VNs with a Seasonal Theme
Entry posted by Clephas
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The greater proportion of VNs out there take place in a three or four month period... and are usually linked to a seasonal theme. This is especially true of moege/charage variants, but it can also be said for more story-focused games, like Tasogare no Sinsemilla. I just thought I'd bring out my thoughts on the use of seasonal themes here, since it comes to mind fairly often.
The two most common seasons used in VNs as a thematic background to the setting are summer and winter. Now, why might this be? At least one of the reasons is that these two seasons are the most extreme of the four, but the larger part of this is that most VNs are at least partly about school life or have high school student characters. Why is this important? Because of summer and winter vacation.
While schools provide convenient places for a protagonist to meet and interact with a heroine, school can also get in the way of the deepening of the relationship between them. As a result, many VN writers find it convenient to use the summer or winter break to serve as a relationship-deepening period where the other characters are conveniently sidelined by the lack of daily contact. In addition, summer has the advantage of creating chances for swimsuit CGs and swimsuit sex (incidentally, this is the reason why summer is the most common of the four seasons in VNs) and winter allows for more elaborate fashion choices for the heroines (incidentally, this is probably why companies with really good artists tend to like this season so much).
Personally, I despise summer. I do like swimming, but since I hate swimming with others (give me an isolated location to swim in and I'm happy), summer doesn't really hold much of an attraction for me. Moreover, the effort needed to keep myself from getting heatstroke in Austin means that I don't have any of the delusions of joyful summer that charage/moege seem to want to promote. I love winter... but I so rarely experience it, since Austin's winter lasts only a few weeks before becoming what amounts to spring (though the rest of the world is still winter).
Now, for the 'lesser' seasons... Spring is more common than autumn, for reasons that should be obvious. However, I'll go ahead and state them. Spring is a season that tends to be universally be seen as a yearly period of new beginnings. In Japan, it is the time when new students enter school and old ones graduate, and it also marks the period of the year where the most brilliant flowers bloom. As a result, it is more romanticized than poor old autumn...
Autumn... I have only seen three VNs that used autumn as a theme. I think part of that is because of the symbolism, but another is that the only real visual attraction of the season is the leaves... and it takes a real sensitivity and grace on the part of the writer to use that kind of symbolism well. Personally, I love this season. When I lived farther to the north, it was the ideal season to sit outside and read, and it was the perfect season to spend exploring the nearby wooded areas. In VNs, the season is generally a solemn one, and it tends to serve as a background for somewhat darker stories.
The bottom line is that I hate summer. Yes, I just wrote all that to get back to the fact that I hate summer. I look forward eagerly to a new ice age, and I'll just look blankly at anyone that suggests that losing most of North America to the ice would be a bad thing.
In other words... my air conditioner won't be repaired until Monday, so I'm currently cursing the guy who invented warm seasons.
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