Introduction
Today I am starting a new series. In Eroge Play Report, I take an untranslated game and post about it as I play, in a mix of discussion and storytime. It's intended to be more casual than a review and also allows me to focus on smaller details that would get skipped over in one. In hindsight, this first post still felt a bit stunted because I had to introduce the game, its characters and so on, but future installments will jump straight into discussing the game itself.
The first game I'm covering in this series is Ane Ane W Saimin (read as Ane Ane Double Saimin), a 2016 game by POISON with art by Tamaru Makoto (mostly known for his work on Ikusa Otome Valkyrie) and Kobapyon and writing Sakamoto Seinichi and Surounin. These two are familiar names in eroge featuring Sexual Training/Choukyou, Sexual Slavery and Corruption, though almost always as secondary writers in bigger projects or helming smaller titles. And neither was particularly connected to the Mind Control genre specifically before this game.
So it's surprising to me that this game came out so remarkable in how it utilizes hypnosis. Don't get me wrong, it's not some groundbreaking, never-seen-before use - it's using subliminals to alter the target's behavior over time. But the writing is concerned with the rules and boundaries of the hypnotic induction, it manages to maintain a sense of stakes and risk for the protagonist, and the way the girls respond to the subliminals feels realistic in the sense that it doesn't switch off their minds and robs them entirely of their agency, but it's a constant fight between the brainwashing and their increasingly deteriorating common sense. They may even act on the subliminals in ways the protagonist didn't expect. This is a step beyond several mind control eroge that just use mind control tech is basically omnipotent, able to wipe and reprogram the mind with extreme ease - not that these kinds of scenarios can't be hot as well, they can, but more often than not in eroge, they're used as a crutch in stories that barely feel like they're about mind control. Ane Ane W Saimin reads like a mind control story first and foremost.
At least the parts I played. As it's obvious, I have played this game before and hold it in high regard. But I have never completed it. I played two of its routes and saw 3 of its endings, but something or other always kept me from really diving deep and doing all the content in a single playthrough. In part, it's because often the ending I reached left me satisfied. Plain bad luck also played a role - I couldn't buy it years ago, and getting its crack to work can be annoying. I happened to lose a laptop mid-playthrough and the game simply refused to agree with my next machine. I've been meaning to replay it since early last year, but something or other always got in the way. In part, that's why I'm starting this series, so I can maintain focus.
Now that I introduced the game and my history with it, let's start.
Hypnosis App? Seriously?
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| This text was translated from several promotional materials. |
First things first. I know a lot of people are rolling their eyes at the mention of a "Hypnosis App". It is a tired concept. But, not only is this game from 2016, before the concept really exploded in popularity in its current form, but the app is also completely different from what you're probably imagining. We're not talking about a phone app that puts people into a mindless trance instantly. It's a set that consists of a bunch of small speakers that look like wiretaps that the protagonist has to hide in the house that send out subliminal signals tailor-made for each target, and a customized tablet with the Hypnosis App, effectively a tool to make the subliminals and manage this network of devices.
The signals are a mix of the user's heartbeat (sounding akin to how a baby hears the mother's heartbeat from inside the womb, meant to create a sense of security and comfort related to the user) and the subliminal instructions to be imprinted on the victim's mind. It initially takes a long time for the effects to manifest, but with continuous exposure it takes less time and eventually, lasting changes can be made. In addition to the mental changes, the body can also be messed with, as long as its something that can happen through a placebo or hormonal activity. Stuff like changing the target's sense of taste and smell, lactating without being pregnant, and feeling sexual pleasure during urination are possible, while making one's penis bigger or regenerating a wound faster are not.
While the pseudoscience of how it works is just bullshit and far from realistic hypnotic induction, the slower and more involved process makes for a more engaging story than just waving a smartphone in front of a woman and turning her into a puppet. As I said before, the limitations of the device, how the girls may react unexpectedly to certain instructions dictate the tension of the story.
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| Not the usual approach for Hypnosis App stuff. |
