Hotori is your average high school student – except that she has 1 month left until her death. Two shinigami are sent down to earth have 1 month to watch over her and make sure she has no regrets left so she can descend into the after life. The two shinigami are Zen and Rikka, and if their mission succeeds, they will get a get out of hell free coupon to be reborn again. If they fail, they will be stuck doing shinigami work for all of eternity. Hotori starts to think about how to live her life to the fullest in the remaining time she has left, and one of the things on her bucket list is to confess to her crush Shizuru. Warning, this review ain’t gonna be pretty so if you thought the game was the best thing ever, reading past the jump may crush your hopes and dreams. 😂

Zen – Zen was this cool senpai in Rebirthday Song but here he’s a huge douchebag and is rude af to Hotori from the start. Zen hates anything to do with pianos so he flips his shit when one day Hotori plays the piano in the house, since her father is a pianist. Zen reveals to Hotori that he never dated anyone in school in his past life because he was completely blind. Since Hotori got dumped by Shizuru and neither of them have ever dated Zen suggests they date until it’s time for her to kick the bucket. So then one day a shinigami named Sora attacks Zen. After 4 days of research they discover that Sora is actually Hotori’s dead brother Akito who’s a rogue that’s been killing Shinigami to protect her from death. He had died 5 years ago pushing her out of the way when a car crashed into them. Hotori ended up forgetting she even had a brother due to the ptsd. After playing lovers with Hotori for a while, Zen starts to get closer to her and reveals to her that his past life he was Kisaragi Zen, her favorite pianist and first love. She had no idea he died because the news just said he was stopping his piano career… rather than the fact that he killed himself. To make things worse they find an old news article that reveals Zen was in the car that crashed into Hotori and Akito was driven by Zen’s mom. He feels really shitty and decides to tell Hotori about his past.

He tells her how he was born blind and learned piano by listening and remembering via muscle memory. He almost gave up until he started learning from Hotori’s stepdad. He would also hear stories about Hotori playing learning piano and it made him happy and wanting to play more himself. Everything was going well until the day of the car accident.. his tired lacking sleep mom crashed the car killing Akito and injuring Zen so bad he could no longer play piano. Without piano Zen felt like his life had ended so he killed himself with a fruit knife 🤔. I thought fruit knives were usually dull that you can’t do this… wewell SURPRISE TWIST comes bursting in when Hotori calls her dad to find out Zen isn’t dead but has been in a long time coma. (Kanon flashbacks uguu.) Hotori decides to visit the hospital where Zen is and there is Zen’s comatose body after all. She tells his sleeping self  that she doesn’t hate him and that the accident is not his fault. When she gets home she tells shinigami Zen that he’s still alive but he’s mad cause he didn’t want to go on living blind and unable to play piano. He grabs and kisses her to get her to shut up but she bitch slaps him away saying that at least he’s alive but she’s gonna die in 3 days.

Zen apologizes to her and they kiss and makeup and agree to go on a final Christmas date before her death. They go to visit Akito’s grave only to run into him who once again threatens Zen. Hotori thanks him for always protecting her and she doesn’t need him to kill shinigami for her because she’s come to terms with her death. With this, Akito’s regrets are gone and he transcends into the afterlife. That night they tell everything to Rikka who goes to report on it to underworld hq… meanwhile Zen and Hotori spend the night banging (i honestly don’t know what they did but it was lightly implied in honeybee’s best attempt 🤣). After their Christmas date, Hotori’s final wish is for Zen to visit his comatose body in the hospital. On the morning of her death day, they head over to the hospital. In his hospital room they both regret everything and wish the end wasn’t coming. After Zen admits his dream of living a better life in his next life and not hating his circumstances… his soul transcends. He tells Hotori that he hopes to be her true lover in their next life before disappearing. Just then Rikka shows up to reveal that actually Hotori doesn’t have to die at all and it was all a plot to catch Sora because they knew he’d come running if he found out imouto is in danger. 😂

Not only that but Rikka says that Zen has returned to his living body and she should visit him at the hospital tomorrow lol. With this Rikka returns to the underworld. Zen wakes up, somehow remembers everything, they become a couple for real, and then he has eye surgery and can see again!! Also there’s no explanation why he was able to see as a Shinigami, despite Rikka saying that you come to the underworld with the same ailments you had in real life. 🤔😂 In ending 2 Zen doesn’t get his sight back but goes through rehabilitation to try and play piano again. He then decides to get eye surgery that his mother found after many years of searching and left behind before she died. I didn’t bother summarizing the other ends since they’re all just different ways of Hotori dying or oniitan killing them lol. After Story: Hotori’s in college now and Zen had been living with her family for several years. He’s now 25 and wants to stop mooching off her family so he goes overseas with her father for work. This leaves Hotori at home alone after a long time of being with him and she extremely lonely (even though it’s only 1 week lol). While away Zen is offered a deal to perform a song for a famous movie director. He comes back after 3 days though and they bang and makeup (idk honestly lol 😂).

Rikka – Rikka is from the taisho era so he’s been doing this shinigami thing for decades. His hobby is drinking and passing out in the evening and the night of Hotori getting rejected he gets knocked out and takes her as his body pillow 😂. Once Hotori finds out about her brother she decides to see more photos of him by visiting her grandmother who kept them all when her parents got rid of all his things. Zen also brings back the info from the underworld that Sora = Hotori’s bro Akito. In the meantime every time Hotori sleeps next to Rikka she wakes up crying from a sad dream she can’t remember. So then after they visit Hotori’s grandma Honami, she reveals that her father was not her real father…and that she’s a love child of her mom and some house servant she was in love with. So yep that house servant was none other than Rikka making him basically Hotori’s great grandpa (or maybe great uncle lol. 😂) Rikka reveals he was born into a very poor household and after his mom died his father violently beat him. He wanted to die but when he passed out from hunger, he was picked up by Hotori’s great grandmas family and began working there as a servant. Incidentally this family was actually the family of Ame, from Rebirthday Song! 😂

So Ame is also technically Hotori’s great uncle Hotaru who died from heart failure at age 15. Akari thought it was ok to have a secret relationship with Rikka since Hotaru would take over the family name… until Hotaru died and Akari had to be the leader forced into a political marriage. Akari tried to run away but they got caught and then Rikka got locked away in Hotaru’s old room as a punishment. The night before her wedding, Akari snuck into his room, dey bangedand she got pregnant with Honami. After the wedding Rikka was released but he lost the will to live got sick and died. He was obviously full of regrets and ended up in the netherworld, hoping he would eventually see Akari… but she had no regrets so she transcended oops! 😂 So Rikka basically continued doing his shinigami work and wants to succeed this mission cause he finally wants to be reborn. A couple days later Hotori has a chat with Sora who says he only escaped netherworld to be with her and just killed anyone who was in the way… and at the moment he refuses to accept Hotori’s upcoming death.

Hotori tells him that he’s done enough to protect her and that she hopes he’s her oniitan in her next life. With this, Sora promises he’ll do better in his next life and transcends. 😇 Rikka was creeping behind the classroom door the whole time and comes out at the opportune moment to be a shoulder to cry on lol. They go on a Christmas date together and after that they will be lovers for one night… which tbh I’m still grossed out about because GREAT UNCLE/GRANDPA CANNOT UNSEE 😂😂😂. And what’s worse is they totally screwed that night and I’m like bruh you bang your taisho gf and then her descendant decades later how thirsty are you 😱. The next day Zen and Rikka tell Hotori she doesn’t have to die now that Sora transcended. They also get their rebirth coupons but before returning, Rikka and Hotori go to visit the grave of Akari. When they go visit the grave there’s an image of Rikka and Akari from the past, with Akari’s soul revealing she was hanging out with Hotori the whole time feeling she’d run into Rikka lol. Apparently this is why she never got reborn.. too busy being a ghost for like 85 years 😂. And as they talk about their happy old times  Hotori just watches on like this some quality NTR TV lol. The best part is when Rikka even admits that Hotori is his granddaughter 😂😂😂🤮🤮🤮🤮.

After NTR theater ends, Rikka transcends now that his regrets are gone. His regret was before his death he wished misfortune on Akari but in reality he wanted her to live a happy life… so he kept regretting until he finally found out she lived a good life. Rikka also tells Hotori that he will be reborn as a milf hunter and find Hotori and slay her heart again 😂😂. And so like 15 years later, Ichinose Rikka comes to the high school where Hotori is a teacher and magically remembers his past life so he immediately confesses his love for the BBA 😂😂. I still don’t know why Rikka had one blind (?) eye… did he die from eye disease?? Did I miss something?? 🤔 Also tfw Rikka’s after story took place after one of the bad ends… sigh. It was this 15 minute endless monolog about how sad and ronery Rikka is that he couldn’t bang his great granddaughter but lo and behold, lucky for him Hotori died with regrets… and has come to the Shinigami school. And instead of seeing her in person he just wangsts that he doesn’t want her to see him, forget her regrets and transcend. Instead he decides to just creep on her in netherworld from the shadows. (＜❦＞╯ 益╰＜❦＞) Oh well terrible after story for a terrible route lol. The special story appears to be an after story following the good end where teen Rikka is an erogaki trying to land Hotori sensei in jail 😱😂.

Shizuru – On the outside, Shizuru appears to just be the perfect prince that Hotori has a crush on. However hints are given in Rikka’s route that there’s more to him especially when it seems like he’s working with Sora. When Hotori finally confesses to him he easily accepts it and asks her to go out with him. Because they started dating so quickly, I was paranoid based on all the stuff in the previous route… like it all felt too good to be true. He also reveals he has the template weak body and that he’s “watched over Hotori for a long time” 🤔😥. His parents are also deceased so he’s spent most of his life alone. Apparently Shizuru met Hotori in the hospital cause he was ill and was there until he was 13. Apparently he was known as some cursed child and nobody would talk to him so Hotori was his first friend there after the accident. She got lost and ran into him by accident and that’s when he was in wuv cause she’s the only person there who friended him. Unfortunately for him she forgot everything including him. He then tells her he knows she’s gonna die on Xmas and that Zen and Rikka came to take her life. Not only that but apparently he sang to people ready to die in the hospital and that’s when he ran into Zen here too who was recovering after the same car accident. After Shizuru sang for Zen, not too soon after Zen committed suicide (and failed).

He then takes her to Zen’s hospital room and explains that he has the power that shinigami do, to sing songs to separate the souls from the bodies. Unfortunately since he has no scythe, he can only half ass it which is why Zen’s body is still alive but his soul went to the netherworld and he’s now doing his shinigami thing. After this he takes her to the rooftop where Sora is waiting and she bursts into tears upon seeing him and him confirming he’s her step bro. Hotori remembers everything so fast her ptsd causes her to pass out. When she wakes up she finds out that Shizuru was Sora’s first target but he just wanted to escape the netherworld. So ultimately he killed his partner, and didn’t bother killing Shizuru cause he didn’t care and cause Shizuru could see him. They became friends cause their common goal was Hotori – Shizuru was hopelessly in love and Sora just wanted to protect imouto. Shizuru was still extremely sick so to keep him alive, Sora would literally feed him souls of all the shinigami he slayed. He knows it’s shitty but Shizuru wanted to live no matter what  and he wants to live witj Hotori… even if it means sacrificing both Zen and Rikka. So then Rikka and Zen burst in, get their asses owned until Hotori convinces oniitan that she gonna be awwright. He immediately transcends and disappears and then they bring Shizuru to Hotori’s house to have a talk about everything that’s been going on.

Zen and Rikka go to the netherworld to deliver the news and come back to tell them that on 12/25 the one to die will be not Hotori but Shizuru… sisince he was supposed to have died 5 years ago, and his soul donation machine is gone. The day before his death Shizuru asks that they allow him to spend the day with Hotori. They go on a Christmas date together and afterwards go bang in his apartment. The next morning they visit Akito’s grave where Shizuru thanks him for extending his life. Right before he’s about to die Hotori asks Shizuru to sing to her because she wants to die cause she doesn’t wanna live without this guy she literally knew for a couple of months and dated for 10 days. 🤦‍♂️ But he magically holds his song powers back where it only turns into a lullaby and she only falls asleep rather than dying. When she wakes up she finds out she’s alive and Shizuru’s kicked the bucket. The end lmao ok. 🤨 Also after completing this route any bad ends or ends where he rejects Hotori literally make no sense. If he’s been so madly in love with her for 5 years why in the gods name would be reject her right?? Unless he enjoys NTR and just wants to stalk her until his soul donation boy poofs. Also literally no explanation why he has magical shinigami song powers to separate people’s bodies from their souls what the fresh hell honeybee 🤨. It’s hard to enjoy the game as is when it’s so short and these kind of things just jump at you. Also I didn’t mention this in the other routes but the fact that just having Hotori tell Sora nicely to fuq off oniitan magically makes him give up his regrets and transcend is just laughable.

In ending 2 they both die with regrets and enroll in the shinigami school as Sei and Kamino. They fall in love all over again in the netherworld without having memories of their past lives. Well I suppose this is the better ending. Ending 3 rubbed the salt in the wound of terrible writing where Hotori married someone, had 2 kids and lived a long happy life until her husband died… but despite this she couldn’t stop thinking about Shizuru – a guy she dated for 10 days… she even admitted it to herself 😂😂😂. And so when she’s about to die, Shizuru comes for her soul as he’s been a Shinigami so these years. He tells her that even if she’s reborn he will love her again. I’m not sure why honestly this was the only ending that truly made me sad… more because of the fact that I feel that Hotori is shit for thinking about this dead guy for like 70 years despite being in a happy loving family and none of them deserved it 😢😭. In the after story it shows Sei’s progression through graduation in Shinigami school. After many years of being a shinigami he goes to take Hotori’s soul as per the ending since she’s old and it’s time for her to go. After she dies, Sei’s regret is gone and he transcends. Some ○○ years later, Hotori is reborn and is magically attending school with her childhood friends Zen and Rikka lol. In school she runs into a reborn Shizuru and his friend Akito.

Sora (Akito) – Akito’s past reveals that his parents constantly fought at home until they got divorced and remarried. He became a turbo siscon the moment he laid eyes on his imouto and in his route he wishes to be reborn as her lover. After transcending he was stuck in limbo and met the Shinigami creator who allows him to have “another chance” at life and he sends Akito back to have a life where he is now Hotori’s senpai attending school with her. (Lol aka honeybee reset for the Vita port but its ok, I’m ok with this au for him lol.) Somehow though this messes up with history and at one point Hotori nearly calls him oniichan lmao. When one day after school she sees some girl confessing to him, Hotori gets all jelly and realizes she loves Akito-senpai~! She confesses to him and his dreams finally come true so he confesses that he’s always loved her too etc. And somehow magically they graduate high school and get married too and also babies! And so decades later they both get old and die. If you don’t accept Akito’s love confessions either Hotori or Akito die via car accident ending his AU fantasy. In ending 2 he pushed her out of the way but she remembers oniichan and then pushes him out of the way and they are miraculously saved! Not only that but she tells him she knows he’s her oniichan and she wuvs oniitan forever and ever uwu. The worst part about this is not even new CGs! I think he deserved at least 1 or 2 new CGs for this half assed route smh. (　´_ゝ｀)

Oh boy where do I start e_e. I didn’t have high expectations for this but I can definitely say it was worse than the first game. It felt like they put too much time into the common route, and the individual “branches” felt extremely rushed. Aside the obvious Shizuru, Hotori fell in love (and opened her legs) within a span of DAYS for these guys…despite acting like this shy girl at the beginning who could barely even say hello to her crush. The landmine in Rikka’s route left a horrible after taste for me, and despite people telling me that Shizuru was supposed to be the best route I didn’t feel that way at all and alternatively was even more disappointed lol. The ending song that would play at the end of every route killed the mood for me, the lack of name calling for the heroine was really awkward in a lot of scenes and killed the mood as well. A lot of backgrounds were totally taken from Starry Sky (lmao honeybee) and a lot of the CGs felt like they were inappropriately chosen? Like any scenes with hugging kissing just had….fade to white. There were a lot of scenes of just person standing or people walking. There was only 7 CGs per route which is what it appears to be in the original PC game so I’m under the impression no new CGs were even added for the port.

Finally, I’m ok with the whole rebirth thing but the fact that everyone continuously looks the same, is named the same and has all their past lives memories is just ridiculous. If I think about it hard probably the best character for Hotori is Zen because the other 2 honestly creeped me out, but even Zen’s route had too many magically solved holes that kinda killed it for me. I honestly expected to walk into a nakige but I walked out bored and disgusted lol. All the extras they added like after stories and stuff were mostly extremely long monologues from the guy’s POV that kept going on too long without any CGs to break the monotony.  I was already wary of anything honeybee after that horrid Ayakashi Gohan FD but I figured, I’d give them another chance with this port and well