Comptiq Magazine & Newtype July '09

Today I purchased the July issues of Comptiq and Newtype.


I purchased Comptiq July '09 issue because it came with a Fate/Zero drama cd, but it contains several interesting bits...

CANAAN will begin on July 4th . I have very high expectation of this!

The 3rd volume of Sound Drama Fate/Zero will be released on August 28.

More screenshots from Fate/unlimited codes PORTABLE.
I will receive my 2 copies next week...

The new clothes.

Hard Gay Archer. Capeless Archer.

Ugly shirt Lancer.

Goth dress Saber Alter

CANAAN in the cover of next month's Comp Ace.
Canaan and Maria have very familiar faces in this pic...

Kizuato re-remake.

I was the 2nd entry in the Leaf Visual Novel Series, released in 1996 and remaked in 2002 with a controversial change in the character designs. This version seems to be close to the original release and includes a new character, the maid Takasago Rikka.

Dream C Club, a iM@S wannabe that I would like to buy if I had an XBox.

The XBox 360 survives in Japan thanks to this kind of games. Since the exclusivity of THE iDOLM@STER is fading away (first with THE iDOLM@STER SP for the PSP and now the recently announced THE iDOLM@STER Dearly Stars for the Nintendo DS) if this game fails with the expectation, it can be the end of the Xbox...

Love Plus, a Konami game for the NDS.

Is aspiring to be the new groundbreaking game like it was Tokimeki Memorial. If the info already released is true, it seriously have the potential to do it...

Shitajiki of Kurugaya Yuiko and Saigusa Haruka from Little Busters doing "symmetrical docking".

I must admit that I never played any of Key games besides Planetarian. Mostly because I strongly dislike the drawing style of Hinoue Itaru (and to a lesser degree, I also dislike Na-Ga's one) but also because as a Leaf fan I subconsciously feel a childish animosity against "their rivals".

Newtype July '09 issue was focused in the incomming Eva movie Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, on theaters the 27 of this month.

Remarking that Asuka name is now Shikinami Asuka Langley, sharing the same "波" with Ayanami.

More pics.

I think this is the first time that Mari appears full body in plugsuit...

Promoting a new "Nerv phone"

An unhealthily thin Misato in the news casting service for PS3 and the new PSP game.

It included an Asuka t-shirt.

Is a cheap, Japanese sized (=small) t-shirt, and the print surely will fade after a couple of washes but hey, it was an extra in a 780 yen magazine after all.

And a cool looking poster of CANAAN.

More CANAAN.

The upcoming Umineko no Naku Koro ni anime, that will begin on July the 1st.

I'm curious on how they will resolve the meta world, the colored lines and all those "tricky" battles (Virgilia vs Beato, Rudolf vs Belphegor...). By the way, in the photo Kinzo and Gouda were killed by a flash burn...

The chapter of the somewhat new season of Suzumiya Haruhi.

I watched it and I didn't found it very interesting...I think the long wait and the viral marketing campaigns from Kadokawa killed the franchise...

K-ON! , right now the most popular anime of the late night shift.
Is the only anime that I'm following at the moment. I began watching it because I was intrigued of why Mio is so popular... Now Azusa seems to be also very popular, but I prefer Tsumugi.

To Heart PSE

Friday, the classes at the university were suspended due to the swine flu (that is being called "new type of influenza" here). If nothing changes, I will a have a unexpected break until the 27.

Without nothing planned to do that friday and heavily advised to not to go outside if avoidable, I purchased on-line To Heart PSE at Comshop, and I received it today.


To Heart PSE is the PC port of the Playstation version (Play Station Edition), released in 2003.
Years ago I purchased the original adult version of To Heart (when was re-released with a new package and reduced price), and this is the improved all-ages version.

Manual and stickers. There's a minigame called "○△□×" that uses the buttons of the PlayStation, so you can put the stickers on the keyboard to match a PS controller.

The limited edition extras: a telephone card with the serial number (in my case 2,734 of 10,000) and a useless but cool ministand

To Heart is an eroge released in 1997 by Leaf under the publisher Aquaplus.
It was the title that popularized the visual novel genre, created a year before with the other games in the Leaf Visual Novel Series, Shizuku and Kizuato.
Before visual novel genre was the standard for eroge, the standard was dating sims, popularized with the non ero Tokimeki Memorial. In the west, visual novels are still commonly called dating sims because of this.

The Playstation version, released in 1999, removed all the adult scenes but improved the graphics and included voice acting. I think it was the first eroge that was ported as an all-ages game for consoles.
The original character designer was Minazuki Tooru, but was completely redesigned by Kawata Hisashi for the PS version. All the graphics were redrawn, including the character cuts, backgrounds and event pictures.
In the following comparison shots, above is the original To Heart and below the PSE version:




Story-wise, you play as Fujita Hiroyuki -a nice fellow who lives almost all the time alone and is more likable than most of the main characters of visual novels- that interacts with several girls during his school days.

All of the girls are very stereotyped, but when the game was released they were almost original. After the success of To Heart, every galgame character released afterwards tends to use one of the following stock personalities:

Kamigishi Akari

The childhood friend of the main character, who wakes up some mornings and calls with the "chan" suffix. Friendly, likable and a bit shy, she also excels in cooking. She is the main heroine by default.

Nagaoka Shiho

Friend of both Akari and Hiroyuki, acts a bit aggressively towards the later to hide that in fact she likes him. She is bad at studies and prefer to go to an arcade center or karaoke instead. She is also a gossip fanatic.

Hoshina Tomoko

The serious and responsable class president, who looks really pretty if she removes her trademark glasses and pony-tail. Stereotyped enough, she also uses the Kansai dialect and acts as a tsukkomi.

HMX-12 "Multi"

The first and original maid robot. The only sci-fi element in an overall realistic setting.
The "HM" means "Home Maid" and the X is to mark her prototype status. Multi was sent to Hiroyuki's school to learn how to act like a human, but is very clumsy, so is a fine example of the "too human to be a robot".
Her popularity eclipsed the rest of the cast, even the main heroine Akari, and was a big influence in posterior similar games and mangas.

Miyauchi Lemmy

Half American and half Japanese, she is how Japanese sees foreigners: blond, tall, noisy and overly expressive. Also is a panchira character. 
She's in the archery club to feel the "typical Japanese culture".

Kurusugawa Serika

Heir of the wealthy Kurusugawa family (makers of the maid robots), is the ojou-sama character, but unlike most of similar characters, she doesn't act as an obnoxious spoiled brat. Instead, she speaks absentmindedly and very quietly. She is interested in black magic and the occult.
Serika is a senpai, one year older (17) than the previous characters.

Matsubara Aoi

Multi palette swap. The slightly tomboy-ish martial arts practitioner. A year younger than the main cast (15). Idolizes Ayaka, who uses the same "extreme style" of martial arts.

Himekawa Kotone

A girl with telekinetic powers, but unable to fully control them. Because of that, she rejects to socialize much. She is also one year younger than the main cast.

Hinayama Rio

Another girl in the same class than Hiroyuki. Her family is poor, so she is constantly doing half-time jobs.
In the original R-18 version of the game, she was a hidden heroine with a very short route unlocked upon completing Akari scenario, but was greatly expanded in the PSE version.

Kurusugawa Ayaka

Younger sister of Serika by one year. Despite looking almost identical, they have totally different personalities, because Ayaka is outgoing and confident.
She goes to another school than her sister and the rest of the characters, and is a martial arts champion. Ayaka doesn't have a route in the original game, but gains a short one in the PSE version.

HMX-13 "Serio"

Sister of Multi, she is an advanced maid robot model. Unlike her sister, Serio is (almost) emotionless and eficient, being "too robot to be human". She is in test period in Ayaka's school, so is almost always with her acting as her personal maid.
She doesn't have a route in any version of the game, she have only two almost identical character cuts and only one event graphic in the PSE version, but since is my favorite character I list her with the main cast.

To Heart was my first in many ways: It was the first VN that I played in Japanese (without understanding it), it was the first VN that I purchased, the anime version was the first anime that I downloaded (via Napster, in mov format recorded from a VHS fansub), the first purchase that I did in eBay was a Serio gashapon...
The "first one" is always memorable, so that is why I still love this franchise very much.

Doujinshi purchases Part 3

The last stop in my Osaka trip was Toranoana Nanba.

They had a bargain sale, with a lot of their used doujinshi at 100 yen each (105 tax included). I didn't expected much since Toranoana is not specialized in used doujinshi (is kind of a "multi-purpose otaku shop") and usually the 100 yen corner is filled with leftovers that nobody wants.

I ended buying:
Applause, a Fate/hollow ataraxia fanbook, with several pin-ups from different circles.

Momiji-iro No Tsuki by circle Nanairo Koubou. Nothing to say about since I don't know the circle. Nice parody of Tsukihime.

Man in the Mirror by circle Black Dog.
He is known by his recurrent theme of "Sailor Moon team gang raped in a train", but in this doujinshi changing the "Sailor Moon team" part by "Kagami from Lucky Star". Despite beign repetitive, his drawings are top notch.

Outlet 3 by St. Different. I was fooled by the different To Heart cover, so I ended buying the same twice. Not familiar with the circle, and a bit dissapointed with the contents.


And 8 doujinshi by Neriwasabi, an old school author (active since the 80's) that changes the name of his circle forth and back (usually Jack-O'-lantern, Dedepoppo or Narusawa Hatsudensho).
He usually draw -among others- parodies of To Heart and Square-Enix games. Lately is very focused on Final Fantasy XI, so I lost insterest (Final Fantasy series is going downhill, and I find myself only playing the remakes on the handle consoles).

They also have on sale a small amount of doujin soft, also at 100 yen each. I found:

Shinuchi Oouso Disc. Contains the early flash works of Namikai Harukaze (circle Shunpuu-tei Koubou).
Before being known for Ragnarok Battle Offline, he was known by his flash animations, mostly Executioner Ciel and specially Glove On Fight, that was later remaked as a fighting game by doujin soft circle Watanabe Seikakusho (now called Frech Bread).

And speaking of Watanabe Seikakusho and his fighting games, I also found THE QUEEN OF HEART '99 and the Second Edition update disk.
Before MELTY BLOOD, this circle was already very popular with their doujin fighters featuring Leaf characters.
In the late 90's, Leaf was the main visual novel studio who set the trend to the rest.
Is evident by now, but before being a hardcore TYPE-MOON fan, I was hooked to Leaf visual novels, specially To Heart (the first one, I never played the "sequel").