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crimium · 1 year ago

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A ted talk on why Neo-Traditionalism of Japan is underrated

The album announcement has put me in a hifuu mood which made me fall in love with NToJ. At first, I never really cared for the album. In fact, I used to think it was the worst one out of ZUN's Music Collection. But after listening to it thoroughly, I think this album rocks actually. And I'm gonna tell you why.

the remixes

The songs that ZUN chose to remaster for this album are great picks imho, i mean, Unkown X? Fate of Sixty Years??? The new versions of these tracks are all fantastic, because they update the instrumentation to sound more akin to that of TD and DDC, while not straying too far from the original versions, making for an awesome listening experience. The best remix in this album hands down is Let's Live in a Lovely Cemetery, which adds a nice blend of traditional Japanese instruments. I'd go as far to say it's an upgrade from the original from Ten Desires.

2. The originals

Now even though the remixes are great, that doesn't stop the original tracks from being just as fantastic. They al have this really calming, soothing vibe to them, that really makes the album nice to listen to when relaxing. The instrumentation is also fantastic, blending traditional instruments with electronic ones, perfectly fitting the "Neo-traditionalism" aspect of the album. All of the tracks were great, but there are two that really stuck with me. First, Izanagi Object. It starts mysterious and slowly builds it's way up to a relaxing but up-beat melody for the climax of the song. This one in particular leans more to the futuristic side of things. On the other hand, Led On By a Cow to Visit Zenoku Temple leans more to the traditional side of things, with a serene, almost nature-esque vibe. I also love how the Theme of Eastern Story leitmotif is handled here, it sort of starts off like a title theme, and ends up sounding like a stage theme towards the end. Love it.

3. The story

The story (and the entire album to an extent) is a sequel to Trojan Green Asteroid, where Merry is done recovering from her otherworldly sickness. After Renko and Merry reunite, they start exploring Shinshuu. There's a lot of neat lore in here! It mentions how there's no real vegetation left on earth, and that it's all artificial, which is a nice reminder that hifuu takes place in the future, and it also states that Merry has no family living in Japan, suggesting she's from another country. It also shows that Merry's power getting stronger caused Renko to worry, showing that they do care about each other. It's a good read.

In conclusion, go give NToJ a listen! It's a great album, and also a nice recap for the upcoming new hifuu album.

#touhou project #touhou #hifuu club #neo traditionalism of japan #maribel hearn #renko usami #touhou music

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suzuran777 · 2 years ago

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Unreleased & cancelled BL visual novels

Recently I purchased some second-hand BL visual novel magazines, and while reading them, I realized just how many of these announced games were never actually released. I thought it could maybe be interesting to compile a list of these games. I will mention which games were officially cancelled, but the status of most of these games is completely unknown. Perhaps they will still be released one day, but some of these publishers also don't seem to exist anymore. The magazines I used to find most of this information are Binetsu Ouji, B's Log and Cool-B!

Ouka Otsu - Shinshuu Kikou Senki (【櫻華堕つ) Publisher: Fareastblade This story of this game was supposed to take place during the Second World War. A famous researcher called Dr. Kisaragi Akira made it possible for the Japanese empire to develop cyborgs with super human strength. However, the United States also developed cyborgs and their creator intends to destroy Kisagari's research. Kisaragi escapes and seeks the help of the few surviving cyborgs, who all have their own reasons for helping him even though they don't like him. Part of this game was released as an e-book and translations can be found here. I am surprised the developers stopped publishing information about this project because I frequently saw it in Cool-B. Back then they published a lot of information, CGs and even short stories. Their last blog update was posted in 2016 in which they explained how things have been difficult and they decided to temporarily suspend the project. However, they never returned to confirm when production would be resumed. Secretly, I still hope that this game will be released one day, there's so much content already and it all seems really promising, but the official website doesn't work anymore and the Twitter account was also deleted. Some of the staff who worked on the game did mention how they still wanted to complete the project one day, but it has also been some years since these tweets were posted,

Angel's Feather Onsen mono Publisher: Blue impact This was supposed to be the third, and final Angel's Feather game. Some Japanese websites mention that the game's staff left the company, which was probably the reason why this game was never released. The magazines mention how the name of this game was just a placeholder name at the time (literally Angel's Feather hot spring story) but I could not find if they ever announced the real title. Some CGs were published in magazines and it looks like it was supposed to be light-hearted fandisc, focusing on the characters spending time with each other and having fun at the hot springs.

White Shadow Publisher: Blue Impact According to the official website, which can still be accessed through Wayback Machine, the first information about this project was published in Binetsu Ouji in 2004. Similar to the third Angel's Feather game, there's not much hope that it will ever be released because the staff that originally worked on it quit. This means that sadly, Angel's Feather was Blue Impact's first and last BL visual novel series. It was supposed to be a post-apocalyptic story which takes place after a long-lasting war that destroyed most of the planet. Some humans survived, who clung to a small piece of land that had survived the disaster. The people who live could be classified into three types, normal humans without supernatural powers, humans who have characteristics of other creatures (for example animal characteristics), and people with strong supernational powers. This game was also featured on the cover of Cool-B volume 2. The regular updates that were posted on the official website make it look like the game was almost finished before the employees quit, so it's really a shame it was never released.

Torus Zero/ 0 -Torus (トーラス・ZERO) Publisher: CORE This is another one of these games that is mentioned pretty often in older magazines and was also featured on the cover of Cool-B (volume 4). The publisher CORE, became quite well-known in the industry after releasing Messiah, but Torus Zero was the project they originally wanted to release first. Before Messiah was released, they also released another visual novel called Fanatica, which upon reaching the final ending, mentioned how the story would be continued in Torus Zero. Unfortunately some of CORE's staff officially announced that they couldn't continue their projects after a big earthquake struck Japan in 2011. Now there's actually a bit of hope for this project because a few weeks ago, the artist Carnelian, announced a completely new project called Tokyo Gentou/Tokyo Phantasmagoria. In the magazine article it was mentioned that similar to CORE, a new BL game branch called Procyon would be releasing this new game. In an interview published in Cool-B volume 111 they mentioned that they came up with some of these ideas a long time ago, so I do wonder if they will use some elements of Torus Zero in this new game. Originally, Torus Zero focused on protagonist Riku who somehow ended up in a world in which he was the only human.

Unnamed project Publisher: CORE This game was only slightly teased in magazines and according to old BL game info website BOY-S STREET, the images were only on the website for a short time before it seemed like the entire project was scrapped and replaced with Torus Zero. It was supposed to be a school setting, but the main character is actually a demon and has two personalities.

Tenrin no Guneval (天輪のグネーヴァル) Publisher: Madalabo/Claw Mark A sci-fi story in which shadow creatures attack earth. Humans with special abilities saved mankind from this crisis. These characters all have their own special ability, some use fire or wind to fight while others can distort space. Technology also advanced, and flying motorbikes called 'Guneval' are used. This game was announced in 2012 and surprisingly the website can still be accessed, however it has been removed from all upcoming game lists in magazines and the last update on the website was only 4 months after the game was originally announced. Other than the usual visual novel gameplay, it was also supposed to have battle scenes in which you could control the main character to fight enemies. I'm kind of sad they never released this game because it seemed pretty interesting! Madalabo is mostly known for their other game Hadaka Shitsuji which seemed to be...the complete opposite of the story described on this game's website. I also really like superhero themes and the art is nice, so it's really a shame it never got released.

Shokushu Densetsu (触手伝説) Publisher: Madalabo Another Madalabo project that never got released. The title means 'legend of the tentacles' so I think you can already guess what this game is about. In 2011 they released a short booklet with some of the game's concept art, the characters, and other ideas for different future games. You can actually still buy a digital version of the booklet on DLsite here! You might even recognize some of these early concepts, as some of them were eventually used to create Kanja S (Patient S).

Nihon ni Natta Yoru (2本になった夜) Publisher: HardG.Lab This is… a strange one, the protagonist Taki Naruse is an ordinary university student who's busy with his homework and assignments. One day when he's forced to do a large number of tasks he decides to go to his lecturer to complain, but Taki gets ignored and his lecturer suddenly decides this is a perfect opportunity to check the new drug he has been developing. Long story short, Taki suddenly grows another dick (yep...). His lecturer suggests Taki uses his body to sleep with other men to ''cure'' his condition. I think this game was announced somewhere in 2011 and they published some information about it in Cool-B, but the official social media accounts were all deleted eventually.

New World Order Publisher: Love Delivery (HolicWorks) "When you die, say hello to God for me". This game was announced in 2015 and takes place in the United Kingdom. It focuses on a young British man called Lyr who works as a pastor at a church. He’s good at material arts and also knows how to use a gun. Together with three of his fellow pastors, he’s on a mission to kill. These are not just normal pastors, they’re professional assassins. I made a separate blog post about this some time ago, so if you want to read more you can find it here! The project was unfortunately officially cancelled in November 2022.

Heimskringla Publisher: Tyrant (HolicWorks) A dystopian future in which people developed the ability to see when a dead person’s soul leaves their body. The world once fell apart, but was then revived once more. In this new distorted world, humans started adapting to the environment and refugees from all over the world drifted to this country. As a result of this, it became a melting pot of many different races and towns continue to develop their own individual cultures. Five people, with five completely different backgrounds and birthplaces, travel together towards a certain place. There is only one thing all of them are looking for. Death. This game was officially cancelled in 2018, but it's quite hard to find any traces of it because Tyrant's official Twitter account was also deleted. I also wrote a blog post about it which you can check out here.

Gekka Souei (月下双影) Publisher: NOEL Two childhood friends who became enemies due to unfortunate circumstances. This game was supposed to focus on protagonist Hayate and two groups of shinobi, taking place in a modern day setting. It was quite hard to find information about this game because even with Wayback Machine you can't find much on the website. I happened to find a pretty good image of it on Twitter, posted by a user who happened to save some of the wallpapers back then. A little bit of information about this game was published in B'sLOG and in Cool-B, but only in 2006. Looking at the little bit of information I was able to find on the website, it seems like they had quite a lot of plans and wanted to add roleplay elements to this game too, as well as a SFW and 18+ version of the game. The magazines introduced quite a lot of characters and the interview with the developers (in Cool-B volume 10) mentions that they had planned to create five routes. They didn't really specify which characters, but I assume it's the ones that can be seen in the main visual?

Psychedelic (サイケデリック) Publisher: LOVE&DESTROY Another game that is not officially cancelled, but the publisher is working on multiple new projects and the official website has not been updated since 2014. The game takes place in Shibuya, Japan and focuses on five good friends who always hang out together. Will these normal days last forever? They promoted this game as being ''all reverse'' so you could choose which character tops/bottoms which is pretty rare nowadays. In 2018 LOVE&DESTROY mentioned that the project was currently 'on-hold' and it's still unknown if they ever decide to create the game.

Tsukiiro Tanshikyoku (月色譚詩曲) Publisher: Adelta & MonstreCarameliser I think most BLVN fans immediately recognize Kurosawa Rinko's artstyle, who's well known for creating Hashihime and Uuultra C. This game is also not officially cancelled, but there hasn't been any news for years. It was announced in 2018 as a second collab between Adelta and MonstreCarameliser (a year before that they released the short game Umiiro Kyoushikyoku). The website still works, but it was only updated a few times in 2018 and once in 2020. The game focuses on Kaguya, a heir of a certain kingdom (probably some kind of god realm if I look at the names of the characters) who was only interested in women and spending his parents' money. His parents eventually give up on him and send him down to planet earth, in the form of a baby. A young shunga painter (shunga = erotic art) called Takemasu finds him and takes care of him. However, Kaguya grows much faster than the inhabitants of the planet and regains his adult body within a few days.

Hashihime Fandisc Publisher: Adelta Every time I mention this people ask me if they really announced it, but yes, two fandiscs even! A 'good end' and 'bad end' one. It was announced in 2018, but only mentioned once in a blog post and in Cool-B magazine. It is not officially cancelled but they haven't posted anything about it ever since. It's actually still in Cool-B's upcoming game list, however usually when a game gets cancelled it just one day disappears from the list, without any explanation, so I don't want to be too hopeful. I think it's very possible that it was announced because a lot of other games also have fandiscs so it seemed like a good idea at the time, but Adelta started working on Uuultra C after this and is currently working on their new game Ooe, as well as their original drama CD series.

No Thank You!! OVA Publisher: parade Not a game announcement, but I still decided to include it. One of the tweets announcing it can still be found here, and no it was not posted on April Fools'… I think it was mentioned again a few months after the original announcement, but it has already been 10 years and they haven't mentioned it ever since.

#blvn #ouka otsu #angel's feather #madalabo #visual novels #blhistory #cancelled

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