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Author: Good_Haro

Profile: IDOLiSH7’s Producer Negishi Ayaka

So, I was digging around for some background research on another thing when I stumbled upon the Bandai Namco Online staff introduction page for IDOLiSH7’s producer––whose name I really hope I’m reading right––Negishi Ayaka. Her little introduction story (while definitely a bit of PR for Bandai––so you probably want to take some of the glowing praise for the company with a grain of salt) was actually pretty interesting (and rather sweet) so I thought I’d share it. This profile’s from like early 2016? I believe. The page isn’t dated but she mentions ~6 months since the game’s launch. Also I left off the schedule thing at the bottom because, well the details aren’t that interesting aside from some tough days ending at nearly midnight (ouch!) Anyway, enjoy:

Sometimes you have to be strict with the projects you’ve brought to life because you love them, just like a parent might.

It was a project I’d pitched back when I was an intern.

When you hear the word “producer”, you probably imagine something pretty strict and formal, right? And you might even think that the job––with all the project management, proposal drafting, and organizational tasks––sounds pretty difficult. But I’ll let you in on a little secret about being a producer: you age and job history have very little to do with any of it. Just a few years ago, I was only an intern (lol). I joined the company as an intern in 2013 and only became a full employee in 2015, and I, of all people, am in charge of the property IDOLiSH7. Well, here’s funny thing about that project: I pitched it back when I was just an intern.

Now I’m learning the job with my senior colleagues and the other people I work with supporting me. So, really, despite the image the job has, a producer isn’t so much the top person in charge as just another role in the process. The job covers a pretty broad range of tasks, but my first step toward my current position was presenting my own project proposal at one of our bi-yearly project pitch meetings while I was still training as an assistant under one of my senior colleagues. At the meeting where it all started, they grilled me about not only what made the game concept interesting, but also who the players would be, how much return on investment we could expect, and how production would actually be executed. But the most critical thing they wanted to know was whether I had the passion and dedication to the project to be up to the task. I was assigned to manage the project when it was picked up, and my next step was getting a team together to make it a reality. Naturally, not every project gets picked up, but anyone has a chance to make their idea happen as long as it’s interesting. Our company plays fair like that. I actually applied to become an intern outside of the recruiting period too… But I was so enthusiastic about working here they accepted me anyway. Basically, it’s what’s inside that counts––your ideas, your passion, all that. Whether you’re talking about people or project pitches, that’s what’s really important.

I love the franchise and its fans more than anyone.

So, I pitched IDOLiSH7 in 2014. At the time, there weren’t a lot of apps in that particular market aimed at women, but the market was showing signs of expanding in that direction, so I thought it was a strong opportunity to pursue. While I was working on research, I noticed that even though women would play music games targeted at men, they were often too self-conscious about the location to actually go to an arcade.

And that’s when I thought about the idea of crossing a smartphone music game with idols targeted at women. I had all sorts of ideas for the story and characters too––like a story with an almost shonen-manga-esque quality to it about helping these boys who all are working hard to achieve their dreams as they grow closer as a group, and how each of the idols would have unique backgrounds, along with some tear-jerker moments for good measure. Unique characters are key for a rich story, but just making all the characters multi-dimensional doesn’t make for an interesting story. I can still remember all the days I spent worrying about striking the right balance like it was yesterday. But the other thing, of course, is that as a producer you can’t just think about what you would want in a product, but figure out what the market wants. Like whether to include romantic elements or not, and the possibility of some small detail of a character’s background or the story could put fans off. With IDOLiSH7 the theme we focused on was the idea of rooting for an underdog. The idols’ earnest pursuit of their dreams was more important than romance.

Now I’m at the stage where I need to anticipate trends and manage the product with that in mind. This is one of the harder aspects of being a producer. No matter how much you love your own project, you always have to take care not to let yourself turn into a fan. I want the fans to enjoy the game more than anyone else in the world. I guess I must’ve had the right idea because we’ve received such warm messages from fans in the six months or so since the game launched. And to our surprise even other elements of the company have come to care for our project. That really made me happy. I hope to continue developing the game to reach even more people with it.

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Kalima8’s New Game: Ohimesama Datte XXX Shitai!! –– Even Princesses Wanna Get it On!!

Kalmia8 revealed their next game today: Ohimesama Datte XXX Shitai!! which is something like Even Princesses Wanna Get it On!! You can check out the official site here. I figured I’d do a quick TL of some of the website stuff since it’s a pretty unusual premise for an otome title.

First off, basic details:

Title: Ohimesama Datte XXX Shitai!! – Horny Magical Princess
Developer: Kalmia8
Release date: March 30th, 2018
Artists: Izumi Haruto(?一純晴人), Izumi Makoto (SD art)
Writers
: Wakabayashi Koutarou, Mizukami Neon
Directors: AKOU, Jinnai
Official site: http://kalmia8.jp/himetai

The premise is that the MC is a princess from a magical world where they’re much more open about sex and sexuality than we are on Earth and she comes to Japan to find a husband. She’s described as a “carnivorous” woman who isn’t just the object of the guys’ sexual advances but someone actively seeking out sexual contact with them––which is highly unusual in otome.

The Characters

Agatsuma Kaoru
Voiced by: One Night Love
One of the men saddled with the princess who fell from the sky. He ended up giving her a place to stay at his place. He’s very serious and neurotic, but he also has a bit of a klutzy side too. He’s such an unusually straight-laced guy in this day and age that he thinks he’ll have to get married to the princess just because she kissed him when they first met.

Takai Ryuusei
Voiced by: Furukawa Tetsuto
The other guy saddled with the princess who fell from the sky. He’s good at talking to girls and very considerate. While he can make sex jokes with the best of them, he’s a bit of a showoff and it quickly becomes apparent how little experience he has to back up all his big talk. His glasses are fake.

Kawai Marika (MC, name changeable)
Voiced by: Ayumi Sara
A princess from a world that is very open about sexuality with no sense of modesty. She was supposed to marry a prince from another land to further enhance the magical realm she’s from, but the people who came from the other world were so interesting, she decided that surely they would be even better for her realm and decided to transport herself to Japan instead.
She’s cheerful and optimistic and if she wants something, she’s going to make a B-line right for it. She’s a kind person who thinks the most important thing is for everyone to be able to have fun.

Utsumi Sanae
Voiced by: Tezuka(?) Ryouko
The princess’s personal super maid who can do just about anything. As another native of the magical realm, she has essentially no sense of modesty and is also an extremely “carnivorous” woman. She cares for the princess more than anyone, and would never lay a hand on Kaoru or Ryuusei since the princess has her eye on them.
*Note: She does not have any h-scenes with the route guys. (Whoops I can’t read)

Anyway that’s the basic stuff. There’s going to be a feature in the next issue of Cool-B too.

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An Overview of Adult Otome Games

So, like the BL chart I threw up here before, I mostly cribbed this from the Cool-B award listing for this category. Being that this is the adult otome game category, everything’s 18+ (or has an 18+ version) so I didn’t bother listing platform or age rating since they’re all 18+ PC titles (or should be at least!). Also like the Cool-B BL chart, this is missing doujin titles. I’ll try to add some later if I think about it. All I really did was reformat it, throw in vndb links and add more recently released or announced titles that weren’t included originally. I may have forgotten some stuff.

I’ll probably do some analysis later, but here’s a list of otome games with porn, enjoy:

 

Title Developer Release Date
赤ずきんと迷いの森 キャラメリアトルテ 2011/5/20
Under the Moon シュガービーンズ 2006/12/15
Under the Moon ~つきいろ絵本~ シュガービーンズ 2007/8/24
いじわるMyMaster シュガービーンズ 2008/3/28
VAMPIRE SWEETIE シュガービーンズ 2012/4/27
円環のメモーリア A’sRing 2016/10/28
王宮夜想曲 月下氷人 2005/9/22
おねだりシェアメイト A’sRing 2014/4/25
オルフレール A’sRing 2015/1/30
神サマなんて呼んでない! Kalmia8 2017/2/24
君がため、恋し乱れし月の華 すとれーと 2014/2/14
銀の冠 碧の涙 アロマリエ 2009/5/29
CRAZY★RABBITS 別れさせ業の兎桐事務所 TIARAMODE 2009/10/23
黒と金の開かない鍵。 little cheese 2010/12/4
越えざるは紅い花 Operetta Due 2012/9/7
冬桜抄-さくらがたり- Mead 2013/4/26
幸の天秤 Operetta Due 2014/10/31
参千世界遊戯~MultiUniverse Myself~ girls★dynamics 2013/12/27
女王蜂の王房 めのう編 PURE WOOL 2014/2/28
女王蜂の王房 輝夜編 PURE WOOL 2014/3/28
仁義なき乙女 美蕾 2007/11/9
仁義なき乙女 恋恋三昧 美蕾 2008/6/27
Step -二人の関係は一歩ずつ- AMEDEO 2006/12/15
すみれの蕾 美蕾 2009/3/13
すみれの蕾 fan disc ~ウェディング大作戦~ 美蕾 2009/12/29
月ノ光 太陽ノ影 アロマリエ 2006/4/21
月ノ光 太陽ノ影 -Another Moon- アロマリエ 2006/12/22
つばさの丘の姫王 A red and blue moon -finite loop- Snapdragon 2011/4/22
ツンデレ★S乙女 -sweet sweet sweet- 美蕾 2010/4/16
Dessert Love ~彼とのはじまり~ TiramisuVilla 2004/12/17
といろ小町 ~紅に染まるそのときまで~ 月下氷人 2007/6/29
鳥籠のマリアージュ Kalmia8 2014/4/25
トリック・オア・アリス little cheese 2012/8/4
蝶の毒 華の鎖 アロマリエ 2011/5/27
蝶の毒 華の鎖~幻想夜話~ アロマリエ 2012/12/1
バトラーズ ~召しませお嬢様~ TIARAMODE 2006/10/27
バトラーズ ~召しませお嬢様~ナイトモード TIARAMODE 2006/11/24
ハルカナコイ SOIR 2017/3/31
ぴゅあらばフレーバー ~始まりの場所~ TiramisuVilla 2005/11/25
ブラザーズ ~恋するお兄さま~ TIARAMODE 2007/9/28
ブラザーズ ~もっと恋するお兄さま~ TIARAMODE 2007/10/26
プリティ☆ウィッチ☆アカデミー! Strawberry*Maiden 2009/7/24
Pretty flap ~ショコラテイスト~ TiramisuVilla 2006/12/29
Pretty flap ~チョコレートテイスト~ TiramisuVilla 2006/8/25
PersonA ~オペラ座の怪人~ 美蕾 2012/4/27
星の王女 美蕾 2003/8/25
星の王女2 美蕾 2004/2/29
星の王女3 ~天・地・人の創世記~18禁追加ディスク 美蕾 2004/11/21
星の王女 -宇宙意識に目覚めた義経-18禁追加ディスク 美蕾 2007/3/23
星の王女 光のつばさ 18禁追加ディスク 美蕾 2006/1/20
星の王女 光のつばさ 恋のパティシエ 美蕾 2006/4/29
星の約束 18禁版 美蕾 2005/3/31
ボッチムスメ×プロデュース計画。 Kalmia8 2016/3/25
魔性眼鏡 PIL-VAMP 2016/7/29
memories ショコラティエ 2010/4/28
夢をもう一度 美蕾 2006/6/3
夢をもう一度 幸福の風 美蕾 2006/11/9
吉原彼岸花 MariaCrown 2015/9/25
ラヴァーズコレクション リボンマジック 2007/3/9
Love☆Drops ~みらくる同居物語~ シュガービーンズ 2006/3/3
Riddle Garden キャラメリア 2010/3/26
ロイヤルズ ~愛しの王子さま~ TIARAMODE 2008/9/26
ロイヤルズ ~誘惑の王子さま~ TIARAMODE 2008/10/24
樟屋敷の物語 ~秘密のお帳面~ PIL-VAMP 2017/4/28
愛は、憎しみによくにている PIL-VAMP TBA
ふるえ、ゆらゆらと 下弦の章 A’sRing 2017/7/28
グラン・オダリスク-Les Grande Odalisque- Kalmia Scarlet TBA
あなたは人狼ですか? CANDY CUBE TBA
鬼と花妻〜花盗人は、躑躅か椿か〜 Eins 2017/7/28
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Crap I’ve been reading

I’ve actually been reading manga lately so I thought I should blog about it. Let’s start with the stuff that isn’t porn!

ヲタクに恋は難しい (Love Ain’t Easy for Nerds)
by ふじた (Fujita)

A funny and sweet romantic comedy about nerds who work in an office together. I bet you’re thinking it’s a four panel series but it’s not! ( ; ゚Д゚)

I really don’t know what else to say about it other than it’s legit v. cute and funny. A lot of really on-point jokes about cosplay too (well at least in my experience, lol). I think it won one of the interesting-manga ranking things last year? So it better get a goddamn anime.

 

 

弟の夫 (My Brother’s Husband)
by 田亀源五郎 (Tagame Gengoroh)

Tagame’s super adorable all-ages (only all-ages?) general-audience sorta edutainment manga about gay issues in Japan.

Having only been familiar with Tagame’s hardcore porn stuff, seeing him tackle something so sweet and innocent (though he does some cute/funny porn too) is pretty weird! But he’s good at it!  You definitely get a bit of the afterschool-special vibe from it at points, but I mean, that’s kinda what it’s doing (er, that is to say it’s meant to be educational too), so I don’t see it as a particular negative.

Anyway, glad it finally got licensed because it’s cute as hell (though the JP is simple enough that it might be a good babby’s first manga in Japanese choice if you’re looking for something like that).

 

さびしすぎてレズ風俗に行きましたレポ
(The
 Private Report on My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness)

by 永田カビ(Nagata Kabi)
Other people have talked about this one better than I have, but it’s a very earnest and personal piece about the author’s struggles with her anxiety issues, sexuality, and figuring out what she wants out of life. Hard to read at points because she gets very real about her problems.

Now I can’t actually remember if this got licensed or if it was just scanlations that were going around.  It was licensed! Neat. Either way it’s a good read.

 

 

とつくにの少女 (The Girl from the Other Side)
by ながべ (Nagabe)

I forget how I found out about this one. I think someone might have RT’d a promo for the second volume onto my TL and I grabbed the Kindle version on a whim because it looked so pretty.

I was not disappointed! Nagabe has such a unique aesthetic and a really masterful approach to like… dramatic timing? with paneling. The whole thing feels very cinematic or maybe theatrical/stagey (in a good way) might be a better way to put it. Like while I was reading it it almost felt like a weird little black and white movie or a stage play. Each volume isn’t all that long and doesn’t have a lot of text but something about the way it’s paced just makes you slow down and take your time to appreciate it. It’s like the perfect thing to read on a rainy afternoon.

The story’s a very simple set up (although we still don’t really know a lot about what’s really going on!) with, for the most part, only two characters: the doctor (er, he’s only ever called “sensei” so that might not be the ideal way to handle that but idk) and the little girl, Shiva. The doctor doesn’t even really know who he is anymore thanks to the effects of the curse and struggles with how best to care for and protect little Shiva who he can’t even touch. A lot of the best moments (well, imo at least) are these beats of introspection with the doctor struggling to find the right words to say to Shiva.

Anyway, idk what else to say about this one really other than it’s beautiful and I want more people to read it. I believe it was licensed recentlyish and is supposed to be out in English sometime early next year, though there is not really very much text at all (what text there is is quite simple), so if you’re a novice Japanese reader you might consider checking it out now.

魔法使いの嫁 (The Ancient Magus’ Bride)
by ヤマザキコレ (Yamazaki Kore)

This was being advertised with とつくにの少女 because they run in the same online magazine and are from the same publisher.

Honestly, I binge read the six volumes that are out in like a day or two and now I don’t entirely remember what happened (oops). But Elias is v. kawaii and Chise is p. cool too. I hope it gets a full anime adaptation eventually because that would be neat.

iirc this is already licensed and nearly caught up too? Elias nendo is out this month btw.

I also started reading Innocent at some point, but I paused at some point and forgot what was going on so I really gotta get back to that.

Onto the trashy porno section of this post!

ボコり愛男子 (Bokori-ai Danshi)
by a bunch of different people (it’s an anthology)

Well, like I said it’s an anthology. Picked it up on a whim because of some of the names in the author list and the title/cover. Shockingly not disappointing for a random pickup (I have the worst luck with that usually but nothing I randomly grabbed in this batch was bad!). I’m liking most of the random shit I’ve picked up from BABY.

It’s basically exactly what it says it is, stories about dudes who fight and fall in love/bang. Not that porn heavy, but the humor was very to my taste so I don’t care. Any of BABY’s anthologies seem like a pretty safe bet if the title sounds interesting to you.

攻め食い男子(Seme-gui Danshi)
by various (it’s an anthology)

Another BABY anthology. p. similar to ボコり愛男子 in that it’s exactly what it says it is: an anthology of stories about guys who think they should be a top in a relationship but getting the tables turned on them. As you might expect with a premise like that it’s more porn heavy.

Anyway, if that premise sounds appealing to you I don’t think any of the stories in here are disappointing so yeah.

 

 

 

 

ヤリチン☆ビッチ部 (Yarichin☆Bitch-bu)
by おげれつたなか (Ogeretsu Tanaka)

A raunchy porno comedy that runs for free on Pixiv. The print edition covers the first five chapters and features more polished artwork (most noticeable in the backgrounds). On the downside it’s more heavily censored. Not really to the point of being horrifically distracting but, man, fuck lightsaber dongs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For example (this one isn’t that egregious really but for reference):

愛しのセンチメートル (Itoshi no CM)
by イゴ彦 (Igohiko)

The main story is about a dude who’s preoccupied with the idea of finding a guy with the perfect size dick because of something preposterous his dad said to him. And there are… two (fuck I’m too lazy to pick it up again) other one shots in there (one of which is in 攻め食い男子).

Anyway porn + dumb premise = my jam, so I enjoyed it!

 

 

 

 

グルメのふくらみ (Gourmet no Fukuramior as Verde suggested for a TL “Engorged” lol)
by 赤星ジェイク (Akahoshi Jake)

It’s a story about a guy who pops a boner every time he eats high calorie food and it’s ruining his life. He ends up in a compromising position with the grandson of the CEO of the company he works for and things get complicated from there!

I kinda wish there was more because it was very funny and had good porn lol. Wanna look up more by 赤星ジェイク now.

 

 

 

 

I had a couple other things in the porn pile but I haven’t finished reading/re-reading them so perhaps I will add to this post later. [EDIT] Some more stuff:

したがりな俺たちの、きのう今日あした (Shitagarina Oretachi no, Kinou Kyou Ashita)
by 松本ノダ (Matsumoto Noda)

I actually had bought this and a bunch of other stuff by 松本ノダ in digital a while back (I can’t quite remember what prompted it, I probably stumbled on one of them on sadpanda and wanted to throw money at the artist), but I remembered it being good and figured I might as well pick it up in physical too.

Anyway, after re-reading it I didn’t remember wrong, it was good. If you like cute shit with lots of porn I’d strongly recommend this one––it’s basically about two dumb guys who are really into each other and horny all the time but they’re still in high school so they don’t have a lot of privacy! I like Matsumoto’s art a lot too. It’s pretty loose and sketchy at points, but I like that their bodies have a real sense of like weight and dimension and “fleshiness” idk how to put it really (it has a lot of the same qualities I like about Hamashima’s art). Good faces too, that’s always important imo.

Anyway, idk what it looks like on Kindle but they tend to censor more heavily so if you wanna pick it up in digital grab it on like ebook Japan or elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ともだちがおかず (Tomodachi ga Okazu)

also by 松本ノダ (Matsumoto Noda)

Unlike したがりな俺たち this one’s basically just a series of oneshots. The book’s titled for the first one (which has a different title itself) about a guy going through his day having progressively more wild sex fantasy day dreams about one of his friends––often while talking to him even!

Also good would recommend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ようこそニューワールド (Yokoso New World)

by コモトミ裕間 (Komotomi Yuma)

This was probably my least favorite book I picked up in this batch, also a total random pickup based on the cover/publisher. Definitely wasn’t bad though. 3 of the chapters in this one appear in other BABY anthologies (well two were in the two I bought and I’m like absolutely positive the weird box-man one is in the masked-men anthology despite not having read that yet). Nice art, good faces. The lead story was a little eh (also only shibari in the first chapter despite putting it on the cover?!).

My favorite story was definitely the box man one because it was so bonkers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

おれ、被害者 (I Am A Victim)
by 木村ヒデサト (Kimura Hidesato)

I thoroughly enjoyed this one (although there’s some serious mood whiplash in the middle because it’s all bonkers fucked up porn and then suddenly a bait-and-switch serious story about child abuse!). It’s a series of oneshots about varying degrees of fucked up relationships. The titular short is the last one about a high school teacher who’s angry with his lot in life as an unpopular loser so he kidnaps a hot dude who has it all and they end up boning.

I think my favorite one was the first one, よろこびの先輩, though. It’s about a highly dysfunctional relationship between two college dudes, one of whom lives in a literal trash heap of an apartment and has a fetish for choking his partner during sex and the other who claims to only feel a begrudging attachment to trash man because he’s so helpless and could not survive on his own. The big dramatic reveal at the end is trash man confessing that he fell in love with the other guy when he drunk puked all over him one night after they went drinking and the other guy admitting that he really likes trash man’s smile when he’s choking him (also he’s developed a taste for erotic asphyxiation).

I like the art a lot and Kimura’s weird sense of humor around intriguingly fucked up relationships.

Anyway that covers it for this batch of stuff.

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On the Rise of 男性向け-style BL

So, I had a few things I wanted to look at in particular by putting together that dumb BL game list, mostly looking at where trends in the genre seemed to start and die out. None of this is anything approaching a scientific analysis of trends and (as I described up at the top of the list post) this data has some flaws to begin with, but here’s one of the things I noticed:

The rise of 男性向け-style BL

Games in this category: Hadaka Shitsuji, No, Thank You!!!Kanojo wo Netotta Yarichin Otoko Mesu Ochisaseru Made, Room No. 9, Fukushuu Teikoku, Nonke Ippatsu Tabehoudai, The Salvation of Patient S

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An Overview of BL Games

Here’s a (non-exhaustive, but pretty thorough list) of BL games that exist! I was going to write something about trends and whatnot but wanted to do at least some cursory fact checking to make sure I wasn’t just basing my observations on a skewed data set (i.e. only games I actually pay attention to), so I threw this together since VNDB and EGS are both shit when it comes to 女性向け titles (VNDB surprisingly had listings for almost all of these, but the way the tags are, pulling a list like this out of VNDB would have been awful). I already forgot what I was going to write about/got distracted by interesting things while putting the list together, so I’ll probably get to that later!

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Nonke Ippatsu Tabehoudai from Astray

So, it looks like we’ve got another new BL brand with a more traditional eroge aesthetic! Astray’s first title is Nonke Ippatsu Tabehoudai (something like… All-You-Can-Eat Straight Guy Buffet? I can’t think of anything good). The staff is a total mystery and the website has limited information on it so far. They have an article in next week’s Cool-B, so presumably more will be revealed then. Interestingly, whoever runs the official Twitter uses 俺, so maybe it’s a dude-run brand? Correction: Nevermind, I’m dumb and the Twitter’s supposed to be in the voice of the MC! Anyway, looks interesting. Stuff from the official site under the break:

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