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Random VNs: Minamijuujisei Renka


Clephas

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Minamijuujisei Renka is by far my favorite Studio Ryokucha game.  The setting, the characters, and the presentation of this VN are first class.  The only real downside this VN has is that the true (Kanori's) ending stops short of tying up all the loose ends.

The setting of this VN is in a southern island, purchased from old Britain by a now-defunct kingdom and colonized by the nobles from that kingdom.  It is called the 'Dukedom of Gwinburg', despite being ruled by a king because of the fact that the individual who originally developed the islands (two centuries before) was a Duke who merely bowed and lent his lands to his king-in-exile when that king arrived, fleeing from their original homeland. 

This VN is surprisingly deep in concept, touching on concepts that will be familiar to anyone who is aware of the way South Africa was alike during Nelson Mandela's youth.  The white nobility basically lord it over the aboriginal and immigrant communities, despite most of them being laden with debt, and, until Kanori became princess, the majority of the country was either mined-out wasteland or slums (outside of the districts held by the nobility).  Kanori spearheaded an initiative that brought foreign investment - primarily from Japan - as well as building low-cost housing out of abandoned containers from cargo ships, and as a result, the slums disappeared and the wasteland was filled in and rebuilt as an economic district where companies carried out various research that is borderline illegal in their homelands.

The protagonist of the story, Tobe Ryousuke, is brought to the Dukedom by his twin little sisters who agreed to work at a research lab in return for letting him go to school.  The reason for this is that he was working his ass off to support them, then collapsed from exhaustion, making the twin geniuses resolve to act to save him from himself. 

Ryousuke is a kind-hearted young man with a maturity far beyond his years and a streak of altruism a mile wide.  He is also athletic and sincere (though he is only of average intelligence), with an extensive knowledge of survival techniques and outdoor pursuits such as hunting and spelunking.  His good nature easily worms him into the hearts of the heroines, especially Kanori, and he is one of the more believable protagonists I've seen in one of Studio Ryokucha's games.

There are five heroines in this game... Miyako (Ryousuke's cousin on his mother's side), Mitsuki (a genius engineer who is utterly incapable of taking care of herself), Elize (a loli knight who is Kanori's best friend and a member of the white nobility), Sakuya (a mischievous master hacker who spends most of her time exploring the old tunnels beneath the school), and Kanori (the immensely popular half-Japanese princess of Gwinburg). 

Miyako's personality is more than a little acidic, and she is the type of tsundere who insults everyone in public and is extremely dependent on her beloved oniichan in private (her oniichan being Ryousuke).  As a heroine, she is fairly adorable, and the drama in her path primarily focuses on Ryousuke's and the twins' origins rather than her own issues, since her issues are mostly resolved in the common route.

Mitsuki is also more than a little dependent on her small circle of friends and loved ones, both in the physical and emotion sense.  The reason is that she is incapable of noticing hunger, thirst, or even outright exhaustion once she begins thinking on a subject, sometimes leading to her spending several days at a time in thought, not taking care of herself.  At first she is merely dependent on Ryousuke's kindness (he brings her food and looks in on her to make sure she isn't dying), but that turns to rather open romantic affection relatively early in the common route.  Her path is the weakest of the five, focusing on side issues that don't reflect that much on the main story.

Elize is a 'tsundere with reason'.  Setting aside the fact that she is an adorable loli that is easily lured using candy in particular and food in general, her tendency toward violence against the protagonist primarily comes because of her worries about Kanori.  She has an incredibly strong sense of duty and is more than a little uptight.  However, that translates into a rather intense 'dere' when she falls completely for Ryousuke.  Her path is primarily focused on the political element of the main story.

Sakuya is a living loli-shaped ball of curiosity, driven to seek out others' secrets by her impulsive nature.  The way she falls for the protagonist naturally extends from her curiosity, and hers is perhaps the most straightforward of the romantic paths.  Her path is primarily focused on the espionage elements of the main story.

Now we come to Kanori.  Kanori is a multi-faceted character, being both an anti-establishment princess driven by the political and social realities of her current country, as well as a girl in love with a guy she only met recently.  She is also a 'fujoshi' (spelled 'rotten girl' in kanji).  Her love for Ryousuke is sincere and straightforward, but she has some serious issues hiding behind that smiling exterior.  Her path covers all the aspects of the crisis that is ongoing in the story, but it ends on a somewhat unsatisfying note due to a failure to tie up the major loose ends of the main story (everything is revealed, but the revealed secrets are not brought to a resolution). 

Overall, this is a game that combines the best of the moe-charage and story-focused VN.  It has a wonderful cast of characters, a well-thought-out setting, and it presents it all in a wonderfully beautiful package.  If it weren't for Studio Ryokucha's utter inability to handle making a satisfying ending, this VN would have reached kamige level.

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