the visual novel database

Report an issue on this page.

Review of Harumade, Kururu.

SubjectHarumade, Kururu.
Harumade, Kururu.
ByHelpfulness: 5
Vote: 7
soupygoopy on 2020-09-23 last updated on 2020-09-24
ReviewReviewer note: I read HaruKuru in Japanese back in 2017-2018 and this review is mostly copied from my review on r/visualnovels written in June 2018. I hope to reread it at some point and if I do, I'll update my review to reflect this. This review is spoiler-free.

There are two reasons I read visual novels. First, they give me the opportunity to learn and practice reading Japanese while having fun doing it. Second, VN structure and tropes allow stories to be told in way I've seen no other media do. Many of the VNs I love really don't have an obvious analogue outside of the VN world, even anime/manga/etc. As such, I'm strongly drawn to VNs that look and feel unique.

Harumade, Kururu definitely looks and feels unique. After learning that it starts with an insanely long wall of H-scenes and transitions into a serious genre-savvy hard science fiction story, I had to read it. And yeah... that's pretty much what it is. Like everyone else who has read HaruKuru said before me, there are WAY too many H-scenes. The ones in the prologue were entertaining and I got a kick out of some of them, but the one's in each of the girls' arcs had all of the standard VN H-scene tropes that I find annoying. On the other hand, once the prologue ends, HaruKuru embarks on a surprisingly thoughtful examination of the nukige tropes brought up in the prologue and creates a very believable and plausible case for how an anime harem might actually be created. All of the weird idiosyncrasies of the characters and setting are closely examined, and the characters themselves become quite genre-savvy and intelligent. I wasn't a fan of the final arc and epilogue since HaruKuru seemed to depart from its careful consideration of its characters and setting. Instead, it tried to end on a very positive, hopeful note which struck me as out-of-place given what I spent the last 3 arcs reading.

I find it kind of difficult to categorize HaruKuru. After the prologue, each girl's arc except Shizuka starts off as an ontological mystery, but things change from there. Harumi's arc is something of a psychological horror, Akio's arc is stylized very similarly to a Western mystery novel, and Fuyune's arc is definitely science fiction. All of the first three arc are quite dark and Fuyune's in particular is basically an utsuge. I found all three of these arcs enjoyable for their own reasons, although Harumi's arc was somewhat isolated from the rest (her arc goes to an entirely separate side ending and AFAIK, it's possible to get the true ending without reading her story. Note that Harumi's actions in Akio's arc will make little sense without playing Harumi's arc first, however.) Shizuka's arc takes things in a very different direction with almost absurd optimism leading into the final arc which ends on that hopeful note.

HaruKuru was a good read, but certainly not perfect. The H-scene prologue could have been cut by 75% without losing anything except the strong emphasis on the absurdity of the setting. Shizuka's arc should have been a little shorter and I think the epilogue could have been cut entirely. I think HaruKuru could have also viably ended at the end of Fuyune's arc with Kazuki's suicide but that would have been a very dark ending.

For my contribution to the Waifu Wars, I'd say Akio > Harumi > Mafune> Fuyune > Shizuka. Akio is absolutely my waifu and I actually got a tattoo of her a year and a half or so after reading HaruKuru (bro, I just posted cringe). Shizuka seems to get a lot of love, but I found her extremely annoying and her arc had much less of the careful examination of the setting than the other girls' arcs. I liked the rest of the heroines just fine. They all have more to them than meets the eye and I respect a story where neither the heroines nor the protagonist act like idiots.

Overall, I would say Harumade, Kururu is ambitious, good, and unlike anything I've ever read before, but its also very flawed. I gave it a 7/10. Read it if you wanna see a harem get subverted, justified, and maybe even deconstructed as it turns into a surprisingly solid sci-fi story and can live with its gratuitous H-scenes and syrupy moege ending.
5 points
#1 by rampaa
2020-09-27 at 13:45
< report >
For my contribution to the Waifu Wars
Shizuka>=Fuyune=Mafuyu>Akio>>Harumi. Harumi is hands down the worst girl.
#2 by funnerific
2021-04-23 at 19:13
< report >Maybe if every single character didn't have their minds almost permanently stuck in the gutter, this would've been a fun read. I really like the setting and Harumi route is very interesting (that resolution though... meh), but most of the time harukuru is a torture to read because everyone is constantly talking about sex and everything related to it, sometimes even in the midst of serious scenes. It ruins the heroines too, making them merely generic harem members with next to zero appeal of their own.

The narration is plagued with the main character's barrages of idiotic and horny thoughts. All that moralist talk was pretty annoying, too. Could be worse, I guess...?

The best part of the game is a several-hour-long infodump... (end of Fuyune's section)

That said, check out The Talos Principle (an awesome 2014 videogame) for a similar setting.Last modified on 2021-04-23 at 19:14
#3 by vario
2021-04-24 at 06:48
< report >#2 It's... interesting how your best part was pretty annoying to me (long infodump isn't something I'd describe as good in general though) while humor was one of those parts that made Harukuru feel unique. There is something in the Watanabe's writing that feels like his own thing and not something you see anywhere else. But I can see how it might be off-putting for others.