Ever since I cooled off on audio gear, I switched to buying CDs. Buying CDs is actually pretty nice too—you focus on the music itself instead of using earbuds to listen to the same few crappy songs on repeat. I picked up a bunch of CDs recently, so here are some quick thoughts.

Waiting, waiting, and at last Spring Festival arrived — and with it, the long-awaited release of the Astraea no Shiroki Towa FD! Astraea no Shiroki Towa was probably one of the first untranslated games I ever played, and it left a hell of an impression on me. Three things stood out above all: The music! The effects! And Nitta Emi! Then Yoshizumi Hina retired, which left any follow-up to Astraea no Shiroki Towa stuck in limbo forever. But FAVORITE isn’t about to pass up a chance to milk a sequel, so pretty soon we got an FD for Astraea no Shiroki Towa with a recast VA — namely Astraea no Shiroki Towa Finale -Shiroki Hoshi no Yume-.

Sometimes I think about this: so many scenario writers in Japan do original drafts for anime and games — are they just mass-producing the same thing over and over? …………I mean, whatever a given writer puts out, doesn’t it always follow one pattern no matter how you look at it? Code Geass, Guilty Crown, Valvrave, and the latest one — what was it called? Kabaneri? I’m not saying Ichiro Okouchi is bad; the man won a best screenplay award, didn’t he? I’m talking about visual novels — whether some writers end up reusing the same套路 across multiple games. I noticed this pretty early on. For example, the Shiiba route in Yuzusoft’s Sanoba Witch overlaps heavily with the Riru route in Kujira Kami no Tiastila, which came out not long after. I don’t know if that’s Tota’s doing or just coincidence. But a “competent scenario” shouldn’t have the problem of “can’t adapt, only ever writes one path” — otherwise you’re just showing how tapped out you are. But man… for Hoshi Koi * Twinkle… I don’t even know what to say anymore…

The moon is bright and the stars are few; the autumn night has already begun to carry a chill. An old man in a short-sleeve shirt and jeans, idly messing with his phone. “Grandpa.” A little girl’s voice rang out. She looked like she’d been staring at the old man for a while, and had finally worked up the nerve to speak to him. “It’s so chilly tonight—aren’t you cold out here?” “Cold my ass.” Old as he was, his tone carried an unmistakable flippancy—until he looked up, saw the girl in front of him, and realized that kind of talk didn’t suit his image. So he straightened his expression and put on a smile that wasn’t exactly handsome, saying to her, “I’m not cold~ thank you~.” The little girl didn’t seem to care about how the old man talked. She just went on slowly, “Grandpa, grandpa, what are you looking at?” As she spoke, she started peeking at the phone in the old man’s hand. The old man looked a little embarrassed and hurriedly put his phone away. He didn’t want the little girl to see what was on the screen, because in his eyes—no, in most people’s eyes—what was on that phone screen really wasn’t something you’d want others to see. **“Hey there, kiddo~” The old man forced himself to stay calm. “How about I tell you a story?” “A story, huh? What kind of story?” The little girl didn’t turn it down at all—if anything, she looked like she’d heard them all. “What kind of thing do you want to hear?” **“There are handsome guys, pretty girls, and people falling in love…” “Tch.” The old man clicked his tongue, then immediately put his grin back on. “Ever heard the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl?” "……you…… pervert…… uncle?" The little girl looked completely confused. Do kids these days not even know the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl? The old man couldn’t help but sigh. “Want to hear it?” “Yeah!” The little girl was thrilled. **“Come on, come on, sit here.” The old man patted the clean spot beside him. “The story has to start from the beginning…” ……………………