For galgame enthusiasts, ep.1 is a nostalgic trip down memory lane, featuring names from the heyday of galgames: _Dokyusei_ (Elf), _Shizuku_ (Leaf), _Kanon_ (Key), _Rance_ (AliceSoft)...Aaaaaand the ending theme was composed by Shinji Orito from Key, with Lyrics by Kotoko (a pity that it wasn't sung by her!). As the main character, Akisato Konoha, time-traveled to the past, the audience got a glimpse of how the galgame industry progressed. Even younger viewers would find this part quite fascinating (at least I did!): How illustrations were done with a scanner and mouse in the era before Photoshop and tablets? How to achieve rich shading and texture with very limited color palettes through dithering? How did game developers react when transitioning from PC-98 to Windows? It reminded me of _Shirobako_(2014), which similarly depicited tons of domain knowledge about anime production.
Unfortunately, portrayal of galgame industry remained on surface-level and of very small scope. The first half of the show focused extensively on Konoha's soliloquy and interpersonal relationships, which became quite repetitive. The latter part, starting from ep.7, obviously attempted to explore the possibilities of the time-travel premise. While the efforts were commendable, the story was quite messy with too many questions left unanswered. For this reason, two parts of anime felt disconnected, despite all the foreshadowings the creators tried to put in.
Imagine you work in a declining industry that you are very passionate about, and you had the chance to go back to its golden age - what would you do? Create your own project? Transform a company? Or change nothing and simply enjoy the industry's prosperity as an observer? I believe all these angles could have led to interesting and plausible stories. The key is to make one choice, and tell the one stories with all seriousness.
The anime has other shortcomings as well. Konoha wasn't an adorable character to begin with - she was really loud and had a sharp voice which I couldn't bear with. Her behavior was so unpolished, which didn't align with a 19 y/o character with work experience. Starting from ep.4, the animation quality began to falter, sometimes resulting in weird distortion. And of course, the most severe issue is the plot as I mentioned above. Overall, I felt the anime squandered an excellent opportunity to build a story around galgame industry.
