I’m a huge fan of anime series that capture the essence of what it means to be an anime otaku. One anime I hope you won’t miss is 16bit Sensation: Another Layer, a “time-slip” story about an artist who finds herself transported back to 1992, the golden age of hentai visual novels!
What’s the Story of 16bit Sensation: Another Layer?
Konoha is an illustrator working for an unpopular company making 18+ visual novels. She became an illustrator because she loves bishoujo games so much, and she longs to create a famous visual novel with super-cute moe characters. Unfortunately for her, the era of big-budget VNs is over, and currently all development dollars flow into crappy mobile games with gacha gameplay systems.
Konoha notices a used software shop and wanders in. Inside she finds a crate filled with classic visual novels like Kanon, Dokyusei and Rance selling for just ¥100. She tells the old lady running the shop that she’s selling the games too cheaply, and launches into a passionate speech about why bishoujo games are special to her. The next thing Konoha knows, the mysterious shop is deserted, and she finds herself teleported to the year 1992, the golden age of hentai visual novels. Could this be her chance to create the next amazing bishoujo game she always wanted to create?
But Konoha soon learns that 1992 is very different from 2023. Photoshop hasn’t become standard yet, and there are no graphics tablets to draw on. Graphics apps of the era didn’t even have undo, or layers! Somehow she needs to learn how to create art using this ancient technology, using just 16 colors! All the while, the company’s programmer Mamoru thinks she’s crazy for being so passionate about visual novels, and refuses to believe her babbling that one day bishoujo characters will become popular all over Japan.
The story is based on a manga by Tamaki Wakaki (The World God Only Knows) in collaboration with Misato Mitsumi and Tatsuki Amazuyu, two game creators working for Aquaplus who made such influential works as ToHeart, Pia Carrot and Comic Party. This combination of genius creators ensures that the jokes in the anime will be extremely authentic since they’re based on real-world experiences of the era.
There are plenty of other big names, too. Konoha’s voice is provided by the talented Aoi Koga (Kaguya-sama), who is brilliant in any role she’s in. Anime singer Shouko Nakagawa (who sang the Gurren Lagann opening theme) sings the opening theme for this show. The anime is directed by Takashi Sakuma (Re:Zero season 2, Bokuben, SAO: Alicization).
Why I’m Enjoying 16bit Sensation So Much
As the person probably most responsible for introducing visual novels and eroge to the West by founding JAST USA, I’m really loving 16bit Sensation because I basically lived it, putting up with the same archaic technology that Konoha does in the show. Here are some highlights:
- Tools for making visual novels like Ren’py or Unity didn’t exist yet, so every company had to make their own game engines from scratch…so naturally there was no compatibility between engines. It was a point of pride for each programmer to insist that his game engine was perfect. If we ever experienced a bug porting a game to English, the programmer took it as a personal affront.
- The technology was terrible. Crappy PCs that didn’t even have Ethernet ports let alone Wi-Fi. Laptops with black-and-white screens. Getting anything done while out of the office was still nearly two decades away.
- JAST USA was started right after Windows 95 and CD-ROMs showed up, so we avoided having to publish our first titles on multiple floppies. But I remember having to figure out how to update ridiculous outdated DOS-era installers before standardized tools existed.
How Will Fans React to 16bit Sensation?
Being a card-carrying time-travel otaku as well as an aficionado of classic bishoujo games, I couldn’t love the 16bit Sensation anime more. But it seems to me that the show might not be for everyone. If you’ve never played a visual novel and have no awareness of the many famous anime and games referenced in the show, you might not feel the same connection that us older fans will feel. If you’ve never punched a hole in the side of a 5 1/2″ floppy disk so you could write data on the other side, you might not appreciate the jokes about now outdated technology.
On the other hand, I think the show will be a hit. I was browsing Twitter X and noticed many fans sharing screenshots with subtitles in Spanish, French and other languages. This reminded me of how all of us are connected by our love of Japan and its pop culture, no matter where in the world we may be. And that’s a special thing.
Thanks for reading this blog post about the 16bit Sensation: Another Layer anime. Are you going to watch this great anime, or give it a pass? Tell us in the comments below!
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