The highest highs, the lowest lows.
Review may contain minor conceptual/structural spoilers.
Natsuzora no Perseus bears the visage of a dream:
Characterization is minimal – with love & romance assumed, not developed. The protagonist & specified heroine profess the greatest of loves, despite knowing each other for a week. Whereas some works develop love to the point where it mirrors reality, Perseus works like a dream, in making the reader just go with it – nodding, as if in a blitzed reverie; accepting dubious events & just living in-the-moment.Plot is sparse – each route outside the true take under 3 hours to complete, with a structure befitting a wet dream. Each route is structured like a salacious sandwich – thick buns of h-scenes on the outer edges, with a hefty serving of melodrama in the middle. In 2012, Perseus edged out nukige in winning Getchu’s “#1 Ero Scenes.” Artistically, they were detailed; in relation to the plot itself, they often made no sense – and indeed, worked just like a ‘dream’ (I think, therefore it happens).
Pacing is brisk – when you can assume plot events & characterizations from the go, you can skip the boring development – the slice of life. Just met? No worries, straight into a h-scene. On the bright side, this allowed Perseus to focus on what it valued the most – putting the reader in the midst of it all – as if becoming lucid in the middle of a dream, then acting after that.
Emotions are extreme – in a dream, the details are fuzzy; the reader is often spontaneously put in the climax of it all – and oddly enough, at some points, the reader is predisposed to accept the grandiose – getting caught up in the moment. minori is known for their melodramatic developments, and in Perseus, they execute upon that premise pretty well – making the reader feel, even though the events don’t really make sense.
Production quality is high – consistently high-quality; often cinematic. The art-style is best described as bloomy – stereotypically dream-like. 2d sprites are elevated to look straight out of animations through field of vision set-ups. Due to this, the work is shorter than most comparable works; but, this means that the work never gets ‘boring.’ The soundtrack by TENMON complements the work well; with a style that hammers in the listener what they should be feeling. It achieves a type of disfunctional harmony when paired with the grandiose, dream-like vibe & sketchy writing.
Ultimately, Perseus is either a work of artistic genius – where it is a dream (and crafting a work like that is no easy task) – or a blunder – where it’s poorly-written as a nukige with light plot. The more the reader is willing to accept what goes on – to just go with it, the more they’ll like Perseus. Like a dream, Perseus is a work with high highs, but low lows – like a dream, it may be a transient sensation – completely unmemorable after the read – but for some, it might be a pleasant memory; a dream worth having.
Adapted from original article written on 9/24/2014.
