Japanese Reading Report: 07 September 2025

Island

この素晴らしい世界に祝福を！２

What can I say? Konosuba is absolutely perfect and I wish I hadn't put it off for so long. It's the kind of show where I just want to rewatch every episode. Every joke is funny, every character is likeable, and the plot moves smoothly from moment to moment. The final few episodes all took place in a town that worships Aqua (though she doesn't receive any direct worship until the last episode) and I really liked the whole cult gag that ran through the arc. The episode where Kazuma gets his new sword was very funny, and I like how he basically doesn't get to use it for the whole series.

ランス01 光をもとめて

I didn't play too much Rance this week. I gained access to the northern part of the castle; it was interesting to see a second set of areas to visit. Just like the anime adaptation, the story lead to the colosseum, which lead to a need for a tournament pass, which lead to the showdown in the graveyard with the cute guard. I managed to complete the graveyard event in one try, but I failed to beat her in the competition so she left without any fun scenes. It's an absolute travesty...

ISLAND

I was only expecting to advance to the end of Sara's route this week but I ended up focusing on this game more than anything else, so I ended up completing the Sara route and the Rinne route. I'm sorry, Sara, I was planning to give you more attention!!!

Sara's Route: There were a few twists during this route, and it was definitely a small improvement over the story with Karen, but I think it's also clear that Karen's and Sara's routes are just the foundation for a bigger story that they don't yet plan to resolve. Sara has a big complex about her mother who died 5 years prior to the game's events. Sara feels like she's inherited a big burden from her mother, Maria. That burden feeds into the entire story, culminating in a realisation that Sara herself might be her own mother and therefore Sara is also destined to pass that same burden onto a future (or past) Sara before dying in an inevitable time loop. Everything in the route confirms Sara's expectations, and a pivotal date—her 17th birthday—marks a "deadline" by which point she's destined to either continue the loop or cause a time paradox. Somehow the story manages to complicate and simplify the truth of things, which sort of leads to an ending that felt a bit like a gag. I like Arima, but I think she's a bit over the top considering the implications of what she's responsible for.

Rinne's Route: I'm proud to say that I effortlessly found the entry into this route after finishing Sara's. I really liked the phrasing of the choice to enter, since it reflected my experiences as a player, not just Setsuna's feelings.

Rinne's Route. Island.

Rinne's route starts quickly, the characters confessing their feelings early, and we also quickly learn about Rinne's history with the past Setsuna. The most important detail to know at this point is that Rinne and Setsuna were swept away to a mysterious island 5 years ago, and only Rinne returned. There were a few light-hearted daily life scenes, and Setsuna's main goal involved attempts to get Rinne to come out of her shell and return to day-time life. It goes fairly smoothly until Setsuna discovers that Rinne's account of events earlier included some lies of omission. Setsuna confronts her about it, and that leads to a cycle of fighting and making up between the two characters.
The game continues to reveal the "true history" of what happened to the previous Setsuna and Rinne 5 years earlier, and each new explanation made complete sense. I think the annoying thing is that the story was never satisfied by its own explanations. After each "reveal" I expected the story to settle on that and move on, but it turns out "what happened 5 years ago" is a question this route was fixated on right to the end.

One element I liked about this route was that idea that all the other routes are still canonical. Setsuna frequently "recalls" events of Karen and Sara's routes to problem solve, demonstrating that he is growing as a person alongside the player. Since we as players are incapable of "forgetting", I like that the game also imprints Setsuna with our experiences to some degree. This all comes to a head during a scene where Setsuna has to rally help from everyone in town, and he casually befriends several key characters who only appeared during the latter parts of Karen's and Sara's routes.

I was pretty compelled by the final arc of the route, though my interest sort of felt like a rollercoaster. At times I was rooting for Setsuna and Rinne to finally accept their roles in the cosmos and live their lives together, and at times I was ready to throw my game at the wall because there were character choices that felt pointlessly self defeating. There was kind of a grim conclusion before the credits, which lead into the epilogue...

So the epilogue. This mostly features Setsuna, Momoka (a scientist from the mainland who we met briefly at the end of Karen's route), and Kuon (Rinne's mother). They discuss the aftermath of the route, and the finally raise the question of the 海上ステーション. We learn a bit about who was involved at the lab, and what exactly they studied. We also learn one more, final fact about what happened with Rinne and Setsuna 5 years ago. From here I'll be getting deep into spoiler territory, so read at your discretion.

It turns out there never was a rip in time that allowed Rinne to "jump" 5 years into the future. The "boat" Rinne believed she rode back to the main island was actually a cryogenic tank that froze her for 5 years until she was found. That's why her Setsuna died, though it doesn't really explain some of our Setsuna's memories (maybe they were explained and I missed it, or maybe there will be further revelations). Now in the present, our plan is to continue our role as Setsuna, use the cryotank ourselves, and meet a future reincarnation of Rinne to finally fulfil the myth and promise of Setsuna and Rinne.

During the retrieval of the cryogenic tank from the laboratory, the planned demolition of the lab (first experienced near the end of Karen's route) starts early and the tank falls into the ocean. Setsuna, knowing this is his final chance to truly be united with Rinne, jumps into the ocean to retrieve the tank, but it's too heavy and starts to sink. He steels himself for whatever might happen, climbs in, and freezes himself.

So that's sort of the end of Rinne's route. Here's a second, more serious warning. What happens next is not at all what I expected. With that final spoiler warning out of the way, here's what happens next...

Setsuna dreams for years and years. He forgets everything except Rinne's name. Just when he's about to lose even that, the capsule opens and he stumbles out, uttering Rinne's name. A familiar face approaches him and asks why he called out to her, and then Setsuna collapses.
Then there's a brand new opening movie featuring remixed versions of each character and a new title: Never Island. There's a second game within the game (゜Д゜≡゜Д゜)

We then wake up in a dystopian underground living space where a 13-year old Linne introduces herself. She refers to herself as リンネ with katakana (whereas the previous Rinne was 凛音), and later we see how she spells her name in English, so I'll be going with that spelling to better distinguish her from Island's Rinne. Linne has a totally different personality to Rinne, and at first I wondered if was just a matter of the Rinne's pre-existing traumas, but Linne has plenty of her own problems, so maybe it has more to do with how she perceives Setsuna in the context of her life. The game politely puts her into the game menu, flow chart, and settings.

I played a little bit further into this route, finding out that the year is 22016, the world has "frozen over" ever since the loss of a mysterious king. Humanity now lives in environmental domes, but the resource shortage and harsh living conditions mean that characters like Linne suspect they'll live to see the world end.
I've also met the new iterations of Sara and Karen. Garandou Sara is now Sarah Garland, a priestess in this society's Christianity analogue. Karen hasn't been introduced very much, but she is referred to as 札無し, lacking an identity and therefore any human rights to food, work, or other dignities. She seems to be leading a rebellion force, assaulting a church of the aforementioned religion while we're visiting.

I wasn't sure if Setsuna had truly forgotten his name or if he was just playing coy, but it seems like this route is a true reset for him (for now). Luckily for him, Linne has an older brother called Setsuna who went missing 5 years ago, so he's able to assume the brother's identity. I'm not sure how the game romanizes this era's Setsuna, but I'll make adjustments in future reports if it comes up.

トラベル★ジャンクション

I didn't directly control this game, but I cooperatively read through the prologue so I might as well report on it.

This game is very similar to 同級生 , a game I played and reported on about a year ago. Both are sexual fantasy games. Their worlds are sexually elevated and there's always the impression that any girl you meet is open to sex if the conditions are right. Both games are also quite funny, featuring gag situations (usually at the main character's expense) similar to a comedy manga or anime.

It was surprisingly easy to access the first sex scene, and it was also surprising to see that you must have sex with the first potential partner to advance beyond the prologue and into the game's true opening. The first partner is really funny. She's the daughter of a CEO of a fictional travel agency you're applying to work at. If you act passively towards her she'll start making assumptions, but if you try to get past her by being rude or pushy she folds immediately, confessing to the player that men are soft these days and that she's been waiting for a strong man like you to boss her around. If you manage to avoid sex with her you end up getting an early ending where you marry her, inherit the business, and are living the high life, haunted by the uncertainty of "what if?"
However, if you have sex with her you end up missing the job interview and starting the game proper in a much less prestigious travel agency.