Ask John: What’s John’s Opinion of Visual Novels

Question:
I have heard from various English-speaking companies (namely Hirameki International) that there are three parts to the “Holy Trinity” of Japanese entertainment: anime, manga, and visual novels. While you write at length about the former two categories, I don’t recall you examine the visual novel medium in-depth. I would like to know your opinion of visual novels, your favorite titles (if applicable), and your thoughts on VN-to-anime conversions (which, in my experience, have ranged from horrid to breathtaking). For the sake of completion, I would appreciate if you take both all-age and adult-only titles into account.

Answer:
Normally I would abstain from addressing a question about visual novels because my experience with them is very limited. In this case I’ll do my best because I’ve been specifically challenged to address the topic. While I personally think that Japan’s comic related entertainment should be divided into manga, anime, electronic games, and light novels, there’s no question that visual novel games, or “adventure games,” as they’re often called, are a unique and tremendously important component of Japan’s comic community. It’s impossible to be a devoted fan of either manga or anime and not be at least aware of the existence of visual novel games.

Visual novel games are presently almost exclusively a distinctly Japanese phenomena. As their name implies, visual novel games consist of still images and text. Periodically the text will offer players choices that direct the narrative progress of the story. These interactive illustrated digital novels don’t really exist outside of Japan. The closest American and European gaming comes is point and click adventure games like Myst, and occasional imported Japanese titles. Generally I think that Americans expect gaming to be interactive and kinetic, requiring physical interactivity rather than just passive consumption. Coincidentally, just as I’m answering this question, Japan’s IT Media News has noted the irony that computer technology is getting increasingly powerful, but visual novel games are growing ever more technologically simple, requiring increasingly less and less actual interaction from the user. IT Media even questions whether visual novels should actually be considered games since they don’t involve players controlling a moving character or icon.

Since I haven’t played a Japanese computer game since 1992’s Cobra Mission (plus a little bit of the Eternal Fighter Zero -Blue Sky Edition- fighting game several years ago), I can’t say that I have a favorite visual novel game. Furthermore, since I’m not a PC gamer, I’m not very familiar with the full variety of visual novel games that are available in Japan. I have a passing familiarity with some of the most famous visual novel games because it’s difficult to avoid encountering them. These titles include Kizuato, Suigetsu, and With You. The titles that may be better known to more American fans are those which have had anime adaptations, such as Tokimeki Memorial, Graduation, To Heart, Comic Party, Da Capo, Green Green, Tsukihime, Fate/stay night, Shuffle, Popotan, Lamune, Haru no Ashioto, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Wind, Air, Kanon, Tsuki ha Higashi ni Hi ha Nishi ni, Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito, Canvas, and many others.

I’ve probably sampled all, or nearly all of the anime titles based on visual novels, but there are few of these anime series that I’ve watched to completion. Just as I’m not very interested in visual novel games, I’m not a big fan of anime based on visual novel games. I don’t dislike them on principle, I just find that most of them don’t appeal to me. I can only remember finishing watching the anime adaptations of To Heart, Kanon, Tsukihime, Fate/stay night, and Popotan. I thoroughly enjoyed Popotan and the 1999 To Heart series. Both shows were attractive looking. Popotan developed a surprising amount of empathy for its characters, and weaved an intriguing and sometimes heartrending story about loneliness and the strength of hope. To Heart managed to be sweet and calming without being cloying or melodramatic. My reaction to the Fate/stay night anime is mixed because the show itself is uneven. The slow, unfolding development of the first half of the series would be admirable, except the show becomes excessively repetitive by covering the same introductory character traits over and over again. As a result, the second half of the show seems to move too quickly, and plot twists and the introduction of new characters feels artificial and manipulated instead of feeling natural and believable. Furthermore, after spending so much time in the first half of the show establishing character personalities, the second half of the show spent disappointingly little time on further exploring the character’s personalities, relationships, and changes in their perspectives and relationships triggered by events.

Finally come the 2002 Kanon TV series and Tsukihime. Both of these short shows tried to squeeze too much story and too many characters into too few episodes. The original Kanon anime felt like an illustrated male wish fulfillment fantasy. Yuichi appeared to be the only significant male in existence, and as soon as he was finished with each girl, she literally fell out of prominence in the show, or even literally ceased to exist. The show simply felt like its female characters existed only to populate Yuichi’s world. So the show felt disturbingly sexist and superficial to me. The Tsukihime anime began with a promising moody and gothic atmosphere but never developed a cohesive story. Numerous plot threads were introduced, but none were ever satisfactorily explored or concluded. The show felt confused and uncertain of its purpose.

Visual novels are popular because Japanese players enjoy immersing themselves in these complex and moving interactive stories. Anime adaptations of visual novels exist because they’re safe investments. Anime based on proven popular titles already have an existing audience. I don’t believe that anime adaptations of visual novels are predestined to be either good or bad. I think that anime based on video games have the same potential as anime based on manga, and there are countless outstanding manga adaptations.