To Heart is a romance visual novel and the third entry into the Leaf Visual Novel Series, in which you play a high school student named Fujita Hiroyuki and try to win the heart of one of the several girls in your school.
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Every word spoken by Multi is a survival guide for the aristocrat of the soul...ファイト. . .
2021/11/06, I have added a note. But I would like to add it again.
What has shaped the otaku culture we know today?
You'd get a thousand different answers.
If I had to answer that question, I'd say this game.
"To Heart" has achieved two great things.
The first is "the establishment of formality".
The origin of the Japanese novel game is "Kamaitachi no Yoru and Otogirisō", but these two games are sound novels. To Heart evolved from them and established the visual novel format.
"Visual novels are relatively inexpensive to produce, and with a good scenario, still images, and a script engine, they can be made into game software, which is good news for the PC game industry, especially for adult bishoujo games, where many manufacturers have weak development systems."
-The conditions for cultural creation: a cultural production theory study of two-game 'places'-
https://hdl.handle.net/2065%2F27549
In short, "To Heart" was a revolutionary and ground-breaking work that invented the visual novel format and made the financial headache of game development much simpler.
Before describing the second achievement, we would like to make a long explanation of some aspects of the social situation in Japan before the launch of ToHeart. These facts are not the whole story. It is just one aspect.
Eight years before ToHeart was launched in 1997, in 1989, an incident occurred.
"Tokyo-Saitama serial child abduction and murder case"
I will not go into detail. ...This incident had a profound effect on the otaku culture and is a traumatic event for anyone over 40 years old today.
There is a story in an essay cartoon written by a Japanese cartoonist who is probably famous in the English-speaking world, which symbolizes the situation at the time. I will translate it into English. Please excuse my poor English.
*
Author "Why didn't our generation enjoy being nerds as innocently and happily as the youngsters of today?"
Friend1 "There are several reasons, some of which have accumulated since before our generation. It's probably the thing that caused the petrol to catch fire."
Friend2 "What is that?"
Friend1 "July 1989. A female reporter said in a TV report about the otaku who participated in the Comic Market held the following month."
"Here are 100,000 people, Tsutomu Miyazaki." ※
Scene change, recollection, place, gym. Signboards, high school club information sessions.
"The next club activity club explanation is Mr. Hirano, the head of Anime & Comic Research Club."
Author "Well, hello there new students. This club is called the Anime and Comic Studies Club, and we are a manga and anime..."
"Hey, that's the Anime Comic Club."
"Otaku, Otaku."
"Hahahahaha."
"Miyazaki, Miyazaki."
"Hey! Pedophile club! Don't kidnap little girls!"
""""GYA-HA-HA-HA!""""
Author "Fuck...Fuck...Fuck! Fuck!! Fuuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkk!!!!"
*
"以下略(ikaryaku) Abbreviations: Episode 16, Susumeken," Kohta Hirano
(For the record, here is a supplementary explanation. The above is only one part of the story, and the whole story is a gag manga.)
※ It has recently come to light that this is a long-believed urban legend and not a fact. However, it was a commonplace argument in the weekly press at the time. It is a story that is hardly a complete lie.
Secondly, "it changed the course of time."
The invention of the game format was great, but what made To Heart truly great was that it changed the atmosphere of the times.
Above all, traditional novel games are "dark" and "damp" games. To put it badly, there was only an image of "precriminals" playing them. (Not so! There may be people who say.)
One of the origins of the so-called "moe characters" that have been around since the 00s and continue to this day is in "To Heart".
The game itself is very simple. It's all about reading the text.
There is nothing new about each character.
"Childhood friends", "witch girl", "robot girl", "psychic", "fighter", etc.
summary
While it was DQ that created the standard and format of JRPGs, it is no exaggeration to say that it was "To Heart" that created those of J-novel games.
What has shaped the otaku culture we know today?
You'd get a thousand different answers.
If I had to answer that question, I'd say this game.
"To Heart" has achieved two great things.
The first is "the establishment of formality".
The origin of the Japanese novel game is "Kamaitachi no Yoru and Otogirisō", but these two games are sound novels. To Heart evolved from them and established the visual novel format.
"Visual novels are relatively inexpensive to produce, and with a good scenario, still images, and a script engine, they can be made into game software, which is good news for the PC game industry, especially for adult bishoujo games, where many manufacturers have weak development systems."
-The conditions for cultural creation: a cultural production theory study of two-game 'places'-
https://hdl.handle.net/2065%2F27549
In short, "To Heart" was a revolutionary and ground-breaking work that invented the visual novel format and made the financial headache of game development much simpler.
Before describing the second achievement, we would like to make a long explanation of some aspects of the social situation in Japan before the launch of ToHeart. These facts are not the whole story. It is just one aspect.
Eight years before ToHeart was launched in 1997, in 1989, an incident occurred.
"Tokyo-Saitama serial child abduction and murder case"
I will not go into detail. ...This incident had a profound effect on the otaku culture and is a traumatic event for anyone over 40 years old today.
There is a story in an essay cartoon written by a Japanese cartoonist who is probably famous in the English-speaking world, which symbolizes the situation at the time. I will translate it into English. Please excuse my poor English.
*
Author "Why didn't our generation enjoy being nerds as innocently and happily as the youngsters of today?"
Friend1 "There are several reasons, some of which have accumulated since before our generation. It's probably the thing that caused the petrol to catch fire."
Friend2 "What is that?"
Friend1 "July 1989. A female reporter said in a TV report about the otaku who participated in the Comic Market held the following month."
"Here are 100,000 people, Tsutomu Miyazaki." ※
Scene change, recollection, place, gym. Signboards, high school club information sessions.
"The next club activity club explanation is Mr. Hirano, the head of Anime & Comic Research Club."
Author "Well, hello there new students. This club is called the Anime and Comic Studies Club, and we are a manga and anime..."
"Hey, that's the Anime Comic Club."
"Otaku, Otaku."
"Hahahahaha."
"Miyazaki, Miyazaki."
"Hey! Pedophile club! Don't kidnap little girls!"
""""GYA-HA-HA-HA!""""
Author "Fuck...Fuck...Fuck! Fuck!! Fuuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkk!!!!"
*
"以下略(ikaryaku) Abbreviations: Episode 16, Susumeken," Kohta Hirano
(For the record, here is a supplementary explanation. The above is only one part of the story, and the whole story is a gag manga.)
※ It has recently come to light that this is a long-believed urban legend and not a fact. However, it was a commonplace argument in the weekly press at the time. It is a story that is hardly a complete lie.
Secondly, "it changed the course of time."
The invention of the game format was great, but what made To Heart truly great was that it changed the atmosphere of the times.
Above all, traditional novel games are "dark" and "damp" games. To put it badly, there was only an image of "precriminals" playing them. (Not so! There may be people who say.)
One of the origins of the so-called "moe characters" that have been around since the 00s and continue to this day is in "To Heart".
The game itself is very simple. It's all about reading the text.
There is nothing new about each character.
"Childhood friends", "witch girl", "robot girl", "psychic", "fighter", etc.
summary
While it was DQ that created the standard and format of JRPGs, it is no exaggeration to say that it was "To Heart" that created those of J-novel games.