A few years ago, I stumbled upon the Anime for Harutoki (as the fans have shortened the title to) when I was looking around for things having to do with Abeno Seimei. One of the characters in this series happens to be the 'son' of Seimei, and I was bored, so I thought "What the heck." - It also happens to be the first out and out Shojou series I have enjoyed. I'm usually a bloody fight or comedic action type of girl. XD
It's what I would call a Historical Fantasy, being as it's set in Japan's Heian period but more like an alternate reality where evil spirits and gods still linger and interact with humans. I looove that time period of Japan, and I also LOOOOVE a lot of the fantastic seiyuu they got for this show - seriously, it's like Neoromance took a poll of voice actors that made girls squee, and hired them. XD (don't believe me? take a look at the wiki link below!)
At any rate, since I have a modded PS2, I order games from Japan to test my language skills. A lot of games you just have to figure out where 'fight/magic/heal' is on the menu and you're good, lol. THIS set of games is all Storyline and dialogue - and you are expected to TAKE PART IN THE CONVERSATION by selecting the 'correct' answer on the screen.
One of the great things about this series of 1-4 with extras, is that for the first edition at least - you have so many forms of media to play with! I have to say I am REALLY enjoying the manga. (which was given the totally miss-the-point shortened title of just Haruka when it got translated in America)
I've been reading the Japanese versions, and so I can tell you that when Yorihisa got sick and Akane was tending to him..... Wow, scene made even me blush. >.>'
Needless to say, I did a lot of frantic dictionary checking at first, becuase I had no guide, and thus no IDEA what I was doing. XD
I have links to all the guides, and thanks to this game, my Japanese reading comprehension improved by leaps and bounds over the past year and a half.
~ Anyway. I just wanted to see if there was anyone else here who enjoyed this series. I haven't played through all of #4 yet, because I'm eagerly awaiting the Yume special of #3 for my PSP - I may have played it on my ps2 already, but they always add things when they change platforms, lol. I want to be done with 3 completely before I distract myself with a new edition.
:Links:
Wiki Link for the first Harutoki game - for those a little lost. ^_^
Link to the official Neoromance Game Pages - lets you preview the music and screenshots from most all the games so far.
Aaaaand - my Favorite Youtube Harutoki experience.... (from#1)
Hey Jez, how ya doing?
lol umm ya sorry this first post comes from someone who hasn't seen/read it before.. sounds interesting though. I love the art and the setting.. omg.. I can see why you love that xD reading that kinda inspired my artisticness hahahaaa.. *has no line-free paper at hand* hrm.. that be a dilemma. lool i can't actually draw anything based off of it right now though because Ima be babysitting once the kiddies wake up again lol.. I'm starting to hear shuffling in the bedroom so I think one of them is getting up. : P I subscribed to this thread though so maybe can help with its life, ya?
Question while i'm gone: What dictionaries did you use?
lol - it's ok. I'm guessing I picked too obscure a game. I just love historical fantasies! (and the list of seiyuu doesn't hurt) <3
Let's see, at the beginning before I found a guide online which told me what to say to each person, I actually looked up ALL of my possible statements, so that I'd be able to guess better. They all have a little emoted picture of the heroines face at the bottom of the text box, so after a while I chose the answer based on the emotion - angry/sad/happy/blush. Some of the guys responded better to being yelled at, for instance. XD
But at first, the dictionaries were the heavy guns. My Red Nelson for kanji, a Kodansha bilingual regular dic for odd words I didn't know, and a backup bilingual from Webster which was older but had a different selection of words. Sometimes I can find things in that old limited thing than I can with all the rest of my research material in the house! And reams of paper for writing it and the definitions down. And who liked what.
Later I trimmed it down to my pocket Kanji book for the most part. And the guides I found online.
But I actually got into this series when I accidentally found the Anime. I was bored that week, or I would never have watched such a girly show. Harem adventures always seemed a bit.... unfair? And she does string them all along, like the obliviously naive child she still is. >.>'
For those who only watch Anime once it's been licensed outside of Japan,
Kazuhiko-san did the Japanese voice for Kakashi in Naruto (he's much sexier sounding in Haruka, such the playboy)
Shinichiro-san played Mansairaku in OtogiZoushi - another anime you should watch if you haven't, OMG.
And Akira-san, well, he's played a lot of stuff that's made it to America. Gaara from Naruto being the most marketed here.
I don't watch anime in English. The voice actors just can't compare.
Oh I know omg. Kaze and I can't stand watching anime in English. It has to be in Japanese haha.. Personally I would prefer to have a lot of my games like that too except that they don't offer subtitles in English for any that I've come across in case I'm feeling lazy lulz. Besides that (despite having a few Japanese games), my PS2 isn't modded.
For some reason about saying things to the diff people.. it reminds me of a game that uhh gosh how could I forget her name but remember Kane? XD lol.. well from Lovely Complex anywho. Which.. I don't know about an anime but the manga's pretty good and I love the movie. : 3 Have you seen it?
lol how into seiyuu are you?
