My Cute Stylish Girl

OK, I know it's probably not fair to compare old girlfriend vs. new girlfriend, right? But there were so many times that Rinko used to show up for dates looking...well...kinda like she got dressed in the dark. No matter what style of clothes I asked her to wear, she had no clothing sense at all, and often wore suff that just didn't go together.

But Manaka? Every single time I see her, she looks awesome. Here she is, wearing her "kawaii" (cute) clothes again for today's date when she met me at Shin Towano station:

Wow, I just love the way Mana-chan dresses! And the other huge difference is that she's always ALWAYS nice to me. It's a pleasure to date her, after Rinko being so damn "tsundere" (hot and cold). Anyway, we went to Winning Burger for a snack to get things rolling.

Despite being a princess, Mana-chan's quite happy eating a burger, hehe. Then we got on the train bound for the Towano Hill Area:

Gosh, she's adorable. Anyway, our date was at the Amusement Park, so we checked out the Haunted House again (which Manaka enjoys very much).

Then it was back to the Italian Restaurant, which Mana-chan loved so much last time. And the food worked its charms again this time. ^^

I'm not entirely sure what we ordered (or what we ended up eating), but it looked kinda weird.

Manaka very sweetly offered to share her food with me. How could I refuse?

And then she fell asleep again while we were travelling back on the train. (Maybe because we had two meals in a row???)

Anyway, it was a short date but very sweet. Here's a full-length shot of Manaka, showing off her outfit as she is about to say goodbye.

At lunch, I visited the Flea Markets in Fountain Park and picked up my first Premium Date ticket for Manaka - a couple ticket to a special event at the Art Gallery. I think Manaka will like it. I'll try to build up my stats with a few days of Skip Mode tomorrow and aim for an evening date mid-week.

I had a short meet-up with Manaka this afternoon, but because it was raining our date options were fairly limited (and you can't kiss your girl while she's holding that darned umbrella).

After-School Date

Today got off to a wonderful start. When I saw the picture of the corner near my house (with the sunflowers and the red mailbox), I knew that Manaka would come to meet me and walk to school with me. And I was right!

When Manaka appeared in her uniform, with a pretty pink bow, and smiled at me, I felt so overwhelmed. She's a really lovely girl. I'm sure I've commented about this before, but the really amazing thing about the LovePlus games is their ability to evoke a genuine emotional response from the player. You really do feel the wonder of new love when you play. ^^

Walking to school with Manaka and holding her hand is a delight. I especially love the chibi-Manaka figure she has on her schoolbag...

The next few photos are from today's chapter of the "Seishun No. 1 Page", where Manaka appears quite embarrassed by the attention she's getting at Tennis Club from the new young girl.

During the morning, Manaka call me up and booked a date for Sunday at 9:30 am.

Then it was time to play through my very first after-school date. This is a special kind of date, where you call your girlfriend during the morning timeslot using the usual "book a date" option, but then you make the date for the same afternoon. I tried to book it for around 5:30 pm (when I usually finish work in the real world), but that was too late, and Manaka wouldn't accept anything later than 3:30 pm.

Problem. But as luck would have it, I was able to finish work early today, so I would have time to play through the date. And I'm sure glad I did! I guess when I thought about having an "after school date", I kinda expected something quick and easy on the way home from school - but boy, was I wrong. Even though I used only two hearts in each attribute, it turned out to be a MEGA date, with all the trimmings, and took almost an hour to play through. Doing it at work might have been...embarrassing. And impossible.

The date was full of surprises, too. First up, Manaka met me sporting a new hairstyle. I don't like it that much, but I was keen to get rid of her default hairstyle, so I told her I liked it. Hopefully she won't go back to the default. Second, she seems to have switched to the "kawaii" (cute) style of clothing, which looked really nice. I have to say that Manaka has great taste in fashion, especially compared to poor Rinko. Her Alice in Wonderland shoulder-bag was a nice touch, too - and I adore her hat.

So, with the preliminaries out of the way, we headed off for a bit to eat. Sadly, there's not a lot of options around Shin Towano yet, so good old Winning Burger (Fast Food) was our only choice. Oh well, Manaka likes eating there.

We ordered the Hamburger Set and got the Hot Dog Set instead.

Don't make this face again, Manaka! It's too darned cute!!

Our date location was the Mountain Zoo. We visited the small animals (petting zoo), which Manaka liked very much.

I was surprised again (with only two activity hearts used up) to have the option of a second date location! So I took her across to the Amusement Park and visited the Haunted House, which she also loved.

And then, at what was supposed to be the end of the date...Manaka invited me back to her place to meet her parents. I only had one shot left on my camera (damn! damn!), and it's not a great one, but it shows how beautiful Manaka's house looks on the inside. She certainly is a little princess...

We played through the study date. First time answering three questions right, Manaka made tea and a cake for me. Second time, she changed into an unbearably cute pink lolita outfit and wore her hair in two ponytails. I died when I saw her! And third time was the intimate photo session. T_T Have to make sure I save some photos next time.

Even after all that, Manaka wanted me to stay longer...but I was exhausted by then, and had to refuse. But wow, what a big date. It was my first real date with Manaka, too, and it's one that I'll always remember. Now I just have to work hard to build up my stats and unlock a few more date locations before my next date on Sunday.

A Very Busy Day - Part 1

Well, there were no more special happenings yesterday for Rinko's birthday. But this morning's date was an absolute blinder - probably one of the most PERFECT dates I've had in the world of Towano. Maybe it was just good luck - but I put it more down to the fact that I know so much more about how to play the game now and make it work for me.

When I met Rin-chan at the station, she still had her default hairstyle and was wearing very casual clothes. This is probably because this second game is so new (only Day 5!) that she hasn't sent me any questions about changing her clothes or hairstyle yet. So there was no point in saying that I didn't like them - because there's nothing else for her to change back to. So I just told her she looked fine.

We grabbed a quick bite at Winning Burger. I ordered the Hot Dog Set, but ended up getting the BLT Burger Set. I used to think this was a bug, mixing up the date locations and menu items - but recently I read somewhere that it can happen when you don't use enough hearts (or enough of a particular kind of heart) on your date. I'm not sure - I used three of each heart this time. Have to try using more next time and see if it still happens. Anyway, Rinko didn't care.

We hopped on the train to the Amusement Park. Travelling on the trains in "New LovePlus" makes me miss the wonderful local train system in Tokyo. T_T

At the Amusement Park, I selected the Haunted House, because the green personality Rinko is supposed to like this spot. Anyway, she didn't seem overly impressed.

With the choice of an extra place to go, I chose to have a meal at the Italian Restaurant in the Towano Hill Area. It's so nice here - just like a real Italian Restaurant - and Rinko was very happy to go there. I ordered the Mix Pizza, but instead I got something else - the Pepperoncino. Once again, Rinko didn't mind. I actually think she'll eat just about anything...she doesn't seem fussy about food at all.

And then, surprisingly (so early in this new game), Rinko invited me back to her place after the date. I chose to do a study session with her - studying the Foreign Language (English) because it's about the easiest for me to find the right answers for in the Official Guide Book - and passed all three times. The first time, your girlfriend makes tea and a snack for you. The second time, she changes into a different outfit and poses for you. And the third time...well, that's the "Intimate Photo Session", which I wasn't able to figure out at all the first time I played.

In this mode, you get to use the gyrosensor and both screens of the 3DS. You can move around the room pretty freely and snap photos of your girl from lots of different angles. You can also say stuff like "cute", "pose" and "cheese". It's a blast, though the photos tend to only capture what's on the top screen. Sadly.

I also gave Rinko a gift of a white shoulder-bag, which I seem to have also picked up when I cashed in the TV Bros 100 rich password protected item on Friday. She absolutely loved it. And it's nice to get something for nothing.

Wow, that was an amazing date, and it took about an hour to play.

Next, at 12 noon, I'm going to the Flea Markets at Fountain Park to buy a Premium Date ticket and maybe a CD as well. ^^