Reading Report: 29 March 2026

マブラブ

This week was pretty full on. It's one of those event weeks, so I'm pre-writing some parts to go live on Sunday while I'm busy.

マブラブ

This week I started and finished the Chizuru route in this game. Muv-Luv doesn't seem to have any timeline/route map in game, so to navigate to new routes you have to start from the start and run through all previous story beats. You can fast-forward through previously-seen parts, so it goes by quickly, but I felt kind of guilty that scenes with Chizuru that are part of the core story got skipped over in a playthrough where I wanted to give her my attention. Well, I got over that guilty feeling eventually, and the Chizuru story beats were still quite meaty by themselves.

At the end of the lacrosse arc I decided to make a choice that I thought would be obviously bad, but it turns out it's critical to whether your team wins lacrosse or not. I wouldn't realise it until after finishing the Chizuru route, but it also turns out that Chizuru and Kei's routes require the loss outcome, because deeper understanding of their character requires them to be at their most vulnerable, I suppose.

I really liked Chizuru's route. Even though I chose Kei first, I think Chizuru is a more interesting character, and it was nice to have a partner who actually used her words (though 30% of them were バカ...). I was really surprised by the truth of her life at home, but I think learning about it and helping her come to terms with it was very engaging. Maybe the only weakness was in the way Takeru engages in some of the conversations with Chizuru. I felt like his commitment to help her was a slam dunk win, but he expresses it in a really clumsy way and it just forces the pair to have the same conversation/argument over and over. Then again, they're just teenagers so a little immaturity is warranted.

Returning to the lacrosse-winning route, I followed the Chizuru-focused version of that (I had a Kei and Chizuru save at that point) and decided my next route would be whatever that ends up looking like. I'm not sure if it's a Sumika or Meiya route or something totally different. I feel a bit bad for not touching Miki yet, but I'll get back to her after this route ends.

あきそら

I read volume 4 of this and part of volume 5, since the week was quite busy. Volume 4 introduced a few nice nuances, like how Kana feels about Nami. The longer this series goes on, the more strained I feel Sora and Aki's relationship becomes. At times there seem to be moments of true love between them, but the framing keeps making Sora look put out or uncomfortable during some of Aki's affectionate moments. I'm not sure if it's because he feels guilty about not telling her about his other sexual partners, but it's there (I think). There was also a chapter about the Aoi family's mother, who is actually their aunt filling in for her dead twin sister, covering up the elaborate lie she's been playing out for the last decade or so. When Sora almost catches her out she even turns to scolding her arm to replicate an injury Sora remembers from his childhood.

恋する乙女と守護の楯

I only played a couple of hours of this but it was pretty fun. I didn't have many choices to spend time with individual girls, but I did experience a funny cooking competition (where I got to cook with Yuri and Setsuko) and the first nude scene in the game, a visit to the school bathhouse. Takeo was able to avoid detection by being a maid for the other girls, though she was also forced to give them massages, causing severe mental (sexual?) anguish. I hope she will survive.