It snowed

 I think I like my view on the world and living. I find life inherently beautiful at its core in all of it's ugliness. I find the ugliness beautiful, how raw and alive it feels. It may be because I go outside once a week max. and it feels special when I do. I want to take a better camera out and capture what I see. I've heard one place I find cool is going to get demolished and I wish to capture it and others so they don't fully disappear. 

Today, 23th of November it snowed for the first time this season. Yesterday was not a good day I spent it entirely in ER and got out past 2 am so it feels especially refreshing to see snow as I woke up. 

To celebrate snowing I read Snow Drop (2000). Cool winter atmosphere and pretty fun overall. I appriciate that only two girls get full routes so they can be more fleshed out while still allowing the rest to have fun scenes and CGs. I found each character at least a bit endearing in their own way with my favorite being Kyouka, Kasumi also deserves a honorable mention. 

                                                      
  

Character art may seem a bit off at first with face proportions but I find it really charming and shines through especially in CGs. Biggest downside of Snow Drop is how unintuitive and exhausting getting all the endings can be, especially without a guide. There's little to no choices and routes are based on where you choose to go and when. I wouldn't mind it as much if every move would lead to a scene, it would at least make getting all scenes and endings more engaging as opposed to being met with "Nobody was there... let's go somewhere else". I'm surprised I got to see as many scenes as I did on my first run. Unless you're really patient figuring out best endings blindly is pretty much impossible. 

All in all a very decent, pleasant vn to read for snowy scapes and that winter holidays feel. I really like snow and I'll take any opportunity I may get to indulge in winter themed visual novels during winter. Next on the winter list is Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu, there's no better month for it than December.

narcissu

 I read the first narcissu earlier this year, I'm currently reading the last one - Sumire. There couldn't be probably a better time for me to be reading this. I don't have a set date or anything like that but recently I've been going to sleep everynight thinking I may not wake up. I had a blood test a few days ago and I thought it's going to make me feel more at ease and I'm going to get something prescribed soon and get better but waiting is dreadful. Today I again think I'm going to die in my sleep. If I don't get any medication tomorrow I don't know how I'm going to go to sleep. A part of me wants to stay all night so I definitely don't pass away while sleeping but another part of me thinks that not getting enough rest might make me feel worse. I holded off getting medical attention for so long, I had a doctor's appointment two months ago and was supposed to get a blood test then but I ignored it and it got so much worse.

It's been about 2 weeks since I touched narcissu and I have no idea what I wanted to mention. Out of the three entries I played recently I liked Zero the most. Hard to compare when it's been some time since I touched the previous entries but it might be my second favorite narcissu. I found the characters really endearing and the MC definitely gave it a much different feeling than the rest. Made me cry in multiple moments not only at the end which only elevates it further.

Narcissu 3rd was a very cool breath of fresh air. It's really hard to write about narcissu without sounding pretentious. Yohan is an absolute legend, need more characters like him in fiction. Complex on so many levels, flawed and very human at his core. Despite the story starting from Iris' perspective but shifts pretty quickly to Yohan's and for the better. Also I'm a sucker for medieval settings. Life was better when no one showered.

Narcissu Sumire is my least favorite. It would've been better if they 1. Make it longer and tie in Akari's story better 2. Make it shorter without so many loose ends. I still liked it a lot especially Akari's story sadly since it's unfinished here and to get the whole picture I'd probably have to read Sumire. The whole body swaping thing at the start was my favorite part and I would like that to continue. If that's what's Sumire is about I'll play it someday eventually.

Additionally I played a few very short vinnies.

The noose - an absolute denpa snoozefest. I really like denpa but this one was boring and was pretty hard to follow and made little to no sense and I don't believe in nonsensical bull being actually highly sophisticated and "you just don't get it". Jumpscares can work sometimes but eh cheap horror tactics. Not to mention how broken the game was, whoever made the problem the game freezed every 30 seconds. It actually made me go crazy maybe that was the author's intention.

Gogatsu no Sora - pure love story. Interesting build up and progression. Short yet made me like the characters and believe in their relationship. Side story messed it up a little by being really boring. 

Mukou no Yume - It took me 16 minutes. Can you even make a self contained story that makes sense this short? Probably, this didn't do that. The premise sounds interesting, there really was no need to rush with this especially since it's not like the author was practicing for something greater as this is their only work. Artstyle's pretty cool.

(very) LATE HALLOWEEN POST

 Entire month has passed since Halloween. I need to seriously get myself together, I have about 7 draft posts. Second year in a row for Halloween I watched some short horror anime with my boyfriend. Last year what we watched was pretty meh, 5/10 at best. Both Vampire Hunter D movies and Blood the last vampire. I had a lot of fun with Blood+ and I didn't dislike the movie it wasn't great. This year was much better, unexpectedly so. This year first we watched Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage.

For a short show this old itvwas oddly well thought out and easy to follow. It's surprising that it was well explained and complete in three 30 minute long episodes despite being based on an 18-volume manga. Pretty interesting especially for what it is. 

The other anime we watched.

Cossette no Shouzou is the best anime experience I had in quite a while. Generally I don't care much for animation and I'd take an attricious looking great show over "well animated" brainless slop but holy was this beautifully animated. They could animate better in 2004 than they do now. I have never been this impressed with animation. Music only enhances this experience, all opening, ending and background sounds perfected.

While a bit difficult to follow at times the story is also great. Intriging and not idolized. I think this type of narration doesn't usually resonate with me. I really liked how grounded it was despite surrounding a lot of supernatural elements. The blend of nonsensical world inside of glass and reality. Eiri's growing detachment with the real world and his sick fascination with Cossette and his obsession with making a perfect portrait of her. One of favorite shorter anime. There are still some relatively not known good shows.

To all the coming Halloweens and hoping I'll stumble upon more fascinating horror.

Pokemon Legends Z-A

 Bad news I got work, I;m not actually employed but I got some work to do and I'm getting paid for it (not much but anything is a lot in my current state). Good thing is it's at home and I can do it whenever I feel like it, I don't have a strict deadline although I have already done over half of what I got (I got it today) and I feel like I need to finish it tomorrow so I can focus on whatever I want to do. It's easier when I can do it while having something on in the background or taking breaks for whatever, playing Pokemon in the meantime but a part of me liked having an office job and physically going somewhere early in the morning, going out on breaks and drinking free coffe. A huge part of that is definitely that I worked close to the city center and I really like this city in its ugliness, I definitely hated all the social aspects and having to interact with anyone, It would've been better if I had my own room in which and not being in an open office floor. Good news Pokemon Legends Z-A.

Could game freak have done a way better job with their budget? Sure

Can I still enjoy the game and have fun with what it is? Yeah

What bothers me most is the lack of vocie acting, I don't care about the plot as much as I would like to and voice acting would probably help with that a lot. I like the graphics a lot contrary to what I've seen people say, especially interiors, the detail, great and it's fun walking in camera mode admiring them.

I don't actually have that much to say about it, I like the ranking system, it's satysfying climbing the ladder, as of writing this I'm at rank B which is second highest and it's probably not going to change before I post this because tomorrow I doubt I'm going to play anything since I've got work and when I'm going to play something I want to focus on SMTVV. 

this fucking side quest

worst thing I had to suffer through, other than the side quests that make you battle 5 trainers in a row and battle 3v1, it's been really infuriating when my pokemon are 30 levels above the opponent and I still can't beat them or it's difficult. Turn based combat has always been superior and this game just proves it to me, it feels very unoptimized and I still don't know how am I supposed to beat those stupid side quests. Honorary mention to the stupid one you can only beat with Pupitar, what makes this game think I bothered to level it up, I'll probably just keep it in my team and hope I can beat that side quest after I'm done with the main story. 

I like the city (only when I'm not running around trying to find a way to get on a specific rooftop for a quest) and I never thought that the map is too small and there's nothing to do. I like the slice of life elements, hanging out with your pokemon on benches and cafes, shopping and all that shit, I was very dissappointed you couldn't fully customize your outfits in SV and glad you could here, even if I'm running around in the same one the entire time. Overall not an amazing game but it sure is Pokemon and it's fun.

Higurashi Console Arcs Part 4

A significant amount of time has passed since the last time I read Higurashi and I can't remember anything from the first two console arcs I've read. As a short break after tsukihime before starting anything longer I read Kageboushi.

                                                         Robaki gdy podniesiesz kamień.

A very solid arc. unexpected coming from a console arc. Nothing really is as gripping as the question arcs once you get all the answers despite that I had a lot of fun with this one. What bothers me is the fact that it's suposed to be an answer arc for Someutsushi but it introduces new questions and doesn't give answers for them. What was Tomoe waiting at an airport every Wednesday of July. What was supposed to happen. Are we just supposed to accept that her waiting there every July was meaningless and she did it because she couldn't forget her father's death but she was supposed to find nothing the entire time? Why even mention that?

I liked characters introduced/fleshed out in this arc. I didn't expect them to kill of a major character and if Higurashi as a whole focused on their story and took place in Kakiuchi city and not Hinamizawa it probably would've been a cool twist. While I liked Tomoe a few hours weren't enough for me to get attached to her character nor this story to care much about this. It only sounds significant on paper.

I didn't take any screenshots of that scene but why was Tomoe teaching the reader how to groom a highschool girl. 

Natsumi and Akira are probably the best pairing in Higurashi, including anything that isn't canon and It was cool to see some progression between them. Alas the wedding was unexpected and not very fitting to a story like this, It would've felt more natural to maybe show them when they started living together and piecing everything together. Why would they even invite Akasaka and Ooishi to their wedding when it was that small. Side note Chisato does not have a crush on Akira, before they implied that she likes him and confessed to him before I was sure she's jealous of Natsumi not him and I'm not changing my mind. Unrequited yuri love.

Weird ass ending for a Higu chapter, still a better ending than Matsuribayashi, console cgs are so ugly. I saw someone say that they look basic for a reason and there wouldn't be artstyles like this if people didn't like them but cmon.

Tsukihime

 I'm giving up on the Pokemon Legends post, I can't be bothered to transfer screenshots from switch to my pc. 

I wanted to write more posts while I was reading Tsukihime but I already finished all routes, I even just finished another one of console arcs in higurashi. It's been some time. Tsukihime surpised me positively. I expected to get bored of it easily and that it would drag on for long but I finished it fairly fast and got into it really fast. Pretty much immiedietly. I got Arc's route first and It was good. I didn't like Arc at first but in my ranking she's second or third.  She's stupid and a very fun character.

Other than Hisui's route, Arc's has my favorite scene in the entire vn. Holy kino

It was very touching and their promise to hang out like that and do meaningless stuff again made me tear up. It may be a small thing but it really resonated with me. What even is the meaning of life, moments I enjoy in my life the most (other than being with my boyfriend) is walking outside with music on and admiring how beautiful the outside world is and I think that to myself nearly everytime I leave the house. Actually that's not true, if I enjoyed that in life the most I would go out more instead of reading visual novels all day.

Ciel's route was definitely the weakest although I can't exactly pinpoint as to why. It didn't have much emotional impact the other routes have and I prefer Ciel as senpai over her vampire hunter side. The ending was okay, I didn't get bored or anything it was just fine, didn't do much but I still had fun. 

It now makes sense why they'd divide tsukihime remake into two separate games because far side routes did feel like a complelty different game. A better one. I'm not sure how I'd rank all the routes but what I'm certain of is Hisui's was the best and Akiha's second. Akiha's endings were immaculate. I really appriciate how different each ending in Tsukihime is and tells a vastly different story sometimes. I got the True ending first, then normal which is the best way to experience them. Both made me cry and I surpisingly prefer the normal one. It was more tragic and I like seeing fictional characters suffer

Why do people like Akiha so much though. She's probably my least favorite or tied for the last place with Ciel. I like them both but I'm surprised to see how many people like her. I didn't have much appriaciation for her outside her route.

ABSOLUTE KINO 

The one thing I would've changed about them is Kohaku's ending ending tragically as well although I do like how Shiki ends up living a happy fairly normal life with Kohaku. They're my favorite heroines for sure and Hisui's route was by far the best. Kohaku falls a bit flat after reading Akiha's and Hisui's back to back but It was still good. Cried. so much, I cried a lot on both Hisui's endings and even during her route. I was very surprised Tsukihime doesn't shy away from not positive endings. More vinnies should be like this. I really should've written this right after finishing each route instead of few days after finishing the whole thing because I don't even remember what I wanted to say about this. 

We will be buying maid sister figures second hand for sure.

The scene with Kohaku at the end of Hisui's route was mindblowing, I was reading it with my mouth open. Bless them. 

We were robbed, I really would've liked to see Sacchin get his own route, it's definitely something I look forward the most in the remake, once the second part releases someday.

I have played the fandisc the same day I finished the original game. It was much more interesting than I expected. Not the geccha whatever although they were fun but the longest story was genuienly engaging and I wouldn't mind it being developed more into something slightly longer and more polished. A very cool concept. Dying to try out melty blood but that's only after I read Kagetsu Tooya (early december most likely) and I'd also like to read kara no kyoukai light novel. It should arrive in a few days so I'll probably start reading then. I fear fate.

We will continue crying over Hisui's route thank you Nasu sensei

Switch

 Since I had to get screencaps from my switch to my PC I have some interesting ones I can browse. I read Hashihime demo a year ago on my switch and I was surprised to see how that game looked on the console compared to PC. Strangest thing is that it looks so much better on switch even when I look at the screenshots on the computer. The resolution seems so much better despite it being released on PC first and foremost also the font is completly different.

Nevermind the resolution doesn't seem to be better at least not when I added it to this post

Glad my past self have screenshotted this, I still think Minakami jerked off to his manuscripts just not onto his notebook.                       This dumb ass game.

I thought I had more funny screencaps from it as I remember it being fairly comedic guess not, 90% of I saved are backgrounds and more cinematic shots. I wish I could play more of this series but I'm not going to spend a fortune on 15 hour worth of reading and not even own the game physically. I'd say hopefully they release the other ones physically in english too but switch 2 already came out and I don't think they care much about this series. Half an hour long anime cutscene was nice at the end although I hope the vn in itself would've been longer and explained a few things more, maybe we could get different points of view or whatever.

It's been over a week since I wrote this blogpost and should've just posted it then, I don't even know what I intended to talk about here.

To not make this post too short I'll talk more about my future plans for media consuption, mostly VNs. I'm on Ciel's route in Tsukihime now (Need to make a separate post about it). It's more interesting that I expected, I thought the pacing would bore me but it's been really fun and I like all characters so far. I was worried I wouldn't finish it by the end of November but seeing how's it going I had nothing to worry about. I'll read the fandisc right after and then hopefully finish the Apollo Justice Trilogy with Spirit of Justice, I have high hopes for this one. I really enjoyed the more culturally japanese chapters of previous games and I'm hoping to get a similar feeling here. If I manage to finish it in November I'll get into Kagetsu Tooya, again didn't expect to like tsukihime as much but I'll probably get through type-moon faster than I anticipated. In December slow damage, the only n+c title I have yet to read. Suposedly the best one but I doubt I'll think that. I was pretty sure I'm going to really like it like all their other titles but my boyfriend started it in February and still hasn't finished. He really dislikes it despite liking all the other n+c titles as well. Winter is not my favorite season by any means but in fiction it's the one that pulls me in the most. I have waited for two years to read snow and there is nothing that can stop me, not sure how long it's going to take me, with how Kanon blocked my entire winter two years ago I fear that's going to happen again and I'll only end up reading that during winter. Hopefully that's not going to happen and If I do have spare time during winter I'm going to read Cartagra.

The post I made about Pokemon Z-A has been really holding me back from posting more here, I need to upload the rest of screenshots from my console to the computer to finally publish what I wrote about it. It's been probably already two weeks. 

Why mecha is the best genre in fiction

 I have multiple draft posts but I don't feel like revisiting them for now and I'm thinking about Code Geass intensly. It's been years and I still haven't found a piece of fiction quite like it. perfect in every detail. I have bad memory and most of the time I can't remember anything from shows I have seen but there are so many scenes and overall thoughts I remember having while watching. An absolute heartbreaking masterpiece and I doubt I'll ever find something quite like it, there's only one other thing that deserves a 10/10 and that's persona 2 innocent sin. 

I like media that evoke emotions in me be it possitive or negative (negative is better) and Code Geass does that a lot, there are multiple episodes I cried on or that just made me feel things like my all time favorite scene.

How absolutely depressing this scene was I will never stop thinking about it. I also really enjoy a lot of characters even minor ones but what I appriciate more is when they make characters I dislike either because they were meant to be disliked (probably) (Rolo) or just because, I like hating characters for no real reason just because they annoy me just like with liking characters. I don't think there's a single fictional character I hate more than that bitch C.C. I still haven't watched the movies because I know they make her and lelouch end up together and I'm not aboard. Even ignoring my deep appreciation for tragic homoerotic relationships I just hate the idea of her being with lelouch. 

I'm surprised how mainstream Code Geass is given how tragic it is and isn't scared to kill off important characters. Most of the time I get the impression that most people prefer happy endings and don't really like this type of suffering in media, I find it hard to find works that have a satysfing bad ending because of this. 

Rest in peace Shirley, you deserved so much better. Other than finding a masterpiece another thing Code Geass did good for me was some start some weird fascination with mecha. Before watching it I really hated mecha. I found big robot suits boring and I'd much prefer hand in hand combat. I don't even know why but now I'd list mecha as one of my favorite genres. Code Geass was so life changing I went from hating mecha to building gunpla

Real work of art, I'd sell my soul for any model kit from wing they all look so cool. I'd take some pictures of gunplas I have but I suck at posing and they look really rough. I've been stuck on two long running anime series for a long time and I don't want to start any new series I felt like watching something and I couldn't help myself. So a few days ago I watched a short mecha ova Chou Kidou Densetsu Dinagiga. Pretty cool, as mecha tends to be, I would've really liked to see it made into a full tv series, it definitely had a lot of potential. It also proves that there is something really homoerotic about mecha. There was literally a scene in which a girl confesses her feelings to another femoid. I will definitely be reading whatever the fuck its author wrote about it to commemorate 25 years of its existance. 

Mecha fights are really cool so much more interesting than sword fights. I have to watch more mecha to make up for all the years of me being a hater. If I didn't have sailor moon on my watching list since 2017 I would probably be only watching mecha. I also watched two gundam movies recently, I still much prefer the tv series but it's fun to revisit some of my favorites moments, luckily they made it into the movies. Reminded me of one of my favorite episodes I forgot about where Kai leaves White Base. Kai is easily my favorite character from the original gundam. Funny and flawed in interesting ways, if I were in his place I'd probably act the same minus "redemption" arc. I can't imagine risking my life. And my god I completly forgot about Miharu, despite only appearing in one episode her death hits.I was really dreading watching the movies since it's everything I already saw and I don't like movies, it's much harder for me to pay attention to a movie for two hours than watching 12 tv episodes back to back but I feel like starting the third movie now despite watching the previous one today in the morning.

                                                              ORANGE RANGE kings