The 16Bit: Another Layer sensation is back with episode 7, giving us a look at Konoha and Mamoru’s strategy to create a game worth a billion yen. Episode 6 puts Alcohol Soft and its employees in an impossible situation after learning that the company is one billion yen in debt. 16Bit Sensation episode 7 keeps the otaku Easter eggs coming and going, but once again, there’s another element that keeps us waiting for the next episode.
Every storm hardens the Earth
The episode started off strong with an amazing Easter egg that left me gasping as I watched. Konoha, after being very confident at the end of the last episode, begins to feel nervous about expressing his game ideas to the rest of the studio. After telling Mamoru that she needed a confidence boost, she pulled out her smartphone and started playing “Connect” by ClariS, also known as Puella Magi Madoka’s iconic opening song Magica. Not only is Konoha starting to feel excited at this point, but viewers who recognize this classic theme will no doubt be excited and pleasantly surprised by this addition to the episode.
Thanks to Mamoru, the Konoha Drawing Tablet finally works and she is able to show the team at the studio her impressive drawings in an attempt to convince them to work hard to create a game that pays debt free. The group’s reaction was interesting as they were fascinated by the level of detail that art from 20 years later could offer. I love that anime continually reminds us how different technology was just two decades ago and how that technology manifests itself through the otaku industry in games, art, anime, etc.
Konoha introduces his character design concept sketches to the group. Anime-style character design has evolved over the decades, and since Konoha is from 2023, her art reflects the style you often see in new games today. While the team was developing the game, we heard Konoha reference famous bishoujo games like To Heart, Fate, Air, and Rance. Konoha also gave its colleagues an insight into future otaku culture, highlighting that the game comes with body pillows, acrylic stands, and other incentives that otaku enjoy receiving with purchases. It’s interesting to see Konoha interacting with people who haven’t lived through any of the 2000s, let alone 2023.
16Bit Sensation episode 7 left us quite confused regarding Mamoru. In the middle of the night, while everyone was fast asleep in the office, he noticed Konoha’s backpack was burning with blue flames. In a panic, he grabbed a fire extinguisher, but the fire disappeared before he could use it, causing the bag to glow faintly the same way we saw the games glow in throughout the series. Mamoru opens Konoha’s bag and finds a copy of what the series calls Gogo no Tenshitachi, a reference to the actual game Tenshitachi no Gogo, released in 1985. The year of the game’s release is not specified in the scene because Mamoru just mentioned that it was an old title.
What confused me was that Konoha told Mamoru that her ability to travel back in time was activated by opening these glowing game boxes, but Mamoru decided to open Gogo no Tenshitachi herself. Maybe he wanted to test for himself whether this theory was true or not, and it seemed like he found that out the hard way as he disappeared in a trail of yellow light. Given that the game was actually released in 1985, it’s fair to believe that Mamoru just traveled back to 1985, further than Konoha has ever traveled.
16Bit Sensation continues to bring otaku goodness, fun characters, and featured characters every week. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with Mamoru and Alcohol Soft, but until then see what’s going on in The Apothecary Diaries, which also airs this fall.
Image via Crunchyroll
© Tamiki Wakagi/Misato Mitsumi/Kanroki (Aqua Plus)/ AL Sensation AL PROJECT