Last Saturday I went to an anime convention. It's the first time since 2018 that I walked around one alone. It's a christmas themed one and the vibe was there. The fact it was held in a school (unrenovated for decades) made it feel more like old conventions. It was pretty fun.
Out of all the attractions I went to one panel, op/ed quiz and I tried DDR for the first time. It was a really small con (ticket limit being 500) so there wasn't that much to do the entire day. The panel was pretty bad, I've been to a fare share of panels and I can't remember ever being to a one this uninteresting. I felt like people in charge of it didn't really know what they were talking about and only did a little bit of research to have anything to write in the presentation. A lot of repeating the same things over and over and I doubt most people there learned anything new it was mostly obvious things you would know if you watched at least 1 anime that had a christmas episode or if you think about it for more than 5 minutes. I didn't feel any passion for the subject and like they just came up with whatever idea because they wanted to make a panel and not because they wanted to talk about something. Not to mention it was a discussion panel and no one spoke for the entire duration of it (which was supposed to be 2 hours but they finished in half an hour) and only briefly talked about some things once it ended most likely out of pity and so it could classify as a "discussion panel".
Food was expensive but good, I rarely have a chance to eat japanese so I'd take it. Miso was great. I went outside for a while before eating so it was a perfect warm up meal. A lot of tofu and seaweed in it, very much worth it. I also got two onigiris one with shrimp and one with salmon, the salmon was well packed and had great flavor, the shrimp in the other one was small but good. Rice was a bit dry and was falling apart easily but paired with the soup it was overall a good meal. The drink I got was amazing, perfectly sweet and flavorful, It's always a gamble with those imported drinks because they're five times the price of something you'd get from a supermarket and you never know if the flavor's going to be good. One time I got a canned drink that was sickly sweet and flavorless besides that, this time I made a great choice.
Going to bring my Sakuya fumo next time I go to an event.
Op/ed quiz was fun, although I didn't guess a lot because it was almost only shows from the last 5 years, I took part in a similar quiz organized by the same guy (based love live enjoyer) which had more older openings. I need to get my game up with new openings so I can show my opening appreciation more, never skip. DDR was surprisingly exhausting, I can still feel it in my legs a little. I watched others play a little and I was surprised almost everyone played only one song but now I get it. I played bad apple and believe by nami tamaki and if I tried one more I'd colapse, definitely going to play DDR during cons whenever I get the chance though.
A very cool idea of collecting stamps for participating in different activities. If I wasn't so socially retarded I would've tried more, at least I got one for DDR. A very important to me aspect of cons is what can you buy there, in this terrible day and age I wouldn't be surprised if there was nothing interesting to me as 90% of things being sold is genshin bs or some other not even anime mainstream shit like kpop demon hunters or whatever. Low and behold I spent a lot this time.
Unlucky gacha pulls, Steins;Gate figure, stickers and yaoi. Yaoi and the chikorita sticker is for my boyfriend. Buying a whole ass figure was not on my list but I couldn't pass an opportunity to show off being a S;G fan when there's so many tourists, the girl I bought it from even commented how old she feels and that no one knows S;G anymore.
The more type-moon I read the more I like it. Kagetsu Tohya was a blast.
I really enjoyed going through everything. Trying out different options, slowly getting to know more about the story and all the additional scenes expanding the world and its characters. The 4th wall breaking, references, stupid ass shit. All of it. Great. Surprised by how many new sprites they added with different outfits and new characters. CGs look noticibly more polished and detailed thanks to Hirokazu Koyama. Especially the picnic CG with Hisui below, I can feel the faint wind and see how the sun shines in that moment, very nostalgic.
I have grown to really like the entire cast and seeing them in different scenarios only makes me appriciate them more. Good to see Akira coming back from the fan disc and "A story for the evening" was my favorite out of all the side stories as it shows us something not touched upon in the main story at all. I don't dislike Akiha but she's my least favorite heroine, she didn't move up in the ranking (Hisui>Kohaku>Arc>Ciel>Akiha) but seeing her perspective for sure made me understand her more. I love urban legends and mysteries like that I wouldn't mind an entire spin off focused on Akiha's life and supernatural happenings at her school. Made me want to read something set in an all-girls private school. flowers someday?
I like how much focus went into fleshing out secondary characters Arihiko and his dumb ass horse, Nrvnqsr (he's such an endearing character, especially during the Con Game, which was also one of the better side stories. I got so into it I didn't notice how fast time went by, Kohaku deserved that win and to have fun with them all like that after everything bad she had to endure), Akiha's schoolmates (more Hanepin content needed). Great to see Shiki's backstory a bit more and how all Nanayas got killed.
Kohaku is even better in this game, so much 4th wall breaking. How she drugs Shiki in the basement everytime he goes down a perverted path. The quiz. I only read side stories after fully finishing the main game so I had no idea about the hints Nrvnqsr leaves and had to figure out the answers myself, it appears challenging at first especially as she won't tell you which answer you got wrong but Tsukihime related questions are pretty easy if you played Tsukihime (and you don't play Kagetsu Tohya without it), on of the other set of questions is even easier since all the correct answers are referenced somewhere else in the story and after you play the quiz once and get accustomed to all the answers they're really easy to pick out. Broomstick Girl Magical Amber. Kohaku got so many cool new sprites, glad she's got more attention here since her route was the shortest in Tsukihime
Summer festival stories man. Another moment similar to how I felt after conversation with Arc at school about the mundane. Visual novels make me appriaciate real life more ironically. It's simple but beautiful and made me think how meaningfull those things are. The inevitable passing of time and how things change for better and for worse. I really like annual events like this that tie everything into a cycle and how they're something you can always look forward to or reminescent and remember past years. Especially as new year is approaching and for the firs time I'm spending it with a loved one. How as a kid I'd always go to the same place with my parents to see the fireworks, the few times we went somewhere else when I was older. The one time I had a fight with my father and we didn't speak with each other for the next six months. Visual novels make me want to live life more, I want to be more productive and have more routine every day.
Overall a must read for anyone who liked Tsukihime and is into nasuverse as a whole. I like diving as deep as possible in different fictional worlds and series. The more fan discs, spin off and sequels the better (as long as they know what they're doing and don't lose the spirit)
Shout out to the best track "Shock" , my main complain about Tsukihime would be how little ost tracks there were and how there are too many too long scenes with no bg music and that problem is solved here. Many new greats tracks.
On a related note Kara no Kyoukai has been just as fun. It's been quite some time since I read a visual novel it's pretty refereshing from what I read most recently. My favorite LN is by far Durarara and KnK reads very much like something I could imagine happening in DRRR. I'm intrigued and looking forward to see how Kokuto's and Shiki's relationship develops.
Not posting right after finishing the game as I'm waiting for my Arc figure to arrive so I can take a pic of all my Tsukihime figures together and add here as a bonus.
Edit: She's here.
I need Kohaku to match Hisui. Arc looks much better than I expected and she's not that small. I'll have to work on my type-moon shelf a little. For now I'll be looking for Kohaku PUP and Fate/Zero light novels.
Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu is a beautiful game. Each route tackles realistic issues in a serious way. I like how mature sex is treated, the MC is very much focused on sex but he doesn't come off as a degenerate, just a horny teen guy. All girls are written like they could be real people and you can see their emotion and complexity, even when they say one thing you know they're hurting inside and it's just their way of coping.
First route I got to was surprisingly Maho, for the longest time I was pretty sure I was on Touko's route and so far it's my favorite (as of writing this I still have one route left). I really liked how it doesn't only focus on Maho but on Touko as well for quite some time. It shows how she's hurt over MC caring for Maho even as a sister. I'm glad this route doesn't end romantically and says at the end how they still care more about people they broke up with. This route feels the most complete to me, in no way do I feel like something's missing, every character's arc feels complete and you can only imagine how they continue to live with their issues. Bonus points for how much we got to know here about Emiri and that as a secondary character she still has her own problems and story. Another thing that stood out to me in this route was acknowledgment that sex isn't everything and its importance in relationships. Not knowing what you want and how pressured to get it over with one might feel.
Sakaki's route is my least favorite. I still think it's really interesting and Sakaki is a very complex character. The reason why it's my least favorite route is because it feels uncomplete to me. It could've been more developed both her relationship with MC and emotions towards Touko. Not in her route but the scene where she breaks down after learning about Touko's relationship with mc shows really well how much she cares about her, how much Touko is her anchor in life and how she needs her way more than Touko needs her (despite it seemingly the other way around at first), how she depended her entire future on Touko.
Touko deserves so much more. After having sex with MC she seems more happy. Changes entirely in how she acts and talks. It's the only thing that makes her feel loved and cared for, like she's worth anything even if it's just for her body. Despite or because of that exactly she wants more, she develops feelings for MC and wants him to do more for her even if she doesn't say it. Personally I don't think MC really only cares about sex, it feels more like he surpresses his other feelings, it's easier to pretend you only care about that, why bother thinking deeper about those things. Love is never easy.
Asuna's route at first seems the least intense. Asuna is easy going, teasing and takes initiative as she's older. Her family life isn't the best as her parents are divorced and they aren't interested in her very much, other than that everything is pretty much alright untill she gets mad at Emiri wants to take a picture of Asuna. From then it leads us to learn about her past. Fucking Tachibana tells us that Asuna used to prostitue herself. All heroine turn to sex as a way to cope with whatever problems they have. I think it's important to talk about those things, the way some females glorify sex work and treat it as a great easy job and recommend it to young girls is messed up. No matter how much one may like sex most turn to sex work as a necessity for all the wrong reasons. It's saddening to see how they throw their dignity away and don't respect themselves and they too deserve stability and love. Asuna pushes MC away at first after he learns the truth and it may not be easy but he accepts her even after that.
TenInai starts with MC questioning the meaning in life and how he just drifts through it mindlessly and I'm glad that it focuses more on that aspect in Yukio's route. It all starts when MC finds out about her suicidal tendencies. Life doesn't have any meaning, every person has different values and prorities. When hurt ending it may seem like the best option. Isolating yourself and turning everyone away is a way to avoid being hurt by others. After losing her childhood dog Yukio shuts herself away from everything. There's no happiness for her and connecting with someone will just hurt eventually when they're no longer. I'm always drawn to these themes in fiction after being suicidal most of my teen years. There's something comforting in the way Yukio talks openly about death and her route was a great closing point for this VN. Ending with Yukio and MC's failed double suicide attempt we don't know if and how they find meaning in life and grow as people.
Again very much welcome tie in with Emiri's character. She plays an important role in Yukio's story wanting exactly what Yukio fears - connection.
Just a few days ago I had less than 20 shortcuts on my desktop. I don't like cluttering it or so I thought. Downloaded a bunch of visual novels, worked on my steam wishlist and I've been getting progressively more crazy about reading. I have some level of discomfort at how most vns I have in my backlog are very popular ones and how I haven't read them, fuck anime tourists, if vns didn't get mildly less niche I wouldn't feel that way.
Me from the future, a substantial amount of time has passed since this picture was taken, almost a month and there have been some changes worth noting. I have finished narcissu, Ace Attorney, Gogatsu no Sora, Snow drop and euphoria so they're no longer on my desktop, yet somehow there's even more icons that last month.
I used steam codes from my physical releases of umineko and fata moru I have after all, I wanted to have more installed but I have a feeling I overdid it. I do hope to finish 4 more vns from this list before the end of the year since I've been doing pretty good reading but I'm not so sure about that. I did touched Kagetsu Tooya tonight a little but it depends on how much I manage to read tomorrow if I can finish it quickly or not.
Other than my plans for the coming few months there's not that many I know when I'll play. I'm pretty set on playing Tenshi no inai 12-gatsu right after Kagetsu, slow damage next and if I ever feel like playing something short Hanachirasu. Best case would be if I manage to finish those four in December. After that I'm only certain of playing SNOW and Cartagra, I run out of short winter themed vns so I'm not sure what could I indulge after that, I'll most likely end up playing I/O as other than MinDeaD BlooD it's something I want to play the most.
The more read the more I realize how much I like visual novels. No matter what it is, how much I like it I'll probably still be able to appriaciate something about it even if I end up not liking it. People who only read vns above 8.0 or whatever don't really like visual novels, they may like some works but they don't like the medium. I really like reading staff comments, it makes me feel more connected to those works, seeing how many people really care about it and spend their time and effort on it. It fascinates me how people can work together with passion and makes things like that.
I think life is beautiful and it'd be a real waste not to waste it on visual novels. You can find pretty much subs for most anime out there but there's so many untranslated visual novels that only a handful of people played and isn't greatly regarded but still may be a masterpiece for some.
I wonder what type of retarded I would've been if I wasn't born in these visual novel filled times.
MinDeaD BlooD my god MinDeaD BlooD I want to play MinDeaD BlooD so much, if I were to play something in japanese right now it would've been MinDeaD BlooD.
Currently getting through euphoria. With a few exceptions it's much tamer than I anticipated. It makes one wonder why did they put very vanilla h-scenes as part of the game. Some aren't even sex. What's challenging in kissing, CLOCKUP up your game seariously. Especially after going all out right at the start later games don't feel as intense. First route I finished was Nemu's as it was the only one that really made any sense to choose and despite spoilering other routes I don't regret going that direction. I think it wouldn't land as well if half of it I would be skipping read lines. skibi diby dib yo da dub dub
I was very surprised that only about half the game was in that facility and the rest is a complete shift in tone, I'm still not sure what to think of it after beating everything but Kanae's route. Nemu's route was by far the most grotesque one featuring the worst scene I've seen so far and I doubt there's going to be anything worse than two girls being forced to eat their shit through tubes and then their puke after that. The ending itself was very abrupt but I imagine a good ending with Nemu would be impossible and a conclusion with Kanae is going to happen in hers. yo da dub dub
(picture above is not Rinnie)
Rinnie's route was the second one I went for and the cult stuff was interesting but in went into a very weird direction very fast. Why of all thinks Rinnie could've made up in her mind she believed that Keisuke is her father. Of course telling him that while having his dick inside. Most flabbergasted euphoria got me so far. I get that it's supposed to be this vague but I wish they told us at least a bittle bit more after they go through the door. How did she just change back to normal and what actually happened because we all know it in fact was not a dream. If they meant it to be just a dream then that's some shit idea. I'm the Scatman.
Natsuki-sensei's route feels like the happiest ending (disregarding what the true route meant) because it's the only really good one exepct for Rika but no one could have a happy life with Rika, I'd be better to stay in the facility than continue normal life with Rika. Getting back to the topic she's an alright character, the true route does a lot for her despite working for the bad guys she quit and helps Keisuke (the worse guy). She is a good teacher, surprised but no so much that she's the woman in black helping Nemu. I was really sceptical about this reveal either thinking they won't say anything or make a new character up but it really makes sense for her to fill that role.
She's so spoiled and annoying. She doesn't do shit and she thinks she deserves everything and doesn't take anyone into consideration. Out of everyone why does she get the happiest ending. What a bitch
Here's when I finished euphoria, everything above execpt for the part about Natsuki-sensei (forgot) I wrote a few days ago before getting into Kanae's route. I'll now write the rest of my thoughts after being done. All my previous thoughts could probably just be discarded as the true route reframes absolutely anything and I was not expecting that turn. I really enjoyed the psychological part and the chaos of not knowing what is real and what is not, who and what can be trusted. It could've run for a bit longer but at least it didn't feel like the whole ending was tragged out. Despite all the shit and piss of it euphoria is about happiness. I think I might be mixing shit up because I was just watching something else but either there or in euphoria (Most likely Keisuke said it but even if not I think it really fits to its themes) it's said that bad things are also important and are what makes life life. Choosing the easiest option isn't always the best and pushing through can lead you to much better places than doing what's easy. Overcome obstacles and strive for whatever it is you want, it may be easier to just do whatever you feel like it especially because you only live once and what's the point in wasting your time on painful things but I think that's the beauty of living, it makes it meaningful so later you can look back at your past self without regrets. You don't regret things you did, you regret what you didn't.
My first exposure to Izumi Banya even if only a little. I have found myself really wanting to play Black Cyc titles lately. MinDeaD BlooD............. one day......
K-on is the best slice of life I have ever seen. Each episode was exceptionally fun and not once was I bored or felt like episodes were dragging too long. Be it the first anime I watched without sub it made me appriaciate it more and take in all the little details I would've missed otherwise. I like pretty much every character my favorite being Yui and Ritsu.
What made K-on for me more than just mindless fun were episodes 8,9 and 12. Absolute fucking kino. Makes you think how good life is and how you can improve and you do even without noticing. Hearing Ui speak about her sister how she noticed she's been having more fun since joining the light music club it was really moving. Seeing how much Yui has grown since episode one, from not knowing what a light music club is to playing live at school (and later at a light house). K-on is an amazing, heartfelt and inspiring story despite being mostly comedic you can see its depth. I'm looking very forward to the second season to see how they'll continue to grow and have fun in the club together.
Being a show about music more or less it's pretty good. Both ending and opening extremly catchy I found myself stuck with them in my head a lot. Watashi no Koi wa Hotchikiss is easily my favorite song from the first season. It fit perfectly into the episode and it really touched me. I usually don't pay attention to background music not because I don't care about but because most of the time there's nothing to pay attention to, bgm in anime is most often just generic and forgettable, it may fit perfectly into scenes but does just that and doesn't stand out on its own. There are only two series so where I actually care about the background music that being gunslinger girl and k-on. I think there's plenty of tracks worth remembering but there are two I especially like.
Dress ni Crepe wa Niawanai is how ost for every visual novel set in winter should sound like. It so perfectly captures how I feel thinking about winter. There's nothing listen you could listen to while outside with snow surrounding you. That's what I did and it felt truly magical. We don't deserve K-on.
In November I also finally finished the last season of Sailor Moon after 8 long years at last. I plan on attempting AWC on MAL next year after my failed attempt 4 years ago so I want to get into 2026 without any shows started. I'm onle left with seasonal shows I'm all cought up to and for the rest of December I'll get through some seasons I have missed (currently watching Beastars final season) as there are still a few series I have watched one season of but not the rest. As much as I'd like to start Zeta Gundam I don't want to start anything longer than 13 episodes untill 2026.
In November I finally got around to playing the last game of the Apollo Justice trilogy. It could've been really great and maybe even on par with at least Investigations (Nothing beats the original trilogy) if two out of five cases weren't completly unrelated, they were pretty cool but I wish they'd at least take place in Khura'in. A lot of wasted potential. I liked a lot all cases in Kurain or talking about spirit channeling so my hopes were up. Congrats to Ema for getting the job she wanted after all.
It may be AA game with one of the most likable cast. A lot of memorable, funny and interesting characters. A highlight for me were Betty and Bonny, Dhurke, Rayfa, Datz and Sergeant Buff. And of course greatly welcomed appearance of Edgeworth. I really enjoyed Rayfa as a character and how she grows and learns from experience. It was sad to see how Ga'ran treats her in the last case even if she's not her biological mother that's Rayfa so her, at least Inga really cared about her despite not being the best person and her not being biologically his daughter. Her banter with Wright was fun.
The last case is my favorite no doubt. Apollo growing up in Khura'in with Dhurke and Nahyuta was a pretty random addition but it was executed very well. The tragedy in Dhurke being able to reconcile with Apollo only after his death. I did not see that coming and up untill they revealed his death and hoped for more interaction between them, really made me tear up. I think staying in Khura'in and taking over Dhurke's law firm is the best conclusion to his character, I'm glad they went in that direction.
The DLC case was all one could want from a additional episode. Wright vs Edgeworth showdown again. A not welcomed reappearance of Larry. A creative and original premise with the time travel, I was disappointed it turned out to not really be time travel but the explained it in a satysfing. Cool Steampunk visuals.
I only need to play professor layton crossover and Dai Gyakuten Saiban and I'll be done with this series untill they release something new if they ever do. I'll be fine if they don't but I'd like to see how Gumshoe's doing.... it's been so long.....
