Japanese Reading Report: 03 August 2025

タコピーの原罪 episode 6

英雄伝説　空の軌跡ＦＣ

I didn't do very much in this game aside from cleaning up some of the final bits within Ruan. I guess I just ended up too busy with other things to sit down and play this much at all.

タコピーの原罪

A pretty good final episode to a pretty special series. I think I had the timeline slightly muddled in my mind in my reflection last week, but Takopi returns to the end-point of the original timeline, talks to Azuma, and then waits and waits for Shizuka to visit him. After their reunion and reconciliation Takopi finally figures out a way to save Marina and Shizuka and uses the happy camera to go back one last time.

白蝶記

I started reading this. To be honest, reading this on the train probably contributed to my neglect of Trails, even though I'm in no rush to finish this at all.

This story is set in Hokkaido (just like Takopi and Erased, what's with Hokkaido and "punished children" stories? Is it just that cold up there?). A group of three children living at an orphanage are sharing their pain to get through it all. The main character, Asahi, is sort of the leader. He feels some amount of responsibility for the other two. Itsuki is a shy bookworm boy and the same age as Asahi (I think). Hisaki is a younger female friend who adds an innocent element to the trio. She's very loyal to Asahi, always trying to find ways to spend time with the two boys, and I worry something bad will happen to her, so I think the writing is working so far.

The story starts with Asahi being released from a small shed outside the main orphanage used to punish him. One of his guardians, Ogura, makes it clear that this punishment is not officially endorsed, and also that Asahi and Itsuki have endured it for quite a long time. After some character setup the first story beat happens; Asahi receives a letter from his mother(????)
So far I've read a little bit beyond that. Asahi has responded to his mum's letter, asking for more details about her life, and telling her that he has friends in here that he wishes not to leave behind.

I sort of get the impression that there will be something supernatural about the story, though there haven't been many hints towards that, yet. Hisaki mentioned that Asahi helped her when he first arrived, but he has no memory of it. I wonder if he'll be a creature or something.

まったく最近の探偵ときたら

I watched two episodes of this anime. I plan to keep watching, I just haven't had much energy for things this week.

This is a gag anime about a middle-aged detective who used to be a famous young detective (think Akechi from Persona 5, or like an older Detective Conan) and his new, young female detective partner. The young partner, Mashiro, is definitely the core of the comedy. She's seemingly capable of any physical feat, and also not afraid to bend the law to achieve any client needs. In one episode she defeated a small Japanese crime family, and in the next episode she defused a bomb threat by kicking the bomb into a sports stadium. The episode about capturing a ghost was also pretty funny.

Wizardry Variants Daphne

I played a little bit of this, and it has Japanese support, so I might as well write about it. I've never played a Wizardry game, but I've known about the series as one that has had moderate success in Japan. I like 3D dungeon RPGs, and I've heard that Wizardry are some of the hardest there are. It's sort of a weird combination for a free-to-play gacha game. I read some steam reviews before really settling on the game (who knows how long I'll stick with it either way) and some reviews basically said the gacha element can be ignored, so that works for me.

The game starts with your character's death. After being slain by a demon, your body decomposes, your loot is... looted, and you turn to bones. And then you wake up. Between your death and resurrection the abyss you were traversing has left and returned to the world. You meet the ghost of a young woman, Lulunarde, who claims to have been a legendary adventurer who also died in the abyss. After discovering that you have the ability to reverse time with your right hand (possibly the same curse that brought you back to life), you escape the abyss, kill some would-be bandits, steal their masks to hide your own undead face, and return to civilisation.

From there the story is basically about returning to the abyssal dungeon to search for a royal envoy, including the king himself, who were possibly captured by a powerful demon lord. There are some side quests, you build your party with gacha (but they give enough resources to start out for free), and then the loop is basically just exploring one big dungeon.
One point of weirdness for me is that your envoy isn't just you and the party, it's also one supporting fighter (fair enough, he's in the party and contributes in his own ways) and then two not-so-supporting knights. They'll talk during new discoveries, but they never help at all. Kinda lazy.