Narumi's long winded reviews

Without any metafiction narrative, without any mystery, and without any horror, Rose Gun Days stands out from R07's more famous When They Cry series by being a surprisingly striaghtforward, no-frills gangland drama. That doesn't mean it's any less worth reading or alienating if you're a fan of his previous works. At its heart, it's manages to be one of Ryukishi's most captivating works in spite of its simplicity. In essence, Rose Gun Days tells a very simple story of how a small alliance of Ladies of the Evening became a mafia powerhouse, told through the lens of 3 groups of distinct protagonists from the years 1947 to 1950, with Madam Rose as a central character throughout. Along the way you have a lot of socio-political commentary for the time period and modern times, despite RGD taking place in an alternate Japan, many modern events still occurred as with real life history, and a lot of real world events and figures are directly alluded to in writing. It ma...

Iwaihime is a story about curses and people succumbing to their own paranoia as their visions and perceptions of the world distort in horrific and unimaginable ways. In other words, it's Higurashi , albeit a mediocre discount supermarket brand variant of Higurashi . Playing Iwaihime has contantly reminded me of Ryukishi's previous works, namely Higurashi and Umineko , and this constant comparison really doesn't do it any favours. Several scenes in Iwaihime bear great resemblance to those from R07's previous works, only they're executed with a lot less grace in this leading to this constant back and forth comparing the games scene by scene. And who could blame me for doing so? The game advertises itself as being written by Ryukishi himself and I bought into the hype precisely because of this, and you know what they say about misplaced expectations. As a horror story Iwaihime just simply doesn't work. It's nearing Halloween so I deliberately played this at ni...

Muv-Luv Trilogy Going into Muv-Luv entirely blind isn't at all a possible feat. Its reputation as being one of the most highly rated VNs in VNDB and other similar sites has made its true genre clear, in that it is a grimdark mecha setting with politics and war. So the twist of transitioning from the harem romcom antics from Muv Luv Extra all the way to the suffering in Muv Luv Alternative is lost on many folks including myself. Still, I'll be avoiding more intricate spoilers in my review while I will be going no-holds-barred on my Extended Thoughts.  Review (Spoiler-Free...relatively) If you're already a fan of Mecha or VNs chances are you've already played this immensely popular VN already. However, if you're like me and have been living under a rock for the past 20 years or so and have come to try out Muv Luv (really Alternative ) because of the critical acclaim Alternative has received, this review section is for you.  First though, a littl...

Short Reviews I (Subarashiki Hibi, Dies Irae) Shorter Reviews from my normal stuff compiled in one easy to find package. Subarashiki Hibi: I don't smoke, but I feel like a cigarette after this.  Subahibi is a very denpa story at times and is fairly surreal and uncomfortable at times. In the beginning, it asks you (metaphorically) whether you want to follow the March Hare down to Wonderland or remain in your Wonderful Everyday. Once you start your journey, it's a neverending barrage of madness and existentialism all the way to the end. And it's beautiful, stressful, unnerving, and at times depressing. Without going any further into spoilers, I do highly recommend giving this a read, it's a real page turner and the music is almost hypnotic at times. Though perhaps read or watch something a bit more light-hearted in between reads.  [Highlight to view spoilers] I sort of lied in the earlier paragraph to protect the spoilers. The main story outside ...

Thoughts on Umineko The following post will start with a spoiler-free review of Umineko followed by a spoiler-filled review/critique/analysis separated by a few filler images. I firmly believe Umineko is best experienced as a VN and as blindly as possible, given its nature as a mystery novel. If you need further convincing, read on. Spoiler-free Review To paraphrase a YouTube comment, "The first thing you see in Umineko is a delusional old man yelling 'OH BEATOORIIICEEEEE' and by the end of the VN we are in his shoes, screaming at the skies for our dear Beatrice". Umineko had me hooked right from the beginning and even a few weeks later after the end, I can't stop thinking about it.  Before starting Umineko , I would greatly recommend (if not require) experiencing Higurashi to some degree (The anime itself is sufficient for this). While not a direct sequel, Umineko does utilize several writing conventions and styles from Higurashi and executes ...

SeaBed  The moment where I firmly realized how much this VN has an impact with me only came a few weeks later as I was playing a Raising Sim made in RPGMaker. Seabed uses royalty free stock music for its BGM. When I heard one of the tracks play in that Raising Sim, I just sat there stunned, unable to do anything else. The track doesn’t even play in any of the pivotal moments, it played mostly during the first half of the game. And even then memories of the VN just flooded me and I was unable to continue. That was how much Seabed meant to me. Seabed is a mystery/drama/travel diary centered around the stories of two women and how their relationship fell apart. Presentation wise it is extremely dry. The VN is written as if it were an actual paperback novel, i.e. it’s mostly descriptive (very dryly written at that) and dull without taking much advantage of the medium it’s in. So not much dialogue or voice acting or the like. It’s in the NVL format too which I do so despise. T...

The one that started it all. For an incredibly popular series, Lyrical Toy Box received scant coverage and documentation in the English community. Being a fan of Nanoha and craving more Nanoha content in anticipation for the 15th anniversary, I took it upon myself to go through Lyrical Toy Box. Unlike my other articles, this retrospective will serve three purposes: A review, A summary and A comparison to the spin-off series, Lyrical Nanoha. Indeed, reading through several fan wikis only provided the bare minimum information, occasionally wrong information (such as the nature of Chrono and Lindy’s relationship), so this article will hopefully make a mark in the English-speaking community. I had only very recently got into the Nanoha series as a consequence of being a fan of Symphogear. Prior to this I only know Nanoha as “that one yuri series where two girls have a daughter”. Nanoha being a mahou shoujo anime spinoff of an eroge isn’t too surprising (it’s perhaps the most famous...