I continue to enjoy Saekano, aka Saenai Kanojo no Sodatekata, aka How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, whose second season is running currently. It’s the story of a high school student named Tomoya who has a dream of making the perfect galge, a romance-centric visual novel which he’ll release at the upcoming Comiket. He’s helped by Utaha-senpai, a confident girl who’s secretly a published writer of light novels, Eiriri Spencer Sawamura, a talented doujin artist who’s half Japanese; and Kato Megumi, and the titular “boring girlfriend” who is generic and average yet somehow irresistibly charming, just like the main heroine from a visual novel. While the show might seem at first to be a JAHA (Just Another Harem Anime), it’s execution is outstanding, and the characters are all fun to root for romantically. I love the way they break the forth wall by talking about not getting enough screentime in the previous episode, or by having awareness of what character roles they play in Tomoya’s harem, as if it were a game they were in. What I really like is the passion the characters put into the visual novel they’re working on, staying up all night to finish coding so it can get released on time. We’ve been involved in publishing our English visual novels for many years, so we know that feeling…
While we all enjoy anime, there are always little things that go over our heads, because we don’t have the same cultural basis that Japanese do. As with most modern series, the Saekano harem anime is set in real locations, with the iconic hill Tomoya meets Megumi on, the train stations and even the coffee shop all being real places you can visit, if you don’t mind all the other otaku around you making their own “holy land” pilgrimages. I was watching the episode of Saekano where Utaha punishes Tomoya by adding sweet anko beans to the coffee he’s about to drink, causing him to howl in protest. My wife (who picks the oddest times to watch anime with me) said, “Oh, you can tell this restaurant is Komeda’s Coffee, they’re famous for serving dishes with anko beans. That’s because they company is from Nagoya, where people love those beans.” Supposedly, Nagoya has a very competitive business environment, and it’s said that any company that’s able to survive there is said to be an especially good one. Two other famous companies that started out in Nagoya include Coco Ichiban, my favorite curry restaurant chain, and a little car company named Toyota.
For one week only, J-List is having a sale on package editions of our popular ecchi games. Now your chance to pick up great games like Super Sonico, Flowers, My Girlfriend is the President, Kana Okaeri and the Raidy Series, plus dozens mroe. See all the games here, or read my Seven Games to Get During our Hentai Game Sale blog post for recomendations.
