Title: あの日の君を振り向かせて。
Developer: Tily
Release Date: 29th November 2024
Age Rating: 18+
Length: ~10 Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
An unusual eroge deserves an unusual style of review. Thus please be warned that there will be spoilers discussed here.
Ano Hi no Kimi o Furimukasete, Anokimi for short, is a low-priced game released by Tily – the newest brand under the Hooksoft/Smee/Asa Project banner, which has more of a a focus on single heroine titles so far.
The premise of the game is that your average male protagonist Naomichi lives in a share house with his 4 childhood friends following their graduation from high school. He’s found that he’s fallen in love with one of them (Yuu) but seems to lose his chance to confess following a series of unfortunate events over the course of a month. However, seemingly like God answering his prayers, he ends up in a month-long time loop beginning from the start of the month, thus allowing him a second chance at finding love. But could there perhaps be something more sinister at play?
Yuu – our one and only heroine (she is cute though to be fair)
I must admit that I was drawn into the game by its premise – time loops are inherently interesting and I was curious in seeing how the setting would be handled by a company group who primarily deal in moege. The answer to that question, however, is very poorly.
To give this game its due, the beginning of the game and the first few loops are actually written fairly well – the game progresses from light-hearted romantic comedy to tracking Naomichi’s mental decline as he watches the girl he loves die before looping over and over, coming to the realization that whatever he does is fruitless in preventing the loop. At this point I was gripped.
The climax of the story comes down to Naomichi remembering a promise made between his childhood friends long ago – that Naomichi is to be shared and anyone wishing to take him for themselves will be punished by death. Startled by this, he goes and confronts the one who he blames for everything – their other childhood friend Sanae. After admitting that it is her who is behind the time loop and even some of Yuu’s deaths in them, she drops the “bombshell” that the only reason she did so is because *she* loves Yuu and doesn’t want Naomichi to take her away. After of course talking about how disgusting her feelings are (we do not need homophobia in 2024/5 please).
“It’s gross right?! I know. Even I understand how wrong it is!”
So then Yuu comes out, admits that she’s had her memories from every loop and believes the only way to stop everything is to kill herself. She tells Naomichi to forgive Sanae and then stabs herself leading to the true reveal – everything was a dream.
Yes, you read that right. 75% of this game was BS dreamt up by Naomichi who was in a coma. He then wakes up in a hospital bed to Sanae crying at his side. Turns out that the only thing real about the loop is that Sanae is the cause. She pushed Naomichi into traffic due to jealousy about his closeness with Yuu – don’t forget she’s still the evil lesbian. She apologizes and disappears (never to show up again except hinted at the very end because who cares Yuu is ours now clearly).
After rehab Naomichi gets back to his share house and decides that he needs to ask Yuu out. She obviously accepts and there’s the eroge mandated icha-rabu until the end of the game. The end.
So you’ve now saved yourself 10 hours, you’re welcome. As you may be able to tell, the plot twist is horrendous. Imagine spending hours reading something only for the author to take the laziest cop-out known. The worst part is that since all of the story had taken part in the dream I felt no care or connection to the real Yuu as all the emotional development the reader had experienced before the confession never actually happened in reality.
This is of course glossing over the fact that the only LGBT+ character in the game just so happened to be the villain, a terrible person, and acted like their existence was disgusting. I know Japan has pretty bad recognition and protection for LGBT+ people compared to much of the world but I’d expect fiction to be a bit more open-minded.
As a small aside, I just wanted to mention one small scene where Yuu, after waking up in the morning after spending the night with Naomichi has this to say:
It’s giving real “Men writing Women” vibes lmao.
Conclusion
My reaction to finishing this game
My Score: 2/10
Anokimi is a waste of time. It has a decent start and some fun character reactions but completely shatters any goodwill the player may have by completely ruining the plot 3/4 of the way into the game before trying to shove average romance to try and soothe the wound. It doesn’t work, and I’m mostly just annoyed that I paid full price by pre-ordering this lol. Absolutely avoid at all costs.
This game, alongside Secret Love have confirmed to me that Kishida Sora should not be left in charge of direction and writing so I’ll probably avoid anything from him unless I read good reviews in the future. It’s a shame because I really think a solo-heroine version of a hook or smee game has a great chance of being really good. Maybe Tily will manage to find their style of game in the future.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Happy Valentines Day! I hope you’re spending your day enjoying the company of your favorite 2D characters (unless you’re a リア充 in which case I’m happy for you~)
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