Adult Game Anime Review Visual Novel

Aokana – Extra1 – Review | Mashiro’s Afterstory

To preface this review of Aokana – Extra1, I will ask a question. Have you played Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue yet? If not, we have not one, but two reviews for you to check out, with both writers rating it highly.

The reason why I ask this is that Aokana – Extra1 is a fandisc. It’s an after story for the Mashiro route of the original game and is aimed directly at fans of the character. Loved Aokana and want to see more of Mashiro? This is aimed at you. Never played Aokana? This isn’t where you should start.

Story

Once again we find ourselves in Shitou City. The place where using anti-graviton shoes to fly is as common as riding a bicycle and the most popular sport involves racing and dogfights in the sky. This sport is known as flying circus.

Aokana – Extra1 starts after Mashiro has had some success in flying circus and started dating Masaya, the main character of the original game. The tournament is over and flying circus is now in more of a background role. It was certainly still mentioned and had brief appearances, but the excitement of the sport and competition has been dropped in favor of a slice of life approach and comedic events taking the forefront. This shift in tone was expected as it is a fandisc, but may come as a surprise to some. 

As the story starts we see that despite her successes, Mashiro is still anxious and not particularly confident. She’s well aware that she’s socially awkward and that a lot of the girls around are more stereotypically feminine or attractive. Most of what she cooks could be classed as poison, she doesn’t know how to dress up nicely and she’s the least physically developed of any of her friends.

Aokana - Extra1 - Characters

The end goal is set early on in Aokana – Extra1. There will be a date between Masaya and Mashiro. The story is the path there. Switching perspectives between the two, we see Mashiro trying to improve what she feels are her weak points as they both prepare for the event. This can be touching at points, but mostly it’s comedic with some romantic scenes. 

One nice part of it being a fandisc focusing on Mashiro is the chance to see her having some one-on-one time with the other heroines. There are scenes of her friends supporting the relationship and doing their best to help, despite this not always being effective or the best thing to do. Many of the secondary characters connected to Mashiro appear too and we get to learn a little more about them.

This visual novel is filled with events like spontaneous cooking contests and less than subtle attempts to find out what Masaya likes in a woman. I can’t say that it was a very strong story as is often the case with slice of life, but I certainly laughed at quite a few parts. It only took me less than four hours to complete, but it was an enjoyable time.

Aokana - Extra1 - Mashiro Swimsuit

Erotic Content and Censorship

Aokana – Extra1 is available uncensored on Denpasoft and several other storefronts. The Steam version is slightly censored and a free patch can be applied to restore missing content. Mosaics remain even in the uncensored version. There are three H-scenes and not much fanservice outside of these. The adult content is fairly standard and only involves Masaya and Mashiro, aside from some nude sprites only seen in an extra function outside of the main game.

Graphics, Sound, and Systems

The artwork is high quality overall and there are a respectable 73 CGs. Some of these were in the super-deformed style, while many others were detailed and incredibly beautiful. Aokana – Extra1 is quite short, so this feels like quite a lot. 

Many of the backgrounds and sprites will be recognizable from the original game, as will most of the music though it seems some additional pieces have been added. The technique of animating the characters by having sprites and CGs move about was another nice touch to bring things to life more and Aokana – Extra1 does this often.

All of the basic visual novel options are included, plus some of the nice extras such as individual volume controls per character. The resolution goes up to 2560×1440 and it includes a Borderless mode as well as Windowed and Fullscreen which is a rare and appreciated addition. English, Japanese and Chinese languages are all included.

It should be noted that there is a single choice in this visual novel. It doesn’t matter.

Mashiro

Verdict

I would recommend Aokana – Extra1 if you completed Aokana, liked Mashiro, and enjoy the light comedy style the story is told with. It’s short, lighthearted, and sweet while keeping the humor up almost constantly. Despite the lack of a strong plot, if you want to see more of Mashiro after you won her over in Aokana, this is where you can find it. It’s not as engaging as the original Aokana, but it is in the end a short fandisc – additional content aimed directly at the fans. And that’s fine.

AOKANA – EXTRA1 IS RECOMMENDED

Platforms: PC
Purchase Link: Denpasoft / JAST USA

If you have not yet read Aokana, it is worth checking out. The PC version made our top visual novels of 2019 list, which you can read here. If you would like to see more visual novels, you may be interested in our review of Under One Wing.

Many thanks go to NekoNyan for a PC review code for this title.

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One thought on “Aokana – Extra1 – Review | Mashiro’s Afterstory

  1. Nice review. It might be the only one for Extra1 so far too. I liked Aokana mostly for the sports theme but I think i’ll still go ahead and buy this one. I want to see a Asuka one next if they ever make it.

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