NUKITASHI 1 is one of the most consistently funny AND engaging visual novels I've read in the 15+ years I've read visual novels.

It's an odd combination of comedy and plot but somehow excels at both simultaneously. The setting being a utopia/dystopia where a law mandates everyone of age having to screw in public every day is a unique concept mostly played for laughs but taken surprisingly seriously later on.

The comedy style is a wacky savage over the top style similar to Majikoi, SMEE titles like Making Lovers, and Asa Project titles like Sankaku Ren'ai. Considering those titles are some of my favorites purely based on their humor, this gave NUKITASHI a huge edge since it had their humor but ALSO a very solid plot.

I can see how some people might get turned off by how repetitive the sex jokes could be but I thought there was enough variety and generally good execution of them I was laughing almost the entire way. The goofy situations people do to have sex clearly making fun of hentai dialogue somehow never got old.

However, the great humor isn't limited to just sex jokes. The banter between the main character Junnosuke and all the main heroines are excellent and some of my favorite banter in any visual novel. Junnosuke has a huge chip on his shoulder so his revenge against Seiran Island and his over the top anger and jokes about why he hates sex and is a proud virgin are generally pretty funny. However, Junnosuke specifically can be a bit too much of a douche at times especially towards Nanase. Thankfully this gets fixed in the sequel.

The main heroine cast is in the running for my favorite group of main heroines in any visual novel. Nanase is the best visual novel gyaru, being very athletic and resourceful yet caring and motherly with some decent savage quips when needed. Hinami's quirks about trying to emphasize she's the oldest character while looking like a loli are generally funny jokes but she has some very surprisingly wholesome emotional maturity. Misaki... as a fan of "weird" characters, she's arguably the queen of quirky hilarious weirdos, one of the funniest characters in fiction. Her obsession with anal, and how she makes fun of herself for being fat and invisible to people are constantly hilarious in addition to her great driving/biking skills and savage jokes to her friends.

The "true" heroine is also quite good, having some badass moments while still having an interesting role and being a sweetheart. Even the main protag's sister Asane, who's not a datable heroine until the sequel, is my personal favorite little sister character in visual novels. I'm generally not into the imouto thing in anime and VNs, but Asane's relatable nerdy savagery and derpy rants are surprisingly hilarious, way better than the usual sibling joke.

NUKITASHI has a lot of interesting side characters, doing a surprisingly good job humanizing the many antagonists in this game, though a few don't get their full depth until the sequel.

NUKITASHI 1 in my opinion has the best pacing of a 40+ hour plot heavy visual novel. It helps it has the hilarious comedy, but I think it does a good job giving the main characters constant new goals, and simultaneously slowly building up the depth of the many characters AND the setting.

The plot isn't the deepest or most philosophical by any means but there's a surprising amount of human social themes to think about, especially in a game about a sex dys/utopia.

Of all my favorite visual novels, NUKITASHI has the least amount of personal flaws. I love every route, like most characters, think the music is really catchy, great humor, and great pacing, it does almost everything I'd want in a plot-heavy story.

There are a few minor issues I have like Junnosuke being a douche and not being a huge fan of Ikuko but those don't get much in the way of NUKITASHI coming dangerously close to "objective perfection" for me.

NUKITASHI 1 is my current 2nd favorite visual novel of all time, trailing just behind OG Majikoi cuz of personal biases. However, everything I've praised about it makes it an easy 10/10 VN for me, and I look forward to revisiting it sometime in the future.

I was the main QC tester of the full retranslation with 18+ content (which you can find on Reddit's /r/IMHHW). I heavily recommend this version if you want to make sure you read the original Japanese version as intended without MoeNovel's odd localization changes.

As for the main story itself, I'd been really excited for this VN ever since I heard the concept of a wholesome glider-focused slice life romance story. I ended up liking it even more than I expected to. I think right now it's my top 3 visual novels of all time.

I'm a HUGE sucker for super feel-good fun inspiring slice of life stories. I have since read A LOT of visual novels with wholesome feel-good slice of life like Sky Full of Stars Trilogy, Marshmallow All the Way Home, Full Kiss S, Aokana Extra 1, etc. However, the original If My Heart Had Wings/Konosora pound for pound is probably still my favorite VN in this particular sub-genre.

Despite it being an obvious feel-good story where everything will be alright in the end and cheesiness and blablabla I think what makes the VN even better is how real and relatable all the characters are (even the quirkier ones like Amane). In addition, it's not like everything is always convenient, there are definite struggles, both in what needs to be learned and just stuff about their personalities that I enjoyed seeing being developed.

Obviously one of the appeals is the main heroine being disabled and on a wheelchair. I'm kinda glad they didn't get too melodramatic with this, kinda similar to show Katawa Shoujo didn't get melodramatic with the disabilities themselves. It was cool to see how it was worked around and even utilized in interesting enough ways in the story.

It was nice to see a more futuristic-looking school for once. And of course, I learned a lot more about gliders than I would've in my entire lifetime if I didn't read this VN and they were pretty interesting. All the stuff seemed pretty well-researched and stuff.

One of the absolute best things of IMHHW is the overall presentation. The graphics are amazing, easily some of the most detailed and bright in the medium and really fits the setting and whatnot. I think the occasional use of 3D CG movies are nice. The backgrounds are super detailed, the CGs looks nice and the sprites are well-done. The voice acting (from what I can tell) are good. The music is overall solid, albeit maybe a bunch being just remixes of the main/ED themes. There's a few themes I REALLY like though, they usually play towards the end of the route or IN the end. The rest are fitting and nice enough.

I legitimately liked just abut all the characters in the game, minus Tobioka, though he was purposefully written to be unlikable in a way. There's a good variety of personality and development among a lot of them, though more good supporting male characters would've been nice. Yeah this is a harem romance moe charage and blablabla but if MajiKoi can at least try to have cool male supporting characters I dont see why others can't...

This visual novel is pretty long at around 50 hours after every route but it doesn't feel that way cuz for the most part the game is a blast with great characters, good humor, solid character development and engaging plots related to the glider club.

Even though IMHHW is in my top 3 visual novels, even I can admit there are some flaws I can't overlook.

As much as I love most of the routes, they follow a VERY similar familiar formula, slice of life that leads to a confession that leads into drama that leads to an epic final glider flight. Ageha's route just flat out sucks which is unfortunate since she's a good character in every route that's not hers. I get what they were going for but she was just frustrating to deal with and the 'justification' of this drama was not worth it, especially since she was kind of a beeyotch even after the drama was over.

While some people don't like Yoru's route because it ends up as a 3some, I actually thought it was fun the way they implemented it, and I'm generally not a fan of polyamory relationships. My issue is with Asa's route which was fine... but ultimately pointless when you consider the ending. I think they could have combined the drama of both routes to make BOTH character arcs satisfying in the same timeline and still have the great conclusion from Yoru's route.

Overall though, I don't have too much to complain about with If My Heart Had Wings. It's extremely wholesome, has solid character-driven development and drama, excellent presentation, and has a vision it executes mostly well. It's easy to see how the writer Konno Asta made many memorable VN stories like the rest of the Konosora Trilogy, SFOS Trilogy, ATRI, and Ginka.