It takes a furry to kill furred creatures.
Also Fenrir you said something I find delightful but I can't explain why without spoiling the plot you're skipping. Alas.
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Djinn: Interesting stuff. I'm... not sure that it really is aimed at girls, though? Like... I remember being surprised to find out that Mai-Hime was really more aimed at guys than girls, so having a bunch of women doing girl talk is not a guarantee of audience. Also, Idols seem to be the in-thing for the "Japanier" games to randomly include? I agree that *American* guys are a stranger fit for "daily life simulation w/ gossip & karaoke" but apparently the JP male market likes that kinda stuff, or at least tolerates it.
But, y'know, popstars in Japan, which is more like being a particularly well known wedding singer than the multimedia tabloid sensations that American pop stars are. So they still have some semblance of recognizable everyman life.
I always assumed that video game depictions of pop star life were basically pure fantasy, because people *want* to believe that the hot pop star they have a crush on can also be the nice girl down the street who goes to their school. (Barring, of course, characters who are explicitly on "vacation" or taking some time off or the like, a la P4 Rise.) The impression I got was that the best analogy to Asian teenager idol life would be be something more like members of sports teams - you spend literally all your time practicing & preparing for your special gig, whether it be football, figure skating, drum corps, violin, whatever. You MIGHT get some easy dating on the side depending on prestige, but in general your life is not really comparable to Yon Average Middle Class Life because so much of it is consumed in training & performance, which is all conveniently skipped.
But what do I know. Entirely possible you & Zenny know something I don't on this.
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Also, on the note of idols & Gate bringing up the Devil Survivor remakes, I'd just like to complain a wee bit about DS2 Record Breaker's Triangulum Path. Something well-known to do to mix things up in a direct sequel is to mix up the look of the characters a little - even if they don't age much, at least give them new costumes. Trails in the Sky SC does this reasonably well, giving ~half of the characters slightly new outfits. Record Breaker... gives them new outfits for a scene, and then they change back into their Septentrione outfit for the rest of the game? wut. Why'd you even bother to make the new art then?! But yeah, Hinako & Airi have started their own idol band in Triangulum complete w/ new clothes, which weirdly enough involves wearing MORE for Hinako (only 1 way to go?) and looking pretty swag, but it lasts all of a single scene before they're back to the same look as ever. Sheesh. (And the same bait & switch with another ~2 characters, albeit for less idol-related reasons.)