16bit Sensation: Another Layer

 16bit Sensation: Another Layer (16bitセンセーション ANOTHER LAYER) is a 13 episode sci-fi comedy inspired by the manga 16 Bit Sensation: The Bishojo Game Made by All of You and I by Mitsumi Misato and Wakaki Tamiki.  The anime originally aired during the Fall of 2023.

    Akisato Konoha is a 19 year old illustrator who spends her days slaving away at a game company making the same repetitive artwork for uninspiring games.  She dreams of being part of the golden age of bishojo games, from when she was barely a twinkle in her parents eyes.  After work one day, wandering trough the back alleys of Akihabara, she stumbles upon a quaint used game store.  She marvels at the treasure trove of iconic titles in the 100 yen discount bin, such as Kanon and Dokyusei.  When she decides to open the packaging for one of the games she finds her self transported to Akihabara in 1992.  While wandering its now unfamiliar streets in confusion she returns to the building that she works at only to find a different software development company called Alcohol Soft.  A boy she encountered earlier finds her lost in front of the building and asks him for help.  She learns that they are a company making bishojo games so she instantly applies to work for them as in illustrator.  But things aren't as easy as she would hope as the technology differs vastly compared to what shes used to and they have to teach her how to do the most basic things.  Her enthusiasm and ideals keep her optimistic and she puts her worries behind her.

    When they finish the game shes has helped with she finds herself back to 2023 and wishes that she could return to the early 90's to continue working on the games she loves the most, being a part of the formation of the industry.  She retraces her steps and ends up transporting back to 1996 this time, after opening another game.  Shes beginning to realize that the games dictate what year she travels to, marked by their release dates.  For her, she has only been gone for a brief time, but when she shows back up at Alcohol Soft to work for them more they are bewildered and confused as to where she has been over the past four years.  She once again helps them and when she returns to 2023 she has a plan to be valuable for them and packs a bag of modern technology to bring with her for the third time.  But she begins to notice that the history shes familiar with isn't exactly the same as it now appears and fears that she may be irreversibly altering her present.

    This was a bit of an interesting series, given that the character of Konoha does not exist in the original manga...so I really need to track that down and read it to see what that story was like.  Anyway.  I am a fan of time travel stories and this was a fun one particularly how much of a love letter to the golden era of bishojo games the story is.  It was fun seeing Konoha have to face the vastly different technological landscape of the 90's as she struggled to prove to the others that she was good at what she does.  Some aspects of the story shared qualities with Otaku no Video I feel.  Ultimately though, Konoha's character is incredibly annoying.  The final arc of the story was...drastically different from the tone of the everything that came before it and a little disappointing to be honest.  I really do need to read the original manga as it is more a telling of the creators history in the video game industry at that time.  That feels like a more interesting story than this quirky time travel story.

    Aside form the anime apparently diverging a bit from the source material and its main character being rather grating, this was a fun series to watch and I sped through it pretty quickly, each ending keeping my interest piqued as to what would happen next.  Over all it is a fun story, even if it ends in a less than satisfying manner...for me anyway.  I believe that a faithful adaption of the source material may have been a better approach as there will always be interest in an anime about the industry especially if its based on real people and events.  Just look at how well received Shirobako was.  Oh well, we can only deal with what we got and until I started doing research I didn't even know the anime diverged from the manga.  Still not a bad story, especially if you are a fan of those classic dating sim games.

The series was released on Crunchyroll.