16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Konoha Akisato's love for bishoujo games—a type of entertainment focused on interactions with beautiful girls—has always nurtured her aspiration of becoming a popular artist. However, as Konoha secures her first job as a sub-illustrator at the game company Blue Bell, she confronts the harsh reality surrounding her favorite genre. In 2023, the bishoujo game industry is overrun with cheap, repetitive, and low-effort releases, with Blue Bell at the core of the problem.

After stumbling upon a vintage game store and reminiscing about the impressive titles of the past, Konoha suddenly winds up in the year 1992—just as the bishoujo game industry was beginning to flourish. Konoha struggles to accept her new circumstances until she joins Alcohol Soft, a small game company willing to employ her as an illustrator. Although she believes her skills from the future will propel her to success, technology and illustration are considerably old-school, and she must promptly adapt if she wishes to fulfill her dreams.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Akisato, Konoha Main

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Rokuta, Mamoru Main

Abe, Atsushi Japanese

Shimoda, Kaori Main

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Saber Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Yamada, Touya Supporting

Yamane, Aya Japanese

Uehara, Meiko Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Gomikawa, Kiyoshi Supporting

Fukushima, Jun Japanese

Echo 1 Supporting

Tamaru, Atsushi Japanese

Haruhiko Supporting

Takahashi, Shinya Japanese

Ichigaya Supporting

Morikubo, Shoutarou Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Nakayama, Nobuhiro Producer

Nagamine, Rieko Producer

Niikura, Toshiya Producer

Reviews

Oct 28, 2024

lycoping

Recommended

I'm honestly a little mystified as to why this has a rating as low as it does.

There is a clue to why I feel this way in the name: "another layer". This is a layered anime. If you look at it from a surface perspective, you might not like this anime very much. And from a surface perspective, there's not much to like. There's quite a bit of nostalgia - most of which is done rather hamhandedly (though even at my age I didn't know about the PC-98, seems interesting to look into). It could also be seen as ... a love letter to bishoujo. It kind of is, but if we were to leave it at that level, it wouldn't be much to speak of either. On those levels, the story is a bit trite and shallow, the FMC is rather annoying, and the MMC is quite one-dimensional (see what I did there?)

But there's so much more to it - if you look for it. I doubt everyone has.

This story is actually a rather odd coincidence in my life, because it directly (and flagrantly) addressed a question that I've been mulling over in my head for a little while: what role does imagination have in creation? I won't go too deep into that because I'll bore the pantsu off you, and it gets absurdly theological, but it's a fascinating question, I think. All of the other things - bishoujo, nostalgia, time-travel, are all subjugated to this question. What makes us human? What is imagination? What is that intangible thing that makes the difference between a stupid garden variety game (or, by extension, anime) and one that is popular/amazing/whatever? And the way it handles that question is amazing, and frankly, rather unique.

So for that reason, I would have rated this anime a ten. I wanted to rate this anime a ten. I almost did rate this anime a ten. But there were a few flaws, and I couldn't do that in good conscience.

As some reviews have said, the FMC was rather insufferable. She was supposed to be voice acted as a super high energy, young-ish character who, well... it's her world and everyone else lives in it. But what they ended up making the character was a shrill, overly hyper, loudmouthed character that was difficult to warm to. Yes, she was a good character, and the VA was *capable* of toning it down when necessary, so at the end, that was clearly a directorial decision, and an awful one. They could have lowered the pitch a bit, made the voice a little less harsh and grating, and not only would nothing have been lost, but it would have been even better.

The second major flaw, to me, has to do with the last three episodes. I'll try not to spoil. But this reminded me very much of Back to the Future 2, when Marty came back to 1985 or whenever after changing the timeline in 1955, and ended up in a dystopian society. The thing is, it was *needlessly* dystopian. It's 2023, not 2050, and the technology would not have been *that* drastically altered by a game company having a successful game. The corporate environment might, but the technology was significantly more "advanced" than it was in the original timeline. It just made no sense other than to enhance the sense of dystopianness. Plus, when that story arc "resolved", it, well, kinda didn't. Did the villain get his just desserts? We assume so. But of course it doesn't matter, because, well... it just doesn't matter. You'll see.

But the thing is, it wasn't entirely dystopian. Yes, there were dystopian elements, and *clearly* so, but I found it fascinating how the redevelopment and "improvement" of Akihabara was portrayed as, by definition, dystopian. I guess I can see that to a degree, it would certainly have been dystopian in the FMC's perspective (they addressed the "coming home to a place you don't know" emotions very well), but still, I got the distinct feeling that it was *such* a love letter to Akihabara that it couldn't have been any other way. I guess that goes back to the "love letter to gaming" layer, because Akihabara is the mecca, but... still. It was a hamhanded message.

Also, there were some plot points around the time travel that were, well... insufficiently addressed, to put it lightly. I can't really say everything about what I mean because it would be a spoiler, but let's say there were some situations and characters throughout the anime that were, well... inscrutable, and clearly deliberately so. That's fine right up until the inscrutability becomes indistinguishable from a "deus ex machina" and, well, that line was crossed. Would have been nice to have a few things explained a little better, rather than just have some rather odd and poorly explained people hopping in to save the day for no apparent reason.

All that said, the flaws were enough to take it from a 10 to a 9, but that's still high praise. It's one of those anime that makes you think, and one that after the anime is over, that you just kind of sit there and have to process it for a little bit. I had that same experience with some of the greats, like "Akebi's Sailor Uniform". If you can look past the shallow surface layers to the message beneath, you might find something meaty to chew on, and given the ascendency of anime about as shallow as most of the bishoujo games this anime was, on the surface, a love letter to, that's a rare thing indeed. Recommend from me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 13, 2025

Yuki_Raine

Mixed Feelings

A warm story filled with game nostalgia, weird time travel and McGuffins.
Worth your time but be warned that the ending is rushed and quite a few things are left in the air, so I can really see lots of people being unhappy about it. I did appreciate the jokes and can forgive the gaps, thus the rating, but for others it can easily be a 6 for the same reasons.
The art is great, MC is characteristically MC-like, annoyingly energetic and hopeful at times.
There are some fitting choices given its about making games, the layout feels like quests/ routes to get to an ... ending of a visual novel. Some things really fall off, like a villain of the week that pops up for a bit and the water plants& zombies, but their existence is quite ironic in the setting.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 27, 2024

MidniteAndBeyond

Not Recommended

Ya know, some shows have been stuck on my backlog for so long that when I finally do get around to watching them, I have to ask myself how and why it ended up on my to-watch list in the first place. But then I saw the Kanon reference in episode 1 and I guess that was enough to convince me... also, this is a really bad example, because this show isn't even a year old, yet... ANYWAY!

This show wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be, at the beginning. At first I thought it was just gonna be a very simple ... time travel show about the early days and creation of the visual novel genre with a bunch of visual novel references thrown in, but then it evolved into something more... and then it evolved one more time into something entirely different in the end... and then it sorta just went back to its original concept... honestly, it just felt like they didn't know which plot point to pick, so they just sorta crammed three potentially compelling ideas and turned it into one really scattered and nonsensical show. It wasn't horrible, but every time I thought I was gonna end up liking the direction things were headed, they just sorta... gave up and started something else, entirely.

The main character is also very... loud. And annoying. The other characters were all whatever and didn't end up having much development or relevance to the ongoing narrative aside from... being there. I guess your enjoyment will depend on how much of an attachment you have to the types of games/art/culture this show is meant to be an homage to. It had its moments, but overall, it wasn't for me.

5.5/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: 16bit Sensation: Another Layer Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Nov 22, 2023	89 replies	by EonRed »» Jan 23, 5:02 AM
	Poll: 16bit Sensation: Another Layer Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Dec 27, 2023	115 replies	by Yuki_Raine »» Jan 13, 6:11 PM
	Poll: 16bit Sensation: Another Layer Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 13, 2023	74 replies	by pash123_ »» Jan 9, 3:46 PM
	Why this anime is underrated?? Drakath_V - Nov 25, 2024	16 replies	by Yokaza »» Dec 9, 2024 6:53 PM
	Poll: 16bit Sensation: Another Layer Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 6, 2023	77 replies	by Atavistic »» Nov 30, 2024 3:56 PM