Although our hotel is located in Ikebukuro, it is on the opposite side of the train station from the major concentration of anime-related shops, so we didn’t take the time to visit there until now. (You know, Akihabara and all…)

Tama-nee compels you to read on.

Although Ikebukuro isn’t exactly Akiba, there are still quite a lot of anime goods to be found here. Lashinbang and K-books are not to be missed if you are looking for hard-to-find anime collectibles. From limited edition phone cards to alarm clocks and pillow covers, these shops buy and resell all kinds of limited edition collectibles. If you look long enough, you might find a good deal, such as a secondhand anime OP single for 200 yen or a Tamaki Kousaka wall scroll for 2000 yen. (I bought the only one by the way…) Here’s a picture of Lashinbang and K-books from my previous visit.

I got this Tamaki mug from Lashinbang for 1000 yen. :3

The prices at secondhand collectibles shops are quite unpredictable. Different traders have different pricing based on product rarity, condition and popularity, so it’s better to look around first before buying. For example, K-books was selling a secondhand copy of Rie Tanaka’s Chara de Rie first print for 4000 yen when I found an unopened copy collecting dust in Yamagiwa Soft for the list price of around 2000 yen. On the other hand, secondhand shops are probably the only way you can find items limited to events or preorders, such as limited goods from the latest Comiket. Just be prepared to pay a lot for those rare goods… (6000 yen for a rare phone card of a popular character is not uncommon)

And right beside Lashinbang is the main branch of Animate. Well, you can find one in Akihabara too, but the it’s still nice to visit the main branch. Animate deals manga, anime and character goods, but not much in the way of doujin unlike Toranoana. A picture of Animate main branch from my last visit. (Yes, I’m lazy to take pictures again)

There used to be a Gamers (Dejiko’s birthplace) near the underpass to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, but it seems to have closed down… Awww…

Anyway, on to Shinjuku. Gah screw it, I’m too lazy, so just look at the pictures.

Kinokinuya here is huuuuge. The South Shinjuku branch has a whole building for itself beside Takashimaya Times Square. The main branch farther northeast has a whole building and an annex of comics and light novels. Interestingly, the annex for the main branch is named “Forest”. Maybe it’s a wordplay of Kinokuniya…? (木の国？)

On another note, I briefly read through a few World War II-related books in Kinokuniya. It seems to me that Japanese accounts tend to focus on either specific battles and the strategic events in the Pacific or the situation of Japan under American Occupation. Out of the entire shelf on WWII, there were only three books on display on the Nanjing Incident. The first book was supposedly an “unbias” account. The second book claimed to be able to prove that the Nanjing Incident never took place using “newly-uncovered Chinese Communist Party documents from Taiwanese archives” (most impartial source of information ever…). The third book was just spouting nonsense about how the entire thing originated from Communist propagandas. Right beside them is a book about how Japanese nationals “forced to remain in Manchuria due to circumstances” suffered in China before finally returning home after many years. And somehow this book is a lot thicker than the other three.

And yes, I was born in Nanjing.

Anyway, enough with the rant, it’s time for today’s loot!

1. To Heart 2 Tamaki Kousaka coffee cup
2. School Days Official Visual Art Works
3. Gundam SEED DESTINY Lacus Clyne Limited Poster
4. Nanoha Raising Heart from Animate (not for me)
5. School Days Sekai-hen novel
6. Kami-sama Game Vol. 1 & 2
7. Hayate no Gotoku! Vol.1

Anyway, that’s all for today~

It’s very loosely related to the original To Heart, one of the games which Leaf is best known for. Other flagship titles by Leaf include Comic Party, Utawarerumono and Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu.

Typical gameplay screen

A visual novel refers to a specific sub-genre of AVGs where the text is superimposed over the art instead of occupying the bottom half of the screen. Leaf was the first to employ such a system and it continues to be part of Leaf’s unique style. As far as I can tell, this arrangement has no real advantage over the textbox used by most games on the market, so you can say that it’s purely a personal preference whether you like it or not. It does obstruct the art, but you can hide the text anytime. And I suppose such a system allows the script to be, as the name suggests, closer to an actual novel (albeit one with a lot of dialogue). Other companies have also released visual novels subsequently, although it remains a minority sub-genre. Crescendo was quite a memorable non-Leaf visual novel for me.

Location selection

Gameplay is limited to the typical dialogue and location selection. As with most games, each location is marked by a chibi avatar of the character whose event you trigger if you go there. Pretty much standard fare.

The semi-loli imouto-kei osananajimi character, Konomi Yuzuhara

There are many girls to choose from and each one of course has her own backstory. Unlike games like Air or Shuffle!, there is almost completely no supernatural elements in the game so the stories revolve mainly around your daily school life with the girl and her sad-and-tragic past / dark secret / promise to go to Toudai together / whatever. Nothing that will be out-of-place in a normal high school romance drama.

The maid-(robot-)maniac best-friend sidekick character, Yuuji Kousaka

Well, other than that one maid robot in the game. The single difference between the To Heart universe and ours is the existence of maid robots. But we all know that it was all just an excuse to have Multi in the original game. For continuity’s sake, TH2 makes occasional references to maid robots and even has one as a minor character.

Character-wise, almost every stereotype is well-covered here. Please note that I have only completed the paths for Tamaki and Yuma.

Konomi is your neighbour and childhood friend and a bit too loli for my taste. She’s also whiny and noisy, often mistaken for cuteness. She’s supposedly the heroine for this game, but whatever.

Hands down the best girl in the game, Tamaki Kousaka

Tamaki is the goddess and she owns my heart and soul. <3 She’s also your childhood friend (or rather, the childhood bully) and the elder sister of Yuuji. She’s older than the main character by one year. She recently transfered to your school after spending seven years in an all-girls boarding school located in some remote mountain area that is two hours of bus ride away from the nearest town (I kid you not). The main character calls her “Tama-nee”.

Karin is some weirdo girl who tricks you into joining her “Mystery Club” (which has only two members. Including you) and possibily attempt to seduce you during those quiet club meetings when you are all alone with her in some old PE storeroom cum clubroom. Actually, I won’t know since I didn’t play her path. Her hair is a mystery best left unexplained.

Sango and Ruri are the obligatory twin loli-sister combo. Get two for the price of one. Well, three actually if you include the maid robot. Beh. The twins also speak with an annoying kansai accent. (My personal opinion. There are probably people who like it. You weirdoes)

The main character’s stubborn archrival, Yuma Tonami

Yuma is your sworn enemy at school. She challenges you to everything and loses everytime, but she never admits defeat. (これで勝ったとは思うなよーっ！) She also wears spectacles occasionally to please the meganekko crowd. My second most favourite character in the game, though quite a distant second from Tama-nee.

Lucy is the mysterious-type girl with a funky foreign name and she “talks” to animals. I’m somewhat interested in her story, but I’m not sure if I want to play through the game again.

The clumsy iinchou character, Manaka Komaki

Manaka is clumsy and shy in a really annoying way. I hate that. But most people seem to like her. Another mystery for Karin.

Sasara is a new character introduced in the PC version. She’s the president of the student council and is one year older than you. She’s cool (in the tsuntsun way).

Yuuki is some mysterious girl you meet in school at night. Whatever.

Tama-nee forever!

The ero-scenes added in the PC version are drawn in a noticeably different (arguably better) CG style from the rest. There is only one scene per girl (Himeyuri twins count as one) and they are all fully-voiced.

One interesting bit to note about the game is that it retains the PS2 original cast (credited under pseudonyms), which means that Hitomi Habatame (Mikoto from School Rumble, Yuuna from Maburaho, Aruceid from Tsukihime) still voices Yuma…… Mikoto/Aruceid fans, you know why you should play this game. <_<

I made Tama-nee cry… ;_;

As I mentioned, I’ve only played through Tamaki and Yuma’s paths. Despite the fact that pretty much nothing happens throughout the game in good old To Heart fashion, the script is somehow quite well-packed. I would even go a step further and say that it’s quite well-written too. But that’s probably just my inner Tamaki fanboy speaking since I really loved the confession scene for her path. <3

Of course, if you’ve completed the game a few times and find that the other girls don’t interest you (like me), there’re two minigames that can keep you entertained… for a little bit.

Super Sweets Scramble

Super Sweets Scramble is vertical scroller. You can choose to play as any of the girls whose ending you have unlocked in the main game (except Konomi, who is unlocked right from the start). Each of them has a different special attack so I suppose this is somewhat of an incentive for you to play through all the endings… or you could download a complete saved game.

Tama-nee forever!

The rounds are time-based and you try to rack up the highest score within a round. Essentially there’s not much game content since you replay the same stage over and over again. Gets old sort of fast.

Dokidoki Panic Library

Dokidoki Panic Library is an average match-those-colours puzzle game. Nothing much to say.

Tama-nee forever!

Objectively speaking, To Heart 2 offers nothing new or creative and belongs to a subgenre that has been done to death. Well, I really only got this game for Tama-nee, so I’m quite satisfied with it. If you read through my character introduction and find that none of the girls seemed interesting, then you should probably stay away from this game. There isn’t much of a story to keep you entertained if you don’t like the characters.

And to end off my horribly-biased review:

TAMA-NEE FOREVER!!!

I’ve been busy for the last few days. Wasted the better parts of yesterday and today buying and configuring my new PC. Spent more than expected as usual. It’s not particularly good, but at least the dual PCI-e slots allow for easy upgrading unlike my old AGP rig. Specs are MSI K8N SLI-F, AMD 64 3500+, 1 GB Kingston PC3200 DDR RAM, XFX GeForce 6600GT and Creative Audigy ZS 2. And being the harddrive whore that I am…

Almost reaching one terabyte～âª

And my new desktop…

Guess who’s waiting for the PC version of ToHeart2?～âª

Seven more days till ToHeart2… mmmm.
Three more days till JLPT… ＿|ï¿£|O

For now, I’m waiting for To Heart 2 to be released for PC on 09.12.2005. As much as I loved the original To Heart anime (which most people hated for its lack of plot), I have always been somewhat put off by the vintage and never did play the game. Hopefully To Heart 2 will be good, although I am not expecting too much of it, based on the first two episodes of the new series. Then again, the game probably won’t last me long even if it’s really good, since I’m only interested in Tamaki‘s path.

Maybe I should pick up some Japanese novels in the meantime. But it’s kind of hard to figure out which ones are interesting without someone to give me recommendations. I’ve been reading mostly “light novels” (ライトノãƒãƒ«), which are more like manga in text form than normal novels, and I think it’s about time I move on to something heavier…