Reviews on completed shows
Shira Oka is an original English dating sim that you might have heard of. It’s notable, sort of–the OP has real animation in it–but it otherwise flew under the radar in anime fandom (the indie game crowd might be different). The game is charming where it counts and flawed in forgivable ways. Flaws are flaws, though, and “charming” is as close to emotionally affecting as it gets.
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I’ve always maintained that tone and atmosphere can trump plot given the right author’s touch. This was more or less the case for Chica Umino‘s first manga series, Honey and Clover, which successfully finds the middle ground between subjective narration and a show-don’t-tell approach to character development. It’s an odd but effective style that results in characters that range from translucent to opaque depending on the time of day.
Her follow-up series, March Comes in like a Lion, hereby referred to as Sangatsu no Lion or 3gatsu, is similar. Its plot is a departure from Umino’s previous manga: it follows the life of a teenage Shogi pro who also happens to be an orphan (or the other way around as the story quickly implies). Unexpectedly, the plot is roughly the same as every other slice-of-life or coming-of-age anime, featuring lonely protagonists interacting with an upbeat cast to discover a less lonely world.
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In dire need of an imouto route.
Contrary to what some believe (possibly even the popular belief), dating sims are an intricate art. They’re not about the (nonexistent) ero-scenes or other forms of sexual titillation, and they demand more depth from their characters–even if it’s an illusion of depth–than your average moege. They are, after all, referred to as “romance simulation” in Japanese. Much like a good moe series that puts its own spin on the tried-and-true archetypes, good dating sims demand immersive writing that doesn’t rely on plot.
Judging from AIC’s adaptation, Amagami is indeed a good dating sim. I was underwhelmed at first since the show opened with perhaps the least realistic arc, but it quickly became evident that, despite the absence of Kenichi Kasai’s rather liberal interpretation, I was enjoying the series as much as KimiKiss.
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Tamayura turned a few heads when it was released toward the end of 2010, though most of those heads belonged to viewers who already adored director Junichi Sato’s work on the Aria franchise. The two anime are similar in the ways that count for the genre–Sato manages to build an aura of magic and childlike wonder around his settings, and he explores them at a laid-back pace. Tamayura’s presentation isn’t spectacular or particularly memorable but something about it reached me more effectively than Aria did.
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I wish this post title was only for the sake of getting your attention, but no, that’s actually what they call it.
Saint October is the kind of show that, by and large, flies by unnoticed to all but its target audience. Some may remember it from its run in 2007, but outside of that, it seems that only the serious moe fans with too much time on their hands bother to pursue it – and bother to complain that it has yet to be fully subbed. (As an aside, I’ll be subbing the remainder of the series with my friend, so keep an eye out if you’re curious).
At any rate, the show got me thinking about my old opinions on Cardcaptor Sakura and innocence in the magical girl genre, and seems that I’ve stumbled into a slight variation that’s amusing in its own way. Believe it or not, Saint October isn’t quite what it looks like.
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SonoHana is one of the better known yuri titles in the eroge world, and the fan translation from back in February has introduced me to the first game in the long-running series. The sole franchise of the company Fuguriya, SonoHana‘s most distinctive trait is its idealized portrayal of love and sex in the male-targeted yuri tradition. Some would call it a smut, others would call it a pure love story that’s impure in all the right places. Both are somewhat right. What I do know is that the game isn’t a bad way to spend $20 and ~5 hours.
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