Hello & welcome to Zettai Renai. This blog was started back in 2015 for me to write down my ramblings about otome games and drama CDs, however, I started to expand into other kinds of visual novels (mainly galge).
I first got into anime back in 2007 and then discovered visual novels in 2009, thanks to a certain catchy op song. My first vn was the all ages version of Kanon & my first otome game was the anniversary remake of Heart no Kuni no Alice (the PC game, not one of the subsequent console ports). I still regularly play both galge and otome games.
My criteria for purchasing a game normally comes down to the character designs, art, voice actors and opening movie (very picky with the op actually – if I hate the movie and song then I won’t buy the game). I’m not normally that fussed about the story as I’ve been disappointed so many times before orz . I also buy games if there’s a cutesy-type character, bonus points if there’s more than one.
The purpose of this blog is to provide reviews/impressions of visual novels/ADVs. I personally prefer playing games in Japanese so don’t buy English translations. My current posting schedule is one new post on Fridays, although I may also post extra things occasionally.
Just a small warning, whilst I am generally fairly lenient when I review things I enjoy, I can be a little overly picky if I don’t like something so please take all of my reviews with a pinch of salt – my reviews are subjective after all!
My other main hobby is suffering in Idol hell – I’m particularly into Marginal#4/Pythagoras Productions and Ensemble Stars (mainly a SwitchP). I only play Enstars Basic because my joints can’t handle playing events in rhythm games.
I’m not active on social media so if you’d like to contact me leaving a comment on the blog is probably the best method.
Thanks for taking the time to visit Zettai Renai!
Zettai Renai! 
Gurl we both fell into drama cd hell. It’s nice to meet you and I hope we can become good friends ^^
How long did you study Japanese for before you played a game completely through (or mostly) and understood almost/all of it? I understand this is a pretty broad question but I sincerely appreciate any advice you have.
LikeLike
Drama CD hell is too much fun though hehe☆
It’s nice to meet you too! I love your blog ( ^ω^ )
Well I’m probably a terrible person to ask because I played my first game after studying for like 6 months haha and it was so hard. But then I played the starry sky games a few months afterwords and understood everything with no problems. They are legit the best games for beginners. Even though I’m still learning now on and off (mostly studying new words I find in otome games), I found that I was okay with most games after like 2 years. I’m totally self-taught though but I would’ve loved to be taught properly haha
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha awwww thank you, Amy! ^^ I’m glad it’s not too embarrassing to look at lol.
I love your design choice. It’s so easy to navigate.
And nice! I’ve been considering those games for a while but I was worried it would be too difficult for myself.
I managed to play Soukai Buccaneers! by myself so I guess I have a chance. And whoa really? I’m doing the same thing! I am taking classes now but I used to just learn on my own.
That’s really neat to see you were able to get through that so quickly. It gives me hope rofl.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Apologies for the late reply, I totally forget about my blog sometimes ;;;;
Ah thank you kindly, I’d like to change some parts but I’m too cheap to pay for premium (maybe someday lol).
Oooh Soukai Buccaneers! looks good, I think I bought it ages ago because some of the characters look cute but I haven’t played it. Its language looks like its probably “standard” for otome games so if you managed it then you’ll probably be fine with most other games 😀 It can be a pain to learn the “terminology” of each game though ^_^;
I’ve heard that the hardest otome game (language wise) is “Ken ga Kimi” because it uses a lot of old fashioned words or something?
Haha, yes have hope! It’s great that you have classes though (so jealous!)
LikeLike
Hello,
I am a Phd researcher at Concordia University’s Communications program, and I am writing for the possibility of interviewing you about your blog.
My research focuses specifically on otome games and fan communities’ role in creating markets for otome games outside of Japan. For some time now, I’ve been looking at your posts on otome games (I play otome games myself and occasionally write about them too when time permits.), and I would really appreciate your take on otome games, the otome game market, and the role that fans have in shaping both of them.
Questions in the interview would include, questions about your favorite games, how you find them and what you think about your own blog, in building the fan community. I can send you a copy of the questions in advance if you wish.
The interview could be done either on Skype or email. Details would be confidential if you wish it to be. I give my interviewees the choice of identifying them and their work in my research. Should you want to remain anonymous, any information you give will be disassociated from you should the study be published.
If you are willing to be interviewed or should you have questions about my research, please do let me know how to contact you so I can give you more details. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon!
Best regards,
Sarah Christina Ganzon
LikeLike
Hello, apologies for the late reply!
I’m pretty honoured that you would reach out to my little blog and whole-heartedly wish you the best of luck with your PHD – it definitely sounds like a fascinating subject! However, I’m probably not the best person to ask about things such as the fan community as I don’t really bother with social media and have little to no interaction with the otome fanbase outside of this blog…
That being said, I would probably be able to answer the rest of the questions but the interview would have to be via email if that’s okay? (I don’t think I even have a skype account.)
Kind Regards,
Amy
LikeLike
Omg I think we are made for each other! ♥ “True to my heart” was my first encounter with visual novel as well, that song is so catchy!
LikeLike
Your blog really inspires me to study Japanese again :’) I’m currently starting from the very beginning (after dropping it a few years ago) and it’s honestly sometimes a struggle to push myself to study;; any recommendations on what to do with this procrastination? haha
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh, I wish you the best of luck with your studies! 🙂
I’m definitely a big advocate for immersion as study so, for example, if you don’t feel like reading a textbook that day then maybe read some manga or something instead – at the start definitely pick something with furigana so you can easily look up words you’re unfamiliar with ( I like using the online dictionary “Jisho”). I definitely think that by seeing kanji in context helps you remember their common meanings and reading/hearing words definitely helps with recollection.
TLDR, don’t push yourself to study since you’ll get bored easier & don’t be afraid of playing simple games, etc once you get the basics down since coming across words you don’t know & looking them up is a way of learning while still having fun 😀
LikeLike
How do you make a blog? I always wanted to make one
LikeLiked by 1 person
I mean I’m not an expert but it was actually relatively simple – just sign up for a wordpress account and they pretty much take you step-by-step through creating a site. There’s lots of premade bases that you can customise so writing content is the only really challenging thing.
It’s a really fun thing so I’d definitely recommend & wish you the best of luck with your future blog ^-^
LikeLike
Hi! I saw your blog entry about buying stuff directly from Japan and I saw that you mentioned Animate. I pre-ordered something from Animate and the payment method I used was Paypal. They haven’t charged or asked me to login my Paypal account yet though. I would like to ask if you know if they accept non-JP Paypal account as Payment method? Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello, I must admit that I normally pay for things on animate by card so I’m probably not the most helpful. I do know that they never charge you in advance for pre-orders & considering they’re happy accepting foreign credit cards it would be weird if they had some restriction on PayPal accounts.
Judging by the FAQs on animate it looks like they’ll send you some sort of email invoice when they need payment & you’ll have 5 days to pay up. If it’s like other sites I’ve bought from they’ll normally just sent you a link you need to click that’ll send you to PayPal.
Sorry I can’t speak much of personal experience but I hope this helps!
LikeLike
Hello there! I just saw your blog about how you order items from Japanese online shopping sites with the use of forwarding/proxy services, and well if it’s alright with you, I’d actually like to ask help in regards to creating an account on Stellaworth. I’ve been trying to click the “New Member Registration” button for multiple times now, hoping it would lead me to the page where I can fill in my details and finally create an account for myself, but it apparently does not lead me to it at all. 😦
I even tried clicking the “Login” button (which successfully led me to their login page), and clicked the “Tap here to signup” button, but when I do, the page then turns gray and states “www.stellaworth.co.jp refused to connect”…TvT Do you know any reason as to why it’s like this? Or am I the only one experiencing this issue? :’) I’ve tried other devices but apparently, it gives me the same result..
Sorry to probably be bothering you with this personal issue of mine, but thank you so much for considering! I’d really appreciate your reply!
LikeLike
Hello, so sorry for the late reply.
I must say that’s a pretty odd problem to have, I just checked the new account registration myself and it loaded fine. I don’t believe stellaworth have a region block on IPs outside Japan so that also wouldn’t explain it.
The only thing I could think of is if the site itself was undergoing maintenance or something. Have you tried to sign up on multiple days?
Sorry I can’t be of much help!
LikeLike
Hello Amy! Thanks for replying! Sorry for worrying you about this, but I finally realized what the problem was. 😅 Apparently, it was because I clicked the “Google Translate assistant” link of the site rather than the original link itself which is probably why it didn’t allow me to access the sign up page. I’m sorry to have bothered you with this issue but I’m really thankful for your response and willingness to help! I’m glad everything went well in the end though, and that we’re now aware of what could possibly cause this to happen. >< Thank you again and have a wonderful day!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No worries, I’m just glad that you managed to get it to work, what a weird bug!
LikeLike
Thank you very much for all your hard work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aww thank you so much! c:
LikeLike