Contrary to what the headline may leads one to believe, this write-up is less intended as outcome of your’s truly aiming to reduce backlog of long overdue blogging neither it’s silly me desperately trying to bring up more BL themed writing this blog of mine could cope with. But it’s true, right after I completed my way through the Bishoujo Soft that really made my year (and almost took me that long to fully accomplish ^^”), next on my list to get started with was one of those backlog titles planned to get around for a real long time now. Even moreso when the Brand in charge recently announced their next project it was about time I got around with their previous work. Of course as usual at this point of a Soft review I must drop note that more or less heavy spoilers are contained within the following part. So keep that in mind in case you choose to continue reading.
• sweet pool
Shokai Seisanban
Brand: Nitro+ CHiRAL
Release: 2008/12/19
Genre: AVG
Art: Onitsuka Seeji
Scenario: Fuchii Kabura
Adviser: Urobuchi Gen
-Shokai Seisanban Booklet
-Booklet content sample shot (rough section)
+ Basic Plot Outline:
Returning with a feel of unease to school after he’s been abscence for some time, Sakiyama Youji soon notices that his surrounding there changed. Some, such as his friend and glutton Makoto Mita, welcome Youji’s return. While people like Shironuma Tetsuo, a top-class dutiful and lone wolf at school, suddenly starts approaching Youji for no real reason and that’s not for his liking given our protagonist used to be kind of an introverted student on his own. Things get crazy once Okinaga Zenya, a freaky lout at the Tokyo Suginami ward located school, starts to pick on Youji as well. As if that wouldn’t be enough to make his school return troublesome, it doesn’t take long ’till serious health problems seem to catch up with Youji as well. Even worse for the young man, the excesses of these problems seem to be connected in some twisted way with those people at school who’ve found interest in Youji…
Trying to provide you with a basic outline of sweet pool without dropping major spoilers is really a tougher task than I initially thought it would be. As like to accomplish that without making this Nitro+ CHiRAL project sound like the most craziest creepiest BL Soft ever released…which to some extend it actually *is*. Yet, even with the details of Youji’s troubles (his bloody digestive problems) definitely reaching into realms of bizarre stuff and in some ways gore, I found the concept of sweet pool to range among the most refreshing unique and absolutely surprising BL titles I’ve ever had the pleasure to go through. In fact, as far as I’m aware of, the genre has not faced anything in the veins nor compareable to sweet pool. Hence, on these terms Nitro+ CHiRAL truely stayed faithful to their promise to revolutonize the BL genre through their highly anticipated 3rd project, because you won’t find anything as unconventional the Brand prime scenario writing talent Fuchii Kabura created with sweet pool! To me, that represents a big plus that in some senses also reinforced my convidence that especially this Visual Novel genre is capable to surprise and rise beyond the ever-so-often cliché ridden representatives it’s known for.
While *that* doesn’t necessarily equate with bad either (showcased by some <a href="prime examples of this cliché loaded kind as well) nor am I trying to express that Bishoujo/Galge/Eroge tends to be all *that* more inovative, it’s ideas by writing talents such as Kabura-sensei that truely revive my confidence and faith when it comes to BL gaming. Moreso in terms of sweet pool CHiRAL impressed me big times to truely wowed me by showing just *how* experimental far you can go! And that seen even outside the genre scope, because personally it’s a real pitty if someone “brands” and therefore maybe even avoids this project because of its BL nature as the plot outline in all its facets as featured here makes sweet pool truely a real big Niro+ work in the veins of classics like Saaya no Uta! Which then again ain’t that surprising given that Nitro+ fame Urobuchi Gen been in charge of adviser for sweet pool! So much for the puff pieces of praise yours truly has to express right in the beginning part of my review, now let’s continue with some more critical bits and rants on terms of this category. Because the greatest concept won’t convince if it shows signs of poor execution or even worse is a total failure in this department. Of course, that doesn’t apply to sweet pool, certainly not to such extremes. Yet, I just can’t help it to make note that besides the decent plot and concept CHiRAL came up for it, at some parts sweet pool felt like it could have acchieved way more than it’s been treated as. My main gripe on these terms goes to the character development, which really felt quite rushed to non-existant in some cases, primarily everthying except the main pairing of interest and spotlight – Youji and Tetsuo, while even those two didn’t receive quite as decent executed indepth characterization as I felt they *could* have. Maybe that impression of mine received further manifestation by the overall length of sweet pool which is anything from real long and that’s coming from someone who’s normally taking months to cross through a Soft of average length (I completed this one within less than a couple of weeks which is absolute super-speedy for my terms!). Don’t get me wrong though, the character development featured is top-notch and also supports the earlier brought up statement that Kabura-sensei really crafted a cast that goes so absolutely against mainstream or genre cliché stereotypes. Even some of the more obvious “Youji interested parties” are capable to surprise in ways I didn’t expect in my wildest wet BL dreams…Yandere Makoto is just…brilliant and I take a deep bow over Kabura-sensei doing an own Makoto “Bad end” with the awesomely creepy “The Hunger” sub-route sweet pool features! However, mainly due to the lack of time in context with a quite manageable cast size and also main focus (Youji x Tetsuo) showing up early on, it felt like such decent moments of characterization fell far too short, making some moments (and resolutions) in terms of the main lead even a bit too unempathizeable as far as I’m concerned, while I truely loved the characters as such (especially once for a very rare change it turned out I totally vowed for the main couple in a BL Soft – Tetsuo is just too damn adorable with his attitude!). As hinted along so far, also sweet pool is equipped with various routes, or better phrased endings one can debouch into. A total number of six such different endings are available while a couple of them could be considered “dead/bad ends” and these are the mere only, where the lead (Youji) is not ending up with Tetsuo on rather cruel crazy and partwise creepy yet genius ways. If you tend to prefer alternating pairings though, you may also consider it a flaw that the main/overall progress sweet pool takes on in all its routes is very straightforward, meaning that it’s all about Youji and Tetsuo with the other two “involved parties” of their surrounding making a drastic interference for “their” conclusion with Youji. Hence if you hope for some happy ever after Makoto x Youji or Zenya x Youji scenarios, you’re going to be fooled (in my case especially with the former, due to my pretty bad Yanderekko fetish, though absolutely not feeling left down a bit!) big times by how Kabura-sensei makes those possible through “The Hunger” (Makoto sub-route/end) and “VLG” (Zenya sub-route/end). Admitted though, personally I wished for some supporting cast pairing routes (Zenya and Kitani..such subroute would have worked out without interfering with the main focus at all!) as well, hence to some extend this linear told plot progress of sweet pool is minded as it also worked against the non-standard approach taken by CHiRAL on so many other scales of the project. In defense to this straightforward progress of sweet pool though, the various ways this main pairing is handled through remaining four different scenarios to Youji x Tetsuo left me a satisfied feeling as the bittersweet conclusions (with yours truly joining the general opinion that the bonus grand end “Miracles may” definitely rules them all) to the plot is anything else but static!
+ Graphics / Visuals:
Another trend Nitro CHiRAL commenced with this third project of theirs, is that new staff been brought on board in case of some categories. Such as the visuals, which up to then been represented exclusively through CHiRAL’s Tatanakana as main artist, now featured a total new face of this Brand. Not going the path to enable others out of the visual CHiRAL crew a rise to main artist either (though on that note it’s interesting to see Mimori Shinobu been given that treatment for the exclusive CHiRAL MOBiLE release Itsuwari no Alkanet..that is for cruel national network connected reasons Japan exclusive), sweet pool marks the debut of Onitsuka Seeji as graphical mastermind in charge. I decided to go into artist specific details and backgrounds for a(nother long planned yet ever delayed) write-up dedicated on this talent’s work before crossing paths with Nitro+ CHiRAL, hence I’ll just stick with impressions on Onitsuka-sensei’s work done for this project. Because as simple as it is, also in these terms sweet pool turns out anything else but standard and in fact while the Brand distinctive attributes of high quality striking visual presentation are represented, it’s also the graphics/visuals through which sweet pool sets itself apart from a majority out of the genre. Onitsuka Seeji combines the Bishounen look by redifining it to an unique adultish, in case of some even Biseinen (Kitani…*nuff said!* ^^) appearances, that enables the cast of this Soft a refreshing look in the midst of cute Bishounen (sometimes with even more girlish attributes than good for) as widely featured amongst the genre. The complex style of Onitsuka-sensei which totally goes along how Tatanakana once defined it for CHiRAL works, contrary to my expectations truely worked along so well also on terms of Tachi E and story visual presentation flow that it’s pure eyecandy unleashed. Of course the highlights at this category are the rewarding Event CG artworks in all their detailed beauty while the total amount of them is something that brings me back to the overall length of this Soft…as also here, especially due to the high quality sweet pool features in these fields too, I for one wished for more than there ultimately was made available once completed with all paths available. That said, the respective gallery as part of the Omake features was rather misleading in that it had a few more “empty” Event CG boxes left even once all pages are in fact completed (and I really spent quite some time figuring out whether I missed some sub-route or different/alternative scenary due to that). Besides Onituska Seeji’s work, also pretty much all other aspects of this BL Soft’s visual presentation are of top-notch quality, with Nitro+ obligatory love for when it comes to details such as effect designs and executions been part of sweet pool. Therefore this category leaves no rant that is specifically pointed towards the presentation as such, rather than the already noted one pointed towards the total length of this work.
+ Music / CV:
On regards of audio, there are a few elements I actually ended up with mixed feelings. The score itself as such was partwise genius suiting, while because of that, it felt like a bit more BG music variation wouldn’t have hurt here (again, probably connected to the total length not leaving as much space and energy left for CHiRAL to come up with a real wide-ranging sound repertoire). However, especially when it comes to vocal pieces of music as represented for theme or closing tune, CHiRAL’s Sound Label and vocalists are granted pure pleasure for the ears, with title of frontline striking songs definitely going to “I’m in blue” (that made me love Pale Green) and “Miracles may” (blame it on Itou Kanako and her angelic Uta Hime vocal skills!). The character voice department also left me with mixed feelings. While there’s per se nothing wrong with the cast, all delivering a great job and overall this being fully voiced (also sub-characters and non-visable classmates male *and* female!) makes a big plus in my book for CHiRAL’s efforts there, somehow I felt that at parts the voices of the main cast themself was a bit tough to tell apart, especially in case of the focus pairing, because both Youji and Tetsuo had a similar at moments quite lethargic way to communicate with each other. I wouldn’t really consider that a real flaw, as the job by the various Seiyuu of sweet pool clearly not leaving an opportunity to find such. As mentioned though, it’s still the selection that partwise leaves such impression making it a bit hard to follow and hence fully enjoy each and every moment on those terms.
+ Ero Content:
To be honest, as much as I considered myself fascinated by Onitsuka Seeji’s art the very moment on I witnessed about this 3rd CHiRAL project, I just couldn’t help myself to enter sweet pool with a feeling that for hot and sweaty BL Ero action, this artist may not been the best decision to go for. I’m still not sure why I took such approach, but somehow it connects to the complexity of Onitsuka-sensei’s style that made me enter sweet pool with such feeling (plus, CHiRAL isn’t really the kind of Brand who’s advertising their releases with much details on these terms promo CG wise either). Much to my delight though, that rather unfounded stance/bias was totally proven wrong the very first time Youji undergoes some smutty treatment (or better said initiated such by himself at the chem classroom ^^). Onitsuka-sensei definitely shows great skills to visualize adultish moments on quite tasty manners (of course, if I would have known more background details about this artist prior to sweet pool there wouldn’t been any room for such an approach to begin with) while scenario writer Kabura Fuchii pulling off the exact same on these scenes and their staging as well. In fact also here I was surprised how smooth the Ero scenes were integrated into the plot. Besides the prominent flaw of length also applying to these scenes themself though, the quality is amazing. While this certainly will strengthen the “he’s a perv” impression I’m afraid some readers of this little blog of mine already associate me with, I can’t be helped but to call the Ero scenes of sweet pool mighty delicious made! From the portrayal, the variation (nothing that goes beyond the thin borderline of tastefullness..at least not to such extend as already featured for its main plot!) up to the very sounds (not sure how to state this…but certain “action effect sounds” added that make these scenes so much more…realistic hot) CHiRAL showcased lots of detail and effort to equip sweet pool with top-notch Ero content, even though the whole suffers from the length problems of this Soft as well (btw. may I throw in the “me wants Kitani x Zenya” note at this point as well?).
+ System:
Another element through which sweet pool stands out even beyond the borders of “genre comrades” on much too rare occassion goes to the System category featured.
Contrary to the ever so often repeated “all basics featured but nothing more than that”-line, Nitro+ CHiRAL invested lots of effort to make sweet pool unique also on these aspects. Most outstanding part of the system to make note of right away, goes to the method decisions alongside the plot progress are made here. Instead of the widely represented formula to make such via selectable answers or actions, CHiRAL calls for the basic human insticts to decide for one which path to go. Sounds strange, well but let’s see how to explain this a bit more detailed. Whenever one reaches a specific decision point during the plot, it fades into a stylish literaly pulsating screen that overlays the actual scenary. Two edges on that pulsating screen change are then becoming available. A blue colored side, which is called 「理性」 (reason/senses) and a red one, naturally the counterpart 「本能」 (instinct). By selecting out of the two one “decides” the progress and way of reactions the protagonist Youji takes alongside the plot and as can be guessed, ultimately it comes down to which ending your “instincts or mind” will lead you to. While this basically is a genius idea to render something obligatory for the media of its kind, sometimes to me the execution of this decision feature felt a bit random in order to fully complete through sweet pool whilst partwise it really worked out well with sense (logic) behind the outcome one slips into by these decisions (such as taking “reason” everytime). Despite, I’d give CHiRAL a big fat plus for bringing up something fresh new for this project of theirs and that’s something other Brands would be adviced to try every once in a while as well! But talking of System there’s far more to what qualifies sweet pool as gem amongst Visual Novels. Getting tired of the basic skip feature that still forces you to view the already trusted scenaries in fast fowards mode? Well, here comes Nitro+ CHiRAL with it’s alternative so-called “High velocity skip” feature that is, next to a regular skip feature, ready to browse through the events by fading into twice the speed, high velocity so to say, and enables even faster progress to continue straight to the decision points within this game, even though the average time/speed also depends on the break/events inbetween these moments that require you to choose between instict/reason (so it’s not like you’re moving straight on to the next point but quicker than normal skip mode). That’s something appreciated in the course of checking other routes/paths that this Soft offers, without having to fast forward go through everything (or from your last save) once again. Besides these two very noteworthy aspects of sweet pool the Omake is also really nice though things go back to more basic territory there. One noteworthy element maybe which appears upon completion that is not so standard goes to the “liner notes”. That extra is actually a link which will open a webbrowser’s window leading one to a secret Nitro+ CHiRAL Omake website whereat messages (mostly of congratulating nature) by the whole staff of sweet pool are featured starting from scenario writer Fuchii Kabura over adviser Urobuchi Gen (!) to main artist Onitsuka Seeji and all the other graphic and music staff involved here. Absolutely appreciated extra I found. As for the actual “Extra” category available once completed with sweet pool it brings me to the previously noted “every basics represented” statement, with the CG library (misleading a bit as mentioned before due to its total CG account VS. clear window space for these indicated), a “Recollection Library” where besides the memorable and tasty Ero scenes, also the various epilogue/ED moments are collected for repeat experience pleasure (also misleading except I really missed something no guide could clear me up on either *the grand ED final all-cast CG is the real last one or?*) plus a “Media library” with all the pieces of BG score plus songs (opening theme and various ED vocal tracks) as well as the opening movie and also a sweet pool Promotion Movie. Summed up on terms of System Nitro+ CHiRAL made everything basic represented yet spiced up the formula with stuff that is anything else but typical showing the Brand distinctive pioneer spirit in these regards as well.
+ Packaging:
Now reaching the surface, the packaging Nitro+ CHiRAL did for sweet pool. The so-titled 初回生産版 (Shokai Seisanban – firstpress edition) this Soft was specified to come along with a special packaging plus mini rough-collection including Manual. Well, the packaging itself is sort of a standard DVD Digi-pack kept in a slipcase that looks nice but not really something I’d associate with “special made” package though. While the so-called “mini rough-collection incl. Manual” really is just that – a booklet manual that includes 7 pages of Event CG rough art (not full page size either, but two scenes in rough or better said line art take sharing one) besides b/w printed chara introduction and Soft specific information. In short, the packaging of sweet pool is kept rather unspectacular and I wouldn’t go beyond efforts nor costs to obtain the now actually sold-out Shokai Seisanban of it for the sake of connected “bonus” only.
+ Overall Impression:
Now as for some conclusive words concerning this latest BL Soft venture of mine with Nitro+ CHiRAL’s third project, what’s left for me to say? As expressed in detail above, sweet pool in many ways held what it’s been promised / advertised as by the Softbrand in charge – an exceptional gem which truely breathed in a fresh wind to the BL genre, yeah, to some extend even redefining it. On the other hand, it’s especially because of the flaws contained, which come down to length (though it *seems* as if Kabura-sensei took the feedback by fans ranting over the Brand’s former project been just too long serious?) and partwise shacky execution of the utmost mesmerizing basic concept and plot, that these are moreso minded as they stand in the way to enable sweet pool genre masterpiece status without any doubts. As far as I’m concerned Nitro+ CHiRAL still acchieved such a rank for the mere try on something totally new that largely succeeded on so many levels despite its handicaps. Therefore my stance on sweet pool ends up largely positive to really impressed. Nitro+ CHiRAL and all in front there Brand main writing talent Fuchii Kabura showcased that the BL genre doesn’t need to restrict itself to tiresome cliché settings, plot nor protagonists at all. Especially through works such as sweet pool this famed but ever-so-often underestimated Nitro+ lives up as one of the most experimental Softhouses out there, not narrowing their scope on genre or target audience as the recommendation for sweet pool applies even if you normally tend to avoid the genre itself.
0verflow
