Riding the train to Odaiba via the Yurikamome Line, Hideo sat quietly in his seat while the carriage around him was packed like a can of sardines. Men in ordinary clothes stood shoulder to shoulder with others dressed in elaborate cosplays of various male and female characters from different anime and manga.
Mind you that this was a male-only train because female passengers are assigned to separate carriages.
In only a few more minutes, he would arrive at Tokyo Big Sight, specifically the Ariake district, where he and Isadora were headed for Doujin Drift.
"I underestimated just how crowded it would be during an event this big," Hideo said with a wry smile as he checked his phone. He was dressed casually with a black Samurai Champloo jacket featuring the silhouette of Mugen, accented by multiple katana designs that blended seamlessly into the fabric. Underneath, he wore a plain white shirt, paired with black pants, white shoes, and a simple necklace resting against his neck.
As someone currently living in Yamanashi, Tokyo felt like an entirely different beast for him compared to the quieter and more modest city of Kofu. Not to mention that this was his first time attending an event of this scale.
["MUHAHAHAHAHA! Holy shit, an absolute masterclass of deception"]
From her bracelet form wrapped around his wrist, Isadora burst into laughter inside Hideo's mind as she spotted a pink-haired, twin-tailed magical girl cosplayer. The cosplayer looked flawless—perfect makeup, smooth skin, and enough cuteness to fool anyone at first glance. Then it spoke with the deepest male voice a person could imagine while talking to his friend.
"I'm even seeing a character from that Sex Club Otome you played last month."
["Meh, not interested. Out of all five main love interests, he chose the mega twink whose only personality trait is having the biggest dick while going, 'UWU, I'm so smart because I can play chess and piano, and I'm so rich.' Bitch please. Even I got annoyed by them using the same repetitive joke throughout his entire route. They even threw in a sequel hook for a possible fandisk that I already know will never happen."]
"Quite an achievement that you're pissed off, because as far as I know, you'll consume anything. You even tried School Days HQ and Euphoria."
["Taste is acquired through playing a sea of garbage, suffer porn, cuck porn, and just straight-up fetish gore. Playing that masterpiece accidentally opened my eyes. God, I wish I could experience Clannad and Cyanotype Daydream again."]
"I thought you didn't like Clannad because the art turned you off."
["It became part of its charm the longer I played through it. Now that I'm on a roll, I want to try Kanon and Air next too."]
"I haven't played a lot of visual novels myself compared to you, but Majikoi is a good one. Just don't watch the anime, because that is a sin against humanity right next to the Dies Irae abomination and the shitass Aokana anime."
["I mean, to be fair, Aokana wasn't that bad compared to whatever the fuck they did to Dies Irae. It was generic and mediocre at best."]
For manga, the angles are already given to you by the mangaka, alongside the action choreography, character facial expressions, panel flow, and much more. The anime studio's main job is simply to add motion, color, sound, and timing to what is already visually structured.
The same goes for light novels. Unlike manga, they do not constantly show facial expressions unless an illustration is provided, but they still follow a linear story published volume by volume. It is a clear road that can be followed. Modern studios even have a formula for this especially if we are talking about isekai adaptations, which feel like they are already in the millions at this point.
Most of the time, one volume is adapted into around three to four episodes, with a standard twelve-episode season aiming to cover at least three volumes. Going beyond four volumes usually enters what we call rushed territory.
On the other hand, visual novels suffer from a massive problem we can call the Frankenstein Problem.
Most visual novels are built around multiple routes, with each heroine having her own dedicated path. Because of that, it is almost guaranteed that every heroine will have her own fanbase if her writing appeals to different tastes. When an anime studio tries to adapt that structure, they are often forced to "solve" the issue by cramming every heroine's backstory, important moments, and major plot reveals from different routes into a single timeline.
Since visual novels rely heavily on a first-person perspective, inner monologues present a major challenge for anime adaptations. These monologues are crucial for fleshing out a character, but they are often completely omitted because they don't translate well to the screen's main focus.
The result becomes a narrative mess.
Scenes that were originally powerful because they were built on hours of emotional investment suddenly appear with no proper buildup. Plot twists lose their impact. Character arcs feel hollow. Anime-only viewers are left confused because they are expected to care about moments that were never properly earned.
Narrative contradiction becomes another major issue.
Imagine that in Route 1, the childhood friend is written as a genuine loving and dependable neighbor. Then in Route 3, she is revealed to be a deranged and manipulative villain. Both versions work within their own route because the context supports them. But when an anime tries to merge both versions together, the character stops making sense. Her personality becomes an inconsistent mess because two incompatible versions of her are forced to coexist.
What made the original special was depth.
What the anime delivered was compromise.
["Speaking of Aokana, have you played Extra 2 yet?"]
"Nope, not yet. I heard it was good, though."
["You should play it immediately, because damn, I was clenching my ass cheeks during Shindou and Shion's FC match. I forgot how many hype moments this game has when I'm not distracted by Misaki's huge honkers."]
"If I have time, maybe. Right now, I'm reading Volume 3 of the Old Testament of Toaru."
["The world and system of that series caught my interest. Sadly, I still haven't gotten into that franchise yet because of a certain group of people."]
"Let me guess—powerscalers."
["Yeah, those pests are some of the most annoying cunts imaginable. These guys don't even read the series they're comparing to other franchises and just use VsBattleWiki and online short clips from Ourtube and Tektok as their source."]
"Shippers and powerscalers—just pick your poison."
Hideo laughed quietly while Isadora groaned in annoyance, continuing to mutter her complaints under her breath.
Glancing out the window, he was met with the full view of Tokyo Bay and the sprawling city skyline stretching beyond it. The sight made him smile. Taking out his phone, he quickly snapped a picture, capturing the scenery before the train moved past it.
For the remainder of their short trip, he stayed silent, simply watching the passing view as the city unfolded before him.
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After waiting in line for nearly an hour to get their wristbands that served as their tickets, the two of them were finally making their way toward the hall.
Compared to her usual style of wearing her dress, Isadora looked far more casual today. She wore a blue cap along with an oversized light blue and white striped button-down shirt, left unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up. Underneath was a plain white shirt tucked neatly into white shorts secured by a thin black belt, paired with gray sneakers.
As they moved quickly with the crowd toward the entrance line, Isadora attracted more than a few stares from the people around them, glancing because of her attractive appearance.
Neither she nor Hideo paid it any mind. They simply kept walking, continuing their conversation as if the attention around them did not exist at all.
"Everyone, the market will be opening in just a few moments!"
One of the volunteer staff members carrying a sign while standing to the side raised a megaphone and called out to the waiting crowd, his voice carrying across the packed entrance area.
Before anything else, Isadora reached into her bag, pulled out a fat wallet stuffed with cash, and firmly pushed it into Hideo's hands. Along with it came a bottle of water and an event catalogue.
Hideo and Isadora exchanged a nod before lightly bumping their arms together.
"I'll be counting on you," Isadora said, giving him a sharp salute. "Just remember everything I told you about this place, and you'll be fine. We'll meet up later at the food pavilion. I'd prefer texting for easier communication, but with this many people here, the signal is probably going to be absolute garbage."
"Aye aye, Captain," Hideo replied, shrugging it off with a casual wave.
Separating from her on cue as they entered the venue, Hideo peeled off toward another block to purchase the first item on the list.
"Please stand closer!"
"We're sorry, but please squeeze in!"
"Reminder: don't get distracted by your gadgets. Watch where you're going!"
"Please watch your step on the escalator to avoid accidents!"
Staff called out reminders from every direction while the line surged forward in restless waves. Escalators were jammed, and doujins along with various accessories were being sold everywhere.
"Where are you now…" Hideo murmured, scanning the rows. His face lit up when he spotted A-86. "There you are."
Noticing the long line at the booth, he traced it back to its end, where a man held an "End of Line" sign. Hideo approached and gave a small bow.
"I'll hold it," he said quietly.
The man returned the bow and handed it over without a word.
Standing at the tail of a popular booth for a well-known doujin circle, Hideo barely held the sign for seven seconds before a girl arrived behind him. He passed it to her, and the cycle continued.
When he finally reached the seller's table, a smiling woman greeted him. Hideo picked up a sample copy, flipping through it briefly to confirm the highly questionable content. Letting out a quiet sigh, he pulled out the money, double-checking it matched exactly what his partner had requested.
"So, what do you need?" the woman asked, still smiling.
"I'll take one of each of these three, please."
"Right away. One copy of Captain Daddy Footlong, Rent a Cuck, and Tentacle DxD. That'll be 4,156 yen."
"…."
Hideo forced a polite smile as he accepted the doujins, but inside he was dying. The woman had read each title aloud without the slightest hint of shame. As he stepped away from the booth, he realized he had severely underestimated just how much embarrassment he would have to swallow today, and this was only the first stop.
Moving from booth to booth, the contents of Hideo's bag steadily piled up as he rushed through the venue. He lost count of how many times he barely made it before stocks ran out, his timing always just short of disastrous. At the same time, his sanity began to erode, worn down by the sheer volume of bizarre material he was forced to skim through—things like Lex Luthor and Joker Yaoi and What If Gundam Had Pussies.
At a dedicated Arknights hentai doujin circle, he picked up two futanari gangbang doujins featuring Chen and Schwarz. The artwork was a perfect ten, impossibly detailed and polished, though the plot was better left unspoken.
It was the kind of work that demanded you trade your dignity for immaculate loyal character proportions. As if it were some universal law, the more fucked up the hentai, the more ridiculously refined and impressive the art tended to be.
"That'll be 2,682 yen."
"Here."
"Thanks for the purchase~"
With that, he left the final booth marked on his hand-drawn map. A wave of relief washed over him as he pressed a hand to his chest, exhaling deeply.
"Finally… I'm free," he muttered, raising a hand in quiet triumph.
Checking his phone, he saw he still had about forty-five minutes before his scheduled meetup with Isadora at the pavilion. With time to spare, he decided to wander, letting himself drift toward other booths that caught his interest.
Visiting another section, many sellers were in cosplay, selling handmade goods with a personal touch. Others had tablets and laptops set up, showcasing Virtual OurTubers interacting live with curious attendees who gathered around their screens.
Stopping at a booth that sold traditional Japanese folding fans, the designs were all anime and manga characters. He leaned down to browse, eyes scanning the selection before turning to the pair of women tending the stall.
"Um, excuse me."
"Yes? How can I help you?"
"Do you have any Monogatari designs other than Senjougahara and Shinobu? Specifically Hanekawa."
One of the women nodded without hesitation.
"Yes, we do. Would you like Black Hanekawa, short-haired Hanekawa, or the long-haired version with glasses?"
The options were laid out so clearly it almost felt like a test. For Hideo, there was only one possible answer.
A slow smirk spread across his face as he reached for his wallet.
"I'll take all of them."
He handed over the money without a second thought.
Treating the purchase like something sacred, Hideo carefully unfolded each fan. The moment he saw Black Hanekawa's familiar, seductive expression staring back at him, it felt as if stars burst behind his eyes.
After the sellers waved him off with cheerful smiles, he continued on his way, newly energized, hoping to stumble across something else worth bringing home.
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Arriving at the hall where the corporate booths were set up, the current vice chief of the 9th Unit of the Defense Force, Azuma Maia, let out a quiet, tired sigh as she adjusted the multiple bags hanging from her arms. Most of them were filled with doujin games, with a few doujin manga of game characters she favored tucked carefully in between.
"Fighting Shuuki wasn't as tiring as this."
Her tone remained as stoic as ever, but the exhaustion was unmistakable.
There was only one final stop she intended to make before heading to the lunch she had been anticipating all morning. A well-known Italian stall nearby was serving stone-baked pizza, something she had wanted to try for a long time but never had the chance due to work. Now that she was in Tokyo on her day off, she fully intended to make up for that.
"AniNyan is having a lottery. Perfect timing."
She accepted a raffle ticket from a staff member dressed in an Alucard cosplay from Hellsing, her eyes briefly scanning the booth's display.
The grand prize was a premium, limited-edition headset, not available for sale anywhere, along with several personally signed shikishi boards from big name seinen and josei artists. Only two winners would be chosen from the gathered crowd.
Testing her luck, Maia found herself hoping for the headset, thinking it would pair nicely with the laptop she had recently purchased. As for the signed boards, they would make a fine addition to her room.
"Wanting to get that shikishi too?"
"Mm?"
The voice came unexpectedly from beside her.
Turning slightly, Maia found a woman standing there, holding her own raffle ticket with a playful confidence. The woman, who met her gaze with a wink.
Not wanting to come off as rude, Maia gave a composed reply.
"I was just curious about it. My main interest is the headset, but the signed boards would be a good bonus as well."
"Oh—really… ah, how rude of me. I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Isadora. Nice to meet you, miss…?"
"Maia. Azuma Maia."
"Then Azuma-san it is. You can just call me Isadora."
"Okay…?"
Maia found herself at a loss for how to respond to the woman's sudden enthusiasm. The conversation had come out of nowhere, and while she wasn't opposed to it, she wasn't exactly prepared either.
"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself when I saw that bag you're carrying."
At Isadora's gesture, Maia glanced down, following her line of sight. Printed on one of the bags was the face of the main character from an action-horror shooter she had played three years ago.
"You play Blue Dead Apocalypse?" Isadora asked, her interest unmistakable.
"Yeah. I bought it on day one, actually. Physical copy," Maia replied. A faint but noticeable smile tugged at her lips. "Sitting through nineteen straight hours for it was… worth it."
"I get it~ Gilbert Condoriano was such a good protagonist."
"Not just Gilbert, even the side characters were some of the best parts of the game."
"The annoying part was how I overthought my bullet management so much that I finished the game without using a single shotgun shell… or even the magnum rounds."
Isadora pulled out her phone and flashed a picture as proof. Maia's eye twitched slightly at the sight—her inventory was overflowing with medkits and adrenaline, even on max difficulty.
"How did you survive that tanky tortoise without using a shotgun?" Maia asked, genuinely curious.
"Patience. That's what," Isadora replied with a proud tilt of her chin. "Never underestimate a broke, unemployed girl living off someone else."
Maia paused, her expression flattening just a fraction.
"I'm not sure that's something to be proud of," she thought.
"Formerly broke, though," Isadora added quickly, flashing a peace sign. "Right now, I'm an artist taking commissions. I'm still pretty new, but I already have a steady stream of regulars."
As they waited for the lottery to begin, their conversation flowed with surprising ease. Topic after topic slipped by—games, characters, small preferences and shared frustrations. Maia found herself unexpectedly drawn in. None of her family members shared her hobbies, and opportunities like this were rare. Personally talking to someone so open, so effortlessly in sync with her interests, felt… refreshing.
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When the moment of truth arrived, both Maia's and Isadora's numbers were called—beating the odds and the sheer improbability of being chosen among dozens of participants.
For a brief second, they simply stared, processing what had just happened.
They had won.
Naturally, they expected to receive their prizes right away. However, before anything could be handed over, the announcer stepped forward, adding an unexpected twist.
"Now, now—our two lovely winners!" the well-dressed, flamboyant host declared, moving with exaggerated flair. "Our president has generously decided to offer you a bonus reward! A limited DVD collection of Code Geass and a Legend of the Galactic Heroes novel set!"
He paused for dramatic effect, a grin stretching across his face.
"All you need to do is sing a little for us, our fair ladies."
The man spun on his heel, raising a hand high into the air.
"So! Will our lucky ladies accept the challenge?" His voice boomed across the booth. "YAHOOOOOO! LET'S JIBUN WOO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEEEEEEN!"
Isadora smiled with amusement while Maia could only deadpan on the predicament she got roped into just because she won, they were given a choice to accept or reject if however her pride as an Azuma on her head would be damaged if she backed down on this, cause when challenged, it is the same as losing when she reject this.
"What do you say we do, Azuma-san?"
"Isn't it obvious? We're not wasting this."
Maia took the microphone at the same time as Isadora, their movements almost perfectly in sync. The announcer lit up, quickly turning on the TV as the surrounding crowd broke into applause, their curiosity piqued by what was about to unfold.
The song selection system began to shuffle. The choices ranged across anime music from past to present—openings, endings, even insert songs—completely randomized. There was no way to predict what would come up. Dancing was encouraged for bonus points, but singing remained the main focus.
Maia's expression darkened slightly as the screen finalized the selection.
"You've got to be kidding me…" she muttered, a trace of dread creeping in as regret began to settle over her stubborn decision.
"Throwback to the 2000s, huh?" Isadora laughed, giving Maia a light pat on the back.
The announcer leaned forward dramatically, voice booming with excitement.
"Ohhh, what do we have here? That's right, ladies and gentlemen! Our lucky winners have drawn Hare Hare Yukai! The SOS Brigade is back to bless us with peak MOE and unstoppable CUTENESSSSSSSSS!"
The crowd erupted, a mix of cheers and laughter rippling.
The countdown hit zero, and the music burst to life.
Isadora didn't hesitate. She already had the rhythm, raising her free hand as she stepped lightly from side to side, her movements fluid and confident before the lyrics even began. When the first line came in, she pointed upward, her body swaying with an effortless groove. She brought her palm to her face and winked at the crowd, completely at ease.
"Nazonazo mitai ni chikyuugi wo tokiakashitara, minna de doko made mo ikeru ne~" Her voice rang out—clear, lively, and captivating. It drew attention almost instantly, as if she had slipped into her own world where nothing else existed. "Wakuwaku shitai to negainagara sugoshiteta yo, kanaete kureta no wa dare nano?"
The crowd leaned in, their cheers growing louder, some already clapping along to the beat.
Beside her, Maia hesitated for only a moment. Then, gathering herself, she lightly slapped her cheeks—once, twice—before stepping forward. "Jikan no hate made—Boooon!!"
Her voice joined in, strong and surprisingly melodic. She didn't just keep up but also she matched the energy, her movements syncing.
As the chorus hit, the energy surged.
Members of the crowd—and even the announcer—joined in, mimicking the iconic dance as phones were raised to capture the moment. Laughter, cheers, and music blended into a chaotic, vibrant rhythm at the center of the hall.
Maia's body moved almost on autopilot, stepping and turning through motions she never would have imagined herself doing. Yet somehow, it felt natural. The energy around her was infectious, pulling her along, and to her own surprise, she was enjoying every second of it.
Beside her, Isadora went all in, dancing at full intensity, completely immersed until the very last beat.
"Oikakete ne tsukamaete mite, ooki na yume & yume suki deshou?"
Their voices blended seamlessly, singing in sync as they moved through the final choreography. As the song reached its end, they struck the last pose together with the crowd—everyone freezing in exaggerated positions.
For a split second, silence fell.
Then the hall erupted into a roaring cheer.