It was great to have this when coping with the hot weather!

Man, I hate this bleeding hot weather! It isn't just hot, it's fucking unbearable!!! This is one of the few times where I've actually had to rely on my electric fan to cool things down.

Anyway, that's enough bitching towards the weather. I'm just going to note what I've been doing these last few days (if anyone cares).

For the most part I've been playing KIRA☆KIRA like crazy from beginning to end. This VN was also entertaining enough to keep my mind off the sodding weather for awhile.


Before I got the VN I'd seen remarks that stated it was the VN equivalent of K-ON!, but I'd feel like disagreeing with that because KIRA☆KIRA had a lot more focus on the music aspect than K-ON! did.

Their training to be punk rockers was hilarious. The girls dressing Shikanosuke Maejima in drag and getting a kick out of it was memorable to say the least. And near enough everything else about it was great in its own way too.

Long story short, I consider KIRA☆KIRA a must play VN!

Besides that I got to try the Episode 1 patch for School Days. Get the Watanagashi-hen Day 1 patch for Higurashi (haven't played it yet). Watch the extremely condensed as hell CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ Kyou Chapter OVA (haven't seen it subbed to really comment on it). And finish the week two patch of CROSS†CHANNEL.

Oh, and I saw the start of the Umineko anime. Yeah, they did chop some bits from the VN as I expected, but it wasn't too bad cos they kept Rosa's 'epic parenting' skills for all to see!

Having a blast with patches and exploding tits

Although it was only a V1.1 update of their current Higurashi patch. I do think it was kinda silly of Sonozaki Futago-tachi to sneakily announce it amidst their April Fool's day prank.

I would have grabbed the update sooner if I had known about it.

But there's no use complaining now, as I could start ranting over how I missed the beginning of the Queen's Blade: Rurou no Senshi anime.


I only picked up this anime on a whim as I keep seeing figures of the characters on various sites I visit. I don't even know a lot about Queen's Blade other than it being some series of combat game visual books that give off a similar vibe to IkkiTousen in the way it provocatively displays its characters.

So unless there's some complicated plot to it I'm not seeing. I'll be viewing this anime as mindless entertainment.

Replaying Onikakushi-hen with a Matsuri makeover

I've already finished Onikakushi-hen of the Higurashi VN. But now I have a reason to replay it thanks to this patch I found on /jp/.

What the patch does is basically take the original Onikakushi-hen and change it to look more like the Higurashi Matsuri PS2 port by incorporating the character sprites, CGs, music and voices from it.



One sight flaw to this patch is that it isn't compatible with the full game of Himatsubushi-hen I have installed on my PC. Which would normally result in you having to install the Onikakushi-hen DEMO to use it.

However, I discovered a little workaround so it'll work using my install of Himatsubushi-hen.

All I did was create a new folder in my higurashi4 folder. Copy the contents of the patch into it. And then copy over the arc.nsa, icon and default font files from the full game translation patch folder and that's it.

I can now run this patch as a standalone program without needing the actual DEMO itself.

Keiichi and Hayate get their fill of water related fun

I think you can safely say Higurashi is a new favourite of mine.

I just finished watching the rest of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai after I got through most of the episodes last night (I hope the upcoming anime for Umineko no Naku Koro ni can hold my attention like this did).

And with that series done, the next item on the list was the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei OVA.


The first of which features the misadventure of Keiichi and the magical swimming trunks he borrowed. I'd say this battle was lost to him the moment he forgot to bring his own!

There were further antics by the waterside this week as Hayate no Gotoku!! started the second series with a OVA filled with your usual displays of fan service.


This is one series I'm going to enjoy seeing again when it begins for real in April.

My broadband connection is still crying from streaming Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Can you remember me saying I've never watched any of the Higurashi anime?

Well that statement is no longer true as a few days ago I decided to watch the English dub of the first series on YouTube, and ended up finishing the entire thing in about three days.

Hell, I think I actually broke a new personal record with Higurashi by watching 15 episodes of it back-to-back in a single night (and then I got bonus points by having my mum there to see it all with me).

I credit this feat down to the appeal of the Sonozaki twins, as their story interested me (and my mum) the most while watching the anime. Although the prize for being the most creepy would still go to Rena (with Shion a close second) as I didn't get creeped out that much by Mion, Rika and Satoko.

To cut a long rant short, let's just say I liked the anime adaptation enough to download the other Higurashi series and OVAs.

Humans and Curses are fearful enemies in Higurashi

I marked the beginning, and this now marks the end of my playthrough of Onikakushi-hen.

This was my first proper look into Higurashi as I've never watched any of its anime adaptations. But I can say after playing this arc that Rena Ryuuguu is probably one of the most creepy characters I've ever come across.

Just seeing that glazed over look of her eyes coupled with the eerie music is enough send you shivers!


It all started so well with the hijinks of club meetings and penalty games. You couldn't imagine that everything would crumble so easily once the dark secrets of Hinamizawa begin to trickle out and cause a steady flow of suspicion and paranoia to build in Keiichi towards his friends.

The creepiness level to me was surprisingly higher here than it was in the first Episode of Umineko. God only knows what Watanagashi-hen will be like once I to get to play the translation patch for that arc.

And aside from all the creepy things, there were a lot of funny things to be found too. From the early parts of the main story to the mini-games and out-takes in the omake section, this VN is sure to have something that'll make you laugh.

Should we sing with Saya before crying over Higurashi?

Saya no Uta had a v1.0.0 patch released a few days ago which you can get from TLWiki.

I'd be more excited about this new patch if I hadn't already finished the VN when the last patch came out in early January.

However, that doesn't subtract from the awesomeness (and yes, I know I use that term a lot) of this little adventure in the disturbing world of Saya.


And while I'm on the subject of patches.

This'll also mark the start of me beginning the VN of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni with that Onikakushi-hen patch by Sonozaki Futago-tachi.

I thought it'd be a good idea to play Higurashi as it's made by the guys who created Umineko, and it'll also kill some time in my Episode 4 waiting game.