A Spanish patch of Sayooshi came out a few months ago and I’ve been enjoying that! Very strong atmosphere

Denpa is such an underused genre. It's basically a hardcore psychological thriller with a focus on disconnect from reality. It shouldn't be strictly associated with otaku media. Anime that used similar themes are called dementia anime.

Man I can't wait to imagine myself reading these visual novels

I’ve lived in japan for 14 years now and this is the best cover of this topic I’ve seen in both languages.

I've played almost all of these. I've still got Chaos Head Noah/chaos child to go. Subahibi was rough. I don't know if it was worth it to be honest. It was good, --but I was already familiar with much of the philosophy, so it was not as profound of an experience as it seems to be for some-- Totono on the other hand has my heart forever. Edit: a few months on and I keep thinking about Subahibi. Now that the shock and discomfort from its content has faded, I'm left with a realisation that it did help me come to terms with my fear of my own mortality, which I was struggling with at the time. So I take back that it wasn't life changing. Thinking about Yuki's "live happily" speech did have a deep impact on me. And that was probably because of what we went through to get there. We saw the consequences of giving in to despair and delusion, so it almost framed living happily as an act of defiance against how horrific life can be. What a wild ride

Chaos;Head Noah is Denpa at it's finest. If you haven't played Chaos;Head you should definitely play it

I can't believe I haven't heard the term before although it perfectly describes one of my absolute favorite horror subgenres. It also reminds me of an infamous German case called "Katzenkönig" (King of Cats). A couple moved in with a loner, luring him into a threesome. They isolated him completely and made him believe there was an ancient eldritch entity called the King of Cats that was about to wipe out humanity. The only way to stop him was a human sacrifice. The women just forgot to mention that this sacrifice was actually the new wife of her ex-husband and it was all a revenge plot. The guy believed them and stabbed the new wife twelve times in the face, throat and chest. She somehow survived. It is a classic example in criminal law because not only the guy was convicted of attempted murder, but also the couple. They had so much control over him that it was not seen as incitement, but attempted murder via another person.

The Chaos; vns are seriously some of my favorite ever, especially within the Denpa genre! So happy to see it mentioned in this list.

Commenting to boost this in the algo now that NEEDY GIRL has hit 400k

This aesthetic is fascinating, I played through both Saya No Uta and Subahibi, I loved Saya but I keep going back and forth on subahibi since there's a lot of stuff I love about that game but also a lot that drags it down for me but I could still reccomend it to some people to try, just that they should know what there getting into before they commit to playing through all 60 hours of it

Loved the video! You're very concise and knowledgeable. Wish I knew someone like you to guide me, I've only just started going through VNs more seriously. Just bought Wonderful Everday on your rec, once I finish up MuvLuv I'll run it. Then I'll probably go through the science adventure games.

It's really rare seeing channel that almost exclusively content about visual novel Hope you continue these types of analysis even more!

I finished Saya no Uta not to long ago, currently am playing Subanibi and have You and Me and Her already installed to go I didn't know this subgenre had a name and I always struggled to describe it! Thank you so much for this video! I'll definitely add Chaos Head to my list!! This year I found out that I love love love Denpa games!

As a prehistory of "Shizuku", I thought it necessary to mention Kenji Otsuki's novel "Shinkou Shukyo Omoide Kyo", Kazumasa Hirai's novel "Genma Taisen", the magazine "Mu", etc. And the source of imagination for this type of work group is the novel "Dogra Magura" by Taisho era writer kyusaku Yumeno. I would also like to recommend "Saihate no Ima" as a masterpiece in the visual novel of denpa genre.

This video is singlehandedly what got me into denpa and also what I use to introduce my VN interested friends to denpa- props to you for making such an accessible and well crafted guide!

Just started getting into the Higurashi franchise, good timing!

SubaHibi was my first VN and I was not prepared at all... Still 10/10 tho

Damn your channel has so much unique content it's always nice to see what you upload. I'm not too deep into VNs with the only one I've really invested time into bring Umineko, but now I think I definitely will read/play more!

If you want one of the most incredible Denpa eroges that I have ever played, play Lessons In Love by Selebus. It's a Koitatsu based renpy game thats still in production, it has one of the most compelling stories/characters I've seen recently.

I love that someone actually made a video explaining this niche genre

Wow this is a very articulate and incisive primer. As someone with a new interest in visual novels it is really helpful. Thank you.

sayooshi has got sapnish patch recently! so if you know sapnish, you can read it

This is an excellent video. Thanks! It's quite difficult to find creators that produce this kind of high-quality, visual novel-centric content.

As my first VN is unfortunately a denpa VN (Subahibi) it's indeed a very good introduction to denpa VN and now I found that I set my standards on VN too high because I really liked it xd

I’m finding myself falling more and more into Denpa VNs, and I gotta say, while neither entirely count, Umineko and Higurashi really eased me into the concept of a malleable reality. For those completely inexperienced with any and all things Denpa, I’d recommend either (or both lol) of these two games as an entry point to help get a grasp on the genre and see if it’s right for you!

On July I finished Saya no uta. On September I finished Totono. And two days ago I finished Subahibi. Thanks for the video and the recomendations. Happy new year!

Glad to see this video back up

Time for me to favorite this video for future reference. Btw, love that you put a lot of Iwaihime visuals at the beginning of your video. Just recently finished that VN and loved it. I bought "Wonderful Everyday" last year during a steam sale and haven't had the chance to touch it yet. Now I gotta push it to the top of the list

Subahibi was my introduction to denpa, Ive actually loved the refrences in it so much I picked up Wittgensteins Tractatus Absolutely adored the use of its philosophy in subahibi great video!!

Having never heard the term Denpa before, imagine my surprise when this introductory list covered a bunch of VNs that I've not only read but count among my favourites. And I've only read about 30. In particular Totono is probably my GOAT and SubaHibi is one of the few VNs I plan to re-read since it has so much to unpack. Cheers for the great rundown! Which of Higurashi and Umineko should I get round to first? :D

Just finished watching a ToToNo series and found this video. Overall, I really like this genre of visual novels and this video made me realize how much I'm into these kind of stuffs. DDLC is the best first impression for me and ToToNo made it even better. I'm glad that this popped up on my recommendation. Keep doing whatever you are currently doing man. Have a great day!

I’m not a Denpa-head really, but in my opinion, if you want to have more people interested in/aware of the genre, it might be beneficial to include Higurashi as an “entry level” title in the sub genre. Similar to zolo music and wether to include much more adjacent acts into the club, I find that giving people a foothold in the genre is beneficial to their experience.

Thank you for educating on the subject. I have a great appreciation of this concept I knew but had no name for.

why are all the male protagonists named "tak-" lmao. Great video, I'm only just getting into this genre and I'm very excited to check out your recommendations

Great timing, just starting out on Umineko! I forgot about the Saya one, and I need to check it out since Gen Urobuchi worked on it

Wonderful video! Chaos;Head NoAH and Chaos;Child were my entry to the denpa genre and I was very glad these very compelling and tightly written mind bending psychological thrillers (with fantastic character writing) were my intro to this genre. Thanks for giving them the credit and recommendation they deserve! Out of curiosity, have you played the other SciADV mainlines? (Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes) If so, what are your thoughts on them?

Wonderful outline and in-depth exploration of denpa. I listened to a lot of denpa music and was aware of denpa anime/manga before denpa VN (SnU and Chaos;Head were two of my first eroge). I personally think "denpa" as a VN genre is a little restrictive and people don't really take into account the unsettling/eerie atmosphere that is key (which is why I'm surprised Cross Channel isn't mentioned more). I'd say "denpa" is more fitting as a character descriptor than narrative one (as you refer to the "denpa onna" and the original denpa murders). If I could add to what you've said in your video, I find the core of denpa to be some kind of contradiction, like cute hypermoe music that's actually about sex/lolicon/fetishes/killing people/conspiracy theories, or an ostensibly typical moege with weird little "cracks" on the surface. Contradictions found within/through excess and, at least for VN, set within a world that is simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar.

I didn't even know SubaHibi was denpa. I love this VN and I read it two times. For me (not knowing it was Denpa) it was the ultimate maximalist VN of my lifetime. It's honestly how many places the VN goes and how many genres and ideas it traverses while staying consistently good and gripping. Edit: also damn, I wish I could read Sakura no Uta to see where the hell has SCA-JI's writing gone since SubaHibi. :(

It was really interesting. I just played in one of denpa games, and after searching it on KZfaq i found this. Never knew it was like a genre, definitely going to play in these games.

I've only played like 15 visual novels but I have played every visual novel in this video. They are all amazing, but let me tell you. Subahibi is OUTSTANDING. It went above and beyond what I thought was even possible. I never thought I could like something more than Steins; Gate, and while Chaos Head Noah Achieved that, Subahibi was beyond anything i could possibly imagine.

there was one original english denpa I played called Soundless, and it's genuinely my favourite original english visual novel, I highly recommend it.

The only one I have had contact with before was Saya no Uta, and my stomach was barely able to hold enough to endure what I guess was a "Happy" Ending. I won't be going back to check other Endings. I'll have to check the other ones shown here later!

felt kinda weird, decided to type "denpa" in the search bar. i just happened to have finished reading saya no uta recently. currently downloading subahibi, thank you for sharing!!!

Another high quality video! keep it up man!

I Found This Video After getting my mind blown by Saya no Uta. I’ve been looking to mimick the horror I felt in that VN, so I thank you for making this video!

this was fascinating, really appreciate your analysis. i would love to see a full video on subahibi from you!

I've recently read SayoOshi in Spanish and, well *spoilers* Honestly, I was slightly disappointed because the plot turned out to be too predictable. Maybe I happened to be too perceptive, but I figured out the final twist in the first hour of the game already (more precisely, when Semina tells the protagonist that his diary is more important than anything else and that his teacher work can wait for all the eternity). Maybe I'm just too spoiled by plots with a lot of red herrings and such, so I expected it to be more convoluted and able to deceive the player. Nevertheless, it was an interestingly disturbing experience (the scenes with Mahiru caused significant damage to my psyche :D), a very unique thing. And the ending song is just addictive af :)

Fantastic video. Denpa is my favorite genre of VNs. It's a niche within a niche. I've always disliked the fact that I cannot recommend it to any of my friends because most of them contain unnecessary h scenes for shock value. I've read all of those except for Totono. Guess it's time to tackle it.

Now this is the niche shit i want youtube to recommend to me. Great video!

I've heard this expression quite a few times, usually in anime and manga, but never realized what it was about

I am not being sarcastic here, but I would not mind if you make a vid about the history of eroge VNs. It is a huge rabbit hole

This video was really well written. To the point, no useless fluff, super informative, really great stuff. Thank you very much for making an easy and digestible introduction to what's arguably one of the least digestible VN genres. One of the easiest subs of my life. Can't wait to see more from you. If I may also ask a question, do you think the Chaos;xxxx animes do the games justice? I've watched the first but barely remember it in the face of what became my absolute favorite in the Science Adventure series, Steins;Gate. Does the Chaos;Head anime make a disservice to the game as far as you know?

I actually played You and me and her before without knowing it was denpa! I knew of denpa, mostly from lain but I had no idea one of my favorite VNs of all time had a distinct genre like tht! Super excited to dive in, though i might have to steel myself as the steam release of the game had no actual H scenes. Im just not one to enjoy that type of content in the middle of my crying and pissing myself. Other than that super excited omg!

yo, i'm reading sayooshi in spanish rn, apparently there was a english translation a couple weeks ago on vndb but the autor deleted it because it was a "less than ideal translation" the vn has a VERY unique atmosphere and ost, i'm enjoying so far hope chaos gate team can translate jisatsu 101 to espanish someday though

watching this before playing totono: oh boy that pink haired girl sure does seem wacky, she's totally gonna be the insane one coming back after playing totono: oh

I was looking for more touhou denpa music like the meme IOSYS songs but im not mad about where i ended up

In my case I unintentionally set myself a very high bar for VNs. I read DDLC and the first game I found after that was SubaHibi. So I went straight from the "gateway" VN all the way to the deepest depths of the esoteric existential horror that VNs have to offer, period. I do wonder if other games will struggle to stand up to that standard going forward. I'm gonna try out chaos:head which I've had in my library for a while to see how it compares

As a studious child of the Blockbusters days, my first anime was Tekken. Eastern Canadian fishing towns ain't known for anime selection, but somehow, my second anime was Perfect Blue. Sold my thirteen year old ass on anime.

If that’s the case with Denpa, then how does Sayonara wo Oshiete end? What’s the plot twist hidden within the story of that visual novel/secret distant relative of David Lynch’s Eraserhead?

Denpa being satisfying is an understatement

I once remember either an article of video where someone alluded to Yu- No as Denpa, which it definitely isn't so I'm assuming due to its mid 90s historical effect on VN/ adventure games had mentioned it maybe?

so these are stories about shut-ins going insane? man, this entire genre seems almost supernaturally confusing, but i feel like i almost get it

hey just wanted to say great vid, always looking for more vns to check out.

Im gonna say it if no one else will Sayooshi>>> Subahibi That level of nightmarish immersion will never be topped

Awesome video. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for all the recommendations! I have already seen some of them, but obviously I need more. :D

Very interesting and enlightening video, although I'm sure it's still difficult to classify something as denpa or not. Saludos!

I've been putting off reading Siubahibi for 1 year or so because of how flimsy my mental endurance is....I will definitely finish it one of these days

I think i played totono and subahibi because of this video

i really want to play jisatsu 101... i wish there was a version of the game formatted for modern pc :( i have been enjoying the remastered version of sayo oshi, though! it's chilling.

Honestly, one of the things I think Chaos;Head needed most was H-scenes. Anyway, nice video!

I'm really curious how you managed to make so many videos on VNs without ever talking about Muv-Luv

I love ma boi Thanks for great video

Thinks I just started learning of denpa last month. Apparently has read all the basic VNs already.

Gracias a ti le di una oportunidad a SubaHibi y fue una de las mejores decisiones de mi vida. Quedé enamorado de la obra. No me gusta el morbo sin propósito, lo encuentro estúpido e infantil, pero gracias a tu comentario final sobre el mensaje de la obra entendí que es el tipo de historia que me gusta. Muchas gracias por darme la oportunidad de tener una de las mejores experiencias de mi vida. PD: Kimika best girl. Es todo lo que está bien en este mundo.

Everytime i think of electromagnetic radiation altering conciouslness as a sentence it stimulates my third eye. My third eye has greatly enhanced my dreams because it's being activated lately. I didn't expect somthing like that to stimulate it tho

I loved the video I plan on buying subahibi after mew year

Interesting video. What makes you consider miyashiro takuru from chaos;child a "socially well-adjusted sociopath" though? He seems capable of caring for others and is hardly well-adjusted in the conventional sense.

I feel like the west has a similar movie genre, what I call "descent into madness" films. Videodrome and Pi are two examples that come to mind.

Played saya no uta and i highly recommend it

Most nitro plus games are considered in the genre for denpa

1:27 to 2:53 seems to be censored, with the screen blurred but the audio ok. Is anyone else getting this? Could it be a region thing? Or am I gradually losing my tenuous grip on reality? Anyone want to join my cult? We've got end sky, chairs, desks, and a toilet

Very Good Video

Great video

I don't really see how Higurashi is debatable as denpa. Going off your definition it fits perfectly.

ngl, ToToNo was probably my first Denpa game then xD I basically enjoyed playing it simply because I adore the stories of Nitro+/Chiral games, does make me wonder if Sweet Pool and the like would also fall under that category, cause then I guess I'm a big ass denpa simp ohno gotta love a good story that sticks with you

Yo i love your videos

I have managed to acquire every one of these games without knowing what Denpa was.

When the Mamiya is Takuji

read subarashiki and saya no uta without realizing there were denpa lol

I just recently finished subarashiki hibi. Probably not the best start considering it was my first visual novel, and my first denpa game but it was incredible and terrifying. Do you have any other recommendations ? What’s some of your fav vns (denpa) or outside of denpa

More videos like this please

Chaos Child sounds the most interesting to me. I already know the first two, and a sociopath protag? Mhhhh, neat. Can I read it without knowing any other VN in the series?

can you expand on accessible horror or denpa titles in a new video sometime pls

Why is there a large part of the intro completely blurred?

theres so much content to consume my brain is gonna explode😅

Myth is Denpa You had one chance to let people know about that gem and ya blew it

So, I'm gonna feel silly for asking, but what do you mean by "H Scene"? The Internet doesn't really give a clear definition of what those scenes are, and I'd like to know in advance before I get these visual novels. I've only really read Higurashi, the first chapter and a half of Umineko, and a smidge of Steins;Gate for reference.

I NEED THE NAME OF THE GAME IN THE INTRO. Been trying to find it and finally finish it

Would you consider Raging Loop to be a part of Denpa? Have you played that one??