How We Review

Every article on this site carries one of two labels, shown at the top of the page, so you always know what kind of coverage you are reading:

• Japan Reception Brief — research-based coverage. We read the work's Japanese store page, official materials, DLsite user reviews, Ci-en posts, and community discussion in the original Japanese, then synthesize what Japanese buyers actually think. We have not personally played, read, or listened to the work — the value we add is fluent Japanese research and cultural context, not hands-on impressions. Community sentiment is presented as summaries, never as invented quotations.
• Hands-on Review — coverage where we have personally played, read, or listened to the work (in Japanese or English, stated in the review). These carry first-person impressions in addition to the Japan research layer.

What makes us different is the interpretive layer. For each work we research how it was actually received in Japan: DLsite reviews, Ci-en posts, and community discussion. We summarize representative sentiment (always with source attribution) and — more importantly — explain the context an English-speaking reader would miss: genre codes, dialect nuance, circle history, and what Japanese buyers consider praiseworthy or disappointing. That analysis appears in every review as the Japanese Reception section and the Interpreter's Note.

When a work was received as a review copy or when any affiliate relationship exists, it is disclosed on the page. Affiliate commissions never influence scores — our rubric and weights are published below precisely so you can hold us to them.