Archive for April, 2012
More May News! – Girl’s Style
I knew there was more!
Issho ni Gohan, the cooking-centric drama cd series, is being made into a game by Otomate for the PSP – for release in September. The heroine becomes the landlady at a boarding house for a nearby cooking school which she attends (which all the guys go to/have graduated from). In addition to the affection meter which changes with your dialogue choices, it will have a cooking skill meter which also affects your endings, raised by cooking minigames and quizzes.
Characters:
Yoneda Hikari (CV: Kaji Yuuki) – the second-year student who’s able to become friends easily with anyone
Karasawa Rei (CV: Ono Daisuke) – the graduate with a harsh personality who’s running a nearby curry restaurant
Toriyama Yousuke (CV: Shimono Hiro) – the first-year who looks up to Hikari and is the house’s moodmaker
Daitou Natsu (CV: Tsuda Kenjirou) – a fourth-year in the Japanese food program, he grew up in a traditional Japanese house and knows archery and ikebana. He’s strict about people following the rules and has a hard time blending into groups.
Unoha Nao (CV: Fukuyama Jun) – the weak-bodied fourth year who’s a bit of an airhead, who’s also artistic
Umino Riki (CV: Suzumura Kenichi) – the popular second-year who DJs at a club to make money and wants to ‘produce’ a restaurant
Ther’s also a teaser pic about a new game about ‘glass heart syndrome’, and not being ‘allowed’ to get ‘tokimeki’(I think you’re not supposed to get romantic feelings in the game) from Otomate. More details next month.
And finally, a diagram showing all the different ways you can customize your guy in Custom Drive, resulting in (supposedly) over 1,000,000 variations: hats (5), glasses (5), personality (5), hairstyle (10), clothes (10), accessories (10), over 3 different characters. Now if I remember high school math, the law of permutations would mean that there are…hm, I only get 375,000 permutations. Either I’m wrong (impossible!), or D3 has some explaining to do! We won’t be satisfied with only 375,000, am I right?? …OK, I’ll give them a pass this time.
News – B’s Log May
Here are the new game announcements from B’s Log this month:
Looks like Quinrose is really getting into paired games! First there was 12ji no Cinderella and 24ji no Cinderella, and now there’s Ouma ga toki and Hyakki Yakou! The heroine, Tatsuta Ui, is a dragon god princess, who’s #1 in the school and uses fire. She’s half god and half youkai, and tries to live up to her royal lineage at school, but secretly feels hemmed in. I think the artist is getting better, the characters look more polished (although they still look pretty stiff – I think that’s a Quinrose thing). Other than the school setting, I don’t think there’s any connection – perhaps this is set before or after Ouma Ga Toki.
New game from Otomate, Genroh – by the same artist who worked on Nise no Chigiri (kya!), this is set during the Genpei Gassen, or the war between the Minamoto and Taira clans in late 1100′s (the same time period as Harutoki 3). The heroine, Saya, can see people’s feelings. The main characters include Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Musashibou Benkei (who is a totally gorgeous silver-haired bishounen here).
Double Score is a new PC games series from BlueMoon where all the romanceable characters are significantly older than the heorine – the youngest is eight years older, the oldest is 29 years older! There will be six games, each with two character routes, and there are also drama CDs coming out starting in June. The heroine has a part-time job as a miko at a famous love shrine, and through her work there, meets the other characters. The games will be Y2500 each, which seems kind of expensive for only two routes each (although I say this having spent $4 each on Pirates in Love routes, where there are no voices and the story is pretty short, so…)
And finally, the seiyuu for 24ji no Cinderella were announced!
Louis Reed (CV: Suzumura Kenichi) – A childhood friend who’s in training to become a knight
Linus Randol (CV: Yusa Kouji) – Your fiancee, who’s in the nobility
Oswell Savaret (CV: Tsuda Kenjirou) – A magician tutor
Damian (CV: Morita Masakazu) – A mouse monster
Feather (CV: Shimono Hiro) – the pigeon (goose? I can’t remember) monsters from 12ji
Spencer Hendrick (CV: Nakata Jouji) – maybe not romanceable? The prince’s servant
Sirius Bradley (CV: Takahashi Hiroki) – probably also not romanceable, a magician
I feel like there was more news than that, so I’ll go check Girl’s Style again. Sorry I didn’t post this earlier, I have no excuse – I bought some doujinishi anthologies along with the mags (you know those large tankoubon size ones for popular anime?) and was distracted. And yes, they were Bleach, and they only had about 15 pages of Ulquihime in all 400 pages, boo.
Kamigami no Asobi
Got all the mags in tonight! There’s a bunch on Kamigami no Asobi so that’s tonight’s post – tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll do a news summary.
- It’s set in a world where gods who have forgotten their love for humanity are re-educated by one young girl. The two characters shown so far are Apollon, and Tsukito, from Greek and Japanese mythology respectively. One thing the producer mentions is that the catchphrase is “Love is Pain”, and that they are trying out something rare in otome games, tragic love. It sounds like they want to try to have some very angsty routes, but they say they’re also putting in happy routes.
- The setting is a school, created by the gods, so it’s not a normal school at all – it looks like a European castle, and it has different sections for the different mythologies. For example, the Japanese part is mountainous, and the Greek part is a beautiful garden. The creators wanted to do a fantasy game, but one that had familiar rules, so they settled on a school life/fantasy mix.
- Besides the two characters presented already, Odin and Loki will be the Norse representatives, and there will also be Egyptian mythology figures (I hope they do Horus and Anubis, I’d love to see hawk (falcon?) and jackal-headed characters!)
- Bleach, on the whole, is a waste of time to read, let alone watch(which I haven’t done but I hear there are filler arcs in addition to the overly long canon arcs);
- Kubo Tite is great at writing and drawing characters;
- Kubo Tite has some really interesting plot ideas; and
- Kubo Tite sucks at continuity and resolving plot arcs.
Tokimemo GS3 PSP!
I got it a couple days ago and am going for Ruka first. I never finished his route on the DS even though I like him quite a bit – I always seemed to get pulled into love triangles and then go for Kou 
Skinship is pretty different here – all the guesswork is taken out, but instead there’s a timing challenge to get more hearts, which I actually find kind of harder than the DS version. I haven’t gotten to the point where I can choose koakuma or angel yet, but I can’t wait – I hear the angel side is similar to the DS so I’ll probably do mostly koakuma (like I wasn’t going to anyways).
The animation does make it feel much more interactive – character expressions match what they’re saying really well (I think better than the DS version…) and of course the better picture and sound of the PSP helps a lot as well. The CGs are so smooth!
I haven’t seen the new guy, Hasumi, yet – I think he might only transfer in for the last year.
Oh, and one last thing I’ve noticed – the birthday presents are different! Not too hard to guess though.
I’m not even done my first year, so still lots of playing time to get through and see what’s different.
Bleach Fanart / Fanfic and some recs
Sorry for the long break! Things have been busy, but I should get B’s Log soon so lots of news coming. For now, a non-otome game post.
Recently, I did something very bad. I got into Bleach. After reading the whole manga in a very short time period, I came to a few conclusions:
I can see how people reading little by little might not see it, but when you read everything at once the plot holes and such are pretty obvious.
What does this mean? Apart from the mess that is Bleach canon, which I may still read in bursts just to keep up, but will never defend, it means opportunity for fantastic fandom. Why? Because along with the enormous base of interesting characters that Kubo Tite made and gives only hints of interesting backstory for, there is also a ton of foreshadowing and plot points that are never dealt with, or dealt with in such a cursory/stupid way that they beg for a better treatment from fan artists/writers.
Anyways, I don’t usually go against canon in my shipping, because it’s just frustrating rooting for a couple that will never get their canon ending. However, in Bleach relationships are so vague that you can pretty much pick whatever couple you like. For me, I always was kind of annoyed by Ichigo – I liked him and Orihime, but in the last half or more of the series that doesn’t seem likely (and even if it ends up that way, I don’t think it should), and his personality is underdeveloped in romance, so it almost feels weird to ship him with anyone. And anyways, there are much more interesting pairings to explore – my favourite are (don’t laugh) Orihime and Ulquiorra, and Orihime and Grimmjow. Two pairings that are almost totally impossible, yet I love them because before Tito Kube wrote the horrible (IMO) endings of their character arcs, I could totally see them developing a relationship with her in various shoujo/otome plotastic ways. So I’ve been having some fun exploring fanfic and fanart of these pairings, and can I just say, I’m so happy to live in a time when fandom is so big that almost everything has a niche fandom?
Anyways, for anyone strange enough to also enjoy Ulquihime, here are some good links:
Fanart:
http://tricktrap.sakura.ne.jp/top/index.htm
Fanvid （fans of Utena will probably enjoy this too):
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8967981
Hilarious vid if you can read Japanese:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4996194
Bittersweet fanvid, Japanese not needed but spoilers for the end of the arc
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm14731692
Cute fanart
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=manga&illust_id=25580223
Gorgeous fanart (was missing this link before):
And yay, a picture that I would totally love to read/watch more of!
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=21369043
This artist does a bunch of great Ulquihime (ウル織) art.
Some fun 4-coma manga:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=20015057
Sorry for the non-otome post, this pairing has just sucked me in recently. When I’m not playing FFVI (finally!) or Renai Banchou 2, I’m checking out pixiv and nicovideo and AO3 way too much. I think I’ve seen most of what’s out there – online at least, there is TONS of doujinshi.
Kazuki Yone
Just had to post this even though I just posted:
Here’s the new Kazuki Yone game, from Broccoli! Kamigami no Asobi for the PSP. Haha, they made a whole vid from one illustration.
More tomorrow or Wed.
Itty Bitty Review
Because I had to work late again I have no energy (and no memory power, which is why I can’t remember people’s names here), but I did play Ouma ga Toki a fair bit on the weekend. It’s good, but not as great as I’d hoped – I’ve finished two routes so far and they feel kind of short. I haven’t done Hisoka’s route yet, and I feel like that’s the ‘true’ one, so maybe that will feel more substantial. Also, since I’m not using a guide it’s quite possible I’m missing a bunch, although there aren’t that many choices to make overall.
I did Touno (Suwa, of course!) and the guy who helps out in the nurse’s room. One thing I found refreshing was that it was pretty heavily implied that once they were in a relationship, they had sex! Since they’re all youkai and pretty old, it makes sense that they wouldn’t be typically shy teenagers. Although it’s still not clear how old the heroine is – I think you only find out her whole story with Hisoka. I’ll have to finish his route next, but I took a break for some fluffy fun – Beastmaster and Prince ~Snow Bride~. Mofu mofu forever!
Ouma ga Toki
I’ve been working late so I’m kind of brain-dead, but for what it’s worth: I’m still not far into Ouma ga Toki, but so far I like it – the heroine is self-aware, kind of a smart-ass, and awesome in almost every way. There’s no gameplay and the music is bland, but the setting is fun and the characters are good so far. I’m trying to go for Tooya (CV: Suwabe Junichi), the banchou-type, but who knows how I’m doing – I can’t see any affection meter or anything.
Also got Kanuchi Futatsu no Tsubasa from amiami – SAL packet with no customs (phew). Now I have to decide how to order more games with the best shipping…
And still no Tokimemo 3! Booo.
C’est tout! G’night.
CD Japan
Along with Amiami, I’m trying out CDJapan, which I remember from a long time ago being pretty expensive. Well, it’s not a bargain basement, but their prices for special editions are totally reasonable, and they also often come with store specials. And the best thing about them is that you can always see how many of a certain edition of game or whatever they have available, so you can plan really well.
My first order from them was because I had tried to get Ouma ga Toki from Amiami, and a couple weeks later, they said they couldn’t get it for me. I rushed over to CDJapan and while, unfortunately, they didn’t have any limited editions left, they had the normal one still with the pre-order CD and a store special poster. So, since their shipping can be pretty expensive, I figured I may as well add some more to the order, and this is what I got today:
Clockwise from top left: Store special mini-poster (for once the do-S is doing something actually BDSM!), Kannou Mukashibanashi, two more store special mini-posters, Beastmaster and Prince fandisk, Ouma ga Toki, Renai Banchou pre-order CD (though I didn’t pre-order it, pretty sweet), Ouma ga Toki pre-order CD, and Renai Banchou Limited Edition.
That’s a pretty good haul, I think almost as good as some of my shopping days in Japan – though probably quite a bit more expensive. (；´Д｀) うぅっ。。
Anyways, I should be studying right now since I have a final exam tomorrow night, but I’m probably going to put Ouma ga Toki in my PSP very soon…even though I still haven’t finished one route in WoF II. （；￣д￣）ハァ
And it’s only been four days since Ouma ga Toki came out! And I could have had it on Friday if I had known how much the customs would be (hint: a lot), then I would have gotten it virtually one day after release! I’m still waiting for Tokimemo3 PSP, and that came out in the middle of March!
I’ll still have to do some number-crunching and figure out whether it’s truly worth it to pay the extra shipping and customs fees, but CDJapan is definitely a contender when you want to make sure you get a special edition or pre-order bonus.
Banner ads
Tokyo Demons
Glass Heart Princess
Desert Kingdom
Tsukikage no Kusari
Black Wolves Saga Last Hope
Love Revo!!
Issho ni Gohan
0ji no Cinderella
Vitamin Z Graduation
Custom Drive
Ozmafia!!
Koi wa Kousoku ni Shibararenai!
Shinobazu Seven
TYB
Genroh
Diabolik Lovers
Renai Banchou 2
Juuzaengi
Brothers Conflict
Shinigami to Shoujo