Distant Memoraĵo (Itsuka no Memorajxo ~Kotonoha Amrilato~) is a girls’ love visual novel released by SukeraSparo in 2019. It is the sequel to their 2017 title The Expression Amrilato, serving as a continuation of one of the endings of the previous games. The series is set in a parallel universe where most people speak Juliamo, a fictional language based on the real-world constructed language Esperanto which is rooted in various European languages. Distant Memorajo was made available to English-speaking audiences on MangaGamer and Steam back in 2021 as SukeroSparo’s second international release.
Having enjoyed the first title, I had pretty high hopes for Distant Memoraĵo. While I wouldn’t say that The Expression Amrilato had incredible worldbuilding, the potential to expand upon the established setting was far from being non-existent. Additionally, the decision to ground the sequel’s plot on arguably one of the less desirable endings was a pretty interesting move as well. On a lighter note, I wouldn’t really say no to more heartwarming scenes featuring our main couple, now would I? All these helped me form pretty pleasant expectations going into it, and I would love nothing more but to have them fulfilled by a well-made sequel.
What kind of (mis)adventures will Rin and Ruka find themselves in this time? Let’s find out by taking a look into SukeraSparo’s Distant Memoraĵo!
Please note: This review will contain spoilers for The Expression Amrilato. There will be details related to both The Expression Amrilato’s plot and mechanics.
A Decision to Stay
Distant Memoraĵo is a continuation of The Expression Amrilato’s ending where our protagonist, Rin Takatoo, makes a life-changing decision. With her and Ruka’s feelings for each other laid bare, Rin makes the choice to stay with Ruka in the parallel world instead of approaching the Gate that would have led her back to modern-day Japan. This would have been your token good ending: the protagonist picks love, they are empowered by their feelings, and they go on to live fulfilling lives. But reality isn’t that simple, as Rin gets more familiar with the hardships that come with living in an unfamiliar world.
Being a teenager is tough; you have to go to school, sort out your studies, make friends, attend extracurricular activities, and take care of yourself enough to maximize your youth. Adolescence only comes once in a lifetime, and for Rin and Ruka, they’re smack dab in the middle of it. While Ruka seems to be doing a good job with it, Rin finds herself in a bit of a pickle. Deciding to stay so she could be with Ruka is good and all, but what is she supposed to do here? Is she forever going to be a bum, living off of Ruka’s goodwill? Rin rejects that idea and tries to start moving towards becoming more independent. To become someone that Ruka would be proud to have as a partner, she seeks to become a better version of herself.
But it’s pretty hard with Rin’s status as a vizitanto. While she may have the drive to better herself, there’s still a barrier between herself and society: everything’s in Juliamo! With an entire lifetime ahead of her, Rin will have to use her expressions once again to solve misunderstandings in her relationship with Ruka, awkward situations caused by her own clumsiness, and other matters of the heart.
Unfamiliar Words, Missed Signals
With Distant Memoraĵo being a sequel, I was looking for one particular thing that I felt was necessary to establish the second installment’s importance—romantic development. And not just the type that makes you feel butterflies in the stomach; I wanted to witness Rin and Ruka clashing with each other as lovers, as individuals with differing wants and needs in a relationship. I was a little bit worried because while I liked The Expression Amrilato, it’s not exactly loud about making the characters’ romantic intentions known (even though it doesn’t shy away from it either). It’s only near the end that Rin and Ruka started feeling like a couple, which is why I was a bit worried about how it would be handled in a sequel that chronologically takes place after they’ve opened up to each other. I’m glad to say however that my worries were appeased, as this sequel takes that relationship and puts it through the wringer.
The conflict of the story itself isn’t that big; it’s a simple problem caused by misunderstandings born from the lack of opportunities to talk about the issue. But what makes it work really well in the context of Distant Memoraĵo is the fact that the problem needs to penetrate a language barrier—it needs to transition from Juliamo to Japanese and vice-versa. Both our heroines, however, aren’t exactly the most fluent in their partner’s main language. And so, it leads to a lot of situations where their insecurities remain unaddressed because of untranslatable context clues or convenient interpretations of the situation born from their incomplete understanding of each other. It creates a sort of tension that’s not exactly heavy, but also not something that you can easily shrug off, even from the position of a reader.
This kind of interplay between the use of Juliamo as an in-setting detail and the romance that comes with a girls’ love title such as Distant Memoraĵo is something I’ve come to greatly appreciate as I read more of the visual novel. J-MENT, The Expression Amrilato’s scenario writer, was able to weave conflicts into the story as natural consequences of Rin’s place within the setting without having to awkwardly adjust everything around it. As a result, I really liked the approach they took with Rin and Ruka as characters, subtly hinting at their dissatisfaction through the little actions they take throughout the story.
Communication is a Two-Way Road
Enter Kanako, the “antagonist” that Rin faced during the events of the previous game. In Distant Memoraĵo, she returns as the fourth member of the main cast, and is an integral character in both Rin and Ruka’s development as a couple. Kanako, in contrast to the other members of the cast, is someone born and raised under the ever-pink sky. She has lived her life speaking solely Juliamo, and hence, has never felt the need to adjust like how Rin is during the events of the visual novel. Thus, when conversing with Rin, she only speaks full Juliamo, which is probably pretty intimidating to a new vizitanto.
This role of a “native speaker” was previously fulfilled by random people Rin met while doing tasks, but by assigning a central character to fulfill that role, I feel like it makes the visual novel’s theme of communication even more poignant than it was before. The Expression Amrilato has consistently used language as a device to both literally and figuratively represent the difficulties of expressing yourself to others, and with the arrival of Kanako, it felt like a final test for both Rin and myself as a reader. The vocabulary Kanako uses is extensive, covering words that are unavailable in the Juliamo dictionary provided to us. As a result, Distant Memoraĵo puts us once again in a similar situation to Rin where we have to get by with the bare minimum and try to understand Kanako’s words in our own way with what we’ve learned so far coming from their previous work.
In terms of writing, I feel like Distant Memoraĵo better portrays the struggle of communication compared to The Expression Amrilato. While I felt that the prequel was rather lacking in terms of characterization for some of the cast members (Ruka in particular), this installment of the visual novel doubles down on Ruka’s own experiences and communication struggles with a clueless Rin. She actually feels like a character whose agenda has consequences. This added focus on Ruka and the introduction of Kanako made it apparent that understanding each other requires more than just a shared set of words—that it is necessary for you to devote a part of yourself to reach others.
As much as I liked the journey, I felt rather lukewarm about the ending. The visual novel is ultimately a slice-of-life story with yuri elements, so it makes sense that it ends on a feel-good note with all the characters happy. But because the reading time is so short, it ends up falling a little bit flat. By the time the story comes to a close, Rin and Ruka’s struggle ends up feeling like a childish tantrum, while it feels like Kanako missed out on some well-deserved screen time necessary to ease her into becoming part of the main cast. It all feels like it was cut a bit short, leaving me a bit unsatisfied with its conclusion. It’s a shame, as I really wanted to like it more than I do right now.
Memories Spanning Time
As a visual novel, Distant Memoraĵo has a few choices in the story that ultimately lead readers to one of three endings. Similar to the first game, there are only really two choices that matter, with all the others being inconsequential to the story. This was a bit frustrating to deal with, because during my run, I had to figure out which of those choices would lead me to one of the highlights of the sequel: a scenario called Days Gone By which features Ruka when she was younger. I was looking forward to seeing this sequel better flesh out Ruka as a character and make it apparent what motivated her to pick Rin up during the events of The Expression Amrilato. Little did I know that you didn’t actually have to get a correct combination of choices—you just had to click New Story again after finishing the visual novel once!
So what does Days Gone By actually contribute to Distant Memoraĵo’s story? Well, a lot of things! I felt like this additional scenario, despite being separated from the main story’s narrative, is important in better understanding the character dynamics between Rei and Ruka. In the first game, it was hinted that Rei was Ruka’s guardian when she was young but this was glossed over in favor of Rin’s own Juliamo predicament. This additional scenario provides the much-needed information necessary to better appreciate Ruka and Rei as characters and gives closure for Rei and Kanako’s stories as well. Overall, it’s a good inclusion as a side story!
While I really liked the addition of Days Gone By as an additional scenario, it’s a little bit unfortunate that Distant Memoraĵo does not feature any of the Juliamo/Esperanto exercises found in The Expression Amrilato. The learning exercises were fun and educational, and helped me get invested further into the visual novel’s setting, so it’s a little bit sad not having them in the sequel. Their absence also introduces an additional dimension of difficulty in understanding parts of the story, creating a little bit of a challenge for previous readers of the series. I suppose this is where the “translate Juliamo” feature in the settings shines, as it can help you navigate the story should you not have the time to invest in trying to learn the language yourself. But even as someone who spent hours consuming the series material, I found the additional scenario particularly hard to understand as Days Gone By doesn’t include any of the yellow hints that Rin would have in her thoughts in the main scenario. I recommend trying it out without the translations on to test your own Juliamo skills.
Art and Music
Distant Memoraĵo’s artwork largely resembles The Expression Amrilato, both in texture and coloring. It preserves the watercolor style unique to artist Chisato Naruse, evoking feelings of comfort with its warm colors and sentimental lighting. Comparing the sprites to the CGs is still a little bit jarring, but I feel like the artwork is generally better in this game. I just wish Kanako didn’t look so out of place whenever her sprite showed up, and that’s saying something considering all of them stand out in the first place! As for the CG count, there are 16 unique ones in total, which is a lot less than the first game. One of them is reused from The Expression Amrilato too, which means that there are only 15 new ones. I would have preferred more, as some of the scenarios felt like they could have definitely used a CG to better portray emotions within the scene.
The music in Distant Memoraĵo, on the other hand, is the exact same 12 tracks the first game had. It’s not really a big problem, but I would have liked to hear new tracks. We have a new cast member in Kanako, so it would make sense to me to have a track that’s particularly dedicated to expressing the emotions Rin felt as she interacted with her. Heck, I don’t even remember hearing Thinking Time and the instrumental version of The Road to You. Those could have been slots for other tracks! Overall, I’m a bit disappointed that they rehashed the tracks, but it does provide a sense of continuity coming from the first game.
Verdict
Distant Memoraĵo continues the same idea that The Expression Amrilato offered as a visual novel, utilizing the concept of language barriers as both a literal and figurative obstacle to understanding another person. By introducing a new character and an additional side story, it fleshes out the main cast better than the first game did, allowing readers to better form relationships with each of its characters. Of course, fully appreciating the visual novel still necessitates the reader’s investment into learning Juliamo, their in-universe version of the real-life constructed language Esperanto.
Similar to the first game, Distant Memoraĵo also suffers from a simplistic storyline and convenient resolution which downplays the gravity of the visual novel’s conflict. This is largely in part due to the visual novel’s reading time, which falls around the ballpark of 3 to 5 hours. Regardless, it’s still a good read especially if you wanted more yuri fluff between Rin and Ruka, and in general, more slice-of-life scenes featuring the beloved members of the cast.
If you’re craving a little bit more of that girls’ love story spiced with a unique blend of Esperanto, consider getting Distant Memoraĵo! Simple yet relatable, it presents the difficulties of communication through the use of an unfamiliar language, common misunderstandings, and a cast of cute girls. Comfortably heartfelt, it’s definitely a read that you’ll remember for its unique charms!
DISTANT MEMORAĴO IS RECOMMENDED
Purchase: MangaGamer
If you are looking for another girls’ love visual novel, you might want to check out UsoNatsu ~The Summer Romance Bloomed From A Lie~. We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both originally in English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
Many thanks go to MangaGamer for a PC review code for Distant Memoraĵo.
Visual novel reader that wishes there were more than 24 hours in a day. Gacha victim, TCG enjoyer, and VTuber simp. Still trying to live happily.
