boy moe archive

this is the page on torus zero from the 1st binetsu ouji issue. the cbz of which is Coming Soon

if i'm being honest the main reason i began collecting bl game magazines was because i wanted to find more information about torus zero. when i was trying to look for information about my favorite untranslated bl game from 2002 i was mystified at how much they promoted this game in the same time period but when i couldn't find any records of it existing i was like What thefuck... Something happened here

this kind of went nowhere because pretty much all the info on the game i could find in these magazines was available on the internet (archive) already besides for the interviews with carnelian. and in them she kind of just says nothingburger information. but this felt like a passion project of hers that didn't work out as planned...

Poster for the unreleased BL game Torus Zero from the Jul 2002 issue of Binetsu Ouji (微熱王子)

Poster for Kaitou Apricot (2002) from the Mar 2003 issue of B's Log

I have finally gotten around to uploading the March 2003 issue of B's Log into the Internet Archive. This contains tips and tricks for BL and otome games from over 20 years ago as usual. Very interesting to see what kind of stuff was popular before the rise of Nitro Chiral!

B's Log is a mostly SFW magazine but I wouldn't open it at work and there's like, shota content in here too.

i've copped some more bl/otome game magazines. this time it's the first 6 volumes of binetsu ouji 「微熱王子」 aka the old identity of cool-b magazine which is still running today. these are going to be the last ones i ever get for a while because i am leaving my job soon so i'll be without income for i don't know how long (⁠~⁠_⁠~⁠;⁠)

I BELIEVE THESE ARE RELATIVELY RARE!! some of the oldest issues of cool-b are available for purchase on dlsite so i vowed to stop getting old issues of those. but as far as i know binetsu ouji is archived nowhere. and these issues are in extremely good condition too... i feel kind of bad. but once i saw these listings i had to pounce. as i am just so passionate about Yaoi Game History

See, there are two protagonists. Initially, you have to play as the girl in the center of the above image and go down the boys' routes as if it were your usual romance otome game. There is genuine romance in these routes. After certain requirements are fulfilled, you play through the same timeframe of events but in the older brother's perspective with more lore drops. Official material on this game loves to stress that it is an otome game and a "boys" game (Not "'"Boys Love"'"! Just "Boys"). I'm guessing the routes are a collection of "male shounen friendship" stories and unraveling the mysteries that may come with the plot of this game.

The premise is that the girl, Asakura Akino, moves to a rural town and transfers into an technology or engineering school. Her brother, Souichirou, has come with her too after returning from studying in America. Akino also has two childhood friends at the school. However, one day, she learns about research and development being done on something called "Autonomous Mobile Vehicle Izuna". Her brother and the two aforementioned childhood friends are involved in this project as well, but nobody wants to tell Akino anything. What exactly is Izuna and what is the truth behind its development?

I think Izuna looked interesting when I first saw an image of it because the art style isn't conventional for an otome game. Otome game art usually likes its tall ikemens and stylish color palettes but the cel-shaded stockier character art style for Izuna feels reminiscent of children's robot anime. The artist for this game, Shiroishi Kotoni, has done a lot of comic work for mecha anime and I'm like, "Yes this checks out".

Speaking of mecha, while I wouldn't consider this a "mecha otome game" because there's no piloting of humanoid robots, the sci-fi robot anime vibe is something I haven't even considered for a joseimuke game. This image is the Autonomous Mobile Vehicle Izuna as in the title of the game and it's like a character in itself. Shiroishi Kotoni knows how to draw robots so I guess that's why he was hired as the artist because the whole plot surrounds this thing.

I want to play this but it's at a level of obscurity where I haven't been able to find any 🏴‍☠️🚢 links. I would have at least tried the trial version because the website is still up but all the file download links for the demo are dead and haven't been preserved by the Web Archive. I also think the physical version of this game is actually rare too because despite being an all-ages PC game, some of the secondhand selling prices I see are pretty expensive! Well, the game is voiced, and some of the cast members include Fukujun and Takahiro Sakurai.

I just discovered that there are scans to some issues of Cool-B and B's Log scattered around the web on less than savory image hosting sites. Credit goes to a user named SMiyano on e-hentai...