One day, a girl appears in his life and promises him that she will make it her project to turn him back into a normal person, resulting in a series of crazy, hilarious and sexually-charged incidents.

So, NHK episode 1 has finally aired. I had been looking forward to the series and now that here are my thoughts after watching the first episode.

I loved the manga, so I’ll mainly be comparing the anime to the manga.

It seems like GONZO is trying to do something different with the series and I’m not sure if I like it. Satou’s hallucinations, which took like… one page in the manga, took up almost half the first episode. Because GONZO is trying so hard to depict the psychological events taking place in Satou’s mind, there wasn’t really any part in the first episode that was really funny. I thought that the opening scene was totally unnecessary.

The pace of the show is significantly slower than that of the manga, giving it a more serious tone. This may or may not be a bad thing, but I personally prefer the crazy pacing of the manga. The timeline of the story has also been slightly altered, such that Satou’s meeting with Misaki in the park fits into the first episode. Again, I’m not sure if this means anything for the rest of the story.

GONZO has also added some gimmicks (like that weird purple thingy) into the show, similar to how the Genshiken anime places more emphasis on Kujibiki Unbalance than its manga. I can’t say for sure, but so far it doesn’t seem to be doing much for the series. I just don’t see any 2chan cults forming around that little purple thing anytime soon.

Well I guess the main complaint I have with the series is that it feels so different from the manga. Genshiken anime was not exactly the same as the manga either, but the two had the same feel. It’s hard to describe, but I think it has something to do with the fact that GONZO is placing so much emphasis on Satou’s weird psychedelic fantasies and not enough on the story.

That said, I don’t completely dislike the first episode. I like the second half of it and the voice for Misaki-chan is, contary to my expectations, not bad. I just hope that the series will pick up its pace soon.

This picture of Yuki has nothing to do with
what I am going to blog about today.

Here’s a little recap on just what the hell I have been wasting my life on for the past two weeks…

GADGET TRIAL

Moé level: High
Official site:
http://www.kogado.com/html/kuma/gt/
Genre: Turn-based strategy

Description: Turn-based strategy game ripped unit by unit from Advance Wars, but instead of tanks, planes and ships, you get cosplaying bio-engineered girls. Each girl represents one category of units. Izen is infantry, Nei is armour, Souka is air, Yuri is artillery and Hisoka is sea. You score points for winning battles and you can use them to unlock new costumes. Different costumes give different stats.

Verdicts: AI is not too smart. Once you learn the rules, it’s pretty much impossible to lose. Bombers are overpowered. That said, it’s still quite a challenge to achieve Rank S for some of the later levels. Nei-san and Hisoka = love <3. P.S. Nei-san is voiced by Shizuka Itou (Tamaki from TH2).

Time wasted: 10 hours so far.

グリンスヴァールの森の中 ～ 成長ãã‚‹å­¦åœ’ ～
Greenvale no Mori no Naka ~seichou suru gakuen~

Moé level: Medium
Official site:
http://shchara.co.jp/04develop/green/
Genre: Simulation

Description: School-building simulator with lots of girls. Balance stats, make money, construct buildings and fight battles. Fulfill certain criterias in order to access the story paths of the various girls.

Verdicts: Gameplay isn’t very well-balanced, but still fun. Making money is a pain. Art and voice works are not bad. Not much replayability for a simulation game. P.S. Herue’s seiyuu is Yuki Matsunaga (Nerine from Shuffle!).

Time wasted: 12 hours.

彼女たちの流儀
Kanojo-tachi no Ryuugi (Kanogi)

Moé level: High
Official site:
http://13cm.jp/130cm/games/theirstyles
Genre: 18-kin AVG

Description: You play a girl guy who looks like a girl, is voiced by a girl and, on numerous occasions in the game, is forced to cross-dress as a girl. I guess that isn’t what the story is about but I had to get it out of the way… Anyway, you return to live with your loli elder sisters, Tobari and Akane, after years of separation only to find out that they are actually vampires. Blood-sucking, rape and hilarity ensue, usually at the main character’s expenses. Sort of like Tsukihime except loli-er.

Verdicts: Quite a short game. Predictable scenarios. Cheap-looking interface. Music is around doujin quality (“acquired taste”). Voice overs range from average to horrible. Too much loli and incest. Akane is funny sometimes when she’s not raping you. P.S. I like Suzutsuki more than Tobari.

Time wasted: 5 hours.

Scarlett

Moé level: Low
Official site:
http://www.din.or.jp/~nekoneko/game.htm
Genre: 18-kin AVG

Description: 17-year-old Akito takes a one-year break from school and travels around Japan on his own. While practising with his airsoft M92F Beratta on the Okinawa beach near the US military base (I know, he’s not exactly very bright), he meets Shizuka, a mysterious girl with a slightly tsundere personality. Various incidents take place, involving everything from CIA, B2 bombers, US Aegis cruisers, a former Israeli intelligence agent, a gunfight in Canberra, a bank in Lichtenstein and a presidential election in a fictional African state suspiciously similar to South Africa…

Verdicts: The story is not typical of AVG and it’s a refreshing change. Production value is quite high. Great art. Interface is well-designed and the in-game encycopedia is hilarious. Story is somewhat unbelieveable if you are used to Tom Clancy-style realism.

Time wasted: 7 hours so far.

SummerDays

Moé level: High
Official site:
http://schooldays.0verflow.com/sd_index.html
Genre: 18-kin AVG

Description: Based on the 2005 game School Days and takes place in an alternative timeline before the events of the first game. Setsuna is now the main character. Plagued by a premature release, numerous bugs and too many patches to count.

Verdicts: After the 1.05 patch, the game is mostly playable now. The first half of the game has been radically revamped but the second half is still painful to play. Animation is less used and of a lower quality as compared to the first game. Parts of the game were outsourced to China. Story lacks the punch of the original. New characters are annoying and useless. Setsuna rocks. Not enough Setsuna. Waiting for everything to be patched up before doing anything else with the game.

Time wasted: 6 hours so far.

舞-HiME 運命の系統樹 修羅
Mai-HiME Unmei no Keitouju Ashura

Moé level: High
Official site:
http://circus.nandemo.gr.jp/common/maihime_top/maihime_top.html
Genre: AVG

Description: Finally, the PS2 game is now available for the PC, and with new paths and scenarios to boot.

Verdicts: Shizuru forever. All other comments withheld until I finish a significant portion of the game.

Time wasted: 20 minutes so far.

Now you see why I haven’t been getting much work done…

The story is about Tatsuhiro Satou, a hikikomori, and the girl who makes it her “project” to turn him back into a normal man, Misaki Nakahara. In Japan, there’s a segment of the population known as the hikikomori (引き篭り). They are unemployed people who are afraid of or do not like coming into contact with others, or to put it simply people who suffer from acute social withdrawal. These cases are usually school dropouts and they are often associated with addiction to manga, anime and games.

Of course, although it uses a real social issue as its theme, this is a comedy after all. Gags poke fun at the stereotypical akiba-kei and yet often involve in-jokes about anime and ero-games (逃げちゃダメ逃げちゃダメ逃げちゃダメ), which means that akiba-kei are probably the ones who can appreciate them best. Delicious.

And as for the title… NHK, or Nippon Hikikomori Kyoukai is an organization that Tatsuhiro imagines to be the one responsible for turning him into a hikikomori. He also believes that the NHK (you know, the TV station) is a secret front for this conspiracy against him.