Deatte 5-fun wa Ore no Mono - The zanzou scene was hilarious

Deatte 5-fun wa Ore no Mono! Jikan Teishi no Atropos (出会って5分は俺のもの！ 時間停止と不可避な運命) is a visual novel developed by Hulotte. Like the other visual novel from them that we covered in the past, it is part of a series of titles using special gimmicks as the foundation for the story setting.

The story revolves around Kurose Yuuma, a bored high school student who is given a watch by a mysterious figure wearing black clothes. The clock allows him to stop time for five minutes (hence the title) as long as he doesn't touch any living person during this time, as that would immediately disable the effect.

Of course, the mysterious figure doesn't tell him about this last condition. This causes Yuuma to try it out on his classmate and friend Mitsui Ruri, attempting to touch her chest. This disables the effect instantly and effectively reveals that something is off to the girl, eventually forcing him to spill the beans.

Together, they start experimenting and having fun with the watch, trying to think of situations where it could be useful given the limitations applied to it. The mysterious figure, Hakua Hiiragi, also appears in his life, faking being his relative and manipulating the memories of everyone involved to make sure her cover story stands.

The common route is mostly comedy and ecchi fun while getting to know the characters. The drama and real meat of the story don't start until you enter the character-specific routes. The game has an enforced route order, which ensures you experience the story in the intended way.

There are various mysteries you will need to uncover, and each route gives you more hints to work with to find the "Best Ending" (even though none of the endings are explicitly marked as a "True Ending"). In total, we have seven routes, with the two minor heroine routes only unlocking after you have completed the full mystery in the fifth route.

There are six heroines in total:

Mitsui Ruri

Yuuma's classmate and friend. She is the first person to become aware of Atropos and works as a partner-in-crime with him to find ways to use it. She is cheerful and friendly with everyone but can become quite stubborn when things don't go her way. She is sort of a tsundere character and is close friends with Kurumi.

Kurose Sakura

Yuuma's younger sister and best friend of Noa. She was involved in an accident years before the beginning of the story, which caused damage to her legs and quite some trauma to the protagonist. This stops her from running or walking long distances, but she can live a normal life otherwise.

Kurebayashi Kanon

A third-year student who is pretty much always at the school library. She loves reading science fiction and is very interested in the phenomenon surrounding Yuuma with the Atropos watch. She is quite shy and easily flustered.

Yamabuki Noa

Sakura's best friend and a girl with a "fake foreigner" accent. She is searching for the mysterious guy who saved her life from a traffic incident at the beginning of the story (who is actually Yuuma).

Abe Kurumi

A minor heroine who has sort of an "adorable dog" personality. She is not good at school but is always energetic and friendly with everyone. She is close friends with Ruri.

Hiiragi Hakua

A third-year student who is a classmate of Kanon. She is the one who gave the Atropos Watch to Yuuma, but her real identity and motives are unknown. She seems to have the power to manipulate reality and affect people's memories, so you really don't know what she is thinking. She loves to tease Yuuma.

My favorite is, without any doubts, Ruri. I love her closeness to the protagonist and the feeling of being a "fellow conspirator" as they brainstorm together about how to use this clock in the best way. Her route story is probably the simplest, but it really works to attract you to her.

Duca worked on both the opening song "Time is" and the ending song "Time for", both of which are great tracks. Among the voice artists, there are many popular faces like Nagatsuma Juri, who also voiced Sasaki Ichigo/Ringo from the Flowers series we covered in the past.

I suggest you give this visual novel a chance. It is an average-length title (clocking in at around 31 hours for me), and the focus on comedy and entertaining small skits really makes it shine.