Please be advised that this review is intended to be read by those that have finished watching 16 Bit Sensation and while care has been taken to minimize story related spoilers there may still be present within character analysis. You have been warned.
Based upon a popular manga of the same name 16 Bit Sensation Another Layer is a comedy and supernatural genre anime that gives us the unique opportunity to see what will happen if one day a young girl long devoted to pursuing her interest in playing ancient Bishoujo games and designing and creating characters for said games was to be given a unique opportunity. An opportunity of a lifetime one could say for which she would be able to go back to the heydays of her treasured Bishoujo games in a Japan of the past and see with her own eyes how they were created from the very beginning.
Just what would happen if our heroine were to take this opportunity and go back to a time where all she loved and admired about her games were still alive and kicking and start making her mark on history?
But as they say the more ripples you create the bigger the potential storm. Just how big of a storm would this indulgence of hers cost her in the world around her?
Taking its name from the 16-bit integers and memory addresses that formed the core of the much-vaunted PC-98 desktop computer to which our dear Mamoru was so in love with 16-bit sensation is a most unusual anime, to say the least. media, the series overall premise of a young adult being granted the chance to hop through time is not by itself an unusual one given its popularity within popular media what made it stand out in my eyes was its fusion with the dream of going back to the heyday of Bishoujo games and being able to see how artists, scriptwriters and programmers worked as they created the games that would to a generation of people provide the best entertainment and immersion that they had experienced to that point.
As both a gamer who has an interest in how VN’s are created as well as being an avid fan of the visual novels that the Bishoujo genre of games symbolized this series was one that I felt resonated with me and was an easy pick to watch this season. And oh boy this one proved to be quite the ride.
Konoha Akisato
Konoha Akisato is one of the main characters of the series and serves as the series’ main protagonist. A 19-year-old rookie illustrator who works for the Blue Bell game company in modern-day Japan Konoha from her initial appearances was shown to be a positive, cheerful, and spirited young woman who while young and relatively junior within her role was nonetheless a determined person and passionate about creating characters for games. However, despite possessing excellent skill at creating characters for the games that she is passionate about it can be seen that Konoha in the modern world was far from pleased with her role for despite working in a role that most girls her age would be proud off to Konoha this was anything but a job that she was content with for rather than creating cute girls for the Bishoujo games that she adored she was instead providing colour for the backs of male characters that anyone could do. But more than anything what frustrated Konoha the most was the fact that the Bishoujo games that she adored, and to which had inspired her to become an illustrator were no longer popular and in their place were mobile and Gatcha games that featured characters that were far from her cup of tea and were fast making her dream an impossible one. That is until one day Konoha were to have a fortunate encounter with a mysterious game shop whose games provided her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go back to her roots and see what it was involved in creating the very games that she adored by going back to their heyday.
As the series progresses and Konoha gets the opportunity to hop through and explore different time periods, her personality gradually starts to change. While Konoha at the start of the series was shown to have great pride in her ability as an illustrator which served as her primary motivator in being able to fulfil her role this was offset by the fact that while she adored the older Bishoujo games that dominated her childhood she had little knowledge of what was actually involved in their creation. Despite this however thanks to both the opportunity to explore different timelines and being able to learn from veterans like Meiko and Kaori not only was this remedied but thanks to both their support and her own core personality traits of being hardworking and having a strong desire to improve herself Konoha was able to realize just how much was involved in the creation of the games that she adored. Though at first dismayed that her prized skill with drawing with the tablet was unusable in the various timelines that Konoha visited this act of starting again from scratch under the tutelage of her peers at Alcoholsoft I felt while having the effect of improving upon her knowledge of designing and bringing to life of characters using both software and techniques that she never would have been able to make use of in her own time also served as an excellent way for her to realize that the creation of characters is just one of many stages that were involved in the creation of Bishoujo games.
This revelation, while shown well in the strong bonds that were forged between Konoha and Meiko and Kaori was perhaps shown best in the strong bonds that were forged between her and Mamoru. While their relationship had the most rocky of starts due to both their contrasting personalities and views on games this bond of theirs gradually served as the final piece of the puzzle for Konoha’s development as a character that allowed her to realize the true sense of joy that came from not just being able to create games that you were passionate about with peers that share your passion but also in the process being able to contribute in ensuring that it would survive in not only their hearts but the hearts of their fellow fans as well.
Mamoru Rokuda
Mamoru Rokuda is one of the main characters of the series and serves as both Konoha’s co-worker and eventual friend within the series. Initially serving within a small and little-known video game company named Alcoholsoft as its sole programmer Mamoru in his initial appearances was shown to be someone that while young being only 15 at this time was nonetheless someone that was intelligent, confident, and expressive to the point of being disrespectful to those that were his seniors. Despite his attitude problems and the unique bond that he shared with the company manager Mamoru was someone that was earnest, hardworking, and showed great pride towards both the field of programming and the programs that he makes for his peers which he views as being perfect. However, while his skills as a programmer were undeniable and were an asset to the team at Alcoholsoft his brooding and logical nature, tendency to do illogical things and his unusual fascination with the PC-98 computer were seen to create something of a barrier between him and his peers at Alcoholsoft.
Mamoru’s life of acting as the company’s resident computer expert were to have a profound change one day when joining the company out of nowhere was a young girl who despite being clueless about game development nonetheless was one that while lacking in verifiable experience more than made up for it in her passion for drawing characters. Though the first encounters between Mamoru and Konoha were far from being a positive ones due to his personality, as the series progressed, and their bonds deepened this began to change. At the beginning of the series, unlike his peers at Alcoholsoft Mamoru did not have any interest in developing Bishoujo games and indeed was shown to only see them as a means for him to improve his skill with computers and programming. However, while the passion and dedication that he showed towards computers and to the PC-98 in particular created distances between himself and his peers as the series progressed this sense of passion was seen to become an important foundation for the company in the face of the many tech advances that we witnessed over the course of the time leaps. This sense of foundation however within the narrative was not limited to that of being the tech expert of the company though as in line with the time leaps Mamoru unlike Konoha was able to age and in being able to expand his life experience was able to realize not only how difficult management of a company was on the production side but also how much of a balancing act it was for the financial side as well.
While Mamoru never saw himself as being the potential successor to the company the level of maturity that he gained from ageing allowed him to realize that for them to be successful as a brand they not only have to be cautious with their finances but also be able to work effectively as a team in order to get their games out. Whereas in the past Mamoru may had just done what was needed on the tech side of things I really liked seeing him get more involved in the company side of things by working with Kaori and the others as they learned to adapt to the new times and incorporate new tech and software into their arsenal. Though it was humorous to see him still try to create newer games on his prized PC-98s. While Mamoru never became as passionate about Bishoujo games as Konoha and the rest of Alcoholsoft did his experiences of working alongside them in the background as well as his unique encounter with Echo and his company I felt served to make him realize the kind of joy and satisfaction that can come from being able to work on something together and in releasing it contribute in keeping a genre alive. And while his dream of having his prized PC-98s conquer the world never came close to fruition this new understanding of his while serving to make him a more effective member of the company also served to make him an excellent partner for Konoha throughout the narrative as he possessed both skill with tech and the logical mind that can make sense of Konoha’s circumstance that I would daresay confuse the hell out of anyone else if they were to listen to her.
As a character, I felt that Mamoru was both well-designed and developed which served as a nice contrast to Konoha throughout the narrative. While their initial personality, base traits, and beliefs on the topic of Bishoujo games were polar opposites in all regards the successive time leaps while serving an admirable job of advancing the story also served well to establish Mamoru as both an anchor for Konoha as well as that of a foundation to which she can stand upon while getting her bearings in the turbulent world of time leaping. This sense of leap-based development within the narrative I felt synergized well with the strong character chemistry that was established between Mamoru and Konoha throughout the narrative that allowed Mamoru to act as an effective anchor for Konoha where his sense of logic, intelligence, skill with tech and ability to adapt on the fly served as an effective contrast to Konoha’s tendency to get confused and do things without thinking of either alternatives or take advantage of assets that were around her a fact that Konoha was seen to be eternally thankful for within the narrative.
Kaori
Kaori Shimoda is one of the main characters of the series and serves as one of Mamoru and Konoha’s peers within Alcoholsoft. In her initial appearances, Kaori was shown to be a kind, caring and polite person who was friendly and supportive to all she met and indeed behaved in a manner that was benefiting of both an elder sister and a sempai for Konoha within the company. While nominally a member of the company’s art department where she created the CG art alongside that of her best friend Meiko, she was also trusted by management to act in the capacity of a second in command when needed to which her confident nature, intelligence, and levelheadedness and more importantly ability to think things through from the POV of the staff really enabled her to shine. While her skill as an artist as well as that of a leader within the company was undeniable what served to make Kaori such an effective member of the company was not only her skill at management and directing staff towards working towards the bigger picture but also in recognizing that as a company they must be able to continuously evolve in line with the tech advances made in both software and hardware or risk being left behind a sense of forward thinking that I believe would be invaluable to the company.
However, the most crucial contribution that Kaori made to the narrative in my eyes was her education of Konoha where in conjunction with Meiko she served to provide her with not only an effective foundation by teaching her how to make use of software and techniques that were native to Kaori’s own time period but in doing so enhance Konoha’s own desire to not only learn more about how games were created but also make her realize that despite the ease that tech can bring when brought into games development overreliance of this would only serve to take away the precious moments that comes from being able to create games with like-minded peers. For without the laughter that comes from creating characters and working so hard to meet deadlines that you are downing energy drinks constantly and sleeping in the office then the creation of games may as well just be a hollow exercise that can be done with AI. Kaori’s efforts in making Konoha realize the importance of these precious memories contributed well in her crusade to make Bishoujo game development fun and relevant again.
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Animation wise I felt that the series overall animation was really well done that in conjunction with the time leaps that were prevalent within the narrative allowed us to see not only what Japan looked like back then but also the kind of tech that was used back in the heyday of Bishoujo games. Being able to see how characters were created back then using first gen computers and graphics software and seeing how these changed as a result of both new software and hardware as well as that of AI really was an insightful experience. In terms of character design while the standard designs for the cast did an excellent job of showcasing the cast the time leaps served to further enhance this by not only showing how the existing cast matured physically in the case of Mamoru and Touya but also reflecting how the company changed over the years via the inclusion of new staff members with the best examples of this being the twins of Mari and Senri that brought not only new skillsets to the company but a new sense of atmosphere to the company via their personality as well. Though only used in one arc within the series one of the standout animation moments within the series was the Echo arc that featured a surprisingly good pairing of science fiction and comedy that while giving Mamoru his own doze of what Konoha experiences regularly also created one of the most beautiful scenes I had seen in this anime in the form of the departure of Echo from this realm.
Music wise the series made use of one opening and ending theme in the form of 65535 that was performed by Shoko Nakagawa and Link~past and Future ~ that was performed by Konoha’s assigned seiyuu Aoi Koga. Both of these songs while very catchy and positive were ones that I felt conveyed a very different sense of emotions and feelings when used in conjunction with their visuals with the former conveying senses of nostalgia, frustration, new beginnings in a foreign time period and a desire to relive the glory days of the past and in doing so learn of not just how much is involved in creating the games but also how fun it was to build things you are passionate for alongside peers that share your passion. This opening theme as a final gift to its fans also featured a nice image of the core cast members drawn in a 16-bit style that was a perfect way to end the opening song with.
The series ending theme Link~past and Future~ while serving well to provide us with some nice eye candy in the form of the female cast members in swimsuits had among its main theme the sense of nostalgia that was achieved through the visualization of both the computers that were the mainstays of Bishoujo games development back in the heyday as well as the floppy disks that allowed game companies to store their finished products on a sight that many a game studios production staff would have celebrated on reaching with high fives and tears in their eyes as a result of all their hard work that led to that point. Like the series opening theme the ending theme also featured a great homage to the era of gaming that serves as the main background for this series in the form of a next episode preview screen that takes the form of a PC menu screen drawn to represent the 16-bit computers that the cast made use of back then to create their games.
Voice acting-wise wise I felt that the series main voice cast all did an excellent job portraying their assigned characters whether they were main or supporting characters. In particular I felt that Aoi Koga and Atsushi Abe deserve special praise for I felt that they did an excellent job portraying their assigned characters of Konoha and Mamoru respectively. While unfortunately used sparingly from the midpoint of the narrative onwards I nonetheless really enjoyed the portrayals of Kaori and Meiko by their respective seiyuu’s in the form of Ayako Kawasumi and Yui Horie respectively. Given their respective real-world ages both would have had opportunities to experience the golden age of Bishoujo games as part of their childhood and as such were excellent assets to bring into the series where their experience would had been useful to the writers and to Aoi Koga in helping the latter better prepare herself for this role. While used as mostly a support character I felt that Aya Yamane’s portrayal of the character of Touya Yamada was an excellent one that showcased well not just Touya’s development as a person both personally and professionally as she went from being a fan of Bishoujo games to that of a creator that made them.
Overall conclusion
In overall 16 Bit Sensation Another layer I felt was an excellent anime that had among its main strong points its unique premise, strong and original narrative, well-designed and developed characters, excellent voice acting and its unique insight into not only the golden age of Bishoujo games but also the many kinds of roles that unknowingly are involved in the creation of such games that would no doubt surprise a great many people.
While the series main subject matter admittedly would not be familiar to people that were either born after the golden age of Bishoujo games or had never actually played a Visual novel before for those who have such as myself the series insight into what goes on in the creation of such games was truly fascinating. On the surface when one were to look at VN’s which are by far the most common games that belong to that genre one wouldn’t think that they would need much in terms of either staff or specialist software and hardware given that the games in question were simple games that didn’t feature the kind of advanced graphics and deep immersive storytelling that modern games feature. But just because VN’s didn’t feature them doesn’t mean that it didn’t need skilled staff and software and hardware that was unique to them and in this I felt that the series served to provide us with a unique opportunity to see the kind of hard work that the artists and programmers put in behind the scenes with its fusion of time travel serving to further expand upon this by allowing us to see the kind of software, hardware and drawing techniques that were used in the years that made up the golden age of Bishoujo games and I have to say some of them truly were strange with the best example of this one being cling wrap scanning.
While the drawing side of the process I felt was explained in great detail as was the look into both the kind of pressures that artists could be under when creating the games and the need to switch roles on the fly to ensure that the tasks are completed on time the series likewise did well to expand upon the often overlooked and unknown programming side of the process as well which I really appreciated. For even if the characters and art for a game were perfect if the backend that runs it in the form of the programming is not up to scratch and ends up causing individual scenes to freeze and crash the game then that would be a stain on the devs honour as creators and in the game industry and especially for smaller companies like Alcoholsoft reputation is everything and within the series was best exemplified by the importance that they placed on Mamoru as a staff member. The creation of a game whether it’s a modern-day Twitch shooter or a visual novel back in its heyday is a complicated process that requires all aspects of its process be it art, narrative, music, programming and final checks be completed and verified before the game can be released and in this 16 bit I felt did an excellent job at showing just what is needed to complete a game even if they’re not the triple-A titles that dominate today’s game charts.
The time travel aspect of the series that was featured within the narrative in the form of the time leaps I felt was an interesting theme and vehicle that despite the risks involved in its implementation I felt turned out to be an excellent one that served to add a new dimension to the narrative that complemented its main theme excellently. While the aspect itself served as an excellent means to advance the plot by having Konoha leap through time periods the time travel aspect also did well to bring to the table its own contribution in the form of nostalgia both for those that were familiar with the Bishoujo games and those that experienced the tech advances that took place in those said periods in the form of the intro of the first versions of windows and its impact on society and through that the intro of large computer stores that dominated Akiba back in the day. On the other end of the positive and heartwarming aspects that came from being able to leap through time and work with your peers to create games that you all adored was the series own take on the butterfly effect and I have to say the kind of world that Konoha ended up creating thanks to her actions in the other time periods truly was grim for those that work in creating Bishoujo games and served as an excellent reminder for her and us that every action no matter how small has a consequence and overreliance of anything is a catalyst for potential disaster.
As a final score, I would say that 16 Bit Sensation easily deserves a final overall score of 9/10 for it featured an excellent premise, strong story, characters, voice acting and a unique fusion of being not only able to experience the golden days of an admittedly lesser known game genre in the modern world but also by doing so realize just how much work went on behind the scenes in creating each of the masterpieces that Konoha so adored through the usage of a fresh new take on the classic Isekai formula by the usage of successive time leaps.
But overall, this series I felt was an entertaining one that really showed well just how much work goes behind the scenes in the creation of games for even visual novels that can’t hold a candle to current triple-A games still require a lot of work to be done by limited amounts of staff and after watching this I can say for sure that I have a lot more respect for game devs now than before irrespective of whether their games are VN’s or triple-A titles.