Dustmania Grotesque review by Harlequin

[Harlequin 17]

Dustmania Grotesque (VNDB)

 

 

 

 

 

(Spoilers are all inside the spoiler box down at the bottom... Wait what?)

 

 

"Manbo manbo!"

 

 

Dustmania... Oh boy... Just...

 

 

It's been a while since I read it. Well, a month or so probably. And this means that my impressions of it won't be very "fresh" per se. But we'll just have to go with it. Why am I writing this you ask? Because some members (iLT, Gerard...!!!) wanted me to, but also because it would indeed be funny to have a Dustmania Grotesque review among all these other proper reviews of amazing VNs with superb stories in them.

 

But you must be wondering what the heck this "Dustmania" is all about then!

 

Well, it is a 1-2 hour long nukige visual novel filled to the brim with guro, which translates to it being "highly disturbing and batshit insane". Yes, that's right. The purpose of Dustmania is guro. Nothing more, nothing less. Guro is the number one reason why it exists at all. It does not have some sort of epic narrative or amazing characters. Now, let me just make something clear here before we move on: I don't actually like seeing guro, other than for the occasional laugh or that rare disturbing feeling. Yet I'm still going to write this "review" now. I have experienced the VN, so it shouldn't be impossible for me to do it either way.

 

When I read Dustmania, I did so in the complete dark at night, alone, with semi-loud volume on the headphones. You might ask, "what's the point of doing that?". Well that's a really good question. I don't know. All I can say is that at some point during my short reading session of Dustmania, my mind went blank, more or less. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that reading it with the above mentioned setup heightened that effect to a certain extent.

 

But whatever. On to the details of this guro nukige!

 

 

 

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Visuals/Art - Effective CG art to say the least, for anyone who might read Dustmania. It's actually not of low quality or anything, but you most likely won't be able to appreciate it whatsoever if you don't like guro. In fact, there is a good chance that you will simply find it nauseating and horrendous. I can't pretend to like it myself. However, I'm someone who can at least laugh about it. Yes, laugh. Because it is so over the top and crazy that you just have to laugh. Perhaps I'm mad, but if so, I'm quite happy about that. Don't take this art so seriously when you see it. Now, I may say that, but I can sometimes (albeit rarely) feel quite sick in the stomach as well from seeing incredibly disturbing things... it all depends on ones current mentality!

 

But yea, if you happen to love guro then this CG art is no doubt amazing for you. It's hard to imagine exactly how good it would be though. I'm not an expert on this stuff, so I couldn't say anything with 100% certainty.

 

There aren't many times at all in the VN where you get to see sprite art. But who even cares.

 

 

Sound/VA/Music - Voice acting-wise, I friggin' hated the voice of the protagonist, Chiharu. BLEH! But oh well, that might just be me though. On a more positive note, the voices of Kanae and Ako were... um, "better". But overall, the voice acting didn't sound good to me.

 

The music isn't exactly memorable, but I don't think it's supposed to be either. It's probably very fitting for what Dustmania is all about. Freaky and weird music, for freaky and weird content. Good! But even if it is appropriate for this VN, I didn't really like it. That's actually how it goes for most things that Dustmania has to offer.

 

 

Characters - Wow. What the hell. These characters are so bloody demented in general. Are they well-designed? Hm, for the situation presented in Dustmania they probably are. There are four in total and I despise two of them personally.

 

Chiharu - The female protagonist who gets kidnapped and experimented on. *sigh* Annoying voice.

 

Oshamanbe (MANBO MANBO) - A creepy and ugly scientist with a big nose (yes). I hate him. Everything about him is disgusting, including his name. At least his nickname is funny.

 

Kanae - Crazy assistant girl with an eyepatch. Funny at times.

 

Ako - ...

 

 

Plot/Story - HAHA. No. I'm sorry, but I can't remember if there was anything good about this story. From VNDB: "A female scientist is kidnapped by her former collegue, who decides to carry out experiments related to immortality medicine on her." That's the gist of it right there. Suffice it to say, Dustmania and its story is all about guro. The end. It is indeed a nukige, so a poor story is kinda expected.

 

Well, there are two routes in the VN. At some point in it, you get two choices. One choice for each route. That's it, nothing complicated about it or anything. I would recommend picking the top choice first though.

 

 

Screenshots (click the thumbnails) -

 

[spoiler=Screenshots (Guro included!)]

 

 

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Final words - Dustmania. What a freaky thing. I didn't like it. This kind of VN just isn't for me, plain and simple. But I still can't give it too low of a score. Why? Because I realise that it's no doubt very good for people who actually love guro. But also, we mustn't forget that the absurdity in it is something that you can laugh at. So if that is possible for you, as it is for me, then that's good too.

 

The art, music, voice acting and story combines into something that is extremely bizarre and utterly insane. The story is garbage, though you would expect it to be anyway. And since it is a nukige, I could never really appreciate it much at all to begin with since the focus is completely on the H-scenes in general.

 

Oh, one last thing: Don't expect the English translation to be great or anything. It's not.

 

Dustmania Grotesque - You do not want to read this, unless you like guro.

 

 

 

 

Pros: Great for guro lovers, length = very short (yes!)

 

Cons: Terrible and sickening for anyone who doesn't like guro (most people), laughable story, nukige.

 

 

 

Harlequin gives Dustmania Grotesque a rating of...

 

3.0/10

(Follows the rating scale on VNDB)

 

 

Remember, this is only my opinion and experience with this visual novel.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the spoiler box with some spoilerish thoughts and impressions I got from reading this VN.

 

Do not touch it if you have not fully read this VN already. (as if this one is going to contain anything important whatsoever...):

 

 

Oh please, what do you want me to write here!?!

 

Hmmm...

 

The reveal of Ako-chan and her peculiar location in Kanae was actually a big surprise. A good one too, no kidding. I'm actually glad that Dustmania had something funny like that in it. Yes, it was funny. DEAL WITH IT.

 

And... that is all. Bye!

 

Edited February 8, 2013 by Harlequin

[Ero-ero Majin 16]

this VN really gives a new definition of the words "f*** her brains out" -.-

[asahii 10]

Good review for such disgusting thing, how these japanese can create such "games":D

[desi 53]

Good review.

 

Although just one thing I wanted to say

 

Dustmania. What a freaky thing. I didn't like it. This kind of VN just isn't for me, plain and simple. But I still can't give it too low of a score. Why? Because I realise that it's no doubt very good for people who actually love guro.

 

Not trying to call you out at all, but if you're doing a review, you should state YOUR opinion and not try to crater to a certain demographic. This way, you can fully represent yourself in the review and give a score that fits your own personal taste. This is your opinion after all and you should give it what you think it deserves, and not give it a higher score just because there are certain guro lovers around

[iLoveTsundere 10]

At last!!!!!!! Also , i think you should mention that this is a Doujin VN , nothing really pro or anything , but thats just a small detail. I dont care how much you rated it , you reviewed it and thats good enough for me. LIKED!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manbo manbo.

[renvateru 10]

lol in my Must Avoid Visual Novel list

[napoleon 134]

I'm gonna see if it can get me to blank out mentally or if its a slow build in guro if i'll achieve some kinda tolerance. Worst case scenario is "well hey this isn't half bad!"