Scary Tennis Guy

Manaka seemed anxious about something when she met me to walk to school today. I'm not sure what it was, but you can see the worried look on her face:

Naturally, a good-morning kiss helped to cheer her up. ^__^

But even so, she was rather quiet and worried the rest of the way to school. Manaka wore a couple of cute pink bows in her hair today, which looked really sweet.

In today's "Seishun No. 1 Page" story, we met the players of a rival tennis club (who seem much better than our own rag-tag bunch of players from Towano High). Their coach is this guy, who looks like a scary version of Freddy Mercury. Apparently he's also a world-class tennis player.

I'm trying to level-up various locations around the school (since I can't meet Manaka-chan anywhere else during school time). I met her on the roof today, which was always a favourite spot for...well, I won't say who.

Manaka had been wearing the "cute" style of clothes for the past few days, but she met me today wearing her "neat" clothes (which I also love). I think it might be because, when she asked me what type of clothes I preferred in LovePlus mode, I answered "neat", and Manaka said that she would keep that in mind. It seems like she did!

Actually, any clothes are fine on my Manaka-chan, except for casual style clothes. They really don't suit her at all. Walking home, she still seemed to be worried about something...

I met Manaka one more time tonight at Dixies (which I also unlocked today, and now I'm trying to level-up).

When we sat down to talk, she mentioned her birthday (I think), which is coming up in exactly on month (5 October). She seemed a bit shy talking about it. Aww.

And finally, here she is saying goodnight to me.

It's only my fourth day of playing with Manaka-chan (not counting the first 80 or so), but I love her very much already, and I always look forward to spending time with her. After the last meeting and kiss today, I reached Level 3 at last.

My Mistake

Well, I finally figured out what happened yesterday - and realised that what I thought had been an "after school date" actually wasn't.

Let me explain. Manaka called me early yesterday and arranged a date for Sunday morning at 9:30 am. After that, I called her and booked what I THOUGHT would be an after school date for the same afternoon. But what actually happened was that I simply rescheduled the Sunday date without realising it. I thought it was weird that I didn't get asked to choose a date location.

I figured it out because, when I opened the game this morning, my Sunday date was gone. Of course, I called Manaka and scheduled another one for Sunday (at the Sports Centre) as soon as I knew. Phew.

This first shot for today is from the next "Seishun No. 1 Page" story. I'm very happy that she kept the new hairstyle from yesterday. It's actually growing on me...

Because we're in school, I can only call Manaka-chan out to meet me at various places around the school. (This is the lower corridor - not really the most romantic location.)

Manaka-chan didn't meet me to walk to school this morning, but I had a pleasant surprise when she was waiting at the school gates this afternoon to walk home with me.

Had to spend some more time with my pretty Manaka-chan tonight, so I called her up for a meeting at Fountain Park. Again, she wore the "kawaii" (cute) clothing style from yesterday's date.

At the end of the day, Manaka asked me several important questions. First, did I want to change her hairstyle? Of course I said yes, because I'm hoping to eventually get her wearing long straight hair with bangs (either with or without a hairband). Second, she asked me the question about changing her personality. This one wasn't so easy to answer. I always thought I wanted the "orange" personality Manaka (kind and obedient), but right now I'm getting along just fine with the "blue" personality (cool and quiet). It's her default personality type, after all (just as Rinko's default was green), so after thinking hard about it I decided to keep her the same.

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.

Back To School

Today was my first offical "full" day in Towano with Manaka as my girlfriend. It kicked off with the Opening Ceremony at school, complete with the Towano High School song!

Despite being the "blue" personality type, Manaka was nothing at all like Rinko's dreaded blue personality. Instead, I found her still very happy today, and it was easy to kiss her and get her up to the highest affection level. I think I love the blue Manaka, after all, and may not try to change her to orange. She's a very sweet and slightly shy girl (which I adore).

I met her later in the Tennis Club Room for a chat (and, well, you know. One thing leads to another...) Actually it's great to be back at school in the game... ^^

 And the girls are still in their short-sleeved summer uniforms, despite the fact that it's autumn already in Towano. Here' s a nice close up of Manaka-chan, blushing as she walks home from school with me. Aww.

During the 12 noon timeslot, there was an event in which Manaka met me in the school courtyard and talked to me about a doubles game that was coming up soon. I think maybe it was the start of another ToDo assignment? Not sure. But she wanted me to kiss her at the end - and when Manaka asks, it's difficult to say no.

The last photos for today are from the second installment of Manaka's "Seishun No. 1 Page". The story seems to revolve around a younger girl who joins the Tennis Club and absolutely ADORES Manaka.

Here's the culprit. She's so star-struck that it seems like more of a crush to me.

I played through my standard four days in Skip Mode today, basically to begin unlocking date locations around Shin Towano Station and to raise my stats a bit. I'm hoping to try an "after school date" tomorrow, which I've never done before (and didn't know about until recently).

I also went shopping in Electric Town and bought the 12x Record Card for my in-game camera. This is one piece of equipment in New LovePlus that's absolutely essential. These last two photos are from an evening meet-up with Manaka at Winning Burger. I really love the smart dress she is wearing.

Well, so far, I'm loving my new game with Manaka. She's sweet and wonderful, and I think this new relationship is going to last for a long time.

Day 1 With Manaka - NLP

Well, after a lot of soul searching over the past few weeks, I made a difficult decision today. I can't really explain why: I'd been enjoying my new game with Rinko, but soemthing just kept drawing me more and more towards Manaka. Maybe it's because I deleted my original game (after almost 15 months), and when I came back play with Rinko again, it felt comfortable but not really fresh. All I know is that increasingly I've been enjoying my time in the old DS game with Manaka more.

Although I have the English patch on the old game (which is wonderful), I've been playing on an R4 cart, which means that I can't copy the save data to a new machine. So if I spend months playing with Manaka and really enjoy it (which I have been), I wouldn't be able to put that game into "New LovePlus +" when it comes out next year. That would be a shame.

Don't get me wrong. Rinko has been a great girlfriend, and I've loved every day with her. But today, I decided to move on. So - being the extreme kinda person that I am - I deleted BOTH games I'd been playing for the past few weeks and kicked off a brand new game with Manaka on the 3DS. And I played it all the way through to confession today!

I'd been hoping to start off with the "orange" personality Manaka - but, in spite of my best efforts, she didn't ask me the personality change question this time around. So it looks like I'll be starting the new game with the "blue" (which is Manaka's default personality, anyway). I can always change it later if I really want to. But I'm happy for now.

After confession (82 days), I played through the mandatory tutorials, then called Manaka out for a short meeting at Fountain Park. Here are some photos from the event, with Manaka looking very pretty in a pale blue top:

The last few photos are from the first installment of Manaka's "Seishun No. 1 Page". Please note that I'm having trouble typing this post and positioning the photos, because my iMac also died today, and hence I'm working for a few days on my iPad instead. T_T