9-nine-はるいろはるこいはるのかぜ 9️⃣ Week 8 [END] (Visual Novel Book Club, offshoot)

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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This is being read as an offshoot continuing Episode 2. Episode 1 was originally read as part of the Visual Novel Book Club.

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9-nine- episode 3

Current week start date: July 14, 2023
Previous Week (Week 7)

Pace

We’re aiming to read approximately 25k characters per week! A suitable enough end point will be selected each week and posted within the thread.


This week's endpoint: 7.3k

Finish the VN.

Scene transitions and character count (Steam version)
Location Character Count
Station 19
Park 341
Street 2 459
??? 4 222
Party? 4 401
Post credits 5 164
End 7 291

Discussion Guidelines

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, do your best to provide context. Pasted text, screenshots, descriptions, etc. Unlike book clubs we can’t flip to relevant pages, so we may need a little help identifying exactly what is being discussed.
  • Feel totally at ease to ask questions or give your thoughts, any time! Clubs live and die by participation, and asking whatever question you have, no matter how silly it may seem, helps others who are reading it and even the answerer themselves.
  • Have fun, and do your best to interpret anything said with as much good faith as possible :slightly_smiling_face:

Participants

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading but haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m no longer reading
0 voters
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Spoilers

I was about to be annoyed if they fell for Iris-Sophie a second time without ever asking Sophie, so I’m glad they covered that a little while after, haha. Hi Yoichi, It’s almost comical to me how conveniently people appear for every fight now.

The party spy bit gives me Persona 5 vibes. Using magic powers to mentally dominate people, stripping them of free will and forcing them into favorable deals for you can’t even scratch anywhere near the top of the most unethical ways people rise up in those circles, right? :wink: Some very nice art in the CGs this week anyway.

The post credits stuff is going there are breaking the 4th wall, huh? I take offense at being called Kakeru. Feels very inspired by a sort of classic VN but I can’t say what it is without massively spoiling it, heh. That one also did it better – everything feels a little too telegraphed to me when this VN does it and doesn’t really land with a lot of impact.

Thoughts on Episode 3

Well, I guess that last sentence kinda sums it up. This VN feels like the embodiment of “yeah, sure, it’s ok.” I think 3 dialed up the quality of the overarching plot the highest it’s ever been… but to me it’s still just kinda fine at best, so that’s not the greatest strong point to have. When I look back, true or not, it feels like half this episode was fighting. Despite a few complaints I might have, the Haruka relationship worked and it was nice to see her develop, even if just predictably across that one dimension. Episode 2 remains my favorite because it played into the series’ strength in character writing best with Sora.

6/10? Shrug. I’m feeling slightly weary after reading this section, but I’m also just so tired recently that I might be slipping more critical generally and wanting a good payoff for my efforts. I think it’ll pass. Still plan to see the end through with you all; reading your thoughts remains one of the best parts of it. I hope Episode 4 is a jump in quality the way the ratings imply it is. Though I’m also concerned about spending 2 weeks straight or something reading a climactic fight scene, haha.

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Spoilers

When they cut to the party, seeing Haruka in that dress, I thought they were about to get married at first before they explained their plan. :sweat_smile: It was a cute way to end the game though.

The post credits scene was not what I was expecting. Sophie being Iris I guess makes sense given that they shared the same body/voice in the illusionary form throughout the series. Guess its better than them trying to “trick” us by having them share the same voice but be unrelated. The 4th wall stuff felt kind of out of place. I’ve seen other VNs do that to better effect, but feels like a weird twist this late into the series. Is Sophie gonna be secretly communicating to us behind Kakeru’s back in the next game or will we be able to “talk” to the cast directly now? :joy:

Ep3 thoughts

Overall this episode was fine. Better than ep1 but weaker than ep2 I think. I like Haruka more now than before we started this episode but Sora still remains the best. I don’t think anyone can top her. I think my biggest issue with the VN is the farther we get into it, the more I don’t think I’m the target audience. This episode was a lot more “action” heavy with the fights and whatnot and that stuff doesn’t usually interest me. I do like all of the slice of life/character interactions though. I think they do a lot better with that portion of the game compared to all of the plot stuff.

The ratings for ep4 on vndb is a huge increase compared to the first 3 games so I’m hopeful that it will be good.

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Yeah I usually don’t seek that stuff out either. I think it CAN work for me, because I’ve seen other VNs reach moments of action and found them compelling, but it requires a level of investment I just don’t have here. Part of it could be the presentation of the fights, further though, on some level I’ve never been able to fully buy in. Some combination of the characters not feeling 3 dimensional and real enough, the plot having some contrived conveniences and a general sort of erosion of trust in the stakes here, etc. I’ve just had this on my mind right now because I don’t think the writing is SO bad or anything; it’s just the sort of emotional buy in for me has, with maybe a couple exceptions in high points, completely failed to happen.

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Last week’s reading: 8 hours
This week’s reading: 40 minutes :stuck_out_tongue:

Final week spoilers

Yeah, I’ve seen this movie before… as @Daisoujou mentions this has been done way (WAAAAAAY) better before in a certain VN that I am also not going to spoil because I feel that VN is one of the most epic pieces of writing I’ve ever read.

I certainly feel the VN medium, is, in a way, the perfect medium for this type of theme, where suddenly the actual person behind the monitor playing the game is an actual part of the story. Sadly, it’s very hard to find it satisfying here, with this kind of execution.

LOL, my thoughts exactly :joy:

Episode 3 thoughts

Definitely feels somewhat more polished in most aspects than the previous two episodes, but certainly less entertaining than episode 2. Haruka is a likeable character, and I felt she had some dimensionality to her and her growth felt tangible - these are pretty much the strong points of the episode, as expected.

Sadly, it feels like the trend is having more and longer shounen battles each episode (did we even fight anyone in episode one except for the fire guy in the intro?), which kinda lowers my hopes for episode 4.

There’s however, one aspect I’m looking forward to - which is basically that Noa is the only heroine who doesn’t really seem romantically interested in クソ兄貴 from the start. Maybe finally we’ll get to see a story where クソ兄貴 actually has to work his way into the girl’s heart instead of just … waiting for her to fall in his lap. And given Noa’s personality, I feel that could be potentially be a fun ride crossing fingers

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