Hanahira! Review

Circle: ふぐり屋 (Fuguriya) (Doujin)
Game site: はなひらっ!
Release date: October 8, 2010
Links: D-STAGE, Mangaoh, MelonBooks, Toranoana

What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice. So once you take all the boys out of the story, what do you get? A tender love comedy yuri ADV that everyone should play!

Fuguriya is a yuri doujin circle which is most well-known for their Sonohana series. Hanahira! is an all-ages title and focuses more on being cute and just making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. ^____^

I’ve long considered playing a yuri title, but never got around to playing one. But it was an obvious decision since what can go wrong with a cast of awfully cute chars, a raburabu story, and no more male protagonist who’s as donkan as a coconut? Of course nothing!

Scenario

The story revolves around four girls who attend Saint Michael Girls’ School and highlights all their cute dokidoki yuriyuri love for one another during and after school. Kaori and Amane are the main heroines who are osananajimis and greatly love each other, even though Kaori wouldn’t like to admit it. Their classmates Koharu and Makoto also care a lot for one another, with mutual admiration and desire to protect one another. Amane doesn’t hold any back when it comes to her love for Kaori… she’s her future wife after all♪

There’s basically one linear route, with a few choices here and there to determine which couple you follow for a few split scenes. The best way I can explain Hanahira! is that it’s Lucky Star with a greater yuri emphasis. Of course, they’re not making out or anything like that, but it’s a ‘more than friends, but not quite lovers’ situation. Hiyori would so proud.

The scenario is written by Sano Shinichirou, who also wrote the Sonohana series, as well as Aki no Urara no. The story is quite lighthearted and follows the four girls at school, shopping, hanging around and coming together for a pajama party. It’s very refreshing and a charming story. I guess you can call it slice of life. A very delicious slice of yuri life.

The main focus of this love comedy is to showcase the awesome yuri. You know the saying ‘opposites attract’? Well, that’s definitely the case here as both couples feature opposing personalities. Kaori and Amane exhibit a tsukkomi/boke nature, and with Amane’s persistent glomping, Kaori gradually shows her feelings for her too. On the other hand, Koharu and Makoto are like a kouhai-senpai couple, with one being obviously childish (except for her great housework skills) and the other being the responsible and dependable ‘senpai’. Well, aside from the fact they’re all in the same class. While it’s less dramatic than Marimite and Sutopani, I think it still brings out the yuri aspect quite well.

The stories were very enjoyable, although I wish that the game was longer. For a doujin though, it was quite satisfying. Even if it is a parade of hanyaan-inducing scenes, I know what I signed up for here and I got it in spades. I wanna take them all home! There’s so many little heartwarming scenes, like studying together, sharing bentous, buying matching shirts, cooking together, taking care of each other when they’re sick and sleeping together. Oh, and of course there’s the requisite kiss scene! Can’t you just feel the love between them? ♥♥♥

There is also a side story titled Hanahira SS! Nagisa no Kashimashi Musume-tachi. Just like the game, it’s all-ages in light novel format. It’s also a decent length for a doujin at 52 pages. Since the story takes place after the game, it’s best if you read it after you have played the game and are more familiar with the characters. The side story highlights the summer vacation for the four girls, where they head to the beach and the mountains. More yuri scenes makes everyone happy.

Characters

Hanemura Kaori

Kaori is a tsundere who can’t be honest about her deep love for Amane. She lives next door to Amane and goes to Saint Michael Girls’ School together. Very responsible and straightforward. She fulfills the tsukkomi role very well. However, when Amane’s repeated loving advances breaks down her tsundere wall, she becomes very cute and doting. She’s not that good at cooking, but at least it’s better than Amane.

Yuuki Amane

Amane is basically the opposite of Kaori. She’s airheaded, very lively, glomps Kaori at every opportunity and generally lazy. She fails at studying and cooking, and would rather stay up playing games than anything else.

Uozumi Koharu

Koharu is the mascot character among the four friends. Soft-spoken and pure, she emits an iyashi-kei charm that captures Makoto’s heart. She thinks she is too childish and hence, greatly admires Makoto since she is so much more mature than her. She is a wonderful cook (especially sweets) and very handy around the house, so she would be a great housewife. Very hardworking.

Toudou Makoto

The most mature of the group, Makoto is normally very cool and reserved. However, she is a girl after all and is weak for cute things, like Koharu. Dreams about being with Koharu a lot.

All the characters fit well with each other, with their own unique qualities. Following the Lucky Star analogy I gave earlier. The characters basically are like this personality-wise: Kaori=Kagami, Amane=Konata, Koharu=Yutaka, Makoto=Minami. And just like in LS, the kouhai-type is my fav. Koharu is soooooooo adorable! I totally understand how Makoto feels like! I also like Amane a lot even though she’s pretty much an airhead. Her love for Kaori knows no end and I swear that raburabu is contagious.

Graphics

The art by Peko (Mayoi Neko Overrun) is simplistic, but fits well with the feel of the game. Characters are really cute since they’ve been ‘loli-fied’. Sometimes due to the minimal shading, the graphics feel a bit shallow. Also, the checkered pattern on Amane’s pajamas are overlayed instead of drawn in, causing it to look a bit cheap.

However, I’m happy that there is a wide array of awfully cute CGs featuring the two couples, as well as all four friends together. There seems to be an excess amount of Amane glomping Kaori, but that’s understable considering her personality and LOVE for her. I wish there were more scenes with Koharu and Makoto though.

There’s no SDs in Hanahira!, but there are a few cut-ins, complete with lots of sparkles. We all love sparkles.

System

The interface isn’t completely pink, although I wish it was. The orange-pink gradient is actually a bit distracting.  The text colors are the same as the speaking character’s hair colour (approximately), which means it’s slightly difficult to read when Kaori is speaking since it ends up being red on orange. There are a few choices which determines which couple you will follow for the next immediate scene. You don’t need a walkthrough. Just save before the choice and then re-load to get the other scene.

There are 70 save slots. There is absolutely NO way you will use them all up even if you saved before every scene.

Once you complete the game, you can view the Extra Mode which includes all 20 CGs and also has the BGM player.

Sound

The game is fully voiced and even features some well-known seiyuus, in particular Kitamura Eri as Kaori and Sakakibara Yui as Amane. Originally I thought Amane’s voice was a bit too nasal, but it was fine after a few minutes. There’s no OP and the ED is just a montage of CGs with credits. There are 21 BGM tracks, although none really stand out.

Overall

All of Micchi’s reviews will be rated by assigning scores out of 10 to each of the following categories: Scenario, characters, graphics, system, sound, and H scenes. Half marks may be given. The scoring is as follows:

• 10 – Absolutely satisfied
• 9 – Among the best, only minor improvements
• 8 – Good overall
• 7 – Average, a mix of good and bad
• 6 – Below average, slightly disappointing
• <5 – Very disappointed

Since this is an all-ages game, there is no score for H scenes. Instead, the score for characters will have a higher weight. The overall score is a weighted sum (3x Scenario + 3x Characters + 2x Graphics + 1x System + 1x Sound) for a total out of 100.

• Scenario: 7.5
• Characters: 8
• Graphics: 7.5
• System: 6
• Sound: 7.5
• Overall: 75

A really enjoyable adventure into the lily garden! Where’s the sequel!? Maybe I’ll try out Sonohana now that I’ve been initiated ^_~

「いつまでも・・・一緒だよ・・・」

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