A weird tweet of Hinoue Itaru
https://twitter.com/hinoueitaru/status/640161072175968256
Seem like the relationship of Hinoue and Key is not good recently ?
Link for who want https://twitter.com/hinoueitaru/status/640161072175968256
Seriously i am worry when she wrote these things…
Another previous tweet Sep 1st
https://twitter.com/hinoueitaru/status/638634619479310336
What does it say? Twitter’s translate gives a bunch of nonsense. I think it said something about not hearing back from Key?
This sounds worrying.
I haven’t gotten an answer from Key. Am I needed? Am I being treated properly as a leader? If I was, I wouldn’t make this kind of tweet, I guess. Hmm, useless employee*. I want to work hard. I want to work a lot. I can’t if I’m not told I’m needed, from the company and the outside*. The uncertainty is painful.
I hope I’ve made some mistake in there.
1# So the “useless employee” was the translation of 窓際族. Based on dictionaries, it seems this is a term used for an employee that’s not given any work/responsibility, left by the side-lines kinda.
2# Not sure what/who “outside” refers to but that’s what it seems to say.
Key is a very important thing to me. I’ve been doing this since the start. But, what am I to Key? There has been a lot of criticism towards my* art, so I’ve work desperately to not be a bother. Even when told to die, I smiled and worked hard enough to bleed*. If Key as has an intention I want to hear it.
1# Japanese doesn’t use pronouns but I assume she is talking about her own stuff.
2# Literal translations get awkward some times.
Poor Hinoue, she is such an amazing artist and is trying so hard to please her fans but it seems like key is starting to lean towards naga as the soul character designer. I hope this is just a misunderstanding of some kind but we’ll see…
I don’t get why people are criticizing her art. Honestly, I’ve been trying to draw like Hinoue ever since I’ve seen CLANNAD. I think her art is beautiful. Her moe and her character designs are beautiful, especially shown towards Rewrite. Even the uniforms she does are beautiful.
Not to rant, but I’d prefer her character design, over Na-Ga’s. Not a fan of the lack of ornaments that Na-Ga didn’t do for most of the Angel Beats girls. Not a fan of his guy’s either, other than Hinata, Yuzuru, and Yu. There’s actually meaning, in the ornaments that Itaru puts in the girl’s hair. Like Komari’s ornament, and Haruka’s ornament. There’s not really any meaning in Na-Ga’s ornaments.
People should respect Itaru. She’s been with Key for her whole career, even at Tactics, she did the characters for the projects that involved Maeda.
Honestly, maybe she was talking about a project she thought of ? Maybe it’s due to the Angel Beats! visual novel, since the character designs were by Na-Ga.
Seems like people are more fond of Na-Ga’s drawings sadly. Which, I don’t find good compared to Itaru’s.
I hope Itaru continues to work with Key. Honestly, her character designs are what I like to say “Drawing goals.”
If she’s thinking about doing another big project, shouldn’t Key support her ? Key’s gonna get their money from Angel Beats! anyways, they might as well let Itaru do a story of her own, since for the next 3-5 years, only Angel Beats! visual novels are gonna be released, with a little side project (doubtfully) in between.
So what if it becomes another fantasy story like “Rewrite” ? As long as there’s foreshadowing, or having something tie up at the end, it’s technically a Key story, with its touching moments too, as for a big story. So what if it’s not like a Maeda story. Have you forgotten that Maeda is gonna retire soon ? Little Busters! was his last visual novel he did. Angel Beats! was technically an anime turned into a visual novel, to tell the story better. Charlotte isn’t getting a visual novel. Someone needs to step up to become the main writer. Itaru had experience. Just let her do it, since she’s been with Key since day 1, and since she pretty much knew the flaws of Rewrite.
If it’s a small project, then let her do it. Obviously she knows by now that there has to be at least a sad moment in the game if it’s kinetic.
If Key intends to drop Itaru for Na-Ga. I’ve lost all respect for them. Aren’t they the people who give us meaningful stories, telling us what’s right and wrong ? Giving us advice about life ? Dropping someone who is committed to Key is just sad. Especially when that someone, has been with key since day 1.
I feel like this might have something to do with the Holy Breaker sequel. Key might just be too busy with the planning for Angel Beats and with Charlotte also being a thing and lets not forget about Harmonia and the english release of CLANNAD.
I think there is just too much going on at Key right now and it’s best to not worry too much right now.
To be fair she played a pretty big part in making Rewrite what it is. And after Rewrite, I’d abandon her too.
Who is Hinoue exactly? Regardless of who she is, this kind of behavior can lead to very weary outcomes. I hope she’ll be okay :c
Co-founder of Key (along with Maeda and Orito) did art/character design for Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters(shared with Na-ga) and Rewrite.
Is Maeda really retiring? When?
Also, has it been confirmed that Charlotte isn’t ever getting a VN?
It’s not stated that Maeda is retiring. But I said Maeda was gonna retire sooner or later. He can’t be Key’s main scenario writer forever. Plus, he mentioned LB was suppose to be his last visual novel. Until he made the Angel Beats anime which left fans with too many questions.
And I heard someone from Kazamatsuri say something during episode 6. I said something about how this felt like a (Charlotte spoiler for people who haven’t seen it) Bad ending. How Ayumi died, and then the ending song felt like you know, you unlocked the bad ending instead of a good ending since Jun made it, so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if it was in a visual novel format, considering how many VN he does. Then we talked, blah, blah, then someone said that in an interview with Jun Maeda, he said it would be hard to adapt into a visual novel. Which I kinda agree on. Everything is already set. There’s only 1 route you can go towards.
@Rippleshadow Sorry, I think I clicked on the “reply” button on the bottom, and not the “reply” button to your reply.
And @legit_legitimacy Hinoue is the person who did the character designs for Kanon, Air, CLANNAD, (Haruka, Kurugaya, Komari, and Kanata) Little Busters!/Ecstasy, Rewrite/Harvest Festa, (Kanata) Kud Wafter, and Harmonia.
She did the storyline for “Rewrite” too. As in the plot.
She also did character designs for “Holy Breaker” and also did the plot for it, even though it’s not Key.
What??? You don’t dispatch a loyal servant without expecting a backlash. It would not be a good move. Not with Clannad being released in the West soon. Not with all these years of service and the legendary status acquired. And not with the rumors for Harmonia…
Guess it’s just Key is too busy… Hope she gets answered soon. Maybe when Charlotte ends
Also, she spawned the character designs for Air ;v;
All too often when someone devotes the time and effort to create something, they become targets of self-absorbed critics who cannot create themselves.
Key’s founders all care deeply about their work and their fans, perhaps even more than they should. It’s well documented how terribly stressed Maeda becomes due to criticism, and I’m sure Ms. Hinoue shares a degree of that as well. These stresses are no doubt compounded by the fact Angel Beats! and Charlotte, two works where Hinoue was not used as a character designer, are in the spotlight, leaving her with less current work and more time to focus on reviews/criticisms of her work.
I admire that Key is so passionate about their work and their fans, but they can’t let the criticisms of anonymous naysayers discourage them. There’s always going to be those that endeavor to tear others down to boost their own self-esteem, so it is critical to discern constructive comments from the ignorant.
Hinoue has always had a good relationship with President Baba and the other members of Key’s staff. It is senseless to jump to conclusions and speculate that some cataclysmic rift is imminent. I would suggest we empathize with what is a unique situation for her, show our collective support, and not be concerned with these tweets unless additional pertinent comments are made in the near future.
My japanese really isn’t good enough for a reliable translation Dx I hope people wouldn’t rely on me like this ;_;
Anyways, back om topic, I think the main issue here would be Key not giving her enough work? And I can imagine so. All the projects she’s worked on since Rewrite are small projects. I’m betting Harmonia is already done in regards to her design, and since AB and Charlotte are indeed in the spotlight, she doesn’t have much to do marketing-wise either.
Well, I personally wouldn’t blame it on criticism, as the circumstance really is just moving against her…
Hmm, I can see where you’re coming from.
Still, AB! never seemed like VN material to me but it’s becoming a VN anyway.
I’ll take yourword for it, though, because I know very little about VNs ^^"
Angel Beats! was something that could have been a visual novel though. With all the missing routes of each character, not knowing their back stories, the build up between the main 2 characters, and not to mention how many people are even in Angel Beats! But in Charlotte, they talked about the bad things about Angel Beats!, such as pacing, the love connection, character development, and so on. So basically, Charlotte should most likely have an anime, with the manga adaption helping it tie up loose ends. Making Charlotte just an anime-original with no visual novel.
Maybe Hinoue should just make Holy Breaker 2 longer with more characters to keep her engaged. Hinoue could also try doing her own Kinetic visual novel, or even a big project at Key. I have faith that even if it turns out to not be Key-liked, in terms of the genre, for instance, it could be fantasy, I’m sure Hinoue will make the story better, since she’s patiently waiting.
Also, can someone translate Hinoue’s recents posts ? The Twitter translator is just horrid.
I hope she is alright…Key certainly wouldn’t be the same without her
No, it’s a district of Osaka. It think he just proposes to go there together for a drink.
A bit off-topic but I disagree. Especially Kud’s, hair ornament has a lot of meaning; but also Rin, Shiina (from Kud Wafter) and Yuuki.
Those were characters designed by Itaru Hinoue. If I read Kotarou correctly, he was talking about the characters Na-Ga designed, which include the Angel Beats! characters: Yuri, Yui, Otonashi, Iwasawa, Kanade, etc.
No Rin and Kud were both designed by Na-Ga. I’m not sure about the Kud Wafter characters but I’m pretty sure those probably were as well.
