Sensei I Like You So Much!

So this is how it ends - regression. Being 46 at time of writing, it's fair to say my youthful convention-loving lifestyle is some way behind me. Whether at universities, sports halls, arenas or village halls, I think I've sampled more than my fair share of the anime lifestyle, culminating with visits to Japanese events such as Wonder Fest, Tokyo Game Show and Anime Japan - I even visited a rooftop doujin market back in 2023! So to pick up a game that takes you all the way back to the beginning - that one event that catapults you into an entirely new direction, is really pretty cool.

Sensei I Like You So Much is a love-letter to entry-level fandom, in much the same vein as Genshiken or Comic Party. In this instance you're a fanfic writer with a passion for a certain ship, (short for "relationship" in case you were wondering) but when your hard drive goes missing and your classmate picks it up and reads the content, you're encouraged to take your passion out of the closet and embrace the culture. It was much easier for me, I just happened across a Ranma 1/2 comic and fell down a rabbit hole. Much easier.

The game takes you through this journey, introducing you to other fans, developing your writing and gaining more fans, to the point where you'll become known in circles and ultimately start selling your wares at Comic-Con. Having been on a similar journey (I used to illustrate a doujin called Boiled Spoons) I found the idea of revisiting these feelings through a game to be very enticing.

You'll start by creating the characters you're shipping in a character creator. This is fairly comprehensive and a good chance for those with a ship in mind to bring it into the game - you can basically create whatever you like, but it's fun if you think of maybe Nene and Mackie from Bubble Gum Crisis for example. The character design options are fairly comprehensive, allowing you to change attribute dimensions and location on the design, plus colours, accessories and so on... I had fun with it. I would have liked a little more variety in clothing as there's a limit as to what works when layering, but you can create multiple characters and ships before diving into the game, which gives you more variety.

My male character is fairly vanilla (horned demon wearing a cross) but I tried to get the female as close to Frieren's Aura as I could.

Once you've created your ship, you're greeted with a content safety mode, from which you can choose (and I wish I was joking) Open mode, Trigger mode and Protective mode, the latter option changing anything you haven't pre-emptively approved to appear as asterisks. I'm not entirely sure why you'd willingly censor the game to the point where you literally can't be surprised by anything, but that appears to be the age we live in now. *Sigh*

Bravely and perhaps controversially I chose Open Mode and dived in. I was pleased to see the game references actual anime (though asterisked for copyright reasons), this grounded it somewhat in the real world. You're locked in as a female for the game (it is advertised as a fangirl simulator) which is a bit of a shame as it takes me out of the immersion a little, but maybe they can do a male version down the road for the guys. 

Once you've set up the characters you're going to ship, you can start the game proper. I was pleased to see some references to real world series in the context of the story (though they are starred at certain letters to avoid copyright issues). I miss the days when you could reference a thing. Anyway, you play a fangirl with a major "thing" for your shipped pairing, and you'll see them dotted around on billboards and other items. The story begins with you leaving your hard-drive full of fanfics in class, which are subsequently lifted by Cordelia who encourages you to share your talent. 

You'll organise everything from your computer, but as a fanfic writer, you'll be expected to fanfic! Thankfully all of the prose is written for you, but with options to control the direction of the narrative. It's easy to navigate and get started, then when you're finished, you can post your work online for the (virtual) world to enjoy. As you build your popularity the game's narrative will introduce you to new fans and new events, where you'll create merch and sell to more fans.

The only real niggle I had with the game was the translation. Oftentimes the text would break to new lines halfway through a word, and honestly there are moments where the dialogue is a bit janky. It doesn't break the game, but it certainly makes it feel less polished. This is a shame, as otherwise the presentation, especially the art, is very attractive.

The game feels more involved than most visual novels thanks to its fun (if limited) creation tools that allows for the player's own artistic tastes that can be adopted into the game proper. I don't want to spoil the narrative, but it's a fun tale to be involved with, eliciting memories of my own journey through fandom (yes, I even used to draw for a collaborative doujin!) and I'd recommend it, especially at under £10 and with improvements being made on a regular basis.