16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Episodes 1-3

16bit Sensation: Another Layer is a series steeped in not just nostalgia, but niche nostalgia. The very fact that the plot is initiated by bishoujo game superfan Konoha being whisked away to Akihabara in the year 1992 by a magical copy of Dōkyūsei should tell you everything you need to know about how much this story will appeal to you. However, those specific kinds of references that the anime trades in also emphasize the value of playing those particular kinds of hits. The sort of mainstream nerdery championed by shout-out-fests like Ready Player One doesn't do anything apart from emphasize how generally successful stuff like Back To The Future and Ghostbusters are. However, with 16bit Sensation, there's an acknowledgment of how foundational visual novels and bishoujo games of this era were to the current omnipresent otaku landscape, despite how unaware many might be of that. Anybody who's played Fate/Grand Order or is enjoying this season's I'm in Love with the Villainess is living in a world built on the backs of these visual novels, even if all they know about Kanon is that it stars a cute girl who goes "Uguu!"

Konoha is an effective, if energetic guide to introduce audiences to this world. I can honestly see some viewers annoyed by her occasionally cacophonic delivery, but I find her delightful. Aoi Koga's performance hits just the right degree of unhinged wailing in her most disastrous moments to sell her as an endearing girlfailure. On the flip side, her enthusiasm when she gets to infodump about the things she loves comes through as genuine. The audience doesn't get to hear her go into too much detail about the likes of Kanon or Dōkyūsei, but she recognizes their importance to the culture (and it's no coincidence she was inspired to get taiyaki after talking about Kanon, if you know you know).

It's an idea revisited in Another Layer's second episode, as she expounds to Mamoru and acknowledges the way otaku culture wins out in her future. In the third episode, that evolution of the nerd landscape informs how Konoha happily helps entry-level eroge enthusiast Toya Yamada by confidently striding into the nerd stronghold of Messe Sanoh with her to pick up those new releases. It's heartening to see these characters earnestly beaming as they observe the boxes of downright deviant influential material like Isaku. Konoha loves her media of choice and the prevalence of it she can see in shops and online in her world, even as she also bristles at the hollowed-out ubiquity of mobile games or the lack of ambitions in the MILF hypnosis shovelware game she's assigned to work on.

However, that's all the cultural framework that Another Layer sets up before hurtling Konoha into the plot. This anime is a spin-off of sorts to the original 16bit Sensation manga, which entirely took place in the 1990s and detailed the game creation processes in that era. Through Konoha's eyes, the anime can impart that same knowledge, and it quickly emerges as one of the show's most compelling components. Audiences in 2023 might be aware of what dithering in pixel art was, but seeing its deployment pointed out across lovingly rendered 16-color computer displays puts its prominence in a whole new perspective. Konoha has to effectively re-learn her art skills through this technology of the ancients, imparting in her a respect for the craft of these games beyond her appreciation for their historical value. And that speaks to Another Layer's connective approach to its material; When Konoha name-drops Oekaki boards at the end of the second episode, it's not simply a shout-out for children of the 2000s to Leo-point at, it's an acknowledgment of how the culture and techniques of that prior era informed the material that's being produced today.

That idea of learning the craft behind this material continues in Another Layer's third episode, which also firms up the actual format for this series. Konoha isn't just sticking it out in the past after 1992; she'll be coming and going through landmark years in eroge/VN development history. So here she winds up transported via a copy of Kizuato to the summer of 1996, July 26 to be precise, when that game and Pia Carrot both released. Kizuato is notable both historically and in the context of this anime's story, as it was not only the second game from publisher Leaf in their series which would name and define the "Visual Novel" genre (following the also-landmark Shizuku) but it was also a game published not just for the PC-98, but for Microsoft Windows.

This shift in formats is crucial to the conflict that Konoha stumbles into four years after her first stint at Alcohol Soft. The Mamoru she meets here is older but still just as attached to his beloved PC-98 line, and his misgivings about moving to Windows reflect that concept of craftsmanship. Mamoru asserts that the conveniences of Windows disconnect people like his fellow developers from the actual mechanics of programming games. It's an issue just beginning to be raised at the beginning of this story, but given Konoha's modern-day grievances with what she sees as diminishing passion in her workplace, it does raise the question of where she'll go from this crossroads. Here, Another Layer has effectively defined itself as a niche nostalgia history lesson, an exploration of the attitudes that steered that history, and a way to analyze how they inform the present. And sure, that's only as far as the history of graphic girlie games, but as the series has already demonstrated, that timeline is inescapably interwoven with the broader story of all of otaku culture.

Rating:

Bonus Bits:

• What would something based on visual novels be without some omake materials? There are plenty of little extras to cover throughout 16bit Sensation: Another Layer. The first point to touch on is the original manga itself. It's sadly not been made officially available in English (*hint hint* to my Kadokawa overlords), but I can strongly recommend this video on it by Amelie Dorie, who also happens to be one of my recent favorite YouTubers. She focuses, quite appropriately, on classic and influential VNs and bishoujo games, and her whole catalog is a great way to start exploring that world if you're an utter neophyte. She's also done videos on Kanon, Dōkyūsei, and Pia Carrot! Do note that due to the nature of the content she covers, quite a bit of it is 18+.
• Speaking of Dōkyūsei, that game, in its modern remade form, is officially available for purchase in English through Steam! Sadly, Kanon does not seem to be officially available anywhere, though the 2006 anime adaptation is available to stream on Crunchyroll. Many other of Key's major titles, like Clannad and Little Busters!, can also be had through Steam. Those in the know would also helpfully inform you that you'll need to search for additional patches for these games to enable the 18+ content, but that's often simple enough.
• 16bit Sensation had its story conceived by Misato Mitsumi and Tatsuki Amazuyu based on their time in the bishoujo game industry. Both illustrators became known for their roles at AQUAPLUS (of which Leaf is a sub-brand) but previously worked at Cocktail Soft, the developer for which the in-series Alcohol Soft is named. The game Konoha works on in the second episode, Sunny with a Chance of Vacation, appears to be based on Cocktail Soft's Doki Doki Vacation ~Kirameku Kisetsu no Naka de~. Amusingly, Cocktail Soft was the developer on Welcome to Pia Carrot, which is still attributed to them in 16bit Sensation's universe.
• Being that Konoha's as much a fan of anime as she is bishoujo games (check out all the Lycoris Recoil merch in her room, I knew she was a woman of culture), I got curious about what series would be airing in the past she was flung to. The end of 1992 and the winter season of 1993 would've seen Konoha able to catch the middle of Dragon Ball Z's Cell Arc and Yū Yū Hakusho's original run. But given her love of bishoujo, she might be more interested in the original Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon, which would just be finishing up its run during her first stint at Alcohol Soft. By the time she returned in the summer 1996, Konoha would have her pick of later sequels, including Dragon Ball GT and Sailor Moon's Sailor Stars season, and would be knee-deep in big new hits of the era including Escaflowne and Kodocha!

16bit Sensation: Another Layer is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris mostly knows many of these VN game characters from the fighting games they popped up in. You can catch him meditating on any amount of game, anime, and manga subjects over on his blog, as well as posting too many screencaps of them as long as Twitter allows.