Dreamysyu

Well, the ufotable version of UBW. Dean version is known to be a complete mess. The original Fate anime is also pretty bad. Well, I'll add 2006 Higurashi to the list of good VN adaptations. It has some issues, and it's not a perfect adaptation, but it's okay. As for Key, Planetarian and Air anime are pretty good. So is Kanon, but I haven't played the original VN, so I can't compare it to the anime. Ps. Also, does anyone know, is Island anime okay? I don't remember hearing any particularly angry rants about it that seem to follow after any particularly bad adaptation of a VN comes out.

Hatoful Boyfriend

Well... For some reason I was mildly interested in the original novel without knowing anything about it. Now I'm not interested anymore. Oh, yeah, after I recommended it to you I decided to go and see how the anime is compared to the source material. I'm not sure if I actually watched it to the end. I think, there were still one or two episodes left. I think it gave the source material justice, as far as I can tell, considering that I read it years ago, before it was officially picked up for translation. They completely got rid of the game-like level system, but, honestly, it was only mentioned in the novel a few times anyway, and the anime pretty much showed everything that it implied in a different way. I believe I mentioned it in the past, but the story being very wholesome is exactly the reason why I enjoyed it so much. I understand what you say about the world being convenient and the romance being cheesy. And, truth be told, I probably won't finish the novel since I pretty much got enough sweetness from this story already, and it's time to move to something else before it gets bad. On the other hand, I'd say that the fact that the conflict is nonexistent is a massive advantage this series has compared to many other "wish-fulfilling" female-oriented isekais. Honestly, I find it extremely annoying how many of isekais, both female and male oriented, add cheap badly written angst and drama just for the sake of there being drama, and to make the later "healing" parts seem different. Usually, the protagonist is literally the kindest and the most gentle person ever, but everyone bullies them and hates them just because they are assholes or idiots, and etcetera. Actually, this novel/anime manages to subvert many cliches typically associated with the stories like that. It's has an extremely common beginning, with two people being summoned, and the MC being neglected after that. On the other hand, the MC quickly found her place in the world; the other characters realized her worth and didn't try too much to make her life miserable due to their stubbornness; and, finally, the fact that the other summoned person didn't turn out to be a literal Hitler in a body of a schoolgirl. Overall, this story is still very cliche, but the fact that it skips these particular tropes, in my opinion, just make it feel more tasteful. Sure, it's a wish-fulfillment story, but it doesn't pretend to be something else, and it does the job it takes extremely well. I'd watch this series after a difficult day or when I feel bad. I wouldn't recommend to watch it if you want something epic or something like that, but it should be given. Well, since I read a lot of female-oriented isekais in novel and manga format, I pretty much got to the point where it's hard to impress me, and I find many of the common tropes extremely annoying. On the other hand, for some reason not many of them go this particular route. And, like we should probably expect from something that originates from web-novels, the writing in most of those is a lot worse, so I'd say Seijou still stands out.

I guess, Terra, even though people seem to hate it. Though Akane and Moon come close. Hmm, I can't really say that I was moved by Rewrite the same way I was by other Key works. I see it more as a plot-focused VN. Honestly, there are a lot of really good songs in Rewrite. I'd say, Scene Shifts There.

About 2: Well, maybe you can still explain everything by some sort of handwaving.

Well, Charlotte is not a VN, so it makes sense that it wasn't included, since this topic is about VNs. But if we include these, there's another anime from this year also done by Maeda. I forgot its name. I haven't seen more than one episode, but it seemed like pretty typical Key stuff. Edit. It's The Day I Became a God.

I wanted to vote for Planetarian, but for some reason it's not an option.

Honestly, it feels like a fitting end for them.

The link doesn't work.

I guess I should give some context to my previous post. Anyway, I recently watched Selector Infected WIXOSS (and its second season, Selector Spread WIXOSS) It was an alright anime. I wouldn't really call it a hidden gem like some online comments I've seen before watching, but my final impressions were still positive, and I can recommend you to watch it if you feel that you might be interested. Basically, it's a card game anime that was probably quite heavily influenced by Madoka Magica. Our protagonist, Ruuko, gets gifted a set of card for a new popular card game, WIXOSS, and then she realizes that there's a moving and talking girl inside one of her cards. Later she meets another girl with a similar card, who explains to Ruuko that she is now a selector, and now she should fight other selectors in magical card battles. If she wins enough times, her wish will come true. If she loses three times, she will lose her card and will stop being a selector. There's a small problem with that though: Ruuko doesn't really have a wish. But she still decides to fight because she has nothing to lose. Right?.. Honestly, my main problem with this anime is how the battles are presented. Well, maybe I'm just not a fan of soft magic systems. I've never really watched a card game anime before, and I doubt they are different in that respect, but there aren't really any rules to the card battles here. Basically, we know that one of the girls is stronger than another, and thus she wins. Or one of the girls isn't fighting seriously, because somebody said something bad to her, or because she can't bring herself to fight seriously for reasons I can't explain due to spoilers, but she needs to come to her senses to win. You just have to believe what the other characters say about the game progression, because it isn't really possible to see the results of their actions for yourself. When the anime actually presents some rules, they will probably eventually become broken by the power of will or something like that. Though, as I was typing it I realized that it's not really a big problem in this case, because it is done to move the plot forward and kind of fits the type of show this is. So, I guess, in the end, it's not really a problem. Huh. The characters themselves are a bit cartoonish, but pretty good. It was interesting to see the MC and her friends develop throughout the series. As for the antagonists, Iona turned out to be pretty interesting in the second season, actually. Akira... is just an ordinary yandere. The plot was actually surprisingly unpredictable. It was obvious from the very start that there was going to be some darker twist with the battles, as the show didn't try to hide its atmosphere. However, I never really guessed any of the major twists correctly. Well, technically I was correct with one thing, but for the wrong reasons. As for the technical stuff, I'm not an expert, but I think this anime is pretty well made. There weren't any things that irritated me. Well, with the exception of Tama's voice, perhaps. One thing that stood out to me, however, is that some of the backgrounds are really well drawn and pretty to look at. As for the final rating, I think I will give this anime as a whole 7/10. The second season is slightly better than the firs, but I don't see any reason to give them different ratings, since they don't work on their own. OPs and EDs here. The second OP has spoilers. Edit. Oh, and I should probably mention that it has some incest.

Honestly, the routes in Rewrite are so vastly different from each other, so it's hard to recommend something similar to the game as a whole. Also, do you have a vndb account? It would be a shame to recommend you something you've already played.

For some reason, Japanese comedies are often very cruel towards their protagonists, and it happens not only in harems. Mental abuse is just as common.

Higurashi

So, retsu batoru!

Honestly, if you don't like it in the beginning, I doubt you'll like the rest of the common route. If you don't like this kind of humor, you will probably hate it. It stays more or less the same to the end. As for the heroine routes, for some reason there are some very polarizing opinions about them. I personally found Amane's route to be really good, and Makina's route to be quite decent, while the other routes were a bit lacking (though all of them had their moments).

@Fiddle, I thought you were turning 6 this year. PS. Happy birthday.

For a second I thought that the same thing happened to me, but it turned out that I just had to reset my password for some reason. Anyway, I'm pretty interested in Muramasa myself, but I think I'll pass on it for now. I'm slowly recovering my interest in visual novels in general, and for now I'm going to stick to shorter VNs from my backlog. I'll probably get back to Muramasa when it officially becomes another overrated kusoge and everyone forgets about it.

The House in Fata Morgana Edit. SciAdv series should also work (Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate and etc)

Blue Period manga is pretty good, though not exactly my cup of tea. Looks like MLA anime is almost here. Honestly, my expectations are at the lowest, but I'll be happy to be wrong.

I personally played the Steam version for the first Grisaia, with the exception of one route which everyone said was ruined in that version, and I never played the full 18+ version, though I skipped through some routes of the other version, and I've seen some skipped scenes. So, take everything I say with a grain of salt. That said, I personally believe that the 18+ version is superior, though not to the point that I recommend going for it if you absolutely despise h-scenes. Lots of changes are pretty minor: some jokes are missing, and some foreshadowing is skipped. The protagonist in the all-ages version appears as a lot more decent person, and it will probably make him a lot more bearable for some people, but you can also argue that it breaks his characterisation. On the other hand, there are some changes in Michiru's route that I personally find really nonsensical. The route is pretty much big mess to begin with, but I personally believe I could enjoy it if I came with a right mindset, though the changes in the Steam version certainly didn't help. Ironically, I probably should've gone for the Steam version for the third game.

So, after a long break with VNs I'm finally back. I'm currently reading Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning, and I'm loving it so far! Right now I've finished 3 chapters, and I'll try to write a more extensive reaction after I finish the whole VN.

Actually, at this point there's an entire very popular genre of LNs with a very similar premise, including some novels where the MC is reincarnated as a servant of the villainess rather than a villainess herself like the OP mentioned. I just tried to search "villainess" and "Akuyaku Reijou" on vndb, and it turns out that there are a few modern VNs that are at least inspired by this genre of LNs. Which I find pretty funny. But it could make a decent VN if done right, I believe.

The House in Fata Morgana

Spider volume 12 is pretty brutal, lol. Well, I guess it was to be expected, since the novel itself pretty much spoiled the outcome many volumes back.