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The purpose of this thread is to have fellow Fuwanovelians help each other determine the game of where the unknown CG or heroine is from. It's not fun when you find this great looking heroine or amazing CG scene but don't know what game it's from and it can be quite frustrating to look for it. All of us have played all sorts of visual novels and some of us are very knowledgeable about this stuff so I thought this would be a helpful resource to share a potentially interesting game and discuss more about it. As an added perk and possibly to boost people's ego confidence and for bragging rights, every time you helped someone determine what game the CG/heroine is from, you will gain a point and placed on a ranking. Just a little motivation is all. Rank so far: #1 Kiriririri - 7 points #2 mitchhamilton - 2 points #3 Flutterz - 1 point Zenophilious - 1 point binaryfail - 1 point I personally have dozens of these unknown CGs/heroines, but I'll start with this one because it looks very interesting and I want to play it just to get this scene: I found this in google images when I searched for "harem endings", but I can't seem to find out where it's from. The game's art looks very familiar to me but I just can't put my finger on it...

Hello all, I'm a first time poster here at Fuwanovels and I'm glad that you're taking the time to read this post of mine. As I have just finished the novel of Kanon, I really wanted to take some time to discuss some of my thoughts of general story and what I think can be considered to be the true end. I'm looking forward to any and all comments due to my low expectations for a discussion because how old the source material is lol but I digress. First off, I want to talk about the powers of miracles in Kanon. Though the story never really goes in-depth on how or why they happen, we know that they do occur. The most recognizable of these is Ayu Tsukimiya route where we find out that she's been in a coma all along yet she was able to talk to Yuuichi despite being so when he returned. She's been dreaming seven long years awaiting his return and for someone to notice her. In this case, the dream gave form to a miracle. Outside her route, Ayu's dream can be considered the method that she delivers her last wish to Yuuichi to perform a miracle on his behalf. In Nayuki's route it's for Nayuki's mom, whose in critical care in the hospital, and in Shiori's route; it's to save Shiori from dying from her terminal illness. Its only in Mai's and Makoto route that her dream doesn't reach a conclusion and it might because these two are well capable of preforming their own miracles. Now as for the reason why I bring up the subject of miracles is because, I have a sneaking suspicion that maybe Ayu's dream/Miracle isn't because of her own innate power. I think it's because of Mai that she's able to use a miracle. The reason I say this is because of Mai's route. In it, Mai is the only one who is proven to have a miraculous power and also shows it to affect another person outside of the main character influence or presence. In the first case, its Mai's mom that is recipient of the miracle as she's practically brought back from the dead from Mai's wish. Then the matter where she would show up on TV for that ESP/Psychic show. Moving on, Mai power is shown to be understanding of Mai's inner desire to come to terms with her own abilities as it's a source of her sorrows yet also, the one thing that saved her mother's life. As Mai moves away to a new town, her power/miracle prophesizes that there would be a one that will accept Mai for who she is as it's her greatest wish; that of hope. I believe that because of this wish, the story as a whole is shaped by Mai's desire despite not being the main heroine. In the context of Kanon, the miracle/wish just does what it needs to do without explanation within the story on how it does so. To give a precise example, I think Mai power may have intentionally brought Mai and Yuuichi together in that it made Yuuichi get lost in the first place and to find himself in the wheat field. This is something though that can't be proven as Kanon is very vague on the full abilities of Mai's miracle. An equally valid explanation could be that the power merely predicted where a person that could love Mai would be at in both location and time. Yet, I wouldn't believe such a thing to be such a fateful encounter if Mai's power didn't have an active hand in joining them together. A third explanation would be a combination of the two: In that maybe knowing Yuuichi to be lost, Mai's power lead Yuuichi to Mai which to me as valid as the first explanation. Overall though, the most important part of this to consider is that Mai's and Yuuichi meeting occurs a full three years before Ayu's meeting with Yuuichi. Yuuichi, having to leave because of Summer vacation being over, is called by a frantic Mai on the day of his departure about how Demons were going to destroy their cherished place and have to fight to keep them away. As Yuuichi tells her that he can't, Mai says that she promises that'll she still be waiting for him as she hoped that this will make him stay. Of course he doesn't; yet, her wish that he would still come still manifested itself because of her power. The obvious result would be the "Demons" she now fights at the school that her cherished place used to be but, my question though is that, "Does the wish simply end there?" The "Demons" in this case provide a reason for Mai to stick around in Kanon for Yuuichi to find her at the school at night. But that in itself is a passive way to look at things. Thinking more abstractly, I think Mai's miracle works in a way that makes things be so. I maybe misinterpreting the conversation Mai's power has with Yuuichi at the end of her route but, I remember her practically saying that her miracle is achieved through Yuuichi. In order for Mai to again meet Yuuichi, I feel that her power has to be a influence then on in his life after their meeting as he's Mai's hope. This then comes apply to whenever he meets the other heroines and why miracles happen when he's around. With Ayu, I believe her short meeting with Yuuichi was able to establish a connection with him and in the light of her tragic accident, her dream was able to form a bond with him. Being that Yuuichi is linked to Mai's power, Ayu sincerest wishes may been given form because of this. Basically, she's piggy backing on Mai's miracle as they both want Yuuichi. I feel this to be a justifiable as Yuuichi is devastated with Ayu's tragedy. I'm thinking that Mai's power may have been forced to help Yuuichi overcome his grief if he is able to help Mai. Mai's power, in this case, may allowed Ayu a chance to reconnect with Yuuichi and give him a sense of closure so he can be better equipped emotionally to help Mai. This would also account for when Ayu's dream is able to save Akiko (Nayuki's Mom) and Shiori in routes outside her own. She would be in those routes returning a borrowed power to make Yuuichi happy and would be in line with the objectives of Mai's wish. I'll admit though this a big stretch of the imagination and much simpler answer is that Ayu just has her own power limited to herself. What this doesn't account for is that during Ayu's time with Yuuichi, he gives her three wishes that are supposedly limited to what he's capable of doing. Ayu only happens to uses two and provides the backdrop of miracle that would be the third wish. What I would make argument for is that, "What if through Mai's power, Yuuichi is able to grant a miracle despite Ayu and even Yuuichi not knowing that?" This in turn leads me back to bring the discussion back to Mai. Where Ayu name may bring up the imagery of the moon with her last name being Tsuki, she's clearly the sun's warmth in the story with her cheery personality and happy go lucky attitude. Mai, on the other hand, is clearly the opposite of Ayu with her quiet, stoic demeanor and taciturn personality. She would be the cold darkness to the bright light that is Ayu. This isn't so special in itself except that it provides thematically why Mai would be the true end of Kanon and the foundation of Ayu's miracles. With Ayu, you are presented with an idealized version of her that’s basically a "what if she never fell into a coma?" The results of this is that you find a very enjoyable and lovely heroine that makes for a sweet romance with the main character. If you dig further into her character though, you'll start to realize that her biggest emotional draws are the ones that are tied down to the past she shares with Yuuichi. Thinking more about, you see Ayu's existence binds Yuuichi to a cruel history if one was to observe her pragmatically as she would serve as a specter of what could have been and, a sad reminder of his powerlessness to do anything to save her. I suppose though one could make the argument that Ayu's route is the first and truest example of what Shiori says in her route, "Maybe people made fiction so that they can write happy stories (paraphrasing now: because life is often too cruel)." Ayu's route can be then basically summed up as using a miracle to overturn a painful tragedy. This is fine and all but let's compare that to Mai's story. She's clearly been hurting for ten long years and solely living on a wish she made to see again the only boy that accepted her. Where's Mai dilemma is nowhere near as tragic as Ayu basically dying; one has to consider because of this that Ayu, for all intents and purposes, to be of the dead barely holding on to the dream of being alive; while with Mai, she is slowly killing herself metaphorically in her pursuit of her made up demons and literally as she slowly dies bit by bit as she slays each demon. Where Ayu is the sad story of life cut short, Mai story is that of a promise that's both keeping her alive and yet what will eventually kill her if things are to continue. Now, If you were to play all the routes prior to Mai's, you see that the this is subversion of the single most important theme in Kanon; that of how dreams become the foundation from which miracles are made. The tragedy here then in Mai's story isn't one of broken promises or cruel circumstances (cancer for shiori and short life for Makoto and Ayu) but of how the dream in its desperation became twisted and hope turn into despair. I would compare this to the contract system of Madoka Magica. The problem doesn't lie in the wish itself or even sacrificing to obtain a miracle; it's when the system destroys the point of which the wish is made. Where in Madoka Magica it’s becoming a witch that goes everything against a magical girl stands for that is the problem, Mai's miracle becomes the vehicle to which she denies the world as she only needs her hope and the memory of the one that understood her. This is a counterpoint to Ayu's wishing to reintegrate herself the world and the biggest embracer of a miracle to make things right. So in nutshell, Mai's route is most fundamentally at odds with Kanon key themes and I would say the most deserving of being corrected. To further drive this point, Mai even uses Yuuichi's confession, that he delivers in Nayuki route to Nayuki, to Yuuichi himself and shortly attempts suicide. With this Iin mind, nature abhors a vaccum and in the case of Mai's route; I feel the majority of the narrative force in Kanon goes to making things right with Mai as to bring it in line in the rest of Kanon. Because of this, I feel Mai's route to be the de facto Heaven Feels true route to reference Fate/Stay Night in this case. But as to further reinforce my points as to why I think Mai's route has the making of being the true route, there's an lack of the "Remnants of a Dream" theme that is the marquee song of Kanon. You hear it in the prologue and at the climax of all heroines route EXCEPT Mai's. What you do hear instead is the theme, "Girl's Prison" for Mai whenever you see her. This plays throughout all her major scenes; starting with her appearances at night in the school and all her major school events like the Dance ball and her breakdown after Sayuri is hurt. I take this to be an admission from Kanon that it's indirectly telling the reader Mai's story is unfolding in real time and there is no past for the main character to be tied down to. The past being referred to here is Ayu as her only remaining part of her in the world is the dream she has to be with Yuuichi. Moving on back to Yuuichi, he learns at the final fight with the demons that he has met Mai long before his return; yet, he only feels responsibility in seeing Mai become like that happy girl she was once before as he loves her now. This is unlike in Ayu's route where Yuuichi feels he needs to make things right because of the feeling that it was wrong of him to have forgotten her. To elaborate, Yuuichi's goal in Ayu's route is about reconciling with the past; with Mai's, he is striving to build a future with Mai. I find this to be important in the scope of Kanon as the narrative lends itself to living in the now and having a future based on hope. You see it with Makoto's route where he promises Amano that he will remain cheerful; in Shiori's , Yuuichi tells her that miracles do happen and makes Shiori promise if that one does happen she owes him lunch; and finally, Yuuichi in Nayuki's route, that in his acknowledging he can't make a miracle, promises he will do all that he can do in being her strength and always being there. What makes Mai's route special above all the rest, however, is that combines all the other routes themes into one narrative. I'll admit though that I don't remember what's Ayu climax narrative point was other than than I care for you. Then again, it could be proof Ayu's route is just the intro route to set you up with the true route that is Mai's but digress. Other than that, I have one more thing to mention in why I think Mai's route could be the true route. I believe Mai to be the true inheritor of the thematic themes of Key's Visual creative team previous work at Nexton in "One: To the radiant Season." In "One", there is a plot device called "The Eternal World" where in course of the story the main character ends up in due to a wish he makes as a child after his sister passes away. Where the details of what "The Eternal World" are vague, the wiki for ONE sums it up as, "an alternative space that Kouhei created out of his want for a place which nothing ever changes." In Mai's route, you see that Mai's power brings him to that place ten years ago that he meets Mai and there he meets the current hurt Mai as her ten year old self. This seal spaced, where they meet, was created out of Mai's wish to be with Yuuichi in their cherished place and is quite similar to the eternal world of One except that, the uses here in Kanon are a lot more noble and romantic as it brings two people together rather than separating them. Still, the original intention for the creation of this seal place was out of grief and angst of Mai's supposed thoughts of being abandoned by the only person that understood her. What makes this concept works so beautifully in Kanon though is that, from this place of bittersweet memories, Yuuichi is able to bring back Mai to the present. Now as for the visual side of things, child Mai brings up more the imagery that kid Nagamori (the Mascot Heroine of One) did more so than Ayu who can be considered the expy of Nagamori for Kanon. I find this to be an important distinction as the child guide in One was symbolic of the wish and miracles of the story. In cases of Kanon, Mai's power served in this capacity as a guide for Yuuichi to reconnect with the Mai that wished to love herself and be loved by someone that would accept everything about her. No other character, with the possible exception of Nayuki's with imagery of her kid confession, can boast that in their route. This gives further credence to me that Mai's route has the at the spiritual blessings of being the successor to One and therefore, more weight in the eyes of creators as they would have to spend much more intricate time in crafting the narrative either intentionally or subconsciously. My point in making this statement is that, why go to such lengths in the route you're setting apart if not because you feel the strongest for it? My conclusion would be because this would be the defining route or at least the most conceptually purest form of the narrative they tried to create. Everything of which I find to be the recipe behind most "True Routes" for stories. In the end however, all of what I say may be just a whole lot of conjecture and ultimately, reading too deep into Mai's route. If I were to be more modest in my analysis, I would compromise to say that Mai's route is the most in-depth and complex of all the routes as opposed to a "True End or Heroine". Furthermore, the anime of Kanon combines all the routes so that all the girls can be happy therefore rendering moot the idea of a true route. Still though, my point in all this is that Kanon, in all its themes, paints Mai as the one most needing to be saved and, the development of the story, outside of Nayuki's unrequited love, can be seen logically progressed in attempting to achieve this. In conclusion though, all of Kanon is up to interpretation and the happiest of endings would probably be the anime like I said before. Another point to consider too is to pull a Fate/Stay/Night and say all the routes are Canon (which I find to be totally fraudulent on Nasu part to give us that weak excuse as to make everyone happy but I digress). But whatever the case, I just wanted to share with all of you what my personal take would be the conclusion of Kanon with my reasoning on why so. I hope you all enjoy this massively long read which took me over 6 to 7 hours to composed. I look forward to any comments and discussions as to why you would agree or disagree with me. Thanks again for your time. P.S. I didn't know where to fit this in but I had wanted to make some point in the story that Ayu had her chance at life again and it be far sadder to me if Mai was to either die fighting the demons or live the rest of her life tearing herself apart in exchange for Ayu being able to come out of her Coma. Part of me says this as a Fan of Mai's character but also just personal beliefs in that the present belongs to the living and not the dead. Ayu is pretty much dead or at least on the border of it. If I were Yuuichi, I would reconcile myself to learn from my mistakes of Ayu to not repeat them with Mai. In this bittersweet case for Ayu, I would say just be happy with the miracle that you could live again if only for short while. Just my thoughts on that.

Hello everyone again, I'm the new guy that had posted that huge text dump of an analysis about the miracles of Kanon the other day. I definitively recommend reading the analysis, if only to humor me lol, as there tiny amount of crossover with this post. Not enough though to ruin your enjoyment of this post you do decide go ahead this one first. With that said, the post here is a summary of my thoughts on Kanon as a whole and goes through each route respectively. There will be spoilers but not majors one in my opinion. In case you haven't played Kanon and you're reading this now, I suppose that my post here can count as a review of sorts. Now that we're done with introductions, let's begin. First off, I think it's only appropriate to start off this overview with the main heroine Ayu Tsukimiya. Despite her name brining up imagery of the moon, she's clearly representative of the Sun's Warmth with her beaming personality and happy go lucky nature. With these traits in mind, I find Ayu to be the most charming heroine in Kanon and I can see how, in real life, it wouldn't be all that hard for a person to fall in love with someone like her. In my case, I really enjoy the type of people that can light up a room with their smile and Ayu definitely ranks up as one of them. Furthermore, Ayu's voice actress, Yui Horie (who happens to play another main character that makes a childhood promise in the harem comedy Love Hina), performance here in Kanon really out does herself in portraying such a sweet and innocent girl. I especially loved how you could hear, in her voice, every little emotions Ayu has. This could not have been that easy of a feat as Ayu's quite the energetic character and though out the story, she's quite literally running and jumping into people. Moreover, I would go so far to say that Yui's acting is one of the prime reasons I like Ayu so much as she does that great job with her. I'm glad in this case that Key casted her to be Yui and it was great to finally hear her second major voice role. Now going onto describing my thoughts on Ayu's route, I feel its well-crafted with genius moments of comedy and her story does a great job of selling how charming Ayu is. My problem with it, however, is that I feel all the flashback sequences with Ayu and Yuuichi in the past made the story feel sappy. In Kanon's defense, I may have enjoyed Ayu's story more if I haven't watched the anime and being able to compare her route to everyone else's. In this case, I definitively feel that you probably get the most feels out of her route when you don't have any expectations. I did though find the idea of pinky promises to be very cute though. On the positive side of things, Ayu is incredibly fun to be around and her dates with Yuuichi are some of the best in Kanon. My more memorable moments with her include: Yuuichi's first meeting with Ayu where she has him running away from the Taiyaki stand owner, the baking cookies incident and, going out to watch a horror movie with Yuuichi. In all three cases, it's Ayu's puppy dog excitement and enthusiasm that really wins me over as I couldn't help but love these things about her personality. Had Ayu's route the whole way been like this, I probably would rank it higher than I do. I would currently place it third above Makoto's and Nayuki's route. Overall though, Ayu's has a great but not perfect route to me. I chalk it up to maybe a matter of taste though because despite how much I praised Ayu, she shares in the same problem Saber from Fate/Stay/Night has for me. They're two people I'm especially very fond of but they don't make my heart skip a beat the way the other heroines do. In their cases, I see myself supporting of their love and I can root for them but when it comes down to choosing, there're just other girls I like more (Rin and Mai for F/S/N and Kanon respectively). Moving the discussion to be about Nayuki now, I really had high expectations for her, at first, because of the interaction she has in the prologue with Yuuichi. Having seen the anime, I know the emotional arc's in her story revolved around that of Unrequited Love. To put in perspective from my PoV, the majority of my favorite girls in anime (Yamanda from "Honey and Clover" and Ami from Torodara in particular) come with backstories that has their feelings for another character not being returned in kind. I have a strong emotional attachment to such characters as I can totally relate with them being that, the story of my life has been one giant unrequited love story. With this in mind, Nayuki, being a prime example of the above, I thought would really shoot up in my listing by the time I finished her route. I ended up disappointed, however, as I realized her character didn't have a lot of substance beyond playing the butt monkey of Yuuichi's banter. Like at first, she was really entertaining in how she interacted with the main character. This dynamic started to wane though as the route progressed. She then becomes boring, to me, as Yuuichi's developing feelings for Nayuki has him laying off teasing her. This loss of comedy then has Nayuki fall back on her three gimmicks of: Saying and getting excited by cute things' Being really sleepy; and talking in that really s-low (emphasis on slow) quirky manner of speaking. None of which really perks my interest in the least. Out of the three gimmicks though, there is one that actually elicits a response from me but, it's not a positive one. To be precise, I can't stand whatsoever the slow speaking mannerism gimmick at all. As I'm the type to listen to voice clips a couple time and enjoy the dialogue, it becomes a pet peeve of mine when characters are made to speak slowly. I feel it’s awful storytelling to have to sit and wait for actor to deliver their lines for a short amount of dialogue. To give another example other than Nayuki, I despised Sakura in Fate/Stay/Night during her route for this as it made a page of Dialogue take five minutes when it took me half a minute to read. Nayuki on the other hand though, wasn't as bad as Sakura but she didn't change my mind either on how much I dislike that mannerism. It’s a good thing though that I did like her voice actress performance as I feel she did splendidly despite the role's shortcomings. In this case, I feel that her character Nayuki failed to really show off her talent. I suppose though that this is the one time that I liked the Dub of Kanon's anime direction more with Nayuki. The american voice actress there still has her sound sleepy and speak with a low voice but it's not noticeably slowed down which I really liked. In the visual novel's defense though, Nayuki's Japanese voice actress didn't fail to deliver when things really mattered in the story and she made the ending of Nayuki's route a pleasure to listen to. Talking of Nayuki's route, I felt it was a mixed bag as her date scenes were very meh to me and uninteresting. For example, the café scene with the strawberry sundae's is pretty much Nayuki gawking over ice cream and Yuuichi just taking it in. I don't find that to be fascinating for one but, the real problem for me here is that Kanon relies too much on her gimmicks to try to win you over. In the vast majority of these dating scenes, I feel Nayuki's route lacks conflict or drama to make them attention grabbing or memorable. I'll admit though that I was very fond of the study sessions she had with Yuuichi in her route. They're the only time in Kanon that its canonical to a route where Yuuichi actually studies as a student like he's supposed to lol but I digress. I will say though, on the upside, that Nayuki's route was made worth reading with the eventual Yuuichi's and Nayuki's confessions to each other. Their scene on the balcony and the Train station, during the confession, gave me goosebumps upon seeing how romantic their speeches and dialogue were to each other. That was the kind of stuff I wish, in real life, I would find myself situations in and actually be smooth enough to come up with speeches like that to say. Then again, I might be just as embarrassed as Yuuichi is at the end of her route after saying all that lol but I digress. The point is, I loved how everything was beautifully executed and how Nayuki's unrequited love story resolved in the end. The payoff here really saved the route for me but, I still have to say that her route as a whole is the weakest one in Kanon and ranks last place. On a side note though about Nayuki's relationship with Yuuichi before I continue to discussing Makoto; I'm very understanding of the way the Japanese use the romance between cousins as a unrequited love plot device. It's very simple way of making a potential couple's love be frowned upon and yet, have the characters be far enough apart, for the audience, to entertain the notion of a romantic relationship between them. So generally speaking for me, I don't mind this story trope as I suppose most westerner's like myself would normally be. Now bringing back the discussion to that of examining Makoto, I actually enjoyed the Asuka from Eva look alike as I like Tsunderes on a whole. I especially enjoyed her opening lines to Yuuichi as it made Makoto seem to be more epic than a girl her age would suggest. This made me think that if there's something to Makoto character, subtlety wasn't one of them. She was definitively more likeable to me than Nayuki because of this as she made things happen. It’s a shame though that in the course of the story she doesn't interact with Ayu. I definitively would have like to see both their energetic nature play off each other, with Ayu's sweetness and Makoto's reckless abandoned, for some great comedic moments. Continuing onto Makoto's backstory, I was definitely charmed of the idea behind Makoto's miracle. There's obvious parallels to that of "The Little Mermaid" with a character wishing to become human but, I like the spin Makoto's route puts on the idea in that she was first a Fox that he raised as a child. In this case, I found Kanon's take here interesting enough for me to be more emotionally invested because; there's actual history involved between the Makoto and Yuuichi. I also really enjoyed the idea that the fox would want to reunite with her owner after their force separation. I'm sad to say though my thoughts on her route are not as positive. I admit it does a great job of setting you up to become fond of Makoto, with her childish antic's and mischievousness, to only then break your heart with her routes ending as she slowly withers away. This sounds great on paper, even to me, but I really don't like story routes that has the MC act like a parent figure and has his love stem from this guardianship. I had very much disliked this storytelling in Key's previous work in "One" where the main character, Kouhei, does pretty much the same thing with another character called Shina. Repeating the same concept here for Makoto didn't change my mind on the matter but, I do feel that it was handled much more tastefully in Kanon. Maybe if Makoto was his age I wouldn't have minded it as much or if Nanase was there to buy her a whole lot of Nikuman (That's a One reference for you guys xD). Overall though, I did enjoy the whole of her route more than Nayuki's and she ranks 4th place in the cast for me. The one pleasant surprise I think I should mention about her route though was the character Amano. For someone that's a minor character, I keep thinking about her, "Why does this girl have such a beautiful voice?" The whole time she was speaking to Yuuichi, I couldn't shake the feeling that I knew voice actress. Turns out it was Maaya Sakamoto of Oshino Shinobu fame of Monogatari and Ryougi (Freakin) Shiki from Kara no Kyoukai. I recommend if you ever play through Makoto's route (again for those that read it) to pay attention to that quiet girl. Moving away now from Makoto, I found the next girl in Shiori to be the most refreshing in the cast in how relatively normal she was. While I suppose she's actually slightly more eccentric than Ayu, I feel Shiori in comparison to the rest of the characters was made to be the least moe. She doesn't have vocal quick like Ayu and Makoto nor the personality gimmicks of Nayuki and Mai. The best I can think of about her that stands out is having a catchphrase of, "I dislike people that say/do such things." As for Shiori herself, I really liked how Key uses her as a mouthpiece to commentate on the situations of her route. She's very genre-savvy and uses this knowledge to better sell her more emotional moments in the story. Prime examples in this cases are when she first meets you outside the school saying (I'll be paraphrasing), " Seeing a missing girl after long case of Illness is something like out of a TV drama," and at the park, "I think this part in the drama would be the kiss scene." In these cases, the conversations really helped make her route more unique than the previous three heroines in that it respects your intelligence as a reader. With that in mind, I also feel that Shiori's emotional payoffs are more intellectual in nature and in general, she strikes me as much more clever girl than the rest of the cast. Where she isn't as charming as Ayu, I feel she more than holds her own, against Ayu, in how she keeps Yuuichi off balanced with her quick wit and unpredictable nature. This made Shiori for me standout, in a positive way, as a character I looked forward to reading about despite being a personality type I'm not normally fond of. I suppose that if you didn't like Shiori, she can come across as a smart Alek but I'm glad in my case that she strike me as someone likeable. Continuing forward, Shiori is the only girI feel that was able to go toe to toe with his antic's and kept you guessing what she will do next. To put it more frank terms, she's easily the most independent of the girls and isn't so reliant of Yuuichi's interaction to move the story. I really appreciated that about her and it kept me interested the whole way through her route This is unlike the previous three routes where I found myself at times tuning out of Makoto's, Nayuki's, and Ayu's story events. I suppose that because of the way her character is, it avoided for me the pitfalls of the other routes despite the low hype ceiling her date scenes had. Talking again of routes, I feel that Shiori's is a excellently written and well executed soap opera in visual novel form. Where the other routes, with the exception of Nayuki's, go into lengths about how special happenings that can't happen in real life, Shiori's is surprising grounded in believability. I like though how in Kanon her route subverts the normalcy with having Shiori being the soundboard for the exposition dumps of what a miracle is. The thought experiments she tells Yuuichi reminded me a bit of Fate/Stay/Night and Kara No Kyoukai, of Type-Moon fame, even if they were on the light side compared to them. The best parts of her route for me though actually doesn't concern her but that of her sister Kaori. Where Kaori is a character you see often in the common route and tag along with Nayuki in others, I really liked her break down scene she has with Yuuichi in Shiori's route. I also liked how she serves as the 3rd party dealing with Shiori impending death and she really brought a layer of depth to the route helps the route succeed. It's such a shame though for me that she isn't a dateable character in Kanon. She's easily the girl that I most wanted to go out with and she even has Saber's voice actress to boot. Ayako, Saber's and Kaori's voice actress, really does bring her Waifu best into the role. I have to say though it's much more akin to her earlier role as Lafiel from Crest of the Starts. So for all you Saber fans, you're not going to hear her be all pouty and have that stick in the mud personality type she's famous for lol. In my case though, I actually saw "Crest of the Stars" before Fate/Stay/Night and I actually prefer her previous famous roles performance being applied to Kaori but I digress. Overall, I really enjoyed Shiori route and her character. I would rank her story as the second best in Kanon due to how solid the writing was. I feel though that Ayu's route was more enjoyable at times than Shiori but, it’s the lack of negatives in Shiori's that I give her the place over Ayu. Ayu though does give her a run for her money on just sheer force of personality and its only barely that Shiori wins. I suppose it’s a testament how good the route is for Shiori and it goes to show that you don't have to go for broke to succeed. Going now to discussing the final story, Mai's route is, without any doubt in my mind, the best in all of Kanon. I say this because, it’s the most thematically complex as Mai's story combines all the narratives of all the other heroines into one route. Furthermore, This amazing depth to her story makes for a magnificent read that long holds up, like Zalor says in his Analysis on Mai, on the intellectual level after all the emotional feels start losing their impact. I'll start with my thoughts on Mai. I have to say, at first, I was very much set against Mai as her taciturn personality reminded me of Rei, from EVA, whom I hate with a passion. I'm typically not a fan of characters that show no emotion as I very much prefer lively character as I'm attracted to the exaggerated. For example, I really like Ayu because her character totally fits the billing, of being exaggerated, as she's very over the top in sharing her affections and showing her emotions through her audio quirk "Uguu." Mai, on the other hand, is the total opposite of Ayu as she only speaks when spoken to and when she does, it's in a small burst of words said in a low voice. The reason though I decided to give Mai the benefit of the doubt was because, I strongly believe in my main man Spike Spegiel, of Cowboy Bepop fame, words: "I like (a girl full of mystery and) a woman who can kick my ass." In Mai's case, an enigmatic girl that roams the school at night and, does it carrying a sword really fitted both Spike's and my criteria of a good time. I then resolved myself to ignore the Rei comparisons in my head and give Mai a fair chance. I'm glad in this case she didn't end up disappointing me, unlike Nayuki, and by the end of her route, she had become my favorite heroine. I suppose though that Mai's long black hair, flowing front bangs, and green eyes also really helped in winning me over as I'm a sucker for that look. Talking more in-depth about Mai, I really did enjoy the payoff in seeing Mai progressively open up, bit by bit, from her quiet shell. In this case, I really loved seeing how, from her humble beginnings of only answering Yuuichi with a single word, Mai would eventually able to carry small conversations with him however brief they maybe. This character evolution I felt was unique to her route and while it's not my favorite mode of developing a character, it lead me to be far more fond of Mai, even more so than Ayu, as I felt that Yuuichi and me worked to gain that special relationship with her. Everyone else I felt remained the same person with the exception of Makoto and that wasn't exactly a positive in her case as she devolved. As to now discuss Mai's route, I really enjoyed the change of pace the route provides from the rest of Kanon. A good example are the night meet ups at the school where Yuuichi and Mai fight the demons. I felt the atmosphere behind those scenes to be a much more Feels based Tsukihime adventure which, to me, is a huge compliment as that's my second favorite Type-Moon story after Fate/Zero. I also feel the comparison to be appropriate as the major turning points and resolutions of their stories revolve around the secretive night battles only the main characters know about. The major difference between the two though is that Kanon is a lot less action packed than Tsukihime but, it still does a great enough job to be satisfying with the fight scenes. Now shifting directions to talking about the day route, I really like Sayuri as the supporting actress to offset Mai's lack of interaction at school. I felt she was a much more mature Ayu and I wish, like with Kaori, she would have had a route even if the book had to cut Makoto's or Nayuki's route. That's how much I liked her and the voice actresses behind her as she's Tenjo Utena from (freakin) Revolutionary Girl Utena. That's amazing that someone of her talent would be in the role of supporting actress but, she definitely brought her money's worth to the role of Sayuri. I suppose though that Key would later rectify this as casting her as Misuzu in Air but I digress. Going back to discuss the day route proper, I really liked the Sayuri and Mai dynamic. I would go into further lengths why I like them but I felt everything I could say, Zalor already did an amazing job in explaining why their relationship and backstories are so great in his analysis. I would be just retreading what he said if I tried to explain here and it most likely wouldn't be as good. So, I'll instead just talk about some key moments I really enjoyed about them. One, I really enjoyed the (Tri?) date they had at the ball. Where I appreciated in Nayuki's route Yuuichi actually studying since he's a student, I love the idea that he actually involving himself in school life. We also get to see a heroine actually dress up for an occasion and Mai really looked good. I suppose though I have a lot of feels revolving the event as it’s the only part in the anime that I can re-watch time and time again. The other part for my fondness of the scene I suppose is that Mai looks so much like Nanase in the ending of One and I see it thematically, for Nanase, she got her dance in. On another note, I feel the same way about Ayu getting Tayaki as Akane in One goes on a wild goose chase and she never eats one which is the biggest tragedy in that book lol but I digress. The other key moment isn't all that important but it through me in for a loop in that, it was the only route that had any Yuri CG in it lol. As a Yuri fan, I don't read books like Kanon or One to fall in love with a waifu. I actually just read them because they come highly recommended but, I live my life thinking about the fiction I read, "Why do I want another guy outside myself getting the girl? If the girl is the main event of any book for guys, why not have two to double the enjoyment?" So imagine my surprise when, in my mindset that there wouldn't be any, Key dropped in that Yuri fan service lol. It was surprises like this that kept me engrossed in Mai's story and, the reason why I rank it the best (even without the Yuri) as none of the other girls route had that X factor. Other than that, I should talk about Mai's story as a whole. I feel that I just love everything about it and I can't really cite a negative thing about it. That's how good it was for me and this with the mindset that I don't like Rei-like characters. So if there would be skeptic to question the quality of Mai's route, it would had been me. Had Kanon had been just Ayu's and Mai's route, I felt I would have been gotten my money's worth as that's how filling and great Mai's route is. I mention Ayu though as I felt that Mai route is still a story that best plays off the experiences you have with another girl to subvert your expectations. Now, if I were to go into details about what I liked about it, I would have to cite my previous analysis on Miracles and Zalor's Mai/Sayuri analysis as they provide many of the reasons why I do. Being that this Overview of Kanon is already huge as it is, I'll only go into some of the details that I felt we didn't cover in those analysis. I still recommend checking out the two analysis to be more understanding why I like Mai's route the best though. First off, I really enjoyed the romantic payoff to Mai's route. To be precise, I love the dialogue between Mai and Yuuichi right after he gives her the bunny ears. That was on par with Nayuki's route confession and in some ways, more was more satisfying due to how much more Mai's story was tragic than Nayuki's. I also really enjoyed the parts after she stabs herself and he has that simulation run in his head had she lived past graduation with him. It was those imagined, small bits of happiness that struck a chord with me and, his near decision to only live in his memories brought flashbacks to One's "Eternal World." Which, by the way, would reinforce my points in my analysis on how Mai's is the thematic successor to One but I definitely have to digress here on that. Second, I found the story of Mai as a child at the hospital to be the most heartbreaking of all the heroines. I mean no one dies in it and successfully resolves but, it still tugged at my heartstrings more than Ayu's route who I feel was created with the exact purpose to do so. It's definitely the reason why I side with Mai more than any of the other girls even if it means their death, which would be in the cases of Shiori and Ayu if he ignores them to go on Mai's route, as I feel sympathize with Mai's dilemma. Not to say that I have personal experiences like Mai but, I just really feel for the mother and, I can't help but think what If I were to be in her shoes with a child. That's why I guess I feel the most for Mai's route as its parent going to leave their child rather than a kid losing a friend. Oh, there is also one thing I think I should mention about the hospital scene. I wonder if Mai's power is a thematic successor to the "Invisible Power" that Key's Creative Team used in the visual novel, "Moon" as its only useable by girls and, by being exposed to extreme stress. If and when I get to finishing the book, which seems will be a long while at the soonest as my current play will hit a bad end sadly, I probably write my thoughts on whether Key maybe reused the idea for Mai. Third, I just like how the route gives off that aura that Mai's is special and not like the way other heroines are. I mean it as like she's truly a child of destiny linked by fate to Yuuichi. More metaphorical way might be to describe Mai as Moses to Yuuichi being Aaron who in the bible is the one that actually performs the miracles that lead the Jews out of Egypt. In this case, Mai is the person the story sets apart but its Yuuichi that is literally the hero, as in more than just a protagonist, as he is the one that embraces the miracle. This is opposed to the other routes where he just enjoys the results of them and it speaks more to me romantically that he's proactive in this case. The fourth and last thing I would want to talk about Mai's story isn't the narrative itself but the voice actress, Yukari Tamura. She really nails her performance in playing her in real life friend Yui Horie "Ayu's" foil. I'll admit that it was a shock to me to hear not be so bubbly and be my voice waifu ( I'm particularly fond of her Jibril and Amane Suzuha roles) but I got accustomed to her take on Rei so to speak lol. Where Yui Horie will always be one of my girls, err favorites lol, I had always more been a Tamura fan as she typically exemplifies that exaggerated acting that I really love. In this case, she still proved her acting chops to me in performing in a role that's the complete opposite of what I know her for and it was refreshing to see that. Not to say that you don't see her trademark acting style in Kanon. The time you see her act more like herself is at the end where she plays child Mai. I also wouldn't put it past Yukari to have gotten the role of Nanoha because of the work she did here I can easily imagine being great resume material. Regardless of if that being the case, I would suppose that the bigger significance, of her child voice acting, here would lay the groundwork of her voice of Rika from Higurashi Naku no Koro Ni. Rika is practically the evolved concept of Mai's power and I find it fitting that Yukari has that role in Higurashi. I further find it appropriate that she play Rika as I remember reading somewhere that the maker of Higurashi cites Key as his biggest inspiration. I find it amazing in this case that the influence of Mai, if what I read is true, to carry over into Higurashi in Yukari's voice acting. With all that now said, I like to congratulate you, the one or two people that actually bother reading this to the end aha, to the place "Where the Wind Reaches" to quote the ending theme of Kanon. I'm very appreciative of the time you took to read this and I look forward to your comments, even if they were to say I suck lol. Overall though, I'm just glad that this post is finally done as it took the entire weekend and then some to finish. In this case, I definitively did it for Mai as I honestly didn't love the other characters enough to warrant writing everything I did. It just happens that I feel Mai stories is best viewed when you experience all the other routes first and that's why you see my thoughts on all the other routes. All I just need is that meme now that has the photo frame with a couple pictures of her to make this complete xD. Anyways, Thanks again for reading and I hope there will be some of you that would discuss Kanon with me. [Some Afterwords: I added the "girl full of mystery" part in the Spike quote in ( ) because its actually Shiori line when you meet her at school. I just find it cooler to say when you combined both of them together. The problem though is that I can't say Shiori Is my main guy because she's not and neither is she my main girl lol. So to make the quote sound much cooler and avoid the clunkiness of having to quote Shiori, I decided it would be better to credit her in the afterwords. Also, I want to give some last words to people that skipped straight to the end and read this here. This Overview was not worth the weekend spent writing it xD but, It made for good writing practice. Though I really do hope that people will take the time to respond, I'll be fine as it was good practice in getting back to writing shape as II was real rusty xD. I suppose though looking at it another way, definitively sorting my thoughts on Kanon will stop me from thinking for a long time in wanting to reread it xD and I can use my time for more useful things…. Like sleep lol)

Summer is closing in and every cool boys and girls are hyped for zero escape time dilemma . But I want to say sorry to you all because I’m not going to hype the fuck out of it. Instead I will write a critical review which reveals some bullshit Uchikoshi ran away with. Let’s start with 999 shall we?* HUGE SPOILERS SO NO COMPLAINTS IF YOU RUIN YOUR EXPIERIENCE OKAY? * Overall VLR might seem like an epic tale but in reality it is a trainwreck. Noting makes sense and I bet ZE3 will have a hard time covering up it’s bullshit. I give VLR as score of 6.7/10( above average) just because it introduced interesting brainstorming ideas and had some great characters. Despite all the things I said I am still pretty hyped for ZE3. But I think it will be really hard to wrap things up. Until the game releases you can bitch about how it will make sense later on in the comments.

As you have seen from my other thread, I wished to push the boundaries of Visual Novels specifically to get new people that have never touched a VN their entire lives into the genre. The group I am targeting is Comic/Graphic Novel readers in america. Especially those of minority backgrounds. The question though, is does this art style ALONE alienate veteran readers of Visual Novels? Here are two videos. The purpose of this test was to judge the voice over work. Special effects, animations, and optimized UI is expected over the next 2 weeks. Amesemi (Ami-semee) Pantheon: Kushite Age: 18 Height: 5’4” Fighting Style: Elemental Magic Alignment: True Good FANTASY Amesemi is the only female raised by Nun. She had a rare affinity for what we would understand to be magic and because of this, Nun took her as her personal apprentice. Mastering the arts of energy manipulation, she quickly discovered her ability to manipulate the elements to both devastating and beneficial effects. On top of her amazing ability to understand “magic,” she also has a superior grasp on ancient texts and lore. Of all the others, she is the most knowledgeable about the ancient bloodlines. HISTORY Amesemi is of the Kushite pantheon as a protector goddess and has close ties to Apedemak. Little is known about her role in tradition but she was worshipped for her ability to help Apedemak’s control his warrior spirit. Amesemi’s history was lost in time but there are many influences of her origin in many female Kemetic goddesses. THEORY With plenty of room to create our own origin, we decided to make her the guardian of knowledge and wielder of the rarest of arts. Apedemak is infatuated with her and Ra looks at her with suspicion. Amesemi is a strong woman wiser than all the men in the series but her confidence is limited and she looks to the men for guidance in times of danger. Who will win the heart of Amesemi?

So here it is, you've gone through hours of common route material, managed to win the heart of your chosen heroine and the big moment has arrived. It's your H-scene moment, stand-in decision-maker for the protagonist. She's gotten undressed. She's amazed at how big your penis is. She's all hot and wet. It's about to happen. YOU'RE GONNA HAVE SEEEEEEEEEEX. And just when you think you're about to dip your ladle in the overflowing honey pot of farewell virginity goodness, she pops an unexpected question. "Please, protagonist, please... do me... in my other hole? It's okay if you don't, but please?" You've been given the green light to become an anal bum cover. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?!?!?

Hi there. Just curious as to why some of the Clannad Visual Novel editions are rated 15+ and others all ages? I'm pretty sure there were no H-Scenes in Clannad as it was released as an all ages game originally? I'd just like to make sure as I'm going ahead and purchasing both Clannad and Tomoyo It's A Wonderful Life from Amazon. (Both Memorial Editions) Are these versions full voiced? Also, is the Clannad game edited from the original to the Memorial Edition? I know that for the Tomoyo game the H-scenes were edited out and finding a physical copy of the original release is near impossible. ...and yes, I do know that Clannad is available via Steam. Thank-you!

So I'm looking for Vn's with Tsunderes in them but i don't want to play just anything , i'd rather it being a good vn overall and also wante to ask opinions on who's the best Tsundere from any Vn for you guys. I'd have to go with Her : As always thanks for helping me keep building my "To-Read" List with great imputs

As the title says and even though i've seen the top 5 threads, i'm making it a bit different here and hope it's to everyone's liking: Basically you have to pick : Favorite Heroine, Favorite MC, Favorite Ost or song from a Vn and then their counterparts which are Most hated heroine, most hated MC and least favorite Ost (If you have any) and i hope everyone has a lovely time making their choices ^^ ( and as a bonus if you're confident enough you guys can pick your favorite Vn aswell ^^) Favorite Heroine: Hinamori Kagome (Coμ) : I recently placed her second on a top five list but after thinking it a bit i came to realize just how much i love this girl overall, her attitude, desing, personality...EVERYTHING Favorite MC: Naoe Yamato ( Majikoi, Majikoi S and the A series) : To me he's extremely likeable although not the most badass but he fits right in Favorite OST or Song: I just love it, nothing else to say about it haha AND NOW THE COUNTERPARTS! Least Favorite Heroine: Aoi Isuzu (Hoshizora no Memoria): Pretty self explanatory, i won't go into detail... Least Favorite MC: Itou Makoto (School Days): Do you know him? if not well you're lucky, i just despise this dude completely.. And i don't really have a least favorite Ost or song but that's because i haven't read those many Vn's yet as to have found some that are bad or dislikeable overall... Well and that's my list, i'm eager to see everyone else's lists and learn more about vn's ^^ hope you like the idea and thread

Basically i'm having a hard time deciding which one to play next so i thought i'd run it by you guys and see what your thoughts on them are - Comyu Kuroi Ryuu to Yasashii Oukoku - Cross Channel - Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate - Ikinari Anata ni Koishiteiru I've only started Cross Channel out of these but found myself a bit stuck through it plus i was told that you don't actually replay it for different routes but instead goes by week with one heroine each week or something along those lines, the others i've only read a bit while doing research and found them intriguing...so which of these (if any) would you say it's best to start with? Thanks as always ^^

I keep reading about this VN and the opinions i've found thus far are quite mixed, one would argue that that is the case for most since opinions always go according to each person's taste but i'd like to know what you guys think of it and if you recommend it or not, this is beacause i just noticed it's out on steam where i hadn't seen it before soo, think i should give it a try or it isn't any good? Thanks for the help ^^