Pretty short book by Sugaru Miaki based on an AMV concept trailer by loundraw (https://myanimelist.net/anime/35932/Yume_ga_Sameru_made). It’s a story where Miaki took the catchaphrase from the animation video paraphrasing a bit: “what is the correct answer sacrifice a girl to save the world? or save the girl and let the world end?” to make a short novel about a girl carrying the key to save humanity from a disease that blocks humans from forgetting sad memories. I guess it counts as some sort of novelization, but watching the trailer it’s almost an entirely new thing with the same concept and two main characters, it does still have some scenes from the animation, so it was cool to watch it after finishing it. It’s especially interesting since Miaki’s approach seems like the complete opposite that the one loundraw thought, but maybe I’m reading too much into a 1 minute video.
I was sitting on this novel for no reason since I grabbed it after finishing 三日間の幸福 (mikkakan no koufuku) like 5 years ago, I was interested in reading more from Sugaru Miaki since his writing style reminded me of Setoguchi and he deals with themes I adore like depression, love, loneliness, etc in a gloomy atmosphere, but also capable of showing those peeks of happy times when needed. Miaki is finally releasing a new book real soon after 6 years, so what better time to read this. Kimi no Hanashi was actually his last one before the break.
A few months ago I finally read through Gunjou and so finishing the four main Hayakari VNs, now I was in the mood for more and remembered I bought this infamous(?) LN from him ages ago. It was released back in 2008 under Ichijinsha bunko, a label releasing lots of interesting titles back then, including some from eroge writers like this one here. Sadly most of them are not in Kindle since the label doesn’t seem it was very popular and didn’t last long before they gradually stopped releasing new stuff, right before ebooks started to pick up.
People were hyping this up in Discord recently, grabbed it quickly after seeing a few screenshots and realizing it was a timeloop story. I have to say, this is one of the best doujin VNs I have ever seen, with some of the best passages comparable to top commercial eroge. It’s a pleasant surprise to find something like this with a theme you love, beautiful writing, and the commitment to not hold back at all. I have no idea who the writer is or what he does with different pennames, but he should be among the greats after this.
I’ve been meaning to read more books from the old Fujimi Mystery Bunko, and what better than this highly acclaimed short novel from what’s probably the most famous writer that published under the label. I have no experience with Sakuraba other than watching a couple of anime episodes of Gosick, but I’m pleasantly surprised with the result here, not in the way I expected but still a solid book overall.
Read through all the endings on Angelos Armas, it’s a game that came into my radar with the 20th anniversary videos (warning end game spoilers CGs in the MV) NitroPlus did a few years ago since it has some of the best vocal songs I’ve seen, the opening “Samenai Netsu” and “Kesshou” have been in my playlist since then. Also I was curious since it is the one N+ game I’ve never seen anyone actually play; seems like it is one of their less popular VNs in general. Not entirely sure how well it did back in the day but looking at EGS vote number seems pretty much under everything else N+ did. and after playing it I feel like it is kind of going a bit under the radar, it is certainly an interesting title to say the least.
This doujin eroge attracted my attention back when it released in 2022 mostly because the premise plus the writer’s twitter seemingly having good taste posting about a bunch of cool VNs. It’s about a depressed guy being heavy on medication with a bunch of weird things going on, like the title indicates it’s heavy on drugs, crime, sex assault, etc.
Gakuto has been a writer I’ve been interested for a long time; I even have a set of Missing laying around waiting to be read. So when I saw a new series by him, and being somewhat supernatural horror type of series I had to give it a try. There are two volumes currently out with a third one just announced coming in May, so this is based solely on the first two books.
I just finished Imouto to Kanojo, one of the most interesting romance drama VN I’ve read, Masaki Shunsuke’s writing is really something else; it’s very captivating and mood-setting. The way he structures and plots his routes is unlike anything else; hes great at playing with your expectations to the point that I’m sure wether you have played his earlier title Hajimete no Kanojo or not would also change your way of approaching Imokano
From what I’ve heard Hajimete no Kanojo started as some sort of nukige but the writer decided to take it to the next level when (I imagine) he realized he could do something interesting there; as a result it is kind of a glorified nukige since it has like a hundreds ero scenes but also it has a interesting display of his writing abilities playing some tricks between the protagonist and reader’s pov accompanied by some cool character writing, especially when you get to the “ura” routes and his unconventional way of “ending” the routes also hit me hard since it’s not something you usually see in eroge, they’re very FullDespair and play with your expectations building up between them.
The more Ishikawa I read the more I think he’s one of the most skillful and interesting writers in the LN sphere, this book is a perfect example of how I feel about him, it’s a bit of an oddball since the book kinds of keeps changing genres being all over the place, and also told in a odd way. I had my doubts in the middle but he managed to make it work and hit all the right spots by the end.
