In my previous blogpost's closing notes section, I talked about what I've been doing and dedicated a large portion of it to my opinions on Nukitashi 1. At the time, I had only read the common route and three heroine routes, meaning the Fumino route or the grand route was still left. Since then, I have finished the grand route and therefore Nukitashi 1, taken quite a long break due to renovations in my house, then continued onto Nukitashi 2, and a couple of days ago I finally finished that as well. In this blog post, I'll talk about both VNs, followed by the anime adaptation that aired earlier this year, its newly released specials, and the manga by Mameojitan.
I started reading Nukitashi 1 in the last week of October, and now it's a whole new year! Sure, part of the reason for the blogpost being so late was renovations. There was also part of me that wanted to release the blogpost after the specials for the anime had come out, but I can't deny that I also procrastinated. I had decided on a structure for the blogpost a while ago, but I kept having trouble actually writing it. Oh well, at least it's done. New year, new me, new girlfriend, new blogpost.
Going into Nukitashi, I was expecting it to be a nukige like many others I have read before: somewhat short, filled with H-scenes, light on plot, with a bit of slice-of-life on the side. Maybe my opinion was colored by the short anime adaptation, and I thought the VN would also be short, with the actual plot already covered in the anime and a bunch of H-scenes cut out. Needless to say, that is not what I got at all. What I found instead was quite a long VN if you, as I do, consider both VNs to be one story split into two parts. Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first: yes, there are more H-scenes in the VN than in the anime adaptation that introduced me to the series. However, the number of H-scenes is a pittance compared with both the overall length of the VN and some nukige that are a quarter the length of Nukitashi. I am not exaggerating when I say that reading Nukitashi for the H-scenes would not be much different from reading Tsukihime for the H-scenes. Although the H-scenes are written better than Nasu's H-scenes, they are still not the main focus of the VN. Don't be holding your breath for an H-scene, because you'll be well into rigor mortis by the time you get to first one.
I'd like to get into technicalities for a bit. In both VNs, I read routes in the order they appear on the scenario screen, and I think doing so is mostly the correct way to experience the story. In the case of Nukitashi 1, the routes get grander each time, with Fumino's route being the culmination of everything that came before it. However, when I read Hinami's route, I really liked it, and I liked the supporting SS character so much that I faced a dilemma about whether to drop the first VN in order to read her route in Nukitashi 2 or continue. In the case of Nukitashi 2, the route order makes less sense, but that's due to epilogues for the first VN's heroines and DLC routes. I might have read Nukitashi 2's epilogue routes before reading Senzuripoint: Paccoman if I could do it over again, but alternatively doing so would spoil some jokes.
This is somewhat of a complaint, albeit a minor one, but neither of these VNs is high-budget like some well-known VNs from well-established developers. There are even multiple meta jokes about the low budget within the VNs.
When I was streaming the VN to my friends, they noticed the low budget immediately. The second VN has more meta jokes in general compared to the first one (or most VNs out there). Normally, I'm not a fan of meta jokes and self-referential humor, but it works well here. The other minor complaint I have is something that was also addressed in a meta sense within the story: some girls still love Jun outside of their own route, which made me very sad when I was reminded of this fact. Nanase is the prime example, and Touka and Ikuko's cases aren't much different. The developers changed the second VN so that all of the girls from NLNS have feelings for Jun, along with Touka and Ikuko in all routes.
I have a tendency to make comparisons to other media when consuming something, and some of these might sound like jokes, but I'm sincere in what I say. The comparisons I kept drawing were to The Matrix (the first movie, anyway, I haven't seen the sequels), 1984 by George Orwell, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and the Rance games.
The Matrix comparison is pretty straightforward. Jun is the chosen one, and even Touka and Hitoura comment on this. Along with that, they are fighting against an oppressive force in the form of the Pervert Law, with its enactors being the SS and SHO.
1984 is a rather minor comparison. It has to do with most of the SS members we know and interact with being young, and with the women being the most bigoted adherents of the Pervert Law.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance comparison is also a minor one. At some point, Hitoura basically tells Jun something that reads very much like what Jetstream Sam told Raiden in their first encounter.
Rance comparison is less of a comparison and more of a contrast. Jun actively rejects power and domination, unlike Rance, and is usually the one being raped rather than doing the raping.
I don't have much to say about the common route, it does its job of setting up the story and not much else. Now, onto talking about the heroines and their accompanying routes.
One of my biggest complaints about Nukitashi 1 is how Nanase's route is handled. Most of the relationship develops with meddling from Asa and little to no effort from Jun himself, there is a drought of intimate scenes until the very end of the route, the childhood friend aspect is much the same, not utilized until the last quarter of the route. I don't know if this is accurate, but it certainly feels like the majority of the H-scenes in Nanase's route happen with girls from SS and SHO.
The extra scenario you unlock after beating the route comes out of left field, unlike the extra scenarios from the other two routes. Even the anime handles Nanase's "route" better, but we'll get to that later in the blogpost. This is my emotions speaking, as the reason for this will become more apparent later in the blogpost but the Nanase route is also a route I can't ever go back to because it essentially acts like a bad ending when looked at through the lens of the grand route.
Nanase is my favorite NLNS heroine, so her route being the worst of the bunch was a massive disappointment. The last thing I'll complain about here isn't her route, but the fact that in all routes in both VNs, she has feelings for Jun. This made it very hard for me to contextualize in a way that did not diminish my enjoyment, especially when I didn't want her to suffer.
I'm pretty sure it's some sort of inside joke that she is the most popular heroine among fans, yet she has the worst route and is the eternal loser. If it wasn't the case during the development of the first VN, it certainly was for the second VN. Jokes at her expense are abundant in the second VN. I found them somewhat funny, but they also made me feel bad.
Hinami's route, in comparison, was great for a multitude of reasons. I like lolis, so I was gravitating toward her at the start of the VN, but Nanase won me over. It's the first look into how SS operates, the internal dilemma from Jun, information about major plot points that will become relevant in other routes, as well as introducing Rei, whom I'll talk about more extensively later in the blogpost.
Hinami herself is great in her own right. I know her being a loli but also a senpai is played as a joke, but in the few moments when it is played straight, it is very sweet. I was taking screenshots throughout the VN whenever something funny, important, or erotic happened, and her route ended up being the one with the most screenshots in Nukitashi 1.
I don't share Jun's sentiment regarding Misaki. It's not that I dislike her, but unlike Jun, I wasn't interested in her from the start. Misaki's route ended up being somewhat of a bore to me.
It was somewhat weird that Jun's positive feelings toward Misaki, which were apparent even in the common route, make her route the one that progresses the fastest and the most. Not even the grand route has Jun being so in love and obsessed with Fumino by the end.
To me, the best parts of the Misaki route were the later scenes with Ikuko. I felt somewhat negative toward Ikuko after the common route, but she became endearing by the end of Misaki's route.
Fumino's route, or the grand route, was alright. I like yamato nadeshikos to a degree, but I wish her personality was richer instead of just her being a dog and a yamato nadeshiko. Fumino is younger compared to the rest of the cast, so her developing fetishes from new sexual experiences was pretty funny (and hot).
In this route, everything gets resolved, albeit I still wanted more resolution to the situation with Nanase at the end. I found the constantly teased and easily predictable plot point of her mom being the one from Jun's past kind of meh.
One thing I didn't like was making Sakimori so villainous when, in comparison, they made Hitoura somewhat relatable. It's as if they ran out of humanity to put in these characters. Making Sakimori obsessed with getting revenge for his daughter while completely ignoring the fruit of her daughter's love was weird.
While the first VN is decent and has good heroines, Nukitashi 2 is on a level of its own in almost every category. For one thing, it has more ups and downs, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on your perspective. As a matter of fact, while I think Nukitashi 2 is funnier than the first VN, it also has more jokes, which means it also has more bad jokes compared to the first VN.
Having the common route intertwined with the heroine routes has its advantages and disadvantages. For one, it makes reading the first route way more enjoyable, as you get to spend time not only with the heroine you're pursuing but also with the other SS members, who are fun characters in their own right. As a downside, however, on subsequent routes, you have a lot of things you'll have to re-read or skip. Re-reading is one thing, but when you skip and get to a new heroine-specific scene, you have to backtrack to see where in the story you are.
This VN is supposed to pick up after the Fumino route of the first VN, but they hand-wave away Jun and Fumino's relationship. Essentially, Jun didn't have sex with any of the heroines, except for being raped by SS and SHO girls, the last one being Ikuko toward the end of the common route. Instead, everyone from NLNS is in love with Jun, along with two-thirds of the SS Big Three.
Going back to comparisons to other media, I'd like to mention Matrix and Rance again. In the alternate world of Nukitashi 2, Jun begrudgingly has accepted his role as the chosen one, becoming Seitei in order to keep Asane safe. Just like Rance, he has become active, dominant, and accepting of power. Jun even rapes the villain!
In comparison to the first VN's villains, Mizukihi and Rin are weak characters. Even the straight-up comedically evil Sakimori gets redeemed, but Mizukihi's motivations and actions are so nonsensical that they left me exasperated. Everything with Rin is just her wanting more power in a bureaucratic system, and it's played as a joke for the most part. Part of the villains being so weak probably has to do with Nukitashi 1's villains being much stronger in terms of writing: the SS, Hitoura, and Sakimori. Making the SS your allies and the NLNS members less of an adversary and more of a hurdle to get through until they become your allies again left the VN with no compelling villains. The first VN's last fight also had more stakes, and I could suspend my disbelief over Homo Erectus, while I couldn't do the same for Jun being a cum Spider-Man. Lastly, the Mizukihi extra scenario at the end of the common route was underwhelming, nothing to write home about.
I have less to say about the heroines of Nukitashi 2. Not because I like them less than the NLNS heroines, but because it feels like you spend so much more time with them, and you should read the VN to see for yourself.
I think she is a bundle of joy and very hot. Touka's route was fun, and her ending is definitely up there for me. However, I couldn't really put myself in Jun's shoes toward the end of her route.
First and foremost, the time skip was expected, but they should have explained the consequences of the pregnancy more. Secondly, I think part of her character suffers from shackles put on her by the extra chapter in Nukitashi 1's Nanase route. I think her being unable to do basic tasks is due to what was said in that extra chapter, which limits her character quite a bit. Simply put, it was a joke that limited her character, and I don't buy it.
Lastly, although I love her a lot, she's a terrible depiction of autism. With the exception of Mayuri from Steins;Gate, autism has never been depicted properly in weeaboo mediums, so that's nothing new.
When I mentioned that I liked one of the side characters so much that I wanted to put the first VN on hold to read Nukitashi 2, I was talking about Rei. What is there to not like about her really? I had never heard of the term "route hijacker" before, but it fits perfectly with her considering I loved her in Hinami's route. Rei's route is simply bordering on perfection.
Nanase has been a great wing-woman and both the MVP of the story and my heart, she shines in this route once again, specifically during the last event. I will not spoil it, as it is written and voice acted remarkably well. I could see it coming a mile away, hear Nanase's voice start to change, yet my throat still felt like there was a knot in it.
All the romance and H-scenes with Rei are also great. It also ends on a realistic note. It is not just sunshine and happiness for these two characters. They still have their issues, which they will have to work out together.
This type of down-to-earth ending would normally make me happy, but I wished for a more joyful conclusion. I am that much of a waifufag for Rei. The other two SS heroines get their happy endings, complete with time skips and pregnancies. What about my darling Rei?
Ikuko wasn't a very interesting character in the first VN. She was hot, but that was about it. Sadly, her character hasn't been improved upon that much here.
That isn't to say I don't like Ikuko's route. I had a sort of hate-boner for her in the first VN, and I think most people did as well. I don't have an aversion to rape, but I wish her character had been explored a bit more before the rape. Oh well, crazy in the head, crazy in the bed, as they say.
That influenced the development of her character, route, H-scenes, and how her route is concluded. I just think they should have made her an actual character. Her backstory is similar to that of Bridget from Guilty Gear before, you know, before they made Bridget a tranny.
I don't have much to say about Ikuko's route aside from that. It's fun and hot, gets ridiculous toward the end, but overall it is not very interesting.
Susuko's route was a breath of fresh air after reading through two very boring epilogues. There is pretty much nothing about that route that I disliked. I think it could have ended better, but that's a very minor complaint.
Susuko herself is very cute, and her VA is doing a great job. This is a weird comparison, as they don't sound alike at all, but her performance reminded me of Asami Sanade. It made me feel the same excitement, I guess. A lot of her characters have that effect on me, and Susuko had the same impact. Part of that was her dialogue and not just her voice.
Regarding my only and very minor complaint, I would have preferred an ending that was not just a rehash of the Ikuko route's ending. Overall, though, I liked Susuko's route. Her getting annoyed at Jun during some scenes was adorable, and the short interaction with her older sister was very cute.
I'm going to try to keep what I have to say about epilogues for NLNS heroines short. I read these in the order they appeared on the scenario screen, as I mentioned earlier in the blogpost, and I will talk about them in the same order. Although I talked about the Susuko route before this, I read that route after finishing these epilogues.
I don't care for Asane's epilogue, and I didn't care for her that much either. I am not an incestfag, and none of her scenes were that good, so I wasn't turned on by any of the H-scenes. Her role in Senzuripoint: Paccoman was better than anything she did in the first VN or this epilogue.
Nanase's epilogue fixes a lot of the problems from her original route, like that route being a de facto bad ending. It has two extremely hot scenes, and overall it was an enjoyable and funny epilogue.
Hinami is cute as ever, and the added tan makes her even sexier. Overall, I liked Hinami's epilogue. Rei's scenes were adorable, but I wish there had been more of them. The extra scenario should have been reworked to be part of the actual epilogue, but it's not a big deal.
Misaki's epilogue wasn't very interesting. I wrote an
awk script to calculate the number of
lines in each route, and hers was the shortest. It didn’t feel short
though. At least in Nukitashi 1, her route had erotic
non-H-scenes.
Fumino's epilogue is a bit different from the rest, so I'll go into more detail. One of the things in Nukitashi 2 is that it takes place after the grand route, but you don't end up with anyone. More precisely, it takes place after the events of Senzuripoint: Paccoman, but you don't end up with the SS girls. Instead, you continue your relationship with Fumino during the grand route, (which didn't happen in Senzuripoint: Paccomon) then teleport to the other world, and come back to continue your relationship. That's enough about the technicalities though.
I find Fumino to be very boring. This epilogue doesn't really improve her character or reveal anything too important about her that we didn't already know. The yamato nadeshiko archetype isn't that much different from the manic pixie dream girl when viewed through a Japanese lens. Unfortunately, it is hard to pull off because most characters with this archetype tend to be kuuderes, and kuuderes are very hard to portray effectively. One example of a yamato nadeshiko from an eroge that comes to mind is Kikuchiyo from doHna:doHna -Issho ni Warui Koto o Shiyou-. She was a real cutie, though not a kuudere, so there's that.
The epilogue ends somewhat bittersweet, as Jun loses partial functionality of his arm and shoulder, enough to cause him trouble in daily life. I understand it is supposed to mirror what happened to Fumino at the end of her route in Nukitashi 1, but this detail felt tacked on to me, to be honest. This epilogue's ending might also be the canon ending, but I am not planning on reading Hentai Prison anytime soon to find out. If I do read it in the future, I may make a blogpost about it.
The anime was my introduction to Nukitashi, and I think it did a decent job adapting the story. It was handled by Passione's softcore team, and they really knocked it out of the park. They can't show explicit sex, but they know how to push things right to the edge. The problem, of course, is that they had to adapt a 40-hour VN into about 4 hours of anime. The way they approached it was, in my opinion, genius. Not only did they pick the most entertaining moments from each route, but they also added elements that honestly should have been in the VN in the first place. There is plenty of fan service for people who have read both VNs, too. They basically said forget Fumino, forget Nanase's route being a bad ending, and they even improved Nanase's first sex scene.
The anime goes original from some point onward, which is necessary, since the grand route builds upon everything that came before it, and here you don't have that luxury with such a short runtime. I think the actual last fight of the first VN is superior to the fight at the end here, but that wasn't a big deal for me. The anime ends on a happy note: Nanase getting her well-deserved happy ending, Fumino not suffering at the hand of Sakimori, and the SS girls not getting screwed over like they did in Nanase's Nukitashi 1 route.
It also teases what's to come, which is USD, as Hitoura talks about in the epilogue. I think I would enjoy a second season adapting Nukitashi 2, though not as much as this adaptation, since it would focus on Touka instead of Rei. Regardless, I don't think it will happen anytime soon.
Specials are a series of short episodes, four to be exact, that were released with the Blu-ray volumes. Each episode is just under five minutes long, and they are original content. None of this was in the VN or in any other side material I searched through. Passione brought their A-game here as well. Each episode focuses on a different heroine from the first VN and highlights a defining sexual trait of hers. Just watch it, is all I'll say. I liked them a lot.
The manga is just an adaptation of the Misaki route from Nukitashi 1. There's also a sequel (?) manga called Nukitashi R, which is the same thing but for the Hinami route. I couldn't read the latter, as it hasn't been translated, but I did read the former. It was alright, nothing too special. I am definitely a bigger fan of Mameojitan than I am of this manga. He really knows how to add eroticism to mundane stuff, which is more apparent here than in his doujins.
Before closing things out, Merry Christmas, which has passed, and a Happy New Year, which is today, to everyone. Likewise, Happy Birthday to Jun, which was just yesterday. I know I kept complaining about my procrastination on this blogpost, but it was more because of the mental space I was in rather than not wanting to write it. Don't get the incorrect idea that I dislike these two VNs.
I think they are decent for what they are. I am still salty about Nanase but what can you do. I gassed up the second VN a lot more than the first one, but generally speaking, if I were to attach an actual score to them, I would probably rate them the same. Nukitashi 1 has a solid core while lacking in heroines and routes while Nukitashi 2 has great heroines and routes but a weak core. This is felt the most when comparing Nukitashi 1's grand route's climax to any climax Nukitashi 2 has to offer. This is not something I can easily quantify, but most people would probably agree with me.
Most of this blogpost, I wrote as I was reading the VNs, so I didn't have a clear idea of how I felt about everything until the very end. In order to better illustrate my point (and because it's fun) I went ahead and made a character and route tier list.
The next blogpost will come very quickly. It's essentially written and edited already, I just have to re-read it and make some final adjustments. To give a teaser, it'll be about what I did during my break between finishing Nukitashi 1 and starting Nukitashi 2. I wrote in tandem with this one and it's supposed to be an intermission between this blogpost and the Mushoku Tensei blogpost that is coming after that.