Game
Air
Clannad
Kanon
One (Tactics)
[Planetarian->]
Tomoyo After ~It’s a Wonderful Life~
Little Busters (upcoming)
Related
Airrade
Eternal Fighter Zero
Pocket Kanon & Air
Anime
[Air->air-tv]
[Air Movie->]
[Kanon->]
One (Tactics)
Generic Disclaimer: Of course I wouldn’t know how the bishoujo games industry truly works, so some info below may be wrong or misinterpreted. This feature is from an outsider’s point of view, namely, my point of view.
Game
Aruru to Asobo!!
Comic Party
DR^2 Night Janki
Filsnown
Kizuato
Magical Antique
Routes
Shizuku
Tasogare
Tears to Tiara
Tenerezza
Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu
To Heart
[To Heart 2->]
Utawarerumono
White Album
Kusari
To Heart 2: XRATED
To Heart 2 ~Another Days~
Related
Party’s Breaker
Queen of Heart
Anime
[Comic Party->]
[Comic Party Revolution->]
[To Heart->]
[To Heart ~Remember My Memories~->]
[To Heart 2->toheart2-review]
Utawarerumono
White Album
Tears to Tiara (upcoming)
Generic Disclaimer: Of course I wouldn’t know how the bishoujo games industry truly works, so some info below may be wrong or misinterpreted. This feature is from an outsider’s point of view, namely, my point of view.
.jpg "Nemu as usual")
.jpg "Nemu vs. Sakura as usual")
.jpg "janken strip!")
.jpg "Mako-chan!")
.jpg "Mako-chan rocks my world!")
.jpg "faint smile")
Do you miss Nemu and Sakura already?
D.C. Onsen is a separate fandisk bishoujo game, where the story seems to be about Suginami inviting Junichi and some girls for some onsen “fun”. This is really a rather short game, and no save/load are possible.
I think you could insert this sidestory around the early stages of the first season. In this game, Nemu doesn’t know about Moe yet. Moe is Mako’s elder sister. Also, the Nemu vs. Sakura fights are still comic and petty, unlike the dramatic stuff of the later episodes.
Well, what else can I say? All the stuff here are typical “onsen” stuff. You know, the baths, the eating, etc. Nemu and Sakura vying for Junichi’s attention especially at dinner time. Some rowdy stuff happen like the rock-paper-scissors strip game between Junichi and Nemu. Ooh…
What I like most (of course) is the Mako part. She gets surprised when she’s been seen window-shopping over those souvenirs. Junichi bought her one, which made her blush a bit. YAY!
This is a [Summer of Bishoujo->] feature
.jpg "Mizuki, the anti-otaku")
.jpg "Mizuki and Kazuki.")
.jpg "Yuu, fellow doujinshi author and idealist")
.jpg "Eimi, fellow doujinshi author and realist")
.jpg "Chisa, helps run her family's printing business")
.jpg "Aya, slow and shy doujinshi author")
.jpg "Reiko, the cosplay girl")
.jpg "Minami, Comic Party's organizer")
.jpg "Ikumi, Kazuki's biggest fan.")
.jpg "Taishi, the annoying friend.")
Welcome to the world of doujinshi.
Comic Party is yet another anime based on a bishoujo game. This anime centers on a guy named Kazuki and his quest to be a doujinshi artist. Doujinshi is basically fan comics, where you do your own comics, be it original or based on a popular manga or anime series. The anime presents a basic introduction of the subject matter in hand. Doujinshi authors draw their works, go to printing services to print multiple copies, and then sell them by going to various doujinshi or anime-related conventions and events. As expected from a bishoujo title, there are lots of girls with extremely varying attitudes, traits, and hair color. But unlike most bishoujo game to anime conversions, Comic Party doesn’t focus on the girls alone. There is actually a story about the male doujinshi artist and his exploits. And this is not harem either, so those looking for romantic comedies and stuff like that won’t find it here, although a love triangle (of sorts) is actually established near the end.
The anime sports decent art and animation. It also has a soundtrack just right enough for the scenes. Technically this is a fairly average anime, although I was quite disappointed considering the animation studio ([Aquaplus->leaf-aquaplus]) also did [To Heart->], which is more visually appealing in my opinion. But the story makes it appealing nonetheless. While To Heart presented the episodic approach, focusing on a girl per episode, Comic Party more or less did the same, but included a story continuity. The girls are quite interesting, even one of them doesn’t like doujinshi and otakudom the male lead has. This adds flavor to the story and makes it more dynamic and funny.
Because of my inherent love for spoofs and spinoffs, Comic Party appeals to me in a lot of ways. It references a lot of anime, manga, and game related stuff, some of which I wouldn’t understand because of my limited knowledge of this fandom. Mostly, the anime features To Heart spoofs, including cameos from the anime, and even doujinshi based on To Heart (talk about referencing a reference). You also see cosplay here, and so many references were based on that, including Steel Angel Kurumi and Wedding Peach cosplay. I even saw a Happy Lesson poster in one of the episodes. It took me second looks just to realize some of them though. For example, there were references from Shizuku and White Album, games which were also made by Leaf. Also, some of the dialogue of Taishi (Kazuki’s annoying male friend, a staple in many bishoujo games) includes references from Gundam, among others, which I don’t know too much. In any case, the little things really surprise me and give me a chuckle everytime.
Comic Party is perfect for a bit lighthearted take on otaku stuff like doujinshi and cosplay. It is much more recommended because it has a sequel named [Comic Party Revolution->], which improves on the original Comic Party anime in many ways. Watch this first though, so that the experience of the sequel makes the series very exciting to watch as a whole.
This is a [Summer of Bishoujo->] feature
No pics. It doesn’t deserve pics.
I don’t know what to think of this. Maybe someone hasn’t learned their lessons from ONE, that 4-episode OVA that inserted a clueless mystery story into a bishoujo game to anime conversion. Kakyuusei 2 is somewhat like ONE. It has so many mysteries that non-gamers wouldn’t understand. But unlike ONE, whose game would try to explain the events in the anime, Kakyuusei 2 is reportedly an entire original scenario that is different from the game! First off, this is not a sequel to, say, Kakyuusei 1. You don’t need to play the Kakyuusei 1 game, nor watch the Kakyuusei 1 animes (some are H). Furthermore, it doesn’t even follow the original game storyline. It just has the same characters, then adding new ones.
So, what makes this anime so controversial? As I said, this anime is confusing. One of the characters seems to be some sort of ‘mystery man’. He overlooks almost anything that happens with the girls. What’s weirder is that he can travel through time! And he has this glittering eye, that attracts ALL the girl characters in Kakyuusei 2! Who the heck is he? He’s not even the main male character, but he seems to be. The actual main character is a typical boring male lead in bishoujo animes. But enough about him. The mystery man drives all my confusion in the entire series. I’ve looked through anime forums and I see many people are confused as well. They try to deduce and make sense of everything but to no avail, they have already moved on to other anime.
I watched episode 1-4… and then stopped watching. That’s how bad it is, considering I rarely drop anime series. Even without the mystery, the bishoujo anime stuff isn’t even interesting. While the girls are cute, there’s too many of them (11) to make me even care about one. It doesn’t entertain, it isn’t interesting, and it’s very confusing. What a shame, really. I bet there were a LOT of Kakyuusei fans all over the world, this being part of the most important games of the bishoujo industry. Elf, before making the hugely popular Kakyuusei game series, did Dokyusei. It was not only huge, Dokyusei was the pioneer of the ren’ai game genre. That’s how big it is (positively)… as big (negatively) as my disappointment over Kakyuusei 2.
This is history in the making. Possibly the worst bishoujo game to anime conversion I have ever seen. Sorry to say.
This is a [Summer of Bishoujo->] feature
Slowly but surely, this company is getting my attention.
Last year, it caught my attention by releasing an English game called Hourglass of Summer, which we would know to be [Natsuiro no Sunadokei->]. While not as big-name as other visual novels of its kind, it had its share of popularity as a game and anime OVA. But more importantly, releasing this game (which is actually an interactive DVD played on DVD players) is a rather unprecedented move. Why? Almost ALL of the bishoujo games released in English are of the hentai/ero variety. This is probably one of the rare few non-hentai bishoujo game being released in English. And a moderately popular one at that. It was amazing, although I didn’t know of the company’s fate after that. Did they sell well with Hourglass, among with their other Anime Play DVD games? Seeing their lineup, it’s actually rather stellar.
Now, the company is back with a vengeance, and is seemingly doing rather good but risky business again. They are now launching big-name titles in their Anime Play PC division (this time games that can be played on computers). The highlight is Ai Yori Aoshi. The anime community definitely knows of the anime series, and so they would probably take notice of this. But the game that has caught me stunned was their upcoming release of Ever17! As they described, yes, Ever17 could be seen as on-par with the big ones. Demo downloads of both of these games are already available, by the way.
More importantly though is that this company is initiating the new wave of visual novels. Their big point is the non-hentai part. They seem to be on a mission to prove that visual novels are not just about the H, and that it can be seen as a viable form of mainstream entertainment, in the same way that anime is emerging right now on the western world.
Another big scoop here: (quoted from their site)
From July to September, HIRAMEKI International will be setting up a booth at conventions primarily along the west coast to demonstrate English versions of Japanese Visual Novel Games. We will be showing to the public for the first time, of course DVD format games, but expanding our line of products with games that operate on a Windows PC platform. Currently in Japan, “Kimi ga nozomu eien” and “Tukihime” have been made into many anime episodes and we’re sure that anime fans attuned to what is happening are dying to play the game that kicked off the craze these anime have created. Please be on the look out for news from HIRAMEKI, which was created with the objective of meeting the needs of these fans. We are working hard to see that we have some big titles on the horizon for you. If you would like to test a game, drag yourself out to one of the venues listed below and tell the HIRAMEKI staff exactly what is on your mind.
While I won’t believe that they could be licensing [Kiminozo->kimi-ga-nozomu-eien] and [Tsukihime->shingetsutan-tsukihime] anytime soon, this proves that they seem to have an eye out on anime fans, specifically, those who download fansubs. I think this can be a double-edged sword on them, mainly because it is both a risk and opportunity. Will international anime fans bite, and finally play the kind of popular visual novels the Japanese fans play? Are they heading for success, or failure? Time will tell. In any case, Hirameki International definitely has something good up their sleeve. I dig it.
This is a [Summer of Bishoujo->] feature
After the layout change, I upgraded so many stuff into my blog to make it more “future proof”, but this move will require me to have a blog cleanup! Because of this, you may see the Recent Updated Posts section to be a bit volatile. Why?
I will edit almost ALL of my posts!
My goodness, am I crazy enough to do this? In any case, I really hope I won’t do this again. This won’t affect you guys too much, but if you’re keen enough, you will find little bits of changes happening to the site. I blame my [summer of bishoujo->] project for this, because it required me to install more and more WordPress plugins.
Current Issues:
Annoying Quotes
I am very annoyed about how WP changes my quotes and triple dots, but I found a way to change them, thanks to Momotato.
before: “Hello†World
after: “Hello” World
before: I’m here
after: I’m here
before: dots…
after: dots…
Isn’t it more natural looking this time? Thank goodness I did.
Cross-linking
I’m using a different plugin this time for making cross-links to posts within my blog. Using the new one will make it link directly to the permalink instead of having an ugly *index.php?name=postname* url. This also avoids my problem of self-trackbacks when linking to my own post.
before: http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/index.php?name=gothloli
after: http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/archives/gothloli/
This is the main culprit as to why I’m gonna edit a LOT of posts, but I think this will be a permanent matter this time, so no more cleanups next time (I’m crossing my fingers).
Stupid Layout
I’ll never ever learn. See how weird the spacings are in the Categories section of the sidebar? And look how Blogroll and Hosted by sections have a dot on the title while others don’t. I SUCK at every kind of web programming. Look at the Meta section… it tells you that this blog is INVALID XHTML! MWAHAHAHA!
I also wanted to stretch this blog sideways because that gray area seems virtually unused, but heck I don’t know about HTML and CSS.
Anyway, those were just some of the stuff that concerns me today. While some are simply annoying, hey, I’m somehow getting to like this web stuff. Ultimate Blog Cleanup starts today, and I hope I can finish in a week’s time. Adios for now.
UPDATE: Thanks to Kabitzin, I learned a bit more about how CSS works! Thanks! The Blogroll and Hosted By sections do not have the annoying dot anymore… YAY! One more problem… the weird category spacings. Go me!
UPDATE 2: Never would have thought that making the blog wider would solve my category spacings too. This is nice enough, I’ll stick to this layout for a while.
[Season of Smiles: Summer of Bishoujo Project->summer-of-bishoujo]
Not again, what are you trying to do here?
Well, I’m gonna feature bishoujo! The animes, the games, and more importantly, the girls! Since it’s the season of D.C.S.S. and Shuffle, might as well make it the season of bishoujo!
Are you suicidal?
I’m quite regretful that I can’t present enough shoujo material in this blog (due to its under-representation in the fansub community as of late), so I’m gonna switch to the bishoujo game genre full-force for now.
Any details?
Well, the project is mostly for those animes that come from bishoujo games. For now I’m gonna compile the list of all the reviews that I have done so far. For the next few weeks I’m gonna look back to other animes of this genre and review them as well. Maybe I’ll feature some popular bishoujo games too, in one way or another. More details are already in the project page.
You can reach the project through this link:
[Summer of Bishoujo->]
Well that’s it. Expect content in the coming weeks… enjoy!
.jpg "Souju and Sara Alternative")
.jpg "Lulu and Lala Alternative")
.jpg "Yura and Kira Alternative")
.jpg "Ai and Mai Alternative")
.jpg "Koi and Ui Alternative")
.jpg "Kaoruko and Sumireko Alternative")
.jpg "ooh action")
.jpg "the three of us")
.jpg "ooh drama")
.jpg "supporting cast")
[Futakoi->] was ok, but it seemed that the fans were not quite impressed with the first series. After all, Futakoi is a huge franchise of Dengeki G’s, composed of magazine features, albums, merchandise, and games. Having loved the CG illustrations of Futakoi, they seem to be disappointed with the bland look of the first series. Now, Futakoi Alternative, the second anime series based on the franchise, aims to make disappointed fans believe in the power of the anime medium again. Are they successful?
Futakoi Alternative started off EXPLOSIVE! True to the concept of Alternative, the 6 twins of Futakoi now hold a powerful arsenal of military apparel in the opening sequence. How about that? These are moe~ girls with guns and firepower! Episode 1 was equally powerful, as it pits now featured twins Souju and Sara with this guy named Rentarou in a whole lot of action-packed mess. Really, it was a fast-paced, kick-aaa episode, with high-class animation quality no less. For fans, it is a dream come true already. But the greatness never stops there. While not as action-packed as the first and last few episodes, the middle episodes feature yet another Alternative, dramedy.
The episodes fully describe these three characters, from the main viewpoint of Rentarou. The main theme of this series is “the three of us”, in which Rentarou, Sara and Souju face trials of everyday life as being the three of them, together. Sometimes funny, sometimes filled with sadness, they continually try to survive their everydays. The character development of these three are SO detailed, you might think Gainax helped ufotable in making this anime. Also, Futakoi Alternative seems to hit on anything anime culture had in store, including its [own->futagozuka] and some popular [anime->squid-no-jutsu]. Even Onsokumaru (some yellow ball character in ufotable’s 2×2 Shinobuden) is there in cameos. And as I mentioned, the numerous [Gainax->ufotable-and-gainax] references that seem too good to be true (even a Human Instrumentality Project parody was part of the plot).
This anime also has an incredibly interesting slew of new characters aside from our Futakoi girls. The whole town is filled with interesting people. The craziest policeman in an anime, as well as a generic fat sidekick, then a baker girl, a biker sidekick of Rentarou, a seemingly yakuza leader with a metal arm, and his gang of thugs really colorize this weird but peaceful town of Nikotama. Even a polar bear appears sometimes, and of course the main enemy which is the squid. Wait, are we missing the twins yet? [Kira/Yura->gothloli] and [Lulu/Lala->futagozuka] are the twins with secondary focus in this anime, while Kaoruko/Sumireko, Ai/Mai, and Ui/Koi were seen only in a few. While they have short appearances, theirs are quite meaningful in a variety of levels.
As episodes unfold, “the three of them” are starting to break up because something big is going to happen after Sara and Souju’s 16th birthday. This results in high levels of drama, where the three try to define what really is their relationship to each other. Rentarou, being the immature poor guy who only lived in the shadows of his legendary father, struggling through the everydays with the twins, is often in this monologue. This in effect develops him greatly as a character. This kind of character development is so detailed it’s rare, more so considering he is a male character. Normally we loathe all those dorky male leads in bishoujo animes right? Well well well, this time there’s something to like in this particular one at least.
Having action, comedy and drama in one package requires lots of creative styles, and Futakoi Alternative did not disappoint. From the consistent animation, each variety of [music->musical-surprise], and creative direction. Futakoi Alternative reeks of quality. Never thought something so “alternative” could be so good, and considering the cross-genre boundaries broken by this anime, I’ll be excited to think that anime shows may be getting more innovative these days. We need more anime like this.
This is a [Summer of Bishoujo->] feature
.jpg "Negi, and his staff.")
.jpg "it's")
.jpg "bishoujo")
.jpg "heaven")
.jpg "Kamo the ermine gathers his harem")
.jpg "Robot Chachamaru and Evangeline the powerful (evil-cute) magician")
.jpg "Almost yuri pair Konoka and Setsuna")
.jpg "Love love rivals Nodoka and Yue")
.jpg "Main pair Negi and Asuna of course.")
I first heard about Mahou Sensei Negima because of my Love Hina hype back in my early anime days. Back then, Love Hina was one of my favorites, and so having this Ken Akamatsu guy doing another new manga serialization is quite a treat.
31 girls? Whoa! 31 girls! When I heard about Negima having 31 girls, I was thinking the guy is really crazy. I mean, are 7+ girls, Love Hina-style not enough? Furthermore, in the midst of the Harry Potter movie craze, main character Negi is being hyped as a HP-ish magician, hmm… a shounen series eh? And so, put extreme harem and shounen together, I didn’t think it was going to be good at all. I forcefully read the first chapter, and I was not impressed at first. Anyway since it was a new serialization at that time, I figure I skip this first, and get back to it when more volumes or chapters are available.
I ate my words that time. Upon announcement of the anime, I went back to reading the manga… and I was so hooked! I went totally ballistic, it is a great manga series! Words can’t express the happiness I had at that time, eating 50+ chapters (up to the Kyoto arc) all in one go, collecting wallpapers, music, etc. I expected the anime to be the main dish. Watching the two initial introduction videos, I was literally stunned! Familiar seiyuu, masterful animation, and staying true to its manga roots, I was thinking Negima anime is bound to be a success, maybe more so than the huge (but in the end crappy) anime that was Love Hina.
Alas, a disappointment.
The TV series was shrouded in horrible stock market animation levels. One episode may not look like another, and inconsistent [character->negima-sakuga-tracker-asuna-version] [art->negima-sakuga-tracker-yue-version] annoyed me to the core. Moreover, the colors of their hair, it’s like basic and neon. I was asking “WHY” all over the internet. Why did XEBEC, the same company who did the excellent introduction videos, change the look of the TV anime? Why is each episode radically different from others? Why did they arrange and mix up events from the manga?
On the flip side however, the strength of the manga content still shines through. I anticipate watching the latest Negima episode every week, more so than similar current anime series. As I said, the Negima manga RULES, and even though the fanservice is toned to nothingness, the rest of the story and events stayed true. My hopes of having better animation came to fruition little by little, as the latter half of the series had some great animation moments, and the upcoming DVD releases will feature remastered versions of the horrible episodes.
The latter half, however (again), became ridiculed with speculation. Fillers, and extreme story rearrangements are abound, but nevertheless it is still as good as it gets. One highlight is the ghost girl Sayo episode, one of the best episodes in the anime. But, here we go to the Kyoto arc, a massive 20+ chapter spectacle in the manga, now reduced to 2 episodes. How about that? From an outsider viewpoint (someone who hasn’t read the Kyoto arc), it was an excellent, action-packed 2 episodes. For fans, it is a disservice.
The alternative story leading to the anime’s ending is a given, knowing that the manga still isn’t finished. While it is quite a SHOCKER, it isn’t too strong to make a good conclusion. Seeing that, I guess the varying animation quality levels, coupled with multiple staff changes including staff and directors really hurt the entire series’ coherence. It’s a shame really, considering that the rest of the Negima franchise is doing so well. I was astounded at the huge number of singles and drama cds related to Negima, and even some of them sell well enough to rank in the Oricon music sales charts. I guess the PS2 and GBA games are doing well too, but I haven’t played them too much because I can’t understand the gameplay. The PS2 game was quite nice though. I should mention all the great seiyuu devoting time and effort for all their voice work in those multiple mediums. And of course, the manga has a huge following because of its awesome quality, both in drawing and story. Ken Akamatsu is quite smart.
Anyway, I can talk legions more text specifying all the different emotions that this series (manga, anime, music, games) had brought to me, but I have to stop at some point. (I thank myself by the way for not reacting on EACH of the 31 girls) In any case, Mahou Sensei Negima the anime is still a worthy watch, despite the flaws. But be sure to check out the manga too. Besides, where else can you get more than 31 beautiful girls, and a great shounen-style story progression, all in one package? Look no further.