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About this blog

This is a blog primarily focusing on but not limited to VNs.  It is primarily designed to express my opinion on otaku media (jrpgs, anime, manga, LNs, VNs, etc), individual VNs, and otaku community issues.   Most of the posts are related to my VN of the Month and Random VN columns, originally started in threads in the forums. 

As of March of 2017, I'm also looking for people to help with VN of the Month.

Entries in this blog

Zettai★Maou ~Boku no Mune-kyun Gakuen Saga~

I had a lot of reasons for avoiding playing this game... first, it had really crappy-looking gameplay. Second, it was tagged both in Japanese and English with the hetare protagonist tag. Third, the concept was pretty stupid, even by VN standards... On all these counts, I was correct in my assessment as to whether this would be playable. That's not to say this VN doesn't have a lot of positive points. The heroines are generally well-developed, and they do have their own paths (though all

Clephas

Clephas

Yuusha vs Eiyuu

First, as a fantasy anime/VN fan, one thing you'll inevitably run into are these two words... 'yuusha' (勇者) and 'eiyuu' (英雄).  The problem with these two words is that they inevitably end up translated as the same thing... 'hero'.  However, the nuance of each word is dramatically different, at least for those of us who actually care about nuance. Now, 'yuusha' is a word you hear mostly in certain types of fantasy VN or anime... these include 'sent to another world' and 'classic swords and s

Clephas

Clephas

Yuki Koi Melt

This VN is by the makers of Pure Girl, Innocent Girl, and the Grisaia series... Front Wing. As such, I couldn't ignore it, since it turned out not to be a nukige... though it feels like one toward the end of the heroine paths. To be honest, I didn't have any hopes for this game, so it was nice that it had such good humor in it - think Pure or Innocent if they weren't nukige. I'm keeping this short because playing this game got really stressful in the heroine paths, and it is a bit hard for

Clephas

Clephas

Yuganda Uso to Koi no Letter

First, I should note that, despite how it begins, this VN turned out to not be a nukige.  However, it is definitely not a 'pure love' story from beginning to end.  A literal translation of the Japanese name would be 'The warped lie and love letter' with 'letter' being interchangeable with the word for a stereotyped reputation. Second, I should warn anyone who plays this to either do Saeko's path last or read only her path.  It is just too hard to pick another heroine after picking Saeko.  I

Clephas

Clephas

Yoru Meguru, Bokura no Maigo Kyoushitsu

This game is the second project made by Samoyed Smile, a subsidiary of the same corporation that owns Softhouse-seal.  This is, incidentally, why the game has the really crappy lip-sync and sex animations so familiar from that company's works.  That said, this company is not a nukige company, despite the lateral relationship. The game starts with a young teacher, Haruki, teaching a class of dropouts at a night school.  Haruki, having had horrible experiences at his first teaching job, has a

Clephas

Clephas

Yorite Konoha wa Kurenai ni

Yorite Konoha wa Kurenai ni is the newest release from Lump of Sugar, the company responsible for Tayutama.  Lump of Sugar is a huge hit and miss company.  Though it was more consistent ten years ago, of its last seven releases, only two have been at VN of the Month level (eligible if nothing better is there), which is a huge downward move from the era of the original Tayutama.  Lump of Sugar's art-style is 'classic moe', updated with current tech but mostly left alone at the most basic level. 

Clephas

Clephas

Yomegami

I'm going to say this straight out... Awesome job, Alcot!!!  There is a peculiar balance needed to make the perfect fantasy story-focused charage... and it has literally been years since the last time a VN has managed it.  I should know, since I play everything fantasy that isn't a nukige and some that are.  Alcot's formula of comedy (in particular sexual comedy and situational comedy) is pretty straightforward and easy to enjoy, going across cultural lines fairly easily.  As such, it

Clephas

Clephas

Yome Sagashi ga Hakadori Sugite Yabai!

Mmm... first, I should probably mention my first encounter with the company that made this VN, Hulotte, Imouto no Okage de Motesugite Yabai!  Moteyaba was a pretty straightforward take on the 'popular protagonist that forms a harem he eventually chooses a girlfriend from' trope, and as a result, while it was decent, I didn't find anything to be particularly interesting about it.  In a way the same can be said about Yomeyaba, in that it uses the same (common to about ninety percent of charage) tr

Clephas

Clephas

Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary

Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary is a VN made by Azarashi Soft, a company that I’ve ignored up until now due to its obsession with the Amakano series (a series which is aesthetically uninteresting to me). It is written by Kizuki (of Tasogare no Sinsemilla, Gurenka, and Hanono) and Onsen Daisuke (of Kon Kon and Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort). Kizuki was responsible for the writing of the common route and the central heroine route (Alice’s), as well as the character settings. Apparently, Onsen Daisuke w

Clephas

Clephas

Yakusoku no Natsu, Mahoroba no Yume

I'll say this first off... this game actually needed locked paths or a true ending.  Like most Windmill games, the character interactions are pretty heavily reliant on easygoing manzai humor and running character personality and behavior jokes (in fact, most VN humor is based on that).   This game has a cast of four writers (one amateur, one h-scene specialist, and two established names), including Imashina Rio (Gin'iro Haruka and Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai) and Kagami Yuu (ef, Eden*, and Mirai Nostal

Clephas

Clephas

Wow, what the heck is this...

... something to look forward to.  Amatsutsumi is nothing like what I thought it would be, in a good way (at least from my point of view).  Purple Soft really has been going off in weird directions with their last three non-FD titles... Hapymaher was a kamige, Chrono Clock was good... this one could go either way, but the beginning is pretty fascinating (in the way watching a car crash is fascinating from the outside). 

Clephas

Clephas

World Election

Here it comes, a possible VN of the Month!!!  Seriously, I hadn't expected that Whirlpool's ten year anniversary game would be this good.  It is written by the same person who wrote Koisuru Doll to Omoi no Kiseki, and it feels in many ways like a return to the better of Whirlpool's two distinct styles.  Whirlpool's two styles are: 1- A straight moege/charage that makes a vague attempt at seriousness on occasion and inevitably falls into the habit of producing endlessly repeated 'ongoing jok

Clephas

Clephas

WN: Skill ga Mieta Nidome no Jinsei wa Chouyoyuu, Hatsukoi no Hito to Tanoshiku Sugoshitemasu

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/1177354055057378382 This is a short and complete series about a guy who dies and is reincarnated in a parallel version of himself, where he could see his status and has a skill that rewards him for repetitive actions.  Generally speaking, this story doesn't really have any complex elements.  The protagonist is something of an idiot about things he isn't interested in while being highly effective at learning and mastering things he does have an interest in.  He does

WN: Shinja Zero no Megami-sama to Hajimeru Isekai Kouryaku

This particular WN series falls into the set called 'transference', as opposed to summoning or reincarnation.  The protagonist, Takatsuki Makoto and his classmates freeze to death in a bus buried in an avalanche, only to wake up in another world, inside the Temple of Water, where it is explained to them that they have been saved by the mercy of that world's gods.  They all receive skills and are more powerful than the natives... except for Makoto, whose status doesn't rise when he levels and onl

Clephas

Clephas in Japanese literature

WN: Seichou Cheat de Nandemo Dekiru you ni Narimashita ga, Mushoku dake wa Yamerarenai you desu

This particular series follows a guy who dies after being trampled by an escaped horse as he is revived in another world and told to live freely.  He is given two major growth cheats right up front (20 times experience gain, plus 1/20 experience to next level) and becomes immensely powerful in a relatively short time, while gathering a group of friends and lovers around him (he only has two lovers, which is pretty low compared to most isekai protagonists).   Throughout most of the story, he

WN: Sairin Yuusha

To be honest, Sairin Yuusha is one of the worst WNs I've ever read.  I kept reading until it cut off because I thought it would eventually get good, but the protagonist is weak and there is never any real progress with the heroine.  The story itself is a revenge story about a hero who is murdered by his own party right before he is about to fight the Demon King.  Thirty years later, he is summoned again and starts on a journey of revenge, forming an alliance with a former demon queen and general

WN: Omake Tenseisha

Omake Tenseisha is the story of a girl who lived through hell on earth and had a new hell waiting for her when she was tossed aside by the gods and reincarnated again.  For those who have read a Snake's Life or Kumo, this will be a story that is somewhat familiar.  The protagonist is fairly similar to Kumoko (naturally ruthless, tends to think cheerfully most of the time, ends up eating everything that is her enemy, lol).   The story itself is one long 'driven out of a town', 'ate everythin

WN: Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen mochi datta nanode

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3581fh/ This series is the odd one out of my recent reviews.  That is because it is a sci-fi story that contains a bit of Cowboy Bebop, a bit of Outlaw Star, and even a small dose of Tenchi Muyo(albeit a weak version with less mystic elements).  The protagonist, Hiro, wakes up in the cockpit of his ship Krishna from the game he had been playing for the past few years.  He has no memory of how it came to that, and his ship is floating around a random asteroid in a

WN: Maou-gun Saikyou no Majutsushi wa Ningen Datta

This particular WN is remarkable for a lot of reasons.  The protagonist of this story is reincarnated in another world as the adopted son of a lich general in the service of Dairokuten Maou (lol, if you can guess who else got reincarnated, I'll clap in congrats), and he joins the demonic armies as a commander while hiding the fact that he is human behind a skull mask and lich's robes.  The story itself begins after he has already begun to become famous as a conquering commander but before his re

WN: Isekai de Skill o Kaitaishitara Chito no Yome ga Zoushokushimashita

To be blunt, this WN is a straight-out slave harem story in another world.  The protagonist is a run-down salaryman who escaped a black company workplace only to end up summoned to a world where the king was raring to put his summoned heroes to work.  Quite naturally, the protagonist wants nothing to do with this, so he arranges to get himself thrown out of the castle and goes off on his own.   The protagonist, like most summoned heroes, has a unique skill (typical of this kind of story). 

WN: Imouto no Iru Seikatsu

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n6442ez/ This particular series is another reincarnation story, but it stands out because the entirety of the story so far is concentrated in his childhood, where he is constantly dealing with problems beyond his abilities, faced with situations where revealing his true abilities would harm his family, and generally trying to keep his yanderish little sister from being lonely.  His name is Alto Cranepot, and he is the bastard son of a noble who married into an Earl

WN: Ikidaore no Shoujo o Hirotta to Omottara Mirai no Maou Datta

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7471fo/34/ This is a very short WN I read on a whim over the course of a few hours.  It is complete for what it is, and what it is isn't what you'd think.  The protagonist is a reincarnator who was reborn in a game world, where he became a rootless traveling mage, sightseeing in the fantasy world he knew from the game.  One day, he comes across a collapsed Dragonkin girl, who turns out to be the demon lord from the game. This story is one of romance and redem

WN: Hell Mode

(Note: To be clear, this is an unfinished VN with over 500 chapters) Hell Mode is the WN I recently began (and finished to the current point) reading.  It is another reincarnation one, where the protagonist was a heavy gamer who is one of those types that loves high-difficulty setups, reveling in grinding, conquering dungeons, and generally indulging in his desire to see more.  He goes to a website where he gets the choice of difficulty and his job, and he picks the hardest difficulty Hell

WN: Hazurewaku no "Joutai Ijou Skill" de Saikyou ni Natta Ore ga Subete wo Juurin suru made

This WN, also published in the West as Failure Frame, is a variant on the 'isekai summoning' genre where the summoner is malicious toward the summoned.  This particular sub-genre has become more common of late (since the straight-up good people summon heroes out of desperation setup has gotten stale), but this one stands out to me for the sheer evil and brutality of the antagonist (the goddess) and the protagonist (who is probably the epitome of an anti-hero in its most brutal form).   One

WN: Cheat Majutsu de Unmei o Nejifuseru

To be honest, this is probably the best of the last six WNs I've read in the last month.  It is also complete.  This one is a 'same world, different protagonist' story from the same world as Elf Tensei kara no Cheat Kenkokuki, and the protagonist of that one is the father one of the two heroines.  However, even if you haven't read the first story, this one stands on its own quite well. The protagonist, Souji, was a player of a game on Earth that was insanely realistic, with time compression
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