16BIT SENSATION: ANOTHER LAYER

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA Comedy16bit Sensation
ANIME ActionFate/stay night
TV SHORT ComedyDi Gi Charat

REVIEWS

• 

  Jaymp12

  72/100
  Quite an insanity of a plot but somehow worked out in the end

  This one is quite something. It runs the line between a completely original anime and an adaptation.

  So the new MC, Konoha got fed up on her work as an illustrator of a small game studio. She got some old VNs from an old lady, but those games have the capability to time travel to the release date of that game. With the first one being 1992.

  The first 2/3 is this is pretty much fine. It's a look on 90s VN development. It shows what was back then without advanced tools and processing power of today. At this point, those episodes base their scenarios on the manga but with the new MC in the mix.

  After that, the show went on an insanity streak. Leading up to the finale, there's a lot of WTF moments in the series. So much so that I can't definitely say how it went in the production of this anime. I can't say much about it without spoiling that part so a good chunk of this is under a spoiler tag. A lot of it was written before the finale aired so READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

  [Episode 8]

  The first huge sign of this insanity was when 1999 Mamoru gets sent back to 1985. Yes, anyone can get sent back in time. The only requirements seem to be you're not already sent back in time, and you open a game that the old lady gave to Konoha. He met some aliens that don't have an idea of imagination. This is where I thought, "Wow, these have to be some people that want to logically understand what imagination is". I swear this has a connection to the ending. So, he teaches them that and got sent back to where he's supposed to be.

  Looking back, their earliest appearance of one of the aliens is episode 1. The dog gets his first appearance there.

  [Episode 9 & 10]

  After Konoha & Alcohol Soft make their own Fate/Stay Night. She gets sent back to 2023 but whoops her game was so good that the Japanese studios can't beat her game and went under or moved to the West Coast. I refuse to believe that a game like this would have all of that in a floppy disc or even 3 of them.

  To fix Otaku culture in Akihabara & still let Alcohol soft exist, she has to make another game that can match that then go back in time to release it in another studio (I guess Toya's game company).
  
  [Episode 11 & 12]
  Then, oh no, she gets kidnapped when she was in a break then what? An evil CEO wants her because she made that game. I don't know man, but there's bigger & easier fish to catch than her. Also, where did this come from? This feels like it came from nowhere. 1 episode isn't enough to set up a bad guy. Also, it wasn't set up to this point anyways.

  If this weird 2023 has to happen. Maybe remove every game from Konoha's bag after 1999. Remove the CEO from the picture even if the AI commentary gets cut too. Maybe, acceptance of what she changed and perhaps going to California to look for Alcohol Soft then perhaps some modern game development stuff and end.

  Below are my thoughts after Episode 13 aired

  [Episode 13]

  I somewhat got what I said in episode 12. They came back from the US. While the timing is pretty tight, I think it's doable since going from LA to Tokyo is around 12 hours assuming Mamoru called Alcohol Soft to work with Konoha around the events of Episode 10 or 11. I was also right about the Echoes having a connection in the finale.

  How they resolved the Episode 12 cliffhanger is pretty much a Deus Ex Machina. It'll be controversial for some people. The Echoes knocked out the CEO and his lackeys then explained their reason for being there.

  The ending was fairly rushed though it could have been worse (Wonder Egg Priority). She used the last game to go back to 1999 then next scene, finished. I don't who did she send this game to though there's a good chance that it did not matter anyways. Alcohol Soft is still in the US but Akihabara is fixed (mostly). The ending is very Makoto Shinkai-like. That's all that I have to say here
  [End of spoilers]

  The story is pretty good. It showed signs of derailing in the latter third then somehow resolved most of the stuff in one episode. Not everything is resolved though. There are a few things that are left hanging mostly for the sake of time though I'd wish for an extra episode as an epilogue after the events of the series. The best thing in the latter part is the commentary. It's surprisingly recent. Despite the setting at that point, it's not something that's farfetched in modern times. You can type some prompt and your computer (or someone's computer in some city) will generate something be it music, literary work, code or even art. There are limitations for sure which the anime kind of touches. Not everything is discussed (particularly the legal side of the issues). While I was holding my breath in the buildup to the ending, I was glad to see them nail it which is a worthy accomplishment.

  In this series, there are 2 main characters.

  Konoha is an illustrator that wants to create her dream game which is superbly ambitious. Because she's voiced by the same person that voiced Paimon from Genshin Impact (Aoi Koga), she has a very annoying voice. You'll probably get used to it. Aside from the ambition, she's literally a hot mess and childish. She tries hard to be cute, maybe too hard at points but in the end, she's fine.

  Mamoru is literally the know it all also has an obsession of the PC-98. He's pretty much the only smart guy in the cast. So much so he literally is the backbone in the resolution of the anime. At first, I hated his character (Pls, PC-98 over Windows 95 & Tsundere) then the writers seemed to tone it down on subsequent episodes. He's within the line of the love/hate to me.

  The supporting cast is serviceable to the plot with the biggest L going to the former main character Meiko. Interestingly, they opted to use mostly veteran voice actors in their 40s and over for the original cast then you have a few in their 20s or 30s.

  While there is a villain in this series. It's about as memorable as an atypical MCU villain. It's just an excuse to have some bad guy and a thing for their commentary in contemporary times.

  This anime is a semi-interesting take on the time travel plot. While it does have some issues story-wise and WTF moments, it's a good-enough anime that I'd say you should watch it at some point. I'm glad to see another "original" anime have a good story arc in a constrained time frame. While I like it on its own terms, some will lament that it isn't a straight adaptation.

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• 

  SenNkA

  80/100
  Warning! This show is to be enjoyed without further thinking about it. Take it as it is, or leave it!

  Warning! This show is to be enjoyed without further thinking about it. Take it as it is, or leave it!

  ╭────────── · ??? · ─╮ ╰─ · ??? · ──────────╯

  16 bit is a wild ride. I started it way back when it was airing, but I dropped it during the first episode because I just couldn’t get through it.

  This time, for reasons to me unknown, I decided to give it another chance. And I am honestly so glad I did.

  The story begins with a girl named Konoha, who buys old bishojo games, that end up getting her transported back to the date where the games came out. There she meets the folks from a game studio Alcohol Soft, whose employees she befriends and even creates a game with them. Which is a dream she had since... always.

  Working in a big studio on background characters was nothing like her own game The Last Waltz which is so huge, she ends up altering the future and erasing her own world. Now she has to go back again and try to create a game that would be able to compete with her other one.

  It won’t be so easy. Besides Konoha, there are more people who seem fishy. One of them travels in time and meets aliens who are trying to understand what imagination is. (This plot line seemed to be on drugs, but I guess I understand the message? It was so messy...)

  And then there is Toya. Who... honestly is such a weirdo I don’t know what to make of her. I want to believe she is a good person... but there is just something about her.

  The story takes an unbelievable turn halfway through. Ever since then, it’s a whole different show and it can get messy... but it stays just as interesting if not more. And the ending is more than satisfying - despite not giving us all the answer. Everything else is for us to think about and imagine. And for this specific story, that's how it's supposed to be.

  ╭────────── · ??? · ─╮ ╰─ · ??? · ──────────╯

  Story:
  As I suggested, there are three main plot lines. Each of them is interesting, but one of them is incredibly confusing. 2/3 is not a bad scored though.
  From slice-of-life, to almost dystopian futuristic „save the world“ plot line, this show goes places to keep us entertained.

  Art & animation:
  Very cutesy. I had some issues with it sometimes, because it could get lazy... And that always takes you out of the moods or quality of the show. At least that’s the case for me.
  But I loved the 16bit designs they used in opening sequence.
  Animation-wise, this show doesn’t stand out in any way, but it’s not bad either.

  Characters:
  It is very unfortunate how little they explored certain characters and how much they explored those who seemed not important to the story at all.
  What I mean is:

  • Konoha is a main character with no presence. She is there, sure, but she is not doing much for the world. She is annoying, stupid and childish and she barely does anything right.
  • Mamoru has a whole „out of this world“ experience and that’s that. They don’t go back to it, he doesn’t think about it, he does not bring it up again. Not even as an explanation of how Konoha’s time travel work. Not even his love for PC-98 goes anywhere! They just abandoned what could have been the funniest plot twist in time travel media.
    (And if the conclusion was that 'PC-98 saves the day!' then they really only took it halfway...)
  • Toya has so much energy around her... yet, she is never explored to a depth. She is just used for another half-assed story line. I feel like I missed a chapter or two with her, like I'm supposed to piece the puzzle based on few clues...

  But the Alcohol Soft’s manager? We have a whole ass drama about him, your typical „I fucked up, now I’m crying but then everyone loves me again“ redemtion arc. It’s insane how that works!

  Music:
  Good opening and good ending, that sound quite nice. But they’re not exactly bops that you cannot skip.
  As for the music in the show itself, it’s barely noticeable.
  I do appreciate Mamoru’s playlist consisting of PC-98’s sounds. Sooo funny!

  Entertainment value:
  If you’re just looking for something that’s fun on the surface and will entertain you for 13 episodes, I highly recommend this one. It’s a good mix of comedy, suspence and video games show.
  If you’re, however, looking for something deeper, that you can actually think about and give some thought to... don’t. It is not worth the disappointment.

  ╭────────── · ??? · ─╮ ╰─ · ??? · ──────────╯

  Conclusion: recommended
  Warning! This show is to be enjoyed without further thinking about it. Take it as it is, or leave it!

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• 

  Ghonf

  95/100
  Beautiful love letter to bishoujo games and masterpiece in itself

  There are possibly a lot things I could say about 16bit Sensation: Another Layer, and probably won't go into detail about everything in this review, but probably one of the most prominent ones and one that is particularly important to me is definitely that it is to its very core an absolutely beautiful and charming love letter to eroge, bishoujo games, and the whole otaku culture behind it, paired with an incredible sense of artistic value and the importance of the human imagination and spirit to art in a way that shows and expresses what makes it so beautiful and memorable in the first place. One kind of a very special anime for whose existence I am truly thankful for and in many ways speaks very much from the heart for me.

  As someone who is a big fan of eroge and bishoujo games and enjoys them a whole lot, very similar to Konoha the protagonist, this anime did not only resonate with me a lot on the layer of its great, charming references and inclusion of various significant works from the industry throughout, like it especially in the beginning and first episode being packed full with so many details and different works that can be seen throughout and some of the backgrounds, but also quite a lot with Konoha herself who oftentimes reminded me of myself and feels very sincerely implemented with her whole personality and character traits. Not to mention that this work in general was even partly created by influential and important artists from the industry like Misato Mitsumi and Tatsuki Amazuyu for the manga, or someone like Tatsuya Takahashi who worked on the anime and was the writer for influential works like Shizuku, Kizuato, and To Heart, which can be really felt and just adds up to the whole sincerity and authenticity of it. On top of this and added to these references and love put towards all these bishoujo games that can be found within this anime, it also even more so and importantly in the same vein values and appreciates art and the very human aspects about it, which can't be replaced by something like AI, and puts forth what makes creating games and art so special and unique, which is yet another part and message that very much resonated with me and is one that probably couldn't be more important especially in our current time. That's perhaps one of the core parts that make this anime so great and sets a wonderful foundation for both its characters and the story it tells along with its themes that are ever so present throughout.

  Added to this are also all the great and charming illustrations and artworks that were done outside of the anime itself for it. Not only did various talented artists contribute with gorgeous artworks that each incorporate their style, but there are also these awesome artworks that reference and are based on covers of various eroge included in the anime, featuring the original characters from the anime and sort of being a love letter to each of these games. Even if it isn't directly included directly within the anime, it's something I simply adore to bits and it even more so shows and is further proof of how much love went into this whole project. This whole anime in some way really feels like a passion project, similar to the burning passion and love Konoha herself has for bishoujo games and just about every part of this anime reiterates this in a very charming way.

  Story itself is fairly engaging throughout and generally really lives by the fantastic characters that are not only very charming but also have a really nice dynamic with each other and manage to bring each episode to life and I totally appreciate this cast of characters. Prominently being Konoha as the protagonist who really shines with her passionate personality and love towards bishoujo games, as well as being very much an otaku at heart, and someone like Mamoru who initially sort of acts as an opposite to this but at his heart is very much the same and burns with his passion and love for the PC-98. Both of them in return have a fantastic dynamic with each other and every scene with them is simply lovely, filled with a lot of compassion and sweetness. Seeing their relationship and growth throughout the anime was genuinely absolutely beautiful and charming and just added up to the appeal and strengths of this work, as well as some of the other characters like Kaori and Meiko with their great dynamic with Konoha and some of the moments they have throughout the anime. All of this then again probably couldn't have ended more beautifully in the last episode with Kohona being back in her time and Mamoru having waited for her all the time to create more games filled with a lot of passion, heart, and love.

  Thanks a lot to the creators, both the manga and anime, Misato Mitsumi, Tatsuki Amazuyu, Tamiki Wakiki, and Tatsuya Takahashi, for encapsulating what makes eroge so beautiful throughout this work, putting all their heart into it, and reaffirming the importance of human creativity and imagination which is a core essence of art in a way that sends a very strong and important message. Konoha's journey throughout the anime with Alcohol Soft and a person like Mamoru was absolutely beautiful and charming, sometimes emotional, filled with a lot of fun in every way and this anime as a whole truly means a lot to me in many ways that I can probably hardly express all of them and simply managed to resonate with me on a deep and personal level.

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