Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Key, The Landmark Visual Novel Studio
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13621 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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I don't know if it is just coincidental or intended, but I noticed that Brittney Karbowski has appeared in various Eng. dubs of these Key-based anime: "Air", "Angel Beats!", "Clannad", "Kanon", and "Little Busters!"
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2905 |
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Regarding the closing paragraph, rance is a big influence for Naru isekai, so yay.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4640 |
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Probably more coincidental. Sentai/ADV licensed several Key titles at a time when Brittney was also doing a lot of recording for them. |
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grooven
Posts: 1428 Location: Canada |
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This was a fun read! I'm a huge Key fan so seeing others still appreciate their work means a lot. I think Little Busters didn't get quite the attention because people weren't as thrilled about the routes as compared to past games. I recalled some fans loved the last route but felt it a bit weaker with the common routes. I can't recall what had been released at the time if it got a bit lost too. I also think not having Kyoani animate it wasn't a help with popularity. Either way it's a great game and shouldn't be overlooked even if it's different. I was hoping Summer Pockets would've been mentioned or anything past Rewrite. But I do see the focus is more in line with 16 bit.
I did notice an error the Rewrite spinoff isn't R18. Only Little Busters and Clannad have R18 spinoff versions with all age counterparts. Thanks for the article! I hope this helps newer fans to be interested in Key and visual novels. The games are mostly up on steam, sadly not Air or Kanon. There are ways to play with fan translations however. But I hope people check out the animes too. At least the ones that translated well. |
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1052 |
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To me VNs peaked when a bunch of guys on 4chan got together to make a game about a guy dating girls at a school for disabled students based upon a sketch some doujinshi artist had done, and it turned out to be a sweet and tender story that would be poison to modern 4chan.
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Cho_Desu
 Posts: 240 |
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I've yet to read one of their VNs (on the to-do list...), but I tended to like the various Key anime in their heyday. My top favorite ended up being the latecomer Little Busters though, actually. It felt like the most polished version of the formula, with memorable characters and an engaging plot, meshing the drama, comedy, and supernatural mystery elements effectively. (Also just, nice to have some cute funny boys in the cast.)
Perhaps also worth mentioning the times Key collaborated for original anime series, though the only one of those to really make a dent was Angel Beats (a personal favorite of mine). I believe a series of VNs was planned for it, but it only ended up getting one, and only in Japan? And the rest of the plot was adapted in a manga, which was also Japan-only? It's a shame this stuff didn't make it overseas while the iron was hot, because I recall Angel Beats being a pretty big hit at the time. |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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It seemed like at the time, Little Busters being animated by JC Staff instead of KyoAni really killed the momentum for Key anime adaptations. There were tons of "quality" memes during broadcast when it really wasn't that bad. That mixed with the fact that Little Busters wasn't written entirely by Maeda and a lot of the routes are hit-or-miss. Little Busters Refrain is considered by a lot of visual novel fans to be on the level of After Story, but I don't think enough people stuck around for that. spoiler[And it may not have helped that it ultimately had a really similar plot twist to Angel Beats, which was obviously much better received.]
Rewrite (the anime) didn't make waves because it was terrible, and I don't say that lightly, because I'm really not that picky on adaptations. Instead of an incomplete adaptation which might have still garnered interest for the VN, they had the brilliant idea of trying to adapt the first half of every girls' route in one episode or less each while inserting new material with Kagari as the main LI, who was supposed to be a surprise heroine. Then in season 2, they adapted the second half of the VN relatively well and faithfully, but there was definitely not anyone who cared left to watch it. Which is too bad, because I always thought Rewrite was a story that would have worked really well in anime form, since it was really an action/sci-fi story just as much as a bishoujo game. While Rewrite (the visual novel) was already not as big a hit as its predecessors, I really feel like the lackluster anime adaptation killed any remaining interest there was for people who hasn't played it yet. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2312 Location: Online Terminal |
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My infection vector was Megatokyo, just in case my fellow olds needed another reason to feel old.
When we say something is "of its time" it tends to have negative connotation to it, usually due to its content not meeting modern morality. However, I could argue that Key's output in its heyday was also "of its time" because PC's and PC gaming in that time were still evolving in terms of hardware and processing, which allowed for more simple, art- and story-forward works to flourish. Now, tech has evolved to the point where you could probably make the next Kanon using only your phone, so the level of novelty or amazement has worn off, let alone the fact that there's exponentially more stuff to compete with. |
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GoatBoss9
Posts: 13 |
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There are some seriously amazing Visual Novels out there that are begging for a high end anime adaptation, such as G-senjou no Maou and Sharin no Kuni, but I agree that their era of dominance is long past.
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Nyren
Posts: 707 |
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But seriously, Katawa Shoujo was my first VN and to this day the only one I've not only played every route in, but played it twice. It remains my favorite and I recommend it to anyone I possibly can, even mentioning the adult content toggle in case that's not their cup of tea. It's a masterpiece and how it ever reached the finish line is just a series of miracles. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2482 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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The most interesting research I ever did for an anime con panel was for one I did called “Whatever Happened to Visual Novel Anime?” It was bolstered by JP sales data from a now-defunct site called someanithing.com, and allowed me to precisely track the rise and fall of VN anime, noting that it was really a surprisingly short period of intense activity — about 2003 - 2009 — with a fall-off in the 2010s when the only VN-based anime doing well at all were Fate and UtaPri. And by 2017, the entire genre of VN-based anime was outsold by “Frame Arms Girl”. Anyways, slides here for anyone who’s interested: https://www.slideshare.net/invalidname/whatever-happened-to-visual-novel-anime-awayoumacon-2018
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Cho_Desu
Posts: 240 |
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This was an interesting Powerpoint to flip through. I think what's most curious is how much the world of visual novels was apparently declining during the same time period as it felt like more visual novels than ever were getting translated into English. So many of the VN big names have made it over this past decade, but most of the localizations occurred well after their "heyday." Just an indication of how big (worldwide) anime-adjacent stuff has gotten together as a whole, rather than anything indicative of VN popularity specifically? |
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2482 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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It may be that VN companies had their hands full in the salad days, and only opened up to overseas readers after the gold rush was over, when getting some money out of their back catalog was as good (or better?) an opportunity than making new stuff. For example, âge hasn’t released a new full-blown visual novel since 2016’s Scharzesmarken, but since then they’ve been rolling out all the old Muv-Luv games in English, while their JP fans subsist with a series of failed gacha games. Back to the subject of the article, Key is obviously never going to give JP readers a “2nd Beat” of the Angel Beats! VN and have instead moved onto gacha stuff with Heaven Burns Red, but at least we got Clannad over here (and I think some or all of Rewrite? I backed the Kickstarter, but I lost track over the years whether they ever finished). |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2324 |
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You didn't count Danganronpa as a visual novel anime? Huh. |
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JustMonika
Posts: 1147 |
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You gotta check out some of the latest stuff from Key like Loopers (from the writer of Higurashi), Stella of the End and Lunaria (getting an English release next year). I wonder if Air and Kanon will ever get an official English localization. |
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