They say that a sorcerer from a distant land once lived in Fukano a long time ago. Of course, most people don’t believe that. However, travelers can tell that this place isn’t typical city. The ground beneath my feet is ebbing with spiritual power. Proof of the ties between humans and those who are not. Fukano is a town shrouded in trees and surrounded by mountains bursting with energy of an otherworldly nature.
I feel like this gets repeated at least six times through Tamayura Mirai to the point that I started looking at it as a meme like how the color red is used in Comyu. I finished this today and its actually pretty decent when you consider that it was like 15 dollars during opening sale and you can do a lot worse. But that’s basically what it is, there’s nothing that hasn’t been done before but it’s still a fun ride for the most part. The succubus route is kind of like some other ones that I’ve read but actually weaker. I feel like it could’ve gone longer or have some interesting turns with some of the extra cast but there’s not much, but I’ll get to that in the spoilers. The tsundere one works the trope like all the others, though it’s also the only one that actually continues the plot out of the three initial routes.
And then there’s Hanako, honestly I think this is the second title that I bought solely because there’s a character design that I like. And just seeing the banner, it’s probably obvious which one Hanako is. Her route was also just there but sometimes that’s fine. There’s vns specifically just trying to sell you a character and I wouldn’t mind more tomboys and snarky assholes with short hair. Honestly I wouldn’t even be mad if it was just Hanako for this price, sure you lose a decent overall plot and I’d have a lower rating of it but I’d still be content on what I got.
The funny thing is that the common route is the best thing going for it. Nothing is really original but the chemistry between the supporting characters is at least fun. So for an example, one route has a small section with two iron pots trying to console each other and trying to find a compromise on their situation and that became my favorite part of that route outside of like 1 minute by the end. These are rando characters that only get introduced at the beginning of the route.
The plot is that main character is a sorcerer but really his role is more akin to peacekeeping. It’s just that the only one up for the job are basically people that see and hear spirits. And at that point, you’re probably going into the sorcerer role. So the plot is generally just the guy trying to keep things in balance and not have everything blow up in the town. I think I said it before, but these are the best parts of the vn. It’s nothing new but it’s enjoyable and I’m much more a fan of those sections than the romance sections. Sure there’s parts where it can shine but overall it was kind of barebones.
I think I breezed through the common route in like a day and was then hardstuck in a specific h scene for 3 days because I kept getting bored and went back into monster hunter. Hell, sometimes I just went back to finishing up some work. Without the hscenes, I might’ve been able to finish it all around 15 hours, but I somehow also finished Clannad in like 55 hours so maybe it’s more like 20~25.
So overall, two routes handle plot, two are selling points. But the gist is that each route could’ve branched more and had chances to do so but just didn’t. Each character has 5 h scenes and it’s actually way too much in some cases. Some are the length of two other scenes too, and that’s relative to the length of these scenes to the point that you can say they’re three times longer than a normal hscene from a different vn. I wouldn’t say it’s bad as Primal Heart because at least they gave plot and/or sol a lot more screentime. The more egregious ones are the 3rd of Midari(the succubus route) and Shiro who they chucked all 5 scenes into her route and actively hurt the flow of the plot. And that’s kind of funny considering they only put three in Yukina’s route and set the other two into the extras menu. And that should’ve been the case with Shiro, though the vn would’ve flowed better if they all just had like 2~3 scenes.
Overall
Overall, I liked Hanako. The part right before you hit a route is a good enough hook to keep you going to the end. The finale was decent, it’s been done better and I think a good part of it was I was already fatigued from the hscene spam in that route. There’s parts where they info dump you and it’s possible to get somethings confused during that section considering they reveal everything in like two scenes instead of it going in a more natural pace. I’m giving it around a low 7 but I felt it closer to a 6.
Spoilers
The spoilers are mainly for small sections of a few routes and the info dump that kind of confused me for a minute and I had to go back to their previous conversations.
So Midari had a lot of comedic opportunity but they didn’t really go for it. And that’s kind of fine, I’ve already seen that in other vns but the issue is more that nothing was given in return. So you’re just left with a netloss. Basically she had this whole family that could’ve been incorporated in the epilogue but nothing was ever done with it. The biggest point would’ve been the father where I was assuming that might’ve been the first sorcerer but that didn’t end up being the case.
There was nothing really wrong with Hanako’s route. The only thing I might’ve liked is if they gave more sections around the Guardian and I think the bird’s name was Rin. Either way, it’s not necessary but that section in the common route was the closest to Hanako and just having one scene by the end would’ve been nice. They also could’ve incorporated the Kappas a little bit but that was almost nonexistent as well.
There’s nothing wrong with Yukina’s route, it has the least hscenes and the plot flows well. It info dumps enough for her specific route and foreshadows a few things that are needed to follow along the final route. I guess a weird thing is there was a decent amount of talk in common about getting her a wand. But from I can tell, you don’t really need a wand and they don’t explain it outside of that it makes it easier. The MC generally uses whatever branches he can get which was normally like 100 year old ones but did just use himself one time. And it came to the point where it’s like: does it just use more mp, is it just harder to control, does it negatively affect your body? What’s the end goal after taking off the training wheels. Sure, I think they just wrote around it because all they really wanted was to show was that super tree that Yukina got the branch from. Where the tree was wrapping around the other and coexisting and basically just there to symbolize the relationship between Yukina and her friend, alongside mirroring that relationship with a few other batch of characters. So I guess the better outcome would’ve been to say that the branches are for upcoming sorcerers and the protag just didn’t need any.
The worst part was the passage of time. So it ends up being that there was actually three sorcerers. Just that he reincarnated himself with the help of his little devil friend Pheles. Just so he could finish his research to get Shiro back to the living without messing up her soul. And that was mainly due to him getting cancer in his previous life. But in the middle of Yukina’s route, Pheles mentions that she’ll get his soul soon enough or that time is near and he knows it. So for a couple of minutes, it sounded like he has cancer again or that his reincarnated self has a limited amount of time compared to normal. Which would be kind of fucked up for Hanako and Midari’s routes. But that’s not the case and I guess the point was that Pheles and the MC knows that getting the Otsuki or whatever it was called is basically the end of the line.
The idea of Midari’s dad being the first sorcerer is also dead because apparently the protag’s soul ends up being the first sorcerer’s. This also leads to a few leading questions like if the Guardian and Hanako know the MC’s circumstances and it seems like no but could connect the dots if they cared.
One last thing but isn’t really important for the rest of the plot. But the families are kind of pieces of shit and I assume it was just kind of written weirdly. So there’s this character Kouthat takes care of the town’s kids as like a daycare. She gets sick and gets sent to the hospital, the kids are sad but some dilemma happens and the protag has to go out but keeps Yukina there to take care of those kids. But the question is where are all those parents, it was already evening. There was a few times where they were still there during the night too. I assume some of them are orphans but they mentioned that’s not all of them. Really it’s just a plot device to keep Yukina away from helping plot development.
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