never was there a question of depth and importance

The latest reply to sethjohnson is one of the longest yet.

“I musn’t run away! I musn’t run away!”

Also, if any of you are interested in more debate, expect late replies. Sorry bettynoire, I had quite a bit to say about what you did but sethjohnson’s comment piqued my interest more, and all the words have run away, and I’ve got a sore throat plus mild fever and need sleep. That is all.

I’ve always loved Honey & Clover for being emotionally honest. The concept of the term “emotional honesty”, if it doesn’t exist in some capacity out there already, would be defined as the ability of the viewer to connect with the range of emotions portrayed by the character(s) on-screen — due to how the emotions portrayed are genuine and indeed representative of real life in some capacity.

Choosing to justify a critique of eroge after watching two Key adaptations seems like a reasonable decision to me, and here’s why: Kanon and Air have been held in high regard as the basic of basics, something no self-respecting otaku should go without watching in their lifetime. They are arguably the most well-known and popular of eroges, having met with critical and commercial success; more importantly, the focus isn’t about the sex alone.

I insist on coming clean about this: till a week ago I was one of those elitist bastards who wouldn’t touch eroge adaptations even if you paid me. Well, alright, maybe I would, but I always had a prejudice against them. Point being? The concept of eroges/visual novels/dating sims didn’t appeal to me at all. To put it crudely, they always seemed to me like a Japanese amalgam of Choose Your Own Adventure and Mills & Boon. It was that bad.

The logic behind the aversion? Pretty simple — it was how sex and a decent story were mutually exclusive. Or how the sex always came first and the story second. Oh, don’t tell me — they made the story first and then tried to cram in the sex later. I can imagine it already, some overweight, middle-aged salaryman looking over the shoulder of his Chinese sweatshop programmer, going “What do you MEAN they can’t have sex now?” Assuming then, that the eroge is in all respects created from the ground up with equal allowance to both sex and story doesn’t make it any better — just less pathetic, like comparing a home-made porno to a professional one.