© 若木民喜/みつみ美里・甘露樹(アクアプラス)/16bitセンセーションAL PROJECT
Eroge, bishoujo game, visual novel. As many people know or have learned through 16bit Sensation: Another Layer, these games, which started out as a fledgling art form, would go on to influence the entire spectrum of modern otaku culture. But games are also a business; Even the most niche, independent entries in a money-making medium can eventually achieve breakout success. Alcohol Soft’s manager, Masaru, considered the company as a side company for a long time, but all it took was one hit release for him to think there might be something to these games. play this video game. And just as American investors jumped into the dot-com bubble at the same time, this would-be entrepreneur and trader was headed in the wrong direction.
Masaru isn’t the complete focus of this week’s episode of Another Layer, as Konoha steps up from her withdrawn role last week (and she’ll take center stage in the next episode). However, what remains unexplored about managers’ methods and motivations lies at the heart of the business aspects of game development. Surprisingly little time was spent on the development of Alcohol Soft’s much-hyped console port of their game. There’s still some interesting information, especially highlighting the techniques Kaori and Meiko used to deliver their material to the all-ages market. It was fun to see them interact by adding steam or clothes to their previous H scenes, content to turn their porn into something”cute”. It’s the style that companies like Key are known for, even if their releases started out just for adults.
However, the trick is that all this serious effort is in vain. Alcohol Soft’s manager succumbed to the siren call of a scammer, and the company and its creators ended up paying the price. It’s funny: last week, I was scouring sources to confirm whether or not producer Ichigaya was based on any specific characters from video game history. However, the canary in the coal mine turns out he is not someone important in the future. He was just another bootlegger for that era, happy to make some extra money from video games while he was selling his hostess club and not interested in doing anything What is there for them other than letting someone else hold the bag?
Another Layer has previously been nuanced in its analysis of the changing roles and rules of game development. Mamoru’s struggle with wanting to develop on PC-98 versus Windows was resolved with a compromise. Writer Kyonshi still expressed his doubts about removing sexual content from the game for the sake of the console port, but other team members were said to have gone along with it in the name of branching out. . However, Masaru is unflinching in portraying the over-the-top, exaggerated role of a terrible manager. He is the epitome of so many executives who consider themselves producers, wanting to leave their mark on a game so much that he has no idea how it was made, so much so that he would sell himself and his company for a billion yen at a loss.
Of all the 16bit Sensation projects involved in commenting on the game’s history and its development to date, this seems the most relevant. This year in particular has seen many game makers lose their jobs, although there have also been many huge successes in the field. Dramatized for anime, Alcohol Soft’s fate is not unique in the industry, which perhaps speaks to why Konoha seems unfazed that they didn’t even register as a footnote in the future hers.
There is accompanying narration with other characters achieving success. Toya returns, transformed into life as an eroge developer, especially thanks to Konoha’s influence. She accompanies this with a significant change in style and a new drag aspect. But Toya’s appearance is also the most direct sign of Konoha’s time travel influence on the future. Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen, but her awareness of her ability to change shows in her resolution in the post-credits scene. She’s familiar with bishoujo’s world-changing power, so why not use that power to save Alcohol Soft as a counterweight to Masaru by using her short-sighted 90s business sense to destroy it? It’s a remarkable piece that combines awareness of this story’s era with insightful commentary, and has me excited to see how Konoha’s revolution can help her avoid such a terrible outcome. What is the path she is on?
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I considered mentioning the specter of Y2K last week, but this week’s episode went ahead and officially name-checked it. The Y2K issue has been well-documented since the event itself, and as someone who spent time covering it, it’s interesting to see the characters in 16bit Sensation spontaneously react to it as many of us did then. You might think that while working on computers, Alcohol Soft employees would have a better understanding of the amount of support work required to ensure a smooth millennial transition. But then, the people who watch the news are all writers and marketers, so they’re as clueless as most people. Popular opinion is that the almighty gyaru style had its highest relevance around the early 2000s. So Masaru bought and frequented a cosplay club specifically themed around period kogyaru high school. He even gave one of the girls a Tamagotchi! She sarcastically laments the toy’s decreasing relevance in this era and requests an AIBO instead. These are all signs that no one can accurately predict trends over time. Although they are no longer the same, both gyaru and Tamagotchi still exist today. Kanon’s existence continues to be the frame of reference for this 1999 storyline. Other characters comment on the publication’s strength (including a character who makes an “uguu” sound right next to Yui Horie’s character, confirming that they are mocking us). Ichigaya also preaches the potential power of eroge adapted into non-pornographic television anime, and even though he’s a fraud, he’s not wrong here. Anime versions of Key works like Kanon and Air, along with others like To Heart, would pave the way for a new era of adaptations in the early 2000s. To dig deeper into this angle, My cohort Steve and I did a column this week reminiscing about the impact of Key’s works and their adaptations, which should have been posted the same day as the review This.
16bit Sensation: Another Layer is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Chris mostly knows many of the characters in this VN game from the fighting games they appear in. You can find him musing about any number of gaming, anime and manga topics on the blog, as well as posting way too many screenshots of them for as long as it takes. Twitter allow.