Deep in the mountains lies Hoori, a small village so remote that no trains stop there. Due to its isolation, it has resisted the spread of civilization. However, its rustic charm and hot springs have transformed it into a famous tourist destination.
One of the village’s biggest draws is the divine blade Murasamemaru, stuck in a stone from which no one has been able to pull it out of… until our protagonist Arichi Masaomi manages to break it in half.
Before he can even come to grips with what just happened, he’s forced to make amends for what he’s done.
How, you might ask? By marrying the village’s shrine maiden, of course!
He’s already in way over his head, but this is just the start of his mysterious and unfathomable new life in this village.
Masaomi then goes on to meet his new fiancée, discovers an enigmatic and strange girl that only he can touch, and begins to learn about the curse afflicting the village of Hoori.
Amidst this hectic new life, who will he set his heart on? The answers he seeks lie within the legendary sword in his hands.
Senren*Banka, Synopsis from NekoNyan
Technicalities
Senren*Banka is a visual novel developed by Yuzusoft and localized to English by NekoNyan. This VN features an easy-to-follow flowchart which makes it simple to follow through the plot and change dialogue choices on the fly. Aside from that, this VN features unlockable CG and Music galleries, Sprite Mode, and After Stories if the 18+ patch is installed. All characters excluding the protagonist are voiced, but characters not essential to the story don’t have sprites.
The Steam version of the game does not ship with adult content. However, those can be unlocked by installing the 18+ patch available at NekoNyan website at no charge. I highly recommend that it is installed as there are several references to sexual acts that occur in the series. The patch also removes censors in the CGs featuring nudity and unlocks the After Stories. The genitals, however, still have mosaic censorship.
Story-Rich Plot
Senren*Banka features Arichi Masaomi as the main protagonist of this supernatural thriller story. He is a city-dweller who came to the remote town of Hoori to help his grandfather in running an inn during an influx of tourists. During the festivities, Masaomi was invited to the shrine to watch a shrine princess perform a ritual dance. The shrine apparently has a divine blade, Murasamemaru, stuck in a rock and tourists are challenged to pull it out. Masaomi is challenged to pull the divine blade out but ended up breaking it in half. This begins a series of unfortunate events involving curses and cursed beings which Masaomi volunteered to help with. Will he be able to lift the curse that has plagued the town for centuries and bring peace to the mountains of Hoori?
The shrine princess route features Yoshino Tomotake who is a reserved girl with a duty to purify cursed beings which haunt the mountains Hoori alongside her ninja servant, Hitachi. This route emphasizes Tomotake’s emotion which makes this route the most emotional of the four main heroines.
The playful ninja girl route is about Mako Hitachi who has been serving the Tomotake family since childhood but has unfortunately brought herself into thinking that she does not deserve to live a normal girl’s life. Despite the sad premises, this route is the most comedic and sometimes wholesome. This route is also important as this explains part of the lore of the series.
Comes from a faraway land is Lena Liechtenauer who transferred to Hoori to study and work as a part-time worker at the Shinatsu Manor, the inn owned by Masaomi’s grandfather. Her route is the most romantic of all and is one of the important routes as well because this route thoroughly explains the lore of Senren*Banka.
Murasame is a divine being and the caretaker of the Murasamemaru. I found this route to be dull when compared to Tomotake’s, Hitachi’s, and Lena’s routes as the main conflict of this route focuses on Hoori rather than on Murasame herself. Despite that, I do think that this route has a more appropriate ending.
The last and the least important route features two heroines: Koharu Kurama the cousin and Roka Maniwa the (older) childhood friend. This route is irrelevant to the main plot so you can skip it unless you want to unlock its CGs and the Sprite Mode. Their route changes the genre of Senren*Banka from supernatural thriller to slice-of-life romance which is a good change of pace after reading the main routes like how a sweet dessert tastes nice after a salty meal. The two shares a route before branching off at the later part of the story.
Graphics and Music
Senren*Banka features a colorful anime-like character design and high-quality background art. As the setting of the series is set in a less-developed countryside, hints of traditional Japanese architecture are faithfully drawn and the music featuring traditional Japanese instruments and composition compliments the setting very well. Yuzusoft had done a great job with the artistic side of Senren*Banka.
Conclusion
Although there is no official route order, I recommend reading Senren*Banka in the following order: Tomotake, Hitachi, Lena, and Murasame. As mentioned above, Koharu and Roka routes are optional so you may read them after the main routes.
With four main routes, Senren*Banka is a story-rich (and feature-rich!) supernatural visual novel. The lore was built carefully, explained thoroughly across different routes, and takes more than 50 hours with the patch installed to read everything including the minor routes. We recommend Senren*Banka to both beginner and experienced visual novel audiences.
That said, we give Senren*Banka the Green Mochi Stamp!
Rich in content and lore, Senren*Banka is a high quality visual novel that delivers an enjoyable supernatural thriller story while being romantic. We highly recommend this visual novel.
Disclosure: NekoNyan provided Anime Backgrounds a copy of Senren*Banka for this review
Anime Backgrounds 