Haruru Minamo ni
Entry posted by Clephas
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I first encountered Clochette with Suzunone Seven, a game recommended to me by a friend who lives in Japan. Suzunone Seven is one of the more memorable charage I've played, both for the depth of its story and the depth of its setting and characters. Now, Clochette is frequently jokingly referred to as 'oppai central' or 'The Oppai Corporation'... or any number of other similar names, with good reason. Their style has it so that all the heroines are either close to flat or... the opposite. It is a source of ironic amusement to me that this company produces some of the best fantasy charage in existence on a completely consistent level. In other words, I've yet to see a kusoge from this company, though Amatsu Misora ni wasn't memorable compared to its fellows.
Speaking of Amatsu Misora ni, this game utilizes the same world setting as that game... a world where the kami of Japan exist and have a close relationship with the Shinto priests (guuji) that enshrine them. If you want a crash course in Shinto concepts, this and Lovekami are two of the best non-dark VNs to turn to, in that way. The protagonist is the descendant of a long line of such priests and is the older brother of an arahitogami, which is a kami that possesses the form of a living human being (in the legendary histories of Japan's Imperial family, the founding Emperor was also an Arahitogami). His little sister is the 'kami of the mountains', the second generation to possess that title, and as a result both of them have been bound by her fate as a kami. The protagonist, as a result, has become an overly serious, immensely capable youngster who is far too wise for his age when it comes to the doings of supernatural beings.
At the beginning of this VN, a new 'Umigami' (kami of the sea) has been sent to take up the role in the town below the mountain, and it is Tatsuiki's (the protagonist) job to help her settle in. Unfortunately, Kanau (her human name) is a bit... immature as a kami and is only barely able to use her powers and completely incapable of fulfilling the role demanded of an ubusukami/tochigami (a kami who protects a region and its people from harm). As a result, he gets stuck helping her mature as a kami... a role he is surprisingly willing to take on.
The heroines of this VN are:
Kanau- A girl who lost her parents in a traffic accident and was deified in the process. She is kind-hearted, gentle, and extremely strong-willed. However, she is also more than a little clumsy and slow on the uptake. Nonetheless, her ability to keep going on in the face of suffering and misfortune is definitely a positive. She is the game's true/main heroine, so I seriously suggest playing her path last, as it is the deepest of all the paths.
Miori- The protagonist's little sister and the second-generation kami of the mountains. Raised as an arahitogami and worshiped almost from birth, she carries out her role as a tochigami seriously but with the ease of long practice. She is also immensely powerful, as she is also the overall tochigami for both the land and sea, though an ancient vow made by the first generation binds her to the mountain. She is definitely a brocon imouto, but she is also very similar to her brother in her wisdom and perceptiveness, so she isn't one of those little sister heroines who does her best to seduce oniichan from beginning to end. Her path is full of tribulations, though not the ones you would expect from an incest path. In her path, the origins of the dual tochigami system in place in the region is revealed, as is the reason why the protagonist has such extreme effects on the various supernatural beings there. I suggest reading this path after the other three heroines but before Kanau's path.
Ema- Ema is Miori and Tatsuki's osananajimi. Kind-hearted and intelligent, she almost instinctively does her best to help those around her. The only downside is that she and Tatsuki have one of 'those' osananajimi relationships...
Asumi- The daughter of a fisherman's family, she is an atheist by choice, despising all kami while doing her best to ignore their existence... kami of the sea in particular. While she is apparently quiet and stand-offish, this is revealed to be a simple function of the fact that she is terrible at showing how she feels on her face. She is very perceptive and instinctively grasps concepts that others take months or years to figure out in moments. However, when she doesn't have any interest in something, she can be unnaturally ignorant about a subject. Her path delves pretty deeply into the concepts of enshrining the dead and natural disasters to turn them into 'nigimitama' (the gentle side of a deity) from aramitama (the wild side of a deity).
Mei- Mei is a young raijin (kami of thunder) who comes to the city to help Kanau. However, soon after arriving, she ends up wanting to be enshrined by Tatsuki (a phenomenon that is by no means unique to her). She is a bit of a tsundere, with the typical extreme deredere mode that most tsundere obtain after they reach a certain point in a relationship. She is also extremely innocent and naive when it comes to humans and interacting with them, as she was born from pure lightning. Her path explores some of the pitfalls of the aramitama and the duality of the nature of a kami, and her personal growth is rather pleasing during the path.
Now, let's discard the Shinto jargon for a moment and go back to what this game is all about... I'm going to be straight when I say that if you've played any of Clochette's games you probably have an idea of their style. Their heroine paths have some of the best balance between ero, ichaicha, character development, and story that I've ever seen in the genre. As a result, they are extremely easy to read, if you aren't made incredulous by breast size issues. That said, the writer's fetishes definitely come out in the h-scenes (he definitely has a thing about impregnation), and I had to rofl at some of the sexual references during the heroine paths.
The endings in this game are exactly what you'd want from a story-heavy charage. They are reasonably detailed and extend far beyond the 'present' in which the main story is based, giving you a good idea of where the characters are headed and the happiness it has brought them. As such, if you want to see what my idea of an ideal charage ending looks like, this is a good company to look at.
Overall, this is a first class charage... one that reminds me of why I still dig through the rubbish for the gems.
- AKB4ty7 and ChaosRaven
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