Seven hundred annotated 80s nouns, fired at you until the footnotes become the joke.
A high-tempo Neo-Showa nonsense-gag novel told in cel-shaded illustration and animation, the sound-novel form of a visual novel, by the Japanese solo doujin creator Yonton Tomachin. Across seven episodes, roughly one anime cours, the cat-eared protagonist Saatan and a cast of crazed schoolgirls run riot through hell, outer space, and the inside of a child's body. Its core device is the Neo-Showa Dictionary, which annotates some 700 proper nouns to bury you in 1980s Japanese culture, with 30-plus original BGM tracks and divination and wordplay mini-games. In the lineage of Nantonaku, Crystal, the 1980 novel that captured an era through 442 footnotes. There is no English version (the store supports Japanese and Simplified Chinese only), so the West has barely reached it.
Published 2026-06-23
01First, the one feeling
- The Neo-Showa Dictionary does not slow the comedy down, it is the comedy: 80s proper nouns get fired at you faster than you can place them, and every footnote you tap to catch up lands as its own punchline, so the act of reading the annotations becomes the gag itself.
- The pace never lets you set the controller down, because the cel-shaded illustration and animation keep flipping the scene, hell to outer space to the inside of a child's body, and the next absurd turn is always already on screen before you have finished laughing at the last.
- It does not ask you to know the 1980s, it floods you with it until you do: across seven episodes the homage and parody pile up so densely that you stop trying to catch every reference and just let the era wash over you, which is exactly the trap that keeps you reading one more annotation.
02Who this is for (and who it is not)
For you
- You love the Nantonaku, Crystal idea of capturing an era through annotation, here turned into a high-tempo gag novel where a Neo-Showa Dictionary annotates some 700 proper nouns to drown you in 1980s culture
- You want dense, relentless nonsense comedy in cel-shaded illustration and animation, packed with homage and parody of 80s anime, games, films, music, and celebrities, plus 30-plus original tracks and mini-games
- You want a gem the West has barely reached, Very Positive in Japan at 96 percent across 246 reviews, with only 5 English reviews against 189 in Japanese because there is no English version
Not for you
- You do not read Japanese: there is no English version, the store supports only Japanese and Simplified Chinese, and the comedy lives entirely in 80s Japanese proper nouns, so the language is the wall
- You want a structured story or gameplay challenge, rather than a relentless, plot-light barrage of nonsense gags and annotated 80s references
03The roots of this taste
96% positiveonly 246 reviewsno English support yet — yet almost no one has found it
ふりかけ☆スペイシー (no official English title) Buried gem
A high-tempo Neo-Showa nonsense-gag novel told in cel-shaded illustration and animation, in the sound-novel form of a visual novel, made by the Japanese solo doujin creator Yonton Tomachin (developer and publisher both). Across seven episodes, roughly one anime cours, the cat-eared protagonist Saatan and a cast of crazed schoolgirls run riot through hell, outer space, the inside of a child's body, and other surreal worlds. Its core device is the Neo-Showa Dictionary, which annotates some 700 proper nouns to bury you in 1980s Japanese culture, packed with homage and parody of 80s anime, games, films, music, and celebrities, plus over thirty original BGM tracks and divination and wordplay mini-games. Very Positive in Japan at 246 reviews and 96 percent, but the West has barely reached it: the reviews are dominated by 189 in Japanese against only 5 in English. There is no English version (the store supports Japanese and Simplified Chinese only), and an 80s Japanese proper-noun parody is brutally hard to translate, so the language is the wall.
Give it your first passNantonaku, Crystal The origin
The origin of capturing an era by drowning you in its proper nouns: in 1980, the writer Yasuo Tanaka published Nantonaku, Crystal, a novel that followed a fashion-model college student through her brand-saturated Tokyo days and annotated the real brands, shops, music, and trends it name-drops in 442 footnotes, turning the consumer culture of its moment into the substance of the work. It is a novel, not a game, so it has no Steam release. This gem is a direct heir to that DNA: the Neo-Showa Dictionary that annotates some 700 proper nouns to bathe you in 1980s culture is that same annotated style, only turned into a high-tempo nonsense-gag novel that makes the footnotes themselves the joke.
Give it your first pass04Make this gem shine
If it speaks to you, check it on Steam and give it your first pass. Your push is what makes a buried gem shine.
You gave it your pass. The gem just caught the light.
05The bloodline of this taste
- Nantonaku, Crystal Root
- ふりかけ☆スペイシー (no official English title) You are here
- Read-and-build games another taste