Maptroid Worlds

 

 

Just finished Maptroid Worlds. It's one of those games that makes me feel in control, and I mean that in the most fundamental sense. Maptroid feels very compact and clean, its gaming concepts and visuals are stripped down to very fundamental levels. So here you are exploring this tiny "golf course galaxy", it's devoid of life and you're the only one there, exploring these little planets, collecting equipment and keycards so you can explore some more. You pick up disks along the way to read some very basic lore about the place. Music is really, really good. And then, about an hour later you explored everything. 100% done, little credits role, you're back to the title screen.

And that's it, really, a bite-size experience. It's very relieving in a way to experience Maptroid. Just you, a nice tune on the background and running around for ruined disks in thick forests, underwater and rocky deserts. It's not a nostalgic feeling exactly, but if you're kinda old by now and your infancy games were all 2D and much simpler than they're today, this might hit just right for you. I thinking about people that grew up with GB, GBC and Nes in particular.

のんのびより (Non Non Biyori)

 

 

Non Non Biyori follow the idyllic lives of Hotaru, Komari, Natsumi, and Renge, a group of friends aged 7 to 14 and their little adventures in the rural paradise of Asahigaoka. The show is very episodic in nature and you can pretty much watch in any order you like. I think it’s very hard to add anything new when talking about this, for two reasons. First, everybody already watched this. Second, there’s not that much to talk about. It’s a very well established formula at this point. A group of sweet, endearing characters living the best time of their lives in the Japanese countryside. Non Non is just better than most at it. The plots are not what makes this special though. You’ll go through all the same stuff; fireworks, melon and a hot summer, a beach episode, a school festival episode and so forth. What makes it better than most are the characters, they felt more unique and realized than most entities populating Iyashikeis and CGDCT I’ve seen.

I particularly liked two characters. First would be Komari, one of the Koshigaya sisters. I enjoyed how she encapsulated the ideas children have about being a grown up. Liking bitter foods, reading fashion magazines, liking certain types of music and dressing up. The funny part is she’s actually going through the process of becoming an actual adult through the conflicts with her slacker sister. She finds herself in a position of responsibility at her home, having to perform domestic tasks and helping her sister to not get too unhinged and mediating between her and their mother. It’s interesting how she never realizes those things are what is turning her into an adult, perhaps the most adult, responsible person in her group but since she has an idealized idea of what’s about she gets lost in things like having a phone or using a certain type of clothing. The way the internal conflict of this character is handled is one of the best parts of this show in my opinion and what I enjoyed the most in it.

The other character I enjoyed following around is Kaede, the candy shop owner. Now, this is a character more or less on the fringe of this whole thing. First, she’s the only one who has financial problems, not exactly an iyashikei thing to have in there. It’s a bit of a mystery how she manages to have any money at all. The town is obviously dying, there’s simply not enough kids in there to sustain her business. At one point she agrees to close shop for an entire day for 30 bucks, so times are certainly dire. She also has very little business sense since we can safely infer the families living there need to go to the next town to get basic supplies. She could definitely make more things available at her shop so townsfolk would stop having to do groceries in another town. It seems this candy shop is a very well established business and it’s been there since forever. I think she’s living on some inheritance or something, and is keeping this shop out of some nostalgia or filial piety, that’s the conclusion I got after watching two seasons of this show. The other thing I like about her is her position as observer, this is basically a trope you usually have when the show is centered around children growing up. You’ll have adults around whose life gets a little bit sweeter by watching the whole process and Kaede is pretty much one of those. It helps to see the impact the main characters have on the people around them, which in turn makes them more interesting to watch.

Worth a watch if you like the genre. Art and music are of high quality and add a lot to the show.

ハッピードリームシンドローム

 

It's that time again I come here and tell you this is a beautiful game. You might start to assume I will praise any game I play but that's not true. What happens is I play through several VNs before committing to one. I would have played maybe 10 to 20 min of 4 or 5 titles before finding one I feel like reading all the way to the end and of course I'll review only those that I actually read all the way through. This is the latest one, Happy Dream Syndrome. This is the type of game that makes me wonder why nobody played it and most importantly, why there are so many boring plots for anime each season when they have stories like this lying around the internet. I don't get it. The other 4 guys who played this on yt all loved it and it's 5 stars on novelgame.

The art for this is pretty good. It has its own style going for it and it makes the characters very memorable. It doesn't look like a VN backed by a professional studio of course, but it is still pretty good and it has more charm and strength than a lot of generic 'highly professional' illustrations I see out there on VNs. The music is composed of 3 piano medleys. Not the best but they really work for this game. I had some problems with the gameplay though. Game has a couple of bugs and at least for me it's broken on Firefox. About 2 hours in there's a small animation scene and it doesn't matter what I try, I can't make the clip to load and run on firefox. Had to switch to Chrome and redo a huge portion of the game to get where I was. About 15 minutes of skipping. Free games though, you can't really complain. Lots of routes to take here. In fact I ended up cheating and looking up how to get one of the endings, then I regretted doing it because it was really obvious and the only thing I hadn't tried, despite being obvious.

The story begins with a trope I really like and I think everyone who played a lot of rpgmaker games back in its heyday have a soft spot for it as well. The protagonist wakes up with no idea who he is or where he's at. He lost all memory of his past and it's on the same level of wisdom about the world he's in as we the players starting this game for the first time. Protagonist memory loss must be the single most popular trope for RPG Maker games for the first decade of the 2000s for sure and here we have it, too.

This guy wakes up in a hospital bed full of bruises everywhere. He has no idea what happened. Hospital seems empty so he decides to wander around until finding a nurse sleeping in another room. She explains he was found in the woods nearby and this is a psychiatric sort of hospital. Sort of, because this takes a lot of turns. As you interact with the other patients, things begin to make less sense until it begins to make more sense and then it becomes a matter of who to trust and the it goes all over the place. It's really good. This game also introduced me to something I really like but didn't know until now and that is female characters too old to care for stuffed animals but still have a strong attachment to them for some tragic reason. It hits some really specific commiseration trigger in my brain, hard to explain.

I guess I'll try to give you a not nearly complete run of the whole mystery, in a single paragraph. Spoilers, don't read this if you plan to play this game for yourself.

Toi-kun wakes up in a hospital with memory loss. He wanders around, and finds the hospital only has 3 patients. Asahi, Aki and Leo, a nurse named Meru and a doctor named... Doctor. They're all really, REALLY damaged people mentally though of course you don't know this from the start. Asahi is the first patient you meet and 'solve'. She lost her one and only friend, a stuffed animal toy shark named Garo. I won't go through all her story but basically her problem is she's a complete anti-social individual incapable of being close to anyone but her toy Garo. You find the toy on the same day she's leaving the hospital. You part ways promising to be friends. She lets go of Garo before leaving, which is very weird, it's almost like she is brainwashed. Then you meet another damaged patient, Aki. Aki is only there for the money as he's taking part in the happy pill experiment... but not really, he's just a 'regularly' super damaged person and is coping by pretending he's there by his own volition. I won't go through his story but it involves being poor and having to work from a very young age to support his siblings, tragic stuff. He also ends up being released. Lastly you have Leo, a really nice guy you find in the library. He seems very smart and calm but in reality he has bouts of violent behavior and ends up killing a cat close to the mid-end of the game to great dramatic effect. All these people suspect each other and the actual goals of the treatment they're receiving, and they also suspect the medical staff, and are investigating the hospital by snooping around, so you get caught up not knowing who to trust or not to trust. On top of all this, you're trying to figure it out what is going on with your memory and trying to make sense of what happened and who you're and the staff doesn't seem to care or be able to help. The choices available to you reflect this and it makes for very interesting unraveling. I'm skipping hours of dialogue, but the whole thing makes for a great mystery. Leo's story is one of domestic violence. He and his sister ran away from home but he soon realizes he's just as violent and dangerous as his dad and several things leads him to end up in this hospital. So when you go through all these stories and several flashbacks that you end up connecting by the end, you get to go outside (you were forbidden to do so) and the truth is revealed. As far as your memory wipe, the fact is you killed your mother during one of her psychotic episodes. She is obsessed with her son and won't allow him to do anything because she's afraid he'll leave her too, just like dad did. It's a really sick relationship that ends up with Toi stabbing her in the stomach. Then through some more shenanigans you end up in the hospital that turns out it's not a hospital at all. This is actually a religious cult funded on some weird idea about a God that grants hypnotic powers to a chosen few. These powers are real but it's really hard to find the right people that can open the third eye, so they're basically kidnapping youngsters to test their potential. This is all a secret of course, so they basically have to dispose of everyone who doesn't make it, which means all the other patients you met are probably dead. If you make all the right choices and manage to survive all this crazy rodeo, you find out Meru is conducting all these under orders and she has those hypnotic power herself. You convince her she can leave all this behind and come with you. The end. Also Doctor gets hit at the back of the head and is probably left to bleed to death in the woods. There are really no happy endings here, this is all really tragic but it's also really good and you should play it if you can.

https://novelgame.jp/games/show/4922?fes=1

You can watch someone else playing it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvPXLuwG5UM&list=PL0DEAPIYMmKG1396U8wJU4C06Dnby0yFo

約束の赤い折り紙を

 

As far as I'm aware Yakusoku no Akai Origami is the very first game by Hitotokinoyume, a team of 3 guys. They also released this mostly same game for mobile with room escape elements. I played the PC, VN version. I'm very impressed with their first attempt. Everything is solid and the story is pretty good. There are also some player friendly choices with the design I would love to see in all VNs, like highlighting the routes I already took so I don't have to reload when making a mistake, and showing me the paths I didn't take to reach a particular ending. Not many free stuff out there that will take the trouble to implement those things, it helps a lot. Everything else other than the plot is average though. Average art, average music. The characters do look a little bit uninspired but the backgrounds held my interest as they look like from an old point and click game but in a Japanese setting, it was interesting.

The plot is the main reason why you would play this. Religion plays a major part in the story. It's interesting to see a more 'religious-centric' view on Japanese spirituality. Usually in games and anime you have a very fantastic, mythological approach where you actually see the Gods and all the mythological creatures roaming around and interacting with humans. In such cases, there's no room for an exploration of religious behavior or religious belief, because there's no room for skepticism or thinking critically about religion. The Gods are right there! The Kappas roam the mountains. If a miku is doing something wrong, she just needs to ask the God she's serving and he or she is right there to respond, problem solved. When Mythology is a given like this, it's almost not a religion as a belief system, it's right in front of you. There are no doubts about it. Here though we have a more realistic view. Lots of conflict about belief and rituals and whatnot. It would be interesting to see more games taking this approach, I think it's a fairly unexplored territory, especially if you compare it with the more fantasy-based approach to Shinto and Japanese mythology that is absolutely everywhere in JP media.

I want to say this takes place at the beginning of the Meiji era based on some objects you can see around, but it might be a little later than that since the entire thing happens in a very tiny, isolated village. You have a very influential family, the Utsumi, having to deal with the task of giving thanks to the God protector of the place. Right away there's all sorts of weird things happening. You follow a girl called Tada, as she's trying to figure out all the weird things that start to happen to her on her 16th birthday. Voices whispering in the night, visions of a little girl inside the temple strangling an old man and little pieces of origami paper she keeps finding in the oddest places. As she goes back and forth asking people around about the past of the village and the upcoming festival, the plot unravels.

There's also point and click elements to find clues and objects that unlock more of the story. I'm not fond of that type of stuff in the middle of a VN but all those sections are simple enough and nicely spaced so it never gets annoying. It's a rather long one for a free title but it's worth a read.

https://novelgame.jp/games/show/6509
You can also watch it, some fairly talkative guy played it in 4 parts. Fair warning though, he's very enthusiastic about his own voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7mk813n2hg

Konohana Kitan (このはな綺譚)

It's been a while since I saw an anime that hides its gold so deep. First 3 episodes of Konohana Kitan feel like a patience challenge. Reminds me of some Buddhist stories where a monk would let the aspiring student stand outside the temple for a couple weeks in the cold and heavy rain in order to test his resolve. Except here you have to endure the first 3 episodes that are guaranteed to push a lot of people away. Especially if you have something else to do. Characters just kinda fuss about with no plot and acting terribly generic. It gives every possible sign this is going to be completely forgetable. The first 3 episodes are trying to tell you it's a group of cute fox girls working at an inn for the gods. Just one more excuse to look at cute characters, please move on. Well, too bad, Ms. Tsubaki, I stood there and you had to let me in.

Then it gets good. The fourth episode really gives you the opportunity to look under the sweetness of these charming foxes. And if you sit there and connect some dots at leisure, it gets really interesting. So, these fantastic creatures are pretty much playing around with human emotions. They live so long that to them, human lives feel like a short dream, and they see no problem deluding humans because they have a hard time even seeing the difference. It makes sense. They must feel like it's OK to give people a nice dream instead of reality, after all, a human lasts as long as a soap bubble to them. Of course this idea of fantasy as a tool is what iyashikei itself is about in many ways.

Each episode we get a person in need to escape reality. An abandoned child, an workaholic, a suicidal. All darkness of reality must be destroyed. There's a very funny and profoundly revealing moment in the 8th episode where Yuzu meets a compulsive liar who ends up isolated from people. She lies because she finds life crushingly insipid. Yuzu, being a fox, can't understand what she's talking about, so to cheer the liar up she responds that her fox life is actually great! I had to pause right there and give a hollow laugh. There's such a gap between these creatures and humans it's almost a cruelty to be able to converse with them. It's like talking to a demi-god able to do all these amazing things and being close to one makes you more aware of your shortcomings. The story ends with the girl disappearing and going back to her own world. Her problems, to Yuzu, was nothing but a short walk on the beach. The second part of the episode deals with people who don't want to go back to reality. Again, hard not to make a connection of yourself watching Konohana.

Like I said, all darkness must be destroyed and this includes the complete destruction of my second favorite character (first being Sakura of course), Okiku. See, Okiku is a curse doll but she doesn't look like one. She looks pretty much like an Ichimatsu doll with the beautiful red kimono and the long black hair. I really like those dolls and here there is one, but not for long. They find her look too bleak and decide to mutilate her into a maid with silly purple hair. I suppose it could be worse. Then Sakura spent a good chunk of her time making Okiku fear for her life. Why is it that Yuzu doesn't pay more attention to this particular situation? That wasn't fair.

Everything I said is not really on the surface of the show but if you think too much about these I think you'll end up seeing it, too. Still, very emotional, cute stories all around with kindhearted characters and bittersweet endings. I feel like the manga must be a lot more interesting because it can deal with creepy cute effects of a gods' inn. It did show up here and there in the anime and it's probably coming from the manga. Also the author herself escapes to her own fantasy all the time. She's everywhere, wearing a fox mask. She knows what's up. She really does.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu (鬼灯の冷徹)

 

It's possible you might have talked to someone like Ms. Eguchi before. A person who has two or three very specific interests and is very knowledgeable about them. You might know a thing or two about those things as well, but not at all like that person. You end up doing all the listening. She goes on talking about the things she likes and it might be a little hermetic at first, you might even consider coming up with an excuse to leave, but soon you get caught up in her web and things get so interesting you end up completely immersed in it. Then, when you realize it, hours have passed and you were having a great time listening to that person, even though you didn't think much of it at first.

That's how I feel about Ms. Eguchi's title, Hoozuki no Reitetsu. She has a fascination for ink wash and traditional Chinese and Japanese painting, especially landscapes. But that's just the beginning, because she also knows a lot about Chinese and Japanese mythology and folklore, particularly things related to the other worlds. Hells and Heavens. Naturally she knows her Buddhism as well. When talking about these fantastic matters, she organizes everything around the type of men she likes. You can see this is going to get very interesting. Ms. Eguchi is a fascinating person, but you have to give her time to really enjoy where she's going.

Enter her main character, Hoozuki. He's a demon working in Hell for none other than Great King Enma, the ruler and supreme judge of the underworld. Hoozuki is handsome, quiet, self-contained, strong, level-headed, master of several arts, from gardening to cooking and medicine. He's reliant, chaste, organized, focused and can hold his liquor. Ms. Eguchi loves to talk about how cool he is and of course we agree, Hoozuki is a pretty amazing demon, he's awesome.

Ms. Eguchi is also very interested in language and her characters talk in a very literary manner. They don't talk in an old style, in fact their dialogues are very modern, contemporary business-like style, but they tend to use literary words, usually with very clear Chinese roots that nobody else uses. She'll make lots of jokes about it, too, so you'll have to watch it more than once… maybe thrice to really get them all.

She loves to think about folklore heroes and mythological creatures as entities who screwed up at some point and she loves to see their ugly side. It's hard to tell if she likes to drag those characters through the mud for its own sake, or if she does it so Hoozuki can fix them up, making him ever cooler and more attractive in the process. Probably a little bit of both. I'm not complaining, it's actually quite entertaining.

As you can imagine by what I've said so far, Ms. Eguchi's humor is rather peculiar and it doesn't always work outside her own head, but the atmosphere and the world where the jokes happen are so interesting you don't even mind. Also, her characters' designs are adorable when it needs to be and grotesque when it needs to be, everything works very well. They look good, endearing and cute. Not many people can draw traditional clothing like she does. Quick but elegant. Her art really stands out, though the anime may not convey it at all times.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu is a fascinating work and I'm really happy to find out she still has lots of ideas she wants to express. Soon after finishing Hoozuki, she began another title, Dekin no Mogura. Let's hope it's as good as this one.

Kaidan Restaurant (怪談レストラン)

 

Kaidan Restaurant is based on a series of horror short story books collection for children that ran from the mid 90s to 2010, when the last book got released, reaching 50 volumes. MAL says it's picture books but it's actually short story collections, each story goes for about 10 to 12 pages and every other story has an illustration to go along with it. I've personally read about 10 or so of these books and I feel like the anime does a very good job translating the material to animation.

The books and the anime are actually a sort of modern take on several classic horror, folktale stories and more modern urban legends. Most have Japanese sources but there are a good number of European stories as well. If you have any interest in Japanese literature, especially related to the weird, folk tales and horror, then you'll recognize a lot of these. Some of the stories are based on sources as old as the Konjaku Monogatarishu and Ugetsu Monogatari compilations. Some are based on very modern urban legends related to technology, like being able to talk to the dead through a cell phone, creatures from the Beyond being able to use TV signals to cross dimensions, etc.

Although it's a show written for children, you would be surprised how it doesn't shun away from a lot of things a show like this in the West would do. Children actually die in tragic ways here. This is not a spoiler, just a warning. It's also very well written, setting a good precedent; it's not because it's for children that it needs to be lazy, uninteresting and avoid exploring themes like death, loss, pain, tragedy and the like. Just remember, it is a show for kids first, so it won't wallow in depressing themes, but it uses well to tell the stories it wants to tell. It explores all these things very well and in a very Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai-ish way. That's how it usually starts; the 3 main characters, Shou, Ako and Reiko get together, usually after seeing something weird. Shou remembers a story relating to that event and tells it to the other characters. Sometimes the characters themselves go investigate whatever weird thing that happened in their town or in their school. Most episodes are divided into 3 stories, sometimes 2 and a couple of episodes have a single story.

This show was extremely popular in Japan in its demographic and it's easy to see why. For adults however, it might require a little bit of persistence. Some stories are rather mild and an episode here and there can be a little dull, but if you keep going, there are very good tales to go through, some quite tragic and emotionally charged. Each story is self contained so you can skip the ones you don't like, just make sure to watch the last episode. It's a very nice one and it gives some development to one of the main characters.

Each episode gets a little intro by Garcon, the ghost who runs the Kaidan Restaurant. In the books he serves the same purpose, welcoming  the main character of each story as he or she enters the restaurant to tell or be told a horror story. Here however, he just introduces the stories with the help of other supernatural creatures, but they happen in other places. He's also played by Mr. Hirata Hiroaki, one of the most charming male voices in the industry today.

Going with this show's premise of introducing each story as dishes, I think this anime is a good palate cleanser. If you watched something very somber or depressing, or if you just watched something too cute and excessively sweet or silly, then I think you'll enjoy going through this, especially if you're into horror. There's also a movie out there but what this really deserves is a second season. All in all, it's a very satisfying show to go through.

Lovely★Complex (ラブ★コン )

If you have been watching anime for a long time and are willing to explore several genres, Lovely Complex will end up crossing your path sooner or later. It's one of the big shoujo romantic comedies out there and a staple of its kind. It doesn't try to do anything new, instead it focuses on being a safe show that manages to pull all the regular tropes in a very entertaining manner. The story follows the highschool years of Risa and Ootani as their relationship evolves from friendship to romance.

Risa is the main character and it's mainly through her eyes we'll be following the story. She's way taller than her love interest Ootani and that's one of the main elements for the comedy part to happen, usually slapstick and hilarious facial expressions. Their height difference is a source of insecurity from both parties and a hindrance they have to overcome to be together. It also makes them a very memorable couple and part why people still remember this show fondly after all these years.

Their road to romance is what you would expect of a shoujo romantic comedy. Filled with misunderstandings, melodramatic moments and all sorts of badly handled emotions by Ootani and Risa that makes them getting together a lot more tempestuous and difficult than it should be, but that's a romcom anime for you. I feel like this is a very good show for people interested in having a clear picture of how a romantic comedy is put together. Being upfront about the tropes really works in this show's favor.

Expect them all: a dense character that can't take a hint. Characters witnessing an innocent scene and assuming it's something else, characters being dropped in the plot only as a hindrance for the pairing of the main couple to happen, characters not expressing their feelings or expressing them in confusing ways, etc.

Now, Lovely Complex does get repetitive here and there and if you're just watching to see the couple getting together in the end it might bother you it's taking so long, but if you're interested in how the author reworks the same tropes in different flavors and how the story progresses using the same basic conflict, then you'll have a lot of fun. It's a one-on-one romcom after all. I feel like Lovely Complex is a very good standart to the genre and after you watch it you'll have a good idea of the elements you don't like and the stuff you do want to see more of it.

夜は猫といっしょ (Yoru wa Neko to Issho)

There's a fair amount of manga about cats out there and in 2020 an artist going by the handle Kyuryu Z on Twitter began publishing his own observations and interactions with his pet cat named Kyuruga (a pun on the fact his sister's mobile phone tried to read the cat like a QR Code). Yoru wa Neko to Issho have since amassed over 700k followers on Twitter. Kadokawa picked it up for publication (the third volume came out in April 2022) and an anime adaptation was announced as well for the season of Summer 2022.

Unlike something like Ojisama to Neko that focus on the emotional attachment between pet and owner or Chi's Sweet Home that uses anthropomorphic cats for comedy, this title is centered around careful observation of cat behavior. If you ever owned a cat, most pages here will depict things very familiar to you. The fascination cats have for boxes, how they love to get in the way when you're staring at your screen monitor, pushing things off tables and so on. The author is very careful in his observations and the interest and comedy contained here flow in a very natural, peaceful, non-scripted manner. The author is obviously not forcing the jokes to happen and any funny moment comes from pure cat observation. It's pretty much a diary relating funny and amusing things cats do and how it can brighten someone's day. Kyuruga the cat is the main and only star here, at least for now. The other two characters, Fuuta and his sister are just there to observe and play with the pet and the rest of their lives are not explored in any capacity. It's all about the pet cat.

It's a SOL for sure and the art is rather unique. Doesn't seem like Kyuryu Z had any pretentions with his manga, it just grew organically and the art shows his concern to depict cat behavior and movement in an accurate manner but also as fast as possible. I'm really curious how the anime adaptation is going to look like.

I highly recommend you check it out if you enjoy cats (it will be an endless source of 'my cat does that too!' moments) and also because you can actually read all this interesting stuff for free! The author keeps a blog with all the stories archived. I spent a lazy afternoon going through every story and it was an afternoon decently spent. Head to his Twitter, you can find all the links from there.

Himouto! Umaru-chan R (干物妹！うまるちゃんR )

 The second season is a lot better than the first. We're finally past the focus on the paradisiacal and gimmicky otaku life of Umaru and her dual personality. The focus now is the development of the characters' friendship and their daily life together. A lot more time is dedicated to the other girls and their problems and concerns, which actually makes Umaru more relevant and interesting as a character since this time around she can be more than something for her older brother to bare and clean up after it. We get a chance to see her more of her behavior as a friend and how she tries to improve the lives of the people around her… except her brother's life that is, she is still a toy hoarder and can't clean up after herself.

Now that Umaru, Kirie, Tachibana and Ebina is officially a group of friends, that's where the series goes; There's a getting together for christmas episode, getting together to go to the poll episode, going to the amusement park together, getting together to see some fireworks, going to the beach together, the works. The interactions are more varied and have a better pace, but don't expect too much. It's a very episodic anime. Like before, all problems the characters have are superficial, it’s either there for a joke or to be easily overcome. Everyone has a kind heart and everything works out in the end. It's good escapism and it doesn't want to be anything else.

三ツ星カラーズ (Mitsuboshi Colors)

Mitsuboshi Colors is about a group of three elementary school girls; Yui, Sacchan and Kotoha. They made a pact to protect and keep the peace of their town, more specifically Ueno park and its surroundings. And so they run amok causing all sorts of adventures upon themselves; from fighting trees and flowers so they stop causing people to sneeze to handing tissues near the subway entrance and selling strawberries to strangers in the park. To them, everything can become a call to adventure and a chance to explore their environment.

One of the people particularly interested in making their day interesting is Daigorou. He owns some sort of second-hand goods store and loves to come up with all sorts of mysteries to keep the trio occupied. One much less enthusiastic about the girls is the police officer Satou, who has to put up with their antics pretty much on a daily basis. He seems to be the most antagonistic character here, but this is an Iyashikei show, so that means he just tries to shoo away the kids from time to time. Another "quest giver" here is Sacchan's mother, Kise, who sometimes will ask the girls to run some errands for her.

Other people they deal with on a daily basis are the sisters Nonoka and Momoka; they own a bakery soon to be turned into an onigiri store and that's pretty much the cast. Yui is the leader, being probably the most serious and alert of the group. Sacchan is a ball of energy. Charismatic and always looking for something to do. Kotoha is a gamer with a lot of odd and funny theories about the world.

Watching this show was an interesting experience. It felt like it took me every minute out all of the 12 episodes for me to start to care about the characters. When I finally reached the point I felt like I could enjoy the show, it was over. I think there are two main reasons for this. First, the stories feel too scattered and catch-as-catch-can. I'm not talking about an overall sense of progress, this is not what this show is about, but how thin some of those episodes felt. It wasn't soothing, it wasn't funny, it wasn't endearing… it was just there. Felt like the whole script was written as a last minute thing. Some are interesting, for example when they follow their pet cat to figure out what it is doing during the day, or when Yui has to take part in a parade. Others feel like busy work, really, like sending the girls to hand some tissues to get some tickets for a lottery, just so they get more tissues as prizes.

The other issue for me was the lack of interesting supporting characters and a lack of a contrast between the main characters. Yui, Sacchan and Kotoha are just too similar to each other. Their friendship feels consumed by uniformity, there's very little for the viewer to follow in the characters themselves. Supporting characters could be interesting but ultimately they suffer from lack of screen time. I think Nono and Momoka would be great, if they had more development. In fact their relationship as sisters seemed a lot more interesting than the characters the show follows.

Also, watching this after watching Ichigo Mashimaro makes it very difficult not to draw comparisons. The characters here are way less interesting visually and feel superficial when you compare them with the girls in Ichigo. I'm still interested enough that I'll read the manga. We'll see how it goes.

苺ましまろ (Ichigo Mashiro)

Ichigo Mashimaro follows the daily lives of Itou sisters Nobue and Chika and their friends, Miu, Matsuri and Ana. The stories are mostly self-contained and have a SOL bent to them, but with a rather chaotic twist in the shape of 12 years old Miu. She must be the most explosive comedy release character I've ever seen in a Slice of Life, feel good manga like this. You know the type from many other titles, the very active child that pushes the other characters to do things or force them into situations they would never get by themselves. Well, Miu is that element but she is… special. Judging by the things I've read about this work, she's a polarizing character, too. Half the readers seem to love her, the other half hates her. The reason for this, I'm assuming, is because she doesn't allow Ichigo Mashimaro to be a cozy, feel good manga all the way through. She's always scheming something and even when it's a small thing, it turns out to be bigger than expected.

But why would so many people like this to be a pure feel good SOL manga? To get why, you have to look at the art. Ichigo is just gorgeous to look at. Barasui has a very soothing, "round and cute" style. He's able to draw very delicate lines that capture a lot with very little. His sense of fashion is varied and fun to look out for and he is pretty much one of the best artists I've seen when it comes to capturing character's facial expressions and body language, especially from children. He's able to add a lot of subtlety to the way his characters exist, particularly with the way he draws hands and feet, and I have to mention again, he loves to draw clothing and that adds a lot to his panels. So when you have a very strong and chaotic comedic element that disrupts things, yeah, some people might have a problem with that.

It seems even Barasui himself sees the work as an odd mix of over the top comedy and Slice of Life. There are many stories where he compares the friendship between Miu and Chika (chaotic, comedic) and Matsuri and Ana (endearing, soothing). In fact he seems to love that sort of contrast and applies them a lot in several ways during all sorts of situations. Before we go into those however, it's better if I introduce all the characters first.

Miu is 12 and I'm not sure if she's crazy or a comedy genius. She's very energetic and seems to be constantly dying for attention. She's also incredibly flexible, athletic and cute. Basically she's born to become a movie star, there's no other place in this world for her other than the stage and I think she knows it. In one story she mentions she wants to be an idol but no, she's wrong, she wants to be a movie star. She'll figure it out, eventually.

Then you have Chika. She's in the same class as Miu and not nearly as crazy. In fact, she's a very responsible and sweet kid, unfortunately caught between a slacker sister and oddball Miu. She loves to cook and is always reading about new types of sweets she can prepare at home. Her pacifying and calm nature is essential for the wellbeing of the people around her and she's an all-round restorative force to her friends and family. Chi-chan and Miu form a sort of unity within this group of characters.

The other one is composed by Ana and Matsuri. They're a year younger than Miu and Chi and have a very different relationship. They're also friends of course, but Matsuri is a very shy, fragile, introspective girl and so Ana ends up acting as a sort of guardian and protector. Matsuri is one of those types of people that look very precious and possess the gentlest of souls, so everybody around her tries their best to make sure Matsuri is happy and safe. Ana is also a very interesting character in her own right. She's a foreigner, an English girl, and moved to Japan with her family when she was four or so. She would love to be more of a foreigner, actually, but she doesn't know any English, which is a source of never ending frustration to her. In fact, Matsuri is very focused on helping her learn English and takes it so seriously that she actually knows way more English than Ana, which is a source of funny moments in itself. Ana is very mature, beautiful, extremely polite, refined and trustworthy. Basically it's impossible not to love her, as Matsuri and Nobue know very well. She's adored by Nobue, which makes Miu extremely jealous from time to time.

Transiting around those kids is Nobue, Chi's older sister. She's 16 and kinda what binds everything together. She's also the character the reader will sort of stand side by side the most. Like her, we're also watching as these kids interact and grow together so it feels like she's the closest character to the reader, or at least that's how I felt. It's hard to say much about her because hanging around with her younger sister and the other girls is pretty much all she does and apparently cares about. She doesn't seem to want or have a life beyond that. She dislikes school, doesn't have any friends her age and she must be at least a little socially inept because even though she's very cute, all the boys are afraid of her (according to her sister). She also kicked a stranger in the stomach once because he made a comment about her being single, not exactly a healthy reaction, but there you go, Nobue justice was served that day.

And with these five characters we mostly will be hanging around Chi's bedroom as they play with dolls, talk about their dreams, eat candy, play games and generally have a very nice day. Sometimes they go out to try a restaurant or to the park, but that's not as common. Lots of antics, lots of funny moments, lots of heartwarming moments. This is probably on my top10 favorite list. The art and the characters did it, more than the comedy and plot.

To conclude this I would like to talk a little bit about the situation with releases and what to expect of it. The first and second volume came out in 2003, about six months apart. Then volume 3 came out 2004, a year later. In 2005, again a year later, volume 4 came out and from there the release began to take longer and longer. Volume 5 came out 2 years later, in 2007. Volume 6 came out in 2009. Volume 7 came out 4 years later, in 2013 and again 4 years later, 2017, volume 8 came out. As I'm writing this, it's april 2022, so 5 years after volume 8 and there's no volume 9 yet.

I don't know if there are any chapters released after the stories contained in volume 8 because I could not track any Dengenki Daioh magazines prior to 2020 but the last chapter available on their website is from 2015. I didn't see anything about Barasui giving up on publication, so it's probably an active project, albeit a very slow pace one. Now, I've been following Barasui on Twitter and all he talks about is his 5 yo son. He's having a blast by being a dad and apparently it's his full time job for the past few years. I would not be surprised if Ichigo is the last thing on his mind right now. I guess we'll see.

As a last note to this, if you happen to be learning Japanese and are intermediate or around that, this work is very easy to read. Dialogue is short and the words used are very basic indeed. I mean, the main characters are children, so that's to be expected. I checked the fan translation is actually mostly decent, probably because the dialogue is so straightforward and simple.

苺ましまろ (Ichigo Mashimaro)

Ichigo Mashimaro follows the daily lives of Itou sisters Nobue and Chika and their friends, Miu, Matsuri and Ana. It's  SOL and CGDCT with a rather unique timing to it, but more of that later. Nobue is 20, Chika and Miu 12, Matsuri and Ana 11, making the show mostly about childhood and how those kids' personalities clash for humorous effect. As one might expect for a show of this genre, the atmosphere and mood are quite soothing and the plots are all trying to be lighthearted and endearing and it hits the mark most days.

The timing for this particular SOL is rather unique. The pacing is slower than most I think, not the plot itself but how the dialogue works and the way the comedy is delivered. This is not a bad thing and it works particularly well if you want something to shut your brain off for 20 minutes which is what I was looking for. This is also hinted at in the color palette for the show. A small range of mostly meek and calming colors. Right away you know what you're getting yourself to.

As far as the characters go, they're all quite nice and it's comforting to watch them playing around and being mostly silly. Miu is the chaotic element of this crew and as a result most of the comedy revolves around the rest of the girls having to deal with the crazy stuff she pulls off all the time. Ana is English but has lived in Japan for most of her life. She's very keen about Japanese culture and is very eager to make friends. Matsuri is a very shy, meek and introverted girl whose only weapon is her natural ability to inspire her friends to immediately stand up for her whenever needed. You'll understand why when you watch it. Chika is described by her older sister as "a girl whose main trait is not having any particular traits" but that's not true. She's the mature one of the group, many times acting more like an adult than Nobue herself.

Then you have Nobue. Being almost a decade older than the other characters and with no parents in sight, she ends up being a parental sort of figure, but without the pressure of being a real parent. All the other kids think she's super cool, except her sister who knows her a little better than that. She's a real mystery. Sometimes it felt like she had her own life going and having to take care of her sister and her friends is a nuisance to her. Other times it feels like all she has going on in her life is her sister and her friends and outside of that she's a recluse. It's obvious she dislikes school and doesn't care about it. Her room is pretty bare and the only passion she seems to have is smoking.

Sometimes she does a very excellent job at being an adult and treating those kids well and fairly, sometimes she fails miserably. Her relationship with Miu is particularly interesting because Miu obviously admires Nobue a lot and wants to be the girl Nobue likes the most. This is where Nobue is pretty hit-or-miss on her behavior. She seems to forget sometimes that she's dealing with kids, other times she goes out of her way for them. I suppose that makes her a rather realistic character in this. She was the most interesting character in the show for sure and watching her dealing with the children is very entertaining.

To finish this little rumbling here I would like to talk about the differences between the anime and the manga. It's been a while since I watched an adaptation so well put together. They read the original material and managed to change a thing here and there to great effect. First, changing Nobue's age from 16 to 20. Obviously this makes things easier with her smoking and drinking. Also, putting more age between her and the other girls reinforces her role as an adult watching children growing up, something she does a lot. A teenager would probably be too involved in their own crap to be around as much as she is in those kids' lives, so it makes her a little more grounded and interesting I think. Another change is having Ana there right from the start. In the manga she's only introduced on the second volume. Also making her enjoy Japanese things from the start instead of finding things weird really made her a lot more sweet. It also changed the way her elegance is presented, going for something less related to pride to something more agreeable. Lots of situations from the manga show up in the anime but the order, motivation and interaction between the characters are a little different. Ironically, I think the way the anime presented those characters actually revealed their personalities better than the first few volumes of the manga. Of course, they had the chance to read all the original material first and then decide how to proceed, while the manga was an original work in progress and that entails mistakes.

All in all, I really enjoyed this series. I wish the author would publish more volumes, as it stands, the story doesn't seem to be over yet, but it's on an indefinite hiatus for now. Let's hope we'll be seeing more of Ichigo Mashimaro soon.

奇々怪界 黒マントの謎 ( Pocky & Rocky Reshrined)

 

 I just finished going through Pocky & Rocky Reshrined or the much more appealing title 奇々怪界 黒マントの謎. I’m very fond of the Pocky & Rocky games for the Super Nintendo so this is a game I’ve been waiting for a very long time. Let’s just say it right away: If you liked the original Snes titles you’ll enjoy this as well. The music has pretty much the same tunes but got an update in quality and a couple new ones were added that are on par with the original BGM. Graphics are very good and has that fourth generation pixel art going for it that goes really well with this type of cute and endearing direction this game has. While the sprites are very, very good, I found the characters’ pictures during cutscenes, especially for Sayo, to be a little bit off. She doesn’t quite look right, at least for me. I would like her to look like the concept art as you can see on the box and elsewhere (https://www.natsumeatari.co.jp/kuromanto/character.html). The others are alright.

Now, one VERY IMPORTANT thing if you actually want to purchase a physical copy of this. The release under the publisher ININ is censored. One of the new characters, Ameno, had her character design mutilated in order to cover her cleavage. Getting ININ’s version of the game is of absolutely no gain whatsoever because the Japanese version actually has a language option and English is included, along with a bunch of other languages. So really there’s no reason whatsoever to get the mutilated version. How do you know which version is which? Simple, The box for the ININ release has their logo on the box, right in front. The Japanese release doesn’t. Easy to avoid. Anyway, moving on.

Like the previous games in the series, this game is very colorful, has an optimistic and cheering atmosphere and all in all is quite a joy to go through. The story got a little bit convoluted here but I can’t talk about it without giving spoilers, so you know, I won’t. What I can say is that it’s about Black Mantle again, but there’s more to it. This is not spoilers by the way, it’s right there on the title. There’s a lot of story here for a Pocky & Rocky game. You can skip it if you like but I appreciated that they decided to include a plot for this. I just wish Sayo would look more like her concept art. Oh well, still very good indeed.

The most interesting thing to me about this game is the fine line it walks between being a remake and an update on the graphics. There are a lot of parts of this game that are pretty much the same as the original, Snes game. If you played that one, get ready to revisit a lot of places. Sometimes all they do is rearrange the stage or add a couple of new obstacles. I would say half of the game is very close to the original and the other half is mostly new. There are a lot of new monsters here and all of them look adorable. There are also three new characters you can play as. Ameno, a Goddess who can fly, Ikazuchi, an anthropomorphized marten able to release thunderbolts and Hotaru, a samurai. You have to beat the game on normal and hard in order to unlock all the characters.

As far as the difficulty goes, it went way down compared to Snes title. The actual gameplay is mostly the same difficulty but the game now gives you a lot of extra lives and there’s an autosave system in place. That means you won’t be redoing the stages over and over again in order to make progress in the game. Progress is pretty much a given now and even if you absolutely suck at scrolling shooters you won’t have a problem finishing this one at all. But then again, I really doubt anyone getting this is going after a super hard game, if you wanted that you would be playing an actual bullet hell or some Touhou derivative. You would get this one for the colorful world, the lighthearted atmosphere and because you’re a fan of the original.

All in all I really enjoyed playing this and I’ll definitely play it enough to get actually good at it. If you liked the original or if you enjoy stuff like Goemon, retro games and/or cute shooters, then I definitely think you’ll enjoy this one as well.

いたいお姉さんは好きですか？(Itai Oneesan ha sukidesuka?)

 

To follow the life of Itai Shiori is like watching a tiny and precious trainwreck. It gets personal very quickly, too, because you’ll care about her from page one. Itai wants a boyfriend but she doesn’t quite know how to go about it and is not the best at reading social situations. And so comedic yet painful events follow.

The way the story unfolds is really clever in this one. Most of the text is not dialogue, but narration, like we’re watching Itai’s with the narrator and she too often will get flabbergasted about her actions. This really puts you in a position of wanting to help Itai. A lot. But you can’t. You’re forced to watch as she moves along being silly and living her painful comedy day by day.

A very engaging narrative and a very interesting read. If you enjoy awkward female protagonists and painful laughter, this title has you covered. The art is simple but it has a very unique charm I don’t quite remember seeing anywhere else. The author has a way of coming up with excellent facial expressions for the characters and even though it’s a simple, straightforward way of drawing the characters, there’s an attention to detail to the expressions that really adds a very special quality to them, it’s hard to put my finger on it. I guess you’ll have to read it to find out by yourself.

The Citadel

 

I don’t usually care for FPS games at all but after seeing a few pictures of The Citadel I was very captivated by it. It’s made by a single developer and he’s also a fan of Blame! so I pretty much had to play it. There’s a very unusual charm about this title, I can’t really put my finger on it. It’s a super violent shooter, all the enemies are either weird biotech creatures or female soldiers, you seem to be walking around this futuristic endless city and you’re there to kill angels, destroy the false god and set people free… by spilling their guts all over the floor. Like I said, I don’t usually care for FPS games but as you can see by my quick description it’s a rather unique game and it loosely reminds me of Baroque, that old title for the Sega Saturn. In there you also have all these odd elements and you pretty much don’t quite know what the hell is going on.

I finished the first 3 acts on my own but when I realized it was going to be a fairly repetitive thing, I just used a cheat and finished the rest with the best weapon in the game. Maybe I don’t really appreciate FPS gameplay but the first 3 acts were quite enough for me. I was still interested in the story so I wanted to continue but couldn’t stomach to slowly crawl my way through hordes of deadly enemies to see it. This game is not hard by the way, but you need to take it slowly. The enemies are not particularly intelligent but that could easily be explained by the brainwashing done to them by the false god. All they do is walk forward and shoot. The way it works with this game is you have to take the enemies one by one pretty much. If you just run in there without any caution you’ll get shot to smithereens, so it can be a slog sometimes. Then again, maybe it’s me and people who do like FPS games will like this one a lot.

It’s a pity that there isn’t much dialogue or any plot exposition. You’ll have to assume most of the story since there’s only a couple of people you can talk to and the dialogue is very limited, maybe 20 or 30 sentences total. To me the world was the most intriguing part of this game and I would have enjoyed a little more plot exposition here and there. Gameplay is very similar to the original Doom but a little bit more smooth I think.

Along with the weird world and the interesting graphics, the music is really, really good. I can’t remember a single bad bgm for this, every single one is really fun and enhances the whole experience of going through this super violent, super depressing neon future. I think people who actually enjoy this genre would really be able to appreciate this. I had a lot of fun with it myself. It’s one of those games that don’t particularly excel in any aspect but just the combination of its parts create this charming, rather odd experience.

メイドさんを右にミ☆ (Super Zangyura)

 

 

I just finished playing メイドさんを右にミ☆ or Super Zangyura as I just found out there’s an English release for this. Not sure what the English title means but it’s not a translation of the original one. Anyway, this is an almost 20 yo doujin game remade for the consoles. It’s a rather interesting game that plays like Castlevania but I feel like deep down, at least visually, it kinda wanted to be more like a gothic Megaman. In general the game looks more colorful and optimistic than any Castlevania title and the characters tend to be cute instead of monstrous.
 
The story here is that every century Dracula wakes up and the land gets filled with monsters, so the people call for a vampire hunter and instead of Van Helsing they get a young lady dressed as a maid and capable of handling a gigantic ball and chain flail about her size, so you know she must be right for the job. There are 5 main areas divided in several rooms filled with spikes, falling platforms that will crush you, and huge chess pieces wandering around eager to hurt you. Also flying jack-o'-lanterns, lots of them.

This game is not exactly hard, as far as doujin games go but it can be if you play it without patience. The way some things work in this game can really destroy your run if you’re not careful. First, meido-san (I called her Mei on my save file, it’s fitting) doesn’t have an invulnerability period when she gets hit, meaning she can get stuck and continue to get hit until dying. This happens often if you’re not careful and there are several spots during the game that it can happen. Best policy is not to get hit at all, just to be safe.

Then, your common attacks with the flail don't go across walls and doors (unless you swing it overhead but that takes a few seconds so you can’t always use it) but the jacks can go across any part of the stage, this causes the problem where you’ll attack them but the flail will hit a wall, giving ample time for the jack to do some damage. This would not be a problem but since many stages have a very limited space, very often you’ll find yourself in very close range of several enemies at once. This is not exactly an issue, just something you need to get used to.

The music is nice but it’s too fast paced for me and for the game, too, sometimes. It gives me a little bit of anxiety to be honest. The graphics are quite nice, I really like the animation for the main character. The designs are a little bit like 90s anime of sorts and that’s my thing too, so I enjoyed it. All in all I’m definitely happy I found out about this game, I enjoyed it enough that I’m currently trying to finish it on hard mode now. They mean it, it is hard. My only complaint is how short it is, soo all it's left up to do is to get better at the few stages available. You can probably finish this in about an hour or so.

Umihara Kawase Fresh!

 

I had a blast with Umihara Kawase Fresh! I feel like not enough people appreciate this game. I finished it yesterday but my library is still missing some items and there are 4 or 5 enemies I haven’t encountered yet, so I went looking for a FAQ or guide to the missing stuff but to my surprise there is none. There’s barely any content at all about this game out there. So I’m slowly replaying it from beginning to end in order to find everything by myself. It’s better this way really, that way I can enjoy it all over again.

I find this is my favorite Umihara title yet. The way you make progress now is by completing quests in an open world ripe for exploration. Fresh! is huge compared to the rather smaller stages of the previous entries, which makes it more fun not only to explore but to try to solve the difficult jumps and pulls in a lot of different ways. Gameplay is pretty much the same but this time you can enhance your abilities by eating certain types of dishes. You learn that by completing quests that grant different food recipes. They’ll grant you boosts like jumping higher or a longer fishing line.

Also there’s a plot now and several characters. You can skip everything with no detriment to your enjoyment of this game but it’s nice that they put it out there anyway. I enjoyed it throughout. This time, Kawase is a traveling chef working at a particular restaurant and many of the quests are about you finding ingredients or doing some delivery. It’s just an excuse to get you out there in the field to do some tricky jumps with your fishing line and hook. It’s not only that though and the plot suddenly takes a much more interesting turn by midgame. Even Cotton shows up eventually. Now, I’m a fan of the Cotton games so I was pleasantly surprised when it happened. Also, after you finish the main story with Kawase, you get an extra set of fields to play as Cotton on her quest to fetch some candy. I found all of this to be a very nice addition to the whole thing. I would be happy with the classic Umihara gameplay by itself.

The only thing I didn’t quite like was the graphics. It works just fine, but I kinda liked the original one and Sayonara a little better. There’s nothing wrong with it but the world now is much less surreal and mysterious. They also added a hunger feature here that works like a soft timer to the quests but if you’re like me who likes to harvest all the stuff that shows up around you, you’ll have all the time in the world.

Music is pretty good, it fits perfectly in this game. It’s relaxing enough and not distractive, so it works. I feel like the BGM for this really helps to not be overly frustrated when something goes wrong and if you played any Umihara game you know it will happen a lot. One particular quest took me a few hours doing the same 4 or 5 platforms over and over again. If you don’t have that patience you can always prepare a pizza or a burger on the fly to increase your jump or something and that will make things easier. If you still can’t make it, after you unlock Cotton you can play all quests as her and she can fly around for a few seconds which makes the entire game a lot easier. Not easy, just easier. Still, I feel like this is one of the most accessible games in the franchise.

All in all I really loved this title. Definitely one of my favorite games now. The combination of hard, sometimes brutal platforming, endearing characters, colorful environment, relaxing tunes and throwing Cotton in an Umihara game when I was not expecting it at all really made it for me.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

 

I just finished Kirby and The Forgotten Land. I became a fan of Kirby maybe just 6 or 7 years ago, exploring the GB, SNES and N64 games. I never bothered to try them out back when I had those consoles. Kirby games never really interested me but since playing many of them, they’ve grown on me quite a bit. You kinda have to understand what they are first, though. You’re there to appreciate cute characters huffing around, colorful and relaxing little worlds and happy music. It’s all leisurely and relaxing, There’s no timer, no urgency of any kind. It’s just you and Kirby walking around magic caves, green fields, around mountains and other such beautiful places.

I’ve seen a lot of people saying this game is too easy so let me address that for a second. Look at the character design, the way the stages look and just the general atmosphere of this game. Now tell me what the target audience for this title is. Of course it’s easy, it’s a game for school children, you’re not playing Kirby to improve your platforming skills, you’re there to take a stroll with Kirby while some catchy tune is playing in the background and a soft breeze goes by. You’re there to enjoy yourself. Maybe it’s difficult for 9 yo but it’s probably not going to pose much of a challenge for you. Also, as a side note, it makes sense it’s easy. Kirby is the most powerful creature in the universe. He can actually gulp down a black hole without breaking a sweat (check the manga), so keep that in mind while you’re playing this game.
Yeah it’s too easy at times, so why play it at all? First it has all that relaxing, cute atmosphere and endearing characters I told you about. If you like that it’s reason enough, but there’s something else. For me, playing Kirby is like having a small window into how children perceive the world in a way. The innocence of Kirby’s universe grows on you and it feels nice to be part of it, even if it’s for a little while. Speaking of which, this game is quite big as far as Kirby games go, so you’ll be in there for a while. It was quite a pleasant playthrough for me.

I my opinion this is one of the best 3D titles of the series. Back when they released the trailer I thought they were going to try to turn yet another cherished series into an open world full of nothing but I’m happy to report they didn’t. It’s a lighthearted platformer with lots of different environments to explore, a lot of collectables (there are over 200 capsule toys to collect in this game) and many interesting enemies to interact with. Also there are tons of minigames this time, a lot more than in any other Kirby title.

As far as difficulty goes, this game is not difficult but still can pose a challenge, especially on the several time attacks. Some of those I still can’t beat under the required time (it’s not necessary though, you just get a few extra coins for your effort just finishing them is enough). Since the platforming is not difficult, you’ll have plenty of time and peace of mind to wander around looking for the lost Waddle Dees. They’re scattered and lost all around the stages and it’s funny how some are hidden right under your nose and still you can’t find them. The plot is simple enough, and doesn't even need its own paragraph. One day, a vortex swapped the land and many Dees got sucked into another dimension. You go in in order to find and rescue them.

The music is fantastic. All the tracks are readily available on YT and you can check it for yourself. I particularly liked the music for the Wondaria stages, which are absolutely brilliant. They have that nostalgic Kirby tune to it but introduces something new and catchy as well. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHv3vWHbgPw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yq_8thBr98 and tell me if that doesn’t sound pretty good indeed. The Winter Horn world music is pretty good too, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw_SIdt3vfE .

So all in all I’m very happy to see how well this Kirby game came out. It really stayed true to its nature and managed to add a lot to the series. I hope they make another one soon.

Princess Maker 5

In Princess Maker 5 you are  the legal guardian of a ten-year-old girl. She’s the only daughter of a royal bloodline and the center of a political dispute that quickly escalated into open war. Surrounded by enemies and fearing for her safety, you take her far away, into another dimension, to the land of early 2000s Japan, in order to give her a safe and decent upbringing. Cube, your loyal servant and friend, is there with you. You bond as family. Your new life begins.
 
I just finished my very first run of this game. This is the first PM I played and the first raising sim game I played as well. I’ll say the most important thing right away. This title needs your complete devotion. It plays like a casual game but it needs your complete emotional investment in order for it to work. I think this is why it’s a rather niche sort of game. I don’t think many people could play this to the end and the reason is simple; Gameplay is pretty much looking at stat numbers slowly rising while the same sequence of short animations play over and over again. It is repetitive, slow and mostly uneventful. Yet, this is one of the best games I’ve ever played. How is that possible?

Like I said, it all depends on your emotional investment. For the past several days I did nothing but play this. I would close the game and think about my decisions and how to make the life of this girl under my custody better. A lot better. In fact I was aiming for a beautiful childhood. This was the point that appealed the most to me and what made me enjoy this game so much; the possibility to provide someone with a meaningful, wonderful childhood.

As such, my gameplay was guided completely by roleplay. I didn’t look up any guides or tips on how to improve this or that stat or what to do in order to get this or that ending, I didn’t care about the numbers so much. I wanted to experience this game in a completely organic manner, mistakes and all. For example, I allowed my protégé to continue to attend music classes long after she mastered the skill, just because her best friend also attended there. I figured that’s what she would like, given the fact she only had that single friend during that time. This is how I made every choice in this game and it was completely worth it. I was completely invested in the task of raising this girl and it made every consequence very meaningful to me personally as a player.

If this is the type of thing that sounds appealing to you, then there’s only one problem to overcome with Princess Maker 5 and that is the gameplay. It’s a raising sim and that means creating a routine for your daughter is fundamental to her upbringing. This game will make you feel what a routine is like. You’ll watch every single week of an eight years period, as she goes to class, attends extracurricular activities, extra courses, cram school, do tests, club activities and later, part time jobs and everything else in between. You’ll help her pick birthday presents for her friends year after year and you better remember which friend is which. It is repetitive and I even feel asleep a few times (if you watch my streams, on rare occasions you’ll see the mouse cursor running offscreen. That’s because I dozed off for a few seconds) but the repetitiveness of it gives it the proper weight of reality and gives you the time to actually care about the game and with some luck, you’ll end caring a lot and having a fascinating experience with it.

Graphics are beautiful. I love the character design and the animations. It has that appeal of early 2000s anime like Toradora, Soul Eater and Haruhi Suzumiya. It has a sort of quiet charm about it, can’t really explain it but the visuals add a lot to this game. The music is so good I consider it to be a good enough reason to at least play a couple hours of PM5. It’s relaxing, engaging and quite beautiful in its own right. In fact I predict I’ll continue to listen to some of those BGM for years to come.

Only one thing bothered me while playing this game and it’s the lack of character development for many of the characters, particularly the students. There’s just not enough events in there for everybody. The few that there are are really nice to follow and read about, but it’s too little. It took me about 50 hours to finish this, I completed the entire ‘arc’ of several students and there’s just not enough text for them, they deserve a lot more dialogue, a lot more things going on in their lives. I can well imagine a Princess Maker game being enhanced this way by adopting a little bit of VN gameplay. It would be absolutely perfect. In my opinion it’s the only thing missing really.

I think that summons up my experience with PM5. A beautiful, precious gem of a game that maybe requires a very specific type of player to really enjoy it, but if you’re one of the lucky few, man, you’re in for some very good times with it.

ヤンキーショタとオタクおねえさん / Yankee Shota to Otaku Oneesan

 

 

There's a fair amount of titles running on Gangan right now that have otaku characters filled with inside jokes about the tropes of the industry. Yankee Shota to Otaku Oneesan is, in my opinion, the best of the bunch right now. This is the tale of a fujoshi and shotacon (2D only of course) woman called Kazuko and her neighbor, Ryuou, a 3D shota (from her perspective) that starts to follow her around for reasons she doesn't understand.

It's a very light and fun comedy and Kazuko in particular is quite a hilarious character with her mannerisms and excessive inhibitions. There's a balance here between the funny moments that centers around the interactions between the main characters, and the more drama-like aspects of the story, centered around Ryuou relationship with his parents. They're good people but maybe not the best parents in the world. Don't worry though, it never reaches the point of tragedy, so you can read it always hoping to finish the volume in a good, uplifting mood.

If you like to watch socially inept women forced into social interaction, and you want the comedic aspect of those interactions expressed, then you'll certainly enjoy this title, because that's what this is at its core. Liking meta jokes about the anime and manga industry tropes will also help you out here. Like I said, there are several titles like this running right now, but to me, what makes this one the best is Kazuko and how likable she can be without trying too hard. There aren't any absurd moments purely for comedy (like with Watamote), her reactions seem more genuine and this adds a certain tenderness to it that really gives this title the edge.

祟りバイト / Curse part-time job

 

This one has an interesting premise. Two college students hear about this part-time job being offered at a small rural community. They don't know much about it but assume it must be related to the harvest. The village is in an archipelago that can only be reached by plane. The job is only for a few weeks and expenses are covered, including food and shelter. Since they don't have anything better to do and money is money, they decide to accept the offer and check this whole thing out.

Already you can see this is sorta the Wicker Man situation and the first part of the novel plays a little bit like it, where the main characters go around getting to know more about this weird village in the middle of nowhere. The village elder explains to them that they will be performing pranks that look like hauntings around to scare people a little bit and put them in the mood for the Repose of the Soul festival that is coming up. If it were me I would catch a plane right back because that sounds quite illegal. Of course this can't happen, otherwise we wouldn't have a story, so they accept.

The second part becomes a monster story, a mix of big-foot thing with a touch of supernatural but we never get to see the monster. In fact we know very little about it and much of its nature is left to the reader's imagination. Some times it looks like it's a new type of animal, other times it looks like it's a demonic thing. There's a couple subplots in there involving monks, another student and the real intentions of the village elder but none of those are really explored. I guess the author might have planned this as a series but it never caught enough interest. This was released in 2016 and yet I have not found a single review of this LN anywhere. Sure it's your average horror pulp, not an amazing read but it doesn't deserve to be completely ignored, either. It could use some illustrations, too.

幽談 - Ghost Stories

 

A collection of horror short stories by Mr. Natsuhiko. I'm sorry to say I quit after the second story. They're not bad stories,  just not horror for the most part and horror is what I was looking when I picked this one up. The stories here are very sparing of fantastical and horror elements.

Take the first story for example, 手首を拾う (Picking up a wrist). Most of it is the main character reminescing about his wife and talking about the trail to the inn he'll be staying. The fantastical element happens in 4 sentences and it's over. It feels tangential at times.

There's a lot of build up through environment description and reminiscencing of characters that maybe are not that reliable. I didn't feel like the fantastical twists and the horror crunch was enough to give this stories enough dread. Again, not bad, but the horror is few and far between and not particularly imaginative. I'll have to come back in the right mood for it.