The Student Council Has Few Friends

It’s time to vote for your favourite games in the Getchu bishoujo-ge awards 2011. You have until February 20th. I’m going to see if I can get my comment posted again ^^

CandySoft has a new sister company, Musume Nyan, which focuses on traps. Their first game will be Muri Yari!? Otome Days, coming out on April 27th. I guess Josou Sanmyaku was only the beginning… Other titles announced this week include:

Astronauts Alya – Supocon! ~Sports Wear-Complex~
Astronauts Spica – Elect!
Cotton Soft – Owaru Sekai to Birthday
Gesen18 – Gessen! Otome-tachi no Senjou 3 ~Dengeki Sakusen! Senka wa Ace no Na no Moto ni~
Gesen18 – Sangokuhime 2 ~Tenchi Tairan Ransei ni Kirameku Arata na Haryuu~

Release dates have been set for the following:

Demonion – April 27th
Grand Libra Academy – April 27th
Yomejuu! – May 23rd
Kamigakari Cross Heart! – May 25th

NekoNekoSoft’s Yukiiro has been delayed to April 27th. TOPCAT has decided to halt their new title for now.

The second skill pack for Custom Maid 3D comes out on March 23rd, featuring overall 10 new skills as requested by users, as well as a new dance performance with theme song.

The latest patch for Strawberry Nauts contains a route for subchar Suzume.

UnisonShift is holding a (mega) chara poll for Prismatic Princess Unison☆Stars until February 6th with the winner getting a clock app. Characters placed in the top 5, as well as those at round numbers (10, 15, 20, etc) might also get something…? I voted up voting for Suzuno since she needs my support, trailing all the other heroines and even Souryuu!? すずのふぁいとー！

Also running is the 4th Eiyuu Senki chara poll and the Monobeno chara poll (until February 1st). Shirayuki topped the 2nd Legend Seven chara poll, just edging out Hinata and Chermin. Speaking of tight battles, Anna beat Iori by 5 votes in the Mirai Nostalgia chara poll.

Two of my favourite LNs come together as Seizon and Haganai are doing a collaboration! I wonder how the characters are going to meet… Mafuyu is probably thinking of Kodaka x Sugisaki? Will Meat take Aka-chan home?

Can’t understand Old Japanese? Don’t worry, the Seizon cast will help you!

The original soundtrack for Katawa Shoujo , “Enigmatic Box of Sound”, is available for download from the official site.

Miu-senpai joins Sana on Yomecolle. You can play pure mahjong in PS3/XBox360 Mahjong★Dream Club, which comes out on March 29th.

4-Leaves has yet another 1/4 scale figure of ToHeart2 DX Plus‘ Tamaki… this time licking a gigantic popsicle! It comes out in June for ￥13,440.

Lots of dakimakuras available from FAVORITE, but it’s the Shinku and Mare tapestry that caught my eye. The dakimakura for Kanosora‘s Amaterasu is now available for preorders.

Popular maid cafe MAIDREAMIN has opened up a new “Digitized cafe☆Digitized bar” in Namba on top of their current one in Shibuya. What is a digitized cafe? Maybe this promotional video will help you, nyaa. I love technology.

Finished re-reading Full Moon o Sagashite. It is my favourite anime and I like how the manga goes a different route. I’ve now been dragged kicking and screaming into Shizune and Misha’s student council in Katawa Shoujo. Save me~!

Soap Foam and Marshmallows

Medio! released their 2011 Akihabara eroge sales rankings with Kamikaze Explorer! topping the list followed by Walkure Romanze and Grisaia no Kajitsu. New titles announced this week are:

Astronauts – Demonion ~Maou no Chika Yousai~
Hulotte – Koitora
Yatagarasu – Furuiro Meikyuu Rinbukyoku (May 25th)

Release dates have been set for the following:

Trample on Schatten!! Revolution+ – January 27th
Magical☆Moerin♪S – February 10th
Rance Quest Magnum – February 24th
Kouyoku no Soleil – April 27th
Guilty Crown Lost Xmas – May 31st

The following titles have been delayed:

Shinigami no Testament – February 24th
‘&’ -Sora no Mukou de Sakimasu You ni- – March 30th

Ito and the student from Nagaya topped the two Appare! Tenka Gomen chara polls. They get commemorative wallpapers for their victories.

The Haganai PSP game was pushed back to February 23rd. Mashifoni‘s Sana and Madoka‘s Mami are the latest to be added to Yomecolle.

The latest nendoroid from GSC is Amagami‘s Ai, coming out in May at ￥3500. Why Ai instead of Sae or Miya!?

Dakimakuras are out for Manatsu no Yoru no Yukimonogatari‘s Mana and Nozomi. You can also get the Mana’s sleeping together disc for the full experience. LOSE has jailbait dakimakuras out for Gothdeli‘s Lo and Monobeno‘s Natsuha.

I started playing Katawa Shoujo last week and it was surprisingly very good. Having played through Emi, Rin and Hanako, I’d have to say that Emi’s is definitely my fav route so far. It’s not just that I like her character, but the drama seems very realistic while not dwelling on her disability. I highly recommend everyone play the game. Of course it has its flaws, but it stands out prominently from other English doujins.

Getchu 2011 Sales Ranking

Eustia finished first in the Getchu sales ranking for 2011, followed by Koikishi and Daiteikoku. Note that it isn’t necessarily the best eroge of the year since it’s just one distributor and is affected by brand recognition and promotional activity. It’s better to look forward to the user rankings in the coming months. Getchu also now has a smartphone version for its homepage so it’s easier for you to check out eroge on the go. You can access it here.

A Dengeki Online G-net poll revealed that Mashifoni *mutsu-no-hana (PSP) was the most interesting bishoujo-ge of 2011, beating out Rewrite (PC) and ToHeart2 DX Plus (PS3). Users commented on why they liked the characters, stories and systems.

Debonosu is making a Hanakoi spinoff where Lime and Sheena are now dragon girls in miko outfits. It comes out in April. Yamamoto Kazue sure loves mikos and traditional settings.

Akane placed first in the Rewrite chara poll, followed by Shizuru and Lucia. They all get wallpapers. Misaki and Kotoha topped the Renai 0 km and Riajuu Saimin chara polls, respectively. Imoutos are the best.

For Custom Maid 3D players: do you have a skill you wanted for your bishoujo? Go fill out the form and maybe it’ll be added in an upcoming patch!

It seems that doujin circle R7 is no more with their Twitter account closed and homepage gone. I was looking forward to the sequel to snow drop ~first step in spring~…

The Time Leap PS3 game coming out on January 12th is supposedly the first bishoujo-ge in 3D TV. Still can’t touch.

The Kamikaze☆Explorer! OST will be on shelves January 27th, while Duca’s best album “Duca Works Best” is out on January 25th, featuring Koisora‘s “Futari-iro” and “Revolution!” among many other OPs, inserts and image songs.

Stuck on what colours or background patterns to use for your drawings? Maybe this will help. I like sweet pink.

I didn’t know there were so many kinds of paizuri…

I finally read the sibling love manga Koi Kaze by Yoshida Motoi which ran from 2001 to 2004 and I really enjoyed it. It touches upon a lot of the problems that would arise from an incestuous relationship and doesn’t degrade itself with pointless fanservice scenes. It’s definitely one of the best series I’ve read and Nanoka is just way too cute. Speaking of best series, here’s my top 20 books that I read in 2011 with Papakiki leading the way.

Spent this week playing Imosen and it was pretty much what I expected: an imouto-centric comedy with a shallow story but lots of fun. Yotsuha and Kikka are my favs, but Matsuri is fine too. Surprisingly, the harem route (and Kikka’s route by extension) had the most family development in it. Maybe I’ll try out Katawa Shoujo in the meantime or the Hatsuyuki Sakura trial…

Winter 2012 Anime Previews

I love the winter season. More so for the lesser load we’ll have on our anime watching queue, and it’s also nice to watch anime while bundled up in your blanket. Although nothing really stands out this time around, they don’t look too entirely horrible either. At least I’ll be guaranteed to get my moe fix no matter what happens!

As usual, another chart from Zana again. And of course Random Curiosity’s more detailed preview.

January 2012 Eroge Releases

It may be the beginning of a new year, but things seem awfully familiar. Fandisks are out for Twinkle☆Crusaders, LoverAble, Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!, BUNNYBLACK and every single UnisonShift Blossom/Accent game. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing as the ultimate crossover game Prismatic Princess☆Unison Stars is going to be a blast!

Were this month to actually have games to write about I may have ended up being a few days late, so thankfully there isn’t much here to write about. With only one game to bother playing this may be the month for me to recover from playing Skyrim and play some VNs instead..

Welcome to 2012!

Happy new year everyone! 明けましておめでとうございます！ 

Well, that year passed by pretty quickly. Once again, I’ll give a short recap of the past year and touch upon my New Year’s resolutions. Let’s hope this year is full of imoutos!

Best Eroge OPs of 2011

The week leading up to New Year’s is full of recaps of the passing year, so let’s do the same for eroge OPs. Similar to past years, I’ve selected my favorite eroge OPs from 2011 based on song quality, visual arrangement and creativity. They are listed by release date and you can also view the entire playlist on Youtube. ketsuage-san also made videos of all OPs this year and most OPs/PVs by studio. My top 5 this year are Eustia, Cure Girl, Rewrite, Djibril5 and WA2cc. Enjoy!

Remember to Stay Warm During the Winter

propeller‘s next title will be the all-ages TOKYO BABEL. Sawashiro Miyuki, Hanazawa Kana and Itou Kanae will be voicing the main heroines. Vanadis continues their monster girl series with St. Monmosu Gakuen. It’s scheduled for April 27th. Lass has revealed their 5th product: Shoujo Shiniki∽Shoujo Tengoku -The Garden of Fifth Zoa-. Not all stories have happy endings.

Purple Software’s Shiawase Kazoku-bu has been scheduled for March 23rd, while the following titles have been delayed:

Hatsukoi Zensen. – February 24th
AngelGuard – March 30th

RococoWorks is the latest company to call it quits. It’s a shame since their artwork and stories are a bit more distinctive, although I’m sure we’ll see lead illustrator Fue pop up somewhere else soon.

As expected, imouto Hina easily topped the Hiyoko Strike! chara poll with nearly half the total votes. She gets a dakimakura. In the all-out Imosen election, Yotsuha comes out on top and gets to treat her oniichan (me) with a Santa outfit wallpaper. Two chara polls have started up for Appare! Tenka Gomen, one for the favourite main chara and one for the favourite faceless mob chara. Each winner will get a wallpaper as reward. Faceless people creep me out. Also running is the Sakura No Reply chara poll, until January 15th.

Not only is Koichoco getting an anime, but now it’ll be ported over to the PSP in 2012. I wonder if Saru #1/#2 and Non-chan-senpai will get routes…?

Various soundtracks that were first released at C81 will be available soon in stores, including the 2-CD 64-track “C:drive. Sound Memories” OST, Onigokko! OST, Harupoco drama CD and Taikimi OST. They all come out on January 27th.

YuzuSoft is holding a illustration contest for DRACU-RIOT!, until April 30th. Ecchi drawings are fine so long as there’s no need for censoring.

Mobile game Triangle x Complex starts up this January. It is a love triangle simulation where you can practice your communication skills.

Doujin circle RABBIT-GARDEN’s next all-ages title is Four Revolve For Relief, with a demo out at C81. A letter appears in Okiomi’s hand warning that a girl that he admires, Akemi, will die in four days in a traffic accident. The handwriting is his own and no matter how many times he throws the letter away, it magically returned back to his hand. Four days later, the warning came true as Akemi is struck by a car in front of the train station. Then time loops back to four days ago and he notices a letter in his hand. Will he be able to save her by changing fate?

The Shining Hearts visual collection featuring Tony’s artwork came out on December 26th. sprite/fairys’ Ima Sugu Oniichan ni Imouto Da tte Iitai! is getting a manga adaptation in Dengeki Daioh. There’s a sample manga up on the Hatsuyuki Sakura site. Love! Friendship! It has it all!

Majikoi‘s Yukie is getting a figure from Kotobukiya this summer, priced at ¥7980. It is a Hobby Japan exclusive (February and March 2012 issues). Kotobukiya also has a 1/8 scale figure of Shining Blade‘s Sakuya Mode: Cerulean coming out in May at ¥7140.

Keep yourself warm at night with an extra-large and extra-warm mofumofu blanket of Hoshikaka‘s Madoka. Make sure Koyori doesn’t see you though…

Ok, I lied. I somehow found some time to work on the blog during the holidays. In the midst of (waiting in a line amongst) the chaos that is shopping on Boxing Day, I was thinking how similar it was to Comiket which was also happening over this week. I also managed to clear a lot of my manga backlog, including most of the CLAMP series (xxxHolic, Tsubasa, Chobits). Chii is so cute.

Fall 2011 Anime Impressions

I didn’t chew it, Zen did!

If you ask me about the fall season, the only thing that will really pop into mind is Fate Zero. I’m dropping more series every season and it’s not stopping. Is this all you have to offer me now, Japan? Oh well, anime and gaming backlogs are getting cleared up pretty well recently at the very least! But as usual, less series for me to watch, the more time I’ll have for other things! Maybe I’ll finish off my visual novel backlog too now :3

As usual a busy winter season full of anime to drop and discard. Of course this post comes extremely late, largely due to Skyrim soaking up most of my free time like some kind of digital sponge, so for that I apologize as for once the delay was my fault. Thankfully this season is one with a few series I actually enjoy watching and will continue to watch, I suppose once you have enough shows in a season everyone is bound to like something.

Here’s a chart from Zana and a detailed preview by Random Curiosity.

Ku~zu~mu~shi~♥

After the refined and sentimental Natsuyuki, Silver Bullet turns to the imouto side with IMO-bilizer!. It is scheduled for March 30th. The story is very similar to Oreimo, with Saki as the perfect imouto who doesn’t have the best relationship with her older brother… but she’s secretly longing for his love! It’s great how convenients these kind of plots are. Of course, I’ll be keeping my eye on this along with Parasol’s Koiimo.

Clochette‘s next title will be Prism◇Recollection!. It seems like they’ll never have another hinnyuu heroine again… :(  Other new titles announced this week include:

âge – Muv-Luv Alternative Chronicles 03 (March 30th)
ALcot Honey Comb – 1/2 summer
ALICESOFT – Rance 9
Hiyoko Soft Momogumi – Oshiete☆Ecchi na Recipe
Lapis lazuli – Izayoi no Fortuna
mana – Yumeiro Alouette
Nounai Kanojo – Yomejuu!
PULLTOP – Kono Oozora ni, Tsubasa o Hirogete
Purple Software – Shiawase Kazoku-bu
Reon – Faint Tone
Sumikko-Soft – Haru Made, Kururu. (March 30th)
tone work’s – Hatsukoi 1/1

Release dates have been set for the following:

Shojo to Maou to Tactics FD – Feb 24th
Ore no Kanojo no Uraomote – April 27th
Soukou no Arterial – April 27th
Koi Imo SWEET☆DAYS – May 25th

Ex-iT’s Hiyoko Strike! has been delayed again to January 27th, while Rosebleu’s Hyouka no Mau Sora ni has been pushed back to February 24th.

KISS is releasing yet another patch for Custom Maid 3D at C81. It’ll add 2 new school uniforms (including Haganai) and 7 new positions.

Shakunage is disbanding and will release all 5 of their titles together in the Shakunage Sayonara Pack on February 24th. Only 1000 copies will be available, although I’m not sure if they’ll even make that number. AtuWorks has also closed down after almost 7 years. ACTRESS takes over support for their games.

YuzuSoft has started up the chara poll for DRACU-RIOT!, which runs until January 31st with the winner getting a wallpaper. In order to vote, you have to sign in using your Twitter account. The second LEGEND SEVEN chara poll will decide who gets a dakimakura. It runs until January 14th. Amaterasu topped the Kanosora chara poll and will get a dakimakura. Hotchkiss‘ Nana will get be featured on a Christmas card at their in-store event after her chara poll win.

PSP RPG Shining Hearts will be adapted to an anime by Production I.G. next spring.

The second Mashifoni chara song album that came out on December 21st features the remaining 3 heroines: Miu, Sana and Ange. The OST will be released on January 25th. Bishoujo game remix collection SUPER SHOT4 will be on shelves January 27th. You can listen to samples on the site, although I prefer the originals.

Noncolor’s C81 work will be Bon Bon!! featuring a beautiful genie in a bottle, Karey, who gives a student Kyuuji three wishes. No points for guessing what they are.

Doujin circle Kaikoku Soft‘s debut work is the resort inn moe-ero ADV Rizoba Report. Every summer the protagonist fails to make any lasting memories, so he decides to do part-time at a resort inn in the Tropics in order to find love. The heroines are cute, especially Sakura and Saya! I like osa’s art; it’s quite good for a doujin.

Steins;Gate fans will be able to play the game on the recently-released PSV as the PSP game supports the UMD passport program. The download copy is only ￥1000. Seinarukana (April 19th) and Dies irae ~Acta est Fabula~ are both being ported over to the PSP.

Team-OZ’s Collection Vol.1 features songs from companies such as WhiteCyc, CLAPWORKS, Silksoft and Lose. It’ll sell at C81 for ￥2000.

Daiki Kougyou has made a red version of their 1/6 figure of ToHeart2 Dungeon Travelers‘ Sasara samurai ver. It’ll be out in May at ￥14,490, same as the black version.

Hey you good-for-nothings! You’d better get this awesome GSC nendoroid of Mashifoni‘s top heroine, charming Sana-chan! She even comes with everyone’s favourite Pannya (but unfortunately no Shingo… the kitty that is). Priced at ￥3500 and out in May, you better put in your preorders in now.

Dakimakuras are coming out from AXIA for Utawarerumono‘s Aruruu and Koihime‘s Karin, while Moe Plus is making one of Sucre‘s Ai.　襲っちゃうっすか、先輩？

The reason this week’s news was posted on Thursday is because I’ll be away until New Year’s, so there’ll be no news post next week. There’s a few posts scheduled so look forward to them.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a wonderful New Year to all!