#niina junpei

[somena-libra-dawn]

Thought it's only Mihara who gets a name... *sobs* I'm so proud of you Harry. (Junpei def would be elated to meet Harry.)

[ikemen-bully]

I forgot about Junpei! After Kouichi I'll do his route! He's my favorite kohai of the franchise

[osugi-illust]

[somevirtualnolife]

Could you do 18. snowed in for Aki and her boyfriends? :)

This is several years too late, and also a completely different season! But as I was brainstorming this awhile back, I had a similar idea to have them train together. I eventually realized it made more sense in the summer! Apologies for changing the season, but I hope you like it all the same!

Beat The Heat

“Okay, I’m done. Just leave me here. I’m going to die.”

Niina leaned back onto a large tree next to the hiking path, gasping for air and grabbing his water bottle.

“It’s only been a half an hour,” Arashi responded flatly.

“Yeah, half an hour hiking in the summer! Who does that?”

“It’s a pretty popular activity.”

“Yeah! For old people maybe!” he continued to huff.

Why did he join Judo again? Oh right, because he was basically bullied into it. This whole athletic ‘if you’re not sore, it means that you’re not working hard enough’ mentality was not Niina’s style in the least. He would much rather be at home in the comfort of his air-conditioned bedroom, reading up on the latest fashion trends. Heck, even working at the combini was better than this.

“It’s good for endurance.” 

“Dude, do I look like I’m built for endurance?” Niina said through gritted teeth.

“That’s the point. To build it.” Arashi responded, crossing his arms.

“Come on guys, don’t argue,” A redheaded girl with glasses walked up from behind them, a concerned frown on her face. Akiko-sempai. The one positive that was a part of this retched regimen.

“Save your oxygen. It’s only going to get warmer from here.”

Ugh, she was right, it was too hot to argue. “You know you don’t have to walk with us, sempai. You’re the manager after all.”

“But a good manager needs to know how the team is feeling!” she clenched her fist and furrowed her brows in a determined fashion, which honestly, made her look even cuter.

“That’s the spirit!” Arashi lifted his right hand in front of him, to which Akiko hit with her own high-five.

Niina couldn’t help but sigh. How these two managed their energy, he’ll never know, but he supposed it was endearing in a way. They always seemed to be on the same wavelength when it came to moments like this. Some folks would suspect that they rehearsed it beforehand, but he knew that that was just how these two were.

Still though… he wasn’t sure if their energy was contagious enough to motivate him. The young man tugged at the cap of his water bottle and took another incredibly long gulp.

“Arashi-kun, if you want to go ahead, we can catch up. I bet you can even lap us twice if you wanted.” Akiko finally said in a chipper voice.

“Hmm…” Arashi furrowed his brows, clearly not into the idea.

Clearly not one to give up either, the redhead went on the tip of her toes and ruffled his hair playfully.

Niina cracked open one of his blue eyes as he continued to drink. She always seemed a bit touchy-feely with him, a poke of his cheek here, a tug at his uniform sleeve there… he never seemed to mind, though. Maybe he was used to it because judo is so heavy in contact. But he also wondered if there was something more between them at times.

Sigh… it must be nice hanging out with Akiko-sempai like that. He always thought she was a real cutie, right when he first saw her shopping and tried to pick her up. If he was being truthful, maybe that was the real reason why he hadn’t quit the club yet.

“Fine.” Arashi finally relented with a sigh, his face slightly pink, but Niina suspected it wasn’t because of the heat. “But you two still have to make it up to the top. Watch your step.”

“Roger that,” the young kohai jokingly did a salute with two of his fingers.

The star athlete stretched out his legs before setting off to jog. It wasn’t before long before he disappeared up the dirt path, leaving his clubmates to themselves. If they weren’t forced to do the same trek, it would be impressive to watch Arashi.

“Okay two more minutes and then we gotta go too,” Akiko pressed a button on her timer.

“Jeeze, you’re really diligent aren’t you?” Niina let out a sigh, but a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “I can see why Arashi wanted you to be the club manager,”

The redhead took a triumphant pose, her face still beaming, despite some clear signs of exhaustion under her eyes. “Of course! I was a bit surprised at first, but Arashi’s enthusiasm is contagious. I want to support him the best that I can,”

As expected, he couldn’t help but think. This just supported his ‘sempais are dating’ theory. While he didn’t love the idea of this being possible, it certainly made sense. As he thought before, they both had similar energy, and there was no way that someone would work this hard to support someone else’s endeavours if they didn’t, at the very least, have a crush on them.

You know, for the same crazy reason that someone may give in to being bullied to join a club.  

“Come on now, Niina-kun! Let’s get going!” Akiko finally said before making an about-face. “We don’t want to lag too far behind!”

So much for keeping it slow. “Okay, but you might want to be careful. You don’t want to-”

Before Niina could finish his sentence, Akiko sudden burst of energy did not keep up with what her body was telling her, which was to still take it slow. Just as she was about to start running, she didn’t take note of the two slippery rocks in front of her. Before he knew it, she managed to wedge her foot between the two of them and stumble face-first into the dirt ground.

“Aki-sempai!” he nimbly hopped over a few branches and knelt beside her. “Are you okay?”

“Oww…” she mumbled, slowly pushing herself to her knees. Her face was smudged with dirt but with a bit of bruising, but thankfully no blood. Her glasses, however, had seen better days. They were bent to the side, with a crack on the left lens.

“Oh no…”

“Careful not to reach, I think your foot is still stuck. Slowly back up, and we should be able to get it out,”

Niina then carefully placed his hands on her ankle and navigated it away from the stones. She could see her wincing but at least it wasn’t completely locked in there. Once they got her foot out, he quickly reached over the other way and grabbed her now broken glasses.

“Thanks…” she sniffled.  

“Can you walk?” there was an alarmed tone in his voice, something that was unusual for the junior. While he knew the injuries weren’t terribly serious, it didn’t help that they were still on a mountain.

“I definitely can’t go up in this,” Akiko sighed, clearly frustrated. “Arashi is gonna be so disappointed,”

“I doubt it. He’d be more worried if you tried to push yourself on your ankle. Plus, it’s not like you can see much now,” looks like there were no other options.

He then scooched to the front and continued to kneel. “Hands over my shoulders and I’ll try to be careful lifting your legs,”

The redhead’s eyes widened, surprised at the offer. “Are you sure? I know climbing this hasn’t been the easiest,”

“Well, I’m not gonna leave you here alone that’s for sure. Besides, going down is easier than going up,” he was just grateful he was smart enough to wear some shoes with a grip.

There was some hesitation, but eventually, Akiko did as he asked and wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted her legs a bit higher towards his hips. Niina then hooked her legs under his arms and slowly stood up.

“There we go. Not too bad at all! Now let’s getcha off this stupid mountain.”

Carrying her certainly made the heat even more unbearable, but thankfully, she wasn’t too difficult to carry. As long as he kept a slow pace, he could manage this.

“Judo is paying off. I didn’t think you could carry me,” Akiko said, leaning her head against his shoulder as he finally found a comfortable rhythm.

“Hmmm… I think I could have carried you anyway, but I guess the extra training has helped.”

“You might be leaner than Arashi-kun, but I could tell you have put on a bit of muscle,”

“Oh, have you been watching me sempai? Undressing me with your eyes?” he teased.

“You know what I mean,” she laughed. “You do look good though. Kind of mature in a way.”

Niina could feel his cheeks redden at the compliment. With her lips close to his ear and her chest pushed up against his back, it was hard not to think about how close Akiko was now. It reminded him of one of their earlier moments together. At the time, he just thought of her as a cute girl that he would ultimately never see again.

Ughhh, now he really hoped that Arashi and her weren’t dating. But now he could totally get how his judo-sempai felt after the hair ruffle. Akiko-sempai wasn’t just cute. She just always seemed to know what to say at the right time, and you knew that she meant it. That’s why he knew that as much as he complained and belly-ached about joining judo, he would never quit.

“Well, uh. You’re… not too bad yourself,” he coughed. It was one of the rare times that he was at a loss for words.  

***

It took a bit more time than anticipated, but the two eventually made it back down to the entrance of the mountain trail.

“Finally!” they both said in unison before Niina eventually placed her on the seating of one of the nearby picnic tables.

“Thank you so much again,” Akiko said, squeezing his hand. “You’re my hero!”

Niina could feel a goofy smile appear on his face at the compliment. “Well, you know, like I said, I couldn’t just leave you there. A cute girl in the woods? No way! But you know, if you’re offering a reward, I could think of a few things…”

“Is that so?” a rougher, familiar voice said behind him. He slowly turned and sure enough, there was Arashi. How long had he been standing there? Also dangit, he must have been way faster than Niina realized if he already made it back down!

The brunette gulped. Oh man, he was going to get it now. He might as well say goodbye to the best of his high school years. It was nice while they lasted.

“Ahahaha, it’s a joke! Totally not what you think! Aki-sempai twisted her ankle and I had to carry her down and-”

He felt Arashi’s strong right hand on his shoulder. Here it comes. It was the end…

Or so he thought. Instead, of being flung into the air like a ragdoll, he just felt a firm grip of assurance. He cracked open one of his blue eyes and saw a proud toothy grin across his judo sempai’s face.

“Great idea! Not only did you bring Akiko-san back to safety, but you showed some impressive endurance training carrying her all the way down,” the older boy responded.

 “I… guess it was,” he actually hadn’t thought if it that way, but that sounds exactly like the conclusion Arashi would draw in a situation like this.

“Makes me kind of jealous that I didn’t think of it first.” The light-haired boy continued wistfully, crossing his arm, clearly envious that he missed out on an impromptu training opportunity.

Akiko then lifted her hand, as though she was a student ready to share her answer.

“Oh! I have an idea! Arashi-sempai, what if you carry Niina-kun on your back? I bet that would give you even more weight endurance!”

“Wait-WHAT?”  

“Nice idea! I still have the energy for it- Aki, are you okay waiting for one more round?”

“Sure! I could even time it!”

“W-w-wait! Shouldn’t we take you home and ice your ankle first?”

“Now that I’m sitting, I’m totally fine! It shouldn’t take that long if Arashi-san is doing it.”

“It’s settled then! Okay, Niina, are you ready? 3-2-1-”

“NOOO!”

[macy-starmoon]

⚠THIS MAY HAVE YAOI CONTENT BUT MODERATE

The image i have dreamed last night and it was a cover of a donjinshi.

sadly i cant know the story of the donjinshi because i was getting sleepy in the dream which means i have to wake up.

[fisherman-fight]

ROUND TWO

YUKI SANADA from TSURITAMA vs JUNPEI NIINA from TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL GIRL'S SIDE: 3RD STORY

PROPAGANDA:

YUKI SANADA - "New to fishing at the beginning, but hones his skills and passion as the series progresses. By the end, he combines the art of fishing and the power of friendship to literally save the world." "HE HAS SEVERE ANXIETY AND IS TRYING HIS BEST"

JUNPEI NIINA - "enjoys fishing to unwind but gets embarrassed when talking about it. unlike the ocean loving nature guy of the game, he actually fishes."

[gatoraid]

Shiomi Chil - 父の愛人 (Chichi no aijin / Dad’s lover)

Woooop finally got around to reading Shiomi Chil’s new ongoing manga and I’m enjoying it A LOT.

27-year-old Junpei is a live-in housekeeper for the 42-year-old novelist Niina Kunihiko and his teenaged son Haruki who almost sees Junpei as a family member. Little does Haruki know that while he’s at school, eating the cute bento Junpei makes for him every day, Junpei and his dad are entangled in passionate lovemaking. But even though Junpei is clearly in love with Kunihiko, their relationship feels more like an affair than being a couple. The cool and collected Kunihiko treats Junpei kindly enough, but he also keeps an emotional distance that is tearing at Junpei (and the reader’s) heartstrings.

Yet we also get a glimpse into Kunihiko’s heart, showing that once upon a time he had dreamed of love too, before ending up in a loveless marriage arranged by his parents that finally ended in divorce. Will he ever be able to open up to the hopelessly-in-love Junpei? And most importantly, what will happen to their relationship once Haruki finds out his dad and Junpei are sleeping together? Can’t wait to find out!

It’s a simple enough premise, but the Longing Junpei has for Kunihiko is so delicious, just the way he looks at the man he loves is so full of torn-up emotion. In the scene where he tells his girl friends that he’s sleeping with the man he loves now but they are not really dating, the shift in the mood as he tells his story from joy to uncertainty was sooo well done. Idk, I think it’s really effective to have this type of cute and domestic setting combined with such an ambiguous relationship. Also… Junpei being a 190 cm tall super buff guy who is cute and soft and a total bottom is sooo good. His thick thighs would save a 100 lives.

I read this in Ebookjapan.

[annghelicmars]

No problem! It is a little complicated just starting out. In tokimemo there’s 6 relationship levels. mad, sad, neutral, grinning, smiling, and blushing. I believe for love bombs if they are at grinning that’s when they can start. if they’re neutral and below you’re all clear. Love bombs are definitely a late game problem, they’re easy to avoid early game.  I think all of them are worth doing. You only see the principal very rarely and in tokimemo you only go on “dates” with the faculty by going on extra curricular class trips so the weird aspects are easy to avoid. I personally recommend starting at 3 just cause it’s the easiest and I enjoy the mc’s two friends. I’d say save one for last, so basically work backwards. 1 is difficult (at least it was for me ) without having some experience under me. From what I’ve experienced rival mode can only activate year three. In terms of how hard it is, it really depends on where the relationship level is when rival mode starts. If you’re already at blushing, it isn’t a real challenge at all. But, if you’re at smiling it can definitely take some work. I don’t think rival mode starts with a boy you’re at grinning with. For rival mode you can win it two ways. 1) have the boy at blushing or 2) spending time with your rival. method 1 is the easiest. method 2 is really tedious but worth while if you enjoy the girl you are rivaled with. the only downside is you have to spend weeks hanging out with her and doing this raises your stress level super high. I’d say that all the boys are good people in general, you of course have your usual bad boy and womanizer arch types but they’re not bad people (except for Taro Majima in 2 but we don’t talk about him lol) . For tokimemo 1 I’d recommend Madoka Kijyo or Sakuya Morimura, It’s been a while since I’ve played 1 but I remember liking them. 2 I’d recommend Kounoshin Hariya or Itaru Hikami. 3 Junpei Niina (he is my personal favorite of all 3 games) or Ruka Sakurai. If you have anymore questions please feel free to ask me! I can talk about tokimemo for days lol.

Tempted to play Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, if I can get the emulator to work...

But I just know I'm going to dedicate all of my attention to school work and forget that I'm supposed to date cute boys. That's what happened in my real school life 🥲

[faeriekey]

Arashi’s expression says it all. Haha.

[adventure-of-keli]

Bambi & Junpei, short comic ! 

[zoidwhiteshadow]

Niina’s credit images.

[somena-libra-dawn]

Till this point I had no idea that if you BF-ed the 3p set, the BF will mention the other guy's name during the trigger scene. Actually, I accidentally triggered it because I was desperate getting Junpei into :) for their 3p till Bambi dated him twice in a row and BAM! Arashi appeared. I was like "bf? 3p? bf? 3p? w-which one!!??"

The rest of the BF events are the same, except Sakurai bros' friend ending (ED 6) where he's like "my idiot bro doesn't reciprocate your feeling? wtf?"

EDIT: I personally don't recommend triggering BF mode this way for new players. It might work well if you're used to their 3P ed 2 and... the game overall.

[txtfromcellx]

The style parameter boys really love finger gun huh

[tokimaeki-gaming]

THE WORST FIT IN HISTORY MAKES A CAMEO IN THIS GAME. God I can’t get over how ugly this outfit is... TMGS1 sure had some... choices when it came to fashion

[somevirtualnolife]

100m Relay for ときめきメモリアル Girl's Side DAYS 2021 ときめき体育祭

[mikata-gahara]

[REVIEW] Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side: 3rd Story

Just look at the cute logo–it practically summarizes the whole game.

First thing first, it’s my first time conducting a review so maybe I’ll just skip all the mincing and playing with the words. And secondly, well, I know it’s a pretty old game, but since I just got my hands on it recently then excuse me for treating it as brand new.

Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side: 3rd Story is currently the latest installment of the Tokimeki Memorial series (excluding the ‘Battery Widget’). It’s an otome game; basically a game in which girls are making boys falling for her, for those who don’t know what it means. There are bunch of otome games out there and more often than not I’m disgusted at them (especially when some of them include BDSM, rape, or worse–gang rape). All that aside, that’s why I’m often sticking with school-life otome games, to minimize the chances of any of those horrid scenes popping in my game consoles and to keep my mind and eyes clean from any harmful influences. blah.

Right, time to go back to the right path.

Like I said, I found TMGS3 just recently and seeing that it’s pretty innocent-looking with that cute, pinky font–I tried it on my old PSP. I was pretty surprised to find that it’s so fun. You can go shopping every Sunday with a discount card, the clothes you wear will have to be matching with the season you’re in or else the guys you’re seducing will pretty much scold you for going with unfitting outfits (I’ve tried it, wearing a tank top in winter). You have to raise some stats up to make guys fall for you (but every guy has their own tastes so you can’t always get all of the guys’ confession in one playthrough) just like in real life.

When you want something, you have to really work for it–that’s one point I learn the hard way in my life and I love that this game teaches that.

Now, let us get to the main part of this review.

System

To put it simply, the system is as equally cute as it’s fun. It’s easy to navigate too. You can just choose what activity you want to do for the week right here. Choosing certain activities can both increase and decrease some of the stats so it can be tough when you have to maintain some stats which happen to be increased and decreased by activities that you also have to do. In the beginning of the game, you’re inquired to choose a room and depending on which you choose, your beginning stats will vary, though the beginning money will remain the same.

Background Music

One of the plus points for this game is absolutely it’s BGM, without it then maybe the worth of this game will drop about 50%, for me, at least. One most primary factor I think has to be in a game (especially the otome ones) is the BGM. To me, music is partially everything. Without it then the feeling you get won’t come off as great as it will be. Even bad BGMs which grate ears in some action games just make the feeling of smashing the villain even better. In short, I’m so glad that this game executes the choices of music and soundtrack so well. The confession theme music and the ending song, ‘flower or love’, are so great that it made me shed a tear.

Story

Like most games of this kind, the heroine here has no clear personality. The players are the ones who can define her through the choices and actions. While I hoped that the heroine would have more defining personality than the default, innocent and seemingly gullible personality and was let down, fortunately the whole plot of this story is "passable” to make up the fault.

There’s a legend of a church when the heroine was still a child, which is also the vocal point of this game and where the confessions always take place. The heroine also befriends the two poster boys Ruka and Koichi in her childhood, the three of them often played at the grounds of that church. One day, the heroine has to leave the city, leaving both boys and like most stories, she is back about ten years or so later only to meet up with both of her childhood friends.

It’s an overused plot story (with the previous TMGS games having childhood friends as well) but I think TMGS3 does it well and puts the scenes in a decent order. I won’t say that I particularly fond of this part since I have enough of my fill with cliche and happily-ever-after bunch of unreal tales. Like I said, the plot is passable. It’s neither really good or bad–it’s just enough to make the game look likable. At least there’s no scenes of promising the heroine that the boys will marry her someday or something even more worse than that. I’ll think of this game less than how I think of it now.

I love fairy tales and sweet nothings but sometimes we just have to face the reality and know that there’s a fine line between it and fiction. I mean let’s be real–will you still be that friendly with you childhood friends after you meet them ten years later? Don’t even start. I bet you won’t even remember what you did when you were 7 or 8 years old.

The Guys

And here we are, at the most vital part of what makes it a worthy game besides the BGM. There are a wide variety of bachelors in this game, like 6 enigmatic boys you can vividly see, 4 secret (in other words, hidden) characters which I deem not that important and a teacher which can only become your love interest when you go through a specific path and have the valid stats. Stats are the oyster in this world and you can only advance with fulfilling a certain amount of them.

The first general 6 boys are alright. I found each of their characteristics amusing especially Shitara Seiji (above), who is basically a rich brat who doesn’t know how to send a text message. There are also events for each of them you can unlock by choosing certain activities too. Some of them are hilarious and pretty interesting, though there are also some which are overly exaggerated and blown out of proportion, like Niina Junpei’s route. The best events trophy shall go to the poster boys Sakurai Ruka and Koichi–funny, interesting and emotional are packed in one boy.

I have to say that the best of this game probably lies within the events and story of the first 6 boys. The next 4 secret characters are written and executed weirdly and pretty half-assed, almost not making sense. Though it’s not really all four of them bad, at least two of them are. Let’s just be real, a chance encounter won’t happen that many times! (except when you’re obsessed with that person and you keep stalking them to make the ‘chance encounter’) But the writer seemed to love it and overused the idea a few times.

Character Graphics

And here’s another deciding factor which defines the main worth of the game itself. And thankfully I don’t think myself and anyone else in the fandom have any complaints about the graphics. The CGs are beautifully drawn and the sprites have no actual problems. I mean look at this:

The only thing I despise is Konno Tamao’s hair–like, green? It’s not that I’m not fond of the color green but to see it as hair color is just... weird. Yeah, weird. And I’m not really agree with Junpei’s hairstyle either. If only they would make his hair styled above and put aside the makeover, then it’d be perfect.

Mini Games

IT’S HELLA FUN! The pillow-throwing one, I mean. I don’t think the making-valentine-choco counts as a game actually since it’s just about decorating chocolates the way you want them to be. The ball-throwing game in sport festival is pretty fun even when sometimes I’m infuriated when the opposite team hit me with the ball instead. But most of all, the ball-rolling game is really getting on my nerves since I can’t seem to win it. All in all, aside from the making the choco thing, the mini games are pretty worthwhile.

Final Judgement

Personal Rating: 7/10

For an otome game, it’s pretty decent and possibly one of some great ones there. The story and events are well-executed and left quite an impression. Flaws are just inevitable but still tolerable. It’s worth your time and money.