CWs for Hashihime of the Old Book Town: graphic sexual assault, abuse, pedophilia, beheading, graphic violence, body horror.
I've had a really hard time assembling my thoughts on this one! Hashihime of the Old Book Town has some odd edges for being a Taisho period piece with not too much to say about the era in terms of global military movement, but it's often completely secondary to the moment-to-moment. But then I find myself very lost trying to piece together what that moment-to-moment is: something about delusions, having expectations for your life, career aspirations that muddy your connection to reality and your loved ones, or a poisonous obsession with the past. Something really provoking occurs when it's all happening at once, the modest period piece lounge jazz-y score, the anachronistic super flat CGs, and the drab cityscapes in the rain, but I think it still ends up somewhere very simplistic in the way that romance tends to. There's maybe a larger statement being made through the heavy reference to Yumeno's Dogra Magra that I'm completely missing, but that's where I'm at! This is a very fun game with a lot of fantastic revision to the middle era of BL VN where it's just normal about the BL stuff up to a certain point. I wish the routes were a bit more even or maybe in a different order, but I can't wait to hit more from Adelta.
I've had a really hard time assembling my thoughts on this one! Hashihime of the Old Book Town has some odd edges for being a Taisho period piece with not too much to say about the era in terms of global military movement, but it's often completely secondary to the moment-to-moment. But then I find myself very lost trying to piece together what that moment-to-moment is: something about delusions, having expectations for your life, career aspirations that muddy your connection to reality and your loved ones, or a poisonous obsession with the past. Something really provoking occurs when it's all happening at once, the modest period piece lounge jazz-y score, the anachronistic super flat CGs, and the drab cityscapes in the rain, but I think it still ends up somewhere very simplistic in the way that romance tends to. There's maybe a larger statement being made through the heavy reference to Yumeno's Dogra Magra that I'm completely missing, but that's where I'm at! This is a very fun game with a lot of fantastic revision to the middle era of BL VN where it's just normal about the BL stuff up to a certain point. I wish the routes were a bit more even or maybe in a different order, but I can't wait to hit more from Adelta.