New company bitterdrop debuts with Namima no Kuni no Faust. onomatope*’s Sakura No Reply has been scheduled for April 27th. Lillian’s Twinkle Crusaders -Passion Star Stream- has been delayed to February 10th.

Cabbit has posted a web short story for Midori no Umi to commemorate Chisha’s victory in the 2nd chara poll. This another story splits off from the third chapter of the game.

A poll has started up on Dengeki G’s magazine to decide which of Non-chan-senpai, Oboro, Hazuki and Hidaka will get a route in the Koichoco PSP adaptation. Please not Oboro. Please not Oboro. Please not Oboro.

Doujin circle 3 on 10‘s next title is Eien ni Utsukushiki Fuyu Yori mo, coming out at Comitia 99 next Sunday. High school student Yukio finds a goddess in the snow.

The Koisora FD OST which came out at C81 will be on store shelves on February 10th for ￥3000, while the Koisora FD visual fan book comes out on March 16th. Other fan books are coming out for Fate/hollow ataraxia (February 25th) and Walkure Romanze (March 30th).

Complimentary sports bra and shimapan from the latest issue of the trap magazine Oto☆Nyan. Anyone interested? The April issue of Dengeki Hime will include a swimsuit figure of DRACU-RIOT!‘s Miu.

Ara ara, WAVE’s 1/8 scale figure of idolm@ster‘s Azusa Ryuuguu Komachi ver. will be out this September for ￥8190. All that’s left now is Ami to complete the group. ALTER has a nice 1/8 scale figure of Tales of Vesperia‘s Rita, which comes with a mini figure as well. It comes out in June at ￥9240.

I’m not sure how you’re supposed to see the keys on this Yuu keyboard, but her love for nii-san sure is overflowing. She’s also featured in a Koikishi LN, “Yuu no Negai”, from Paradigm on March 31st. You can also complete the set with a Yuu blanket.

I’ll be starting Dousei LoverAble after I’m done writing up the February post. But first… time to fill out Kaho’s marriage registration form.

CandySoft has a new sister company, nyann, whose first game Muri Yari!? Otome Days features a trap protagonist. It comes 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~!

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.

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…

Webclap responses:

Wait is it just me or did Saga Planets put on their news bulletin that the Hatsuyuki trial version is out, but then rescinded it? by Amoirsp
You can still download the trial from their site.

Now that Katawa Shoujo’s out, will you be planning on playing it sometime? by Riyin
I got the game, but I haven’t gotten around to trying it out. Heard some good feedback from it.

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.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2 (01/05 Thu)

Once again our four adorable yet insane loli detectives are back to show us that you can never fail too much at what you do! The first season was oddly a huge surprise, had more gags and comedy than I had originally expected. Despite being detectives, there are no real mysteries, so please don’t come in thinking that these moefied incarnations of famous detectives will do anything to satisfy any intellectual curiosity you may have. If you can get past Twenty’s nipples, Milky Holmes should be enjoyable for you :3.

Second season of a show I already hate with a passion, so I could not possibly care less about the second season of a show revolving around little girls using magical powers to solve mysteries for the sake of their local pedophiles. I will only watch this show if I find out the second season is the adventures of Milky Holmes in the unmarked van, at least then it would openly appeal to its target demographic.

Recorder to Randoseru (1/05 Thu)

So we have a loli who’s actually 17, and a grown looking guy who ends up being an 11 year old. Although adult lolis are pretty common, I have yet to see an eleven year old boy look that old in an anime. However as gimmicky as this is, this series should provide some decent level of comedy seeing these two siblings live their lives looking the way they look.

A show dedicated to taking an in depth look at the misperceptions of society when it involves a persons physical appearance, namely size. I fully expect this to be an introspective title that makes a valid point about the difficulties faced when being so different on the outside compared to your peers. Or so I would like to say, but lets face it, this show is dedicated to making fun of a legal loli. Were this to actually be a title centered around making a point about society that makes you think they would have approached it in a very different way to promote a mature feeling. Of course there will be comedy but I generally have disdain for anything that has to rely on loli for a joke or even just a plot. I get the feeling they only added the guy to make it stand out as unique while downplaying their obvious preferences.

Kill Me Baby (1/05 Thu)

I actually read a bit of the manga, and well it wasn’t that funny. But then I have to admit, reading through several volumes of 4koma gets tiring so that may have something to do with it. Then again who knows, it could be more cute to watch in anime form with moemoe voices to accompany it. I do like my twintail assassins after all.

As a child who grew up watching shows such as Tom and Jerry, I have a tendency to love slapstick over the top cartoon violence. As such I have found myself enjoying this manga a long time ago, as the silly antics of our dedicated boke make the painful tsukkomi amusing for me. A simple show with no real story to it that exists solely for comedic value, it is a 4koma after all. While unlikely to win any awards or end up as an especially memorable show there should be plenty of amusement to be had as long as you are not looking for anything too serious.

Amagami SS+ (1/05 Thu)

I thoroughly enjoyed Amagami, and for this genre who wouldn’t when all the heroines have their time in the spotlight. No worries about the anime picking that one character you hate with every fiber of your being and thus ruining the series for you. As long as you like at least one of the characters it makes watching that arc worth the time at least, although I did skip two and a half of the routes in the first anime myself. Other than the arcs that follow our “Streamlined” swimmer, shy boobs, and tubby airhead with a bottomless pit for a stomach I will definitely be following this show.

Where’s Miya!?!?!?!?!?

High School D x D (1/06 Fri)

I was hoping dungeons and dragons here, but it looks like a love-comedy demon harem anime with a bit of battle elements. With lots of fanservice based on how huge the oppai are on some of the girls, it’s just another ecchi anime for all the young boys to develop their puberty on. In addition, I don’t really like how subservient the main character looks in that picture.

While I would normally hate such a series instantly, I found myself enjoying the light novel. Either the protagonist being a completely open pervert amuses me or I am as much a sucker for demon girls as Micchi is for little sisters. For the sake of my image however, I am going to assume its the former, yes it is a wonderful thing to have a protagonist that is open about their desires. Story wise I am not too sure what to make of this series, I like some things and really dislike others about it so I end up more than a little conflicted. At least they did a good job with their characters even if they are a little on the bland side at times. I may not be expecting this to wind up as a classic but is a show I will definitely be watching as long as it stays more or less true to the novel.

Senhime Zesshou Symphogear (1/06 Fri)

A music battle anime… wth? Well… I do love anime that utilizes music well.. but this kind of reminds me of that Suite Precure show. Despite the more its sci-fi themed outfits, is this just another mahou shoujo show? I bet there’s a cute animal mascot lurking in this one too. At least I hope… yes… you heard me, I do like fluffy mascots ;_;

No. Ever since the original Macross I have had a strong aversion to anything music based with only a few rare exceptions such as Polyphonica being enjoyable. I really don’t like how they have to warp their stories, characters, and settings to include the music battle themes. I would much rather they simply make an amazing soundtrack to a normal show, unless of course it is about musicians. Adding to my disdain for this series are the heroines outfits, almost feels like mahou shoujo grew up, and frankly battle girl shows almost always end up terrible in my opinion. At most I will watch a few episodes of this show just to see if I want the soundtrack.

Area no Kishi (01/07 Sat)

Soccer anime, nuff said. Will it follow the path of other shounen sports anime like Eyeshield 21, and Slam Dunk? I think I tend to like these when they over exaggerate the player abilities, but hey maybe I should check out Inazuma Eleven instead. But seeing that this is also tagged as a drama, this could turn out more than I expect.

I read this manga awhile ago and found it surprisingly enjoyable with a good mix of drama and character development, doesn’t hurt to enjoy soccer either of course. Although it has been awhile so I can’t remember exactly why, but I did end up dropping this series eventually for one reason or another so I remain wary. I think it was the random soccer mahou shoujo mentor and coach that bothered me. Oh well whatever the reason I will watch to find out and see if maybe the anime can make me want to keep up with the series.

Does make me recall the obviously biased refs in the World Cup denying Japan the game against some worthless no name south american nation of cheaters they should and would have otherwise won. Sometimes soccer sure can be extremely annoying.

Zero no Tsukaima F (01/07 Sat)

First Shana, and now Louise with her final season >_O. I haven’t really kept track of this series and only really finished the first season. I did enjoy it at least, but now I guess I’ll have to force myself to finish the other seasons in order to check this one out. With Louise’s nendoroid staring right at me, she’s sure making me feel guilty for not keeping up to date.

I will only watch this on the condition Louise dies painfully as I utterly despise her character. It is hard to get any more basic tsundere, yet they end up dragging on with this half assed excuse for a heroine for what is it now, four seasons? Suppose I do have to give credit where it is due for them being able to keep a story from going anywhere for so long, on that note bravo creators of Tsundere no Masochist. I can only pray the tsun loli fad dies off for a few years, it is getting quite old by now.

Nisemonogatari (01/07 Sat)

Why do they have shorter hair this time around? I already feel turned off by the picture here, but at least it seems that Araragi’s loli imoutos are going to have their turn in the spotlight. That idea is also strangely a lot more appealing than seeing the rest of the cast back in action! And god, I hope they don’t have any unfinished sequences like they did back in season 1. Although the visuals were amazing, they were offset by its lack of completed scenes.

I rather liked Bakemonogatari therefore I will watch this too. While I probably have more to say it would end up taking too long so I’ll save that for impressions.

な、デコ・・・

Mouretsu Pirates (01/07 Sat)

High school girls becoming moe pirates… Although I did ask for more sci fi, I didn’t exactly want an intergalactic adventure featuring moe, females, and pantsu. Well, it’s nice to have but I didn’t want it to be the main focus! But then again, it might be better off this way since a lot of the recent male protagonists in these anime seasons make me sigh in shame. I can’t imagine how Captain Harlock feels about this :3.

Glad I am not the only one who instantly thought of Captain Harlock upon seeing this series. As much as I like sci fi and space settings however I definitely will not be able to watch something with such a silly premise and setting seriously. Provided it stays almost completely comical I don’t see anything wrong with it, however if it has the audacity to actually try to make a serious story out of that kind of plot I would rather watch US politics, at least they are not quite as deluded.

Brave 10 (01/07 Sat)

I hope, I just hope that this isn’t an otome anime due to the assumption that they have way too many men and just one female on the cover. But based on the summary, perhaps we’ll get another Sengoku Basara. It’s been awhile since I’ve considered anything GAR, so please, hopefully we’ll get something for the men to roar about this time around.

I feel that in all fairness this will be a “Wait and see” title as I can speculate on good and bad all over but until I watch a few episode I wont know which it is. Stories using a sengoku setting tend to be pretty hit and miss with me in general, ranging from some memorable title to others that are best forgotten. Considering I am having a difficult time being sure of exactly what I feel about this anime I will be watching at least the first two to three episodes.

Rinne no Lagrange (01/08 Sun)

Should I be pleased with another mecha anime here? Cute girls fighting to defend their city from mysterious alien invaders.. I can’t help but feel that this will have a slightly similar feel to Star Driver with how it handles its battles and school segments. With my current gundam fix, I’ll have to see if I’ll even be interested in seeing this mecha show that smells of yuriyuri relationships.

Mahou shoujo style take on Infinite Stratos, definite pass for me. What happened to the days when mecha anime were actually good, I just cannot comprehend why no studio seems to be able to come up with a decent mecha series anymore.

Aquarion Evol (01/08 Sun)

Was never very fond of this style of mecha myself, but if you happen to enjoy these shows this will likely be your best bet for something good for awhile.

Ano Natsu de Matteru (01/09 Mon)

An original romantic comedy from the Onegai Sensei/Twins creator does pique my interest. But I cringe at the possibility that I can already predict what’s going to happen in it based on all my watching experience -_-  However, I am interested in the fact that they’re going to capture a nostalgic old school feel for this. Let’s see how this old timer will fare against the newer generation!

Onegai Sensei was one of my favorite series of this genre, on the other hand I did not care for Twins. Thankfully this time the cast seems more interesting than in the case of Onegai Twins, and hopefully  should end up as an entertaining and nostalgic trip down memory lane that reminds us why we like this genre in the first place. I can’t help but look forward to the possibility of something good to watch this season and here’s hoping they can actually pull through with capturing the balance of themes that encapsulates the essence of previous shows. Can only hope this will not end up like many series made some time after the original and their cruel mockery of what made previous shows great.

Another (01/09 Mon)

The horror mystery genre itself sounds like something I would normally love to read/watch but I don’t have a good feeling about this at all ever since Ookami Kakushi left a bad impression on me. And especially the poor adaptation of Umineko which turns me off even more from watching anything adapted into an anime. Whatever happened to stuff like Monster, Ghost Hunt, or something as surreal as Ghost Hound? I would like to actually feel somewhat scared and mystified from watching something with the horror/mystery tag attached to it.

Like Wanko I tend to shy away for any type of anime horror as they just aren’t well done. I have yet to see any such series that truly feels suspenseful or feels clever enough to make you want to keep watching and trying to figure things out. Either too predictable and or trying too hard to be “Edgy” with gore and pointless violence with hysterics these series tend to wind up as far too childish to fill their designated role for me. A series I will probably avoid until someone tells me otherwise.

Danshi Koukousei Nichijou (01/09 Mon)

After looking at the trailer, I’m sure they will be able to cover young males the right way this time. Instead of the flowery lifestyle we see in Kimi to Boku, these guys are huge perverts, the way young males should be. Even though this probably will be a better representation, I’m still not sure how interesting a young boy’s life can be compared to the moemoe lily garden lives of young 2D maidens. Well, I can’t really complain after seeing how close Kimi to Boku is to being shounen-ai-ish.

This will likely wind up being my primary comedy show for this winter season, as thankfully unlike Kimi to Boku we have a show that seems to actually be entertaining beyond just gender swapping some emotional teenage girls.

Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai (01/10 Tue)

Just take my money already. This looks way too adorable for me to pass up! 2D is always so awesome >_<.

Papakiki is one of my favourite LNs since the story about family is quite heartwarming. Sure, some parts (especially in the later volumes) are a bit hard to believe, and Yuuta keeps getting in ‘situations’ with Sora, but all-in-all it’s a very fun and entertaining read. I especially liked how the LN gives ample character development to Yuuta, the three sisters, Raika and even some of the side characters. However, I do have a lot of reservation about this anime adaptation. It seems they’re trying to sell the title off as fanservice (similar to the Sora manga) and it would be such a shame if Papakiki gets lumped in with titles like Kojikan or Ochinko. I’ll still watch it since I love the characters, but if you really want to know the story, please read the novels. Also, for the last time, Sora is NOT Haruhi. While they may be visually similar, their personalities are totally different.

Uninterested in having a Haruhi wannabe daughter character trying to seduce her father. Definitely the type of series Micchi enjoys as the focus is more on cute than story or characters, personally I would prefer something more down to earth and substantial.

Inu x Boku SS (01/12 Thu)

Based on what I’ve seen from the summary, this looks to be a shoujo version of Hayate no Gotoku. With characters beautified by the shoujo artstyle beam, be amazed at how sparkly and beautiful everything is. Just add in some supernatural elements, turn the butler into a youkai, and we have something new to sell. As anime has always taught me, it’s okay for lolis to pursue a relationship with their perfect butler!

As Wanko so eloquently put it this is more or less Hayate for girls. Proof that the whole kemonomimi trend isn’t just for guys who fawn over cute female characters that define animal traits. Now the female fandom can be just as shallow about what truly motivates them to invest time and money into their anime series!

Black Rock Shooter (02/02 Thu)

The original ova was short and unsatisfying. It was nice to see some nice black rock shooter action in an animated form, but it was too random and confusing for you to enjoy as it switched from the real world to the battle scenes. This newer production seems to continue from where it left off or at least continue in a similar fashion. My expectations are dirt low and I do not like Deadmaster’s meganekko look. On a positive note, this franchise will probably come out with great looking figures. I’m really running out of room to store those 1/8 figures.

Reminds me of that eroge awhile back the name of which I forgot but was made to be free in hopes of promoting figure sales instead. I suppose that business model fell through swiftly as no one else has dared take a similar approach and one can only hope the same thing happens here. We surely don’t need more marketing geared towards selling merchandise over making decent shows to watch. I will never understand the worthless conclusion to focus on marketability when the series where figures and marketability lasts for years to come are always those few series the creators actually put effort into. Others may sell fairly well short term but the appeal wears off just as fast as none of them are truly memorable.

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..

BUNNYBLACK 2

Company: ソフトハウスキャラ (SofthouseChara)
Game site: BUNNYBLACK 2
Release date: January 27, 2012
Comments:
This is the sequel to SofthouseChara’s RPG BUNNYBLACK, focusing on attacking instead of defending like in the previous title. The adventurer Dachs had been bestowed great magical power and eternal life by the maou, and in return he serves as her underling. However, he was dragged into a revolt by the maou’s army and ended up becoming the new maou. He made the previous maou his wife and brought peace to the labyrinth known as the ‘maou’s forest’… but it was soon shattered by some unknown troops who quickly took over half of the forest. After he found out through captured warriors that they were under the command of a group of three women from the heavens, he gathers his troops to launch a counterattack at the angels’ base.

A similar system from the previous game is used, although this time dungeon exploration is an important aspect since you’ll be conquering enemy territory instead of just defending your lands. It seems lately that angels are viewed as bad guys now. Then again with such a cute daughter like Cozelotte, why wouldn’t you side with the maou?

I have never understood the need to turn such games into H scene fests. Perhaps were the focus to be more on gameplay, story, and character development I would have more interest as some of them have a retro and nostalgic feel to their outdated gameplay which makes me want to recapture some of my past enjoyment. The problem is that every single time I try a new one it ends up being more about the H content and less about the story so I lose all motivation to keep playing along a plot line devoid of any means to entice me to uncover what the writers have hidden in their settings and characters. This all leads me to the conclude that these games are treated as a picture book of H scenes with some minigames to entertain the reader along the way. Until someone makes a game that either makes use of good gameplay or has a story worth putting up with the hassle I am going to continue to shy away from these games.

I’d think other games are more like (mature) picture books than an RPG, even if it’s not that great.

Still most rpgs invariably go down the same route, the few that do not end up being sub par in other ways anyway.

STAR←IDOL

Company: abelia
Game site: すたどる！
Release date: January 27, 2012
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from November. Tatsuya is the producer of the 5-person idol group ‘Cinq Doll’ and anticipated great success for them, however the group’s popularity remained low. He was convinced that this was because there was no clear leader among the group, so he decided on a leadership competition where they will tour the country and the girl with the most fans will become the leader of the group.

Let’s ignore the obvious similarities to ChuxChu Idol and The idolm@ster and focus on what new things this game brings to the table. There’s… a rhythm game where your idol practices sucking on a banana. Actually, never mind. The PV feels like something from the 90s.

Yet another game about pimping out teenage idols. I do have to admit the sea cucumber and banana BJ DDR made me chuckle, in a bad way. I suppose people who actually like idol games may rejoice over something coming out this month, but this is even more shallow than most in a genre that already scrapes the bottom of the barrel. There is little worse than a game that is just so bad that it doesn’t even warrant scorn.

After playing the trial, I just wanted to say that the system got boring real fast. You can train your idols by getting them to suck on phallic objects, spend money on promoting her or spreading rumours about rivals, and battle other idols, where for some reason breasts jiggle and laser-like lines flash across the screen. I guess they’re supposed to be her charisma or something. If the presentation was better and the system felt like less of a chore, maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more.

Hiyoko Strike!

Company: イグジット (Ex-iT)
Game site: ひよこストライク！
Release date: January 27, 2012
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from December. The usual classroom. The usual boring lesson. Shin stared outside blankly and then suddenly a girl appeared… outside the 2nd floor window! She jumped in from the window and introduced herself as Utakata. Everything else was just as illogical: taking her clothes off while standing on the desk, sticking her finger up his nose, and having things that look like animal ears and tail. His head hurt from all this, but at the same time he was also a bit excited since the world that he knew became more vivid.

A random but cute game. I don’t think it intends to take itself seriously since one of the heroines is called ‘Classmate A’ since Shin never remembers her name. Shin’s blood-related imouto Hina looks like she could be a good amaenbou type. One thing I noticed is that the illustrator sure loves using glow effects. I don’t think it’s natural for a girl to be glowing like a firefly at night.

The main problem with this game is there is not enough direction to the story. So a strange girl comes along and brightens up his otherwise dull life is fairly standard, however where do we go from there? Sure I can think of plenty of outcomes, but it is sorely lacking a driving force behind the story and characters to make things interesting enough for people to want to buy this game. Still there is a lingering desire to fill in that huge blank, so given how boring this month is I may see what it has to offer, can’t be any worse than the rest of the monotonous high school based eroge.

I disagree with Micchi on the glow effects, i didn’t see any abusive use of glow effects beyond the illustrator paying attention to light sources and shades far more than the usual lazy or inept artists. Well that said I can’t say I agree with the style itself, as it does not suit my taste and I feel that the inking, lineart, and shading all seem to contradict and contrast each other.

Twinkle☆Crusaders -Passion Star Stream-

Company: Lillian
Game site: ティンクル☆くるせいだーす -Passion Star Stream-
Release date: January 27, 2012 Delayed to February 10, 2012
Comments:
Passion Star Stream is the sequel to Lillian’s popular PC and PSP title Twinkle☆Crusaders and it is composed of 4 parts. “Twinkle☆Crusaders Venus Embryo” is the ending chapter to Kurukuru where new character Illear takes Synn away with her with the intention of destroying the world and remaking it as a world just for the two of them. In the crossover story “The Queen of Witches”, they travel to the witches’ world and meet the cast from Pajamas Soft’s Princess Witches. However, the only way they can return is to defeat the queen. There is also an ero-comedic ‘if’ story, “Ku RUKU-ru!” and icharabu after stories.

For a small extra cost, you can also get Twinkle☆Crusaders Starlit Brave Xtream!!, the PC port of PSP game’s battle royale. It features characters from other companies, such as Yoake‘s Feena, Flyable Heart‘s Yui, Tenshin Ranman‘s Sakuya and Koisora‘s Kayoko.

Entertaining game with a powered up battle system featuring more characters and skills. The story is pretty much slapstick comedy, so even if you haven’t played the original, you can easily dive into this one right away. The battle is kinda chaotic and it takes a bit of getting used to, but I love all the shiny effects and combo attacks ^^

Do I care? Not bloody likely.

Mmm… see-through camisoles…

Prismatic Princess☆Unison Stars

Company: ユニゾンシフト (UnisonShift)
Game site: プリズマティックプリンセス☆ユニゾンスターズ
Release date: January 27, 2012
Comments:
This is the belated 10th anniversary title from UnisonShift, featuring 33 characters from all their games (both Accent and Blossom), from Peace@Pieces to ChuxChu Idol2. One day, the heroines were suddenly taken into an unknown world. In front of them was a mascot Uni, who told them that in order to return to their proper worlds they must reach maximum ‘unison power’ by singing together in unison. At ChuChu’s suggestion, they decide to form an idol group to this end.

The main system is a card battle by which you can increase the number of friends in your party. It’s basically Uno with character-specific special cards. Another main point is Uni’s delusional H doujinshi, which are used to promote the idols. See? All mascots have ulterior motives. Considering how enjoyable the crossover route was in Flyable CandyHeart, I’m definitely going to be playing this. How could you say no to Suzuno, Funny, Sumomo and Flora together? Suzuno looks stunning in that black idol outfit ><

Characters based around alternate dimensions going to even more alternate dimensions randomly makes my head hurt, not from the concept but because once they start involving these things their writing takes a nosedive. Even more than that the whole idol group basis for this is pretty terrible, both in my opinion and as a business decision. I cannot see many fans other than the few who actually like that ChuxChu junk actually enjoying the inclusion of such a theme. Add in the random card game to make things even worse, sure minigames can be fun and the inclusion as a separate optional entertainment would have been a great idea, but does anyone really want to sit there and play Uno by themselves? Of course when a company randomly changes everything to suit what they envision as popular even going so far as to completely redefine existing characters for a quick buck I would expect no less than a moe moe bomb title that not even beer goggles could make appealing.

I don’t care for the idol motif, but the character interactions are genuinely enjoyable. I love Uno and I wouldn’t mind playing it (as a 2D bishoujo) against 2D bishoujos. In the end, this is a fandisk, I’m a fan and it caters exactly to what I want from it. I’m not expecting any deep story from this nor do I wish for one from a pure comedic title.

I would rather my fandisks give me more character interaction and enjoyment from what made the original great rather than a crossover spinoff using the same characters in an out of place and limiting setting. Even more so when it is beyond comedic and just plain stupid in the setup, setting, and story.

To each their own. I’ll send you lots of pics of an off-personality Mayuri.

I’ll just have to reply with pictures of abused imoutos, fair trade really.

Gaku☆Ou -The Royal Seven Stars-

Company: Lump of Sugar
Game site: 学☆王 -THE ROYAL SEVEN STARS-
Release date: January 27, 2012
Comments:
Hiroto is a prince from the Kingdom of Eleutheria on the small far-away planet of Fadenfrus. He was tired of spending his days in the royal palace and yearned for a school life like those on Earth, where his mother had once attended. His wish came true when he was allowed to attend Konoegahara Gakuen in Junesis, a country well known for its superior education system. However, the school only had 7 students (including himself) and was on the cusp of closure since it was being targeted by officials. He decided to oppose the country to save the school and protect the school life that he had longed for… but moreover, the ulterior motive for him being sent to Earth was to take over Junesis!

The characters are definitely the main draw of this gya~gya~ school comedy title, especially Hina-chan-sensei and ganbariya Maruru. Even the male subchars (‘guitarist’ Shou and ero-Ken) are amusing. At first in the trial, I was a bit apprehensive with all the too-convenient fanservice used to introduce the characters, but the charas grew on me. I hope the game doesn’t turn too serious and sticks to comedy, since it does a relatively good job at it. You really shouldn’t be able to screw it up when the main chara is an alien who doesn’t know much about Earth or human behaviour. Swiss exchange-student Maruru (Annemarie) is really cute! As expected of an imouto! Hau~ omochikaeri~! Also: finally a game with a badminton scene! I don’t even recall any other game that featured badminton in a CG.

If you don’t mind trying out a chara-ge that doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, then go right ahead, but I can’t seem to shake the feeling that this will be a landmine.

What the..? Did they run out of ideas for plots so decided to pull random plot elements out of a hat? We have a prince, a high school, a harem, and of course some sinister plot behind the scenes to give a sense of importance to the characters actions. Another thing, why are there only seven students? Could that be any more blatant a harem setup, I can see maybe seventy, but seven? At least try to make sense and give us some background not just a ready made harem to go and nothing else. I know I have said this before but hey what the hell I’ll say it again, characters and even comedy need a background to drive them and give them meaning, without such an enhancement I find such games entertaining in the first half hour to maybe two hours at most then they begin to get old until I drop them. Lets just face it, Micchi called this game a landmine, how often does that happen? Is there even any need for me to be negative about a game that could call for such an appraisal from our resident moe loving writer who cares for little save the inclusion of imoutos or imouto like characters? I think not.

It’s a bit hard to have high expectations from a story where the heroine introductions are through: 1) walking in on her in the ofuro; 2) walking in on her changing; 3) bumping into her in the hallway and seeing her pantsu; and, 4) walking in on her in the washroom. Imouto or no imouto.

For once I have to agree that you make a good point.

Shinigami no Testament ~menuet of epistula~

Company: 3rdEye
Game site: 死神のテスタメント ～menuet of epistula～
Release date: January 27, 2012 Delayed to February 24, 2012
Comments:
A long time ago, there was a magic book called the ‘epistula’ which was able to grant any wish, whether it be great wealth or eternal life. However, a sudden mysterious death befell all who had their wishes granted. It was believed that a shinigami came to take their lives. Over time, this tale gradually disappeared from people’s memories. Now, there are reports of a mysterious serial hunter and whispers of an urban legend around town. Rui watched as a student from his school disappeared in a back alley. Standing there illuminated by the moonlight was a shinigami.

Rui has the ability to see through people’s lies, so he ends up not trusting anyone and doing everything he can to avoid being with others. The characters and setting are definitely there, whether or not 3rdEye can take advantage of this setup to improve from BLOODY†RONDO remains to be seen. The BGM on the game site is quite nice. Might be an interesting pick up if you like your games with a dose of battle action.

So out of sheer morbid curiosity I looked up what epistula meant, turns out in latin it means “Letter”. Now I know Japan is notoriously bad at using other languages but letter.. really now. Names for their magic books (At least it’s not the played out necronomicon I suppose) aside the theme vaguely reminds me of one of the worst series of all time, Death Note. The connection between death gods and a book that takes lives, somewhat reversed but still reminiscent of the basis for that series. While the seeing through lies bit for the protagonist is interesting it does remind me of Iris Zero so I suspect through interaction part of the basis of the story will be the distinction between good and bad lies. After Bloody Rondo I do have my misgivings about their ability to make use of their own concepts, this is even more of a tightrope in terms of plot than Bloody Rondo was so I sure hope they can pull it off.

On the bright side no matter how bad this may end up being it cannot possibly be worse than Death Note, see I can be nice once in a while.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! S

Company: みなとそふと (Minato Soft)
Game site: 真剣で私に恋しなさい！S
Release date: January 27, 2012
Comments:
This is the fandisk to the popular Majikoi, consisting of after stories for the 5 main heroines as well as 5 new stories. The new stories can be accessed after the common route if you are not locked on to one of the 5 original heroines. Kawakami Gakuen 2nd year student Yamato has a group of close friends, to which two new members were added. While he didn’t have a girlfriend, he was fine with it since he enjoyed the time together with everyone. The Kuki corporation decided to hasten their ‘bushido plan’, where clones of many great individuals from the past would be used to solve the shortage of talent workers as well as stimulate the competitive spirit of everyday students. As part of the plan, Monshiro transferred into the school along with many others, causing quite the stir among the students and also raising the ire of fellow transfer student Tsubame.

In addition to Tsubame and the Kuki family’s youngest daughter Monshiro, subchars Kokoro, Tatsuko and Margit get routes as well. If you follow the 5 new routes, there will be many new characters introduced as part of the ‘bushido plan’. There are over 100 CGs for the huge cast. Pretty much if you played and liked the first game (which most people did), you’ve planned to play this already. The series is pretty entertaining and I enjoyed the trial even though I hadn’t played the original.

Silly. But in a good way for once. I enjoy games that don’t take themselves too seriously yet still know how to keep a reader interested and having a good time. Te original Majikoi was a surprisingly enjoyable game despite the rather questionable subject matter, with the well portrayed character interaction and development throughout the course of the story it was hard not to be charmed by the game. With the inclusion of some of the background characters who had fairly large roles in the game getting their well deserved routes this should be a game well worth playing.

I find it difficult to understand why you so easily put down Uni☆Stars when it also doesn’t take itself too seriously. Granted Majikoi does do comedy well and had more character development for its side charas than Koikishi had for its heroines, but the characters stay true to their personalities. Well, except for Mayuri…. Ohhhhhh… I see.

Well aside from Mayuri who still enrages me, the presentation of setting, comedy, and the silliness that results from both are mixed with a strong foundation of character interaction and development. Just being randomly goofy and nonsensical is not the same as properly binding your setting with your characters in a way that the reader can properly relate to. It is a difficult balance and Majikoi is one of the few games that managed to achieve it, and therein lies the distinction, I highly doubt Unisonshift will be capable of doing the same. They can’t even remain consistent with their own characters after all.

Dousei LoverAble

Company: SMEE
Game site: 同棲ラブラブル
Release date: January 27, 2012
Comments:
More icharabu is to be expected from the fandisk to SMEE’s LoverAble. The focus for this game is on Haruki living together with the heroine that he fallen in love with. In each of the 5 after stories, it’ll just be the two of them – that means no affairs with other characters (including subheroines)! A new hairstyle is added for each heroine; of course, you can still choose the original ones if you prefer those.

Of course, I’ll be going with ’oniichan ♥LOVE♥‘ imouto Kaho! Yes, they already live together, but now she goes to the same school as him too! Together during the day! Together during the night! Always together! That’s the destiny of an imouto and her oniichan!

I’ll pass.

Soreyuke! Burunyanman Hardcore!!!

Company: Digital Cute
Game site: それゆけ！ぶるにゃんマン HARDCORE!!!
Release date: January 27, 2012
Comments:
This downloadable game will be available via DMM.com. It is the 18+ PC port of the PSP side-scroller shooting game based off the mini game in Musumaker and adds new playable characters Sukunyanman and Dark Burunyanman. If you defeat a boss, they get rewarded with an H scene. So hardcore it requires three exclamation marks!!!

Nothing like being rewarded for your efforts in a boss battle with an H scene I suppose. Obviously catering to the hormone driven teen demographic, and doing a good job of it at that.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Prismatic Princess☆Unison Stars
2. Dousei LoverAble
3. Twinkle☆Crusaders -Passion Star Stream-

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! S
2. No.
3. Thank you.
   

Lots of brainless comedic fun this month. Goes well with leftover eggnog.

There is good brainless such as Majikoi, and bad brainless such as everything else this month.

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!

The top story of 2011 is definitely the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11th. Aside from the obvious destruction and loss of life, it also had an effect on eroge companies and the anime industry. Almost every game scheduled in March and April was delayed and some companies located in affected regions suspended operations temporarily. Both the Tokyo Anime Fair and Anime Content Expo were cancelled. Various companies (AkabeiSoft2, YuzuSoft, Visual Arts, Clochette) donated money to relief efforts. Almost 9 months later, some cities are only just beginning to recover. Let us wish for a more peaceful year for them.

Since starting a new job in a new city, I’ve scaled back on my writing. Weekly news have been predominantly focused on eroge-related material since mid-May, while monthly previews continue as before. Zen and nemuiwanko also write up seasonal anime posts at their leisure, with me chipping in every now and then. Reviews are pretty much a lost cause as Zen and I combined for an amazing three reviews (one of which was a joke) the whole year. If you’re interested in hearing our comments on games we’re playing, drop by the IRC channel (#hauomochikaeri @ IRC HighWay) or send me a tweet. The blog reached 1 million pageviews in July – thank you very much to everyone for visiting!

My resolution from last year was to play the top 10 imouto-ge according to EGS. Over the course of the year, Mizuiro had dropped out of the top 10 and was replaced by Mashifoni. I had played both already, so it didn’t really have an effect. I fully completed Moshiraba, Akasaka and Shinikiss, and played the routes for Yukiuta‘s Nano and Yosuga‘s Sora. So, I’ve now played 8 of the top 10, with Akiren and Sinsemilla to go… I guess it was a qualified success. Moshiraba is now among my favourite games with its heartwrenching stories. Since December is looking mighty thin, I’ve started the Moe Game Award 2010 winner Sinsemilla and look forward to an engaging story.

Random 2011 tidbits:

• Madoka dominated Saimoe 2011, but it wasn’t the titular character that won. Instead it was Mami, who was heads above everyone else.
• Speaking of Madoka, my first comment on the series: “Since Oreimo ended, I’m watching Hidamadoka Sketch Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica since it’s more in line with my tastes than Zen’s. I thought it was a pretty good first episode and I love the futuristic setting. The opening and ending scenes were a little weird and felt like it was made overly absurd. Nevertheless, I’ll be watching a few more eps to see how it turns out.” Then a few eps later: “I knew there was something suspicious about that squirrel…”
• Eroge/VN anime adaptations this year: Oretsuba, Steins;Gate, Hoshikaka (WHY), Majikoi and Mashifoni. Koichoco has been announced for 2012. The wonder that is the yaoibou will be soon known to all.
• まったく、小学生は最高だぜ!! (and it’ll continue next year with Papakiki…)
• I finally got around to making my harem list. Contrary to popular belief, it is not all imoutos. Because an imouto in only an apron doesn’t count as a maid.
• There was a patch to make all the imoutos in Imopara blood-related. Naturally, I applied it. 背徳感↑
• No D.C. game released this year! But don’t panic –  D.C.III will be out in April.
• YuzuSoft no longer blocks foreign IPs! Hooray!
• It seems like there’s more eroge/VN iPhone and Android apps coming out nowadays.
• Who knew that eroge can help you learn how to cook? (Not that it helped them stay in business…)
• Moetopia started up in July. Web Koihime Musou is so addictive.

I played a total of 24 games this year: 13 of which were released this year, with 14 full comps. From this year’s releases, Iroseka‘s Shinku route was probably one of my favs. It’s truly a 神ゲー. As guilty pleasures go, fandisks Flyable CandyHeart (especially the crossover route) and Koisora FD were extremely enjoyable. I signed up for Dokusho Meter to keep track of my books and have been making a significant dent into the backlog. My favourite manga from this year would be Kiniro Mosaic, while my fav LN is RO-KYU-BU!. Everyone loves loli basketball!

There were plenty of adorable imoutos this year, such as Imopara‘s Koharu, LoverAble‘s Kaho, Onigokko‘s Aoi, Marguerite‘s Matsuri, Kamikaze‘s Manami, Sukima‘s Sakura, Ikikoi‘s Eika, Imostyle‘s Mikan, Siskoi‘s Yui, Shushu‘s Hina, Koikishi‘s Yuu, Hareten‘s Nazuna and Imosen‘s Yotsuha. But my favourite is definitely Harupoco‘s Ai, who’s a lock for my harem list next time I update it. Don’t underestimate the power of a bracon!

駄　妹　最　高

As for New Year’s resolutions for this year, nothing too fancy: continue making my way down the top imouto-ge list. Let’s say at least finish 18 of top 20. Currently I’m at 13.

Thanks for visiting us as always and we hope you look forward to this year as much as we do. There are so many imoutos out there waiting for us!

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!

Damatte Watashi no Muko ni Nare!

Company: ensemble
Release date: January 28, 2011
Song: “Isshou Mono☆”
Vocal: Katakiri Rekka

Grisaia no Kajitsu

Company: FrontWing
Release date: February 25, 2011
Song: “Shuumatsu no Fractal”
Vocal: Faylan

LoverAble

Company: SMEE
Release date: February 25, 2011
Song: “Crazy for You☆”
Vocal: Chata

White ~blanch comme la lune~

Company: NekoNekoSoft
Release date: April 8, 2011
Song: “Hajimete no Koi”
Vocal: Lira

11eyes -Resona Forma-

Company: Lass
Release date: April 15, 2011
Song: “Juujika ni Sasagu Shichijuusou”
Vocal: Ayane

Vanitas no Hitsuji

Company: RococoWorks
Release date: April 22, 2011
Song: “ANGELIC DESTINY”
Vocal: Sakakibara Yui

Daiteikoku

Company: ALICESOFT
Release date: April 28, 2011
Song: “The Day Takeoff”
Vocal: Hashimoto Miyuki

Aiyoku no Eustia

Company: August
Release date: April 28, 2011
Song: “Asphodelus”
Vocal: Ceui

CURE GIRL

Company: Noesis
Release date: May 20, 2011
Song: “IP”
Vocal: aya Sueki

Yamiyo ni Odore

Company: Yatagarasu
Release date: May 27, 2011
Song: “Yamiyo no Kanata”
Vocal: Marika

Natsuyuki ~summer_snow~

Company: Silver Bullet
Release date: June 3, 2011
Song: “Natsu no Hi no Refrain”
Vocal: Nishizawa Hagumi

Rewrite

Company: key
Release date: June 24, 2011
Song: “Rewrite”
Vocal: Psychic Lover

Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi

Company: propeller
Release date: June 24, 2011
Song: “Kotoba Tsunagi”
Vocal: Hanatan

Dengeki Stryker

Company: OVERDRIVE
Release date: June 24, 2011
Song: “Burst Stream”
Vocal: Endou Masaaki

euphoria

Company: CLOCKUP
Release date: June 24, 2011
Song: “Rakuen no Tobira”
Vocal: Aoba Ringo

Ikinari Anata ni Koishiteiru

Company: makura
Release date: July 29, 2011
Song: “i o Tokinasai”
Vocal: Hana

Irotoridori no Sekai

Company: FAVORITE
Release date: July 29, 2011
Song: “Aletheia”
Vocal: eufonius

Sengoku Tenshi Djibril

Company: FrontWing
Release date: July 29, 2011
Song: “Sakura Saku”
Vocal: U

Paca Plus

Company: PacoProject (doujin)
Release date: August 13, 2011
Song: “Paca Plus”
Vocal: AL+PACA7

Dare ga Koroshita Komadori o

Company: Smile Senki (doujin)
Release date: August 26, 2011
Song: “Tori no Yume”
Vocal: Chata

Diamic Days

Company: Lump of Sugar
Release date: August 26, 2011
Song: “Kokoro… Hare”
Vocal: kicco

Love-Bride Eve

Company: WHITESOFT
Release date: August 26, 2011
Song: “Hold on me ~Koi no Mahou~”
Vocal: Utatsuki Kaori

Shinsei ni Shite Okasu Bekarazu

Company: PULLTOP
Release date: September 22, 2011
Song: “Anthem for Kingdom”
Vocal: Shimotsuki Haruka

your diary

Company: CUBE
Release date: September 30, 2011
Song: “Clover”
Vocal: Duca

Taisetsu na Kimi no Tame ni, Boku ni Dekiru Ichiban no Koto

Company: Dandelion
Release date: October 28, 2011
Song: “Yuuyake no Marginal”
Vocal: Riryka

Izuna Zanshinken

Company: Akatsuki Works Black
Release date: October 28, 2011
Song: “Hanachiru Yoi ni Kaze o Sasoi Te”
Vocal: Barbarian on the Groove feat. Kahiena

Sonicomi

Company: Nitro+
Release date: November 25, 2011
Song: “SUPERORBITAL”
Vocal: Super Sonico

Shunki Gentei Poco a Poco!

Company: ALcot Honey Comb
Release date: November 25, 2011
Song: “Aliare”
Vocal: Hazuki

WHITE ALBUM2 ~closing chapter~

Company: Leaf
Release date: December 22, 2011
Song: “Shiawase na Kioku”
Vocal: Uehara Rena

Appare! Tenka Gomen

Company: BaseSon
Release date: December 22, 2011
Song: “Ooedo Komachi”
Vocal: Sakakibara Yui

Nanatsu no Fushigi no Owaru Toki

Company: étude
Release date: December 22, 2011
Song: “Timeless time”
Vocal: Kawada Mami

Imouto Senbatsu☆Sousenkyo ~365-nin no Imouto Icharabu Manifesto~

Company: Latte
Release date: December 22, 2011
Song: “Colorful♥Mirrors”
Vocal: Kirina

Are there any other OPs this year that you particularly liked? Please share them in the comments!

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.

Webclap responses:

The Otaku Christmas pics on Sankaku have a few that feature Sana. I keep wondering if one of them is you. by Wrathkal
Of course not. As a caring nii-san, why would I divulge intimate pictures of my dear imouto to strangers?

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.

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume (09/26 Mon)

I often find myself not having much to say when it comes to covering second seasons of anime. When it comes to comedy and slice of life, you’re only getting more pieces of the same cake. Although that is not necessarily bad as I am enjoying this anime! As in the first season, we get the cute antics of an inept invader and watch what other cute things she gets into each week. However, not much changes and episodes are pretty much standalone when they’re not introducing new characters. They could definitely use more wan wan service though.

WATCHING INVADED AGAIN

C3 (10/01 Sat)

This anime definitely felt similar to Kore wa Zombie Desuka from the plot summary and it doesn’t feel too different after looking through a few episodes. For a guy with a supernatural harem, the main protagonist Haruaki is sure bland compared to zombie mahou shounen Ayumu. Our cute, flat-chested Fear may be trying her best to carry the show, but the rest of the characters just aren’t interesting enough to sit through episodes of battling or redeeming new cursed objects. I apologize, my moe moe cursed object, I’ll have to drop you until someone tells me otherwise :(

DROPPED – But Fear is still cute!

A show that follows the Hidan no Aria format, give viewers a cute loli to fawn over, and to hell with the rest. Well that is, it still manages to avoid being anywhere near the realm of how unbelievably horrible Hidan no Aria was, so it does have that much going for it! Oh yeah and apparently this time it is about redeeming possessed objects from their own curses or something, honestly  I found myself not even caring about this show, takes more than loli moe to make a show worth watching after all.

DROPPED – BDSM girl is far cuter than fear.

Working!! (10/01 Sat)

Just like Ika Musume, this is another stress relieving series that offers nothing new to the plate. However, sometimes my feelings are mixed regarding this series as I hate the androphobic Inami. I never found her funny nor has she charmed me at all with her personality. It’s really all about Popura and Yamada in this show :3 But I guess I’ll continue to watch this series as long as Takanashi thinks of Inami as a dog! The less we focus on her as a romantic interest for Takanashi, the better, but unfortunately it is inevitable.

WATCHING for now

Unfortunately while I love the humor in Working, and I enjoy all of the cast save one character, that one character consistently manages to ruin this entire series. With a second season I found myself hoping for redemption from the absolutely terrible second half of the first season, alas after a good start this series ended up just as bad if not worse. When a good comedy series forgoes their comedy for a really badly done romance story with terrible characters there is something seriously wrong with whatever the creators are smoking. If some kind soul with too much time on their hands edits Inami out of this series it would be a comedic winner, combining entertaining characters in a rare setting with enough comedy to make working start to almost look fun.

DROPPED

Fate Zero (10/01 Sat)

Broskander~

It’s no real surprise that Fate Zero is the best anime show of this season or perhaps this year. It’s amazing to see how a real holy grail war plays out when the masters aren’t populated by teenagers. Instead of putting a huge focus on the main protagonist, we see the war fought from the perspectives of the different masters. Unlike the next war, we have knowledge of the servant/master identities this time around. Seeing all these different characters fight for their various reasons, we get a lot more depth in this war versus the FSN holy grail war. In the original, the situations were more black and white and we could easily classify the good guys from the bad. However, things are a lot more grey and aren’t as clear as this is more of a free for all. 

In Fate Stay Night, the battles were mainly done by the servants, but with larger roster of mage masters, we get a lot of satisfying master vs master magic battles. If a character like Shirou were to join this battle, he would have been brutally slaughtered before getting a grasp of his projection abilities. I’m still just blown away by how much more awesome the series is in terms of the story and the action, and it doesn’t help that UFOTABLE is able to once again demonstrating the same skills they used in animating the visually beautiful Kara no Kyoukai. (I actually didn’t like it as much as I thought, but it was at least pretty ^_^) Sadly enough, the only negative thing I can really mention is the fact that they’ll have to take a break before finishing off the series as the studio wants to maintain the quality of the series. But even with that, Fate Zero will end up conquering the 2011-2012 seasons of anime. I mean look at this list here, there’s no competition whatsoever!

WATCHING

Fate Zero is predictably my favorite series this anime season. As a fan of the original I was actually looking forward to this show, a refreshing change for me. Seeing old combined with new and centered around a cast willing to get their hands dirty results in a show that so far is actually good. Given this has been a surprisingly faithful adaptation thus far I will refrain from commenting about flaws in the characters and story and focus on just the translation into anime. At the cost of being a tad repetitive first I want to commend them for following the actual story and not just using it for the basis and then making up stuff as they go aside from the characters and setting. It is far too rare a sight for an anime to be a faithful rendition of the source material, see MajiKoi for a bad example. With this series in good hands there is just one tiny itsy bitsy flaw to blemish the shiny new luster of this series, the filler. Now I have to admit they did at least remove it from the story so it has no direct impact, thank god for that, good call whoever decided it so. Still the filler is just so unnecessary, did they actually need to waste money on something that amounts to little more than shameless character promotion for the sake of merchandising? Obviously there is a market there but I highly doubt that the inclusion or exclusion would affect their corporate whoring. Complaints about some poor choices that create a lull in the excitement of watching each new episode aside though this has and hopefully will continue to be a good anime.

WATCHING

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai (10/01 Sat)

Just taking a Wanko out for a walk~

So we have martial arts, battles, and fanservice all mixed into one with this eroge anime adaptation. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a harem anime with a cast that’s already in love with the main character. This series tries way too hard to get my attention, and I think I’m better off watching Maken Ki for more flashy effects. I also want to note that it’s horrible to devote half an episode to a girl talking to her toy horse. Sadly, the only redeeming feature here is a fellow Wanko.

DROPPED

Sadly Majikoi has failed to capture the same appeal it had in game form with the anime, instead of focusing on the characters, the comedy, and hijinks that ensue they tried far too hard to bring in the serious story. This is definitely NOT the type of show to be taken seriously. Towards the latter half the story involving the jealous girls power struggle was far more entertaining and comedic than some half baked action story. Would have been nice to give more background on characters who are given no reason to like Yamato, nor any real background at all for that matter. It is as though this anime assumes that anyone watching will have played the game first and simply proceeds from there. Which brings me to the last real gripe I have here, why they did not just follow the game and chose to go off on an after story tangent is beyond me. Yes it has some connection with the game stories in certain routes but considering that the Momoko route appears to have been chosen, none of that shows up in her route. Of course new additions help keep the anime fresh, even though often there is little need as direct animation turns the old new again, but I digress. Without following the guidelines set by the game there is too much danger of whoever wrote the anime turning it into some tasteless horror film involving characters you like being used and abused. I honestly wanted to like this series a lot, the game is fun and was defined by enjoyable character development and interaction leading into plenty of comedy, the anime however failed from the start by throwing away what made the game so good.

DROPPED

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (10/01 Sat)

I spent many episodes wondering what the hell was going on with the back story. We get random episodes of fanservice, and the main character proposing to some Horizon. I actually thought at one point that he was confessing to a Horizon in the figurative sense but I can’t remember if that was due to me misinterpreting it or a shoddy translation. But eventually after a few episodes, I finally get the gist of what’s going on and then by episode 6 or 7, an actual story arc begins! It’s still hard to say if this is worth a watch since the story is now actually beginning, but seeing that it took half the series to do something, and something serious at that, it’ll probably end up as a train wreck or have a disappointing cliffhanger in order to setup the next season. Got to love that angel duo though <3.

ON HOLD OR DROPPED I DON’T EVEN KNOW

From what I understand, at least for the five or six episodes of Horizon I have seen it appears the series revolves around the build up for a single day viewed from multiple perspectives. The problem is I have an extremely hard time caring about what happens because honestly the setting is absurd and nonsensical, the characters are boring and built around appealing to horny teens, and the story does precious little to grab me. I find this series especially annoying as I tend to not pay much attention to names, and almost every sentence used carries a dozen different names of remotely affiliated characters we have witnessed only once before and very briefly at that. Horizon feels as though it was conceived as an acid trip while reading a book about Shinto gods, on a train traveling through a city while planes fly low overhead landing at an airport and the creator was trying hard to molest some of the high school girls they shared the train with. Honestly I would be fine with the setting, the characters, even the annoying protagonist were the story actually well written and developed, but sadly I find myself simply being unable to care about what happens next in this series. Next time the writer needs to build a clearer image of their story before developing it and wandering all over.

DROPPED

Hunter x Hunter (10/02 Sun)

I would have probably enjoyed this anime adaptation lot more if I was younger, and well, I did somewhat enjoy the manga when I first read it. But just going through the anime so far, I don’t think I can stand seeing little boys in short shorts fight psycho clowns. Animating it made this painful to watch, and I don’t think I want to go through this sausagefest all over again.

DROPPED

Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle (10/02 Sun)

I can get into Go, Karuta, and even sports (I hate sports) in anime shows, but I just found this show involving puzzles to be downright boring. Maybe it helps that I never liked doing puzzles much in the first place, but I couldn’t really get interested in any of the puzzles that the main character had to solve throughout the show. Seeing the protagonist blaze through these situations instantly with a game genie bracelet just adds more fuel to the fire here. Sure we can give Goku 4 Super Saiyajin levels to battle all these universe destroying aliens, but do we really have to power up a so called puzzle genius from the get go? I should have dumped this at episode 1 >_O.

DROPPED

Phi Brain is one of those series that takes something completely mundane and finds some way of giving it world ending significance. Every once in a while these stories find a unique subject that turns into a diamond in the rough. The majority of these series however end up falling by the wayside as poorly thought out attempts at creating a new gimmick or acting as an advertisement for a specific product be it cards or in this case puzzles. All of this leads into what I want to sum up about Phi brain, the story is bland and far too exaggerated in scope to retain a grounded feeling that allows the viewer to empathize with the characters and events in play. Instead we get a focus on absurdly important puzzles that both have zero bearing or relevance to their own nature, and manage to be terribly simple and common puzzles. Personally I highly doubt that a “Godly puzzle” would involve simple children’s games, even Indiana Jones came up with better and far more relevant puzzles for god and his minions. Unfortunately I cannot imagine even avid puzzle game fans finding much of interest with a series that does little to whet their appetite for a brain cramping challenge. Even children would have a hard time finding difficulty or interest in puzzles that are either far too easy, or solved with some random nonsensical deus ex machina solution that requires more dumb luck than logical out of the box thinking. Bringing the aspect of using the titles created from the names of widely acknowledged contributors to the scientific and artistic progression of the human race only further compounds the feeling of sheer absurdity to this series. On top of all of this they saw fit to add in an arm band to give them a deus ex machina to write their way out of difficult situations with ease. When it comes right down to it, this series suffers from a terrible story, terrible setting, terrible characters, and terrible writing. Perhaps this gets my vote as the sheer worst series this season from an objective and non taste based perspective. I don’t think that creators who can fail so badly at putting together the puzzle of a successful anime can possibly be trusted to design a series about solving them.

As I stated in my preview, Phi Brain feels as though some incompetent writer watched the movie Pi, and decided to reuse the themes there in some kind of marketable children’s anime because their family owns a puzzle making factory.

DROPPED

Tamayura Hitose (10/03 Mon)

What a fluffy and adorable slice of life series this is! Yet…. so slow and arduous to watch if you plan on seeing these episodes one after the other. If you are interested, I highly recommend watching these weekly so you won’t fall asleep. So continuing on, this is a slice of life show involving 4 girls (the magical number!) developing their friendships and doing similar things that do not at all differentiate them from any other female slice of life groups! Although photography is the theme here, this anime is pretty normal compared to the rest of the anime on the list. As a matter of fact, it feels too normal! As relaxing as it is with the nice small town atmosphere, it may be too boring for most people to actually watch. On another note, twintails make everything better… twintail Fu looked so cute… I will never approve of your hairstyle change!

DROPPED

Kimi to Boku (10/03)

The first thing I did before writing this part up was looking up the mangaka’s gender. As expected a female wrote up this slice of life. Honestly, there is no real difference between this and the many slice of life series involving girls. I was kind of expecting something different and more, since we’re looking at boys. You can probably genderbend this series and not even notice a thing. I have to admit however that at least this show isn’t as slow as Tamayura, but in the long run I might actually prefer seeing more cute girls in my shows if I’m going to see the same thing in these type of shows.

DROPPED

I am sure everyone has seen at least one female based slice of life show filled with random comedy and eccentric characters. And as long as you have seen one of these shows you have seen Kimi to Boku, it is for all intents and purposes the same exact thing only with a sex change. Unfortunately I mean this in the most literal way possible, they did not change the jokes, the characters, or even the dialogue much to suit a male cast, they simply changed the physical traits of the characters to be male instead of female and left the rest of the traditional elements intact. This leads to an anime nearly devoid of anything interesting or unique that can stand against others of the genre save the whole male gimmick. Which wouldn’t be so bad honestly, were it not for the way our male cast is so unbelievably effeminate I cannot help but be rendered speechless each time they break into some melancholy and or dramatic soliloquy about life, relationships, or the falling of leaves on the sidewalk. I am sorry but while these moments have a place in such shows, the frequency, the moodiness they create and the subject matters they relate to have little to no business being anywhere near a straight male cast. Actually the way it was done in this series would have no place being anywhere near a female cast, given that all of those “Insightful” monologues have little to no real relevance to anything going on in the story or setting at the time of their enactment. It is as though the writer suddenly decided to wax poetic as they had convinced themselves they were the reincarnation of Shakespeare. In between these ruinous moments of babbling egotistical nonsense there is some comedy to be found, indeed there was enough to make me crack a smile and chuckle every now and again. Sadly though I feel these moments are too few and far between to aid in justifying this series. When it comes right down to it I would simply prefer to watch a series that understands its place, regardless of a cliché cast of all females or repeated jokes. At least with those series I don’t have to wait for all the fun I just had watching the hijinks of the cast crumble under the impact of a fiery meteor of dramatic inner monologue and wistful imagery. Kimi to Boku is a male slice of life without making fun of the accepted stereotypical definitions of what it means to be male. Without capitalizing on its sole unique feature only to deliver sub par performance in every other area this is yet another failed series best ignored till someone competent decides to try this idea again.

DROPPED

Chihayafuru (10/04 Tue)

As Zen mentioned in the preview, this isn’t too different from Hikaru no Go. But luckily for me, I like learning new things! I was quite intrigued with how Karuta was played and seeing Chihaya’s progress in developing her abilities. In addition, the drama between the three main characters were built up quite well in the first few episodes, although I do wonder how far this will go before running out of steam. I do normally get into series that goes into games and sports but as this is a shoujo I can’t tell how the story development will go. In shounen series I always expect a rival for a main character to defeat, and fierce battles to keep up the intensity. So with only 1/4 of the episodes viewed, it’s still too early to tell.

WATCHING

Maken-ki (10/04 Tue)

Nyanservice~ And when do kitties wear shower caps?

I’ll be brutally honest here… Maken Ki is stupid fanservice. That’s it. It’s not as weird or sexually suggestive as Majikoi, but either way this was created for all those young horny boys out there. So if you really like ogling at huge breasts and excessive fanservice, this isn’t too bad. At least it has what I can barely call a story stringing things together.

DROPPED

Mashiro-Iro Symphony (10/04 Tue)

Who wants to take her home?

Sakuno, you’re too cute <3 For an anime adaptation, I’m actually surprised to find myself not dropping this. I guess it helps that this isn’t as crazy and all over the place like say Majikoi from this season. Overall, I find that it slightly reminds me of Clannad with its feel and level of development. The plot may still be ordinary and generic, but at least it’s executed well enough to soothe the rage that built up from the third episode of Majikoi. Anime adaptations of eroge are either hit or miss :3 And of course we can’t forget about Pannya, that cute hopping cat head… I don’t even… well it’s still cute right?

WATCHING

When you take a boring eroge devoid of anything interesting or unique and turn it into an anime you wind up with… Something even worse. Granted this was never my type of game to begin with, but the problems I have with this series are not related to taste but rather the overall quality of it. Rather than being pure white this series feels pure grey, there is no real plot to speak of, no carefully sculpted character interaction and development, all laid atop a setting that is little more than an obvious setup for a lazy writer to use in order to avoid a proper sequence of events and introductions. Of course even the characters themselves are nothing special, while I am aware people may like these characters who lack even some miniscule defining trait that binds them to this particular series. I am not saying every character needs to be completely unique in every way, but rather than changing props or terms characters do still need something to bring them into two dimensions. To give an example even Angie is one dimensional, simply combining “Maid-moe” with the wants to help everyone character design. Hook line and sinker is a term made for people who fall for such traps either in the game or anime world just because they find a character or characters “Moe”, and are the reason most games and animes suck anymore, why bother putting effort in when trite, repetitive  garbage sells just as well if not better.

Although even I have to agree that Pangya is cute.

DROPPED

Persona 4 The Animation (10/06 Thu)

At this point I can say that they should really stick to making games and not adapting any of their works. As a game I can see the story working well, but as an anime it doesn’t feel too different from what’s out there. Each episode so far, they defeat a monster, gain a new ally/persona and try to track down the guy throwing people into that dimension. More or less this was built to serve the fan of the games, and even though I have played some of the Persona games, I don’t really enjoy this as much as I should. I felt time is better spent playing out the story yourself with your own copy of the game.

DROPPED

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (10/06 Thu)

It’s no exaggeration to consider this anime one of the top comedy picks for the season. As a comedy moe series, it ends up parodying a lot of recognizable game series and anime. I was definitely psyched up when I finally saw the animated monster hunter parody in one of the episodes, and even more delighted to see the Sacred Blacksmith eroge parody. As these characters have their own interests and personality quirks, the interactions between these characters are the highlight of this series. Funny as it is, this show is so moe and cute that when you’re not laughing, you’ll be wanting to take Kobato home. A fun series overall that directly targets the audience and show some of the trends of Otaku culture.

WATCHING

While I personally enjoy Boku wa Tomodachi I cannot say it is a great series by any means. More of the by now common romance comedy / harem anime that we have at least one of each and every season. In the series defense it is better than most of these shows, but still suffers from lack of character development and predictability as the same jokes we have seen hundreds of times before are repeated yet again. Not to say there are no funny moments during the comedy often centered around various parodies, but it never manages to feel fresh and new. Of course that is because other than the slightly less common traits the characters display nothing really is new here. The lack of friends is little more than a means to bring the group together over and over, which I am not really against it’s just that they never go anywhere with it, the series is simply spinning its wheels without moving. I know better than to expect a real resolution, but aside from character introductions the rest is simple group comedy based around misunderstanding the nature of friendships. Which mind you is not a bad thing but eventually without some meaning behind it the comedy begins to dry up, this is not a 4koma after all. Ah well  certainly not a bad series if you want some lighthearted fun and are not looking for any real development of characters and story along the way, which is saying a lot these days especially for this genre.

WATCHING

Shakugan no Shana Season 3 (10/07 Fri)

I can barely remember what happened in the previous seasons, but from what I can gather from my memories and seeing the first episode itself, I did not expect the story to turn toward this sudden direction. I’m actually a bit impressed to see that it did something very unexpected with Sakai Yuji’s development. With 24 episodes to finish off this series, I can only hope that it’ll end as decently as it started. This time around there’s more of a focus on everyone else other than Shana and Yuji, and the first 6 episodes demonstrated that the situation is far beyond what they faced in the previous seasons. However, without the school segment breathers we had in the previous seasons, I’m really interested in seeing how the 24 episodes will fill out. The plot has already advanced pretty quickly even at the beginning of episode one, so I can’t wait to see how it’ll go. But I’m glad that this season has more of a plot this time around and is developing Yuji in this new direction.

WATCHING

Ben-to (10/08 Sat)

A unique idea no doubt, Ben-to has that much going for it no matter what. Entertaining at times, for the most part though I feel this series is a little too bland to make use of the story or characters properly. In a way it is like watching a faster paced DBZ about fighting over food, reveal a new better antagonist each time for the protagonist to overcome, repeat. Throw in a light sprinkling of the standard love comedy misunderstandings and sexual tension and aside from the fighting over food there isn’t much to Ben-to worth mention. Whether or not you like the characters the best of this series is in the first few episodes, after that it turns into a typical shounen harem battle anime. Still to give credit where it is due, this series is at least better than Maken Ki, not that it is saying much…

DROPPED – Needs more Ume Ume.

Mobile Suit Gundam Age (10/09 Sun)

I came in thinking this was going to be too kiddy, but this show is definitely working its way up by being different from the other Gundam series. Although our villains are aliens and this feels more like a Macross/Martian Successor Nadesico fusion, I guess I don’t really mind not seeing the same political battles being waged as in every other Gundam series. It’s also interesting to see a protagonist get involved with the war effort early in his childhood versus being drafted into battle after having his town get caught in a Gundam capturing operation that you often see in the beginning of most Gundam series. But what I’m most excited about is the fact that we’re going to have a war that will involve the protagonist’s own son and grandson. It’s going to feel just like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure with the succession of heroes. I really underestimated Level 5′s abilities and didn’t expect anything during the fall preview, but I guess I’ll be expecting more out of it now since they did create the Professor Layton games. But for those who actually wanted something more Gundam-ish, it’ll be easier to take in if you consider this another mecha show instead of the Gundam you grew up on and loved.

WATCHING

Mirai Nikki (10/09 Sun)

There are only a few series I can recommend to people who aren’t into slice of life, gundam, or moe moe love. Mirai Nikki is definitely one of them, as its dark and twisted storyline can keep you heavily glued onto the screen. I actually brought it over to a couple of friends, a week ago, and well they loved the hell out of this series. With stuff  like Cowboy Bebop and Big O still resounding in their minds, it was a nice relief for them to be able to watch something that reminded them of why they loved anime. Although, the protagonist in this anime is a weak-minded individual, seeing how he reacts to everything around him is a horrifyingly delightful experience. Sometimes you want capable protagonists, but other times you want to see how these nightmares play out. Besides, it makes it hilarious to see how he handles his psycho, yandere girlfriend. Thankfully, this renews my confidence that we’ll once in awhile see a decent psychological thriller pop out.

STALKING

Mirai Nikki is one of those shows where the concept is interesting, and they made one good character to follow but then everything else is mires you in a toxic sewage of complete failure. I will admit I really like Yuno’s character, they did a great job with her obsessive personality and blatant stalking. I found myself constantly rooting for her above every other poor excuse for a character in the cast. However that is all there is to it. The show tries so hard to have cunning adversaries in interesting situations but without her present it falls apart. I am not talking about how her character supports the protagonist either, most of the situations are incredibly absurd for a series meant to make you think. If you were to take Yuno out, aside from the protagonist dying, all you have left is some writers make believe story about a worthless kid playing a deadly game. When conflict is created by writing in elements that just do not fit the selected setting the psychological aspect of identifying with the characters trials and fears simply evaporates into a mist of apathy. I am beginning to feel like a broken record so I was hesitant to say this but frankly this series relies entirely on controlling the setting rather than the characters for every single situation to be created or resolved. Lets give a quick example from very early on, a certain character had placed insane amounts of explosives all over a school building, explosives that lets assume they could even get their hands on in the first place would have been nigh impossible to place that many of in a school. Not to mention the detonation sequences were more precise and detailed than any demolition or military system. Furthermore if all the character wanted was to kill the protagonist it would have been simple to blow up the entire building at once and problem solved. But no, we had to sit through an overly complex scheme to allow our protagonist a chance to thwart his attacker and somehow survive, survive even an explosion in the room he was in itself. Sadly this series held a lot of promise almost none of which was realized, a shame really. 

DROPPED

Un-Go (10/13 Thu)

No worries, they’re legal. Robo lolis are always legal!

One thing you should never really bring into my detective stories…. magic! I can accept using magic to replay events over and over so you can eventually solve the crime, but giving you cheat codes with an ability to force people to answer one question using some mystical power is simply unacceptable. That completely makes the anime so anti-climatic and not to mention our cases don’t even get resolved in a proper way. They end up getting covered up and our hero maintains a ‘defeated detective’ title which sounds lame for an actual detective. The only thing good to come out of this are robo lolis!

DROPPED

I have to disagree with Wanko on this, supernatural elements are found in almost every mystery, even more so when the medium is anime. I have a hard time thinking of a single series that falls under the mystery category and does not have some sort of supernatural element. Even this season we have something like Mirai Nikki which may not strictly be a mystery but does attempt to provoke much of the viewers thought towards unraveling the meaning behind the series and setting, which is of fundamental importance to any mystery. The use of the supernatural allows for changing the rules which govern the setting, therefore allowing the author a broader variety of potential plot developments, and the viewer a more entertaining time trying to figure out what is going on. Of course therein lies the most common pitfall for most mysteries, I won’t deny that. As many tend to rely on a supernatural deus ex machina and allow their writing and suspense to fall apart, a good example would be GoSick, terrible series further ruined by supernatural elements. I feel the same at least up to this point has not been done with Un Go, as they have managed to while perhaps being a little too predictable and easy to see through, allowed the viewer to understand what was going on before revealing things. Furthermore while the detective character at the center of the series does rely on the question that he can force the people to answer, it is never used as a means to solve but more as a means to confirm, elaborate on the events, and give the viewer one final chance to figure things out before he explains in detail. Instead of the use of supernatural being the crux of solving every situation, the emphasis was put on the protagonist knowing the right question to ask, meaning he already knew what answer to expect, and needed only confirm to be sure of his deductions. This subtle difference in presentation along with a carefully scripted plot that allows the viewer to understand the rules of the world early, and then never changing them to give perceptive viewers the chance to solve things on their own. Right or wrong this is the main selling point of a mystery, the entertainment of deciphering it or finding out where you went astray while making the attempt. I think Un Go is one of the best series this season simply because the plot is better prepared and while the writer tries to lead you astray they don’t just make up random changes to the rules  in order to do it. Of course there are the further elements such as the war with islam resonating with the setting for the cities of Un Go, along with the existence of a big brother who is always watching. When a series includes predictions about the future our present leads to that feel extremely plausible it further compounds the allure of the setting and characters. This has ended up being one of my favorite series this season and I hope it retains the same level of quality throughout the entire series.

WATCHING

Guilty Crown (10/13 Thu)

So imagine a bit of Macross crossed with Code Geass and well this is the end result. We have music in every episode and a young protagonist who suddenly gains incredible powers and meets his love interest who drags him into guerrilla warfare against the government. Despite all that, it’s nothing really new and not as good as I would thought it be. Although it’s trying to do a lot with its music and style, you just can’t cover up the flaws of the annoying protagonist and the simple progression that the story is going through. Not to mention, it’s a bit fanservicey with how nice the characters look. I mean look at Inori, especially her main singing/battle outfit! I don’t understand how that dress does not fall off her body! However, I think I’ll continue to watch a bit of it as it’s not too bad compared to what I dropped so far.

WATCHING

Guilty Crown is flat out terrible. It includes elements of many other series with an overly shounen filter thrown on top, which by itself wouldn’t instantly make the series this bad. Instead what makes the series this bad is really just the protagonist and female lead, those two characters essentially ruin the entire show. To start with the protagonist himself suffers from Shinji syndrome, turning him into a whiny useless pile of emo rubbish who through sheer happenstance happens to end up with the world revolving around him no matter how much of a childish tantrum he throws. Then on the other side we have the female lead whose character is little more than a faceless doll meant to appeal to the male audience as they can see whatever traits they desire in her since she has little to no real personality of her own, a color by numbers heroine kit left blank if you will. While surely the story itself is far from an award winner, however sub par it may be, when you have background characters almost all of whom without exception outshine your primary pair there is a huge gaping unfillable hole in your story.

DROPPED

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!

Webclap responses:

妹が入ったあとの風呂のお湯を飲んだりする? by Immortal Death.
俺は変態じゃない、ただのシスコンだ。飲みたいなら源かｒ（ｒｙ

So now that AmiAmi seems to have allowed for eroge to be shipped internationally, any recommendations? ^^ by Riyin
Ah, didn’t know AmiAmi is shipping eroge. Well, it really depends on what you’re looking for. Of course, I would suggest games with imoutos or sugar-laden ones like Mashifoni. Or you can go with the ever-so-popular Eustia or Grisaia.

Scenario – Grisaia no Kajitsu (FrontWing)
BGM – Kamidori Alchemy Meister (Eushully)
Fan support – Grisaia no Kajitsu (FrontWing)
Graphics – Kamikaze☆Explorer! (Clochette)
System - Akatoki! (Escu:de)
Character design - Kamikaze☆Explorer! (Clochette)
Low price - Kagura Soushunfu (Debonosu)
Ero (pink) - Kamikaze☆Explorer! (Clochette)
Ero (black) - Sengoku Tenshi Djibril (FrontWing)
3D - Baldr Sky DiveX (GIGA)
OP - Grisaia no Kajitsu (FrontWing)
Fandisc – Rui wa Tomo o Yobu Fandisc (Akatsuki Works)
Subject matter – Josou Sanmyaku (Nounai Kanojo)
Pure love - Grisaia no Kajitsu (FrontWing)
PG - Musume Shimai (RUNE/Palace)
New brand – CLAPWORKS, MEPHISTO
Media support - STARLESS (Empress)

HGB, Iroseka, Imopara and Hoshikaka picked up 2nd place finishes in OP/pure love, graphics, ero (pink) and chara design, respectively.

MOONSTONE has announced the fandisk Princess Evangile ~W Happiness~, where all nine heroines and subcharacters will get routes. Also announced this week was Parasol‘s Koi Imouto Sweet☆Days.

Release dates have been set for the following:

Fortuna Rhapsody – February 24th
Futari wa My Angel☆ – March 30th
Okujou no Yurirei-san – March 30th
Mahoutsukai no Yoru – April 12th

Hiyoko Strike! has been delayed to December 29th.

Coming out this winter is the append disc Rance Quest Magnum, which adds new quests, items, etc.

Chisa once again won the Midori no Umi chara poll, while Mikana topped the Koimekuri Clover chara poll and will get a Christmas illustration. Chara polls have started up for Princess-Style, Mashiro Summer (until December 23rd, for a dakimakura), Rewrite (until December 31st) and Mizu no Miyako no Patisserie (until February 17th).

Everyone’s favourite doujin soap comedy Futaba☆Channel is getting a fandisk at C81: Futaba☆Channel 3.5! It’s time to camp in the forest~ Also coming out at C81 are Circletempo’s ghost fantasy novel Shounen Oroka to Fushigi no Mori and hyperiyon’s musical drama Arpeggio.

fripSide’s PC game compilation vol.1 comes out on New Year’s day. It’s priced at ￥3150 with 11 tracks including one original. You can listen to a sample here.

The Kimiringo visual fan book will be on shelves on January 27th. I’m not sure how they’re going to fill it considering there really weren’t that many CGs in the game. The Super Sonico visual fan book vol.1 come out on December 8th. Considering how risqué it is, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a second one.

The dakimakura for Tsuyokiss Full Edition‘s Sunao features her in a seifuku sukumizu on one side and hadaka apron on the other. Also coming out is one for Gengetsu no Pandora‘s Mahime.

After an arcade game, ToHeart2 will make its appearance on pachinko machines.

It’s fine to be with Mokkan, but play with Mahomaho too, oniichan!

I want a pannya parka too!

Nakaimo is getting an anime adaptation! The main draw of the LN was obviously the ‘imoutos’ and CUTEG’s art. However, the story isn’t that good at all, so I don’t expect much from the anime aside from lots of fanservice.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Also, it was Ebi‘s birthday on December 15th. She looks great in the DRACU-RIOT! seifuku!

Oh man, Natsumi’s ofuro scene in the Galge no Sekai fandisc was dangerous. 「夏海は、子供みたいな体だから・・・。だから、お兄ちゃんに成長したことろをちゃんと見てもらいたい。ねえ、夏海はわがまま言ってる？」Also very happy that they put in the confession scenes for each girl from the game. Takenori’s memory is god-like. Now I’m moving on to the spinoff Silver Bullet, which focuses on the Takahashi household and Eina’s ‘adoption’.

Release dates have been announced for the following:

Sousou Oni Reginald – March 23rd
Monobeno – March 30th
Riajuu Saimin – March 30th

The following titles have been delayed:

Bishoujo Mangekyo – December 29th
STAR←IDOL! – January 27th
Princess-Style – February 24th

A seiyuu change was announced for Dousei LoverAble‘s Satsuki from Haruno Ibuki to Hokuto Minami. I feel that similar to Chinami in Hoshimemo, I’ll end up preferring the original.

Imosen‘s elections have started! You can vote once a day until December 19th. The top finisher will receive a Christmas wallpaper. Who will you vote for? I like both Yotsuha and Kikka. The second Legend Seven chara poll has started up, with the winner getting a dakimakura. It will run until January 14th.

Yet another MOONSTONE title is ported over to the PSP: this time Princess Evangile. It’ll be out on March 29th.

Do you want Airi or Miu waking you up? There’s an Android app that does that, among other things, all in Live2D. ￥157 per voice clip is a steep price though…

Chou Yome Taisen is the latest card battle social game to hit the mobile market. So far, it features characters from Koihime, SHUFFLE!, D.C., uni., Suika and Otoboku, with Disgaea being added in the near future. Hinari is mine! (Well, that’s if they plan to make all the chars in Koihime…)

Parasol’s visual fan book “Delivarat☆Radiant“, covering their two titles Magicarat☆Radiant and Delivara!, will be on shelves January 26th.

SkyTube joins the list of makers with Super Sonico figures, with their gravure swimsuit version coming out in May at ￥8200.

Dakimakuras are available for Itokano‘s Charlotte and Otoha, and Koisora‘s Yuuki and Sera (at C81). Visual Arts has also a C81 site up announcing the goods for all their brands.

Finished reading Galge no Sekai and I’m glad that I kept up with the series as it wrapped up very nicely. It started as a simple story about galge heroines coming into the real world, but gradually other characters (real and game-based) were introduced, the fairy tale system was explained, the terminology became more technical and intense action ensued. However, at the heart of the series is his desire to have a harem bring happiness to everyone. Now time to read the fandisc, spinoffs and extra disc! I need more of Rie, Megumi, Mai and Natsumi!

Kana’s route in Iroseka was quite long, but it was surprisingly decent. I didn’t really like her character before, but now I can appreciate why she acts the way she does. With all first 4 routes done, the reason I’m still playing this game is at hand: Shinku. I’ve barely started her route and I’m already having a good feeling about this…

Webclap responses:

For some odd reason I wanted Escude to make another clothes shredding game. Akatoki was fun as it is and I wouldn’t mind something that uses a stronger or more unique system with a viable but relatively short challenge. by Amoirsp
A fandisk of a fandisk? I’m up for more clothes shredding, but I’m sure Escu:de will treat us to another interesting system. You can try out Twinkle☆Crusaders PSS while you’re waiting.

A shame this month was so bad it required nukige padding just to have enough releases to justify a post. Apparently Merry Christmas in Japan means ____ you. In all seriousness though there has not been a month this bad in quite some time, I guess that is good in a way, more time for me to play Skyrim.

STAR←IDOL

Company: abelia
Game site: すたどる！
Release date: December 16, 2011 Delayed to January 27, 2012
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from November. Tatsuya is the producer of the 5-person idol group ‘Cinq Doll’ and anticipated great success for them, however the group’s popularity remained low. He was convinced that this was because there was no clear leader among the group, so he decided on a leadership competition where they will tour the country and the girl with the most fans will become the leader of the group.

Let’s ignore the obvious similarities to ChuxChu Idol and The idolm@ster and focus on what new things this game brings to the table. There’s… a rhythm game where your idol practices sucking on a banana. Actually, never mind. The PV feels like something from the 90s.

Yet another game about pimping out teenage idols. I do have to admit the sea cucumber and banana BJ DDR made me chuckle, in a bad way. I suppose people who actually like idol games may rejoice over something coming out this month, but this is even more shallow than most in a genre that already scrapes the bottom of the barrel. There is little worse than a game that is just so bad that it doesn’t even warrant scorn.

After playing the trial, I just wanted to say that the system got boring real fast. You can train your idols by getting them to suck on phallic objects, spend money on promoting her or spreading rumours about rivals, and battle other idols, where for some reason breasts jiggle and laser-like lines flash across the screen. I guess they’re supposed to be her charisma or something. If the presentation was better and the system felt like less of a chore, maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more.

Mebae

Company: たぬきそふと (Tanuki Soft)
Game site: めばえ
Release date: December 16, 2011
Comments:
Tanuki Soft’s fourth loli nukige title, depicting the beginning of sexual desire. Yuzuki enjoys his school life, even though he is constantly teased by his older sister Anna. Among his latest pleasures is his new-found love of masturbation. He finds out that it doesn’t just make him feel good, but is supposed to imitate sex. He collects porn on the internet and masturbates every day while imagining having sex with girls at the school. One day, he found himself alone with a girl from his class Riko and his desire to have sex grows stronger.

Nonohara Miki’s erokawaii designs make Tanuki Soft’s games popular, even though Mebae is slightly less loli than their previous works. An interesting note is that Riko isn’t a virgin and considers sex as her hobby. I believe this is the first time they’ve had a character like that. Maybe she’s interested in 3P too?

So to sum this up, we have a nukige based around the sexual exploits of a horny teen and the obviously less than legal “Heroines” he uses to satiate his overflowing hormones with. A game like this is so far from anything I consider worth consideration as there is no effort put in anything aside from the H content for other horny teens and lonely men to get off to. With no true plot to speak of what point is there for even bothering to take the time to create something like this in a visual novel format will forever elude me.

Sex sells. Loli sells.

So if I am reading that right, you buy lolis?

No, you should get your eyes checked.

Oh, I suppose it was my mistake then….

Kikouyoku Senki Gin no Toki no Corona

Company: ETERNAL
Game site: 輝光翼戦記 銀の刻のコロナ
Release date: December 16, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from November. The fantasy SRPG Gin no Toki no Corona follows ETERNAL’s previous title, Tenkuu no Yumina. Touka isn’t a normal student: he has the ability to sense and interfere in the purple-lit space known as ‘shinya’ (true night). One time in shinya, he met a strange girl named Tokino who also had the same ability as him. Then a woman named Murial descended from the skies and entrusted a small girl Corona to them. Even though she is an innocent girl right now, she is a dragon girl who possesses enough power to destroy the world. Murial tells them if they raise Corona right then they will be able to save the world from ending.

Corona uses a 3D map simulation and of course a vast array of skills during battle. Like in past games, the protagonist Touka is voiced. The scenario writers stay the same as Yumina, but the illustrators are new. Touka’s pretty chuunibyou. Pretty sure some people can’t wait for this to come out (and then spend many weeks or months playing it). Even if you didn’t play Yumina, you should be able to enjoy this if you like SRPGs.

I must say I preferred Eternal’s work when they were still Xuse, the eternity sword series in particular. Everything since going their separate ways has felt as though the concepts are lacking the depth to the concept and setting that made their previous games so good. This time we have an RPG version of 11eyes, which was certainly not the best game to mimic in my opinion. When the concept, story, and characters feel lacking something to stand out beyond the norm, I find it difficult to deal with the repetitive and time consuming gameplay required to complete their games. What I wouldn’t give for a “Skip all battles you have already won” button in these games so I only had to trudge through mediocre and outdated gameplay once yet still be able to read the variations in the individual routes.

OP2

Battle PV

HOTEL.

Company: 暁WORKS-黒- (Akatsuki Works Black)
Game site: HOTEL.
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
Keisuke is the vice manager of the Hotel Primeiro, a warm respite for the hearts of weary travellers. He is an overly serious individual who strictly enforces the hotel’s rules. In the comforts of his room, he listens to a melody over and over again. After he heard a similar music coming from the lobby, he headed there to find a girl playing the guitar. When he asked her for the name of the song she was playing, she rushed at him with a knife. Fortunately, he was able to stop her by grabbing the blade. She collapsed to the ground, not knowing why she just did that.

She later apologized for the incident, introducing herself as Sarah and requested to listen to his tape after he mentioned it. The soothing melody made her cry and she explained that it was composed by her precious friend Lucille who had been murdered. It was Lucille’s wish to let everyone her hear music and become happy, so she was travelling around and playing her songs to people in order to fulfill this wish. However, she decides to stay in the hotel for now.

I just can’t seem to get “Hotel California” out of my head. The tone of HOTEL. is serious but yet relaxing at the same time, with Keisuke, Sarah and possibly other residents harbouring their own dark pasts since, ya know… we’re all prisoners here, of our own device. The game is fully voiced and the relaxing classical and blues inspired BGMs are a nice compliment. Probably worth checking out to see how new writer Kanazuki Shizuku fares with the story.

Akatsuki doing a slice of life styled drama is about as backwards is if Nitro+ were to do an idol game or if Key made an action game, of course we know these things are impossible so why, just why Akatsuki? In all seriousness what is up with companies trying to make games that are the polar opposite of what their brand is known for?

My own questioning of business decisions aside, this game itself lacks direction, the vaguely nebulous impression it leaves upon closer inspection gives the game an air of pointlessness. There is little real direction to the story to bind the characters events and settings together in a coherent and recognizable form. Yes, there are plenty of themes in use, most of which are capable of supporting a good story of their own right, from the music theme, isolation, overcoming past traumas, all of which set in a backdrop of hotel management seems like a potential winner. However for all the elements in use we have no real central pillar that drives the story while acting as the foundation for the other themes. Without some main focus along which the characters can develop themselves and their stories the story feels a little too aimless to warrant much attention. All of that said, this is definitely the month for a game such as this to be released, during such a drought of decent games the ugly duckling suddenly looks so much prettier when surrounded by even uglier ducks. Provided the drama is not too overwhelming and force fed down our throats in the most unappealing ways as most dramas do, I have some hope for this game, not much though.

Princess-Style

Company: メテオ (Meteor)
Game site: Princess-Style
Release date: December 22, 2011 Delayed to February 24, 2012
Comments:
Madoka’s family were descendents from the nobles, but they have fallen on hard times. However, due to his father’s financial successes, they’ve regained some of their wealth. His old-fashioned father was strict about speech and appearances and arranged his transfer to the prestigious Ookusu Gakuin to help him become a proper man. On his way to the dorms on the first day, he came upon a beautiful girl in the school’s courtyard, who looked like a princess straight out from a children’s book. While he was entranced by her beauty, she suddenly opened her eyes, looked at him and let out a scream, causing him to run away startled.

When he reached the boys’ dormitory, he found the same girl from before, Orfina, in his room. She is the princess from a small Northern European country who came to study at the school. However, she refused to live at the embassy and snuck into an empty room (which is now his) with her servant Kanon. Even though it was against the rules, she was determined to stay there and ends up taking over most of his room. Thus began his strange co-living with a proud princess. Over time, he became closer to her. Madoka had a difficult time adjusting to the high culture at the school. There is a group known as the Reijinkai where those in the nobility gather. They invited Orfina to join them, but were turned down. After some commotion, he ended up creating the Shakoubu with Orfina to oppose the Reijinkai. Which group would be able to gather more members?

I’d gladly have a cute princess living with me; it would’ve made school a lot more fun. However, I don’t really understand why they had to introduce the ‘club vs club’ aspect when there’s already so many plot devices at their disposal. Meteor’s games are more about character than story (see: Yaya) and this seems to be the same as usual for them. Ayame is really cute (and a double A!).

This game feels like a twisted combination of Duelist x Engage and Princess Lover with some KoiChoco thrown in for good measure. Not the best combination by any stretch and I can only question why they bothered to include so many plot devices in a story that is devoid of well.. story. The entire club battle theme would have been best used on the route of a specific heroine or heroines rather than as a general story device while the whole princess in his room thing is just plain boring with how the writers force that situation to bring the characters together. Perhaps had the creators been bothered to take the time to develop the setting and story better they could have given the characters in this character based game a background that brings out their charms. Instead we get a trite and cliche charage that has no value in terms of originality or artwork, sure if you enjoy reading the same stories about the same characters in the same situations this may not be so bad. I for one feel that this is yet another game to add to the pile of forgotten games that could have been had the creators bothered to take five extra minutes to brainstorm and flesh out the design and story of their game.

Meteor seems to like blonde main heroines, although this one isn’t a Yaya clone like Matsuri was.

In Japan foreigner = blonde, so as a foreign princess she needs to be blonde or else she would be Japanese.

Why didn’t I see pink and orange haired girls in Japan…

Colorblind?

WHITE ALBUM 2 ~closing chapter~

Company: Leaf
Game site: WHITE ALBUM 2 ~closing chapter~
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
This is the second part of the White Album 2 game, taking place three years after the end of the introductory chapter and adding new heroines Koharu, Chiaki and Mari. This is one of the most anticipated games of the month, if not the year, after a well-received prologue that featured beautiful visuals and an engaging story. If you haven’t played the first part, it might not be a bad idea to pick up the set of two games together. I feel the drama is a little over the top, but at least it has a decent story.

Did not play the first game, will not play the second. This series is about as interesting as it would be were it a game about the life of britney spears.

That game would be full of plot twists and appeal to those who like watching trainwrecks.

And end with a bunch of random kids from different fathers. Although at least unlike other southerners they wouldn’t be from her brothers, so that is a plus is suppose.

‘Oops, I did it again’ indeed.

*Cough*…. convincing you are not.

Appare! Tenka Gomen

Company: BaseSon
Game site: あっぱれ！天下御免
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
The famous Ooedo Gakuen is the home of students who will become the future leaders of Nihon. It is a mix of traditional setting and modern technology where students walk around with swords. Yakumo recently transferred to the school and he is very satisfied with the school life. There is a school rule that students must earn money to support their own expenses, in order to learn how to be independent. He helps out at a nearby tea shop, but soon after he starts some delinquents pick on him. A girl on a white horse, Yoshine, appears and dispatches them after a lively swordfight. Touched by her pure sense of justice, he ends up helping her in her quest to change the world.

BaseSon’s 10th anniversary work follows the same format as Koihime and turn historical characters from the Edo era into girls. However, only one of the 11 writers (Kamishiro Izumi) worked on the Koihime project, while the rest mostly worked on nukige, underperforming titles or Zettai★Maou. As much as I liked Koihime, I’m quite hesitant about playing this one.

The original Koihime was a decent game despite the lack of character development, stories, and routes despite the overabundance of H content. Every sequel since the original only made things worse by embracing what was bad about the original to exclude everything that made the game worth playing. Now we fast forward to Appare and we see BaseSon going the Moeshouden route right from the start, too many characters, too much H content, too little story, setting, and character development. A shame really as the type of gender swap stories that BaseSon seems to love making can be rather interesting, especially when combined with their better than average character designs. However their choice of quantity over quality certainly hinders their own games as even if you like a character from one of their games there is so little development it feels so lacking as though it were a trial route instead of a full route of character development. Without a feeling of satisfaction at the end of a route I can only conclude that the route was a failure in its very purpose. If you happen to like 3+ player games with lots of wanton and poorly developed H scenes with a wide variety of character types then give it a shot, if like me you prefer quality over quantity then steer well clear of what is likely to be a harem charage with little story to drive it.

As much as I’d like to disagree with you, the issue of quantity vs quality is an important one. With such a huge cast, it’s natural to play the charas that you’re interested in, and the routes would be too short to satisfy the player. What I like about these games though is that they do try to fit in the historical references from a different perspective. Maybe that’s why they needed so many chars since there’s just too many feudal lords and what not in the past.

I agree about the historical references being interesting and a good point for those games, but with all the multiple partners and lack of real character development and routes the whole thing is so unsatisfying. Maybe instead of the giant games they could have released smaller individual games changing perspectives and situations for the protagonist or something. Would allow for better story and character development and still let them cover all those characters.

PV

Amakan Ecchi na “Love Icha” Tsumechaimashita

Company: PeasSoft
Game site: あまかん えっちな“ラブいちゃ”詰めちゃいました
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from November. Amakan is the fandisk for Ama Ane (Otome and Natsumi) and Kimi o Aogi Otome wa Hime ni (Hitomi and Rin). It also includes the standard version of Tsun na Kanojo Dere na Kanojo and an original story titled ‘Iinazuke wa Imouto-sama!’. Hayao lives with his true imouto Yuuna, but they don’t really get along. A beautiful girl who he had never seen before, Haruka, suddenly showed up and announced that she was Hayao’s imouto and also his fiancée. Yuuna opposed Haruka’s declaration since she had secret feelings for him. Neither would back down and it ended with Yuuna proclaiming that she was going to marry him as well.

Yeah, this is pretty much a nukige fandisk if you hadn’t noticed from the cover. I’m fine with imoutos and all, but there’s no plot here. Pass.

Never was able to get very far into Ama Ane, despite repeated urgings to the contrary, and seeing as how nukige are not for me in the first place, I shall pass as well.

Iinazuke wa Imouto-sama! PV

Omae no Pantsu wa Nani-iro da!?

Company: Molamola.software
Game site: お前のパンツは何色だ!?
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
On Takato’s first day at Kojou Gakuen, an energetic girl Mitsuna ordered him to use his genius brain only for her sake for the next three years (and all this while he could see her panties clearly). For Takato who failed to make it into an overseas school of his choice and ending up transferring to Kojou Gakuen instead, of course he bluntly said no. However, she manages to convince him to join her unofficial club Tateyoko-kai that she is the leader of. The only thing that the Tateyoko-kai does is to ‘help others using words’. The other club members are just as weird as Mitsuna: do-M ojousama Yomi, poor girl Shizuku who masturbates everywhere, his osananajimi Sae who’s a stalker no matter how you look at it, and delusional denpa girl Sako.

And just like Amakan above, this one is pretty much a nukige too… or rather, a pantsu-ge. The game uses a ‘talk battle’ system where you have to choose a series of correct dialogue to persuade heroines or help solve their worries. It comes in various forms, such as a ‘Prevail mode’ and a ‘Detective mode’. There’s a sample of how it works on the game site. It’s an interesting idea, but I think it’ll be better with a timer and maybe some random effect so you can’t just memorize the right choices. But that still won’t get me to play this. Pass. And what’s with the rap in the BGM?

While the choice system is somewhat unique and an interesting idea I agree with Micchi that without a timer and randomized “correct” choice that changes based on a number of different potential interaction sequences it falls far short of its potential and is little more than a gimmick. As much as I like stalker characters and comedy games, the rap BGM, choices that are essentially no different than normal, interesting characters, yet a boring plotline I can’t see this game as worth much. Maybe if you took the characters out of the rest of this game and put them somewhere else I would want to play it.

System

Hiyoko Strike!

Company: イグジット (Ex-iT)
Game site: ひよこストライク！
Release date: December 22, 2011 Delayed to January 27, 2012
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from November. The usual classroom. The usual boring lesson. Shin stared outside blankly and then suddenly a girl appeared… outside the 2nd floor window! She jumped in from the window and introduced herself as Utakata. Everything else was just as illogical: taking her clothes off while standing on the desk, sticking her finger up his nose, and having things that look like animal ears and tail. His head hurt from all this, but at the same time he was also a bit excited since the world that he knew became more vivid.

A random but cute game. I don’t think it intends to take itself seriously since one of the heroines is called ‘Classmate A’ since Shin never remembers her name. Shin’s blood-related imouto Hina looks like she could be a good amaenbou type. One thing I noticed is that the illustrator sure loves using glow effects. I don’t think it’s natural for a girl to be glowing like a firefly at night.

The main problem with this game is there is not enough direction to the story. So a strange girl comes along and brightens up his otherwise dull life is fairly standard, however where do we go from there? Sure I can think of plenty of outcomes, but it is sorely lacking a driving force behind the story and characters to make things interesting enough for people to want to buy this game. Still there is a lingering desire to fill in that huge blank, so given how boring this month is I may see what it has to offer, can’t be any worse than the rest of the monotonous high school based eroge.

I disagree with Micchi on the glow effects, i didn’t see any abusive use of glow effects beyond the illustrator paying attention to light sources and shades far more than the usual lazy or inept artists. Well that said I can’t say I agree with the style itself, as it does not suit my taste and I feel that the inking, lineart, and shading all seem to contradict and contrast each other.

Furifure 2

Company: Noesis
Game site: フリフレ2
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
The sequel to Noesis’ Furifure, although the characters are different. Kaito has been visiting the find-a-partner BBS “FreeFriends” to buy sex since he finds it difficult to have close relationships. It is through this site that he hooks up with his long-separated blood-related imouto Sumire, who doesn’t know that he is her older brother. Just like in the previous title, you can choose between pure or dark love.

A high immorality rating on this one. He should just tell her that he’s her older brother, that he loves her and she should call him onii-chan or nii-san. I’m sure she’ll happily oblige.

Without the whole random partner crap on a sex friend site the method of bringing previously aquainted characters together is an interesting device with a lot of untapped potential as most of the games that have made use of it were failures. Obviously the only reason this is here is because it features an imouto, and Micchi can never resist that. Although the potential of the dark side makes me almost want to play just to spite Micchi and friends by abusing an imouto.

Zen, you’re not playing this game.

But think of the wonderful little sister screen shots i could share with you!

Hanasaku Otome to Koi no Grimoire

Company: でぼの巣製作所 (Debonosu)
Game site: 花咲く乙女と恋の魔導書（グリモア）～ギルドのない村にギルドを作ろう！～
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
Lime and Sheena are dragon girls who wanted to be of help to the world and joined an adventurer’s guild to undertake quests. One day, the guildmaster asked them if they wanted to start a guild in a town that doesn’t have one. They happily accept the challenge and head off to the remote village of Erile. Along the way, they saved a young boy Ein from monsters. He tells them that he used to be bigger, but was turned into a small boy by the monsters’ magic and asks for their help in returning him to his normal form.

This time the RPG system is in 3D, similar to those regularly found in MMOs. They’ve also added a magic synthesis system, as well as the ability to build a guild that you can customize. There’s a variety of quests to do and items to gather, with which you can customize your guild house. The game is fully voiced, including Ein. Not only are Lime and Sheena quite loli in looks, but they’re voiced by the lethal combo of Sakakibara Yui and Hokuto Minami. If you can’t stand high-pitched voices, better stay far far away. I’m quite interested in the system, so I’ll be checking this out even though the controls in the trial weren’t the best. Also, taking Lime home with me. Hau~ omochikaeri~!

I think they failed to realize MMOs are extremely boring to play by yourself, all those added features are nice and all but without people to play with kinda has little purpose. I mean yay you can design a guild hall that you can’t even show off or compare to others, not to mention a battle system most of us are probably bored to tears of by now. Would be nice if the characters were not so loli, there were a few more options, and they developed the story better but hey no one ever bothers with those things in gameplay eroge.

My desire to grind is calling me. Gonna grind hard, baby.

Yes I am sure we all know your love of grinding on lolis by now.

PV

Nanatsu no Fushigi no Owaru Toki

Company: etude
Game site: 七つのふしぎの終わるとき
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from November. Tomo is a student at Tokinodai Gakuen, a small traditional liberal arts boarding school that was built in the Meiji era. However, he has a secret – he has a clock passed down from him by his grandmother which allows him to control time – and he uses this ability to make his school life enjoyable.

One time, Tomo found out that there is a link between the clock and the seven mysteries of the school. If one obtains any of the seven clocks linked to the seven mysteries, they will be able to use various time-manipulating powers. His interest perked, Tomo set out after school to the old school building to begin his search. During his search, he meets various girls and together they unlock one of the seven mysteries. They arrive at a space where time has stopped and find a girl in traditional dress sleeping there. She used to be able to manipulate time, but now she has lost those abilities. Will they be able to find all the clocks, awaken the sleeping girl and return her to her time?

Playing with time is a dangerous thing. Seeing the sleeping girl in limbo should be a fair warning to them. However, everything’s bound to end up well, probably with some drama when the girl Nanaho has to leave them. The scenario writers were both sub-writers in Sugar Coat Faeries and it’s hard to judge their writing, but I think the story has potential. The art isn’t my taste, but maybe some of you might like it. Elis is really cute though.

Another gimmick used to grant undue significance to stories of the mysteries in a school setting. Well I would let that slide were it not all so convenient for the plot, although even were I to put that aside there is the rest of this plot which screams predictable. With the goal being to awake a girl frozen in time, this almost becomes a club activity story with a premise leading to a type of “Fated meeting”. Given the mediocrity of the underlying story, aside from the time aspect which does not appear to develop the complexity one would expect of a time travel based storyline. Rather than someone interested in a unique or intriguing story, this game suits those who prefer cliches, club based activities, and exploration of various mysteries revolving around a school setting. In other words perhaps aside from the last part, a game for the Micchis out there.

Manatsu no Yoru no Yukimonogatari

Company: EX-ONE
Game site: 真夏の夜の雪物語 -MIDSUMMER SNOW NIGHT-
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
The debut title from EX-ONE, a pure love story illustrated by Mikeou and written by Saitou Kenji and Fuuyama Yuuki. It’s the height of summer, but snow blankets the mysterious town of Aome-machi where it snows year-round and the legend of the Yuki-onna has been passed down for generations. There are hot springs, beaches and ski results in this popular sightseeing town. Yuuya transfers into Aome Gakuen and stays at the Snowflake Lodge which his relatives run. He meets his cousins Mana and Koromo who have opposing personalities, the public morals committee leader Nozomi who doesn’t seem to like him, and the mysterious Yukina who calls him her husband. What secrets do they hold and how will he solve them? And so begins the winter fairy tale in the middle of summer.

The trial was extremely long, with the prologue alone being four chapters long.  The interesting part is the occasional visions that Yuuya has of the snowscape with a lone cedar and the girl who looks like Yukina. It seems like a flashback or a parallel universe. The scenario is also driven by the yukionna aspect and ice snowflakes in the girls’ hearts which only he can shatter. The animated OP is also quite impressive, but we all know how choosing games by the OP can result in disappointment, so I’d recommend playing with caution especially coming from a new company. Expect the game to be quite long and routes to be gradually opened as there were 11 separate routes (2-3 per heroine) after the prologue, each of which is 4-5 chapters long. Mikeou seems to like drawing large breasts. Sorry, that is not a 79, no matter how I look at it.

Why is it that games like this always seem to include some completely random and mostly arbitrary seasonal or magical distinction to the town, can’t they make a story just as good without their silly gimmicks to stand out? I suppose without the “Unique” setting what we really have here is a standard high school romance game with all the standard personality types who manage to show up in almost every game. Might have been a good idea to downplay the whole Yuki-onna thing to keep at least some mystery in the story. In a month so devoid of anything remotely worth playing however this game suddenly looks a lot better than it is, enough that I will probably end up giving it a chance without any hope for it turning out to be anything aside from a minefield of cheap moe.

About the OP, I would rather game companies put as much work into their games as they do some of their OPs, this one being no exception to that rule. I don’t see the point of making a poorly animated OP for a game when a standard slide show would often look far better.

Seifuku Tenshi

Company: シャーベットソフト (SherbetSoft)
Game site: 制服天使
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from November. This is the first professional release by former doujin circle SherbetSoft. Even though Kento was fed up with the monotony of every day, he doesn’t do anything to make it better. His only joy is sneaking glances at the angel-like girl Shion who sits next to him. One day at dusk, he saw her with wings on her back. As she tells him about her ‘angel sickness’, they are attacked by the ‘angel hunter’ Hiruta. He helps her escape and avoid the clutches of a man who harbours great hatred for angels.

A mysterious disease that grows wings. A group of people who hunt down these ‘angels’. Gee, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Well maybe the story deviates after this considering the setting is different from Eustia, but it’s probably better to be fully original for a first professional title. The art by Kisaragi Myuu isn’t bad. Note that this is a low-priced game and features only one heroine, Shion. If you choose wrong, she gets caught and there’s a dark end (complete with H scenes). The trial was pretty interesting, although I wish that the tsundere osananajimi Ayane also got a route. With the background story and their special place, it’s almost like she’s set up for one.

Just when I thought I had escaped from the tragic mockery of all that is holy, Eustia, along comes a game that feels as though they copied August’s homework, changing a few things so the teacher wouldn’t be able to claim they copied, obvious though it may be. While better grounded than Eustia was, the story also lacks the otherworldly feel by relying on the stereotypical high school setting, this likely means a distinctive lack of prostitutes and homicidal knife wielding characters. I doubt there will be many drug dealing crime bosses to influence the events throughout their pris… school either, a pity that. At least we still have people with nothing better to do than randomly hunting down those who happen to be two winged angels. Thanks to these hardworking souls efforts to exterminate and judging by images such as the one above, rape our tragic winged heroine Shion, our protagonist has something to do other than be bored every day.

Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo-

Company: ωstar
Game site: 美少女万華鏡 -呪われし伝説の少女-
Release date: December 22, 2011 Delayed to December 29, 2011
Comments:
This is an ongoing series by the newly-reopened ωstar, featuring a series of mini stories. Horror writer Natsuhiko visits a traditional hot springs inn in the mountains to see a room full of traditional Japanese dolls. There he meets a mysterious beautiful girl Renge. She offers him a kaleidoscope, asking him if he wants to take a glimpse into a world which he shouldn’t see. The first story is about the perverted girls’ school teacher Shigehiko who swore not to lay hands on any of his students in order to maintain his position. However, that all changed after he met a mysterious girl Kirie. He became entranced by her, even though she told him to stay away from her if he valued his life.

I know you’re getting this for Happou Bijin’s art. Yes, the story has an air of mystery around it, the BGM matches well and the OP is mysteriously captivating, but you’re getting this for Happou Bijin’s art. Most of which are animated HCGs. I assume that there’ll be more than the two mini stories which are listed on the site, but regardless it’s a bit disjointed if there’s no common theme that links them aside from showings of sexual desire and temptations from enchantresses. Maybe I’ll keep an eye on it for future developments.

Nearing the end of this months mercifully short parade of games I find myself feeling somewhat merciful after being force fed a long list of games that appear to have been carefully modeled after the last present their neighbors dog left on the creator’s sidewalk. And so I am looking forward to this game, yes as Micchi pointed out it is probably eighty, no make that ninety percent related to the artwork, but that doesn’t mean that the other ten percent isn’t lurking around. Just to escape from the rest of the games this month I will overcome my intense dislike of multiple and probably loosely connected stories in a most likely vain hope that I will not disappointed. Most of my interest beyond the art lies with the potential for connections between stories and how all the various elements are woven together, both inside their own little universes and as the outsider observing through the kaleidoscope. I cannot help but be curious how they will explain things, perhaps they are all the protagonist in parallel universes and he is simply viewing the plethora of potentialities available to him based on his choices in life, would make for an interesting connection that way.

PV

Imouto Senbatsu☆Sousenkyo ~365-nin no Imouto Icharabu Manifesto~

Company: Latte
Game site: 妹選抜☆総選挙 ～365人の妹いちゃラブマニフェスト～
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
April 1st is the day when the world is full of lies, however to Kouta, it is his precious imouto’s birthday. His father returned that day after a long time away and told him: “Actually Kouta… you have 364 other imoutos”. He was still confused when his father brought him to Tachibana Gakuen. He was the only guy at the school. The other 365 students were… all his imoutos.

The tachi-e are depicted using Live2D, resulting in more movement, however sometimes it looks a bit awkward with the way the hair and clothes flow. Ignoring the fact that it’s pretty much impossible to have 365 imoutos unless your father is a serious player, this means that there’s an imouto for every day of the year. However, only 3 of them have routes (Yotsuha, Matsuri, Hiiragi). The rest are just mob chars, which is a shame, even though they have 11 seiyuus voicing them. Because of this, I’d still prefer SisPri where each imouto has their own charm.

No matter how merciful I may feel this is still just plain terrible. It feels as though they took Sister Princess and decided to copy it but go even further by providing far more sisters, only to get lazy and cop out by only focusing on a few of the potential cast they created. Personally I think playing as the father when making all those sisters would have made a better game, turn it into an RPG where he has to travel around seducing women as fast as possible in order to provide enough little sisters to fill a school for his son. Then again the eroge industry hardly needs anymore bad ideas for their games. When even Micchi would prefer one of the worst imouto based series to a game you know it has to be pretty bad and I can’t imagine many other imouto fans will find this satisfies their little loli sister lust.

Hey, SisPri was decent and one of the first of the genre. It was just that the first anime season sucked.

So, the idea of being shipped to an island to live with uhh twelve was it? Little sisters who fawn over your every need as though you were some kind of king appeals to you? Surely I never would have guessed.

Yotsuha’s manifesto

Koisuru Koto to Mitsuketari!

Company: Fizz
Game site: 恋するコトと見つけたり！
Release date: December 22, 2011
Comments:
Kyou comes from the family of a former samurai, and is a pretty normal student aside from serving as the deputy student council leader. One day, two girls Yukina and Towa showed up at his side. They were the descendants of knights who served the Tsukushiro household and both of them were his fiancée. After they move in with him, other girls also take notice and make their feelings known to him, including his senpai and student council leader Mira, and kouhai and cousin Satsuki, who lives next door to him.

The main selling point of this game is ‘seifuku knee socks’. The limited version also has a patch that allows you to change them to black tights or keep the knee socks on for H scenes. Knee socks are wonderful! Long live zettai ryouiki! Satsuki in particular is so adorable! The seiyuu cast is definitely impressive with Sakakibara Yui, Ogura Yui, Oukawa Mio and Fujimori Yukina voicing the heroines. However, the long list of middlefare illustrators and scenario writers makes me worry that this is nothing more than your standard love comedy chara-ge. Well, nothing wrong with that so long as you enjoy it though…

Essentially a poor rendition of Gokudou no Hanayome with some extra gimmicks throw in for market appeal without having to do much work on story or character designs. Were this to be as comedy based as the early part of Gokudou this may have been worth overlooking the flaws for the sake of putting a smile on the readers face. The comedy feels somewhat bland however leading me to believe this will be yet another sub par game in a month devoted to worshiping sub par games.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Hanasaku Otome to Koi no Grimoire
2. Imouto Senbatsu☆Sousenkyo ~365-nin no Imouto Icharabu Manifesto~
3. Princess-Style

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. …
2. Uhh…
3. *Tumbleweed*  <- With tinsel!
   

The winter season is generally low on good titles, but damn this month was bad. I had a lot of problems just trying to pick 3 games I’d consider playing.

Apparently Santa decided on coal in everyone’s stocking this year, only in keeping with the times he upgraded to crappy eroge instead of a crappy rock.

Liar-soft has announced their next title: Okujou no Yurirei-san. Seems like a yuri title. Three new companies have revealed their debut titles: bolero with Love Lab, Foundation with Grand Libra Academy, and Garden with Love Replica.

A fandisk for Poison@Berry‘s Princess X will be out on February 24th.

Harupoco had only just come out and ALcot Honey Comb already has a teaser up for their next title. It’ll be illustrated by Sesenayau (Diamic Days, Prism Rhythm, Natsunagi, ComingxHumming). I spy with my little eye a twintailed loli.

Release dates have been set for the following titles:

Shiny Days – February 24th
Re:Loaded Carmine – March 23rd
Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas – March 23rd
Strawberry Feels – March 30th

fortissimo EXS//Akkord:nächsten Phase has been delayed to February 24th.

Doujin circle inspire’s C81 title will be Minarai Maid no Okurimono. Kenta is a temp worker who spends his time playing anime pachinko. After a long day, he comes home and finds a maid in his room.

The imouto charm won over voters as Yuu easily wins the Koikishi chara poll. Akari gets the short end of the stick and finishes last among the heroines and subheroines. Other characters that topped their game’s chara polls are: Chisa (Gift PS), Iori (Master×Re:master), Mira (Koisuru Koto to Mitsuketari!), Anna (SuGirly Wish) and Annemarie (Gaku☆Ou) who gets a wallpaper. Rance and Lisette were deemed the best pair in Rance Quest, while the favourite female monster is Battle Note, originally from Galzoo Island.

Chara polls have started up for Kanosora (until December 19th), Renai 0 km (until December 25th) and Riajuu Saimin (until January 4th).

Release dates have set for the following PSP titles: Bullet Butlers (January 26th), Photokano (February 2nd), Amatsu Misora ni! (February 16th) and Ore wa Shoujo Mangaka (February 23rd).

The Photokano “love and happy book” will be on shelves on January 19th,  two weeks prior to the game’s release. It’ll introduce the characters and game system, and includes 3 reversible posters and a DVD with the OP.

Two new figures are up for preorders: 1/6 scale mischievous slinking cat Xiaomei (Shining Hearts, April, ￥8610) from Kotobukiya, and 1/8 scale Flandre ~Ver.2~ (Touhou, February, ￥8190) from Griffon.

The Visual Arts★MottoSP Android app site has now opened. You can purchase key titles such as planetarian, AIR, Kanon and CLANNAD.

There’s now a social game out for Mobage called Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls where you train idols to become an idolmaster. There’s over 100 idols to choose from, including the im@s cast, and you can battle other players with the winner receiving the stage outfit of the loser.

2.5 Jigen will be making Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide‘s Sol-y-luna seifuku next after Sonicomi, Shuffle! and Steins;Gate.

The RO-KYU-BU! goods seem to target a certain group. How about a Hinata dakimakura? Yes, that’s Airi’s swimsuit she has on. It even spawned off parody LoliTubes. Mahochi actually looks pretty cute.

Dokusho Meter has released an iPhone app that can scan barcodes from books and bring you to the corresponding page on their site. This is really useful for me since it saves me the hassle of searching for titles when I’m updating my list.

The Onegai☆Twins LN surprisingly ended differently than the anime, so I guess it was worth the read even though there were series of 10+ pages with walls of text and no dialogue which almost made me fall asleep. Resuming Galge no Sekai yo, Youkoso! now with his cousin Mai questioning if harems really bring happiness to everyone involved. Hmm… sounds like Seizon.

Webclap responses:

Hi, sorry for the noob question, but do you folks know Japanese? I’d love to play a few eroges, but can’t read Japanese… by Playing eroges?
Hi there, yes I can read Japanese. Even if you do not understand the language, there are still many translated titles out there.