Happy Live Show-Up (Harashou) Review – Spoiler-free

Yes this is totally from the sequel. What can I say, good “???” art is hard to come by.

Next Generation – A New Era

I feel like I’ve been awfully doom and gloom about Harashou since I finished it back when it first released, so I want to set the record straight here – Harashou is an amazing game with high production values and very engaging routes, and is definitely worth your time.

The issue is that it just didn’t live up to FAVORITE’s illustrious legacy featuring the likes of Sakura Moyu, Iroseka, AstralAir and Hoshimemo. In particular, this came after the absolute banger that was Sakura Moyu, which set the bar way, way too high for anything following it. Nothing bar the still-elusive Sakura Moyu fandisc would have been able to match those lofty standards; I’d argue not even a fourth game from the milked Iroseka series would make it to the same heights.

Furthermore, to make matters even worse, Sakura Moyu and Iroseka writer Yukito left FAVORITE to work on LNs, so there was already that bit of doubt looming over the game from the get-go. The company on their part rebranded as FAVORITE Next Generation – likely to highlight the change in direction post-Yukito (i.e. post-ripping-your-heart-out-every-damn-game).

So there we have it. Next Generation. I’m personally partial to the old logo and presentation (more on this later), but it was one of the many signs that Harashou was going to inevitably struggle with existing players’ expectations.

Pre-Release Honeymoon

But it of course wasn’t all doom and gloom. In fact, I daresay everything went pretty damn smoothly. Let me explain.

So the first bits of news dropped and we got the vaulted seiyuu list. Of the many interesting choices, let me just point out the two that stood out far from the rest:

Sawada Natsu, playing big titty Russian Shinku.

And Kanako, playing “???” – reborn Kuro with black hair?!

^{take my fucking money you bastards}

An absolute masterstroke of a marketing choice to get them both – any doubts on the game can quickly be papered over with this news; I know I was already smashing in an order the moment I saw who was voicing “???”.

And then of course, the OP. FAVORITE is known for many a quirk, and one consistent theme they’ve had since the dawn of time has been releasing banger after banger vocal tracks and BGMs alike.

Now, I’m not saying that MAGICAL∞SHOWTIME!! is on the same level as say, the legendary OP2 輪廻 from Sakura Moyu. However, you’d be missing out heavily on a truly well-composed and creative song that quite literally belts out line after line, bar after bar referencing the characters and their growth in-game.

And that’s the thing that really hits it home – the characters grow so damn organically. Every character has a reason to be there, this is not some Sen no Kiseki where archetypes are thrown in for archetypes’ sake. Similarly to Sakura Moyu, each and every character has a role to play in this performance, again quite literally mirroring the events in the game.

It’s beautiful, it really is. You can tell how much heart was put into this by the staff.

Post-Release Honeymoon

And as the game game out, it really was amazing. Set in alternate universe Russia where magic is commonplace and used for entertainment for the masses as an art form, join our MC and a ragtag group of five other girls – including a budding magician, an accomplished violinist, a ballet dancer, a street performer and a drama club dropout – in their journey in developing their respective arts while growing closer as a group of truly irreplaceable friends. Part 2 of the common route even has them go on a literal railroad trip across Russia!

You want a good bildungsroman in the year of our lord and saviour Nikaidou Shinku 2023? This is it my friends, this is the evidence eroge isn’t dead.

…So.

…It’s a real fucking shame the true route wasn’t finished eh?

Story

Long story short, MC Akito is a retired professional magic performer, at the ripe old age of teenager. Having been pressured very harshly by his parents into the industry, he was considered a prodigy in the industry but due to this upbringing never loved magic as an art. He quit as soon as he found a way to become independent, and like a true rebellious teenager, proceeded to leave the world of magic forever.

However, one day this all changed when he cheers up a crying child with a spark of magic, and is seen by a bumbling girl named Sofia who stalks him until he agrees to be her sensei. Then, a series of events lead to them participating in an upcoming local talent competition with only a month or so to spare – time to gather a group of ragtag performers and put them together as a single show!

It’s absolutely brilliant in its execution. You can argue this has been done to death since the age of Little Busters, but this is well and truly how to go about making this kind of story work. Yes, every character fits some kind of popular trope(-ish; Pechka is…special) but the way they are presented allows the story to flow along their development.

Why is this important? Let me take a quick detour here – there are a lot of charage, moege, even plot-ge, that try a little too hard to throw a character in and a plot twist there and it all kind of upsets that little thing we like to call the suspension of disbelief. Mind you, I’m not saying Harashou is in any way realistic; it’s in Magical Russia for goodness’ sake, where America somehow isn’t meddling in Europe* and their Uncle Vlad seems more interested in arts and culture than our counterpart.

_{^{(or has it…? Harashou takes place in a post-war world, but what war this was, was never clarified…Maybe this is a Yoru no Kuni thing? Maybe this is one of the countless possible worlds from Iroseka? Maybe Yuuma just got bored and cooked up a story about magic when Shinku bugged him too much about writing diary entries?)}}

What I mean about suspension of disbelief is how likely we take plot or character developments in stride. Let me give you an example – remember Charlotte where nothing happened for 11 episodes and then suddenly we were treated to the insane world tour in episode 13? Or on the other extreme, for a more VNation-esque example, Dekinai Watashi ga Kurikaesu (aka Currykaesu) where MC armed with the power of time itself proceeds to be as helpful as a wet fart?

All extreme examples, but they illustrate my point perfectly – progression has to be paced properly and with believable reasons usually in order for us to remain immersed in a setting. The point I am trying to get to here is that if a girl literally drops out the sky into the MC’s arms with 100% affection on the meter without a good reason, there’s less of a reason to give a damn about their relationship. I firmly believe all the most vaulted “best waifu” girls in anime and eroge tend to have at least some kind of arc or plot-related reason where they end up choosing MC and vice versa. “Because You Are Yasasshi” is very much overdone and far too lazy in my opinion.

Take for example Nikaidou Shinku from Iroseka. Let’s not forget that before all the sweet-couple-SoL goodstuffs in the fandiscs, Shinku once started from a humble friend-mentor-emotional-anchor role that slowly evolved into the couple we love. Similarly, a more popular example from Steins;Gate featuring the Mad Scientist Guy and the walking 2ch tsundere.

It’s often the process, I feel, rather than the result of the relationship, that provides the lasting impression. Okay, maybe the kiss or confession scene too, but you get what I mean. And it’s not limited to just the romantic boy-meets-girl type of relationships too. Here in Harashou, the way six teenagers got to come together and put aside their differences to achieve a common goal is truly inspiring and beautiful.

Natural, is how I would describe the plot in general too. It’s just very smooth and feels good reading through the routes.

Except that one true route.

Characters

Right, before we get into that bit of mess, let’s talk about characters first. I feel the cast deserves a bit more expanding than what I can provide here, but let’s do a quick rundown:

^{Poor Akito doesn’t even get a proper standing sprite or a glimpse of his face (with eyes) in a CG. And I thought poor Taiga in Sakura Moyu suffered…}

Akito Yukihara (MC) – Yes, western format as we’re in Russia, not Yapon, as we’re reminded constantly in-game. He’s not quite the Kanouue Yuuma or Kanade Taiga type from previous FAVORITE games where they are effectively the driving force in both the plot and relationships (usually).

Instead, he takes a slightly laxer role as an overseer type, often being the sensible and calm one in the gaggle of teenage girls. That’s not to say he’s just some gacha or moege self-insert blank slate though – he has quite the number of skeletons in his closet, albeit not as much as the aforementioned predecessor MCs. These skeletons get poked at once in a while in common route, and in Sofia route just outright gets thrown out into the open to be dealt with. Very interesting stuff honestly once you realise that he is growing as much the girls are through their friendship, only he hides it much better as the snarky bastard he can be.

Karentia Berrybell – Or Kacha as she likes her friends to call her. Shinku with big tits is a bit misleading, especially since she’s nothing like Shinku, but 中の人 memes be like that.

Accomplished violinist ojou who faces pressure from her entourage to stop hanging round the commoner peasants. The route overall didn’t get too deep into it, or otherwise dig hard into the issue of classism, but I didn’t expect it to. Fun romcom with smart yet impulsive ojou is fun, especially one that doesn’t always OHOHOHOHOHOHO 24/7. Kacha is just very solid, no complaints at all.

Also, she drinks like a Russian. Like a real Russian, I mean. Absolute keeper.

Clarice Clawnya – White hair bait. Devout Christian, rising ballet star, and androphobe who slowly opens up to Akito once he stops being creepy by accident. She’s a good girl with a comfy route once she falls for him, but the real fun was during the warm-up-tsundere period where she was balancing the fear of men with winning the Akito Bowl. Also, an amazing arc with Ruu (see below) that really got my heartstrings. Bless Ruu.

Also, a pity they didn’t go into the religion bit more. I felt there could’ve been a bit considering Akito appears to be atheist, and one would wonder what the Orthodox Church’s stance is on magic. Ah well, that’s more a Yukito thing I suppose, using that as a plot twist to make us cry or something.

Roo Mao – Or Ruu I guess? I’m going with Ruu since I’m used to calling her that. In any case, the obligatory communist from down south. She’s brilliant honestly. I’m not usually into ditzy and/or low IQ characters but she’s just such a ray of light and a never-stopping ball of perpetual energy she won me over quickly into the common route. Her route is actually one of my personal favourites, as it really got into the idea that even a ditzy genius has worries and mental limits, and once someone or something pushes past that red line, things can get really nasty.

Not that anything nasty happens of course, this is Harashou, not Sakura Moyu!

Pechka Monica – Apparently Pechka means oven, according to this one Russian anon on VNDB. Well, she certainly got me heated up, this little spicy girl was my favourite up until “???”, and arguably has my favourite route from the base game. She’s got a whole bunch of issues that kind of snowball into a very brash personality, but boy is that heart full of gold.

I’m not even really into purple hair (see: fucking wormslut stealing Illya’s route) but she was my first pick the moment I discovered which decisions led to which routes. I won’t delve into it much, but you actually start helping to solve her personal issues in common route, so it felt so natural going into her route and then tackling the root of her worries head-on.

Also, her white hair cosplay. Uoooooh. White hair. Uoooooh.

Side Characters – We got best bro Jean and Yuriko-sensei as the main ones that show up, and both are brilliant. Worth noting as usual (post-Iroseka being cheap and telling us x chara spoke in narration that is) all side characters are voiced too. Unfortunately we don’t quite get the token loli this time. Maybe Pechka counts? Sorry Pechka.

Sofia Tulina – Big titty main heroine? Say it ain’t so FAVORITE! Alright, all foolishness aside, she’s a very interesting case study. This here is a girl who I believe would absolutely thrive if she wasn’t the main heroine. She’s a bubbling mess with a hidden weeaboo hardon for Japanese otaku media, while absolutely being able to hold her own when crunch time hits. Her resolve is so great her body practically wears out before her mental focus does, to the point it’s highlighted as a character fault.

You see, the problem here is that if she didn’t hold the grand/main/true route, she’d be absolutely fine. That kind of 10/10 side heroine you wouldn’t mind seeing a fandsic of with after story and H-scene and so on, but most definitely not the true route type.

This is simply because there isn’t enough in there to justify it.

A true route often is exactly what it says – the true route. As such, it must at the very least surpass the other routes in quality to truly deliver home that hammer blow of a finale. Of course, exceptions exist such as Sakura Moyu where every route could have qualified as a true route in another game, but even then the final route itself was so obviously superior. Even a game like Currykaesu had its moments in its true route where it far exceeded the quality of everything before it.

So what happens when the route is kind of just on par with the others? That’s when it’s really not quite a true route. That’s more like a Yuzusoft-type game where you just choose the girl you want and ignore the rest. Let’s ignore Luna-sama for now. Not saying these are inferior – simply that the game is played differently when there’s a true route locked behind the rest. Call it building expectation.

Again, that’s not to say Sofia route is bad. And in fact, to be truly pedantic, it’s not even technically the true route in the traditional sense as it’s not locked behind the other routes – just pick the right choices and you’re on the way into her route first thing after common route!

But it was clearly set up to be one – it’s a whole chunk longer than the others, involves the much-hyped “???” at long last, and properly addresses the whole core narrative involving Sofia and MC’s relationship with magic.

So if we put that aside and assume there is no true route, does that solve the issue?

Not really no. Then the story still lacks closure.

Because…

The Missing Route

Because this.

??? route. My favourite girl. Take a guess how long her route is.

2 hours. It took me 2 hours to finish.

2.5 if you count the time I went back to her H-scene to fapfapfap.

It’s borderline criminal to do this. You can’t blueball like this; this is the eroge equivalent of the “彼らの戦いはこれからだ” bullshit. This is why I consider Sofia the true route – this wasn’t a route, this was a goddamn omake scene holy shit.

Fast forward to 2023 when they announce the fandisc complete with ??? route. Suddenly everything is saved, praise be to FAVORITE. Never doubted you guys even a second, nope.

Now give me Sakura Moyu fandisc please?

Art

If you love FAVORITE’s art style, you’ll love what you find here. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t. It’s the usual oversaturised, colourful, very loli-esque art. Which I happen to love, so you won’t find me being objective here.

Clarice has my favourite design by virtue of long white hair with ponytail, but ??? follows straight behind her with that traditional long black yamato nadeshiko classic. Double points for kimono in a foreign country. Quadruple for how they tied it to plot reasons.

MC Akito is fine, but you’re not gonna get some Daijuji Kurou or Minato Kageaki creative design for MCs from FAVORITE. For all I can tell, Akito is just Yuuma who dyed his hair and eyes and went to Russia after Shinku told him no more ecchi scenes.

Backgrounds are definitely a step back from the abstract beauties and beautiful moving magical scenes that were Sakura Moyu, but for gods’ sake if we were to use Sakura Moyu as the measuring bar, only Mahoyo really brings a fight to the table.

As for the H…Vanilla doesn’t get much better than FAVORITE, though often I find myself crying too much to even be up to fap. I am not kidding that to this date I have fapped exactly once to Shinku, during the happy hours in Irohika before Yukito turned up with The Plot(tm). Harashou has no such problems however so the H comes nice and easy. My favourite were the ??? and Clarice scenes because hair colour fetish but you can consider every scene here has my seal of approval. Overall very high quality + extra points for Ruu somehow making MC develop a piss fetish. Sasuga Ruu.

System

Not normally something I’d dwell on very much, but given FAVORITE has gone from their patented FVP (Favorite View Point) GUI to a more generic style, I figured I’d mention it. I really, really loved the visual presentation in the older games, especially the fadeout screen upon exiting the game. You know, that one:

All a bit unfortunate, especially given I have a bit of an issue going true full screen on Harashou (likely a personal issue tbf), and misses some of that little extra special fairy-tale feel FAVORITE used to have on their UI. Again, small nitpicks so don’t worry about it running like some abomination from Astronauts or something – not a single crash or system problem on my end.

The Shinobu Section

Music, in classic Shinobu fashion. There is a very good reason why Shinobu is FAVORITE’s go-to composer for all games since the dawn of time – this guy is fucking amazing. I rated him at Maeda-tier after Sakura Moyu, and now that I’ve experienced Iroseka and Harashou, he’s in that god-tier Tenmon bracket for me. Man can do no wrong.

From the OP being the most creative piece I’ve heard for a while, to the character themes that really hit so, so well, to the Russian-inspired-and-also-plagiarised remixed tracks, as usual he fails to disappoint me.

^{“Your smile is shine” Don’t think for a second I missed that one FAVORITE!! Sakura Moyu fandisc when????}

Again, it’s not quite Sakura Moyu with its jam-packed 70+ tracks and quintuple bangers (reminder OP2 kicked one of KeroMakura’s tracks out the top 4 in the best eroge music of all time poll in 2022). But again, that’s too high a bar. All I ask for is a soundtrack that fits the game and can be something I can visit once in a while. And Shinobu easily exceeds that here as usual. My personal favourite is probably the one that plays when they’re on the train to not!Moscow, マーブル鉄道の旅路.

I’m…perhaps controversially not a fan of OP2. Have a listen if you’re curious, but I personally find it a bit off. I’m not exactly an accomplished music professional so I can’t tell you what exactly is off, but something feels very weird. I dunno, could just be me.

^{Bonus 55 mins of remixed Harashou BGM in piano. The soundtrack I think got taken down from Youtube, RIP. Feel free to put this on while sleeping or just chilling. Man, I wanna be in Magical Russia.}

Regardless, OP1 hard carries all the way.

ベルが鳴るよ　

手と手を取り合って

さあ輝くステージへ~~~

In Summary

9/10 is a fair score from me but don’t be fooled by how it’s not in the vaulted 9.5++ that I tend to put kamige in. It could have easily reached those lofty heights; it’s FAVORITE after all.

But they uh. Didn’t finish it.

Until now.

Play it. Play it. Buy it if you can to support a dying industry. More importantly, play it. Hell, the sequel’s coming out with the true route, there’s no reason not to now. If the fandisc ends up being bad then you can come after my head. But before that, if you have the money to splash on gacha, V-Tubers and OnlyFans, I implore you to go throw your cash here instead.

This here is a performance you cannot afford to miss out on, from Russia with love.