Da Capo II To You Review

Company: CIRCUS
Game site: D.C.II To You～ダ・カーポII～トゥーユー
Release date: June 26, 2009
Links: Getchu, seiyuu listing

Da Capo II To You is a fandisk for CIRCUS’ popular game D.C.II PC. It is a kinetic novel which contains three backstories and a side story. This game is recommended for those who have played D.C.II or D.C.II PC.

Nendoroid Reimu

Mika-tan announced on her blog the release of Hakurei Reimu from Touhou by Good Smile Company at Comiket 76. Looks really cute; love the ribbon. I want a Reisen & Tewi combo nendoroid though…

Mika-tan blog

Umineko Anime Episode 1- First Impressions

Nemuiwanko here! (Will be using this color to identify myself with) After a long hiatus from posting, I’m back to post about the newly released Umineko no Naku Koro Ni anime. I was pretty overjoyed to hear that it was getting its own anime adaptation but was pretty worried since a game of that caliber would not translate well into anime form. The game itself just has too much information, backgrounds, and even tea parties* (yes, tea parties) to consider and viewers would probably never fully understand the plot. The anime version of Ryukishi07’s (creator of Higurashi and Umineko) former work Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni managed to cover the major plot points but left out crucial details that would have explained and further contributed to the understanding of the story.

Getchu Mid-2009 Sales Rankings

Getchu has released the sales rankings for the first half of 2009. The Top 10 are:

1. Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro na -Moonlight Cradle-
2. Tayutama -it’s happy days-
3. Tenshin Ranman
4. Shukufuku no Campanella
5. Himegari Dungeon Meisters
6. Like a Butler
7. Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa nai
8. Baldr Sky Dive1 “Lost Memory”
9. Sakura Sakura
10. Flyable Heart

I think Hoshizora no Memoria and Tapestry deserve to be placed higher than #28 and #43.

The trial for Natsunagi is out! It’s great! 羊ちゃん最高！！！

The all ages version of minori’s eden* is set for a September 18th release at a lower price of 5800 yen. The 18+ add-on eden* PLUS+MOSAIC will be released later for an extra 2000 yen. I think that’s actually a great idea for those that don’t care much about ero content anyway and want to save some money.

I’m finishing up D.C.II To You today and there’s already a new fandisk D.C.II Fall in Love planned for later this year. This latest installment of the DC franchise will be the after stories to the D.C.II PC cast. More Mahiru! Woohoo! >w<

La’cryma will release Sora o Tobu, Nanatsume no Mahou on October 2nd. I like their art, although their stories need some work.

Fandisk Suzunone Seven! -Sweet Lovers’ Concerto- has a November 27th release date as announced by Clochette. They have also announced another game Amatsumi Sora ni, which is scheduled for winter 2009. TYPE-MOON’s sites for Mahoutsukai no Yoru and Girls’ Work are up. Navel has opened Shuffle! Essence+ official site. Daisy is so cute with the yaeba!

Skyfish has released a patch (ver1.02) for their recent game Primary. At the same time, they have announced on their blog that there’s a hidden function in the game where you can customize the save, load and return to title SE with character voices by pressing ‘v’ while playing. I set mine to Hinana, of course ^^

On the console side, Memories Off 6 Next Relation is scheduled for August 27th on Xbox360 and PS2. I’m surprised that they’re still producing games from this series. There’s also a Lucky Star net idol training SLG for the PSP coming up on December 24th. It really seems like Idolm@ster. Kagami+Tsukasa would make a great combo.

nao’s complete anthology which celebrates nao’s graduation from the unit fripSide=nao goes on sale July 17th. It has 10 CDs covering all their songs over the past 8 years, and it costs 18800 yen. I’m sure you’ll recognize a bunch of the songs.

Fizz has started a chara poll for Sakura Tale. It lasts till August 31st. Hiyo placed first in Kittosumi’s chara poll, edging out Waka. Araragi was a distant third.

Thanks for all the Sana supporters on the Tenshin Ranman review poll! ^___^

Shou’s last time in the spotlight. What type of event will happen this time?

July 2009 Eroge Releases

It’s summer! Time to head to the beach and enjoy being a youth! Let’s get fired up!!!

夏だ！海だ！青春だ！燃えるわぁぁぁぁぁ！！！

For those that prefer to stay at home and play eroge instead, there’s no shortage of great titles this month. With 21 games, there’s bound to be at least one that interests you. A lot of them have summer and Tanabata themes. While I’m still working through DCIITY and Primary, if I play all the ones I want from this batch, they’d probably last me till October. Oh, did I mention Natsuyume Nagisa comes out this month? ^____^

Quite a good harvest this month, including many titles that were surprisingly interesting to me. July is going to be another sad month for everyone besides Accany it seems. Too many good titles and too little time.

I’d also like to remind everyone that you can view all the following OPs together via the playlist on Micchi’s Youtube channel.

Foreign IP Restrictions on Official Sites

Sakura Sakura is finally out. I thought I would never see this day. See Zen? It came out before Tiara!

Earlier this week, minori blocked foreign IPs from accessing their website. Due to comments they have since received, they have posted an explanation regarding their decision. It makes a lot of sense from their standpoint. They have even recommended that concerned foreigners voice their opinion to the Japanese government (If you do so, please do it politely). YuzuSoft and MoonStone have already followed minori’s lead and it is quite possible that other companies may too. I sincerely hope that this is resolved soon. T__T

Dream Party Osaka is coming up on June 28th. All the major companies will be represented and will bring along limited merchandise to sell, as well as promotional items from upcoming games. Too bad I’m on the other side of the world or I’d so be there (and blow all my money).

New maker Armonica debuts with Skyprythem this fall. Those are some big eyes. Recently announced release dates include: Shakunage’s Mimi o Sumaseba (August 28th), Eternal’s Nega0 (August 28th), SilkSoft’s Distance (September 18th) and Akatsuki Works‘ Coμ -Kuroi Ryuu to Yasashii Oukoku-. Nega0’s OP came out and it’s weird (but has karaoke!). The only one I’m interested of these is Mimisuma – Mio, Matsuri and Hinata are all so adorable >w<

The seiyuu to Aries‘ debut game Angel Navigate have been posted. Koharu as a wanko-type imouto voiced by Ogura Yui definitely makes my ears perk up and triggers my imouto sensor.

The official site for ALcot’s Osananajimi wa Daitouryou is up and the story is really funny. It’s the Wh*te House! ALcot also changed the site layout at the same time and it looks pretty good.

It seems Symphony’s having some problems getting the Tiara trial version out. Maybe that means it’ll be delayed again.

Lass revealed on its blog that popular game 11eyes is getting an anime adaptation and will be serialized in CompAce. I would definitely watch it for Yuka.

Lillian and Penguin Parade are collaborating to make a 1/8 scale PVC figure of Misa from Twinkle Crusaders. It comes out on August 31st and costs 7140 yen. She stands 210mm tall. It looks like she’s cast-off. There’s a limited edition that includes shimapan and has a pink ブラックマ mini figure instead of it being black. More pictures here and here.

The Tenshin Ranman dakimakura poll has finished and Sana handily won with 1403 votes. Hime was second with 1132 points, edging out Aoi, who had 1020 points. Sana led the poll from beginning to end. See? Sana’s so much better than Hime. ^o^

In Koiiro Sora Moyou’s chara poll, tsundere imouto Mikoto took the top spot with 26.2%, having led from start to finish. She was followed by maou Sera (21.4%) I wonder if it’s because of the Koiso-radio. Wanko Aya made a dash at the finish, but still ended up last with 15.4%. Since Mikoto won, there’ll be some merchandise featuring her, to be announced later.

Rin won the second Natsuiro Straight! chara poll and a mini-game devoted to her will come out on July 10th. I guess this makes up for the lack of a route for such an loveable imouto. The results for the first Imouto Smile poll will be revealed in the September issue of TECH GIAN that comes out on July 21st.

The second Natsuiro Penguin character poll is up at Little Princess. It lasts till August 7th. I guess I’ll vote for Korone. Primary also has a second character poll until July 26th. You can vote via the link on the opening screen of the game. MeroMeroCute’s chara poll for Mahou Shoujo no Taisetsu na Koto. will run until July 17th.

The pamphlet for Natsuyume Nagisa looks nice. Yes, I plan to comment on all Natsunagi stuff until it comes out in late July.

Shou summons his courage and attempts once more to capture Gumi-chan’s love. Is it still too early?

I’ve added playlists for each month’s releases on my Youtube channel. The URL for the corresponding post is included in the description.

Started playing Da Capo II To You and loving every minute of it. I’m such a DC fan…

Responses to weekly webclaps will be included after the jump for weekly news posts from here on.

Nendoroid Raspberyl

Good Smile Company’s latest nendoroid is demon delinquent Raspberyl from Disgaea 3! Preordering start this Friday. She comes with a book, a chunk of meat and 3 different faces. I loved Raspberyl the most in the game… which you should all play if you haven’t already! I can’t say the figure is among the best I’ve seen, but she looks pretty cute.

Good Smile Company product page

Mirai no Kimi to, Subete no Uta ni Review

Circle: Supplement Time (Doujin)
Game site: 未来のキミと、すべての歌に―
Release date: December 31, 2007 (Comiket 73); April 4, 2008 (DL ver.)
Links: DLsite, DiGiket.com

Mikukisu is an all-ages kinetic novel by doujin maker Supplement Time. It is a short and sweet tale of an unexpected Christmas encounter and the making of happy memories. Recommended for Miku fans.

Webclaps and Magic Mirrors

Recently, I’ve added a webclap system to the sidebar. Webclaps are common on Japanese sites for visitors to leave comments to the webmaster or just clap to say you like what you see on the site. Please click Sana on the sidebar if you wish to webclap. Feel free to leave comments regarding the site or anything that doesn’t fit under a specific post. I’ll probably make an occasional post to reply to webclap comments… if there’s any (or maybe I’ll just merge it with the weekly eroge news post).

Among the new games that were announced in the August issue of TECH GIAN that came out on the 20th:

AkabeiSoft2 – W.L.O. -LoveLoveShow- (September 24th)
ALcot – Osananajimi wa Daitouryou (Fall 2009)
Applique Imouto – Fake Azure Arcology (2009)
BloomHandle – Happy Transportation (September 25th)
GIGA – Baldr Sky Dive2 “RECORDARE” (2009)
OVERDRIVE – DEAR DROPS (2010)
Pajamas Soft – Prism Magical (Spring 2010)
Shangri-la – Akatsuki no Goei ~Tsumibukaki Shuumatsuron~ (2010)
Shangri-la Smart – Koi dewa Naku (2010)
SMEE – Love de Ration! (Fall 2009)

Most of the games do not have sites yet as they are planned for late 2009 or 2010. There’s a lot more other ones by AkabeiSoft2’s unnamed sister brands. More info off 嘘９００ (06/18). minori’s eden* is going to be an all ages version with a 18+ supplement disk. This is so that the non-H version (with toned down blood scenes too) will be rated differently.

Tactics Latte’s Dakko Shite Gyu! will be released on September 18th. It’s about dakimakura that become actual girls. ETOILES‘  HimexHime is on September 28th. I definitely see the similarities to SIESTA’s works.

Wow, October is looking awesome. Palette’s Mashiroiro Symphony and eufonie’s Hidamari Basket are both scheduled for October 30th. I really like the artwork for Mashiroiro and can’t wait to see more of Sakuno. Hidamari finally got an update after like half a year! Graphics are quite simplistic and the main heroine is an onii-chan suki suki imouto! Yessssss!

FrontWing’s Time Leap is being ported to Xbox360 by PROTOTYPE. Release date is June 25th. I don’t recall that many ported eroge for Xbox360…

The character page for Natsuyume Nagisa now has listed the seiyuu, along with sound samples. Hitsuji is so going to get on Zen’s nerves. I feel really conflicted on Yumi.

According to Lump of Sugar’s blog, the Tayutama manga is coming out on June 26th, a day after the second comic anthology comes out. I think I’ll get the official manga for Yumina.

There’s a Watarase Jun ‘oppai ga nai’ mousepad. A flat mousepad with a picture of a trap costs 3150 yen?

After the nendoroid Otome for D.C.II To You, there will be a Yume one too this October! Yume is so much better than Otome!

Kururin gladly helps out Shou with the route planning. Too cute.

Tenshin Ranman Review

Company: YuzuSoft
Game site: 天神乱漫 LUCKY or UNLUCKY!?
Release date: May 29, 2009
Links: Getchu, walkthrough, seiyuu listing

A pure love school-based ADV that is both cute and slightly ecchi, Tenshin Ranman is YuzuSoft’s 4th release and has a different feel from their previous game.  The story revolves around Chitose Haruki, his misfortunes and a goddess that appears to reverse his luck. Will his bad luck finally be lifted and what good luck will befall him?

Nendoroid Riannon

Mika-tan has announced on her blog that Good Smile Company will be releasing a nendoroid version of Tears to Tiara’s Riannon! She is available for preorder and will be released on September 30th. The price is 3500 yen and she’s 100mm tall. There’s also an upcoming nendoroid version of Arawn. More details about it will be announced later this month. I love her hat so much. Nendoroids are just too cute… ◎д◎

Mika-tan blog
Good Smile Company

Gym Uniform Tsukasa

FREEing’s latest figure is a 1/4 scale PVC of Hiiragi Tsukasa from Lucky Star. She stands standing 380mm tall. Release date is scheduled for September and it will cost 12800 yen. There’s actually a Kagami version too, but I thought it looked a bit weird and I prefer Tsukasa anyway. Good Smile Company is in charge of distribution. The figure looks cute, but not sure if it’s worth the hefty price tag.

FREEing product page
Good Smile Company product page

Natsunagi Seiyuu Announced!

The seiyuu to SAGA PLANETS‘ upcoming game Natsuyume Nagisa have been gradually revealed on the staff blog over the past week. So far, the following have been confirmed:

Ayumu – Samoto Fuuri
Hitsuji - Uehara Nagisa
Tsukasa – Aoyama Yukari
Maki - Tanaka Michi
Haruka – Mitsuki
Nene – Naruse Mia
Yumi – Suzumori Chisato

Yes, Samoto Fuuri! And Naruse Mia will be good as Nene! I don’t recognize the seiyuu for Hitsuji at all, but I think it’ll turn out well. I can’t wait >w<b

The tutorial movie for Shiratama’s Nidozaki! Tartlette is available for download. It explains the game system, including making cakes daily, inventing new cakes and cleaning up the store. Looks kinda fun, actually.

Release dates recently announced include: Ashita wa Kitto, Haremasu you ni (July 24th), Koibumi Romantica (September 18th), Tropical Kiss (September 25th) and Shuffle! Essence+ (October 30th). Shuffle! Essence+ will include the 5 heroines from the original game, Mayumi and Kareha, Sakura from Really? Really!, as well as 3 new heroines (デイジー, ルリ＝マツリ, 謎の和服少女). Routes and event CGs will be new. There seems to be some additional news regarding Nadeshiko and Tsubomi. I want a Tsubomi route!! ><

FAVORITE has announced the results to the Hoshizora no Memoria character poll! I have absolutely no problems with it, since Yume, Mare and Asuho took the top 3! There’s a commemorative wallpaper of Yume and Mare available for download. I really like how each character thanks their supporters and there’s a bunch of in-game jokes and nuances thrown in. ダメ人間．．．クスクス．．．

The interim results for Koiiro Sora Moyou’s character poll shows Mikoto in the lead with 31.5% of the votes and Sera in second with 21.5%, but it seems like she’s been losing votes to Shizuna. The poll runs till June 18th.

Other character polls going on right now: Hana to Otome ni Shukufuku o (ends June 19th), Haramiko (ends June 28th), Valkyrie Complex (via cell phone only). If Akiko wins, does that mean there’ll be a HanaOto twincest route in a future FD…???

There’s a dakimakura poll for Tenshin Ranman until June 24th. The two characters with the highest votes will be depicted on dakimakura available for sale at the upcoming summer Comiket 76. I’m voting for Sana cuz I can ^o^

Citron Soft is doing a date situation survey for Imouto Smile until July 10th. Their imouto poll is still going on till June 20th. They’re a fun read… so many good suggestions.

According to Lillian-chan Corner, there’ll be a figure of Lillian’s mascot girl coming out in September. This 1/10 scale PVC figure costs 7140 yen and is 17cm tall (24cm with the sign). You can also change her facial expression. It’s not often that there’s figures made of mascot girls, but this one looks nice.

Itaru Hinoue’s artbook “white clover” will be re-released on June 26th with a new cover. More info over at 最速VisualAntena!: 1 – 2 – 3.

Happy birthday to Kudo! わふー！

Shou’s adventures continue… Is he destined to a uma*bo end!?

Zen on VC: “So that’s why Freya is busy helping them! I need to change my religion”

Summer 2009 Anime

With the spring season mostly drawing to a close, new summer shows will be taking their place. The summer anime season is usually not that good, but this summer has two heavily hyped shows in Umineko no Naku Koro ni and CANAAN. The above video is a collection of PVs and related articles if there’s no PV. An English chart of upcoming shows is here. Just like last time, I’ve included the links to the official sites and will just comment a bit on each series as there’s lots of anime-centric blogs that will cover this later anyway. I’ve also added a section on the sidebar. More info off MOON PHASE.

Saimoe Tournament 2009

It seems like just yesterday, but Saimoe 2009 is starting up! For those who are uninitiated, the annual Saimoe (最萌) tournament hosted by 2ch is a single-elimination tournament to determine the most moe female character from the anime broadcasted in that same year. Due to the fact that moe is extremely subjective and the ‘one and done’ structure, there are usually lots of upsets, which makes it very fun to follow. Started in 2002, it has since spawned other moe tournaments, such as the Korean Best Moe tournament and the English ISML. Last year’s winner was Lucky Star’s Hiiragi Kagami.

Vital links for this year’s tournament:

Saimoe 2009 main site (JP)
Official site for the tournament. Matches and results will be posted here.

Animesuki discussion thread
The place to be for English discussion about the tourney.

Saimoe synchroom wiki
English information about the tourney plus useful links.

Saimoe 09 wiki (JP)
Japanese wiki for this year.

Saimoe Chinese wiki (CN)
Results and match posters in Chinese.

More information on schedule, my opinions on the tournament and blogging plans after the jump.