After almost 2 months, I've finally finished it. Being a visual novel and all, it takes a while since I can usually dedicate at most 30 minutes per night.

This game has quite a seiyuu cast. There's Masayo Kurata (also known as Shinobu and Karinka), Inoue Kikuko (Belldandy), Fumiko Orikasa (Chise), and Nana Mizuki (Nyamo). One of the best things about this game is that it's *fully* voiced. Kiminozo was silent during Takayuki's speech and thoughts. Air is a little better (from what I've played so far as I'm just starting it after this game). In Air, the thoughts are silent, but anything in quotes is spoken by the main character. This game is all voiced, thoughts and speech from all characters.

I only played one of the possible endings. The ending I got was the good ending with the main character, Kaho (pictured on the cover). The story is a little confusing at times since it involves time travel and of course, there's always those unresolved paradoxes (unless you assume parallel universes, but that's another topic).

So the story starts out as you, being Kotaro, going to sleep sometime in July, near the end of the semester and then all of a sudden waking up in September where you find out that Kaho has been killed. From there, you jump around different times trying to find out how you can prevent her death. The fellow characters include Ai, who is the girl next door that you've grown up with together, Takeshi, who's your senpai in the boxing club, Tomo-chan, one of your teachers, Maya, a freshwoman swimmer who somehow manages to get involved in this whole fiasco, and then there's Regen who is a Time Patroller from somewhere who can travel back and forth through time and is helping you solve this mystery. All the characters above are female except for Takeshi.

Like I mentioned, the cast has some heavy hitters. I could recognize Masayo's squeaky voice pretty quickly, but was really surprised with the others. I've never heard Nana talk in soft voice. I'm used to her having that sharp, high pitched, piercing sound. I will always remember Fumiko as the Ultimate Weapon, so I couldn't wrap my head around her playing the happy-go-lucky Regen.

The artwork is okay, but not as good as Kiminozo. Maybe I'm just nit-picking, but the characters just don't seem "right." I think their necks are a bit too long. The music, as I mentioned from the CD review, is enjoyable. I don't particularly like the intro and ending songs, but the tunes are pleasant.

The first edition comes with a trading card and a bonus drama CD w/the intro song. There's three versions of the intro song, a long (full), short (tv-sized) and the karaoke track. The drama CD has Ai narrating an event that happened a year before this current story takes place. Regen arrives in front of Kotaro's house but Ai catches her and takes her around. Regen meets all the girls will be involved in Kotaro's story. However, after talking to them, she realizes that she came a year too early. Doesn't add much to the main story, but it's an interesting supplemental.

During the first part of the game, the story is to figure out that you're involved in this "day-dropping" as they call it. When you go to sleep at night, strange colors and smells come about and that's when you know you've "jumped." The story then moves into you befriending Kaho and eventually making her your girlfriend. Regen arrives and tells you that you need to prevent her death and tells you that she gets in an accident because she wanted to see you and a fellow schoolmate, Mana is involved. So you go and befriend Mana, preventing her from having her own accident. After solving Mana's problems, Regen tells you that Kaho still dies, this time she gets hit by some guy and your teacher, Tomo-chan is in the car. So you help Tomo-chan figure out who's the person that's going to be driving her (turns out to be a stalker). After all that, you're told that she still gets in an accident because she was waiting for you at the train station. You tell her that you don't want to see her until September, thus jeopardizing the relationship but hopefully preventing her from leaving the house on the 8/31st (when the accident will happen). Of course, love has no restraints and Ai accidentally tells her that you want to meet here there...As Kaho is running towards you, a car speeds down the street and the last thing you hear is the screeching of the tires. But of course, you know how this story is going to end. It's a romance story after all.

Rating: 3/4

Title: 彼氏彼女の事情 (His and Her Circumstances) Vol. 4
Artist/Author: 津田雅美 (Masami Tsuda)
Book Size/Pages: Small B-6, 191pp., w/furigana
Original Serialization: Monthly LALA 6/97-9/97
First Printing: 12/10/97
Rating: 3/4

So the story progresses, much as I remember from the anime. I could never remember the names of Tsubasa's three friends when I was watching the show. Hopefully my memory for Japanese names has improved since then.

There's a bonus one-shot manga from 1993-ish involving aliens and spaceships. Very strange for it to be included in a manga like this. Like before, there's also letters and some 4 panel comics.

13. ACT13 たたかう女(2) (Fighting Girl 2): In addition to Maho and a class that's giving her the silent treatment, a new girl shows up at school in class "D." Her name is 芝姫つばさ (Tsubasa Shibahime). She's very cute, but is also very evil towards Yukino as she also has a crush on Arima. Yukino finds out that Tsubasa has been in the hospital for a long time and has finally been discharged. Despite having been caught bullying Yukino, Tsubasa continues. Her 3 friends apologize for her and quickly befriend Yukino. Maho sees that Yukino is coming in favor with her schoolmates and isn't happy about it.

14. ACT14 たたかう女(2) (Fighting Girl 3): It's becoming apparent to both her teacher and Arima that there's something strange going on with Yukino and her classmates. Yukino insists that she resolve the issue herself. Again, Tsubasa attacks Yukino, but Yukino is a bit too fast for her. Tsubasa's three friends properly introduce themselves; 佐倉椿 (Tsubaki Sakura), 瀬奈りか (Rika Sena), and 沢田亜弥 (Aya Sawada). Yukino has her confrontation with Maho and gets slapped. Yukino now knows that she has the winning hand.

15. ACT15 たたかう女(2) (Fighting Girl 4): The classmates are slowly realizing that they've been used by Maho. Meanwhile, Arima dropped his id wallet with Yukino's picture in it. Tsubasa finds this and throws the picture in the incinerator waiting to be burned. Yukino finds out about this and goes on a rampage after Tsubasa. Tsubasa finally explains her true feelings for Arima and how he never responded to her come-ons in the past. After this incident, Tsubasa and Yukino are on a little better terms and the class apologizes for ignoring her. Yukino also makes Maho a friend.

16. ACT16 一学期の終わりに (At the End of First Semester): It's the start of summer vacation and Yukino is looking forward to spending her first vacation with a boyfriend. She has various ideas of what she wants to do together, but unfortunately, Arima has an inter-high school kendo competition that he has to go train for so he can't be with her until after the tournament.

Title: 花右京メイド隊 (Hanaukyo Maid Tai) Vol. 4
Artist/Author: もりしげ (Morishige)
Book Size/Pages: Small B-6, 208pp., w/furigana
First Printing: 10/25/01
Rating: 3/4

A few good chapters, nothing significant. The softball chapter brings out more of Mariel's character. She's been awfully obedient the past few books, so it's refreshing to see that she can get annoyed at times.

There are two bonus chapters, one of which I particularly like as it involves another one of Ikuyo's contraptions, this time a pair of glasses that act as surveillance cameras. The other one might be foreshadowing something in the future, but given that it's not included as part of the storyline, I'm a little wary. There's also a few pages in the back that deal with the mysteries of Hanaukyo Mansion.

The cover looks a bit strange, but that's how it is. I bought this book at $1 from Bookoff thinking that it was just a little sunburnt (hence, the reduced price), but then I saw it at a regular bookstore and it looked just the same.

25. 帰ってきた理由 (The Reason for Coming Back): Despite being the head of her corporation, Ryuka has come back to the Hanaukyo house as she doesn't want to be left out of the manga. However, there's no job in the house for her. She tries to find something to do, but gets kicked out of every position she tries out for. Finally, the "yes" maids take her in (I think that's who there job is).

26. 予算争奪戦！！ (Budgetary Contest): It's time for the annual softball game amongst the different groups of maids in the household. Yashima, Taro, and Mariel join the "Go Club" team. As they play against Ikuyo's team, Yashima performs exceptionally well as a pitcher. Ikuyo has her own tricks in pitching, but it's foiled by Mariel who slugs the ball home.

27. コノヱ対マリエル！！ (Konoe Against Mariel): The finals of the tournament is between the "Go Club" and the security team, a la Konoe. After some early runs, Konoe comes to pitch and consistently strikes out the batters, including Mariel who seems to get more and more annoyed that she can't get a hit. During the final inning, Konoe's throws 12 balls leading up to the bases being loaded and Mariel at the plate. She tries to intentionally walk her, but Mariel winds up and slams the out out of the park. Her team wins.

28. １０番勝負 (Tenth Game): Ryuka wonders why Mariel is qualified to be the head maid, so she challenges her to a series of trials. At first, Mariel wins as the content involves typical household activities. However, during the last few contentes, Ryuka wins as they're more involved in attacks and violence. The 10th battle is a struggle in the pool where Ryuka manages to pull Mariel's headband and top off. Mariel accepts defeat, but it's a meaningless victory for Ryuka.

29. コノヱリーナ！！ (Konoe): Yashima, who has a serious crush on Konoe, gets to spend a day shopping with her. Konoe's reveals much of her hidden femininity when they're shopping for clothes.