Mirai Shounen Conan is the first anime that I'm rating as 8 - definite masterpiece.
Despite all the looks I still find as many as ten games to be great. And still 50 openings to enjoy 
Somehow both number of masterpieces (14) and number of openings I am able to collect in 
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Anime of the Year 1977 - Araiguma Rascal
There are no masterpieces in 1977 for me. Among the 6s, Araiguma Rascal is my choice.
Anime of the Year 1976 - Hana no Kakarichou
No masterpieces for me, but I'd like to highlight another slice-of-life old comedy Hana no Kakarichou .
VN of the Month May 2022 - AMBITIOUS MISSION
According to late tradition there is only one release to compete for the game of the month and that's AMBITIOUS MISSION
Anime of the Year 1975 - Shounen Tokugawa Ieyasu
Sadly, no masterpieces for me this year. But Shounen Tokugawa Ieyasu might be one if it was translated.
Anime of the Year 1974 - Uchuu Senkan Yamato
Uchuu Senkan Yamato is innovative in many aspects. Pacing can sometimes be slow with it, but I enjoyed first season and looking forward to second and third ones. The only definite masterpiece for me in 1974 .
Anime of the Year 1973 - Dororon Enma-kun
There are no masterpieces for me in 1973, but I rate Dororon Enma-kun higher than others.
Anime of the Year 1972 - Dokonjou Gaeru
Dokonjou Gaeru is a great comedy series and the only masterpiece in 1972 for me.
Anime of the Year 1971 - Ali Baba to 40-hiki no Touzoku
Ali Baba to 40-hiki no Touzoku is a memorable video with full translation, yet still not a masterpiece for me
Anime of the Year 1970 - Cleopatra
There aren't masterpieces inside 1970 anime for me, but among scores of 6 I'd choose one that has a full English translation, and thus Cleopatra .
Anime of the Year 1960s - Taiyou no Ouji: Horus no Daibouken
Since I don't like to make separate posts for small things , here are principles that anime list is based on - no anime for kids, no hentai, no anime with episodes under 10 minutes, no OVA that are recaps of series episodes or with length under 30 minutes, no boys love, no non-Japanese language anime.
As for anime of the 1960s, Taiyou no Ouji: Horus no Daibouken is the only masterpiece for me in this period.
VN of the Month April 2022 - Futamata Ren'ai
Futamata Ren'ai is our only candidate/winner this month.
VN of the Month March 2022 - Unless Terminalia
It's becoming a tradition, but there's again just one candidate that fits to run for game of the month and wins by default - Unless Terminalia
VN of the Month February 2022 - RE:D Cherish
The good news that there is still a release that qualifies to run for the game of the month - RE:D Cherish . The bad news that it's again the only one that fits the criteria for me.
VN of the Month January 2022 - Hentai Prison
Just one game qualifies to run for game of the month and it becomes winner by default - Hentai Prison
VN of the Year 2021 - Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o
Despite all the looks I still find as many as ten games to be great. And still 50 openings to enjoy Visual Novel Openings 2021 . Since I prioritize chunige , my choice for the year is Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o . As for plans, hardly anything has changed except that I'm first going for Sakura, Moyu. -As the Night's, Reincarnation- , but so far only recorded common route over last three months, so useless to plan further. Will definitely get more active when I finish all the postponed RPGs , six titles accumulated so far.
VN of the Month November 2021 - Sousaku Kanojo no Ren'ai Koushiki
There are as many as two games about GameDev, and since there's not much else to look at, one of them Sousaku Kanojo no Ren'ai Koushiki becomes game of the Month.
VN of the Month September 2021 - Fuyukara, Kururu.
For me only Fuyukara, Kururu. makes a stand in September.
VN of the Month August 2021 - Princess x Princess
New August, new portion of pain and shame. Princess x Princess wins by default as the only title that qualifies for competition.
VN of the Month July 2021 - Fuuraiki 4
Nothing good comes out of July. But if I had to play one thing, it would be Fuuraiki 4
VN of the Month June 2021 - Ryuusei World Actor: Badge & Dagger
I'd rather nominate an absolutely incomplete title Ryuusei World Actor: Badge & Dagger than choose from several moege-like games.
VN of the Month May 2021 - Madohi Shiroki no Kamikakushi
Madohi Shiroki no Kamikakushi is the only decent game I see in May.
VN of the Month April 2021 - Umi to Yuki no Cyan Blue
Umi to Yuki no Cyan Blue is the winner by default.
VN of the Month March 2021 - Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o
Genpei Ryouran Emaki -Gikei- and Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o are both good games, yet the first one has too many downsides this time.
VN of the Month February 2021 - Meikei no Lupercalia
Two releases... just wow. And one is a gameplay title, so guess who wins - Meikei no Lupercalia , which is also a masterpiece.
VN of the Month January 2021 - Buddy Mission Bond
Traditional visual novels once again show full impotence thus leaving Buddy Mission Bond winner by default.
Realive リアライブ [Purple Software]
I was never fan of Purple Software yet as of now I claim Realive to be VN of the Year 2019. Curious, right?
Satsuki End
Kaya End
Nemuru End
Minato End
True Route
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwGwDxf37gEkRtsaFVrm8TiT95cw_g3Lz
Character Design rating: 9/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 9/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 9/10
I did not expect much of this game, to be honest. And the way it began did not fascinate at all. Bunch of kids without any real need to change themselves for some stupid reason decided to follow instructions in an unknown mobile app to be reborn as a stronger version of themselves - and those orders of course had to be somewhat perverted leading to etchy situations. There's absolutely no sense in that, just an opportunistic moege setup pretext. But system started to get more and more complexity steadily, so soon I started to feel very involved - each of six players got different RPG-like classes , different lvl 1 tasks, after that different lvl 1 skills and so on on up to lvl 5. At that time I took the bait firmly - that creates myriads of variations to apply various skills for various situations. And tasks were only partially H-oriented and only for classes that suit the theme like idol. Most of tasks were formulated rather neutrally, especially for traditional classes like knight. So first element that lured me was gamification.
Another appealing element was flexible protagonist concept. Chihaya is only nominally protagonists. There are a lot of scenes with different girls alone or communicating with another girl. For those moments game naturally takes any other girl as protagonist or just watches the dialogue from aside. Again, it all happens very naturally and this way we don't get our share of usual irritations because of protagonist. This leads us the the third element that I adore.
Horizontal communication. I address this issue again and again in different reviews because it's that important. And Realive is the king of horizontal communication because of flexible protagonist. It's done so vividly that we can define relation between each pair of girls let alone observe numerous jokes applied to each other in conversations.
And that brings us to humor. I can't say game is humor-oriented. The bulk of humor is sekkuhara jokes and quite some teasing. It's enough to recognize its strong presence , but not to fall the level of bakage.
I'd like to return to plot again, because with explaining the setting, five tasks for each girl and receiving five skills for everyone there is just no time to spare on meaningless filler scenes. Realive basically does not have SOL scenes. Even if some scene resembles one - it's story driven and needed to gather together or prepare for task etc. No room for fillers at all. Because of this story density there's no desire to skip any scene in common route. And thanks to that there was next to zero romance during common route.
I usually rate individual routes lower than common route, and, frankly speaking, this game did not overturn the tendency. I still found myself skipping parts of individual routes that developed in an evident way to me. But this time it was not just about romance and sudden drama as there was a twist - how would heroine use rebirth chance as I did not believe they would selfishly magically get reborn themselves. And they did not disappoint. Oh, and I sincerely enjoyed Kaya route as gothic loli tsundere never gets old - and her reactions at gaming center were purely hilarious. But what's more important - individual routes feel like continuation of common route with the humor, horizontal communication and dating openly happening naturally and only gradually overflowing into individual romance.
As for true route , it was foreshadowed by multiple hooks that it would be devoted to Levi's identity. I still hoped there would be RPG-like action story on top of that, but instead identity theme just got developed deeper.
Why not 10/10 then? For me the primary criteria is whether I skip some parts or try to catch every word. Realive is not such a genius game that breaks conventional rules, but rather a skillfully crafted well designed hand-made masterpiece. If follows a set of rules that I advise for all visual novels to use to make it deep:
- Flexible unfixed protagonist
- Gamification
- Additional complexity layers that do not leave time for fillers
- Just romance is not an option, need additional element to focus during individual routes
- Horizontal communication should be in the center
- Mild humor and teasing is generally better than gags and bakage tilt
- Forget about pure SOL scenes without plot meaning
Common Route
Satsuki End
Kaya End
Nemuru End
Minato End
True Route
VN of the Year 2020 - Silverio Ragnarok
Somehow both number of masterpieces (14) and number of openings I am able to collect in Visual Novel Openings 2020 decreases yet again. Silverio Ragnarok symbolizes the whole trilogy for me, so I consider it to be the winner in 2020 , but I admit It can change after I review Hakuchuumu no Aojashin . Also plan to do the same with Hoshizora Tetsudou to Shiro no Tabi just because I did not find an English review. Then it will be Tsui no Sora Remake 's turn, next undecided, probably something from 2009 and further.
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