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...

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 ...

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...

Long winded story for a surprisingly grounded and realistic depiction of work life and workplace romance. My Japanese skills is as I mentioned countless times before, inadequate and weak, so I got through a lot of the game with minimal understanding and may misinterpret the plot. Yumeutsutsu Remaster (henceforth Yurimaster) is tiring and boring at times, but it's worth it to get to the true route which is surprisingly very different from the other routes but one that at least makes use of some early foreshadowing and actually ties into the themes of the whole game and even down to the title. However, the existence of a true route pretty much invalidates the existence of the other routes, making them feel like side routes by comparison. The side routes are written by different authors to the common and true route, further highlighting this discrepancy. This also has the effect of characters acting differently in different routes. Kokoro for instance is a horrible control freak in ...

Just got done finishing the Grand Route for this after god knows how long, and I have to say I loved this VN a lot. A big budget VN with great productions values and actually has a good intriguing story to complement its presentation. As with my favourite VNs, its a mystery novel with a lot of comfy slice of life moments in the beginning to ease you in. One of my favourite things Aoishiro does is how it shakes things up in each route making otherwise familiar scenes in feel more naturally integrated (a character may make some different comments based on something you said earlier). I really like this attention to detail you don't see very often. I also like how each main route is integrated into the overall storyline. Unlike other "pick your fav girl" VNs I've played, the routes to each main love interest is very naturally written and doesn't feel like you're picking off a list of candidates. In some routes you won't even meet a love interest from a comp...