events, but now it's started for reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal, and I have opinions, sort of.
Free! Eternal Summer: The episode starts out with a lot of callbacks to the first season and a general reintroducing-the-cast vibe, which would probably work fine for me if I hadn't watched the entire first season two days ago. As it is though, it felt kind of redundant but that's no fault of the show.
Aside from that, we get some funny scenes, some cute scenes, and the introduction of the major plot elements. Most of the characters are in their last year of high school, so it looks like we're getting "what are you going to do after high school?" stuff. It worked out well in K-ON!! (and a hundred other shows that did the same thing, of course), so hopefully Free! pulls it off well too. As for weird things though, muscles maniac Gou has apparently started being enamored with her brother's muscles as well despite this not being the case in the first season and just generally being odd. Oh well.
I'm undecided about whether the OP or ED are better or worse than the previous season's, but either way the ED is pretty great. Cosplay all over the place, Haru is a merman, and the song is called "Future Fish."
Basically, the first season was pretty great and I'm hoping this season is good as well. The fact that we live in a world where KyoAni can be counted on for bishounen anime but not bishoujo anime is pretty much ridiculous, but it seems to be reality.
Bakumatsu Rock: This show had the unfortunate luck of being a Deen anime that started on the same day as a Kyoto Animation anime, and the difference is astounding. Free! is gorgeous, while Bakumatsu Rock averages something like one frame every three seconds in the very first scene. But what it lacks in animation it makes up for in insanity, if nothing else. I don't think I actually like the music though. But for the time being, I'm willing to keep watching. This will probably change once any other shows at all have started airing.
Tomorrow we'll get some subset of Glasslip, Tokyo Ghoul, Shirogane no Ishi: Argevollen, Futsuu no Joshikousei ga "Locodol" Yattemita., and Rail Wars, depending on fansubbers/official streams. The thing about not actually following anime news is that I have no expectations for anything, so I can't say I'm looking forward to any of them! I most want to watch Locodol and maybe Tokyo Ghoul, but we'll see after tomorrow I guess.
Argevollen is alright. It looks nice, the premise is rather grounded and I liked the grunt mecha. Nothing stood out to me for characters in the first episode though. The MC and girl we did get to see the most of annoyed me.
Tokyo Ghoul is kind of hilariously overdone and not in a good way. Like Crime Edge but without the charm. Well, we'll see. It's always fun hearing Kanahana outside her pigeonhole.
Glasslip was a pretty paint by numbers PA Works romdram, but the main girl stood out as immediately endearing and lovely. If we count Miuna as Nagiasu's main girl, then PA Works haven't had a main girl yet that I wouldn't take home with me.
Bakumatsu Rock was a thing that I viewed with my eyes, I enjoyed it quite a lot but it's one of those things I'd never recommend in good faith. I just hope it can become my new Makai Ouji.
Tokyo Ghoul has lots of brilliant stuff ahead maybe. I can kind of see it evolving into something with a great message eventually but the first episode kind of felt like "A lot of things that could've been explained and not shown". Gore wasn't up to scratch, even in the scene where crazy girl tears out MC's guts. A lot is offscreen. Of course, the fanservice is in true seinen style, they will not let you forget it is happening. Not like... Monogatari, because that is usually in good faith and if they overdo it it'll be funny or an aside to a continuing thing. Here I actually had to look away from the screen because it was kinda gross.
I don't like that I can see the set up (because he has her organs he needs to feed more) and a path for it (organization of ghouls that the show will present as omniscient even though the situation shouldn't allow for it), but I still feel it has promise.
I can see what you mean, the eat/vomit scene that went on for a considerable while and the FAMILY MEAT thing but there's a brilliance in the direction even then. I'd like to imagine it as art that's a skew too avant garde to be modern.
I think my problem with Tokyo Ghoul is just that it's gore+a genre I don't appreciate, because here the shortcuts bother me whereas they don't in my favorite genres.
Also, why are they able to surgically remove crazy girl's organs and give them to him if ghouls are immune to blades?
Don't ask awkward questions!
Rail Wars: Actually pretty fun. The author/director/scriptwriter obviously have a great love of train culture and it just breezes past all the LN cliche stuff.
Tokyo Ghoul: I would like this if it were completely different in every way. Get rid of the shounen superpowers, territory control battles... basically just the entire plot.
Argevollen: Unbearably boring, does nothing new, fails to make me care one bit about any of the characters. I will not be able to bring myself to watch another episode.
Glasslip: I still have no idea what this show is even about. I thought it was about glass but it's apparently about chickens and seeing the future. Even once it starts being about something though, I probably won't like it. The whole thing is really overbearing with its ARE YOU FEELING NOSTALGIC YET? setting/atmosphere/sountrack, etc., even more than anime usually is. I'll keep watching it though since I feel bad that I didn't watch Nagiasu.
Locodol: Bad because reasons. I will keep watching it because I have no taste or decency.
Rail Wars: (see: Locodol)
Today reminded me that anime sucks. Maybe tomorrow will be better? Just kidding, SAO airs tomorrow.
Will start shows from this season in earnest tomorrow or something. Or when the first episodes for everything are out. Otherwise, I'll forget a show or two.
Other thing to note, started symphogear a few hours ago. I am roughly past the halfway mark now. Oh dear. Gekisou Gungir's become a favorite due to how intense the beat is and Heaven's Blade is no slouch either. First time in a while I've been sucked into a show this much. Hibiki's just so endearing. I love it!
Pretty sure the song title in English would be "Abstaining Blade: Slash of Heavenly Wings".
Gekisou Gungnir is pretty much forgotten once Hibiki starts using her take on Kanade's song, which is a pity, but she sees herself as Kanade's successor anyway, even though she's not the most qualified person to talk about what Kanade would do in any given situation.
Also, wait 'til you get to Rainbow Flower. That one's more intense, at least emotionally. (Although a big part of that is the scene it was used in)
That's a shame. Was digging the beat, hope the other one lives up.
Yeah. Eagerly waiting for more. Only thing stopping me from inhaling the whole series right now is a family obligation.
Must. Not. Click. Spoiler.
guh Rainbow Flower
*watches episode 10 of S2 for the thousandth time*
It really is the perfect episode
That's not the episode with Edge Works of Zababa.