You may have noticed, among other things, that there have been no merchandise posts recently. Lest you believe that means that I’ve cut back on purchases (as I my balance sheet wisely suggests I should), there is actually a giant pile of stuff that I could loosely call my “Stuff to Photograph & Scan for the Blog” pile. I’m not sure about you, but that sort of thing happening is a pretty good indicator of just how much “stuff” is going on my life. As things get more stressful, I find myself gravitating to only two real “modes” of operation: either work, or rest. And, unfortunately, the further behind I get on taking pictures, the more it seems like “work” to catch up. But you know… someday, hopefully… ^^;
That being said, I have still had the time for some games and anime. Well, more like, those are some of the few things I’ve actually felt like doing beyond sleeping, to be honest. ^^; So I figured that the least I could do is give some quick impressions of some of the things I’ve watched and played over the last few months. (Yes, I know that a lot of these will be old shows or games that people have long since moved past, but oh well…)
In this post…
Anime:
- Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
- B-gata H-kei
- Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
Eroge:
- Sakura Sakura
- PrismRhythm
- AngelRing
- Hoshiuta
Anime
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun:
The thing I really loved about this show is that by the time you got to the 24th episode, I felt like I had really gotten to know the characters. I could really understand what they meant when they announced early on that the anime was about the friendship between the girls. And though I really quite liked the first season of Index, I have to admit that this interpersonal dynamic was something somewhat lacking in that adaptation (mostly due to the nature of the source material and the way it kept jumping between different characters and subjects). I really felt like the Railgun anime came together quite well and it made good use of time. So I’m looking forward to Index s2 in the Fall, but definitely sign me up as well if they do another season of this (Fall 2011? We can only hope…).
B-gata H-kei:
This is actually the only Spring 2010 anime that I finished so far. Maybe it’s just me, but this anime reminded me so much of the Director’s probably more famous work, Welcome to the NHK. It’s just the little things in the presentation, the comedy, the timing, the use of music, and so on. And suffice it to say, this show was thoroughly enjoyable throughout to me. I think a lot of people were scared away by the premise, but at the end of the day it was a rather straightforward romantic comedy that on the one hand pushed the boundaries, but on the other remained extremely conservative and chaste. This is exactly what I expected of the show after the first few episodes, and I wasn’t disappointed. I guess my only wish would have been for a bit more finality, and given the sales of the Blu-Rays/DVDs that may never happen. Oh well… In any event, Yukari Tamura as the heroine Yamada totally makes this show, so it’s almost worth watching for her performance alone, IMO.
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu:
This is another straightforward romantic comedy at heart, but all the “frills” make it quite fun. It’s interesting to see this director/writer team finally out from the SHAFT banner; I feel like they never really got the credit they deserved for their work on ef because people tended to credit anything good to Shinbo (and assumed anything less great was Oonuma’s doing). When you compare this show to the other shows and specific episodes/parts the director worked on, the director’s own individual sense of style comes through. But style aside, I think this show struck a good balance between the absurd and the straightforward. It makes the show easy to relate to. At the same time, the summons and battles and other craziness give a fun adventure feel that helps keep the show moving (even if it’s really just to distract from the romantic stories at the core). I remember at the time when this show aired, a number of people commented that they thought the show should have ended at episode 12, but I personally couldn’t disagree more. Episode 12 was a good climax, but Episode 13 really drove home the point of the show and tied all the loose ends together. There’s a reason why it was the titular episode. In the end, I’m glad to see that a second season’s on the way.
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Eroge
Sakura Sakura:
I’ve been wanting to write about this game for some time, and some day I may stop being lazy and do a full post on it, as it certainly deserves it. This is one of the most fully developed stories I’ve seen while still falling under the sort of overall “romantic comedy” genre. The game is set in a small dorm building, and is structured as two sets of romantic triangles with two different protagonists in three main chapters. One of the neat things about this is that is that the alternate protagonist is voiced when it isn’t his chapter, so this helps gives the protagonists even more personality (since you can see them from a different perspective). Sort of like what I was saying with Railgun above, the way the story develops provides a lot of interaction between the cast, and by the end of the story I felt like I had really gotten to know these people — as I had lived their dorm life with them. They even provided a little extra at the very end that reinforces this very concept. So in contrast to the way most of the stories in this genre sort of start at a central point and break off into different tangents, the writing here gives everything a much stronger sense of coherency, and really makes for a great overall package. Plus it had one of the few Teacher routes that I actually liked, which says something given how much I typically hate that archetype. Anyway, like I said, probably worth a full post and then some, but I at least wanted to put something out there about this game.
PrismRhythm:
They pitched this as a “healing game”, and I think it lives up to the name. Basically what they mean by that is that is that it’s a pretty low-stress sort of game. Beautiful setting, warm characters, happy romance, and not too much drama. The small touch of magic in the Venice-inspired setting helps give it a slightly otherworldly feel that I thought was actually quite nice. Basically, I’d say that it’s just a simple, enjoyable story that stays within the scope of what it’s trying to do. One of the things I particularly liked was the music; some very nice compositions filled the game, and they were accentuated perfectly by two beautiful medleys that played on the title screen (which sort of serve as a Prelude and Postlude respectively). The only downside to me, and I know this is totally a personal thing, is that I really didn’t like the voice acting for Gin — really got on my nerves somehow! But I liked all the characters just fine, so that personal preference issue aside, I think I could easily recommend it as an easy-going simple game for people who want a break from things too drama-filled or story-driven (or are just under a lot of stress!).
AngelRing:
This is Moonstone’s latest work coming from most of the same team who worked on Majisuki, and was most recently “in the news” thanks to Moonstone’s efforts to integrate a Twitter client into the game (which I tested out shortly after it was released). I guess there are two main comments I want to make about this game. First is that I felt the story structure for each arc was a little bit too predictable; at times it felt a bit “paint by numbers” in its execution. There was never really a point in the story where I had to wonder whether the story was going to go next; all you basically had to know was how many H-scenes the heroine was supposed to have, and you could figure out when the predictable drama was going to start. (At least Majisuki was a bit less preditable, even if it did this by being completely mind-boggling in places. ^^; ) The second comment is that I’m starting to dislike “half-routes”. At least if a heroine doesn’t get a route at all, you can always hope that they may add a route in a port or fandisk. But the half-routes in this game feel like a bad compromise because they just rushed through the normal development cycle in half the time, and it didn’t help that the two chosen heroines were among my favourites. But other than that, it was an enjoyable game in its own right; it didn’t have quite the charm of Majisuki in terms of world and characters, but also didn’t suffer from the same story problems, so it probably evens out.
Hoshiuta:
I’m actually just going through the Starlight Serenade fandisk for this game right now, so it’s fresh on my mind even though it’s all catch-up from a while ago. To put it simply, this is a game that’s a lot more about school life and drama than it is about romance, and I wasn’t always too sure how I felt about that. The writers obviously feel that external drama is the main driving force of the plot (which is sort of a “because you’re here, I’m able to face <x>” approach). There were a few characters and plot points that quite annoyed me in the original game; in particular, Yui’s route was a bit of an exercise in frustration, and I never could figure out how they came up with the very quirky blend for Nanano’s character. But overall, I feel like the addition of the fandisk (which I’m thankfully playing immediately after the original game) helps to address some of the balance issues in the plot, and provides a bit more of an anchor for the character development that occurs in the original game. Putting the two pieces together really feels like a more complete work to me, which is more credit than most people give to the average fandisk. So while some may find some routes to be hit-or-miss, overall I think it’s a fairly-well developed game set.
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Well, I guess that’s all for now. I have another small list of games that I haven’t posted about yet, and there are also two games I’ve played that are getting an anime this October, so I’m contemplating whether to do a write-up about those. In any event, take it easy!
