9-nine- Haruiro Harukoi Harunokaze (9-nine-はるいろはるこいはるのかぜ) Review

I really don’t get what Palette is doing. Why did they have to chop the 9-nine series into pieces like this? And not just chop it up—release the pieces so damn slowly.

Two years ago we got 9-nine- Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro, last year Sorairo Sorauta Soranooto, and this year Haruiro Harukoi Harunokaze. The Chinese title translates to something like “Spring Colors, Spring Love, Spring Wind.”

Selling games in chunks is the trend now—if it sells well, make more; if not, wrap it up quick. But for the 9-nine series, this piecemeal approach feels seriously off. Remember the original setup? The protagonist’s village discovers anomalies—various “relics” have leaked into the world and entered people’s bodies, granting them superpowers. Some even die from it, and the protagonist gets dragged into a superpower war.

Volume 1: the protagonist discovers that espers exist. A girl is killed in the park by someone with a “Demon Eye” power that petrifies. He also finds out his classmate Kujo Miyako is an esper with the power of “Plunder”—she can steal others’ relics or abilities. Then after some investigation…

Volume 1 ends.

A year later, Volume 2 arrives. What’s it about? The protagonist discovers that besides Kujo Miyako, his little sister Shinkai Sora is also an esper with the power to “erase presence,” like invisibility. He also finds an esper organization in town—one leader, two lackeys. One lackey, Ghost, seems fixated on the protagonist, even wanting to kill him. In the end, his sister uses her power to save him…

And then…

Volume 2 ends.

Wait, no—Volume 2 is actually a parallel world to Volume 1. But at the end of Volume 2, we learn that the protagonist’s wimpy buddy—the one he jokes around with at school—is also a power user, and even the mastermind behind everything…

So another year passes, and Volume 3 is here. As you’d expect, it’s another parallel world, this time about the protagonist and his senpai Kousaka Haruka. And the story likely progresses within the original framework.

What’s the progress? Easy to explain:

The protagonist is noticed by Kousaka Haruka, who has something to tell him. He vaguely remembers she’s a member of some chuuni esper organization, but decides to get to know her anyway. Through her, he infiltrates the organization and learns her ability: materializing expectations.

What does “materializing expectations” mean? Four words: wish fulfilled.

Pretty badass, right? I’m asking you—is this ability badass or what?

But Haruka is a shrinking violet who can’t really use it well. She only uses it to fantasize about being a shoujo manga heroine or a queen admired by younger boys, and it materializes—which is why sometimes she seems super popular and other times nobody notices her.

After infiltrating the chuuni esper organization and participating in some activities, the protagonist notices something weird: Ghost looks awfully familiar. Like someone he knows.

Who? Like his wimpy buddy he chats with every day at school: Yoichi.

After discussing with the perverted stuffed animal, the protagonist realizes Ghost is probably a “mirror image” controlled by his buddy. So he goes to confront him.

Yoichi admits it readily, then starts a fight with the protagonist (and his harem).

The harem talks big but can’t win—they have to run.

Just when the protagonist is at a loss, the teacher who’s been silent appears and tells him a secret: the stuffed animal “Sophia” who’s been helping him is actually a villain. It claims to want to “recover relics” but really wants to keep them and cause chaos.

The teacher also reveals she’s not really a teacher—she’s Iris, a goddess from another world possessing the teacher’s body, responsible for managing relics blah blah blah. She wants the protagonist’s help to defeat the chuuni kids and recover the relics.

Iris says the buddy’s power is the “Demon Eye,” one of her own eyes. To beat him, no need to fight—just make him drink a potion that puts espers’ souls to sleep, so they can take the relic without killing him.

Iris’s words make the protagonist suspicious of Sophia. He asks the stuffed animal:

“Is there a way to take a relic without killing the user?”

“Yeah, there’s a potion, but it takes too long to make and it’s hard to get. No time.”

The protagonist believes Iris is telling the truth and takes his harem to poison the chuuni kids. They mix the potion into the takeout the kids ordered. After eating, the kids don’t just fall asleep—they die.

The protagonist realizes he’s been tricked by Iris. She’s the real villain, using him to kill several espers and reclaim her relic. Now she has both Demon Eyes and starts wreaking havoc. All the harem girls are turned to stone, and the protagonist is about to die.

Then the protagonist suddenly awakens his own ability…

What ability? Something like save and load in a game. He reloads to a few days earlier, installs memories from the previous loop, knows everything, and takes his harem to confront Iris. At first they can’t win, but then he realizes his ability is totally broken: no matter how many times Iris kills him, he just reloads and keeps fighting…

(Feels like playing an NES emulator with save states and instant reloads…)

But just save-and-load isn’t enough—he still can’t win. Luckily, his senpai Kousaka Haruka awakens her ability, which is already overpowered, and with her buff, Iris is finally killed. The teacher is freed from possession, and peace returns.

Of course, as one of the game’s main draws, the rest is the protagonist and Haruka’s romance and sex scenes…

At the end, the game reveals its final secrets:

• Sophia will descend into the protagonist’s world in the next volume, not as this stuffed animal avatar.
• Sophia is Iris—the Iris of a parallel world. The one they defeated was the evil Iris. (Kind of like the Bronze Dragonflight in Warcraft?)
• There are nine espers: the protagonist, his harem, and various NPCs make eight. The last one with the Overlord ability is “you”—the player behind the screen.
• The final ending will probably be revealed in the next volume.

I wasn’t optimistic about this volume at first. The 9-nine series started with only three heroines, so I assumed three volumes. But then a “senpai volume” appeared out of nowhere—looked like a cash-grab added because the first two sold well, just filler. Plus the plot was progressing slowly, so I expected this volume to be a blatant ripoff.

But actually, this volume turned out to be the best part of the game so far, and the final mystery makes me eager for more.

It resolves the mystery of who the “Demon Eye” was, delivers big battle scenes, and has a plot twist (the teacher turning from good to evil). Finally, it feels like “a decent little story.”

Especially the final mystery, which builds hype for the next volume. Seems like the next one will be the finale. The mystery from Volume 1—“This world was ___ by you”—will finally be explained. I hope for a perfect ending.

But you can already see hints by the end. The protagonist’s ability is always explained as seeing multiple worldlines, jumping between them, and reloading—Overlord. Then Sophia says the Overlord isn’t the protagonist but the player in front of the screen. Feels like a metagame setup.

Metagame isn’t new, but revealing it only now feels cliché. And the game does show metagame elements in many details—most obviously Sophia often mentions different “branches,” and there’s that “even if there’s only one option, we still have to make a choice” feel. It’s clearly meant to give gamers that “I control the world” / “I’m part of the game” sense of presence.

My guess is the final content will have Sophia confront the player directly, telling them that these parallel worlds exist because of “the player’s choices,” and then elevate the game’s themes or something. But only the future knows.

How far is the future? Based on past patterns, we might see the final volume next year. That’s my biggest gripe with this game: you can split it and sell in volumes, but you release only one volume a year. By the time I got to Volume 3, I’d almost forgotten what happened in Volume 1. The gap is way too long. Or is Palette out of money? Is Izumi-sensei’s art too expensive? Can they only produce this much in a year?

Maybe combining everything into one game would be good, but selling in volumes like this just wears down players’ enthusiasm. The cash-grab is too blatant, and ultimately it’ll probably get a mediocre reputation—just okay, nothing more.

Last thing, can I guess the next volume’s title? Yuki-iro Yuki-sora Yuki-no-hana?