Oretsuba ~Prelude~

With little less than a couple of days left to go for the release of the main title in focus for today, how about another Bishoujo Soft thoughts and impressions write-up? While I really like the feeling that here’s improving on the backlog and posting schedule for N-Field when it comes to this category, a mere glimpse on my shelf with partwise still sealed arrivals from 2008 *cough* Little Busters-EX *cough* tells me otherwise. However, with the countdown currently conducted over at Navel’s Official website for this release of theirs, I sort of had a strange boost of motivation to get started and doing this entry right in time. Because let’s be honest about that, while I don’t claim nor consider these entries that emerge my twisted little mind from time to time, being much of help to fellow Bishoujo / BL Soft fans out there (especially due to my lacking skills of summarizing things), I still found it would be quite useless to get a write-up on a Prelude release done once the main title it serves as that already came out. Moreover given the length of the spotlighted product, it wasn’t *that* much of a time intensive task for me to clear through it anyways and so without lengthen things more than necessary, let’s move on to the most recently finished backlog title of yours truly.

• Oretachi ni Tsubasa wanai ~Prelude~
Limited Edition
Brand: Navel
Release: 2008/06/28
Genre: Renai Adventure

Character Design / Art: Nishimata Aoi
Planning / Scenario: Ou Jackson
Music: Acchorike

-Content sample shot

+ Basic Plot Outline:
The main scenario of Oretsuba ~Prelude~ is actually split up into several segments which become available as one progresses through the Soft. In unique and comedical fashion these parts or better phrased the crossover to having unlocked new short chapters/stories among the scenario ~Prelude~ offers, is presented in moderation style by the Navel (mascot) girls Citrus (シトラス), Minneola (ミネオラ) and Ponkan (ポンカン) which as crazy as it may sound (and actually *is* just that) done through another story/scenario mini-mode titled the Buru Buru Gekijou – nonsensical brand girl comedy through which the continuation to the next couple of main Oretsuba mini-scenarios is handled. Now as for the main part of the plot which ~Prelude~ introduces one to the world of Oretachi ni Tsubasa wanai, this is also sliced into pieces of short stories varying in length and scope.
Among the first segment, instantly available to start with (once the Navel Girls hand over to the main menu ^_^) are the mini-scenarios titled “one day of” and as can be gathered by the titles, each is supposed to introduce you with a different female character out of the Oretsuba cast. In total there are three such “Aru Hi no” stories available, with the System suggesting you to start with Asuka’s story (for chronological sake as one learns by progressing through them). These are really short (about half and hour to 45 min. to cross through one – even at my slow pacing ^_^) scenarios which follow the same sort of arrangement, presenting you sort of a more or less ordinary day with the chapter’s title heroine. At this point I’d like to continue by going into bit more of details on those.

“Aru Hi no Asuka“
Through the first story out of the “one day of” mini scenario trio, the spotlight is moved onto one of the main heroines from Oretsuba – Asuka Watarai. 3rd year studen at Misora Gakuen and due to her good looks and affable nature, Asuka is called Misora Gakuen’s princess. As main plot device used for this not-so-ordinary day of Asuka, we’re following a hungry girl who’s forgotten to take along her lunch for school. And while the young princess tries to endure the long day at Misora Gakuen without starving, we’re presented to friends and classmates of hers, which later on will re-appear or in some cases get their own focus through follow-on “Aru Hi” scenarios as well.
Doesn’t sound quite exciting and to be honest, while it was passable and nicely prepaired, I found this part of the ~Prelude~ segment still to range at the weakest pieces of plot provided. Also I can’t help, but feel terrible reminded of Sorechiru’s Nozomi at this point, once more introduction regarding the main heroine is done through this chapter.

“Aru Hi no Miyako“
As ordinary as Asuka’s story was, the more interesting ~Prelude~ becomes once Yamashina Miyako receives focus through the second mini-scenario. Also 3rd year student at Misora Gakuen, Miyako’s home is at a tabacconist and is one of Asuka’s classmates. As one learns, Miyako actually returned to school after she spent two years at a mental health clinic due to a (yet at this stage of course) not fully explained mental disease. Moreover Miyako’s quite different in behavior than the first heroine introduced, as despite occasional “outburst” of rising tension, she is more calm and reserved (sometimes even with a dark look upon her face…can we possible have a Yanderekko hiding there?! ^_^) than Asuka. One of the few real passions of Miyako shown through this scenario is that she’s a fangirl of Indie Rock band “Rockpart” on which Miyako devotes much of her spare time on attending their live gigs and talk with fellow fans via the net (posting on a fan community board).

“Aru Hi no Misaki“
With the third and final out of the “Aru Hi no” heroine mini-scenario segment of ~Prelude~, things become a lot more lively with deredere sub-heroine Hayashida Misaki. 2nd year student at Misora Gakuen and from head toe in love with 3rd year student Haneda Takashi (this male lead is sort of the (by then) faceless hero that is quite popular among the school’s womenhood). And the day following Misaki-chan actually started out not that ordinary at all for the girl, with her having had the chance to hold tight to Haneda-kun on the train ride to school in the usual crowded morning subway rush hour. As joyfull of a way for Misaki to start out that day this chance has been, it soon should turn into a rather desperately lovestruck day at school though, when upon her arrival at Misora Gakuen the young lady notices the school’s princess Asuka and bossy Takauchi Masako discussing boys in connection with “the princess interest” in them – more precisely poor Misaki hearing the name of Haneda dropped during that conversation. Frustrated that her newly proclaimed rival in the love battle over Haneda-kun is the popular Asuka “princess” Watarai, the last mini-scenario following this day at scholl presented via the perspective of Hayashida Misaki.

“Chitose Syusuke Hen Prologue“
Once cleared through the first trilogy of short stories and as follow-up to another Buru Buru Gekijou moderation part, the Navel Girls present you to the newly unlocked pieces of Orestuba ~Prelude~ content: the prologue chapters. In contrast to the “Aru Hi no” mini-scenarios, these are firstly more extensive and overall the first major plot part that ~Prelude~ provides so far. Another noticeable difference is that for these, the events are told from male perspective for a change. Starting off by introducing one of these characters – Chitose Syusuke (Shuusuke – though going by the official romanization here) a cheerfull fellow who’s taking on various jobs to earn some cash and to make his living. Syusuke moreover patronizes café Alexander which turns into the major setting / location this prologue arc is located at. Together with the crew of Alexander (the manly and hilarious Master Karuo Karube) and his friend Kakeru, they’re prepairing a farewell/send-off party for the gentle and lively waitress Mochitsuki Kinako, who worked part-time at the café in order to earn herself examination fee for the course class she enrolled to and now with the exam coming up, is about to pause her work at Alexander. Another major aspect comes into play through Tamaizumi Hiyako, who’s going to resume working as waitress at Alexander (due to Kinako leaving) and soon becomes the main heroine of this prologue arc.

“Narita Hayato Hen Prologue“
With this follow-up prologue story another male lead is introduced and from this youngster’s perspective the 2nd prolgoue arc is told. Narita Hayato, who’s much like the male lead of the previous story jobbing freetime, but in contrast to Syusuke, Hayate has a quite gloomy and hardboiled appearance, which even made him gain the nickname “Dora” (used by his friends as abbsrevation for “Dracula”). Amongst his “job career” is helping out at Pal Crepe run by sympathic Kasuga Harue also called “Pare” (Pal). After the intro flashback of how Hayato got to know some of the downtown boys of Yanagihara (the city Oretsuba is set in), the main (and IMO interesting) part of this prologue commences when moelicious (and by now already quite popular among fans) Ohtori Naru enters the stage, whom Hayato wills in (after sort of beeing “told” so by Harue) to help looking for her bicycle which got stolen.
This part of the prologue stories also was later on released by Navel as the official trial for Oretsuba as I heard.

“Aru Hi no Karuo“
Having passed through the 2nd prologue followed by the Animation movie as extra another edition of Buru Buru Gekijou comes up. While one expects the Navel Girls to conclude and congratulate for having cleared through ~Prelude~ they actually announce another short story to follow – the Omake scenario or “Aru Hi no Karuo“. That’s right, a story told via the perspective of café Alexander’s Master Karube Karuo and *what* sort of bonus this final story is! With X-mas approaching various staff members of Alexander took the days off and so together with loyal Kinako (this part of the story is set prior to Kinako leaving Alexander) and rough-tongue waitress Hino Eriko, Karuo has to assign some sub staff that would help out at Alexander during this pre-festival rush time. Sounds like a good plan, though knowing Karuo he apparently has another concept up his mind for the additional helpers: time for Oppai show-off at the café! But of course things turn out differently as schemed by the Master, yet turning into an hilarious Omake scenario with which ~Prelude~ concludes through which ties between characters from both previous prologue chapters (and also the “Aru Hi” scenario) is woven.

+ Graphics / Visuals:
Nishimata Aoi – ’nuff said ^_^ No, I guess that would make things a little too easy there. Seriously speaking, the main artist of Navel is rightfully considered one of Japan’s leading Bishoujo illustrators who’s gained herself art goodess status among fans. If the JOKER TYPE coverage of yours truly for N-Field so far wasn’t telling enough yet, than let me get things clear at this point in that Nishimata-sensei is among my overall favorites among Japan’s art industry of which I’m religious following the JOKER TYPE crafted works ever since I got drawn into Doujin collecting. Stating reasons of what’s so mesmerizing about Nishimata done art makes it hard to find a particular point to start with nor provide a full itemization for it, moreover I think that given how extensive such an attempt would turn out to be, today’s write-up shall not be the place to do that. But (trying to) keep things as short and simple as possible and even somewhat attempting to steam down the biased view on things concerning this artist’s work, let me say that the true highlight Oretsuba ~Prelude~ entrained me without any downsides included along the road actually *is* the graphical presentation. As I actually should have known and honestly expected from Nishimata-sensei, ~Prelude~ comes along with art that is of the mighty finest kind. Carefully crafted event CG art, which really gave me a “reward”-feeling whenever the scenary changes over to a new piece of these illustrations. And that’s even moreso special here, given that the character art as used in game itself is of top-notch quality and sheer eyecandy at each moment as well. While when it comes to character art, ~Prelude~ doesn’t necessarily stand out for exposing one to a gazillion of Tachi-e expressions of the likes other Bishoujo Soft of the same vintage and high quality graphical presentation did (thinking of Lass’ 11eyes here mainly), there’s a good portion of them each of the characters is “equipped” with and while not countless of Tachi-e there, the few each of the girls/guys visualize their reactions with are perfectly fitting in that the characters provide one with eyecandy of the hilarious, partwise even touching (I couldn’t get enough of the liveless *Yanderekko pretty please* facial expression that slipped Miyako sometimes) to droolworthy sort (Naru is made of moe). Another element in terms of graphical presentation, which I utterly enjoyed, adored and shall definitely receive mention within this part of the write-up, goes towards Nishimata-sensei’s amazing talents when it comes to Seifuku crafting. Catering to this pretty strong/bad fetish of mine throughoutly, she came up with an awesome line-up in these regards, which start right with the Misora Gakuen uniforms (no wonder that Navel cosplay shop mauve took those uniforms into their selection in an heartbeat), to those beautiful waitress uniforms shown for café Alexander and lastly the casual clothing the characters wear during the scenary at their spare time is nothing short but brilliant fashionable as well, not sticking to one particular outfit for each all of the time, but some of the girls/gals wear different clothings within those stages of their appearance in ~Prelude~ too (and *that* gimmick included, really weights out the non extensive Tachi-e represented by a long go in my book). Even if you can not fully fathom with the joy this visual aspect brings to every Seifuku addict’s heart by now, I do allege here that once getting ~Prelude~ started, this aspect will become aware and appreciated within no matter of time. Coming back to the character designs which ~Prelude~ features also roots me back to (even) more praising and fanboyish rambling over Nishimata-sensei and her brilliancy as artist. Some people allege her to come up with similar designs for the projects she’s involved on. While it certainly is true that Nishimata Aoi’s Bishoujo designs definitely inherit an unmistakeable layout that is represented for them all, I just can’t see how that is supposed to be a downside of them at all, especially if it’s eyecandy of the likes it is distinctive for Nishimata-sensei. Furthermore in this fanboy’s humble opinion, it’s lastly through works such as Oretsuba (not restricted to ~Prelude~) where she smoothly showcases to all those doubting critics of being very much capable of diversity in this department of her art as well. Back on more ~Prelude~ specific noting here, I would say that by taking just a mere glimpse at the male part of the cast should enable one to understand what I’m trying to express here. From bishie-licious desings like Kuroudo Hariu or Ohtori Kakeru, to rookie-like Syusuke, Boney D up to the manly-men appearing within ~Prelude~ such as Karuo Karube (that said, thank you Nishimata-sensei for the final Event CG…much appreciated ^_^). The same applies for the female cast among this Soft as well, though I would say the first and most obvious variation when it comes to designs represented is to be spotted among the male cast. Of course coming up with some much alternation and diversity for her designs though makes this JOKER TYPE follower wondering why it really is done on such rare occasion for this part of Nishimata-sensei’s crafting that she includes some male art within her Doujins, but here I guess I’m dreading to drift off from main topic with that subject. And so, all in all ~Prelude~ not only is a visual highlight among 2008 Bishoujo Soft releases in my view, but moreover given the greatness she pulls of for this part of the Oretsuba project already, makes it hard to resist (due to the later on ranted on scenario flaws I minded) shedding the money on the main Soft now. Navel can really count themself lucky for such a gifted person as Nishimata Aoi being part of their staff.
And as if the glory pulled off for ~Prelude~ by Nishimata-sensei wouldn’t be enough to warrant a memorable visual experience, and because usage of Anime movies within Bishoujo Soft is trendy (on topic of that, after all those years, for the debut work Seiken no Fairies by Littlewitch Sisterbrand Littlewitch velvet, they goes back to part-of Anime intro style as well), Navel chose on including such an extra for Oretsuba ~Prelude~ as well. For production of this short but neat movie it seems they pulled those production strings woven back through previous projects of theirs as in charge of animation crafting for this extra of ~Prelude~ was Asread – the Studio which was in charge of Animation production on the whole SHUFFLE! Anime porting, and seriously that connection *is* visable through the mere few minutes this clipping lasts in total. While this piece of visual extra featured for ~Prelude~ doesn’t exactely match with those of the likes Makoto Shinkai contributes to minori works (than though, how many productions of Anime industry really do compare well with Shinkai crafted ones? ^_^), the Asread candy produced for this release (and also the forthcoming main Oretsuba) is definitely appreciated as extra. Ironically much as in ef style, Navel decided not to hand out this “opening” movie right at the beginning of ~Prelude~ rather than just in before the end, despite it been taken and labeled as demo/opening movie through which the ~Prelude~ release was advertised with during the later stage prior to the street date.

+ Music / CV:
When it comes to music which ~Prelude~ comes up with or is accompanying the events and scenary, there’s not much contained which struck me in any ways – neither negative nor really positive. That’s not saying the score that Acchorike crafted for this Soft is bad at all, yet it just doesn’t stand out to me as memorable nor truely unique viewed from an overall perspective, with mere few expections ~Prelude~ features rather standard sounds as can be found in many other Bishoujo Soft. Among the seldom pieces of music included for this Soft which also stood out as quite catchy is the mere only vocal piece presented within ~Prelude~, more precisely said the theme song “Sky Sanctuary” which is played during the Animation movie segment. Seriously speaking, while the majority of score is what I’d call unimposing, it is this very song and the instrumental version of it used for one piece among the BGM within the game itself, that makes my overall impression on things concerning the music of ~Prelude~ ending up not througoutly disappointed in the end. Here I should note, that much as having payed significant little interest on Navel Soft prior to Oretsuba, the vocal songs that were brought up through them either as theme, insert/image or ending songs slipped my attention as well, however when I first had the chance to listen and expierence “Sky Sanctuary” as theme to accompany the neat Anime movie crafted for ~Prelude~ I was hooked and amazed immediately. While my impressions on the rest of the score ended up with a rather lukewarm feeling, “Sky Sanctuary” in my book is the saving grace for ~Prelude~ and moreover the work famed Navel composer Acchorike delivered this time around. But coincidental it shouldn’t be just credited to this musician, rather than the combination of talents that had their gifted hands into the creation of this vocal theme. Much kudos here goes to (Navel) Vocal Hime Hashimoto Miyuki who’s done a great job on the performance here – cute, yet not pushing this element too far for it. Aside of arranger/composer and vocalist another aspect which made “Sky Sanctuary” turn out so well in my impression also goes towards the lyrics it features and interestingly this brings me back to Navel’s artistical femme fatale – Nishimata Aoi. It’s actually nothing new for Nishimata-sensei to try herself at writting song lyrics, with her having done so back on previous projects by this Softbrand and lastly also for Doujin music releases that came forth her Circle JOKER TYPE, yet it still amazes me all over again whenever Nishimata-sensei showscases some of the other facets among her repertoire of skills to us. However a category that is part of the audio experience ~Prelude~ got prepaired for one and which left a much more persistant positive impression on me from the beginning up ’till the end is the cast for the character voices. While again merely going through the names involved on lending their voices to the various characters appearing within ~Prelude~ shouldn’t have turned into much of a surprise in this department, it still had just that effect on me and here I find myself (for a change) fully in agree with the raving comments/reviews torwards voice cast the Soft received from fans ever since the release. There’s with mere one exception (LR2001 – I swear, if he’d been much more part of the Narita prologue my ears would have started bleeding from that rap style way of speaking…) not a single character which was given an unsuitable voice and moreover the sheer diversity already brought up for this aspect for ~Prelude~ adds in another tempting reason to instinctively break-in and get a pre-order for Oretsuba placed. Seriously, this Soft or let’s say the cast assembled for it rightfully makes upcoming Drama CD releases a matter of fact.

+ System:
After having commented on various of the ingredients which ~Prelude~ consists of, there should also be some which go towards the System featured. Though this is going to turn into a rather short paragraph as there’s not much noteworthy represented. Sticking to the basics apparently was the main concept conducted on the System Navel came up for this release and that becomes already apparent once this Soft is installed and launched. Instead of the usual “adorned” or partwise playfull gimmicks and features top menu functions and other System categories of Bishoujo/BL Soft come along with, ~Prelude~ reduced to a top menu that is as basic as it could get, even after progressing through the main plot portions by which you’ll get those feautres that one would expect as basics (Event CG gallery, movie viewer). The whole program itself is contained within a rather plain client window. Of course, as long as the basic functions are there this shouldn’t be minded especially reading (though this merely is based on hearsay as I didn’t purchase previous Navel Soft releases prior to this one) that Navel apparently sticks to such simplistic fashion for their project systems. On the slightly brighter or more innovative side of things (which though isn’t of unique System style either) I still found it nice, that especially in the beginning of ~Prelude~ the System indicates you with which mini-scenario it’s best to start with, although later on lazy me found this automatical routing of the cursor during the top menu a little annoying as well (i.e. launch ~Prelude~ and the cursor automatically moves to “Load”). As mentioned previously, this part of the comments shall turn out short or just as plain and basic as the System featured for ~Prelude~ itself.

+ Ero Content:
Okay, now this should turn into the shortest part of the write-up…because, even though the main Soft of Oretsuba is an 18+ Renai Adventure, ~Prelude~ is all-ages. Or at least sort of, as it still got a suggested age label (15+) onto the package sidebar. Reason for that it didn’t went through the all-ages recommendation/suggestion being that a few fanservicey to risque scenes were included (bad tongues would accuse that been done to secure the Eroge fans still dropping some cash on it as well ^_^) such as the screencap taken (from the Omake scenario) and shown slightly below. But all in all, ~Prelude~ remains quite literaly covered when it comes to this aspect. Even though I’m certainly the last fanboy here who would mind Nishimata-sensei drawn Ero art for scenaries of that kind included, given the prologue-ish ways of how the various stories presented through this release were arranged and scripted, I yet must note that real adult events though would have not fit in all that easy. So, what I’m trying to express here is, that even though I’m glad the main Soft didn’t limit itself to the same restrictions as conducted for ~Prelude~, I yet do consider it a wise move by the staff (read: Ou Jackson) not to hand out Ero scenes for the short and prologue stories as I seriously think such would not have supported the story and its execution. In fact it would have had the exact opposite effect and just left the feel they were thrown in for Ero sake only, so in the end leaving it at some occasional panty flash/shots/dressing scenes and ambiguous yet mainly comedical incidents for ~Prelude~ was the best decision to handle these things.

+ Overall Impression:
Oretachi ni Tsubasa wanai ~Prelude~ is often referred to by people as the p(l)ayable trial for the main Soft and having completed my way through it, ultimately I’d say that wording hits the mark. Of course given that Navel presented more than just a sneak peak that would match with the length of a trial for this ~Prelude~ and lastly also with the pricing and packaging conducted for it, this might not be the case of blatant cashing off on fans, but still even after this slightly more than a week I spent (more or less intensive) to cross through ~Prelude~ I found myself not much wiser on my decision whether or not to drop the money and get a pre-order (not that there would be much time left to decide anyways ^_^) for Oretsuba placed now. And *that*, next to the curiosity if the years of waiting on this Phantom Soft status gained project by Navel payed off, was actually representing one of the crucial reasons for my spending on ~Prelude~ in the first place. Going into more details what I found so puzzling or not yet fully convincing for Oretsuba brings me right to the scenario and setting supposable introduced through ~Prelude~, or at least I was expecting so. Here I’m fairly aware that scenario writer Ou Jackson gained fame and highly respected status as such via works like back for BasiL’s Sore wa Maichiru Sakura no Youni and when looking up some of the comments and reviews available on the net for things regarding ~Prelude~, most seem to agree that the writing of him is represented in good fashion/tradition for his comeback with this Navel title. And maybe it really *is* just due to me and my weird taste and likes/dislikes in Bishoujo/Visual Novel Soft, but while I totally agree that ~Prelude~ is anything from borring or misplacement of expectations in the fun department, I’m not fully seeing the fascination or how this *could* turn into such story yet. While some sidenotes and hints were spread into that there’s more than a school (love) adventure coming up through Oretsuba, the scenario as handed out via ~Prelude~ all in all gave me some good laughs and quite enjoyable moments, yet failed to fully get me hooked or to join the raving on Ou Jackson in charge of plot. Of course, you might ask whether I really was appraoching this release with the silly expectation to get major or strong parts of the main story presented while the labeling of “prelude” being attached to it. On the other hand though wheter trial/prelude/prologue/whatever you want to call it, expecting it to fuel or inflame the interest of the player so that he/she drops more money on the follow-up real/full release, isn’t that off either, nee? And that’s exactely the point in terms of ~Prelude~ where it seems to fail on me. Another aspect in this regards that became aware to me early on via the first segment, and continues with the later on prologue arcs, is that I can’t say having been hooked on those characters that are according to Navel are the main / lead heroines and heroes of Oretsuba for the most part. In fact, especially after the transition from Asuka’s mini-scenario over to Miyako’s, I found myself feeling way more interest on the sub-heroines and supporting cast than those few leading girls and guys presented. As noted this feeling receives further back-up while progressing through the remaining half of ~Prelude~ with more or less the sole exception beeny the 2nd (Narita’s) prologue, wherein the main reason to continue on been to me Ohtori Naru (still on the enjoyment scale I found the Omake scenario of Karuo the best there). This brings me back to the mixed feelings with which I’m leaving ~Prelude~ now and where I’m seriously asking myself whether it was intentional handled that way that Ou Jackson kept the lead characters “sealed” to shine bright for the main Soft’s scenario, or if it really will turn into those sort of titles where one (or maybe it’s really just me) got a handful of plain leads, with the sub and supporting cast pulling off the main attraction. Yet where I seem to totally agree with Navel fans, is that ~Prelude~ from an overall point of view certainly comes along with some hilarious and enjoyable moments that made it worth to go through its content. Another aspect which moreover to me justified the costs involved on this release as well being the effort Navel obviously invested on the total presentation of this Oretsuba sneak peak. Whether it’s the awesome packaging done for the limited release, coming along with an extensive art collection for it (as shown via the above linked to content sample shot done *on a somewhat related sidenote, I seem to forget noting package details mostly within my Bishoujo/BL Soft write-up here ^_~*) or lastly the content presentation itself, quality of the top-notch scale has been conducted in these terms, so the taste of been “trail cashed-off” should ultimately be reduced to minimum degree once facing this part of ~Prelude~. Drawing a conclusion for the overall impressions part regarding this release, while Oretachi ni Tsubasa wanai ~Prelude~ Limited Edition turned out to be a worthwhile purchase for me (even moreso with this being the very first Soft by this Brand I got ahold of), I must admit that in some regards it left off providing not the utterly satisfactory feel that would make me want to continue right away with the main title once finished. Even though the enjoyment factor ~Prelude~ brought along certainly motivated me enough to shed some money on Oretsuba sooner or later (meaning – no pre-order plans *yet*, most likely a title I will go past its release maybe through auction or second sale route), it coevally didn’t provide and met with what I was approaching this release with.