Alright, so this is clearly an attempt at something more serious and introspective than your submission to last year's May Wolf, and while I applaud the effort to change your approach, I'm not sure this entirely stuck the landing. Partially because I'm not entirely sure what landing you were trying to stick in the first place. More on that to follow. As is tradition, I'll break things down by category (also, this is my first review of the jam, so if it sucks and is unclear, I'm sorry. Someone's gotta be the guinea pig).
Implementation of Theme:
Unless I am totally missing some deep cut myth involving the concepts of mirth and wonder as well as wolves and tanuki, uh, I'm not seeing it, like, at all. What we're looking for here is "folklore" and as far as I can tell, there's no reference to that in this very mundane setting. Even if we were to extend the jam theme to include fantasy or nerd culture generally by the title of the jam, "Howl for Initiative", there's really nothing there either. Wonder has some vaguely "nerdy" interests, but I don't really think that's enough to qualify.
Story:
Alright, let's circle back to what I was saying in the topline and talk about what this VN is actually doing thematically, jam theme notwithstanding. What are we going for here? What is the point of this encounter?
Generally, having the protagonist of your story state outright "Did I learn anything? Not really" is a bad sign - typically, someone in your story should be learning something. If they're not, why is the reader here? What are they getting out of being privy to this interaction? There are stories that can lean into characters being static, whether that's through parody or absurdism, but this notion is also directly contradicted by Wonder's musing in the following lines that the Tanuki was right about him not knowing what he was missing out on [with being "normal"]. So did this bar excursion push Wonder to try going outside his comfort zone again later? If so, why? What made him come to that conclusion? His experience at the bar was, for much of what we see, fairly miserable. He made awkward small talk with two people, he spent money he didn't want to spend, he didn't have a good time, and he left feeling like he didn't want to go back. So what's making him feel like he still wants to experience "normalcy"? Is it just the desire for a partner?
To expand on those last points, there seems to be a lack of focus on what makes Wonder feel so disconnected from "normalcy". Gaming, anime, and YouTube are hardly deeply niche activities in 2026. I get Crunchyroll ads when I'm watching sports. One of the interests you can mark off on those dating apps is "anime". Even if you're taking the approach that Wonder's perception of others' "normalcy" is flawed, his rejection of even Mirth's superficial attempts to be nice make him seem more frustrating than sympathetic. The one aspect of Wonder that is interesting and unusual is his asexuality, but that's not even mentioned until the last 20% of the VN and even then it's barely explored in any way other than as a means to shut down a creep at the bar. Like, how has that affected his perception? Has that been a factor in why his relationships have been so short and unfulfilling (i.e., is it difficult to find partners that are also asexual or otherwise comfortable with his asexuality)?
For what is ostensibly a look inside Wonder's character, we really don't get very much about him other than vague notions, and that leads to that feeling of not knowing what Wonder, or the audience, was supposed to get from this.
Presentation:
Mostly fine here, though there were some hiccups here and there. Right out of the gate there's tense inconsistency in the second line of the VN: "I could be sitting in front of my computer and watch youtube right now. Or play games. Or finally learn how to draw" -> should be "watching," "playing," and "learning." It's not the biggest thing, and grammatical issues like that aren't particularly ubiquitous, but that' s not really the kind of first impression you want to leave. There were some other proofreading gripes too, like quotations within quotations all using double quotation marks instead of singles.
No issues with the stock sprites per se, though there were times Wonder's expressions did feel a bit lacking. I'm not sure what expressions the pre-made sprites came with, but this VN would have benefitted a lot from Wonder looking visibly exasperated or annoyed with Mirth's attempts at humor. It's especially noticeable since Mirth's expressions feel far more varied.
Music is alright. Feels a little chill for a bar, but it is off-peak hours so maybe plausible. Didn't really add or detract from the experience, though I'm not sure why there was a delay in the BGM starting, other than that just being a thing other VNs do sometimes.
Writing:
Other than some of the proofreading issues mentioned above, the writing was mostly mechanically fine, but it did feel a bit dry and bland. I understand that, to at least an extent, these characters are supposed to not have any chemistry, but that does make the dialogue a bit difficult to get through, especially when the conversation topics are so banal. The pacing doesn't help much either - a third of the way through the VN we still have Wonder asking himself why he's even there in the first place without doing much to answer that question other than mentioning an ad. It's a 2,000 word story, get to the point.
I've said plenty about Wonder already, but the other characters feel strangely written as well. Mirth is stated to be 31, but he's written much closer to someone in his fifties or sixties, especially with lines like "YouTube doesn't substitute cable TV though." My dude, I'm 31. I have zero peers that would say that. I'm not sure I have any peers that even have cable TV.
The interaction with the tanuki felt rushed and inconsistent as well. Aside from being a pretty cookie cutter "creepy guy at the bar", certain lines like "I'm not judging your lifestyle" feel totally out of place when he was just telling Wonder he'd reconsider asexuality if he got laid like two minutes ago.
Also, I'm not sure where to put this, but as someone who lives in California, I find the notion of $10 USD equivalent drinks being egregiously expensive hilarious. I wish I could pay $10 for cocktails lol.
Creativity:
Alright, I think this review might actually be longer than the VN itself at this point, so I'll try to keep this brief. Like I said at the top, I think trying to push yourself to be a better writer and try new things is unequivocally a good thing. With that said, there wasn't much to really bite into here - everything was too superficial to leave a lasting impression. This honestly feels like an extended scene that could have been cut or edited down from a longer, more complete VN where we get a deeper dive into Wonder's life and see how he grows.
It's not a bad effort and I think it's great that you're putting your stuff out there, but I think this needed to be more focused and fleshed out to make its core concepts work. Maybe it would have helped if I read this upside-down and chased it with some Sonic fan fiction.
6 mojitos out of 2 All About that Ace app installs from me.