-Seven Days with the Ghost- Review

Summary: Despite the fact that the current (in-story) era is one in which magic is both authentic and flourishing, Orihara Ayako remains the single member of the Occult Research Club. Determined to not let her club be shut down due to a lack of members, Ayako tries to look into the Seven Wonders of the Academy for proof that the Occult isn’t something to be scoffed at. However, she ends up accidentally encountering a genuine ghost! Could this be the break Ayako needs to save her club?

Review: Have you ever heard of Katawa Shoujo? That was a visual novel that was created by various members from the 4chan community.

The reason I brought this up is because apparently Kanojo to Kanojo to Watashi no Nanoka -Seven Days with the Ghost- / 彼女と彼女と私の七日 -Seven Days with the Ghost- / kanonano was a visual novel that was created by various members from the 2ch community! Just figured opening this review with some trivia could be nice~

At any rate, Seven Days / kanonano (I’m going to be using kanonano from here on since it’s way cuter of a name) is definitely an erotic visual novel. There’s no visual or audio censoring to be found as girls get intimate and loud with reckless abandon (yes, kanonano is voiced! And the voice actresses are so talented…). If sex scenes in visual novels turn you off or are a deal-breaker for you, then you really should skip out on kanonano.

With that being said, the sex is actually quite important to the visual novel given that many of the characters yearn for intimacy one way or another. A freakin’ succubus appears during the latter half of the game, for cryin’ out loud! Oh, said succubus also generates male genitalia through magical means, so that could put off some yuri fans, too. Be advised!

But as I was saying before I derailed my own train of thought, the sex is both prominent and crucial because the game isn’t afraid to address taboo topics such as what it means to be non-monogamous, how a girl could potentially face ostracization by publicly (and purposefully) outting herself as a lesbian, how it feels for the person one loves to potentially have an incompatible sexual orientation, and so on.

Despite the excellent timing of the various sound effects, kanonano is a rather serious visual novel at its core (but in the afterword the author also expresses the hope that players can enjoy kanonano as a simple yuri visual novel since the game does take place in a bigoted society and the author is simply a good person who hopes society can continue to move past such limitations and ignorance).

I also loved how the nighttime reflections would have a different tone in comparison to the daytime antics. It was subtly more pensive, I felt. But maybe that was just me.

Ultimately, the game is not a kinetic novel since there is a single important choice near the end of the game. As a result there are two endings and I highly advise saving before choosing either choice so you can quickly reload and replay to finish the game (what I’m saying is really common sense, however).

The OST is pretty good and I would recommend buying the version that includes the soundtrack so you can listen to the tracks on-the-go. Your mileage may vary!

Lastly, I just want to point out how smooth the game is. You can customize what happens when you right-click with your mouse button, what happens when you press the space bar, whether or not the cursor automatically moves to the Yes button when you try to save or load a file, and so on! You also get the option to protect save files (so you don’t accidentally overwrite them) and to comment on save files (to jog your memory). It’s a pretty impressive package overall, I’d say!

tl;dr: -Seven Days with the Ghost- / kanonano manages to be a visual novel that is both serious and silly. Given that there’s a lot of sex in this particular visual novel, kanonano really isn’t for the faint of heart or the prudish. Still, I personally found the game to be a fun experience even though it take me about six months to complete, haha. But that’s more of a time management issue on my end! Consider picking this up if you’re into ecchi yuri!