Hiromi

On Switch, visual novels should be able to reach a wider audience than PC exclusive titles. With this, hopefully more young people will get into this wonderful niche and ameliorate the over-aging problem in the eroge population.

The console port of Harmonia (Visual Arts/Key) was released on Nintendo Switch recently on Oct 20, 2022. Come to think of it, this was probably the last work from Key where Itaru officially worked as the company illlustrator. She quit the company in Sept 2016 and Harmonia came out literally three days later on Sept 23. ~~~~~ How did you guys like Harmonia? I really liked Itaru's coloring in this game, the skin tone is especially well done, particularly noticable on the thighs pictured above and oppais on the in-game CG. But otherwise I have the impression that the face she draws has gotten more derpy compared to her peak in Clannad. I mean they don't look that bad, but they come off rather flat, in both sense of the word. The voice acting was lovely as well. I associate Mizuhashi Kaori with the violent pettan tsundere from Baka to Test who starts speaking gibberish in German when she's flabbergasted, but Shiona from Harmonia (the blonde girl above for those who haven't played the game) has a diametrically opposite character compared to Minami. A holy sister overflowing with babumi... Not really my fetish but her voice soothes my depraved soul. When it comes to the music, well, you've got Orito Shinji working on most of the music in this agame. I don't have the game installed on my PC right now, so I can't check whether it's him, but I like the BGM embed above the most. I think it captures very well the vibe of the town in the story, an oasis in the middle of a decaying world. A temporary breathing space, but will the peaceful days last forever? This faint trace of wistfulness and unease in an otherwise relaxing piece is something Key does very well, in my opinion. Unfortunately I won't be buying this console port for now, due to the grave reason of... not having a Nintendo Switch at home. This port allows you to switch the language between Japanese, English, and Chinese (probably in-game like the Steam edition of Little Busters), so it's not like I'm not interested in it, since I'd like to try reading it in the original language. Maybe one day I'll get a Switch and the game, when I'm not using my shiokuri for onaholes and onsei sakuhin on DLsite. It's a short kinetic novel, and a very good one at that. Recommended for those with a Nintendo Switch and a penchant for emotional stories. The price goes around 25 USD on the Nintendo E-Shop, which is suprisingly a little bit more expensive than the Japanese price (2,980 Yen, around 20 USD). I guess one could also say that this port is worth three games, so it's not really expensive in the end.

Possible, but I'd rather guess the problem here is that with this game, which looks like an older eroge from the early 2000s, you have to have the game CD inserted in the PC disk drive in order to play the game. Naturally, you install the game with the CD inserted. But even when the game files are already installed in your PC, you still need the CD inside your PC to run the game. So seems to be the case with earlier titles. With the proliferation of digital releases, this kind of problem is not to be seen anymore. TL;DR A physical CD is required. Otherwise you'll have to wait until an eroge wizard creates a patch or so.

I like Japanese for arts and literature, German for non-fiction and science. Sometimes I act like an anglophobe and rail against yankees, but I actually find English OK. You can't really bring yourself to hate a language which brings you great practical value. There are many interesting languages in the world, but languages I would actually learn and have learned a tiny bit are Russian and French. Similar to German, there are many texts of significant scientific value for me written in these languages. Examples would be French Physiocracy and Soviet Political Economy. I study namely some economics in college.

Now that I think of it, Gino and the Witch of the Black Swamp was the first EVN I ever managed to coom to... Thank you (?)

When I go on Twitter, I see that the trending seasonal anime always receives a torrent of fanart. Last cour was Lycoris Recoil. Some time ago was Spy x Family. But yeah, I experience a similar feeling of detachment from the larger community too. For quite some time I haven't been able to get as excited about anime as I was in school age. I can think of various reasons why, but I think a huge part of it is pessimism caused by caring too much about what happens in the outside world. It sapps away attention and energy, which could've been invested in enjoyable, creative hobbies. As long as we live in a society (lul) we can't really isolate ourselves from current events, but we have the choice where to direct our attention to. The more we direct it outwards, the more negative feelings we get. The more we direct it inwards, the more positive feelings we get. At least that's my hypothesis for the time being. A nice short series I watched recently is This Ugly yet Beautiful World. It's from Gainax (Series Director: Saeki Shouji), produced some time after Evangelion, back in the days where the company still was about anime and not fishing young girls for sexual favors in dubious voice acting competitions (Would be a good eroge plot but disastrous when practiced in real life). Character designer is Takamura Kazuhiro of Strike Witches fame -- also the main reason I picked up the series since I'm a huge fan of his art. It's basically a cute girl anime, in the way that Strike Witches is a cute girl anime too despite the accessory aspects like military gear and the Neuroi. This Ugly yet Beautiful World has sci-fi elements too like super powers and alien monsters, but that's not really what the show is about, but rather the inner conflicts of the characters, and how they overcome these in the course of the story. The anime makes me think of a video essay I've watched on YouTube about the concept of human consciousness, that we only start to achieve understanding of ourselves and the outside world through seeing ourselves reflected in the eyes of other people. The human subject achieves recognition of itself as a subject only through coming into contact with other human subjects, and so on and so on. Anyways it's a nice anime if you like cute girls and psychology. ^ Opening sequence. Theme song by Takahashi Youko, most famous probably for Cruel Angel's Thesis.

Generally speaking, I tend to lean on the tolerant side when it comes to anime or movie adaptions of visual novels. Their length and branching nature makes it a difficult task for a film adaption. Also, bishoujo game companies as a rule don't have as much money as let's say big manga publishers like Kadokawa or Kodansha. Combined with the erotic/violent/taboo subject matter, visual novels have a much smaller chance of getting an adaption as a manga or a light novel. Or at least that's how I understand the state of affairs of the eroge industry in Japan 2022. That we get a screened adaption of a VN at all is already something remarkable. When it comes to the film adaption of Planetarian (Hoshi no Hito), I have one or two little issues with it, such as the character design, which I felt could've been done better. But otherwise I'm quite satisfied with it. The movie recapitulates the occurences in the VN and carries the story a little bit further. I think the VN ending is already good as it is, but the movie doesn't really take away from the message of Planetarian, and in fact underlines one of its central themes of living on with faith despite insurmountable difficulties. The audience in the small alternative cinema I watched the movie in was more than half non-anime fans, and they received it quite well, with an excited applause at the end. So I think the movie did a good job at getting its message across. You'll have to watch the anime film adaption of Tsui no Sora to actually see how bad an adaption could be. But even that one probably counts as "so bad it's good" w

But I haven't done anything Mr. Officer!!

My name is Hiromi-sama. I am a 27 year old Erogamer... is what I'd like to say, but I'm not that close yet to becoming a wizard. I started learning Japanese long before I had an idea what I was doing with my life. As a result, now I can read and listen most Japanese media with ease. Unfortunately, these days I mostly end up using my superior intellect to train my katana to 18禁 ASMR on DLsite. Just kidding, I usually squander my time acquiring rights to animated JPEGs of 2D girls on my mobile device (Arona-chan Izuna-chan uohh Yuuka-chan UOHH ). Jokes aside, these days my contact with VNs consists of mainly reading up on the new titles which come up every month. Though that's like seeing pictures of the menu at the local Italian restaurant without actually having the dish in front of you. My worldly desires keep growing and I'm barely keeping up with it. So I've decided recently to start changing course and make adjustments so that I could play more VN. Last Friday I managed to finish Kimagure Temptation after stalling for about half a year so I have grounds to be optimistic. A tomodachi of mine suggested that writing a blog might help with keeping account of my progress so here I am on Fuwanovel. I'm not very good with organization and schedule but I'll give my gambaribest. When I get my Japanese visa, I am moving to Chiyoda-ku to attend a prestigious academy to learn more about their magnificent culture. I hope I can become a sugar daddy for a JC or an impoverished animator. Wish me luck in Japan!