It's Called "Close as Neighbors" Because Nobody Locks The Damn Door

TIL the pornhwa, "Close as Neighbors" was actually good. While I enjoyed what I read while was ongoing, I dropped it for a while to let more story accumulate for my next reading session. Turns out it wrapped recently, so I binged it from the middle (which was actually very impressive) all the way to the end.

There's a lot of ads for it, much like "Brawling Go", He Does a Body Good", or "My Stepmom", so it's easy to dismiss as just another pornhwa. Surprisingly, that's not the case; while it's not "4-Cut Hero" or "G'Day", it's got rather capable storytelling. There's no silly plots like magic dongs, or becoming somebody's stepmom just to get back at their family.

It's that rare balance of story and smut, my favorite genre.

A brief synopsis: What begins as a series of extremely goofy misunderstandings balloons into a love septagram as Theo and his neighbors discover love and work through old traumas together.

Yes, you read that last bit right. There's actually more going on in this story just than cuties getting the D. Normally, "adult" fiction places an overemphasis on carnal activity or sombering themes, just because they can. "Close as Neighbors" comes off as more sophmoric and organic, more so than the usual for this genre. A lot of the characters deal with internal conflicts that come from very real, very relatable places. It ultimately makes for a better read, as a good chunk of the cast actually come off as rather grounded, though things tend to progress faster than usual in certain regards, but that's par course for any ero-story.

Funnily enough, it even outdoes the mainstream series "Gamers!", another rom-com about misunderstandings, only "Neighbors" has actual character development and backstories.

I honestly didn't expect to enjoy this read as much as I did, and though it was short, it felt just right. I haven't enjoyed a pornhwa like this since "Secret X-Folder", which is another excellent example of writing and art, and even boasts amazing page composition for a webtoon.

I wonder if Michiking is a Fire Emblem fan...

In "Ane Taiken Ganbou" our luscious older sister of the day fantasizes about her sister

being a brother.

Now, is it just me or do the Kanas look a lot like the Morgans from Awakening? Hell, "Kana" is the name of your potential child in Fates too. Female Kana's even holding a 3DS. Coincidence?

... If Michiking ever did a Camilla doujin I'd be a goner. (He's probably too busy with 2hu to do that though.)

Nako no Rakuen is ending soon...

I literally stopped reading Mujaki no Rakuen for so long that Nako grew up and became even cuter?!

Seriously, what the hell?! How does she get even cuter?! (Oh, and plot stuff. Yeah. Whatever.)

NekoPara is the cat's meow

It might seem like I'm hella late to the party, but in truth I'm just a lazy broad who doesn't like writing when she doesn't have to. (Hell, I don't like doing anything when I don't have to. Umaru is my spirit animal.) NekoPara is totally worth writing about though, and I cannot express enough how much I adore Sayori's little cat crew. I totally caved and bought physical copies for both games when I got the chance. I missed out on the vol. 1 LE due to IRL shenanigans, but at least I got vol. 0 and its artbook.

Actually, I've known about Sayori for quite some time. So when I heard she made a game I got an instant tingly sensation in my naughty bits.

I mean, her regular artwork was already really, really, nice to look at.

Seriously. Sayori's girls look so soft and squishy and adorbs that I think I'd contract diabetes from a single cuddle session. (Kiririn touch mode is GO!)

She also makes THE cutest outfits for her illustrations. For years, Chocola and Vanilla have rocked some pretty stylin' threads that look fabulous both on AND off. Sometimes their outfits are so good you totally forget there's a tit or two hanging around out in the open. Hell, Sayori could drape the two in just ribbons and they'd still look well dressed.

Clothes on, clothes off, it's always win-win when it comes to Sayori.

But enough gushing about the artist, let's get to talking about the games! NekoPara vol. 1 and 0 are rather linear eroge. But what sets them apart is that they're not just nukige with ridiculously nice art, they utilize what's known as the e-mote system to make the character portraits move and jiggle in realtime. (And if that's not enough, you can make them jiggle on command by pressing P to bounce. It's cathartic.) It looks REALLY nice, much nicer than just having a static portrait with a moving mouthflap. If you've seen some of the nicer ero animations done in After Effects, it kind of looks like that. It's a REALLY nice touch that I'd like to see more projects utilize because it looks really, REALLY nice in the visual novel format. Really!

Fun fact: Dengeki Flat Climax also uses a similar presentational style, and it looks REALLY nice with most characters, especially Kirino and Shana. Shana's animations look gorgeous.)

Story-wise, the games are extremely linear:

In vol. 1 you're not even given an option to ejaculate in or out or around like most nukige offer, but it doesn't matter. The story's mostly cute and fluffy, but it totally works here since it's written as more of a romantic comedy than a straight nukige. Really, you could enjoy the story even without the H scenes. The characters interact well enough with each other that it helps carry the plot through to the ending without the reader getting too bored.

It's a bit hard to judge the plot since it's clearly meant to serve as the introduction to a series, and it establishes a lot of likeable characters, but it's not all that long nor complex. At the same time, it's because the cast is rather likeable that it's a bummer that the game ends so soon. For what it's worth, it IS written rather well: The plot's paced reasonably well. You will also contract the diabetus while reading, and that is definitely the sign of a solid writing job. In this genre, you sometimes take for granted how important it is that a decent story is established, since a good setting and use of language can be just as hot as bare naked pussies.

Ha.

Now, while vol. 1 was a pretty solid product, vol. 0 manages to be just as good, if not slightly better:

In vol. 0, the focus rewinds to what life at the Minazuki household was like shortly before Kashou leaves to start up the bakery. This includes a better glimpse into the characters of the other 4 catgirls that hang around with Shigure. NekoPara is written rather well, relying on solid (yet simple) characterization to help establish relationships between each character, and using these relationships to help tell a story. In granting the other 5 characters more screen time, there's a lot more variety that goes into each scene without the plot becoming too eclectic. Each character also has their charms, so it's always fun watching them all interact with each other.

 

This had me dying.

Above, I mentioned how vol. 1 had good enough writing that the plot could be carried out and still enjoyable even without the sex scenes. (Kind of like "mezzo forte".) In vol. 0, we get a chance to see just how strong this writing is because there aren't any sex scenes to distract from the story. And sure enough, this game is just as enjoyable as the first. (Instead of being cute and sexy, the game is now 95% cute with 5% sexy, and it makes the risk of contracting diabetus even greater. This is not a bad thing.)

What also makes the game great is that the animations in the e-mote system have been improved a little since vol. 1. The characters are little more expressive now beyond just moving around the screen. (This is noticeable the second you watch the scene where Shigure wakes up the twins.) My only major gripe with this game's graphics is that the game now has an exit icon fixed at the top-right corner which is kinda distracting. Sayori's great artwork is still in full force here, although there's far more SD pieces than full illustrations this time around. (Not like it's a bad thing though. It all still looks great.)

Personally speaking, if you were a little weirded out by the spontaneous sexytimes of vol. 1, you might appreciate vol. 0 a little more since it's slightly more tame. While Chocola and Vanilla don't come on too strong in vol. 1, vol.0 is more of an ecchi comedy than an outright nukige. I mean, the kitty titties are still there, but that's all you're getting this time around.

Another thing that's enjoyable of vol. 0: You get to see more of the other four catgirls. There's nothing wrong with the twins, but the other four also have distinct personalities that are really fun to watch. I know I mentioned this previously, but it's worth repeating. For years, I really liked Chocola, but vol. 1 made me appreciate Vanilla more due to her wit, and vol. 0 bumped Coconut from Chocola-tier to top-tier-neko-waifu because of how awesome she is. (She has a great physique, she has a great personality, her heterochromia is cute like Sega Saturn's, her everything is overall cute, and she looks so adorably cuddly and soft and boingy and ugggggggggggh I need to lay down.)

Also, I got to see my top-tier-neko-waifu nekkid, so super bonus points there.

Overall, it's not hard to see what the buzz is about with these two games. And being a Sayori fan, I'm happy to see her catgirls come to life in this wonderful manner. It's a nice feeling when someone you like finds success. (Like when she got married. I was totally surprised to find Sayori got married!)

That said, if you haven't played these games yet, or don't even know who Sayori is, what are you waiting for? Go lose yourself in some marvelous pussies.

 

... Coconut is love. Coconut is life. I don't care that I'm a girl. I want a Coconut to call my own. So. Bad.

Things that are good in life

Napata and Hisasi in non-moonrune! Life is good, huehuehue.

 

... brb I need to give myself an insulin shot.

Thoughts on: Realtime 3D Pussy

First and foremost, this has absolutely nothing to do with IRL pussies. (Since when does this blog ever have anything to do with IRL pussies?)

This is a game about picking up a pussy off the street:

... no, it's not like that.

Basically, you're disgruntled salaryman who finds a cat on the side of the street on a rainy day.

Suddenly, a pretty girl shows up at your door, ready to show you her own cat.

... what do you mean it doesn't make sense? Nukige typically don't make sense!

While the plot may seem a bit contrived, and the interface a tad clunky, the game makes up for both with extremely pretty graphics (at least, for the girl).

Naturally, the in-game story is extremely short, as per most nukige. Most of your fun time will come from the sex scenes, which are done pretty well.

They're not DokiDoki Little Landlady (pictured above) quality, but they still get the job done. My personal gripe is that parts of the male's character model tend to bleed together, which looks kind of tacky; and the overlap makes the model more opaque, making it slightly harder to see the female model (which kind of beats the point of being transparent). Also, the "pushed-up" version of the bra looks iffy, especially when you have it pushed up along with her shirt. It kind of just... floats there above her breasts, which is totally not normal. (I would know.)  What makes this bit worse, is that there's an option to have her panties bunched around one leg, and for her top to be pushed up. Both of these look mostly natural, so why couldn't the artist do a proper bra?? Lastly, the game won't render certain parts of the character models if there's something in the way. While it's interesting to use this feature for better angles, or some POV sexytime action, if you try to put the camera near the wall with the window, the models will up and vanish. I mean, you can't even look at the characters through the window! (Sorry all you voyeurs out there.)

Other than that though, the game really does look nice. Especially when it comes to the actual insertion of the cock into her pussy. It looks rather well done, and if you zoom in enough, you'll notice that the girl actually has a partially rendered vaginal wall as part of her model.

It's not 100% accurate, and it doesn't properly expand or contract. You can actually see the penis enter her vagina, and watch as the penis model completely bleeds through her non-expanding vaginal wall.

If you're fast enough, can also see the cum enter her body, but it doesn't look all that great. (No screencap this time around, it's just not worth it. Sorry.)

One feature I like is that both the female and the male have visible levels of arousal, and they can climax independently. (Yes, real boys and girls don't always come at the same time IRL.) It makes it feel a little more natural, and watching her twitch in ecstasy is kinda hot. There's no option for them to come simultaneously, but the animation for either climax is still pretty hot, so no sleep lost.

Another interesting tidbit is that this game actually uses Acme Iku for the erotic voice samples. That's pretty cool too. I guess.

However, all good things must eventually come to an end. The male is alotted a limited amount of times he can come. Once this climactic counter reaches 0, sexytime is over.

BUT.

If you keep pleasuring the girl until she climaxes, it's possible to raise your max climaxes for even longer sexytime. That's a pretty neat feature too.

Overall, it's a very interesting game. Definitely worth checking out, as it's one of the better animated games out there, aesthetically speaking. (And it's not based on 3D Custom Shoujo for once, so that's another huge plus.)

Furthermore, a cool dude at HongFire has set up a wicked patch that uncensors the naughty bits, and offers partial translation for the in-game hints. The patch also allows for editing the in-game text and icons for translation or customization purposes.

... in fact, I took a crack at translating the in-game text too. Well, primarily the story. fenris666 did the majority of the in-game hints, though I went over the list as well and did some cleanup/formatting. You can get the modified file at this post, also conveniently located at HongFire.

... the protagnist's bitching in this game really reminds me of Tohru Adachi from Persona 4...

... and once that thought crossed my mind, it was hard to not read the monologue with his voice in mind...

Thoughts on: Dual Phase - The Asou Twins

Just finished playing kaeri no kai 2's Mai no Tsubomi. Enjoyed the hell out of it (despite the length). I'll get around to writing about it at a later time.

Right now, I'd like to talk about "Dual Phase - The Asou Twins". This game is a reminder of why I need to seriously check to see what a game is about before actually playing it. I remember just seeing a batch of thumbs, and DL'd it thinking, "Cute pink-haired twins? Righteous!"

Couldn't have been more wrong. The fucked up part is that I already knew what direction the game was going to go the minute I read the monologues that came up before the "To Be Continued" mark. I really hate being right...

Then again, my dumb ass really should've Alt+F4'd the hell out of there the minute they did the fisting scene. (Again, another flag went up before the scene came up and again I didn't listen.)

I think playing the cutesy Naisho no Natsuyasumi (a much earlier kaeri no kai 2 title) added a painful whiplash effect.

... so if there's anyone else out there who's interested in the game but not into weird n' kinky stuff, "Dual Phase - The Asou Twins" isn't just loli twincest. It's also got some fucked-in-the-head yandere story with a nice side of weird n' kinky. ("Awesome art + Fucked Writing = Increased Grossout Factor"-count: +1)

I mean, at least we could laugh about School Days. Unnatural blood geysers straight out of Hokuto no Ken can be funny. A creepy loli twin stabbing the other in the neck during sex WITH VOICEOVERS? Not for this girl's stomach...

Yeah, I still feel icky.