はるくる

The humour is god-tier, genuinely some of the funnest dialogue I’ve ever read. The lead-in to the 春海/静夏 scene, 秋桜’s attempts at ボケ, basically all of 冬音’s route, there are just countless examples of absolutely hilarious scenes.
And the production values are incredibly high. I’ve never seen such varied and detailed use of sprites, with multiple changes in expression or little animations within every line. And of course, the art, the music, the sound effects, the voice acting, all fantastic. It’s so polished and well-done, you can tell the creators poured their hearts and souls into it.
It reminds me a lot of Cross Channel, with the themes of sacrifice, despair, uncontrolled love, broken personalities, and repetition. But they differ in that Harukuru tends to use suspense over shock for its plot reveals. This means you read the SoL scenes hanging on to every line of dialogue, catching onto the hints, constantly afraid of the inevitable downfall of this blissful paradise, yet still fully engulfed in the humour and the sex and the romance. It actually makes for such an enjoyable experience.
I didn’t expect this at all. You read something that tops everyone’s top-10 lists, you expect a masterpiece. You read a colourful harem moege, you expect a bit of harmless fun. Well, it certainly is fun.