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Review of Kakenuke★Seishun Sparking!

SubjectKakenuke★Seishun Sparking!
Kakenuke★Seishun Sparking!
ByHelpfulness: 1
Vote: 8
marvn on 2022-05-25
Reviewnote: 青春/seishun means something like youth, the shining part of your life.

This title was a disappointment. I expected much more since Kinkoi was great, and while Hibiki and Kikka's routes lived up to my expectations, the other four routes bored me to death, and I literally fell asleep while reading Riri's route. That's for someone who seeks out moe and not really heavy plot stuff; you still need SOME plot. A lot of the time it just felt like filler.

I'd recommend only reading Hibiki's route, then Ritsu's route (optional), then skipping to Kikka's route. Hibiki's route contains some backstory, and Ritsu's route resolves Yuu's drama with his family. However Ritsu's route was also a total snoozefest so I think it's also optional. And I'm usually one to get on people's cases about reading things to completion.

Hibiki was pretty fun, as an upbeat proactive girl dragging Yuu along with all her antics and getting him to experience seishun. The romance was pretty fun and comedic, with her trying to get him to confess. I half expected him to propose as his confession, and was sorely disappointed when that didn't happen. The minor drama in her route was okay, the climax scene was awesome and romantic. Definitely would look forward to it. There were boring parts when they were preparing for the festival however so only a 9/10 overall.

Shiori is cute in a normal way. She likes cats, which is why she wears cat ears and is a catgirl vtuber. The plot is basically her being in vtuber's block, and they do seishun stuff to get over it. Also getting over her fear of interacting with strangers. Was pretty boring. 7/10

Ritsu is a max level brocon, which is fine because they're NBR. But society might not be so kind to that yada yada. Pretty standard stuff, he sees her fapping at night and considers her feelings seriously. The drama resolves Yuu's conflicts with his family and is okay. But even as a lover of little sisters I found her not very appealing and the route a total snoozefest, 6/10

Nagi's family runs a dojo, so you'd think the plot would be about that. It's about her new hobby instead, and how she grapples her future which might involve that hobby and/or aikido. Snoozefest, 6/10

Riri's plot is just about why she's compelled to volunteer for people, and then them volunteering. There's an SDCG of her on her bed that's cute as fuck though, do take your time admiring it. 6/10

Kikka is my beloved. She's up close and personal with Yuu, forceful about getting him to experience seishun. With her confident personality it's super cute when she gets flustered. The romance was great, they spend a lot of time together and she's surprised when Yuu takes an interest in her. She'd told him girls are resolved to some extent if they're alone with a guy, and that if he's alone with a girl he should be proactive, kiss her, and push her down and fuck. Basically egging him on, trying to get him to experience seishun and get a gf. I really loved how he used that advice of hers and she was all flustered and cute. They experience seishun together and then the drama happens, I quite liked the way it played out and the ending was satisfying. Only gripe is it wasn't satisfying enough, there could have been an after story for her at least. And her route was a fair bit shorter than other routes (like 70% of a standard route) and had less CGs for some reason. For a true route I feel like it should have been prioritized. 10/10

Overall would have been a 10/10 if four of the routes weren't boring as fuck. Kikka was (almost?) worth sitting through thirty hours of boring. Girls themselves were cute but the story was not there. Music, art, voice acting, production quality is good. With six writers credited I guess some of them were misses, which explains the variation in quality.
1 point
#1 by AmanoKaze
2022-05-25 at 03:28
< report >You didn't mention how they use the word "seishun" like some sort of buzzword lol. I personally didn't like hibiki's route and felt some qualities in her route i.e the cg or voice acting is weaker than the others, but the other 3 routes pretty much revolves in discovering their secret hobby and solving slumps or questioning their hobbies themselves , which is not great. Ironic for a seishun themed game they really narrowed it down like that. Kikka's route was good but it kinda deviates from the main theme, not that i mind since she's adorable. the usage of seishun in her route does feels like it's shoehorned way too hard .
All and all, good review and yeah people who are looking forward for this game should lower their expectations in someway and just forget kinkoi exist, otherwise you are going to have a bad time unless you really like the girls. Riri's voice acting is a saving grace tho, thankfullyLast modified on 2022-05-25 at 03:29
#2 by kiru
2022-05-25 at 07:17
< report >Sometimes I wonder how a rating makes sense with the review it's for. This review reads like a 5/10, which is my impression as well. Just that I didn't skip 4 routes to get to the one route of an actually interesting/likeable character.
#3 by AmanoKaze
2022-05-25 at 09:41
< report >The reviewer average score for each route is 6.7 but that's just the common. The details are more important than the opinions at least
#4 by marvn
2022-05-25 at 17:36
< report >#1 Yeah true the CGs definitely feel a step down from Kinkoi, maybe lower budget overall or something.

#2 My scores are probably quite inflated. I do think that if I read every single VN in existence to completion my average score would be lower than a 5, but I only read stuff I think I'll like. And it ended on a high note with Kikka so recency bias?
#5 by teamkazato
2024-02-26 at 19:29
< report >Kikka was absolutely the highlight here. 10/10 Route.
It had everything anyone could have wanted.