Recently Kodansha in Japan published opinions of two great producers. One is "Game" by Kenji Eno, who produced video games for Sega Saturn titled "D (Japanese: D No Shokutaku)" and "Enemy Zero." It is a kind of autobiography. The other is "Toudai Otaku-gaku Kouza" by Otaking Toshio Okada. It mainly deals with animation. But it also deals with video game critics.
However their view points are limited and partially fixed. They watch limited people. They form a kind of closed shop systems.

I look for Ms Fuka Matsui. Formerly she appeared on TV-animation "Kodomo No Omocha" broadcast by TV-Tokyo. The TV-anime heroine Sana Kurata went to New York and Ms Matsui did not come to appear on the animation.
Ms Harumi Ikoma played the role of Fuka. But Ms Ikoma is rather famous for the role of "Nakoruru." Nakoruru is a very popular female character in Japan. In this summer Comike, a lot of Nakoruru cartoons were sold.

Who is Nakoruru? I sought for the spelling of "Nakoruru." We Japanese pronounce Na-Ko-Ru-Ru. Thereafter I knew the accurate spelling is Nakoruru. Nakoruru is a character from "Samurai Spirits (USA title: Samurai Shodown)" which is one of the most popular arcade video games in Japan. They are produced by SNK (Toyotsu-cho, Suita-city, Osaka). SNK is my next-door neighbor. Most of "Samurai Spirits" series are shooting games. Some softwares of the series are provided as CDs for Sega Saturn.
I bought one. It was titled "Bushidohretsuden." Nakoruru is an Aïnu girl. She is eighteen years old. She has a 15-year-old younger sister, Rimururu.
In Japan, you will easily find more than 600 Nakoruru homepages. Samurai Spirits series have three popular characters. They are, Nakoruru, Rimururu and Mr. Haoumaru. Mr. Haoumaru is the strongest character in the game. "Bushidohretsuden" is a kind of role playing game (RPG). A player must select one main fighter and two assistant fighters. A common player will select Haoumaru as the main. But a player to want to win will not select Nakoruru and Rimururu. The two characters are rather weak.

We Japanese also regard "Wizardry" as the origin of RPG. However we Japanese are rather familiar with "Dragon Quest" series. The series consist of maps, fighting characters, enemies, and battle field. In the battle field, a group of enemies appear and fighting characters must fight against the group. A player do not know the location of battle fields.
"Bushidohretsuden" is similar to it. If Rimururu is very weak, she will be killed by an enemy group.

On the other hand, Video-game type "Magic Knight Rayearth" is another type. The game consists of maps, fixed fighting characters, enemies, and few closed battle fields. The location of enemies are clear for a player. Therefore a player can choose enemies to fight against and enemies to escape freely. Moreover, if one of the fixed main characters, for example, "Fu" is very strong, other characters need not fight against the enemy. However, those enemies can move and if a player keeps to escape those, the fixed main characters, "Hikaru," "Umi," and "Fu," cannot improve their ability.

This summer two RPG softwares for Sega Saturn were on sale. One was the "Samurai Shodown" and the other was "Slayers Royal."
The prearranged price of Samurai Shodown was 6,800 yen ($56). That of Slayers Royal was 6,300 yen ($52). At present, Osaka Nippon-bashi software discounters regard the price of Shodown as 3,900 yen ($32), and that of Slayers as 4,900 yen ($40).
Thus it is easier to get Nakoruru than to get Lina.

Some German players and USA players of NEO-GEO reports playing methods of Samurai Shodown series. However most of those reports did not deal with the fighting group consisting of Haoumaru, Nakoruru and Rimururu. They thought the group looked like strange though three were very popular.
I am playing the Shodown RPG at present. Moreover the main character is Nakoruru and assistant characters are Rimururu and Haoumaru. At present Nakoruru at Level 15 is the strongest of the three. But Rimururu at Level 14 is rather weak. She often has a tough game. The group is so rich that they often buy a lot of meaningless drugs. At present Haoumaru need not fight. They stay at North Town of Edo (Tokyo) where they are training. You may also meet the rich party at Edo.

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