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Outside of Japan, hentai is anime and manga pornography. In the Japanese language, however, "hentai" is not a genre of media but any type of perverse or bizarre sexual desire or act. For example, outside of Japan a work of animation depicting lesbian sex might be described as "yuri hentai", but in Japan it would just be described as "yuri".
Yaoi, also known as boys' love or BL, is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for women and is distinct from homoerotic media marketed to gay and bisexual male audiences, such as bara, but it can also attract male readers and male creators can also produce it. It spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, games, and fan production. Boys love and its abbreviation BL are the generic terms for this kind of media in Japan and have, in recent years, become more commonly used in English as well. However, yaoi remains more generally prevalent in English.
Dynasty Warriors is a series of hack and slash action video games created by Omega Force and Koei. The series is a spin-off of Koei's turn-based strategy Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, based loosely around the Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms, from which it derives its name in Japanese.
A visual novel, sometimes abbreviated as VN, is an interactive game genre, which originated in Japan, featuring text-based story with narrative style of literature and interactivity aided by static or sprite-based visuals, most often using anime-style art or occasionally live-action stills. As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed-media novels.
A bishōjo game or gal game, is "a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive girls". These games are a subgenre of dating sims targeted towards a heterosexual male audience.
To Heart is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Leaf and released on May 23, 1997 for Windows. It was later ported to the PlayStation and given voice acting. A second PC version, titled To Heart PSE was released containing the PlayStation version as well as bonus games. To Heart PSE and the PlayStation version had the adult scenes removed. To Heart is Leaf's fifth game, and the third and final title in the Leaf Visual Novel Series along with Shizuku and Kizuato. The gameplay in To Heart follows a plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the eight female main characters. A sequel of To Heart, To Heart 2, was released on December 28, 2004 directly to the PlayStation 2. A special bundle of To Heart 2 and a PS2 version of To Heart was released on the same day. The original PC release of the visual novel was titled To Heart, however the anime and the PSE versions later changed to ToHeart without any space between the words. The English release of the anime uses the former format.
The Tales series, known in Japan as the Tales of series, is a franchise of fantasy role-playing video games published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and developed by its subsidiary, Namco Tales Studio until 2011 and presently by Bandai Namco Studios. First begun in 1995 with the development and release of Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom, the series currently spans sixteen main titles, multiple spin-off games and supplementary media in the form of manga series, anime series, and audio dramas.
Type-Moon is a Japanese game company, best known for their visual novels, co-founded by author Kinoko Nasu and illustrator Takashi Takeuchi. It is also known under the name Notes Co., Ltd. for its publishing and corporate operations, as it's the company official name, while Type-Moon is a brand name as a homage to the original doujin group. After creating the popular visual novel Tsukihime as a doujin soft circle, Type-Moon has since incorporated and produced the also popular visual novel Fate/stay night. The latter has also been adapted into anime and manga series that have amassed a global fanbase.
Super Robot Wars is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by Banpresto, which is now a Japanese division of Bandai Namco Entertainment. Starting out as a spinoff of the Compati Hero Series, the main feature of the franchise is having a story that crosses over several popular mecha anime, manga and video games, allowing characters and mecha from different titles to team up or battle one another. The first game in the franchise was released for the Nintendo Game Boy on April 20, 1991. Later spawning numerous games that were released on various consoles and handhelds. Due to the nature of crossover games and licensing involved, only a few games have been released outside Japan, and in English. The franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2016.
Dōjin soft (同人ソフト), also sometimes called dōjin games (同人ゲーム), with dōjin sometimes written as doujin or doujinshi, are video games created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups, more for fun than for profit; essentially, the Japanese equivalent of independent video games or fangames. Most of them are based on pre-existing material ("modding"), but some are entirely original creations. They are almost always exclusive to Windows-based PCs, but a few notable exceptions also exist for the Dreamcast, a console on which homebrew development was popular.
Minori (みのり) was a Japanese visual novel company. Their most successful game is Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two., which has had a manga and two anime television series based on it, and was ported to the PlayStation 2 in April 2010. They use Musica as their main engine. A few of their earlier games' opening movies were animated by Makoto Shinkai. Minori is known for its stance against fan-translations and piracy and has garnered some infamy for its actions against fan translation group No Name Losers and TLWiki, due to the controversy regarding the video game Rapelay by Illusion Soft. As a result, its main webpage is blocked for people outside Japan. In 2010, Minori, MangaGamer, and No Name Losers announced a partnership to make commercial English versions of Minori's visual novels available. On February 28, 2019, Minori announced the cessation of operations.
Higurashi When They Cry, known simply as When They Cry for the North American release of the anime adaptation, is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The games are built on the NScripter game engine and the Microsoft Windows operating system. The first game in the series, Onikakushi-hen, was released on August 10, 2002, and the eighth and final game in the original PC series, Matsuribayashi-hen, was released on August 13, 2006. While the first four games carried the overall title Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, the next four games were produced under the title Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai. A bonus fan disc called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei was released on December 31, 2006. In addition to the original series, new story arcs were created in manga form and in video games for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS, in order to expand the story. The original eight PC releases were released in English by MangaGamer between 2009 and 2010. The series focuses on a group of young friends living in the rural village of Hinamizawa and the strange events that occur in 1983.
An otome game, sometimes contracted to otoge, is a story-based video game that is targeted towards women. Generally one of the goals, besides the main plot goal, is to develop a romantic relationship between the female player character and one of several male characters. This genre is most established in Japan, and is mostly made up of visual novels and simulation games; particularly dating sims and life simulation games.
Umineko: When They Cry is a Japanese dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The first game in the series, Legend of the Golden Witch, was first released at Comiket 72 for Windows on August 17, 2007; the game sold out in thirty minutes. The story focuses on a group of eighteen people on a secluded island for a period of two days, and the mysterious murders that befall them. Readers are challenged to discern whether the murders were committed by a human or of some other supernatural source, as well as the method and motive behind them. Umineko is the third title in the When They Cry series, preceded by Higurashi When They Cry and followed by Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru.
Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two is a Japanese two-part adult visual novel series by Minori for Windows PCs. The first game in the series, Ef: The First Tale, was released on December 22, 2006, and the second game, Ef: The Latter Tale, was released on May 30, 2008. The opening video for the game was animated by Makoto Shinkai, and a majority of the music was produced by Tenmon, who has worked in the past with Shinkai and Minori. Female character design was by Naru Nanao of Da Capo fame, while male character design was by 2C Galore.
Koihime Musō: Doki Otome Darake no Sangokushi Engi is a series of Japanese adult visual novels and strategy video games primarily developed and published by BaseSon for the Windows and is based on the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The first game was developed by BaseSon, and was first released on January 26, 2007, for Windows as two DVD-ROMs, followed by a re-release on April 11, 2008, containing an extra CD-ROM. The gameplay in Koihime Musō follows a linear plot line, which offers pre-determined scenarios and courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the female main characters. A PlayStation 2 version, titled Koihime Musō (恋姫†夢想) developed by Yeti and published by Regista was released on October 30, 2008. A new version of Koihime with many new characters Shin Koihime Musō: Otome Ryōran Sangokushi Engi was released on December 26, 2008. A third version of Koihime Shin Koihime Musō: Moe Shōden (真・恋姫†無双～萌将伝～) was released on July 23, 2010. European game publisher MangaGamer acquired licensing rights to the first game and released it on February 28, 2011. June 2012 the website Jlist.com began selling copies of Koihime Musō as a DX version with restored voices; in a partnership with MangaGamer. Another game named Koihime Eiyūtan has been announced; however, it is unknown if it is a follow-up or a remake of a preceding game. In 2017, 28 June the release of the first part of the Kakumei trilogy with the title - Shin Koihime Musō – Kakumei: Sōten no Haō. The release of the second part is the title - Shin Koihime Musō – Kakumei: Son Go no Kechimyaku~ (真・恋姫†夢想・革命～孫呉の血脈～) scheduled for 2018, 27 Jule. The release of the third is the title - Shin Koihime Musō – Kakumei: Ryū-ki no Taibō (真・恋姫†夢想・革命～劉旗の大望～) scheduled for 2019.
Edelweiss is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Overdrive and released for the Microsoft Windows PC on July 10, 2008. An official English translation by MangaGamer was released and only available via downloading on MangaGamer's website. A fan disc, Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia, was released on March 20, 2010 featuring some of the first game's more popular background characters.
MangaGamer is a video game publisher specializing in the English localization and distribution of Japanese visual novels. It is run by Japanese-based company Japan Animation Contents.
Imouto Paradise! Onii-chan to Go nin no Imouto no Ecchi Shimakuri na Mainichi is a Japanese erotic visual novel developed and published by Moonstone Cherry. Imouto Paradise! was first released on January 28, 2011, playable on Windows as a PC game. On July 29, 2011, M-Trix produced an Android version of Imouto Paradise!, and on September 29, 2011, the game was released as a DVDPG edition by Dennou Club. MangaGamer released an English language localization of the game on August 22, 2014. On May 31, 2013, Paradigm published a light novel and an adult manga for Imouto Paradise! serialized in the Comic Potpourri Club magazine. A hentai original video animation series was produced. Moonstone Cherry released a sequel to the first visual novel called Imouto Paradise 2.
Nil Admirari no Tenbin: Teito Genwaku Kitan is an otome visual novel video game developed by Otomate for PlayStation Vita that was first released on April 21, 2016. It was written by Yuma Katagiri, with art by Satoi. A sequel, Nil Admirari no Tenbin: Kuroyuri En'yōtan, was released in 2017, and an anime adaptation of the original game, directed by Masahiro Takata at Zero-G, aired in Japan from April 8 to June 24, 2018.
References
- ↑ GameSpot Staff (10 December 2003). "Xenosaga fan disc in the works". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 6 August 2010. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ↑ "Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia". MangaGamer. MangaGamer Staff Blog. 20 February 2010. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
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