Japanese Reading Report: 29 September 2024

This week was fairly standard considering my other commitments. I am getting close to the end of エロゲー文化研究概論ぶんかけんきゅうがいろん , finished ホワイトアルバム 1 (seasons 1 and 2), and started ホワイトアルバム 2. I also managed to find some free time and completed one full game of アマガミ. More below.

エロゲー文化研究概論

This week I finished the section between 2010 and 2014. The first notable chapter was when エロゲー文化研究概論 referenced its own release. The version I'm reading is actually the 増補ぞうほ改訂版かいていばん (revised edition) which contains an additional section for developments in the industry between 2014 and 2016. Even then, the book begins to feel outdated to me. How would 宮本直毅みやもとなおき (the author) feel about the advent of generative AI, the attack of adult media in convenience stores in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics, or the crackdown by payment processors on adult media affecting digital storefronts? I can't help but think now, more than ever, we need people to speak openly about healthy relationships with adult media.

The return of ごほうび系 (ごほうび here refers to games where nudity or partial nudity is treated as a reward for certain kinds of play) games came up with 艦かんこれ as an example. 艦これ was one of the first successful Gacha games. The goal is to collect girls who represent military sea vessels (battleships, cruisers, etc.), engage in some simple gameplay, and advance to different events. The ごほうび part comes from the fact that the "shipgirls" can shed their clothing and other parts by taking damage. It's another example of the flexibility of the 遊び＋エロ format where a working gameplay loop forms a foundation, and eroticism is added to spice things up.

There were two related chapters about developments in 2D games. First was the technology called "E-Mote", a tool that allowed still 2D images to be animated with keyframes and layer manipulation. A modern counterpart is Live2D which is the go-to software used by vtubers and other virtual performers.
The second was a developer called TinkleBell who became known for their extremely well animated games using a "2.5D" engine. Their latest game (at time of publication) was 輪舞曲りんぶきょく Duo -夜明よあけのフォルテシモ- ぷにゅぷりff (2014). A curse causes students of an all-girl's school to become フタナリ (basically AFAB but with penises). I haven't seen that term come up much in the last few years so there was a kind of nostalgia reading about it (I suppose the game is 10 years old at this point). I decided to try the demo for the game. More on that below.

ホワイトアルバム

Overall I was fairly satisfied by this story. Some of the stylistic choices I mentioned last week became more muddy towards the end. Season 2 almost completely dropped the strategic use of watercolour, but it was still an enjoyable experience. The "next episode" preview sections after the credits in season 2 were particularly vibrant. A calendar or something containing the artwork in those sections would be very nice to own. Aha, anyway...
I think the biggest weakness is that the 浮気うわき (cheating) aspect of the story is not really given the gravity it deserves. 冬弥とうや's affair with 弥生やよい is treated particularly casually. It's kind of cartoonish in a way. There was a point late in season 2 where 冬弥 has a moment with each of the girl's he has fooled around with and there is a kind of "goodbye all of Evangelion" (from rebuild movie 3.0+1.0 [spoilers for all of Evangelion]) feeling to those conversations.

Ultimately I'm glad that 由綺ゆき was not totally destroyed by 冬弥's lack of commitment. There was a sense of maturity in each of the characters at the end. The duet Powder Snow between 由綺 and 理奈りな was very nice and felt like a good capstone for the sisterhood between those two characters.

ホワイトアルバム２

I had high hopes for this series. People had told me not to even bother with WA1 and to skip right to WA2 since they are too loosely connected to matter. I decided to ignore that advice because I was more interested in the creative journey than the narrative journey. I think WA1 might be better.

WA2 is set about 20 years after WA1. Where WA1 is a period drama set about 20 years prior to the development of the original story, WA2 is a contemporary anime set only six years prior to the anime's release (and only three prior to the visual novel's setting, assuming both are set in 2007). WA1 features a mostly adult cast which is a somewhat uncommon setting for anime. WA2 is set in a highschool. All of the interesting audio and visual decisions made in WA1 have been scrapped. WA2 is very standard.
The main theme of both stories is 浮気. But WA1 had established the MC as already in an alienated relationship with an idol. On the other hand WA2 starts the story as a plain romance where the MC is torn between two available girls.

As for the actual story and setting. Basically the plot is that three teenagers are inspired by the White Album (yes the very one produced in WA1) and want to perform for the music club at the end of year festival. There is a love triangle between the three main characters.

So I'm a little bit concerned that the story won't get to where it needs by the end of 13 episodes. The level of drama is still quite low at six episodes. Despite my misgivings I am still swayed by the high praise of the visual novel. I may play it when I have some free time (it's quite long, apparently).

アマガミ

I finally finished an ending of アマガミ. The ending was quite satisfying, but first I'd like to touch on the main disappointment of the game. The ソエン stories (briefly mentioned last week) turned out to be fairly uneventful. I am curious if part of the reason was that I had secured my Christmas Eve plans so my character had somewhere to be. Perhaps in a total failure run those stories would have a final moment to experience that would wrap them up. Ah well...

So 梨穂子りほこ and I spent the last days of December together, capped off with a nice Christmas Eve in the city. It was a bit of a surprise that the relationship was tender and uncertain right to the end. The confessions of love were very heartfelt but there was a sense that these two characters didn't really know each other that well (which is particularly odd since 梨穂子 is the childhood friend character - someone with a lot of history with the MC).

I have one last grievance about the conversation system. If the list of "good" topics has been exhausted in a conversation, it will automatically count as "good" and move to the next turn. This is normally pretty useful, but I had exhausted all of the first three high tension turns for 梨穂子. Every time we spoke she would move directly to turn 4. But failure during turn 4 always moved her into mid tension, making the アタック option inaccessible. After half a dozen conversations I had tried and failed every conversation topic except for エッチ, which I avoided because it ends conversations at high tension if it succeeds...
I ended up in a situation where it would have been advantageous to not fill out one of the earlier turns, moved into turn 4 at mid tension, and then advanced up to turn 5 with high tension.
Was that design intentional? It didn't feel very pleasant to miss several ごほうび scenes, but I was strongly opposed to saving for better outcomes so perhaps I'll experience those scenes in another loop.

アマガミ scenario map

My final scenario map after finishing 梨穂子's story. 梨穂子's section is orange. 森島はるか's is lavender.

輪舞曲Duo -夜明けのフォルテシモ- ぷにゅぷりff 体験版

As mentioned in the section on エロゲー文化研究概論, the unique aspects of this game's visuals intrigued me enough to pick up the demo (体験版たいけんばん). I spent around 40 minutes playing before reaching the end. The animation style really is quite interesting, however the animations get a bit exhausting. Character idle animations are exaggerated to an absurd degree. I think the animation would work better for me if the idle loop was a bit more relaxed. The actual visual style and snappiness during dialogue was pretty cool.

The prologue was fairly interesting. The main character was raised as a boy by her father because he blamed her mother's "femininity" for her death. Unfortunately the story then immediately time skips to the main character attending the all-girl's school with no indication that her upbringing was particularly meaningful. Other than being kind of gloomy and possessing a succubus familiar / companion, she didn't really do anything interesting. Considering she's the MC it's curious that the demo's only sex scene was between two unrelated characters. The drama for that scene was kind of interesting at least. The 受け (bottom) character in the scene agrees to have sex with the other girl because she wants to protect a friend of hers, but there is also the implication that she's also acting selfishly. As I understand it, if you have sex with a フタナリ the curse is spread to you, so it's likely that the girl here was looking for a way to express her own love for the friend she vows to "protect".
I think there is a bit to explore with regards to gender and sexuality in erotic games, but I don't have much to say on it now.

There was a fun musical theme to the game. I don't really know music so it was just an aesthetic for me, but it added to the overall vibe of the game. I probably won't play the full game but I appreciated the opportunity to try out something new.