Fatal Hearts and Otome Youkai Zakuro

Well I've finally cleared a few routes through the PC game "Fatal Hearts" and I have to give it a 3 out of 5. It's a decent game but the puzzles are frustrating. Well some of them were. There was one involving putting roman numerals on a grandfather clock and I spent wwwwwwwaaaaaaayyyyy too much time trying to figure out just the right way to put the VIII. Even though it was right where its supposed to be, the game wouldn't accept it. I know I had written earlier that the art was anime inspired but the cut scenes were inconsistent. Some would be in the anime style and others would be realistic looking or pastel colored looking. I mean I understand that it takes a lot to even make a simple game (RPG maker taught me that) but the art should've been consistent.

From this.....

 To this!

The other artwork was honestly better than the anime one but...consistency! It just bothers me. Though at least the cut scene art was consistent with the route you take. But the story is interesting enough to make up for it. And with 14 different endings, I'm still playing through it so I guess the art would be a 3.5 for its irregularities but story I would give it a 7.
Well I couldn't sleep last night again so I thought I would watch something until I was drowsy enough. One of my friends suggested this anime to me because he thought I would really like it. "Otome Youkai Zakuro" takes place during the Westernization of Japan. Its an interesting time period by itself but in this Japan, humans co-exist with spirits. So the military makes a branch called Spirit Affairs that consists of three human lieutenants and four half-spirit girls.  Kei Agemaki, Riken Yoshinokazura, and Ganryu Hanakiri are partnered with  Zakuro, Susukihotaru, and twins Bonbori and Hozuki. The characters pictured below are Zakuro and her partner Kei, who happens to be terrified of spirits which makes this show quite hilarious.



It has a good premise and the story could've been stretched out for two seasons rather then one. I could see that they were really trying to balance out the comedy with more serious elements but in the end it just seems they tried to cram everything in the last four episodes. Character development is wonderful and all but when you have this many characters and three different love stories going on at the same time, it's impossible to do it all in one season. Maybe it wasn't getting enough ratings when it aired originally to have a second season ordered. Who knows? And to clarify something all half spirit girls in this series, are all half fox.
 


Yes, I know. Doesn't look a single thing like a fox to me. I thought they were all cat spirits. I mean in comparison to these girls, Holo looks way more like a fox but that's probably because of her tail.

Also it bothered me how the twins were treated in this story like they were one character rather than two separate people. I mean I thought they were adorable but I would've liked it better if they had their own personalities. The series was good enough though that I would recommend it. I liked it a lot...just not enough to buy the series.