REVIEW: Supipara: Alice the magical conductor Ch#01 -Spring has come


Title	Supipara: Alice the magical conductor Ch#01 -Spring has come
Developer	minori
Publisher	MangaGamer
Release Date	July 29th, 2016
Genre	Visual Novel, Adventure
Platform	PC
Age Rating	All Ages
Official Website

It has been quite a while since I took on a Visual Novel for review. When I saw MangaGamer was releasing Supipara: Alice the magical conductor Ch#01 -Spring has come I was pretty excited. The reason for this excitement was this title was being created by the same folks that had worked on Eden, so I expected great things outta this one. Was I let down, or did I find another fantastic Visual Novel?

The story follows a young man named Yukinari Sanada that was involved in a terrible accident that left his father dead and his mother in a coma. After staying with relatives for seven years he has finally returned to his hometown upon the news his mother has finally awakened from her coma. He is met by his very eccentric cousin Sakura Narumi, complete in her cute maid uniform.

As she is showing him around he catches a glimpse of a strange girl, but she soon disappears. Later that night he decides to check out the local shrine, that just so happens to have a hot springs. Here he has his first encounter with Momiji Yuuzuki. She seems like a sweet down to earth girl, though when he meets her at school the following day, that image is quickly shattered. That night as he heads home he decides to check out the mysterious Sakura Forest. There he encounters a witch named Alice. I don’t think Yukinari would have believed her if she was not flying on a broom. After a short exchange it appears she knows him, but he has no memory of her. Later is revealed that Alice grants wishes in exchange for memories, and she was looking to make him a paying customer. This could happen, soon after starting at his new school he is drafted to run a committee for the upcoming Miss Oumi Pageant. He’s gonna need lots of luck or maybe even some magic to see this through to end.

This is a very basic outline of how our tale begins. There are plenty of twists and turns throughout the story as you learn more not only about the characters I mentioned but other characters such as the very tsundere Hotaru Angeline Amano and few other minor players. Though most of the characters are your typical anime archetypes, the story is very well written and characters play off each others quirks nicely. Momiji is my personal favorite because she has such a drastic change in personality between school and the shrine. I do question some of the decisions the protagonist makes towards the end of the story, but I think each reader will have a different take on that, which is a good thing.

The artwork in the game is simply amazing. The characters are very nicely drawn and instead of just being still art there is some animation. The detail in the characters facial expressions added a lot to this title, and it was great decision on development team’s part. I love the costume designs that were chosen for these characters as well, from Alice’s witch outfit to Momiji’s Miko, they are all very detailed and really make these characters come to life. The backgrounds are all nicely done. Some of them lack detail, but some go above and beyond to make the most memorable parts of the story stand out.

The game is fully voiced in Japanese and it is top quality. All the voices fit the characters wonderfully and you can really feel each character’s personality coming through with each line. The protagonist is the only character that is not voiced, which happens pretty often in visual novels. I loved the soundtrack as well. There are happy upbeat tunes that accompany the fun of daily life and some more somber songs for those touching moments, so this soundtrack has a nice mix of styles.

I really enjoyed the 10 hours I spent with Supipara: Alice the magical conductor Ch#01 -Spring has come. The artwork was simply amazing, and I loved the characters. The story may not break new ground, but it is definitely interesting and hooked me from the very beginning. Since this story focuses mainly on only one of the girls, I really hope the other chapters let me get to know the rest of the cast better, but this is only chapter 1, after all. I thought it was a nice touch that upon completion of the story a memories gallery unlocks. This gallery contains lots of the game’s CG artwork, music and important events. I know a lot of visual novels do this, but some of the lower priced ones like this leave that feature out, so it’s worth noting. The only issue I had with this one was the auto read speed and the text display speeds do not always move along at the rates you set them at. I did feel the story was kinda forced at the end just a bit, but I think this really comes down to a matter of personal taste. This is a very minor issue and didn’t really effect my enjoyment of this title. If you’re a fan of Visual novels at the $14.95 price tag I’d have to recommend this one.