Irotoridori no Sekai read:

I finished the Kyou route, which unlocked the Shinku route, and then finished the Shinku route, which finished the entire visual novel.  Kyou is another failure of a human with low IQ who only has looks going for her.  But it was all worth it because I finally got to be with Shinku next.

The Shinku route was everything I had hoped it would be.  All the mysteries of the world were explained, the extremely strange setting and plot was made understandable, and the only girl I wanted to be with became the girl I spent the most meaningful and real time with.  Thanks to the Shinku route this visual novel did make my hall of fame, albeit in last place at #25.  This also justifies Shinku's presence in '100 Waifus,' as the last second inclusion made for the 42nd edition.  She really is that beautiful and wonderful a girl, and I don't mind her being memorialized forever.  Unlike the other girls in the story, she's extremely smart and capable, looking after others instead of needing to be looked after.

Kana and Mio had good routes, the visual novel wasn't horrible until the very end, but Tsukasa and Kyou were horrible.  Plus Suzu was annoying from start to finish, thank God she didn't have a route.  And Ayumu was completely pointless as a character, but oh well, they didn't waste much time on him so I guess it doesn't matter.  Mercifully, Tsukasa and Kyou had much shorter routes than Mio and Kana, so I guess even the authors knew they were bad routes.  I just wish I could have done Shinku's route sooner.

This is a must-read visual novel full of beauty and drama.  I only bought it by mistake but it was well worth the $30.  It's a shame it took 13 years for this visual novel to be translated from Japanese into English, and its sequel, which spends more time with Shinku and her imouto Ai, isn't translated at all (and probably will never be. . .sigh. . .)  Visual novels just are not supported sufficiently outside of Japan.  No matter how famous or great the game, whether it's Aiyoku or Da Capo, it's never fully translated, or it's only translated decades after the fact.  Irotoridori is just one more victim of that fate.

Supposedly Eiyuuden Chronicle will arrive in the mail tomorrow, so the timing is perfect.  I was able to clear out the slate of old projects before the new one began.  Actually I'm kind of thankful the delay gave me the time to rewatch Frieren and finish Irotoridori.  I'd been meaning to do these things for quite some time.

Now that I know Shinku belongs in '100 Waifus' and my edit wasn't a mistake, I could even re-read it for the 42nd time and prove nothing more needs to be edited or changed.  In which case I could finally put an official stamp on this project too.  Of course I can't be bothered to do that with Eiyuuden arriving so soon, but at least the option is now available.  It's good to be on track towards finally getting this lifetime work done.

Meanwhile, I dropped The New Gate and Lv2 Kara Cheat from my spring anime schedule because overpowered isekai protagonists bore me.  It's so annoying when they're strong enough to mold the world to their liking but instead let it trample over them and treat them like servants.  Grow a spine already.