[Anime of the Year 2018-IV Fall - Goblin Slayer]

Let's see what I can comment in regard of Fall 2018 anime.

Reincarnated as Slime - Conveniently we just have the third season premiered few days ago. Obviously it has three season means that the series is very popular, and I can definitely see it (Especially with my brother and sister also watch it). The premise is very simple, namely we have an office worker dead after being stabbed only to find himself reincarnated as the slime who soon named as Rimuru. From there, Rimuru build his territory into the strongest one by consolidating thousands of monster that Rimuru named (Note that the power up process in the setting was done by named the creature). All in all, people watch the series for the escapism and I guess Rimuru's cuteness as well.

Goblin Slayer - It's about someone who known as Goblin Slayer dedicated himself to exterminate the goblin which is the weakest monster in usual RPG alongside slime. While the premise is sounds laughable with someone dedicated himself to exterminate weak monster, turned out the writer manage to show on how goblin is no less threatening than dragon or demon lord seeing the goblin in the series can annihilate even experienced adventurers. Also like in Maoyu, the casts here is only called by their job title instead of their name.

Anima Yell - Obviously this is CGDCT series from Kirara, although it did show cheerleading as sports which is something that still rarely shown in the manga or anime (Usually they just used as the eye candy for the obvious reasons). The anime is ended up adapting half of the manga, and overall it's conclusive enough.

Neighbor Vampire - It's about a girl who came across the shut in vampire who then proceed trying her best to befriend the vampire. Also it's called as Kinmosa Vampire, which make sense judging from the character design alone.

Jojo Golden Wind - Araki finally shown his fondness toward Italy by making it as the setting for Jojo Part 5. In here we have Giorno who inherit Joestar blood, although the connection came from the most absurd condition because his blood father is Dio (Joestar's nemesis) who is attached into Jonathan's body (Well bizarre is Jojo's middle name). One day, Giorno saw a gangster who save him crushing anyone else who sell drugs, and so Giorno decided to do his best to stop drugs deal in Italy by joining the mafia group. Of course, his journey is not easy, seeing his rival is more than willing to kill Giorno, and it only getting harder in the latter half with several of Giorno's allies are killed.

Girls in Twilight - I only note this for Uchikoshi, and he didn't manage to write on how the group fight the main villain (Twilight King). For the series itself, it's like Irotoridori with the girls visit the parallel word, and each girls will get an arc that ultimately will make them have superpower.

Zombie Land Saga - It's like Love Live with the girl save their establishment by forming the idol group, except they need to save the whole city and more importantly the girls themselves is the zombies. Obviously the premise is out there so much even the staffs didn't believe that it could work, but the unique premise manage to make it work anyway with second season available in 2021. 

That's all for what I can write in regard of Fall 2018 anime.

[VN of the Month March 2024]

Well out of all three VNs, obviously the VN of Month for March 2024 goes to Unravel Trigger. For the other two, Macau Midnight Madness could be an interesting GL VN only to have the developer using AI for the art, and Delusional Mystery Adventure developer use MTL to translate their VNs into several language. For Unravel Trigger itself, looks like it has nice plot setting like Ryuusei World Actor albeit with vampire, although it's interesting to note that both the director and the artist are worked together on Sousaku Kanojo even though the developer is one of Nexton's branch company instead of Akabei Soft 2 one (So hopefully we may have Shiravune localize Unravel Trigger in the future seeing now they have the licenses for several VNs from Nexton's branch company (One Remake, Suzukuri Karin, Amanatsu)).

That's all for what I can write in regard of March 2024 release.

[Space Sci-fi – Genre Deep Dive]

What I can say is the VNs with space are very rare, only has around 417 VNs according to VNDB so of course it has potential to be developed as the setting for the VNs. While in theory space setting is encouraging the future and imagination (Like STPC linking both of space and imagination), in practice most of space VNs (Or rather work) are took some clue from both of Star Wars and Star Trek, which make sense because both are very prominent franchise with space setting.

Anyway, for more other example of VNs with space setting, I can only think two, Galaxy Angel trilogy and Lunaria. Galaxy Angel has the story deviate from Star Wars, with the Empire being in the side of good and the rebel prince is set as the villain. It also has RTS gameplay with the MC Tact act as the all girl squad commander with Tact need to do his best to have a good relationship with one of his squad member in order to boost her performance in combat, and it's quite successful so much it as anime adaptation (Which is deviate from the VN very much). For Lunaria, while the setting is in virtual space, it also has moon setting with the MC find the main heroine in the unknown Moon server, so yeah it still has real space setting.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of the topic here.

[Steins Gate 0 Review – In The Shadow Of A Giant]

While some may ponder on why 0 exist when the original Steins Gate is already conclusive enough, the answer is surprisingly simple, namely to allow Mages to milk Steins Gate as much as possible. Of course, adapting from the ending directly would obviously very controversial (And back then Mages still has some standard to not going DaSH), so they decided to show us on what happen with Okabe when he did his best to raise up from his big failure. So the fans would see that Okabe's journey to get the true ending is not simply skip the game and then peek the walkthrough to see the correct choice, but instead it'll be full of complication and danger.

Anyway, for the VN, actually it's the adaptation of the light novel of Steins Gate spin off, so in a way 0 is like the fandisc despite calling it as midquel (Not sequel) is also fit because it happen in the middle of Steins Gate. Lastly, I can say that at least Mages still write some nice character writing, especially in regard of Daru and Suzuha relationship. That's all for what I can comment in regard of Steins Gate 0.

PS - I did remember that initially it didn't have PC version, but the people at Committee of Zero worked hard to add this on PC back when it's just released in 2016.

[VN of the Month February 2024]

Nie no Hakoniwa - I just expected that it would be something like Kara no Shoujo only with the art from Sayori (Also yes I know she's not much involved in the drawing seeing that her position is the art director), only to find out that there's many disturbing sex scenes so much it can rival Maggot Bait according to one of the reviewer. Actually there's some suspicious tag even before it was released, but obviously I didn't think much of it. Hakoniwa itself is definitely Sekai's biggest release in 2024 as of now, and yeah you know that Sekai couldn't do much when their biggest release in the first months of 2024 happen to be horror VN with disturbing sex scenes. That aside, at least Hakoniwa should be interesting to play, provided that you didn't mind the disturbing sex scenes.

Lip Trip - This is the first time I got to know about Omegaverse stuff, and I immediately learnt it's more commonly used in BL stories with Lip Trip itself is GL VN. My focus is not on the Omegaverse (The writer didn't write Omegaverse much in Lip Trip anyway) or the unusual setting (It was set in the office instead of usual high school), anyway, but rather the artist which is drawn by Chigusa Minori whose manga I did recently read. For the info, Chigusa Minori work is mostly GL, and her most recent manga is Convenient Semi-Friend.

Other than the two translated VNs, this month we have Whirlpool new VN along with another Crystalia VN. While Crystalia VN usually has nice action scene, it also has a number of prequel and sequel to read. As for VN of the Month for February 2024, I'll just say that the better candidate for that is the new Whirlpool VN (Hajimeru Sekai no Risouron) which currently has slightly higher score in both of Erogamescape and VNDB compared to the Crystalia VN (Setsuna ni Kakeru Koi Hanabi). While it would be nice to have Sekai localized Risouron as the newest Whirlpool VN to localized instead of Nekonin series or the other their short VN, it's just too bad that Sekai may not in the good condition to localized longer Whirlpool VNs.

That's all for what I can write in regard of February 2024 releases.

[Anime of the Year 2018-III Summer - Angolmois: Genkou Kassenki]

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas - The story ending is so obvious in which the heroine has terminal illness and inevitably will die because of said illness, or so that's what the audience thought and obviously the author decided to subverting that formula (The heroine is still dead though). Whether it's good or not is up to each of their own, but at least you won't see the heroine dead because of the illness.

Revue Starlight - I only know this anime is about the childhood friend pair who participate in the duel to get the main role in a play, and the pair are female so there'll be some GL element. I did remember that someone did mention on how Lupercalia resembled this, although obviously Lupercalia didn't have duel even though both are have some dramatic writing. Oh yes, Frontwing is about to release the VN based on this anime in August 6th later.

Island - Speaking of Frontwing, I did remember they did the KS for this anime, although the most important announcement they have is obviously they'll release the English version of the VN sometimes after the anime aired, and they manage to do so a month after the anime was aired. The anime itself is tried to be faithful to the VN, although with 12 episodes slot obviously they need to rush several parts. Despite some critic to the anime, at least Frontwing manage to make clear on how Setsuna is finally married with his true love while the VN didn't show it.

Harukana Receive - It's very appropriate to have the anime about beach volleyball aired in summer, and of course the girls wore the swimsuit for most of the times (Well it's the uniform duh). That aside, the author like to write some fanservice filled sport and yet he still manage to show the usual sport manga trope, as shown in this anime and his other manga (Silver Pole Flower, which is about the pole dancing with said sport is associated with striptease).

Cell At Work - The anime which teach us on how blood cell in our body work, although the author obviously make the blood cell as human in order to make it interesting. At least it prove popular enough so much it has some spin-off.

Happy Sugar Life - Very lighthearted GL on how the popular high school girl find a solace in her little sister figure who is very loyal to her waiting at home, or at least that's what the audience think until the last minutes of episode 1. Turned out that behind the cute art and cheerful opening song both the older and young girl have some baggage which is quite dark, and it's not just limited to both of them. Both the manga and anime ending are mostly the same, so don't bother to check which ending is better.

Jashin-chan Kick - Despite some people aversion towards its comedy, apparently Japanese is far more tolerant toward the comedy so much it has two more season aired with the third season was aired in 2022.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Summer 2018 anime here.

[Polyamorous Endings – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels]

Well, to be blunt people would think of harem ending as some sort of fanservice for the very obvious reason.

Anyway, for the topic, like you say it should be obvious that the writer should just limit it to three heroines in order to have easier time to write the story, and coincidentally threesome ending is quite common in most of VN, such as Konosora, Aoi Tori, and Kunado Kokuki with all of those are coincidentally involving sibling. Speaking of Konosora, actually Pulltop seems to favor threesome ending (Despite their insistence to release their translated VNs without sex scenes) as shown in Kanobito and Miagete Interstellar Focus, although both are obviously not viable VNs to be localized by them. Also while you can have more than two heroines in harem ending, usually those kind of ending (Barring special circumstances) are more common in nukige or have the setting that support it (Like Evenicle duology or HaremKingdom).

Lastly about the moral stuff, admittedly it has some issue, although it's not like I have problem with the harem ending in the first place. So yeah, in the end I guess it's up to each of their own when it come to the opinion on this kind of ending. That's all for what I can comment in regard of this topic.

[School Slice Of Life – Genre Deep Dive]

I think you did summarize the school setting nicely, although I would like to add some.

What I can say is school setting is definitely fill the trope Boring But Practical for the VN developers, and I say this because the writer can have easy time to explain from where the MC can get to know the heroines, and not to mention it make artist's job easier when it come to designing the outfit for the heroines (Just make variation of the school uniform for the heroines at most). Also while someone can argue that it could also has office setting, most of the customers are the office workers who probably longing for the school setting as escapism instead of face the reality with the office setting. That said, I definitely can see that school setting can become oversaturated, especially when the story that didn't need school still using it, as shown in Tokyo Babel.

That's all for what I can write in regard of the school setting.

[Anime of the Year 2018-II Spring - Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii]

Seeing Uma Musume on the list remind me that I need to watch it from the first season, so I'll comment on it later. Anyway, let's see what I can comment in regard of Spring 2018 anime here.

Shokugeki no Souma Train Arc - The writer is clearly started to run out of the idea on the cooking school who keep expelling the students, so he decided to being out the bad guy in order to make the plot more interesting (And obviously allowing the series run longer). That said, it's still not the most desperate writing the writer pull yet.

Aikatsu Friends - Speaking of allowing the series run longer, Bandai decided to try shake the Aikatsu formula by making the idol perform as duet (Or Friend System as the series mention) in order to gain the interest. Unfortunately, unlike the past series it only has 76 episodes, so it's clear Aikatsu franchise popularity has being waned since 2018, which make Friends as the last animated Aikatsu before Bandai decided to make On Parade with that series is the mix of animation and live action.

Izakaya Nobu - Obviously the closest comparison would be Isekai Restaurant, only that it deal with the izakaya (Japanese bar) who somehow ended up in another world without magic (Said world is more like the parallel world with no magic like us). Also unlike Isekai Restaurant, the main focus is on Japanese food which is justified seeing that the Nobu is specialized in Japanese food (And izakaya food usually is Japanese food that was served with the beer).

Gun Gale Online - The side story of SAO, although unlike the main series the MC is not the template of generic isekai MC Kirito, but instead it's a tall woman who want to play as cute girl in MMO. Obviously, said woman decided to play the game when she know she can play as short character, and from there the female keep proving that her short avatar is not going to stop her to being capable in the battlefield.

Magical Girl Site - Another magical girl deconstruction show with the trend is started from Madoka, although unlike usual magical girl show they didn't have transform but instead they only got the superpower. That said, it more than make up with the setting has the female MC need to deal with the rotten situation that she experienced, especially from her older brother. Also it should be mentioned there'll be a lot of scary moment, so yeah it goes without saying the show won't be lighthearted magical girl series.

Gundam Build Driver - Just going to mention that I never follow Gundam closely until Witch from Mercury later, so obviously I didn't watch Build Driver.

Steins Gate 0 - It's very obvious that 0 is one of MAGES setup to milking Steins Gate, although at least it's not as forced as Robotic Notes DaSH. The story itself is depict on how Okabe keep fumbling in the middle of his search for the true ending in Steins Gate, and so we'll going to see on how Okabe desperately navigate what happen if the player didn't follow the walkthrough to get the true ending. By the way while I did say it very clearly milking the franchise, I must say that I like Suzuha and Daru relationship in here. Also it's normal if you call 0 as fandisc, because MAGES actually just adapt the side stories into the game itself.

Persona 5 - Being very popular game, obviously Persona 5 got the anime, although it seems to not quite well received. In any case, at least it seems the story is quite faithful even though the fans didn't like the animation. Oh yes, conveniently Atlus just released Persona 3 Reload, which is the remake of Persona 3 with Persona 5 gameplay.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Spring 2018 anime here.

[VN of the Month January 2024]

For January 2024, interesting to note that it seems Japanese and overseas have different preference when it come to two of the best release of this month, Boku no Suki and Hakkenden, with Japanese prefer the latter (From Erogamescape) and overseas prefer the former (From VNDB). That said, VNDB votes is kind of unreliable anyway since the voters for both VNs are consist of different people, which obviously mean different taste between the voters. As for VN of the Month, well, let's just say that I would chose Hakkenden if only for the (Relatively) high production value. By the way, I know there are five VNs, but out of those only Boku no Suki and Hakkenden are notable enough. No info that I can find about the two doujin VN, and it's interesting to see Sudama Relation has bad reception. Anyway, let me comment on the two VNs below.

Hakkenden - Once again it has higher production value, and it's a new VN from Irodori which as we know has released Ouka Sabaki with the gameplay similar to Ace Attorney (Which turned out it's not the coincidence because the writer did work on several Touhou fangame with Ace Attorney parody). That said, from what I see it seems Japanese is probably have more knowledge about Hakkenden compared to the overseas, so perhaps it's the reason why the VN has better reception in there. Seeing that Shiravune has Ouka Sabaki, I hope that they can also localize Hakkenden sometimes in the future.

Boku no Suki - It's more or less another ensemble VN with trap MC, with the premise his childhood friend suddenly have jealousy toward the MC boy's form because the childhood friend only know when the MC do crossdress as cute girl, so obviously the MC will have some explaining toward his childhood friend before finally become the couple. While the VN has two other heroines (The MC older sister and the childhood friend maid), the VN itself apparently quite short so the main focus is the childhood friend, at least looking from the CG count.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of January 2024 release.

[Fake Ragnarok at 4 AM Review]

@Clephas I said that I didn't think Ragnarok favorably, which obviously is because it's the sequel of the finished VN. That said, of course my feeling can change over time, just like Evenicle 2. It also interesting that Dualtail tried to add Ruin/Madness form into the story in Ragnarok, albeit at limited capacity. While you may think the story is not up to standard compared to Frontier (And admittedly it's the general problem in the sequels), gameplay wise Ragnarok is obviously has many QOL improvement compared to Frontier (If you want to chase S-Rank, and Frontier has tall order to got S-Rank in the first playthrough).

Anyway, my real reason writing this is to talk a bit about my word on Ninetail decision. While I also want to see them localize Lagoon and Saviour, I didn't mind if they localize Ragnarok first. That said, if you ask me which Venus Blood game that I want Ninetail to skip, it's obviously Brave. Then again, looking from the cameo Ninetail proably already decided to localize all Venus Blood games (After Frontier), so there's no other choice to wait until they done with the Kickstarter of their current VN done before moving on to more interesting VN (Especially Lagoon).

[Character Customisation – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels]

In regard of character customization, let's just say that I experienced all three of the modes, although not necessarily in the VNs. For the name, as far as I know only Smee VN that offering the name change feature, and even then their VNs usually have default name in case the player is too lazy to change the name. For gender, I only know Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh DS games that has said feature, and the MC are Silent Protagonist so no need to change the pronoun in the first place. For visual customization, I only experienced it in Yu-Gi-Oh DS games, and while it also available in Pokemon it only for 3DS onwards games (My last experience on playing Pokemon is Pokemon Black a DS game).

Generally speaking, I never bother with this kind of feature unless there's a need for it (Like in HaremKingdom in which the MC is totally nameless), although I suppose it should be nice feature if someone want to do self insert even more, so that's all for what I can talk about this topic.

[Anime of the Year 2018-I Winter - Koi wa Ameagari no You ni]

Violet Evergarden - I only know that it has female MC who is the former child soldier who has lost both hands, has good drawing courtesy of Kyoani, and it's the last work from Kyoani before a mad man struck the tragedy on them.

Citrus - Well, you're right on it being serious GL. A very serious one, so much that my favorite GL reviewer called out Mei as robot just because the author keep writing her as someone who repressed the emotion very much even with Yuzu did her best to thaw Mei's heart. While to be fair Mei's situation is very messy, the fans definitely find the reservation toward what Mei do to Yuzu in the beginning (Forcefully kiss the latter) with the setting (Yuzu became Mei's step-sister) is definitely didn't help at all to the fans reception. So yeah, Citrus is more or less GL series with full of drama, and it's one of the first work with full GL story adapted as the anime.

Sakura Clear Card - After CLAMP took a massive backlash toward their involvement in controversial Blood C, they decided to go back to their less confusing (And successful) word Cardcaptor Sakura with them making the manga in 2016 before asking Madhouse help to animate it in 2018. While it's quite clear that Madhouse can still make good drawing and the opening song is quite good, I'm not quite sure that it can rival the old series, especially with the Clear Card that resemble the old Clow Card and the mysterious situation behind the new characters. Also yes I know the manga is still ongoing, although I didn't feel like to check the manga to see more of the story.

Darling in the FranXX - It's Evangelion like robot story with the MC are a male and female pair who'll become the couple at the end, and of course they'll face a lot of danger in the series. That said, my attention on this is going to a certain controversial scene in episode 14, which apparently cause very severe reaction among the fans so much that it's rumored the VA got the death threat. Other than that, obviously I didn't watch this in the first place, so whatever.

HugPC - Toei clearly understand the fans didn't like no physical fight in KKPC, so much one of the announcement in HugPC is they'll return the physical fight. From there, Toei keep doing their best to satisfy the fans, to the point it become overdone to me by them add the past team into three episodes, which bear the mention those episodes are important episodes because two cadres are defeated in those three episodes. Thankfully Toei didn't make the cadres defeated by past team in the recent series (HSPC). Anyway, HugPC is about Hana who got the task to defeat the enemy that come from the future who chased the mysterious baby Hugtan. Forgot to mention that Kwamura did the design work for HugPC, so of course my favorite Precure reviewer like it (Alongside the crossover episodes).

Emiya Family Menu - Someone definitely notice on how Nasu like to keep writing about food in good detail, and then made the manga about the food in Shirou's household. The anime staff obviously notice another Fate work to milk, and thus we have this anime. As for what I can say, at least the mangaka wrote about the recipe so the Fate fans can have the same food as Fate characters.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Winter 2018 anime

[Anime of the Year 2017-IV Fall - Juuni Taisen]

Dies Irae - It was crowdfunded to have it available in the first place, so the limited number of episodes is quite understandable despite that Dies Irae has the same length that could rivaled Fate/Stay Night (Obviously not every fans would willing to shell the money to rival Ufotable budget), which of course lead up to the pacing problem. Anyway, let's just say that its format is not really fit in the first place for the anime even with Masada joining the anime production, especially with the very lengthy prose.

Animegatari  - I only know that one of the episode has Precure parody, and even then I only knew about it thanks to my favorite Precure reviewer post the blogpost about the parody. That aside, it's not like I'm interested to check the anime even with the parody in the first place anyway, especially back in 2018.

UQ Holder - I only know the author made some continuation story from Negima, so in a way we can say it's the Stealth Sequel from Negima which the author end in rushed way.

Blend S - Has very memetic opening back when it was aired. Also I think the uniform design is neat and good to know I'm not alone on this, because Yuzusoft designer think so with them based Cafe Stella uniform color scheme on this (No purple waitress uniform in Cafe Stella though). Those two aside, it's CGDCT with the main female is the nice girl who have sadistic face, and it has three significant male casts which is rarity in Manga Time Kirara manga.

Two Car - It's supposed to be 10th anniversary series for Silver Link, but from what I can see the staffs may have not be able to combine the idea they have. So obviously with them still not find the compromise while keep bickering until the deadline, the staffs decided to just combine whatever idea they have and thus we have Two Car. I mentioned this because it has premise two main female have a fight over their male trainer who absent for most of the series, and the series goes on with two bickering female have episode with their rival. So yeah, the staffs is more or less can't decided their target, whether it's to GL fans or love triangle fans, doubly so with the male trainer himself is not the MC nor we do know how his two students can be attracted to him. Mismanagement on demographic target aside, it's about a motorcycle sidecar racing with one act as the driver and one act as navigator.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Fall 2017 anime.

[Anime of the Year 2017-III Summer - Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e]

Honestly speaking I didn't care for Fate franchise enough to getting mad over someone else criticizing it, but to each of their own when it come to it. Let me comment in regard of Summer 2017 anime here.

NGNL movie - Apparently the reason on why there's no second season is because Madhouse staffs do their job too well, so much the staffs afraid the second season won't satisfy the fans if the studio can't get ahold the anime staff for the first season, although that reasoning is just being conjecture. Anyway, the movie is about Sora and Shiro ancestor in the world before Ted enforce the rule where all conflict must be resolved through the game, so naturally there'll be some good war scene in there.

Princess Principal - It's CGDCT anime with the cute things those girls do are doing the spy mission and helping their friend to ascend the throne (One of the girls is the princess who is fourth in line for the throne) in Alternative Universe of England. That aside, it's more or less the anime about spy with England divided into two factions (Kingdom and Commonwealth) with the girls working for Commonwealth faction. The staffs did air the episode out of order just like Haruhi, so you need the guide to watch the episode in right order. It has second season which prove this series is quite popular, although it's available in form of six movies with only three out of six movies are available as of now.

Hina Logi - It's like GL spinoff such as Soul Eater Not, To Aru Railgun, or Hidan no Aria AA, and what I can guarantee is there won't be male MC from the main series or even the heroines (So no case like Touma in Railgun or Aria in AA). For Hina Logi (And also the main series Luck and Logic), it was made as the promotion for new card game, and it share the lore from the card game.

Classroom of the Elite - Ayanokouji is definitely can be said as someone who willing to do anything in order to raise from the bottom, something that Kinugasa like to write back when he's focused with writing Kaito in Akagoei trilogy. Yes, the original material of this was written by Kinugasa, and at least he can use the excuse that the novel is still ongoing in case he need to end one volume in unsatisfying manner just like his usual VNs. By the way, conveniently it has the third season in Winter 2024, so at least Kinugasa is quite successful with this. Oh yes, the premise is more or less like Assassination Classroom with the focus is on the students who dumped into the lowest hierarchy, although of course Kinugasa didn't write the alien character as the the stand in for Koro-sensei.

Made in Abyss - It has cute drawing with some of frightening contents (Of which there'll be a lot) which to say is quite contrast, and such formula manage to attract a number of audience.

Isekai Smartphone - I did watch this on Youtube, and let's just say that it might be work as the anime that you watch in the boredom, which of course turned out to be quite successful so much that it has second season. Story wise, it's more or less the author wish fulfillment with Touya is blessed by the God, and can bring smartphone which can connect to the previous world network. Not that I can calling out anyone else who liking it, seeing that one of the anime that I'll watch is very similar with this (9999 Tank) only with the MC is not from another world.

Isekai Restaurant - It's about the chef who has his restaurant can be connected to the other world every Saturday, and each of otherworld people will do whatever they want to enjoy the food at the restaurant. The anime is pretty much episodic with the goal to show delicious food the customer and audience, so you can enjoy this without the worry of the epic plot (Unless you want to make a fanfic on how the door to the restaurant can trigger great war with a lot of casualty). Again, it's quite successful in Japan because of the very light story, so it has second season as well.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Summer 2017 anime here.

[VN of the Month December 2023]

I guess it has to do being the years end, so obviously the VN developer do their best to deliver the product on Christmas. Anyway, let me try to comment on the title here.

One Remake - It's more or less redundant to me because the script is mainly the same as old version, and the old version has the sex scenes in case someone somehow desperate for it. That said, this technically has quite high production value with newer anime VAs and newer art, so someone may pick the remake if the old version graphic is too old school (Both version are available in English anyway). Forgot to mention the remake still has too much choice, but from what I'd read somewhere at least the staffs alleviate the problem by adding the hint.

Eiyuutan Gaiden - Honestly BaseSon has been released too much Koihime Musou so much I'd become tuned out of it, but at least good for them they still have enough capital to keep milking the franchise by making the spin off again and again. Also good for the fans they can still get new Koihime Musou game, although I can only wonder when we'll going to have full translation patch for Shin Koihime Musou finally released.

Amase-Jima - I see the company is another branch of Visual Arts, and I can say the art is looking good. Although in the end, looks like it's just usual moege with something more beneath it and good production value.

Yuzuriha no Uta - If 2022 has Study Steady 2 as the most delayed release, then in 2023 we have Yuzuriha no Uta as the most delayed release, in which it reached up to more than two years. While the delay is supposed understandable seeing this is the first time propeller developed new VN after Sougeki no Jaeger in 2014, I'm not really sure if it can repeat propeller's old success, especially seeing all of the heroines have big breast. At least the MC seems to be an adult one, unlike Sougeki no Jaeger MC.

Imouto to Kanojo - While the title seemingly simple with the game is looks like to be nukige with it's lengthy sex scenes, turned out there's much more emotion inside the game, especially with NTR moment. That said, the main story is not really the NTR or the incest, but rather the relationship between three main characters, namely the MC with psychological problem, his little sister, and the hostess who resemble MC's little sister. Safe to say, the relationship and feeling between those three are quite complex. By the way, it's quite ironic that I find the design for nukige like VN is more reasonable compared to Yuzuriha no Uta (ie has more reasonable breast size).

For VN of the month, well out of all VNs only Imouto to Kanojo that can be qualified if we count the new VN (One Remake is more or less redundant while Eiyuutan Gaiden is another spin off), although I understand that VN is not for everyone. That's all for what I can comment in regard of December 2023 release.

[Anime of the Year 2017-II Spring - Eromanga-sensei]

Kemono Friend - The anime staffs working very hard on this with very limited staffs (10 staffs) and deadline (Only 500 days) on top the marketed gacha game is already shut down, so normally no one expect this to be successful, especially with the staffs resorted to bad 3D animation to allocate the budget. Little did everyone know back then the director prove himself to be able to write interesting story even with very limited resources, and as the result it become quite successful. So much that it invite some people who want to milk it as much as possible by making second season, with the higher up firing the hard worker director for vague reasons (Involving copyright stuffs) and search for the new one. Needless to say, fans were very angry and review bombing of the second season so there's no chance for the third season.

Suka Suka - It has the MC being teacher figure to the younger human weapon, and the setting is very bleak with the scary Beast roaming around. It should be noted that it has the fame as the most tragic light novel, especially with the way it tell us that not every overpowered MC can solve the world problem when said problem is very bleak. Oh yes, it also introduce the folk song Scarborough Fair to the Japanese anime audience, although I don't really know on if the song is already known in Japan before Suka Suka or not.

Eromanga-sensei - I did a bit research, and I find out that most people are very angry because it has incest despite the author already make the premise that both sibling are actually step siblings, as in different birth parents. To be honest I think the hate is overblown, although I can't exactly fault the people for have the problem with incest in the anime because several good reasons. That said, I still find anyone who keep inserting anti-incest opinion into TV Trope is very annoying. My ramble aside, it's from the same author as Oreimo, except turned out that the relationship is still limited to be family like even though both sibling like each other, so at least there shouldn't be any sibling romance to worry about yet.

Boruto - While it didn't have incest to be controversial, this anime easily gather controversy simply because it made as the way to keep milking Naruto which should already ended. Also compared to the father who has losing his parents and shunned by the villager, having the son of previous MC who is the prodigy with daddy issue because his father has been too busy is definitely not make good first impression, even though it make sense for the character himself. While admittedly the story is starting to getting better slowly, obviously it's never reach what Naruto achieved, which is really something that it need the original author come back and then wrote the questionable plot twist at the end just to make the reception slightly better. 

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Spring 2017 anime.

[Anime of the Year 2017-I Winter - ChäoS;Child]

Scum's Wish - I only understand there's a lot of unfaithful stuff in the anime, so it should be obvious that anime is not for everyone.

KKPC - With MGPC success on combat with no much of physical fight, Toei decided to one step further by removing physical fight altogether. Unfortunately majority of Precure fans understandably not on board with it, because Precure has been known for magical girl with physical fight for years. I still remember on how KKPC indirectly break the community, and let's just say that I learnt the lesson that moderator action is not always be objective and right (Which sort of help when I see some worse mod out there). Oh yes, KKPC has food theme (Sweets) and it has GL pair with Toei decided to copy the success of Haruka x Michiru from Sailor Moon (Personally I'm not fond of the GL couple in KKPC, but to each of their own).

Tanya - It's about very oppressive manager from Japanese company who was killed by his subordinate and then reincarnated as cute young girl (The titular Tanya) in the world with constant war as the punishment from God because the manager is very brave for challenging Him. Rather than realize his own mistake and then atone for his sin, the manager instead decided to just use his talent ruthlessly in the war zone anyway with the girl soon known and dreaded in the war. Also it's understandable if you remember Izetta, because both Tanya and Izetta world based on World War in the real life (Izetta from WW2 while Tana is from WW1).

Chaos Child - From what I see, the anime only adapt the common route and the true route, which is understandable seeing the common route is complete enough and the true route is the continuation of it. As for how the reception of the anime goes, let's just say that it's still not quite satisfying according to MAL, moreso with the anime staffs didn't adapt the routes that add the info to the story and the setting.

Masamune - It's about the fat boy (Masamune) who was rejected and insulted by his crush (Aki), so Masamune decided to work very hard to make himself become handsome and then make Aki fall in love before coldly reject her. Easy to say it's not really working well, considering Masamune find himself gradually fall in love with Aki, which to say may be for the best considering that turned out there's something more in regard of Masamune's childhood incident.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Winter 2017 anime here.

[Comedy VNs – Genre Deep Dive]

In the end, the word that say 'comedy is subjective' is always proven true no matter the circumstance. Anyway, one of the arguably strong example of Comedy VN would be Ren'ai Royale which coincidentally another VN from Sankaku Ren'ai (Sukiren) developer. For Royale itself, the staff put more focus on the jokes for the four main heroines while stacking the romance element on one side heroine, resulting some of the player declare the side route is the best simply it because has romance development more than the four main heroines. While it may caught off-guard some who expect usual romance from the Royale, once again the 'comedy is subjective' is still apply because Royale humor may be not the best even if one approach the VN with comedy in mind.

There's also Yuzusoft VN in which while it not really full comedy VN, it still has the element 'comedy fatigue' across all of their VNs, with the joke is usually calling the MC virgin. Granted, the staff may have their own comedy taste with them indirectly calling out the player who play Yuzusoft VNs as virgin which may be work if the player took it as self-depreciating joke instead of being offended by it, but regardless the joke can still be quite tiresome, especially if one is not fond of the that kind of comedy in the first place (Moreso if someone has brilliant idea to play all translated Yuzusoft VNs (Up to 8 if Tenshi Reboot released later) in one sitting).

I guess that's all for what I can say about comedy VNs here, and by the way so far I didn't recall the comedy VN similar to Lamunation (Although there's Gintama and 100 Girlfriends if one want anime example).

[Anime of the Year 2016-IV Fall - 3-gatsu no Lion]

Interesting to note Fall 2016 has quite a number of magical girl series here.

Pop in Q - Toei 60th anniversary project with them make the movie revolving magical girl in another world, which in practice make it no much different compared to what they did every year until now (ie Precure). Apparently there's a plan to make the sequel looking from the ending, although so far there's no much info about it until now (Which may or may not because Toei decided that it's far more practical to keep making Precure anyway).

Magical Girl Rising Project - Out of all magical girl, only two main casts (Koyuki and Kano) got the transformation scene. As for the series itself, well it's more like battle royale with the goal has one winner remaining, so it's natural to expect a number of battle scenes and people dying. While Madoka comparison is quite appropriate, with 16 characters and the mascot has color scheme like Monokuma, it would be appropriate to compare this with Danganronpa (Minus investigation and trial).

Keijo - Honestly I'm kind of stunned when I see the manga of this, although from what I'd hear apparently they treat the sport seriously despite with the rule the player must use boob and butt to ring out enemy to the pool. Well, at least you'll definitely got the eye candy if you watch this, and of course all of the athletes here are female for obvious reasons.

Flip Flappers - It's more like usual magical girl series instead of Madoka-like one. I didn't watch this yet, so I can only say that it's interesting the pair is switch their hair color whenever transformed, and the story has some plot twists.

Izetta the Last Witch - The GL story between the titular last witch and the princess in the midst of not World War 2.

Kuma no Miko - Late to comment on this. The series itself has the premise with the talking bear met a shrine maiden, although the series is more (in)famous thanks to the staff's creativity to make the original ending because the manga is still ongoing back then. The ending is very unpleasant so much so the author express the disappointment in the most polite way, and it definitely very different compared to the manga. Granted the staffs probably tried to give the conclusion to the series, but in the end the backlash is quite severe because of the choice.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Fall 2016 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2016-III Summer - Berserk]

Berserk 2016 - At least the story itself can make up for the infamy of the visual, which is the major disappointment for the fans. Then again if you can get past the art, I guess the 2016 Berserk is good on it's own.

Mob 100 - Just want to mention that the original artist is the one who draw One Man Punch, so the MC has similar looks to Saitama.

Danganronpa 3 - The epilogue of Danganronpa duology (V3 is the new continuation), and let's just say that it's quite divisive to the fans.

New Game - CGDCT based on game company, although it also has serious plot about making the game.

Koe no Katachi - What I can say that even the premise is quite dramatic, especially with the movie (And the manga) deal with the bullying of the deaf which is major concern in Japan, so it's quite inevitable there's some soap drama moments mixed in there, moreso in regard of the male MC who has the deep regret doing the bullying to her deaf female classmate.

Kimi no Na Wa - As for why the audience like it, it would be simply because of the art thanks to Makoto Shinkai effort. That said even though usually Shinkai's work has bittersweet ending (Especially ef and eden if we count Shinkai work on the opening for those two VNs), at least this movie has relatively happy ending even after several dramatic moments.

Amanchu - The first part has all female casts while the second season has additional male cast, and let's just say that the additional male cast along with the manga ending didn't bring good opinion to GL community. That aside, it has good scenery drawing, just like the previous author's work (Aria).

Tales of Zetstria - I only knew that the lore of the game was expanded in Berseria (The prequel), and it has controversy with the initial heroine (Alisha) was turned out to be the only guest character (ie decoy heroine) with she was replaced after some times, which make sense the anime tried to fixed the issue by giving more spotlight to Alisha throughout the series.

Fate Ilya 3 - Being Fate franchise it's inevitable that the author is required to write dark story with epic combat even though the series is just started as the magical girl parody featuring Ilya, and it really show in this season with alternative timeline stuff.

Love Live Sunshine - It's about the nine student who live in countryside need to face their school is about to be closed down, and after see Muse (The name of the group from previous Love Live) manage to save the school they decided to do the same with they call themselves as Aquors. While at first people see Aquors under Muse's shadow, eventually Aquors manage to prove their own identity. It should be noted that compared to Muse, Aquours is still around with they recently have the anime about one of it's member (Yohane) in alternative world with Muse themselves was disbanded in 2016.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Summer 2016 release.

[VN of the Month November 2023]

Little Princess Go premise looks like Amagi Brilliant Park, Amairo Chocolata 3 is shorter than Amairo Chocolata 2, and Geminism apparently has interesting narration that beneath the disturbing element (I only care that turned out it didn't have English simultaneous release). So yeah, the only choice for VN of the Month in November 2023 is Hirahira Hihiru, which is very underrated even though it has simultaneous release, and to be frank I pay attention to more known Lupercalia full translation patch when it was released.

That's all for my comment in regard of November 2023 release here.

[Anime of the Year 2016-II Spring - Koutetsujou no Kabaneri]

Madoka Rebellion - Let's just say that the higher up (Not Urobochi ironically, but rather the director with Urobochi himself want to write more conclusive ending) are obviously not satisfied with the money that Madoka franchise gathered. So the director like Kyubei in the movie decided to make the sequel which pretty much messed up the ending that the heroines are already achieved, with the end result is it has divisive ending to ensure future milking of Madoka is guaranteed because the fans obviously want to see more of it. Of course, they indeed making another movie in order to milk even more money from the fans resolve the plot thread in the ending, with the movie name is Walpurgisnatch Rising that just recently revealed.

Boku no Hero Academia - Honestly the premise is pretty much like the parody of Western superhero comic book with the characters is like the parody of the Western superhero characters, but in the end at least it prove to be quite popular to a degree. Of course though the fans are probably more interested with the fighting even though the story is also quite interesting to a degree, and the popularity might be because two of big three shounen series (Bleach and Naruto) are already ended with the closest one that can fill the gap is Boku no Hero Academia. By the way currently the manga is in the final arc, so you may start to read the manga if you somehow interested with this.

ReZero - It's about the MC who dead after being stabbed in the front of convenience store only to be reincarnated with time loop ability. While the ability is sounds awesome in paper, unfortunately the MC (Subaru) start out weak in another world unlike several other isekai MC who start very strong, so in order to make full use of his ability Subaru need to work very hard, which involving dying again and again. Another thing that I can recall is the blue haired maid (Rem) is very popular and it has VN being translated.

Jojo 4 - After had other countries setting, the author decided to move into Japanese setting with it is based on the author's hometown. Of course there's always adventure in the story, especially with the first villain is the a serial murderer. The MC background here is more or less quite complicated, so obviously the fans make meme out of it along with several other things.

Sakamoto - It's about the MC who voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru always find himself to do anything in cool manner, and thus the reason why I call anyone who is voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru as cool character lol. Anyway, just enjoy how cool Sakamoto is if you want to watch the anime, and also my condolence to the late author who passed away in this year.

Phoenix Wright - I only mention this because the initial sub has Japanese name which obviously would be very confusing despite that it make sense on the setting, although thankfully the revised sub and dub use the English name that the player familiar with (The translator even think of the English name for anime character only). Other than that, well I guess the anime is quite faithful, although it can't beat the VN.

Sailor Moon Crystal 3 - Toei did improve the animation on this, so much that Precure fans accuse Toei didn't pay attention much to MGPC animation. For the third series of the remake, Sailor Moon Crystal re-introduce the famous GL couple Haruka x Michiru, and it should be obvious they're no longer introduced as cousin like in Sailor Moon 1994 dub version.

Aikatsu Stars - Looks like the franchise popularity is started going down in 2016, so the staff decided to make new MC on top making the story being more dramatic along with introducing handsome idol, which may be inspired from Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Life.

That's all for my comment in regard of Spring 2016 anime (Madoka Rebellion aside) here.

[Akai Ito Review – Blood Red Threads Of Love]

Actually it's good to see that Akai Ito is finally have translation and available in PC to boot, seeing that there's only PS2 version in the past with the translation of it is incomplete. However, it's too bad that Success didn't put much effort to make sure that the VN is good to play to everyone else, because they probably only do the test on their 1080 inch monitor and then have some after work drink or whatever they did after the job done. The reason is because they didn't check in lesser monitor to make sure it can displayed properly, seeing that my laptop which only has 768 inch had the game zoomed in with the text being unreadable, which is pretty much amateur mistake.

That technical disaster aside, they also do the good job on reducing Aoishiro to around 2 GB HDD with fan translation version has 7 GB HDD. It's just too bad that the achievement was marred with the screen problem, although Aoishiro zoom is not as bad as Akai Ito. For the translation, well at least you can read it with the available fan translation although Akai Ito fan patch only translate majority of the VN. My rant on the technical aside, I can say that Akai Ito (And Aoishiro) is good GL VN with routes, and it's too bad that nowadays it's rare to see GL VN with routes.

[Anime of the Year 2016-I Winter - Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu]

Konosuba - It's about Kazuma who has undignified death transported into another world and then pick the goddess Aqua who make fun of him as the cheat item, except turned out Aqua is quite useless in another world. After that Kazuma pick the other two party members who are quite useless in their own right, and then they started some misadventure in the world. Well it's pretty obvious what the audience should expect when it come to this, although it also has some serious moment to take a break from the comedy.

Aokana - Looks like even the anime staff didn't like Masaya so much so his role is demoted and decided to give the MC role to Asuka, so perhaps the staffs may think that it would be better to make Aokana anime like shonen with one of the trope is Underdog Never Lose instead of making the story about Masaya try to rebound himself. All in all, it's pretty clear that the treatment between Masaya and Takahiro (From Walkure Romanze) in the anime adaptation are very much different with Takahiro still has the role as the MC despite both have same circumstance.

Schwarzesmarken - It has Muv Luv Alternative setting with the premise is about another group who fought BETA. What I know other than that is the translator of Daybreak tried to translate this only to got the project was C&D-ed by age, although at least he manage to working on age VN officially with said VN that he worked on is recently released Teito Muyo. Also this and Total Eclipse are ironically have better rating in MAL compared to MLA anime, although age may not fortunate enough to got famous studio to working on MLA anime.

Pandora in the Shell - Let's just say that this anime is far more lighter compared to original Ghost in the Shell while have some GL element, which shown from the graphic alone. Other than GL element, what I can recall is that the final boss himself is become Butt Monkey in the final episode thanks to several ridiculous events despite several episode beforehand shown on how threatening he is.

MGPC - After GPPC, obviously Precure fans did expect a lot of action in MGPC despite that Precure here is supposed to be magician, only to find themselves disappointed with the actions are not as intense as GPPC. For the story itself, it's about Mirai who become Precure together with Liko who is from Magic World, and compared to previous Precure series MGPC did featured both world equally (Screen time wise). Oh yes, all of the casts will become Precure (Including the mascots), although unlike HSPC Mofurun can only become Precure in the movie. By the way it should be noted that it has interesting writing, although it may need some more observation to make people understand the writing itself.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Winter 2016 anime here.